ermere, lying in the vastest
space of sweet cultivated country I have ever looked over,--a great
part of the view from the Rigi being merely over black pine forest,
even on the plains. Well, after dinner, the evening was very
beautiful, and I walked up the long hill on the road back from
Coniston--and kept ahead of the carriage for two miles: I was sadly
vexed when I had to get in: and now--I don't feel as if I had been
walking at all--and shall probably lie awake for an hour or
two--and feeling as if I had not had exercise enough to send me to
sleep."

"LANGDALE, _13th August, Evening._

"It is perfectly calm to-night, not painfully hot--and the full
moon shining over the mountains, opposite my window, which are the
scene of Wordsworth's 'Excursion.' It was terribly hot in the
earlier day, and I did not leave the house till five o'clock. Then
I went out, and in the heart of Langdale Pikes found the loveliest
rock-scenery, chased with silver waterfalls, that I ever set foot
or heart upon. The Swiss torrent-beds are always more or less
savage, and ruinous, with a terrible sense of overpowering strength
and danger, lulled. But here, the sweet heather and ferns and star
mosses nestled in close to the dashing of the narrow
streams;--while every cranny of crag held its own little placid
lake of amber, trembling with falling drops--but quietly
trembling--not troubled into ridgy wave or foam--the rocks
themselves, _ideal_ rock, as hard as iron--no--not quite that, but
_so_ hard that after breaking some of it, breaking solid white
quartz seemed like smashing brittle loaf sugar, in comparison--and
cloven into the most noble masses; not grotesque, but majestic and
full of harmony with the larger mountain mass of which they formed
a part. Fancy what a place! for a hot afternoon after five, with no
wind--and absolute solitude; no creature--except a lamb or two--to
mix any ruder sound or voice with the plash of the innumerable
streamlets."

It was during this tour that he looked at a site on the hill above
Bowness-on-Windermere, where Mr. T. Richmond, the owner, proposed
building him a house. He liked the view, but found it too near the
railway station.

After spending September with his mother at Norwood under the care of
Dr. Powell, he was able to return home, prepar