Lakeside

“ The location of Lakeside Park in relation to Lake Tahoe is peculiarly advantageous in that it affords daily opportunity for driving, horseback-riding or walking directly along the shore for miles. Indeed the twelve mile drive to Glenbrook is one of the noted drives of the world, taking in the celebrated Cave Rock, and giving the widest possible outlooks of the whole expanse of the Lake. ”

“ To meet the ever-increasing demand for lots on which to build summer homes on Lake Tahoe the Lakeside Park Company has set aside a limited and desirable portion of its large property on the southeasterly shore of Lake Tahoe for cottages and log cabins, bungalows and lodges, or acre tracts for chalets and villas. Already quite a number have availed themselves of this privilege and a colony of beautiful homes is being established. ”

“ Unlike many parts of Lake Tahoe, Lakeside Park possesses a fine stretch of beautiful, clean, sandy beach. There are no rocks, deep holes, tide or undertow. Children can wade, bathe or swim in perfect safety as the shore gradually slopes into deeper water.
The whole settlement is abundantly supplied with purest spring water which is piped down from its source high on the mountain slopes to the south. The hotel is fully equipped with hot and cold water for baths and all other needed purposes, and there is a good store, well stocked livery stable, row-boats, steam laundry and home dairy. ”

“ The Harbour Commission has developed the lakeside not only for commercial purposes, but also for the use of the people. West of the city it has built Sunnyside beach, a half mile long, with accommodations of all kinds for seventy-five hundred bathers. ”

“ Chief of all is the Tahoe Boulevard trip around the Lake to Tallac, and thence on by Lakeside and by Cave Rock to Glenbrook, a distance of fifty miles. Hobart Lumber Mills, twenty-two miles, are well worth a visit to those who have never seen modern methods of making lumber; Independence Lake, thirty miles, is easily reached in two hours, and it is one of the charming spots of the High Sierras; Webber Lake, forty-three miles, is another exquisite beauty spot, where there is an excellent Country Club House. ”

“ The principal centres in the Lake District are Keswick (Derwentwater) , Ambleside, Bowness, Windermere and Lakeside (Windermere) , Coniston and Boot (Eskdale) , all of which, except Ambleside and Bowness (which nearly joins Windermere) are accessible by rail. The considerable village of Grasmere lies beautifully at the head of the lake of that name; and above Esthwaite is the small town of Hawkshead, with an ancient church, and picturesque houses curiously built on the hill-slope and sometimes spanning the streets. There are regular steamer services on Windermere and Ullswater. ”

“ A quiet town, Lake City, with an atmosphere that might well belong to New England,—beauty, culture, leisure, are its hallmarks.
Fifteen years ago half a mile inland from the lake was an empty block that once had been a farm pasture. Three fine old oaks stood with tops together in the center of the block. The grass was still firm and green and thick in the ancient pasture except for narrow trails worn by children's feet. To the initiated each trail told its own story. There was a hollow square that formed the baseball diamond. ”

“ And under such conditions the three miles of verdant vale from Hartsop to Ullswater, by way of the hamlet and church of Patterdale (named from St. Patrick) to Glenridding on the lake shore, is as characteristic and charming a pastoral valley as there is in all the Lake country. Cottages and homesteads, with their sheltering tufts of foliage, have still even this much-visited country almost to themselves, as they had it a century ago. The Goldrill, now a lusty stream, curves and sparkles from farm to farm. ”

“ In my picture I have surrounded them with all the beauties of the Lake District; you see there a bridge beneath which flows a small river with trout, soft shrubs, wavy trees, oval and pleasant hills covered with copses and quickset hedges, the ridges of the Cumbrian mountains, and finally a sky full of moisture and light; amongst the trees you perceive the tops of cottages built of reddish or greenish stone, and you will admit that to be a cow in the Lake District is a great favour which falls to the lot only of the most sacred and worthy among all creatures. ”

“ Lakelands proper is a contented village of two dozen houses situated on a forlorn, narrow-gauge railroad line. You wonder whether the railroad lost itself in the pine woods and ran into Lakelands from fright and loneliness, or whether Lakelands got lost and huddled itself along the railroad to wait for the cars to carry it home.
You wonder again why it was named Lakelands. There are no lakes, and the lands about are too poor to be worth mentioning. ”

“ At Lakeport you can hire a boat at a very reasonable price, and I advise the traveler to take his blankets on board, and make this boat his home for two or three days. He will get food at different farm-houses on the shore; and as there are substantial, good-sized sail-boats, he can sleep on board very enjoyably. Aside from its fine scenery, and one or two good specimens of small Californian farms, the valley is remarkable for two borax lakes and a considerable deposit of sulphur, all of which lie close to the shore. ”

“ RYDAL AND GRASMERE
It is unfortunate that so many see Lakeland from its main ways only. They realise its narrow bounds, but cannot justly appreciate its rare beauties. For a week or two such travel our macadam roads; they climb the most frequented mountains, visit ghylls and tarns and waterfalls, wander by the favourite lakes: then away they pass, believing doubtless that Lakeland offers nothing further. ”

“ I had forgotten about these meadows. You see it was [231] a good many years ago and I did not live in Lakeport long before I went away. But now I know where I am. When I lived in your city I used to come out here to hunt muskrats. If I am not mistaken this shed is near a path that leads to a road by which we can get to a trolley car. I don't know whether or not the trolleys are running, but maybe we can find an automobile."
"If you could find a telephone and telephone to my father's lumber yard office he would come in his automobile to get us," said Flossie. ”

“ The jubilant throngs who flock to Lakeland every summer concern themselves little with its early history. The English pour into that blessed circuit of hills as into a great playground, [39] coaching, walking, cycling, climbing, boating, keenly alive to the beauty of the scenery and eagerly drinking in the exhilaration of the air. They love to tread the loftiest crests, many of which are crowned with cairns raised by these holiday climbers, each adding his own stone. ”

“ That portion of Cumberland and Westmorland, which is popularly known as the Lake District, is the holiday ground of a great number of persons who delight in its splendid scenery of mountain, wood and lake, who enjoy roaming on foot over its uplands, climbing its peaks, driving in motor or charabanc along its sinuous valleys, rowing or sailing on its lakes, and sketching or photographing its picturesque views, which present themselves to even the most inartistic eye. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Whether there was some instinctive yearning, like the stirred sap of great forests, in their wholesome pioneer blood, or whether there was some occult fascination in the pretty town-crested hill itself, it was still certain that the richest inhabitants always preferred to live in Lakeville. ”

“ Its extreme border, intersected by the mountain torrents, is composed almost entirely of sand and pebbles; the other parts of fields and vineyards, scattered farms, country seats, and villages, with here and there a wood which extends up the mountain side. Lecco, the largest of these villages, and which gives its name to the district, is situated at no great distance from the bridge, upon the margin of the lake; nay, often, at the rising of the waters, is partly embosomed within the lake itself; a large town at the present day, and likely soon to become a city. ”

“ No trout caught. Lake looks like Lake George, with lower hills. Much iron ore crops from bluffs on south side. Makes me a bit homesick to think of Lake George. Wish I could see my girl for a while and be back here. Would like to drop in at the Michigan farm too.
Thursday, July 16th.—Fair day. Wind southeast. Lat. at noon 53 degrees 45 minutes. Six miles above Grand Lake on Northwest River. Started at 5.30 A.M. At 9 rounded point and saw mouth of river. George and I ferried outfit across northwest arm of lake in two loads. Wind too high for whole load. ”

“ Take the circuit round the lake, beginning at the Waterhead on the west side, and going southwards towards Furness, past the islands and by Brantwood on the east, as one example of the sweetness and the richness of the place. There is first that grand Old Man, at the foot of which you reverently walk, overshadowed by his huge crags as you pass through the ancient village of Church Coniston—one of those quaint villages with the flavour of old times about them, and the generous beautifying of Nature around, so characteristic of our lake country. ”

“ But the landscape upon the immediate borders of the lake is of a rural and serene character, though touched here and there with moorland sterility; and there is hardly a thing in sight to remind a spectator that he is surrounded by the most populous manufacturing district in the world. But the distant rumble of train after train, thundering through the neighbouring valley, and the railway whistle, rising up clear over the green hill north of the water, are sufficient to dispel any reverie which the sight of the lake and its surrounding scenery may lead to. ”

“ Descending the Eastern declivity we came to the lake, and passed around on the Northern side to the further extremity where we found the grass, which we had seen from the summit of the mountain, in abundance and of a very good quality. We remained at this place the rest of the day in order to refresh our animals, which were by this time much exhausted and fatigued from hunger and plunging through the snow. The distance from the forks of the Juba River to the lake is about ten miles, and in this lake the South branch of the Truckies River has its source. ”

“ It is in this vicinity that there are some of the choicest spots for settlement, although there are superior situations on the left hand bank of the river, when sailing down, and half-way to the sea. A small township at this end of the lake is not an improbable realisation of the future, in connection with the settlement of Martin’s Bay. There is deep water close to the fine beach—occasionally close to the bush; there is a level or gently rising ground behind; and it commands the finest view of the lake. ”

“ It has long been a favourite notion with me that if, instead of general guides to, or descriptions of all the Lake country comprised in single volumes, of which we have a superabundance, we could have each distinct locality treated of fully and minutely in a work devoted exclusively to itself, and written by some one whose long residence in, and intimate knowledge of the district described would secure its accuracy, we should possess a series of Lake books much more comprehensive, more useful, and more amusing than any we can yet boast of. ”

“ Tall, moss-grown walls and dense hedges are a feature of unfashionable 172 Lakeland, but, pretty as they undoubtedly are, they sadly narrow the wanderer’s vision. The lake is now close by, stretching into the reedy level meadows. One curious feature is a now useless bridge, raising its hog-back in the mere. Wee looks the white-walled inn across the glen, with the great mountain range almost overhanging it. The fellside above us is bristling with crags, some splintered and hanging as though a breath of wind would hurl a shower of stone down upon us ”

“ Lake Point is only an hour or two from the city, and has hotel accommodations and a steamboat for excursions; and then, besides the bracing waters, the climate is delightful. The mountains rise into the cool sky furrowed with cañons almost yosemitic in grandeur, and filled with a glorious profusion of flowers and trees. Lovers of science, lovers of wildness, lovers of pure rest will find here more than they may hope for. ”

“ Whether we contemplate the sublime grandeur of its mountains, or listen to the melodious murmurs of the distant waterfalls, or meditate along the margins of its woodland streams in the evening's calm, we must be enchanted with the scene, and feel fully prepared to exclaim with the poet:—
"Lives there a man with soul so dead,
As never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!"
The Lake District has long been regarded as the romantic "classic ground" of England. ”

“ The paradise is not any longer unsuspected; it is public property; but there are still left the eternal hills, Grasmere water hollowed in their bosom, the small bays and miniature promontories, the soft turf green as an emerald, trees, hedges, cattle, pastures, and corn-land—items of description that may in a varying degree apply to almost every one of these famous sheets of Lakeland water. ”

“ At five o'clock in the afternoon we entered Lake Griffin, which I judged to be about ten miles long, and moored at Leesburg in season for supper. This place is the county-town of Sumter County, and the head of navigation by the Ocklawaha. One end of the town was on Lake Hawkins, and there were a dozen lakes within a few miles of it. We found nothing very different from what we had seen. Our sportsmen brought in large quantities of small game, upon which we feasted, and we sailed about the lake, exchanging hospitalities with the people who treated us like old friends. ”