Lake Windermere

“ Sawest thou ever the bosom of the Lake hushed into profounder rest? No white-winged pinnace glides through the sunshine—no clanking oar is heard leaving or approaching cape, point, or bay—no music of voice, stop, or string, wakens the sleeping echoes. How strangely dim and confused on the water the fantastic frostwork imagery, yet more steadfastly hanging there than ever hung the banks of summer! For all one sheet of ice, now clear as the Glass of Glamoury in which that lord of old beheld his Geraldine—is Windermere, the heaven-loving and the heaven-beloved. ”

“ The grandest features are the fells, that crown its northern end, not distantly and gradually, like those of Windermere, nor varied like them with magnificent colouring, but rising in haughty abruptness, dark, rugged and stupendous, within a quarter of a mile of the margin, and shutting out all prospect of other mountain-summits. At their feet, pastures spread a bright green to the brim of the lake. ”

“ Before its diversified beauties were “married to immortal verse,” it was the favourite resort of thousands who admired external nature. But the “Lake Poets,” as Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge and others were once derisively termed, have linked the Lake District with the language of the nation. Windermere Lake is eleven miles in length, and one mile in breadth. Numerous islands diversify its surface, one of which (Belle Isle) we have already referred to. Its depth in some parts is about 240 feet. “The prevailing character of the scenery around Windermere is soft and graceful beauty. ”

“ For tourist reasons here is Skiddaw and then, between thickets and parks, the delightful Lake Windermere, which I drew on an evening so sweet and peaceful that I felt uneasy with happiness; the sunset was combing the curly wavelets with a golden comb, and here the pilgrim sat by the quiet reeds and had no desire to go home again, so dazing and peaceful was the water. ”

“ The native canoe-men, standing up with their long paddles, strained themselves with all their energy, stimulated by the shouts of their countrymen, while the Wangwana on the shore urged the boat's crew to their utmost power.
"The next day we began the circumnavigation of the Windermere. The extreme length of the lake during the rainy season is about eight miles, and its extreme breadth two and a half. It lies north and south, surrounded by grass-covered mountains, which rise from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred feet above it. ”

“ In winter the ice is clear and hard and easily swept for curling, making a curler's paradise in the open. To be alive on Lake Windermere in the winter is a curler's very heaven—or a skater's. When the hundred persons living in the village were dependent in winter up.;n the stage coach for communication with the outside world reachable by railway north at Golden or south at Cranbrook, much was made of the lake during the frost-bound months. ”

“ The calm and picturesque scenery of the Lake of Windermere might awake a thousand far more romantic visions than that of the return of the first warm feelings of youth. Shut out as it were from the world, and enshrined in delicious seclusion; here might the weary heart dream itself away, and find the freshness of the spring-time of the spirit return upon it. ”

“ He was pre-eminently a revealer of the kingdom of Nature, as seen in the mountains and lakes, the birds, the flowers, the peasantry of the counties of Westmorland and Cumberland, and the over-sea portion of Lancashire. Not only did he write an admirable guide for travellers and tourists in these regions, but there is scarcely a section of this land that he has not rendered classic ground by connecting with it some incident, some allusion, some poetical idealizing. Where shall I begin? With Windermere, of course. ”

“ He'll have to walk and pay for walking.
Three parts of Windermere is in Lancashire, and it is the largest and perhaps the deepest water in the Lake District, being ten and a half miles long by water, and thirteen miles by road along its shores; the water is at no point more than two miles broad. It is said to maintain the same level at the upper end whether it rains or not, and is so clear that in some places the fish can plainly be seen swimming far beneath its surface. ”

“ Windermere, with its wide expanse of waters, its fairy islands, its noble hills, allures his steps in one direction; while the sweet little lake of Rydal, with its heronry and its fine background of rocks, invites him in another. In this direction the vale of Grasmere, the scene of his early married life, opens before him, and Dunmail-raise and Langdale-pikes lift their naked corky summits, as hailing him to the pleasures of old companionship. Into no quarter of this region of lakes, and mountains, and vales of primitive life, can he penetrate without coming upon ground celebrated by his muse. ”

“ Between Columbia Lake—practically the head of the main channel of the river—and Mud Lake, and between the latter and the head of Lake Windermere, there was a stream of fairly swift current, but at this [Pg 83] time of year not carrying enough water to permit the passage of even a canoe without much lining and portaging.
From the practical aspect, therefore, I was quite content with the plan to start my voyage from Beavermouth. ”

“ At the distance of two or three miles beyond Culgarth, from a hill advancing towards the water, the whole of Windermere is seen; to the right, is the white mansion at Culgarth, among wood, on a gentle eminence of the shore, with the lake spreading wide beyond, crowned by the fells half obscured in clouds. To the south, the hills of the eastern shore, sloping gradually, run out in elegant and often well wooded points into the water, and are spotted with villas and varied above with enclosures. ”

“ Athalmer is a village on the western side of the Columbia near its confluence with Toby Creek and where it leaves Lake Windermere The population is about 100. There is a livery, a hotel and two stores. On the western shore of the northern extremity of the lake, Captain Armstrong's houseboat, the Isabel, is moored for the summer months and accommodates some twenty guests; rates $2.50 and $3.00 per day. Rowboats, canoes, carriage and saddle horses can be obtained at regular rates. A telephone connects with Mountain Valley Ranch on Dutch Creek. ”

“ As the lake shoots southward, however, in a straight line, without any conspicuous curves or headlands, and no heights comparable to those it leaves behind, one feels upon thus looking down it that Coniston lacks something of the fascination which never flags at any part of the other lakes. If Windermere, too, trails away from the mountains, it does so in glorious bends and headlands, curves and islands, and has an opulence of detail and colouring all its own. ”

“ The Char.
The char (Sálmo alpìnus L.) is found in several of the deep and rocky lakes of England: viz. Coniston in Lancashire, Windermere in Westmoreland, Buttermere and Cromackwater in Cumberland, and, I believe, in Ulswater. My observations are confined to Windermere. Windermere is fed by two streams, which unite at the head of the lake, named the Brathy and the Rothay: the bottom of the former is rocky, and that of the latter sandy. ”

“ The villages of Rayrig and Bowness, which are passed in the way to the Ferry, both stand delightfully; one on an eminence commanding the whole lake, and the other within a recess of the shore, nearly opposite the large island. The winding banks of Windermere continually open new landscapes as you move along them, and the mountains, which crown its head, are as frequently changing their attitudes; but Langdale-pikes, the boldest features in the scene, are soon lost to the eye behind the nearer fells of the western shore. ”

“ A throb—and throbbing is no more;
One struggle—and that one my last:
A gasp—a groan—and all is past!"
THE SKULLS OF CALGARTH.
A LEGEND OF WINDERMERE LAKE.
THIS old mansion of Calgarth, on the banks of Lake Windermere, is built much in the style of Levens and Sizergh. Some of the rooms have been elegantly finished; but, having been a long time in the possession of farmers, who occupy but a part of it, it is much gone out of repair, and has, on the whole, a melancholy appearance. ”

“ The work is arduous for both men and dogs, the exact equivalent of the work in miles and altitude ascended being often tremendous.
Our way, however, is smoother, easier than this. We skirt the grounds of Rydal Mount: from a higher bank we look over its round chimneys on to the green 40 glen below, on to Windermere, the river-lake, winding away between bluffs bronzed with fading foliage, to be lost at last in the heart of them; we look along the rocky edge of Loughrigg, where the dying bracken shows the approach of autumn. ”

“ Taken from a composition of De Smet’s on his second journey to the Rocky Mountains (1841) , and then applied to the heights around the sources of the Platte. See Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, iv, pp. 1353, 1354.—Ed.
[218] These are Upper Columbia and Windermere lakes, the former 2,700 feet above sea level, and the ultimate source of the Columbia River. The river is navigable from Lake Windermere as far as Golden, where the Canadian Pacific Railway crosses, and steamers ply the course of about 160 miles. The passage from one lake to the other is possible only for canoes. ”

“ The Lake scenery really begins, on the south, at Lancaster, where the Cumberland hills are seen over Morecambe Bay; on the north, at Carlisle, where the moors of Skiddaw are seen over the rich plains between them and the Solway. No one who loves mountains would lose a step of the approach, from these distances, on either side. But the stupid herds of modern tourists let themselves be emptied, like coals from a sack, at Windermere and Keswick. ”

“ None of the country people will go near it after night fall, and few care to approach it even in daylight. Desperate men driven from their homes by domestic discord, have been seen going in its direction, and never known to return. It is said the Crier is allowed to emerge occasionally from his lonely prison, and is still heard on very stormy nights sending his wild entreaty for a boat, howling across Windermere. Mr. Craig Gibson, in one of his graphic sketches of the Lake country, says that he is qualified to speak to this, for he himself has heard him. ”

“ Many persons content themselves with what they see of Windermere during their progress in a boat from Bowness to the head of the Lake, walking thence to Ambleside. But the whole road from Bowness is rich in diversity of pleasing or grand scenery; there is scarcely a field on the road side, which, if entered, would not give to the landscape some additional charm. ”

“ Fishing, riding, shooting and mountain climbing are the chief sports. Guests who prefer it, may live in cottages or tents on the premises. The good driving roads will enhance the attractions of this place for elderly people.
Mountain Valley Ranch is reached by a mountain road 13 miles from Wilmer. Tourists travelling by steamer may communicate with the proprietor by telephone from the houseboat Isabel at the mouth of Lake Windermere. A wide trail made by the proprietor leads by the upper reaches of Horse Thief River to Starbird Glacier. ”

“ The sheep are nosing down to the hidden grass: even in the hardest weather they forage well for themselves, though the gap between “feed” and “appetite” is often very wide. The lake looks blue and cold under its veil of soft vapour; a skin of ice is forming. There is a loud crack and a rattling echo passes along the frozen surface. Eerie it is so to hear the ice “stretching”: the frostier the night the louder and more frequent the reports. (In 1895 I was on Windermere after dark—it was a moonless night—and the loud and long continued roars which spread about the ice were almost alarming.) ”

“ It is from glacial Toby Creek just below the Lake called Windermere that the River receives its first soiling. Windermere is as limped water as flows in Canada, and shallow along its margin making safe and excellent bathing. No one has yet been drowned in its waters. ”

“ But living, as I do, at Windermere, I have taken some pains to study the bearing and temper of these crowds, and I do not scruple to say that the majority of the persons composing them are bored by our fine scenery, and have small care for anything in which the Lake District excels a suburban tea-garden. ”

“ The width at right angles to the axis never reaches 1 m. The area is 5.69 sq. m. The shores are generally steep, beautifully wooded and fretted with numerous little sheltered bays. The hills immediately surrounding the lake rarely reach 1000 ft., but the distant views of the mountains to the north and west contrast finely with the sylvan beauty of the lake itself. ”

“ It faces across the lake the bloomy sweep of Place fell, and Helvellyn, with a tumult of hills around it, is also visible from its grounds. At the foot of its garden is the steamer pier. To me there seems little of anachronism about the Ullswater boats—I wonder why? At Windermere the yachts always seem out of sympathy; at Coniston this is glaringly so (such opinion does not prevent my using them when convenient) ; Derwentwater’s toy fleet plies between Portinscale and Lodore, from one palatial hotel to its neighbour. The boats here are more business-like. ”

“ Hawes-water, a lonely secluded lake, with no good inn accommodation near it, is visited by but few tourists, which is rather a pity, as it is one of the grandest of the sisterhood of meres, although inferior in picturesque beauty to Ullswater, of which Mr Payn says, contrasting it with Windermere, 'that Windermere is very homelike, and makes one wish to live for ever (or even die) in one of its many pleasant dwellings ”