moral support they never went that way alone. One of the soldiers,
we are told, on a certain night, "being much disguised in liquor" (for
spirits of various kinds appear in the Isle of Man, as most other
places), insisted upon going with the keys alone, and could not be
dissuaded; he said he was determined to discover whether the apparition
was dog or devil, and, snatching the keys, departed: soon there was a
great noise, but none ventured to ascertain the cause. When the soldier
returned he was speechless and horror-stricken, nor would he ever by
word or sign tell what had happened to him, but soon died in agony; then
the passage was walled up, and the Manthe Doog was never more seen at
Castle Peele.

THE LAKE COUNTRY.

[Illustration: A GLIMPSE OF DERWENTWATER, FROM SCAFELL.]

North of Lancashire, in the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland, is
the famous "Lake Country" of England. It does not cover a large area--in
fact, a good pedestrian can walk from one extremity of the region to the
other in a day--but its compact beauties have a charm of rugged outline
and luxuriant detail that in a condensed form reproduce the Alpine lakes
of Northern Italy. Derwentwater is conceded to be the finest of these
English lakes, but there is also great beauty in Windermere and
Ulleswater, Buttermere and Wastwater. The Derwent runs like a thread
through the glassy bead of Derwentwater, a magnificent oval lake set
among the hills, about three miles long and half that breadth, alongside
which rises the frowning Mount Skiddaw with its pair of rounded heads.
In entering the Lake Region from the Lancashire side we first come to
the pretty Windermere Lake, the largest of these inland sheets of water,
about ten miles long and one mile broad in the widest part. From Orrest
Head, near the village of Windermere, there is a magnificent view of the
lake from end to end, though tourists prefer usually to go to the
village of Bowness on the bank, where steamers start at frequent
intervals and make the circuit of the pretty lake. From Bowness the
route is by Rydal Mount, where the poet Wordsworth lived, to Koswick,
about twenty-three miles distant, on Derwentwater.

[Illustration: FALLS OF LODORE.]

The attractive Derwent flows down through the Borrowdale Valley past
Seathwaite, where for many a year there has been worked a famous mine of
plumbago: we use it for lead-pencils, but our English ancestors, while
making it valuable for marking