The admirers of Mr. Wordsworth's poetry will remember his pastoral of "The Idle Shepherd Boys," the scene of which is laid in Dungeon Gill Force. It is, however but a poor incident, and is told with all the poverty of thought and expression which characterised the early efforts of a Muse that in after years became so rich and vigorous.

The ascent of the "Pikes" is generally commenced from a point near this Gill, and leads over a peat moss from Millbeck to a small lake called Stickle Tarn, famous for trout. The crags of Pavey Ark look down upon this lake in solemn grandeur, and form a magnificent addition to the landscape. From thence to the top of the highest of the "Pikes" called Harrison Stickle, is an ascent of some difficulty. From the summit there is a fine view over Great Langdale, towards Windermere; but from the neighbouring Pike called Stickle Pike, there is one still finer, looking over the valley and lake of Bassenthwaite, on the road to Keswick, and the majestic Skiddaw, the monarch of the mountains of England.

The visit to Patterdale and Ulleswater is sometimes made from Keswick, but most generally from Ambleside. Next to Windermere, Ulleswater is the largest of the lakes, being nine miles in length, and one in breadth, and is 460 feet above the level of the sea. Windermere is but 116. The road leads from Ambleside between the Church and the Free

Grammar school, and ascends gradually for about three miles to the famous pass of Kirkstone, upon the beauties of which Mr. Wordsworth has written an elegant and well-known ode. It takes its name from a large detached mass of rock near the top of the pass, which by slight aid from the imagination appears like a church; Mr. Wordsworth thus alludes to it in his ode ;

Yon block, whose church-like frame
Gives to the savage pass its name.
Aspiring road! that lov'st to hide
Thy daring in a vapoury bower.
Not seldom may the hour return
When thou shalt be my guide;
And I (as often we find cause,
When life is at a weary pause,
And we have panted up the hill
Of duty with reluctant will,)

Be thankful, even though tired and faint,
For the rich bounties of constraint,
Whence oft-invigorating transports flow,
That choice lacked courage to bestow.

From the pass the road descends, leaving that part of Scandal Fells, called the Screes, whence the beautiful Stock Gill rises on the left, and Cold-dale Fell on the right. Here, in descending, the view extends, and affords a glimpse of Brotherwater and Patterdale in the distance. The road afterwards winds by Hartsop Hall to the side of this small mere, and

through Deepdale. In the latter "a stream," says Mr. Wordsworth, "issues from a cove richly decorated with native wood. This spot is rarely or never explored by travellers; but from these sylvan and rocky recesses, whoever looks back on the gleaming surface of Brotherwater, or forward to the precipitous sides and lofty ridges of Dove Crag, will be equally pleased with the grandeur and wildness of the scenery."

The finest scenes on Ulleswater are between Patterdale and Lyulph's Tower on the western side, about four miles distant. The excursion by water is to be preferred on every account; and nothing in Windermere, lovely as that lake is, exceeds in beauty the scenery of mountain and water, which is here spread in rich profusion before the eyes of the lover of nature. There are several small islands at the head of the lake between the two places above mentioned; and a sail amongst them on a clear summer day, with a mind free from care, and an imagination watchful for every beauty that may be offered to it, is recompense for a month's toil and trouble to procure it. The average depth of the lake is from twenty to thirty-five fathoms, and it abounds in very excellent trout; and a fish called a skelly, a 66 sort of fresh water herring," as mine host of the inn at Patterdale called it, when I made inquiry upon the subject. There are also char and eels in abundance.