Guide to the Lakes

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ... NOTES The illustration of Grasmere here given is reproduced from the frontispiece of West's Guide to the Lakes (4th ed., 1789). Pages 1-20. DIRECTIONS AND INFORMATION FOR THE TOURIST (ed. 5, pp. i-xxiv). This section is an enlarged version of pp. 137-56 of ed. 3. Feeling, however, that it was not an integral part of the book, but 'a, humble and tedious task' destined merely to fulfil the functions of an ordinary guide-book, Wordsworth placed it as a practical introduction to the main body of the volume, which as a whole is addressed not to the tourist, but to ' the minds of persons of taste'. Yet it is not without passages of characteristic beauty, such as the description of Windermere (p. 5), Gowbarrow Park (p. 16), and Red Tarn (p. 17). A detailed collation of the different forms in which this section appears in edd. 1, 3 and 4, and 5 would hardly repay the labour involved; for the lakes are described in each case in a somewhat different order, and many minor changes of reading were introduced, due in part to the fact that the first edition was principally concerned with calling attention to the scenes portrayed in the sketches of Mr. Wilkinson. But in the first edition there are one or two descriptive passages which are not to be found later, and are well worth preservation. Thus, after mention of Ambleside (p. 6; ed. 1, p. 39), is the following: -- 'Within a quarter of a mile of Ambleside is a scene called the Nook, which deserves to be explored. It is to be found in Scandle Gill, the channel of the first Brook that comes down Scandle Fell to the north of Ambleside. I need not describe the scene; its principal feature is a Bridge thrown over the Torrent. From this Bridge I wish it were in my power to recommend it to the Traveller...