side to have been the holy place reserved for the Druid priests," where they met, separated from the vulgar, to perform their rites and divinations, or to sit in council to determine on controversies, or for the trial of prisoners." From these stones a sublime prospect is obtained. The prospect would delight the soul of Turner, who has done so much for the spectral stones of Salisbury Plain. The latter have no such aids to their sublimity as these, which stand in lonely and desolate grandeur, amid the wild and stupendous forms of frowning mountains. Skiddaw, Blencathra, and Helvellyn, rear their giant heads and precipitous sides to the North; Skiddaw Dodd, the little Skiddaw, or shoulder of the great mountain, with Wanthwaite Pikes and Naddale, loom mistily to the south; at the west are the mountains of Borrowdale beyond Keswick; and on the east the dreary and forbidding waste of Hutton Moor, and the towering summit of Cross Fell.

Keswick to Lorton and Cockermouth.-From Cockermouth to the top of Bassenthwaite.-Armathwaite.-Saddleback and Skiddaw.-Bolton Gate.-Wigton.

THE road from Keswick to Cockermouth, passing over Whinlatter and through Lorton, presents a succession of magnificent scenery. The whole route is a grand panorama of mountains and lakes, and whether in storm or sunshine-I happened to see it in both-it is equally splendid. Passing through the little village of Braithwaite, the beauties of the scene begin to unfold themselves; and the three predominant mountains of Skiddaw, Saddleback, and Helvellyn, rear their giant masses above all competitors; of

whom there are a swarm, not quite so grand in their bulk, but as imposing and awful in their outlinesWallow Crag, Falcon Crag, Bleaberry Fell, Mell Fell, Wanthwaite Crag, St. John's Dodd, Sty Barrow Dodd, and one of the classic name of Styx. This latter I verily believe ought to be written Sticks, as belonging to the same family with the Great Stickle, the Harrison Stickle, and the Pikes, that have been so frequently mentioned in another part of these rambles. As the traveller advances, Bassenthwaite gradually spreads its clear blue expanse before his eyes. If he stops to admire the transcendent loveliness of the prospect, as he must do if he be a true devotee of nature, he will look behind him to the region from which he has come, and will behold the fair bosom of Derwentwater, hemmed in by wooded hills, with its sweet green islands, and guardian town of Keswick, sending up the thin light-blue smoke in curls and wreathlets to the sky. Proceeding further, Jinkin Hill and the village of Thornthwaite appear in sight to the right hand, with Bassenthwaite beyond them; while, on the left, the huge form of Grisdale Pike, 2580 feet in height, seems to guard the district of Grasmere, Buttermere, and Crummock Water. The next scene of the panorama is the rural and rich valley of Lorton, with the sparkling stream of the Cocker, (its very name suggestive of a lively, brawling, leaping river,) flowing through it, fall

I

ing in numerous cascades over its rocky bed. The valley is about three miles in length, and is famous in all the country round, and to a much wider circle of the admirers of Mr. Wordsworth's poetry, for a large and ancient yew-tree. The poet thus apostrophises

it:

pride of Lorton Vale,
Which to this day stands single in the midst
Of its own darkness, as it stood of yore,

Not loth to furnish weapons for the bands

Of Umfraville or Percy, ere they march'd

To Scotland's heaths: or those that crossed the sea,
And drew their sounding bows at Azincour;
Perhaps at early Crecy, or Poictiers.

Of vast circumference, and gloom profound,
This solitary tree, a living thing,
Produced too slowly ever to decay;

Of form and aspect too magnificent
To be destroyed.

Four miles along the high road from the yew-tree, itself at a distance of eight miles from Keswick, we enter the ancient borough town of Cockermouth, the birth-place of Wordsworth, and the burial-place of his father, as the bard himself informs us in the sixth of the series of sonnets suggested by his tour to Scotland in the year 1833. The town is beautifully situated at the confluence of the Cocker and the Derwent. It consists mainly of two spacious streets, and has two handsome bridges; one over the Derwent, consisting of two arches, and two hundred and seventy

feet in length; the other, a smaller one, over the Cocker, consisting of one arch, of one hundred and sixty feet span. Cockermouth sends two members to Parliament, and is a prosperous place, carrying on a considerable manufacture of coarse woollen goods, cotton checks, and ginghams. There is an ancient church, dedicated to All Saints, which has had the advantage of a modern renovation. Though well situated on an eminence, it has no great pretension to architectural beauty. The tower contains six bells, which every now and then give the inhabitants a taste of their quality, by their chimes. There is also a grammar school, founded in 1676, by Lord Wharton; various alms-houses, and other charitable institutions, and a very handsome market-place. Its old castle, however, is its chief attraction to the tourist. It stands on an eminence, between the Derwent and the Cocker, and was built shortly after the Norman Conquest, by Waldieve, first Lord of Allendale. It is in the form of an irregular square, and was defended at the entrance by a portcullis, draw-bridge, and moat. On each side of the gate-way, leading to the interior court, is a dungeon, to which the curious visitor may obtain access if he pleases, though it is scarcely worth his while to penetrate into them. The south-west front, of which a considerable portion remains, forms the most picturesque part of the ruin. It stood on the brink of the precipice, overlooking both the