e delicious pale orange colour. After walking
through two small fields we came to a mill, which we passed; and in a
moment a sweet little valley opened before us with an area of grassy
ground, and a stream dashing over various laminae of black rocks close
under a bank covered with firs; the bank and stream on our left, another
woody bank on our right, and the flat meadow in front, from which, as at
Buttermere the stream had retired, as it were, to hide itself under the
shade. As we walked up this delightful valley we were tempted to look
back perpetually on the stream, which reflected the orange lights of the
morning among the gloomy rocks, with a brightness varying with the
agitation of the current. The steeple of Askrigg was between us and the
east, at the bottom of the valley; it was not a quarter of a mile
distant, but oh! how far we were from it! The two banks seemed to join
before us with a facing of rock common to them both. When we reached
this bottom the valley opened out again; two rocky banks on each side,
which, hung with ivy and moss, and fringed luxuriantly with brushwood,
ran directly parallel to each other, and then approaching with a gentle
curve at their point of union, presented a lofty waterfall, the
termination of the valley. It was a keen frosty morning, showers of snow
threatening us, but the sun bright and active. We had a task of
twenty-one miles to perform in a short winter's day. All this put our
minds into such a state of excitation, that we were no unworthy
spectators of this delightful scene. On a nearer approach the waters
seemed to fall down a tall arch, or niche, that had shaped itself by
insensible moulderings in the wall of an old castle. We left this spot
with reluctance, but highly exhilarated. When we had walked about a mile
and a half, we overtook two men with a string of ponies and some empty
carts. I recommended to Dorothy to avail herself of this opportunity of
husbanding her strength: we rode with them more than two miles. 'Twas
bitter cold, the wind driving the snow behind us in the best style of a
mountain storm. We soon reached an inn at a place called Hardrane, and
descending from our vehicles, after warming ourselves by the cottage
fire, we walked up the brook-side to take a view of a third waterfall.
We had not walked above a few hundred yards between two winding rocky
banks, before we came full upon the waterfall, which seemed to throw
itself in a narrow line from a lofty