Excursion to Evy Crag.

Now for the last, but not the least in interest, of the Loughrigg excursions: this is to Ivy Cray, an elevated rock, about three furlongs south east of Loughrigg Tarn.

Leave the Hawkshead road at the old-fashioned house in Clappersgate, inhabited by Mr. John Robinson, and ascend by a lane, in places entangled by briars, to the common and to a rock, over which the foot way passes: here is a lively and pretty view of the habitations at Clappersgate and Brathay, and the lake, from its head to the great island. The Coniston, Tilberthwaite and Little Langdale mountains are in front during the gentle rise of a short distance, but on the turn of the road on the right, it is a tolerably long and steep zigzag to the very top of the south-end of Loughrigg Fell on passing up this steep, on the right, observe again the buildings and the lake, but more in bird's eye prospect: at an opening between two rocks, a little out of the highest part of the track, see Windermere exhibiting a more map-like appearance than from any other stand. Under the eye, at the foot of a deep declivity is Croft Lodge, which, with all the buildings, woodlands, and rivers round the head of the lake, present a rare and interesting spectacle.

Return to the track which, from obscurity, soon becomes wholly blind, keep on the eminence next the wall, on the right, and make a

new discovery in the prettily scattered village of Ambleside: the common is here narrow, and from the Ambleside view, pass a short distance diagonally to the western wall, and from that diagonal line, observe, on the right, a fine view of the fells of Rydal: from the western wall there is a grand exhibition of the Coniston and other Lancashire mountains, with an extraordinary display of river scenery; and Skelwith Bridge, just on the point of beauty: from this place, either by leaving the high ground on the right, or the left, arrive at and cross the road over the hill from Fox How to Loughrigg Tarn; here make for a gill, seen about two hundred yards northward, which keep on the right, and slant up the steep to a finely tufted hollow, nearly at the top of the hill; pass to the highest part of that hollow, and about fifty yards beyond it; from which again rise a few yards on the right to the end of the hill, and see the finest bird's eye view exhibited from Loughrigg Fell.

This is an instantaneous burst upon a most fascinating assemblage of every sort of requisite for every description of landscape.

Rocks and rocky mountains in every distance from tangibility, to those of thirty or forty miles from the eye.

Lakes environed by the sweetest meadow and pasture, and richly decorated by woods in heavenly scatterings, and backed by sublime mountains or distant flats of blue.

A river in sweeping lines connecting some of the lesser with the largest lake in England, and the whole of this interesting view enlivened by seats, farm-houses, and cottages, occasionally embowered by the native round heads.

Here may be seen Windermere from Low Wood on one side, and the Brathay grounds on the other, all the way to Bowness with the rich borders of the lake and the distant country spreading far and wide, even beyond Lancaster. On the right, appears High Wray and Blelham Tarn under its eastern end, succeeded by Esthwaite Water and Hawkshead: easy grounds rise above the lakes and villages, and in considerable distance, in a fine line, Gummer's How. The pools of the Brathay serpentize nearly all the way from Old Brathay to Skelwith Bridge, which, with the buildings near it, is a charming feature. Skelwith Fold is seen over the river, and beyond the bridge, high on the hill called the Bull Close, the white farm-house called the Brow. In a triangle, see the Great and Little Langdale roads, and that from Skelwith to Grasmere, and near those roads the Ellers, Mill Brow and Tarn Foot, with the Parks over them and in distance the Lancashire mountains, Old Man, Wedderlamb, and the Great and Little Carrs: the vale of Little Langdale is hid by a projection from Lingmire, called Fletcher's Wood. On the north-west, observe Loughrigg Tarn, just at the foot of the hill, in a plot of verdant velvet, beautifully enriched by painter's diamonds, and beyond it Elter Water, and rising finely from it Lingmire,

with the rocky summit called Miller's Stand, towering still higher; between Miller's Stand and the Carrs, is seen the pass on Wry nose, and over Loughrigg Tarn, Loughrigg Fold, and at the foot of Lingmire, Elter Water Hall, and the buildings at the bridge; on the right of the tarn is the Oaks, and beyond it Langdale Chapel; at the foot of the Pikes, over some intersecting lines, just peeps out Mill Beck. Over the northern-end of Lingmire rises Bow Fell and Great End, and above the Chapel, the beautiful Pikes of Langdale. All this interesting range is succeeded by the rugged and irregular steeps of Loughrigg, the north-west part of which obscures from the spectator the aspiring heights of Grasmere and Wytheburn; but the Rydal and Ambleside mountains are in a grand display of lines.

From the top of the hill, about seventy yards south of the present stand, may be seen Brathay Hall, and more of Windermere. Its union with the Brathay and Holm Point, are here interesting features. At New Brathay, the deeply embayed coast and rich projecting head lands under Wray, altogether make a most agreeable assemblage, and equal, perhaps, in beauty, to that view of Windermere from the hill above Holm Scar. In pretty quantity, see Ambleside and its back-ground Wansfell, and on the left of Wansfell, Hill Bell.

Return from this place about two or three hundred yards by the approaching ground, then cross the gill on the left, by the nearest way to

a hollow in the Rydal direction: Loughrigg, in this descent, is composed of boldly swelling, and in some places, rocky elevations, with the Rydal mountains rising majestically above them; on the right, see Ambleside. From the bottom, keeping the weedy part on the left, all is wildness and desolation, not a scrap of cultivation to be seen; here, in calm weather, is a tolerable echo, but, perhaps, too suddenly responsive at this place, might easily be made a little lake, which, with a plantation round it, would in time, be a charming retreat: emerging from this hollow, see Nab Scar, and over it a stripe of Seat Sandal, with the High and the Low Pikes on the right: a runner is seen on the left, and at the bottom of the hill, a small building apparently close to this brook; observe, likewise, the corner of a road two or three hundred yards south of the building which passed on the left, the party will presently be at Rydal Water, from which they may go over known ground to Ambleside; but if they make to the wall, they will soon find by pursuing it, the green lane traversed in the descent from the top of Holm Scar, by Mr. Lancelot Fleming's to Ambleside.

Some may, perhaps, say that the description of the country from Ivy Crag is not only long, but tediously uninteresting, and the recapitulation of known objects useless; to which, in reply, it may be said, that there are persons, who, finding pleasure in a scene, wish likewise to be made acquainted with its parts individually; and as the described features of this ex