THOMAS HOGGART.

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Thomas Hogarth (properly Hoggart) an uncle of the great painter, lived in Troutbeck all his life, and seems to have been as critical an observer of nature as was his nephew himself, albeit he had but a narrow field to view her in. If any one was hardy enough to break through any decorum of old and established repute, he was sure to hear himself sung over the whole parish, nay to the very boundaries of the Westmorland dialect. The sermon of the village-parson was far less dreaded than the lash of this simple satirist, whose talents, however, were very far from being confined to the incidents of his native place. "I myself," says Adam Walker, a peripatetic lecturer on natural philosophy, in this same Troutbeck, about 1750, had once the honour of acting a part in one of his plays, called "The Destruction of Troy;' it was written in metre, much after the manner of Lopez de Vega, or the ancient French drama. The siege of ten years was all represented and every hero was present in the piece, so that the dramatis persona included well nigh the whole parish. The stage was a scaffolding of boards placed six feet high upon strong poles; the green room was partitioned off with the same materials; the ceiling was the azure canopy of heaven; and the boxes, pit, and gallery, were laid into one by the great Author of nature, for they were the green slope of a great hill. There were more spectators, for three days together, than all the London theatres can hold, and let me add, no audience was ever half so pleased." Many of Hoggart's effusions principally rude epigrams are to this day to be found among the mountain villages in Westmorland. His

12

EXCURSIONS ON WINDERMERE.

nephew, the painter, was also born in this pastoral valley, as far we would imagine from any associations connected with the Rake's Progress, or even with the Industrious and Idle Apprentices, as his uncle was removed from the scenes of Grecian romance. The tourist will now climb the western hill, from which behind him, he will see the Kentmere range - -the Yoke, Hill Bell, and Frossick and before him, a portion of Windermere. After passing a singular farm-house, upon the right, with a large court-yard with yew-trees, --and which, if it is not haunted, ought to be so we strike into the Bowness road at Troutbeck Bridge, a pleasant spot with two very charming "seats," and a little fishing inn: the tourist is now about two miles from his starting place, and his whole excursion will not have exceeded eleven miles.

THE LAKE.

We do not recommend a land-excursion round Lake Windermere, because we have ourselves found it wearisome; but a steam-boat expedition, down and up (not up and down) the ten miles of water should certainly be made. The vessels are small, but not incommodious, and there are piers, in all cases, at which to land without the intervention of a small boat. Steaming southward, Belle Isle is of course just skirted, after which the Ferry is passed, with Hampshire and another island upon the left, luxuriantly wooded; then Storrs with its charming memories and ugly little tower, for which however Christopher North himself did not disdain to write a good word, Ling Holm,

VIEW FROM THE LAKE.

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Grass Holm, Silver Holm, all pretty islets, lie off the western shore, but we must needs confess that all this southward voyage partakes in our eyes of the nature of a bathos-the hills getting lower and the lake more narrow as we advance until we reach the entrance of the Leven, after which a beautiful picture of river scenery is presented to us at every turn. The Swan at Newby Bridge is a good inn; there is a hill to climb and a tower to gaze from in its immediate neighbourhood, which afford very extensive views. Back again we steam to the Ferry, and then, taking the western side of Belle Isle, we pass Maiden Holm, and the islands well called Lily Islands, and Hen Holm and Lady Holm where the chapel to the Virgin Mary stands no longer. Nothing can exceed the beauty (any body but our friend "the voluminous author " might indeed well say, the sublimity) of the mountains here grouped immediately before us. Our allies, the Langdale Pikes -making as usual the very most of themselves with a great array of far loftier brethren directly in their rear; Coniston Old Man and Wetherlamb are the most striking peaks to westward; the pleasant valley of Great Langdale opens wide in front, at the head of which stand the Pikes aforesaid, and the vast conglomeration of peaks around Scawfell: Loughrigg, still nearer, makes however no great figure in such grand company; above its northern corner rises Steel Fell, between which and Seat Sandal (a portion of Helvellyn) that we may only just catch sight of, is the pass called Dunmail Raise: more to the right, Nab Scar watches over Rydal, and forms the outermost post

B

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HEAD OF WINDERMERE.

of that green stronghold Fairfield, which fills up, with Wansfell on the east, the rest of the northward scene. The embouchure of the united rivers, Brathay and Rothay, takes place at the head of the Lake; they are not navigable above a quarter of a mile or so, by the most adventurous explorer. The former rises in the mountains at the head of Great Langdale, and flows through Elterwater; the latter has its cradle, near Dunmail Raise, and visits in its rapid growth both Grasmere and Rydal Water. At the spawning season, the trout frequent the Rothay, and the char, the Brathay, nor do they ever trespass upon each others domestic privacy. The female char (who we dare say are most excellent mothers of families, and very exemplary individuals in all other respects) are not remarkable for personal charms, being of a colour which has been well denominated a good durable brown;" but the males are the most beautiful fish to look at, (as well as to taste,) that ever wagged a fin. As for the places made with hands upon Lake Windermere, we scarcely know whether they ought, or ought not, to have intruded upon the scene at all. The ancient-modern edifice upon the left (as we look from the deck of the advancing steamer, is Wray Castle, which, when its woods are grown, will be picturesque enough; Croft Lodge, a semi-castellated mansion lies to the north of it; then Brathay Hall, standing in pleasant gardens, with a beautiful bay of its own, guarded by two heathercovered and fir-crested rocks; Rydal Hall, a hideous. huge white house, somewhat defaces the prospect under Fairfield; but the glimpse of white-walled Ambleside is

charming; Wanlass How stands almost by the Lake's side at Waterhead; and a mile to eastward, in a wooded crescent of the mere, is Lowwood Inn, sacred to Hymen, with a cottage peeping out of the fullfoliaged hill behind it called Dove Nest which was

once the habitation of Felicia Hemans.

Before leaving Bowness, it will be well to visit the Picture Gallery of Mr. Aspland, for a foretaste of those natural beauties which we are about to explore.

AMBLESIDE.

[Hotels: Salutation, Commercial, and White Lion.]

To Ara Force, 13 miles.- Bowness, 5.-Bowfell, 13.-Clappersgate, 1.Coniston, 8.-Derwent Lake, 16-Dungeon Ghyll, 8.-Easedale Tarn, 7. Elterwater, 4.- Esthwaite Water, 4-Fairfield, 5.- Fellfoot, Langdale, 7.- Furness Abbey, 30.-Grasmere, (the church) 4.- Hawkshead, 4. Helvellyn, top of, 11.-High Street, 7.-High Close, 4.-Keswick, 16.Kirkstone Pass, 3.-Langdale, Chapel Stile, 5.- Langdale Pikes, 9.Legberthwaite, 10.- Lowwood Hotel, 2.-Millbeck, Langdale, 7- Nab Scar, 3.- Newby Bridge, 12.-Patterdale, 9.- Portinscale, 17.- Red Bank, 4.-Rydal Lake, 2.-Skelwith Bridge, 3.- Thirlmere, 8.- Troutbeck, 4.- Ullswater, 9.

Of the two great (?) lake-towns, Ambleside is decidedly the more central; and although Keswick must by no means be left unvisited, since the grander portion of the Lake Country lies immediately around it, the former is evidently better adapted for a protracted sojourn. There is no tame or flat scenery in any direction about Ambleside, and yet there is an astonishing variety of it. It forms the axle of a wheel of beauty, every one of the spokes of which has a different character from that of its neighbour. The mountain heights above Kirkstone, the level valley of the Rothay, the sloping recesses of the Langdales, the glens that