The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-08-02
IN W@ORDSWORTH'S COUNTRY
A COACH TRIP THROUGH The
ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT.
Natural Beauties and Literary Associations
clustered About windermere-A Land
or sonk n Home OF Romance-At
Drantw God, Ruskin's Beautiful Home.

clustered About Windermere-A Land
or sonk n Home OF R0mance-At
Drantw God, Ruskin's Beautiful Home.
W1NpERMERR. July 1T.-It was without
doubt an ancient mariner and a still more
ancient prevaricator who said that In the
English lake district IL rained three-fourths
Of the time. We lave been here three days
and it has rained less than half the time.
1t was also that same manufacturer Of
red fiction who declared that because {. Ito
rains American travellers had deserted
the lakes. The register at one hotel simply
bristled with Pittsburg and the New Eng
land pie region. Why 30 many PittsbuIgers
come to the lakes 1t ia easy to guess. 1t
must overjoy them to see 30 much clean
water. As for the New Englanders. they
must be attracted by the stern and for
bidding character Of the local Sabbath,
which is shaken only by inroads Of Liverpool
eScursionists poured into Lake Winder-
mere at it's Fort William Henry end by the
Furness railway, a commercially enter
prising concern Of modern tendencies.
One cannot help calling 1t the Fort William
Henry end, because the whole Of Lake
windermere resembles Lake George on q
small scale. This lake is ten miles long
and a mile wide. 1t has it's hills, mostly
on the west side. and 1t has its narrows,
right below Bownees. 1t has an island like
that on which the Sycamore Hotel Is. and
a hotel like the Sycamore too; but this one
Is built Of slate. which is cheaper here
than wood.
The mountains rise all around the north
ern end Of the lake, and hat Is a habit OF
European lakes. You find tho same thing
at Como and Maggiore and Garda. How
ever, Lucerne, Geneva and Constance re-
verse the picture. The mountains here
are not the towering. imposing piles that
YOU see in Italy and Switzerland. but they
command respect. They top 5000 feet and
some Of them are so SCARED and rugged
and tumbled about that they look like
wandering Dolomites.
But after all what impresses one at first
sight is England's extraordinary talent for
packing. She is not, as we all know, a vast
territory, yet in this district she has a circlet
OF exquisitely beautiful lakes and a variety
OF lake scenery quite astonishing to the
newcomer. The way to see this district
Is from the top Of a coach. and coaches ply
in every direction. They are real coaches,
too. for q large part Of the common travel
OF the district Is carried by them and they
travel on schedule time.
II Is not ell skittles and beer with them,
for they rattle along through rain and mud.
and that too. not without danger. We
passed one yesterday at the Nays Head
tavern. a sort OF halfway house at the south
foot Of Dunmail Pass on the road from
Winderrnere to Keswick. and a quarter OF
an hour later an automobilist raced by us
with the news that 1t had been overturned
and people badly hurt.
Z But it is a captivating way to view a
goodly land. A pair Of heavy, logged
wheelers. always counting the ready whip.
and a pair Of light, eager. saucy tempered
leaders which needed nothing more than
the oachman's wonderful variety OF whis-
ties. whirled us from Windermere to Kes-
wick, a ride Of twenty-five miles over noun
tains. in three and a half hours, and We
swung into the yard Of the Keswick Hotel
on fine to a second. '
The RUN from Windermere to Keswick is
conceded to be the best Of the many in the
district, It Is only a Ave mile stretch from
Windermere to Ambleside, a mile beyond
the head Of the lake. The road here. as
everywhere else. is something to fill the
loldCct NiOoihc vi oh ~
Is hard, smooth, usually dustless. and kept
like a lady's parlor.
Not far beyond Ambleside lies Grasmere.
and here we come upon historic ground
indeed. Remember wordsworth's lines in
the first part Of -The Recluse':
Dear valley. having In tiny face a smile
Though peaceful, full of gladness, Thou ART pleased.
Pleased with thy craes and woody sleeps, thy lake,
fts one green island and its winding shores:
The multitude Of little rocky hills,
Thy church and cottages of mountain stone.
I Clustered like stars some few. but single most.
And lurking dinly In their shy retreats.
Or glanclng at each other cheerful looks,
Like separate ed stars with clouds between.
But at Rydal Water, a struggling pond
beside the route, you come into closer
communion with the meditative poet.
This was the lake beside which the poet
lived from 1917 to 1850. There is a rock on
it's banks, and they call it "Wordsworth's
Seat" Perhaps it was, perhaps it was not,
but it is certain that directly opposite this
rock rolls up the towering crest Of Nab
Scar, like a mighty green breaker over
hanging the CLASSY mere. Wordsworth
made Nab Scar immortal in letters. and
not far away il Nab Cottage. where at
hiic u"cit VI Fpfito DC iiohio uo
Quincy and Hartley Coleridge.
You can see the old Wordsworth cottage
from the coach road as o pass by, or you
can walk up a lane and enter it. 1t Ia a very
humble house. an abode Of narrow means.
where living must always have been plain
lad still must be. Blu after all men and
women gaze upon it with interest and
even with emotion, and the fame Of it goes
wherever the bell like music OF English
poesy has ung its mellow note.
When You have left Rydal Water and
Grasmere Lake behind you you climb
Dunmail Pass and come into wild and
rugged scenery such as you find in the
land of the canny Scots. Draw English
lassies stride along the highway. bare
headed and with staff in hand, swinging
out with wonderfully free and elastic step.
Their cheeks are red as peonies, but they
are not what Americans would can beauti-
full. However, there are different stand
ards Of beauty. as witness the women Peter
Paul Rubens worshipped.
From Dunmail Pass it is a ravishing
descent to Thirlmere. whose dark and i'm
penetrable waters supply the city Of Man
chester. n~inety-six miles away. Beyond
H.