Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1893-07-29

whips" attempting to cut my shoulders or
face as they dashed past; and Scotch and
Irish manners shown by q delicious old
Scotchmsn and an equally delicious young
Dublin barrister-men of account in their
separate places, In their vacation-time
really seeing the lake country on their own
legs-jogging along towards Grasmere to-
gether, contending with amiable ferocity
as to which race had priority in Britain,
and both, as they met me, as valiantly in
sisting on being the fret to accost me and
offer me roadside consolation from their
respective TASKS.
With these and like engaging diversions
1 trudged cheerily to the north up Castle
Rigg. Reaching It's top 1 turned for
farewell look towards the glorious south
ern scenes of the lake region. On the one
hand were the seemingly endless fells,
odorous with the eneE-blooming heath, and
here and there masses of blue from banks
of violets, gentle breezs stirring the sea-
like expanse of color as If with riotous
motion and delight. On the other, as If
some misty cauldron fashioned out of a
nethor earth, the purple shapes and shsd-
ows of st. Johns vale; aud above it-be-
low, within and above the clouds, monarch
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. at Its base; cleft
and SCARED above; still higher, striped
with understanding torrents like mighty
plumes of white; and its lofty broken
summit and famous "Striding- Edge"
showing thousands of blackened almost
vertical burrows in the eternal stone of Its
peaks and ridges.
IF here was one of those rsyishirg scenes
which can never be effaced from the mem
ory, but q few steps over the mountain
top furnished another of equal beauty and
impressiveness. 1t was perhsps an hour
before sunset, and the glorious vale of
Keswick or Dsrwentwater, a thousand
feet below, came full and fair in view.
Keswick gray and snug was half hidden
within its bosom. To the right Saddle
back and Souter Fell lay In lofty billowy
moors against the horizon and the silveTy
threads of Greta river wound In and out
of the lush meadows below To the left
and the west CLEANED the upper reaches of
Derwentwster with the heights of Causey
Pike and Grassmoor beyond, peaks of SAT
from and purple in the slant rays of the
sinking sun. Beyond the tower of old
Crossthwsite church, where Southey lies
buried, shone the blue bed of Bsssenth-
waite water. And beyond the whole love
ly vale, where the farms were spread in
checkered splstches of color between sinu-
GUS threads of hedge and wall lofty Skid
dsw stood monarch sublime of the Cum
brian north.
On my lettering way down into the town
1 came to a quaint, little crooked-roof
house, trim and neat and tidy as a chip
per old woman at peasant fair. "Chest-
nut Hip was the inscription upon the
stone gate post. A huge sycamore stood
sentry beside the cottage. An old serving
man was cropping the hedge by the gate.
l stood and looked at the place for a little
time, for 1t seemed TO me the house must
have q history. This old man, observing
my own observance, paused in his toll,
drew his horny fingers slowly along the
hedge shears, and said with an air of pro-
prietary superiority:
can ye ma weel leuk sgin an agin,
neebor."
looked and looked again as hidden, but
so inquiringly that the old man, resuming
his hedge clipping and clearing his throat
as If for portentious announcement, con-
descended to explain:
"'Twss in this vera hoos msister Shell
ley lrd wiz q bsbbey wife, lsing syne.
Ths pleed (played) an pleed, an niver
wark'd, till Z laird dresv d oot. T. beuk.
but plee n maunder'n n yewlment (sor-
sow Tha be nowte 'at dover Git for
nothing)
thanked him for the bitter reminder of
a great truth, which carried the sad memo
~ with it that this was Indeed the verita-
BILE cottage where Shelley brought his
schoolgirl bride, and where they chased
each other like happy children about its
flower beds and little lawn, until the stern
r,pn nhrfa 1k, Ntart hg,sh
away for lack of rent, and with this plain
tive romance still In mind turned up past
Greta bridge into the quiet though crowd
| ed streets of Keswiek.
The old Cumbrisn capital clusters close-
| ly on either side of one long street which
turns abruptly at it's center, and at come
distance from this begins to strsggle away
| northwsrd, countryward, to lonely and
ancient Crossthwsite church. Facing this
street, or Just removed within curious and
| often winsome courts aud closes, are CEN
| turtles old shops, homes and inns. The
| shops are just ss they stood almost so long
ago as when this region was Little Britain,
and hundreds of pack horses passed snd
repasssd daily with their rude mountain
traffic. The homes are almost ss they
were in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen
turtles, with their solid old doors, tiny
! windows, protruding upper stories, pic
| tureeque gables, trim dormers and curious
| hand. worked oak, iron and brass. Aud
the inns are just as they were when they
lodged the true genii of the lake district,
Gray, Scott aud Wordsworth, Coleridge,
De Quincy and Shelley, Southey, "Chris-
| topher North" and Ruskin, FITZGERALD,
Tennyson and DR.. Arnold, Harriet Martin
| eau, Charlotte Bronts and Mrs Hemans,
and hosts Of others whose sfter-touch ot
brush or pen has given all this lovely re
gion Its most tender sud impeTishsble
charm. All this one may largely know
before coming, but only truly know and
feel when here; aud that soft and gentle
influence psrvadiDg all the fine old place
which is largely of a later and differea
growth than ont of the spell put on th'
town by the pens of the immortals, i
something one eau alone comprehend wheI
eharing here its sunny sctuality.
Huddled closely as Ia the ancient tow
along its single business thoroughfare o
shops and iuus, there Is hue, brave fac
of modern fashioning even upon these old
est habitstions; face of sunny welcome
one might cay, frightened in counties
ways by the pretty things aud showing
of modern luxury and use. The shadow
! old shops are CHEEKY from their neat srra
of London wares The inns and home
are prim and smart with flashing brssses
rich curtsinings and shining varnish an
paint. From street end to end tine Ion
: crooked thoroughfare is lovely In Its group
Jugs of color In luscious vegetables, fruit
and howers. While leading out from thi
the lanes, courts and broader streets c
later days give charming vistss as one ma
find; modern homes of opulence, villa
large and ample, old habitations tram
formed to new, and all set about in sue
, wealth of hedge, tree and flower, as to te
a cheery, pleasant story of Keswick fol
and town.
All these are things the travelled tra'
eler instinctively places by contrast at
glance; but as 1 wandered up aud dow
the fine old street, seeking in vain fC
place to lay my head during the nigh
and at each inn or house of ENTERTAINERS
being met by the same commiserating e.
pressed word of Full o. touristsI"
Every last place taken by 'Kes'ick NOV
: ment' felix" l could not then quite n
derstand the significance of the "Kes'it
= movement" or account for kindliness
gFspeech, gentleness of manner and tend
hush that seemed to psrvsde all KesBit
town, though every street was filed Wi
people. Indeed in the hslf-shadowy, 50
1 f,hk xrsk h.