iia
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 m 

 
 fejj 
 

 
 'BENEATH HELVELLYN'S SHADE.'
 
 BENEATH 
 
 HELVELLYN'S SHADE. 
 
 NOTES AND SKETCHES 
 IN THE VALLEY OF WYTHBURN. 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL BARBER, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'THE LOST VILLAGE," 'BALMORAL TOWERS," ETC., ETC. 
 
 How bountiful is Nature ! He shall find 
 Who seeks not, and to him that hath not asked 
 Large measure shall be dealt." 
 
 WORDSWORTH. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 1892.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 TOPOGRAPHY is a wide subject. If carried out in 
 what is termed the scientific spirit, it is indeed 
 absolutely boundless. To say nothing of geology or 
 botany, a single pond, with its desmids, diatoms, 
 polyzoa, water-mites and larvae would afford material 
 for a volume. A fragmentary or sketchy treatment 
 seems thus to belong to this subject, if the area 
 described be at all considerable. 
 
 Yet though the treatment may be partial, accuracy, 
 and indeed thoroughness, need not be sacrificed. In 
 the following pages the writer has endeavoured to be 
 exact so far as it was possible, and he trusts the work 
 may not be devoid of interest to Lake-land tourists 
 and others, as well as natives of the Wythburn district. 
 He takes this opportunity of thanking Professor 
 
 ! f
 
 vi Preface. 
 
 Ruskin for the use of part of a private letter, on the 
 subject of clouds ; and also to Messrs. Allen for their 
 kind permission to reprint the substance of two 
 articles by the author, from the Popular Science 
 Review. In a mountainous country the forms of 
 cloud are almost always a prominent feature in the 
 landscape, and considerable space has therefore been 
 given to them. The author of the Book of Job, 
 Homer, Wordsworth, Sir J. Herschell, Ruskin, all 
 studied the clouds. The laws which relate the com- 
 ponent molecules of a cloud to its general form, and 
 those, again, which relate that mass-form to the earth 
 by varying altitude, offer a most interesting field for 
 research ; that there is great practical use in accurate 
 knowledge of clouds, the present year, 1892, has abun- 
 dantly shown, almost every thunderstorm having been 
 preceded by one or more of the best known electrical 
 forms. 
 
 With regard to antiquities in the North of England, 
 it is gratifying to observe that, especially in the 
 Furness district of Lancashire, considerable interest 
 in parish customs, folklore, etc., is arising among the 
 clergy. The result a matter of vast importance
 
 Preface. vii 
 
 will be an increase of historical knowledge among the 
 people. This knowledge, dependent on the care with 
 which the work of collecting and recording local facts 
 is carried out, cannot fail to encourage social stability 
 by developing patriotic feeling. Multiform are the 
 lessons of the ' antiquary times.' 
 
 These Wythburn Sketches now commended to the 
 reader's kind indulgence have been drawn up under 
 difficulties, and with little assistance from books or 
 personal sympathy. May they give to him as great a 
 fund of amusement as they have afforded to the 
 writer; and if they haply chance upon the table of 
 some sojourner upon the hills, 
 
 ' Remote, unfriended, solitary,' 
 
 may they stimulate him to look carefully around his 
 own dwelling-place, and go and do better. 
 
 The influence of a Sedgwick, a Henslow, or a Hugh 
 Miller may kindle enthusiasm far and wide, and the 
 stimulus of humbler examples will not be without its 
 educative effect. The knowledge of history entailed 
 by the study of antiquities, and the habit of reflection 
 developed by examining the wondrous processes of 
 nature, are matters of national concern. It would be
 
 viii Preface. 
 
 hard to imagine a more valuable boon bestowed on 
 our rising generation than the faculty of observing, 
 with brains as well as eyes, the marvels with which 
 the Divine Hand has encompassed us. 
 
 If this little work tends to enforce the acknowledg- 
 ment of an inspired naturalist, the writer will be abun- 
 dantly satisfied : 
 
 ' O Lord, how manifold are Thy works ! 
 In wisdom hast Thou made them all ; 
 The earth is full of Thy riches.'
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Valley The Church Navvies The Nag's Head- 
 Christopher North - 3 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Chancellor Ferguson's History Dialect Poets Richard- 
 son Sheep - shearing Shepherd's Song Funeral 
 Customs - - - II 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Antiquities Roman Road Curious Enclosures The 
 City Ancient Stone Circle Steading Stone Celtic 
 Bridge - - - 19 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Scenic Effects Transformations The Flooded Fells 
 Twilight Glow Chime of the Torrent Helm Wind- 
 Cloud Pillars Glory at Armboth Cloud Procession - 29 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Denudation Boulders Soilmakers Birds of the Valley - 43 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Parsons of the Dale and Mountain Walker of Seathwaite 
 Dogs and Sheep Pet Sheep System of Marking - 57
 
 x Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Wythburn and Wordsworth The Waggoner Rock of 
 Names - - 75 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Cloudland Letter from Professor Ruskin Sunset Scene 
 from Wordsworth Cloud Outlines - - - 87 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Inverted Pyramid Cumulus Dropping Cumulus Festoon 
 Cloud High Rain-Cumulus Law of Altitudes Hail 
 and Snow Clouds ... - 101 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Cloud Classification, with Notes on Cirrus - - 117 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Cairn of Dunmail Nature, Normal and Abnormal Barrows 
 The Farmer's Toils Some Local Names City or 
 Sitting? - - - 131 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Norse Origin of Dialect Fanny Graham The Postman 
 and the Calf Mid-county Dialect Ballad - 143 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Man and Nature Watershed Ancient Woods Poet's 
 Walk Mutations of Oxygen - - 149 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 A Wythburn Homily : Voices of the Mountain - - 155
 
 CHAPTER I.
 
 THE VALLEY THE CHURCH NAVVIES THE NAG S 
 HEAD CHRISTOPHER NORTH.
 
 I. 
 
 LOOKING across the narrow, green valley of 
 Wythburn, with its rushing brook and hedge- 
 rows dotted with sycamore, my eye falls upon the 
 massive wall of Helvellyn, which, seen from the 
 window at which I write, looks almost perpendicular. 
 The numerous pedestrians (with a horse or two at 
 times) ascending and descending the time-worn track 
 that has done duty for 2,000 years, look like mere 
 specks. A bright white moving spot generally indi- 
 cates a young lady, a black and white one flitting to 
 and fro, now behind and now in advance, her gentle- 
 man comrade. Upon the delicately curved sky-line 
 of the mountain top beyond there move slowly along 
 one, two, three dark little specks ; these are the suc- 
 cessful climbers who have just attained the object of 
 their ambition, and are nearing the summit. Down 
 the grassy slope by the ghyll at the foot of the moun- 
 tain three gray objects rapidly descend in Indian file 
 towards the high road that runs along its base; these are 
 collegian tourists that have walked over from Patter- 
 
 I 2
 
 4 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 dale, rejoicing in their escape from the anxieties of 
 the Senate House, and now making straight for the 
 Nag's Head. There they mean to do proper justice 
 to the 'tea and chops,' and to inscribe their names in 
 the much thumbed and motley collection of auto- 
 graphs that is always at hand to divert the impatient 
 traveller. How often will they talk over their day's 
 adventure on the mountain, and how much like a 
 dream will be the memory of it when a few short 
 years are past ! 
 
 From the citadel whence I look down upon the 
 eager and ever-moving stream of the pleasure-seeking 
 world below, a path descends through seven fields, 
 crossing a brook by the way, to the well-known inn 
 where Wordsworth, Christopher North, and the Cole- 
 ridges met and cracked their jokes. Here is a coach- 
 ing-station between Grasmere and Keswick, and from 
 this point it is usual to ascend Helvellyn, on the 
 western side ; and here the tourist is invited to enter 
 and survey the little whitewashed church so fitly 
 characterized by the poet of Rydal Mount : 
 
 ' Wythburn's modest house of prayer.' * 
 
 And truly, for a primitive little mountain church it 
 would be difficult to find a better. Neatly restored 
 and amply large enough for the wants of the people, it 
 
 * The building must have looked even more ' modest ' before 
 the erection of the little bell-tower by the Manchester Corpora 
 tion. S. B.
 
 Church and Inn. 5 
 
 possesses a variety of interesting associations, and, 
 chiefly through the writings of Wordsworth, is a great 
 favourite with tourists. The chancel and circular arch 
 are palpably enough of recent construction, and the 
 stained window, though also new, is harmonious and 
 artistic enough to gratify connoisseurs in art. This 
 window is one of the few erected as a memorial 
 during the life of the person memorized, viz., the Rev. 
 B. R. Lawson, upwards of forty years vicar of the parish. 
 
 This church has obtained greater renown than 
 usually falls to the lot even of notable churches, 
 through its peculiar position, church and inn facing 
 each other, and apparently forming a kind of joint 
 concern ! The custom with travellers on arriving 
 here from Grasmere or Keswick is to step from the 
 coach-top to the summit of the wall encircling the 
 churchyard, and then, after inspecting the building, 
 proceed for refreshments to the Nag's Head. If there 
 is a defect in Wythburn church it is want of light, and 
 if this defect should ever be remedied it will doubtless 
 be through the roof, this being the most economical 
 method. An extra space of window is certainly 
 required, through the overshadowing presence of the 
 mountain. 
 
 At the present date, 1890, the evils arising from too 
 close proximity of church and inn are aggravated, and 
 that severely, by the insufficient accommodation for 
 the colony of ' navvies ' continually on the spot. 
 Though the presence of these ' pioneers of civiliza-
 
 6 ' Beneath Hellvelyn's Shade.' 
 
 tion' brings 'grist to the mill/ it cannot be pro- 
 nounced altogether a blessing to a country inn of the 
 dimensions of the Nag's Head. Much less is it one 
 to the children attending school or the worshippers at 
 the church. 
 
 At this ancient hostelry have gathered together 
 many notabilities both past and present lake poets 
 and philosophers and dignitaries of Church and State 
 preparing to scale the brow of the 'Mighty Helvellyn,' 
 or to inspect the 'smallest church in the country,' 
 'the church where Adam and Eve were married,' 
 etc., etc. ; and, occasionally, if time permitted, to pass 
 the evening under that quaint old roof where Words- 
 worth, Wilson, De Quincey, and Coleridge must often 
 have met to indulge in high transcendental dialogue, 
 after tramping by ' fell and fountain sheen ' through 
 all the district round. 
 
 But all this was before the days of the invasion of 
 the M. C. W. Committee. We wondered now and 
 then what Wordsworth would have said could he have 
 arisen from that peaceful corner in the churchyard of 
 Grasmere to behold the gambols and hear the 
 dialogue of our friends the navvies in and out of the 
 far-famed Nag's Head. Equal, at least, would have 
 been his indignation to that which possessed his soul 
 when ejected from his pony-carriage by the impact of 
 a coach at the brook side in the valley below. But 
 we venture also to assert that not with ' Punch ' and 
 ' Billycock ' and ' Yorkey ' only would his wrath be
 
 Christopher North. 7 
 
 concerned. Rather, we suspect, would it be with the 
 treatment that these much maligned pioneers have 
 received at the hands of contractors and local autho- 
 rities, and with the general neglect by ' Society,' which 
 has left them almost entirely outside the pale of reli- 
 gion and civilization. 
 
 The ubiquitous tramp, representing the scum of the 
 country, attaches himself, like a blood-sucking para- 
 site, to the navvy, and thus the fraternity of ' excava- 
 tors ' is dragged down to lower depths, like the victims 
 of the 'Old Man of the Sea.' Verily, 'Yorkey' and 
 ' Punch ' have need to pray for deliverance from their 
 friends. I may say here that the life of these hut 
 communities presents many interesting social problems. 
 Unlocked for civility and much appreciation of kind- 
 ness are often shown by these unfortunate wanderers. 
 
 Space, however, will not allow of details concerning 
 the great ' Navvy Question.' 
 
 We conclude this chapter with an incident of a 
 different order, relating to the Nag's Head, told by 
 an old inhabitant to the present writer, and still a 
 cherished piece of local lore. 
 
 Scene: The little parlour of the Nag's Head. 
 Shades of night falling after a grand September day. 
 
 Present : Christopher North, De Quincey, S. T. 
 Coleridge, and Lai Hartley.* Everything jovial. 
 Day's adventures talked over and bedtime near. 
 
 * All the ' per^onae ' cannot be vouched for. S. R.
 
 8 ' Beneath Helvellyrfs Shade.' 
 
 Enter landlord after shooting on moors, with gun, 
 loaded, which he places carefully in a corner. 
 
 By-and-by Christopher takes the gun and pretends to 
 examine it. The company continue to philosophize, but 
 eye the professor suspiciously. North quietly proceeds 
 to the fireplace, and slipping the muzzle up the chimney, 
 fires. Tableau frightful noise, and avalanche of 
 soot, in which the ' Lai ' poet is completely enveloped. 
 The company prepare to seize culprit, but he bursts 
 off through the door upstairs, and bolts himself in. 
 Great excitement, and Hartley is with difficulty cleansed 
 from his mantle of soot. 
 
 Early next morning the professor is found to have 
 vanished. It was a good while before he appeared 
 again at Wythburn.
 
 CHAPTER 11.
 
 CHANCELLOR FERGUSON'S HISTORY DIALECT POETS 
 RICHARDSON SHEEP - SHEARING SHEPHERD'S 
 SONG FUNERAL CUSTOMS.
 
 II. 
 
 CHANCELLOR FERGUSON, in his recently 
 published popular ' History of Cumberland,' 
 appends to his work a short list of local Cumbrian 
 poets. The names noted are those of Relf, Clark, 
 Anderson, and Sanderson. To these let us add 
 Richardson. 
 
 In passing, it may be well to remark that brief 
 accounts of local celebrities very fittingly find a place 
 in a county history, and notably so those of dialect 
 poets, whose writings so graphically depict the life and 
 customs of their own country folk. 
 
 Richardson, who was schoolmaster at St. John's-in- 
 the-Vale, is thus spoken of by the Rev. H. D. 
 Rawnsley, in his ' Coach Drive at the Lakes ': ' A man 
 of racy shrewdness, and deep feeling for the realities 
 of life ; a man that Cumbrian literature will never 
 forget ; a genius St. John's Vale may be proud of.' It 
 is quite true that the racy and realistic vernacular poet 
 whose writing smacks of the soil is not often widely 
 read. How many working men or tradesmen know
 
 12 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 anything of Barnes or Edwin Waugh outside of Dorset 
 and Lancashire? Yet what a power are these men in 
 their own limited area of influence ! How intensely 
 and how vividly their rustic pictures and their graphic 
 portraits of individual character come home to the 
 men of these two counties ! 
 
 So has it been with Richardson over a more restricted 
 area than that of Barnes or Waugh. In his case the 
 strong bond of family associations, and the element of 
 ' clan,' without doubt very strong in this district, 
 have doubtless conduced largely to his influence. 
 But his strong humanity and keen sense of humour 
 have certainly given great force to his simple and 
 touching songs of the affections. Among these we 
 may cite 'The Blind Grandmother,' 'It's Nobbut 
 Me ' (a great favourite), ' Auld Scheul Friends '; these 
 are characteristic of the homely spirit of his work. 
 He also wrote some hunting songs which have been 
 very popular. 
 
 Richardson was born at Naddle, near Keswick, in 
 1817, and died at St. John's-in-the-Yale in 1886. His 
 widow and daughter were still living in 1890, and one 
 of his nieces resided at Wythburn. 
 
 His copyrights were purchased by Mr. Coward, of 
 Carlisle. There are, I believe, few, if any, unpublished 
 poems of Richardson remaining. 
 
 Before he became schoolmaster at St. John's-in-the- 
 Vale he was engaged in the building trade, and very 
 creditable work of his is said still to exist in Keswick.
 
 The Shepherds' Merry Night. ij 
 
 Mention of the native poetry of the district brings 
 us to the prolific subject of folk-lore and social customs, 
 popular superstitions and traditions. On each of these 
 much might be said in almost any mountain district, 
 by an ingenious writer. But I must not repeat what 
 is simply generic. It will, I think, be more satisfactory 
 to the reader if I simply give a few illustrations of 
 local custom, just as they have come under my own 
 notice, at the Wythburn end of Thirlmere. 
 
 First, then, we have the sheep-shearing, and the 
 ' Merry Night ' that follows. 
 
 Sheep-shearing must always be a grand event in a 
 place where the people live by their sheep. 
 
 The sheep support the people, and the dogs make 
 this practicable. The work, hard enough as it is, would 
 simply be impossible without the dogs. To narrate 
 the various virtues of the collie in this place would be 
 quite superfluous, but I may, in passing, note that they 
 do not take any salary for their services. The work 
 they do is simply marvellous, and they do not, if hard 
 worked, live long. One wonders, therefore, at times, 
 how it is that there is no ' Dog Feast ' established in 
 Cumberland ! 
 
 To sit the whole of a hot summer day with sheep 
 after sheep on one's knee, plying the shears, is cer- 
 tainly not the easiest business in the world, nor yet the 
 lightest, and that a ' Merry Night ' should ensue upon 
 it appears inevitable. A good supper, and afterwards 
 a good talk on the day's proceedings, then a song or
 
 14 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 two by some benevolent amateur, and the evening 
 begins. The instrument, violin or melodeon, is 
 brought forth, and the fun commences in real earnest. 
 No doubt a brisk flirtation takes place here in many 
 meetings. Then the beer is brought forward, and 
 the ancient process of drinking the ' Shepherd's health ' 
 follows. 
 
 This custom deserves the study of antiquaries. 
 Strictly observed, the master or chief shepherd ought 
 to be raised aloft, or ' chaired,' on this occasion, and 
 the guests should revolve about him, glass in hand ; 
 but this chairing is, I believe, now usually dispensed 
 with. The persistent way in which the song is re- 
 peated and the chorus shouted, or rather ' yelled,' is 
 very suggestive of the ancient and savage times from 
 which it is evidently derived. There is a palpable 
 tone of defiance in this chorus which at once 
 recalls to mind the ferocity of the Scandinavian in- 
 vaders, and the wine bowls formed from their victims' 
 skulls ! The song is as follows : 
 
 'The shepherd's health and it shall go round 
 And it shall go round and it shall go round ! 
 The shepherd's health and it shall go round ! 
 
 Heigh O ! Heigh O ! Heigh O ! 
 
 And he that doth this health deny, 
 
 Before his face I him defy. 
 
 He's fit for no good company. 
 
 So let this health go round !' 
 
 For an account of the circumstances under which
 
 Poetical Associations. 15 
 
 this health was drunk, the dancing round the 
 ' Shepherd,' the chairing, etc., I must refer the reader 
 to Richardson's humorous account in ' Stwories 'at 
 Ganny uset to tell' (Chapter on 'Auld Fashint 
 Clippins and sec like '). 
 
 How far the scenery of Wythburn valley will be 
 changed by the waterworks and extension of Thirl- 
 mere lake, a year or two will, no doubt, determine ; 
 but with regard to the social customs of the inhabi- 
 tants, it does not seem probable that Manchester will 
 have much influence in modernizing the native mind, 
 when we reflect that the shepherd's song given above 
 is still sung with great gusto and continual repetitions 
 at sheep-clipping feasts. It is a true relic of the 
 ancient days. 
 
 Funeral ' feasts ' retain their hold in this district. 
 It is not long since one was held a few days after 
 the death of a child, at eleven o'clock on Sunday 
 morning.* The funeral took place before the service 
 in the afternoon. 
 
 A large number of relatives and many neigh- 
 bours were ' bidden ' to the feast. The congregation 
 on this occasion was, I believe, one of the largest 
 ever seen in the church. The custom, so common in 
 Cumberland, of men attending funeral services with 
 their hats on, is certainly yielding in this district to a 
 more reverent observance. 
 
 * Eleven seems to be the usual hour for these gatherings.- 
 S. B.
 
 16 ' Beneath Helvdlyn's Shade.' 
 
 The interest that attaches to Wythburn in the 
 present day consists, with many tourists, chiefly in its 
 associations with the poet Wordsworth and other 
 literary men resident in the vicinity about the begin- 
 ning of this and the end of last century. I am not aware 
 that anyone has hitherto attempted to write the natural 
 history, or to describe fully the antiquities of the 
 place. But every tourist seems to be posted up with 
 regard to the ' Rock of Names,' upon which William 
 Wordsworth and his friends are believed to have 
 carved their initials. The new road (elevated many 
 feet above the old coach-road) now being constructed 
 by the Manchester Corporation is, it appears, to be 
 honoured by having the pieces of rock containing 
 these names inserted in its wall. The place from 
 which the inscribed pieces of rock have been taken 
 will either be brought by the raising of the water close 
 to the lake or actually submerged. It will be a curious 
 puzzle, I fear, to reconstruct the signatures. 
 
 We notice here the delight in personal associations 
 prevalent among tourists. This love of anecdote and 
 individual reminiscences would, doubtless, have a 
 beneficial effect if it led to a true study of the noble 
 works of such men as the poet of Rydal Mount. 
 Perhaps, however, the greatest benefit now accruing is 
 the interest added by these personal incidents to a 
 summer holiday.
 
 CHAPTER III.
 
 ANTIQUITIES ROMAN ROAD CURIOUS ENCLOSURES 
 THE CITY ANCIENT STONE CIRCLE STEADING 
 STONE CELTIC BRIDGE.
 
 III. 
 
 IN Chancellor Ferguson's recently printed popular 
 1 History of Cumberland,' we do not find any 
 account of a Roman road running through Wythburn 
 from Grasmere to Keswick. That the Roman station 
 at Ambleside was an important one will hardly be 
 doubted. That there was another, perhaps of equal 
 importance, at Castrigg, situated between Keswick 
 and Grasmere, is also admitted. Let me note also 
 that there have been various Roman remains un- 
 earthed at 'Pavement End,' Grasmere; so that the 
 question as to a Roman road running through Wyth- 
 burn amounts to this : were the camps at Castrigg 
 and Ambleside connected ? All probability leans to 
 an affirmative answer. At the same time it is right to 
 state here that some inhabitants of Keswick are 
 sceptical as to the existence of Castrigg Camp, despite 
 the strong evidence afforded by the name itself. In 
 discussing the probabilities of this matter, let not the 
 antiquary fail to note the extreme beauty of the 
 
 2 2
 
 20 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 scenery, and the so-called Druidical circle near at 
 hand. 
 
 Relics of ancient work also exist here. An aged 
 and intelligent resident of Wythburn has assured me 
 that during the alteration of some farm buildings 
 at a place bearing signs of great antiquity, called 
 Stenock, the remains of an arch of flat bricks was 
 found some thirty years ago, and believed by those 
 who saw it to be the remains of a Roman oven. The 
 road which skirts this building has been built with 
 singular solidity. Many of the blocks forming the 
 edge or basement wall of the road are about a ton in 
 weight. Doubtless some of the larger boulders have 
 occasionally been used almost in situ, but many others 
 must have been collected or rolled down the fell-side 
 to serve as a support for this mountain road. The 
 road has been called by some a ' pack-horse road,' 
 but why a road merely for this kind of conveyance 
 should be built in so massive a style is difficult 
 indeed to conceive. In one place between Stenock 
 and Westhead Farm the boulders are built up five or 
 six feet high for a space of forty or fifty feet. It is a 
 noteworthy fact that this road is now (1890) being 
 used by the heavy waggons of the Manchester Corpor- 
 ation contractors. It is much wider in some places 
 than other, obviously for the purpose of allow- 
 ing conveyances to wait and give passage. The 
 amount of building contained in the portion lying 
 between Westhead and Stenock should be carefully
 
 Curious Enclosures. 21 
 
 observed. After passing Stenock the road, in a 
 most serpentine and un-Roman fashion, crosses the 
 Greta twice and turns sharp to the left towards ' The 
 City.' 
 
 This hamlet, called ' The City,' is situated upon 
 the ancient way, a little before it begins to ascend 
 the rocky ground lying between Wythburn and 
 Armboth. It is a marvellously picturesque spot, 
 and the old-world character of the dwellings greatly 
 enhances its artistic charm. Let us hope that charm 
 will not disappear with the extension of the lake. 
 
 The new road of the Manchester Corporation on 
 the west of Thirlmere cuts across the ancient road 
 just above the ruins of Stenock. It runs at the back 
 of, and above the city, and will open up lovely views 
 for tourists on the western side of Thirlmere. 
 
 Plainly, the earliest inhabitants of this district 
 occupied the west side rather than the east, the 
 remains of primitive and curiously built dwellings 
 and other structures, of doubtful use, being far more 
 numerous on this side of the lake than on the other. 
 A casual visitor would be surprised to find that there 
 were nineteen dwellings between Waterhead and 
 Steel-End Farm (at the Grasmere end of Wythburn), 
 exclusive of ruins. There are six or seven of these 
 ruins between the city and Steel-End, and numerous 
 others upon the sides of the fells west of Thirlmere. 
 Mr. W. Wilson, a native of the district, now manager 
 of the Keswick Hotel, speaks of the various supposed
 
 22 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 uses of these early structures, and evidently inclines 
 to the belief that they are the remains of primitive 
 dwellings. 
 
 ' Knowing all about cutting and storing peat on 
 the fell,' says he, ' I am certain from the situation in 
 which we find them, that they cannot have been of 
 any use to those who procured peats from the fell, 
 and anyone who has had experience among sheep 
 must know them to be utterly useless as sheepfolds.' 
 
 In the same pamphlet, viz., ' Thirlmere and its 
 Associations,' he has drawn attention to the earth- 
 works on 'Castle Crag,' near Shoulthwaite Ghyll, 
 which he takes to have been a fortress of the early 
 Celts, and to which they fled when attacked by 
 superior numbers of the enemy. 
 
 Putting together all these indications of an early 
 population, and bearing in mind the existence of two 
 important camps, one at Ambleside and the other at 
 Castrigg near Keswick, we conclude that some road 
 connecting these camps must have run through 
 Wythburn Valley, and we take this solidly built way 
 to be that connecting road, because it is palpably the 
 oldest road in the district, and passes by the earliest 
 remains of the primitive occupants. 
 
 ' Why,' it may be asked, ' did the Romans make 
 this road along the fell-side instead of through the 
 bottom?' The answer is plain. It is better and 
 drier ground, and gave them much better command 
 of the valley as they marched from station to station.
 
 May Green. 23 
 
 No doubt they would be glad to have a good view 
 of their wily foes, who doubtless harassed their con- 
 voys severely as they traversed these dangerous 
 solitudes. 
 
 Let us now return to the hamlet called ' The City,' 
 or simply ' City.' It would be hard to find a nook 
 in England more enveloped in the very atmosphere 
 of remote antiquity.* The farm called ' May Green ' 
 (now a navvies' lodging - house, and soon to be 
 obliterated by the advance of the lake) is a capital 
 illustration of this old-world style. When this house 
 was erected little notice was taken of plumb-lines, 
 and a floor was by no means of necessity a plane. 
 The solid boulder, washed down from the hill or 
 deposited by the ice of the glacial age, is imbedded 
 and utilized in the wall, and chiselling is quite dis- 
 pensed with to make it flush with the ' biggin ' around. 
 The kitchen is sunk some feet below the surrounding 
 soil. Altogether the place is rather suggestive of an 
 amusing device of the aborigines than of architecture. 
 Here, I suppose, in early days the May-pole was 
 erected, around which the village children danced 
 when the Roman soldiers might be seen tramping 
 along the fell, and long before the cross was erected 
 at Crosthwaite or the Gospel preached at Penrith. 
 How different must the garb of those children have 
 
 * Thirlmere will extend for a considerable area over Wyth- 
 burn Valley when the waterworks are finished and the level 
 raised .
 
 24 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 been from that of the little ones now passing to 
 and from the village school ! In more recent times 
 weaving was actively carried on in this valley, and 
 a stone upon the hill-side near Armboth marks the 
 spot where, to avoid infection, trade was done and 
 exchange made of the fruits of native industry. 
 
 The 'Web Stone' and the 'Steading Stone' are 
 two interesting memorials of the early days of Thirl- 
 mere life, and the latter especially connects us with 
 early customs and local laws. It appears to have 
 been customary to hold a court at this stone, and on 
 such occasions doubtless the ' pains and penalties of 
 Wythburn ' were strictly enforced. 
 
 The curious so-called ' Celtic ' bridge that crossed 
 from Dale Head to Armboth has already gone ; ' May 
 Green,' with other dwellings of the ' City,' will doubt- 
 less follow it ere long ; the ancient customs and 
 1 laws ' will, I suppose, soon be forgotten, and the 
 very character of the scenery changed, perhaps never 
 to reappear, as now seen from the Cherry-Tree or the 
 old Post-Office. 
 
 The Rev. H. D. Rawnsley, in his ' Coach Drive at 
 the Lakes,' alludes to the Vikings and earthworks at 
 the 'City.' Whatever connection the Scandinavians 
 may have had with this picturesque little hamlet, I 
 venture here to draw the attention of antiquaries to 
 the remains of a rude stone circle* which I have little 
 doubt dates from a period long anterior to the Danish 
 * Only a portion of the circle now remains.
 
 " 
 
 Ancient Stone Circle. ^25 
 
 inroads. It is so situated that the tourist almost 
 inevitably misses it. On approaching the ' City ' the 
 visitor should turn into the field in front of the 
 cottages on the right, which face the main, road 
 across the valley. Entering the field and passing 
 the cottages towards the lake, he will find a line of 
 boulders arranged in semicircular form and surround- 
 ing an abrupt rock which juts out from the grass 
 within the line of stones. This rock is much polished, 
 as geologists tell us, by glacial action. The whole 
 space within the semicircle of boulders has been 
 quite cleared of stones. On ascending the flat central 
 rock we find a cavity cut in rectangular form, about 
 a foot deep and two or more in length, and opening 
 out at the steep side of the rock where it faces Thirl- 
 mere. 
 
 This circle of boulders would plainly have been 
 valueless as a means of defence to anything within 
 the enclosure. It has no resemblance to the base- 
 ment of a wall, and although many loose stones have 
 been gathered to fill up the interstices of the larger 
 ones, it seems perfectly clear that the circle of stones 
 was never built to any great elevation. 
 
 A few feet outside of this line, jutting out from it 
 into the boggy ground, is a short line of large flat 
 stones sunk in the earth, that apparently formed the 
 base of a wall ; they run out from, but probably had 
 no connection with, the circle. The original condition 
 of this circle itself was probably similar to the Arab
 
 26 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 circle at Heshbon, figured at page 330 of Captain 
 Gender's work on ' Heth and Moab,' with a natural 
 rock doing the work of a central 'dolmen.' What 
 terrible sacrifices may have been offered on this stone, 
 and what strange mysteries enacted in the dark times 
 when human blood was thought to propitiate the 
 so-called deities of heathendom ! Let us hope that 
 the very numerous menhirs, etc., of Syria and India 
 and of primitive England do not all record the practice 
 of such barbarities. We must, however, notice that 
 in Cornwall and other hilly parts of the country, a 
 neighbouring rock appears to have been used in con- 
 nection with the religious rites practised at these 
 ancient meeting-places. Curious incisions have on 
 various occasions been found upon the rocks. It has 
 also been remarked by travellers in Syria and Moab 
 that dolmens nearly always occur in situations where 
 there is an abundant supply of water. This is un- 
 doubtedly a confirmation of the view taken above of 
 the remains at the ' City.' With ' Thorold's Mere ' 
 close by, a brook within about one hundred yards, 
 and a ghyll that thunders down from the fells just 
 behind, we have a truly typical scene for the cele- 
 bration of those mysterious rites, whatever their 
 nature, and by whomsoever they may have been 
 enacted.
 
 CHAPTER IV.
 
 SCENIC EFFECTS TRANSFORMATIONS THE FLOODED 
 FELLS TWILIGHT GLOW CHIME OF THE TORRENT 
 HELM WIND CLOUD PILLARS GLORY AT ARM- 
 BOTH CLOUD PROCESSION.
 
 IV. 
 
 IT goes without saying that the strongest force of 
 attraction to this, as to other remote mountain 
 districts, consists in its ' scenic effects.' I am not 
 speaking here of mere scenery, but of the transformation 
 scenes of Nature's countenance, the flashes of the soul 
 that breathes and the mind that gleams within and 
 gives ever-changing ' expression ' to her varied forms. 
 The incessant change of feature arising from storm 
 and sunshine, morning and evening, mist and shadow, 
 gloom and brightness, and all their unlooked-for 
 combinations, undoubtedly confers its consummate 
 charm upon a landscape. The Londoner, fresh from 
 the busy haunts of men, passing through such a valley 
 as Wythburn, carries away a mental picture fraught 
 with rosy hues and glorified conceptions, in which the 
 subjective and objective find a happy union. In the 
 sheep farmer, however, who climbs the bare hillside 
 with his dogs a dozen times a day in pursuit of the 
 means of subsistence, the subjective is often a minus
 
 30 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 quantity. 'Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder,' 
 not only of the ' human face divine,' but of the aspects 
 of nature. It is the striking and the phenomenal that 
 is required to awaken the observation of the native, 
 and cause him to dwell on the effects of scenery. 
 The artist who tells you that his eye has become 
 1 abused ' by constant dwelling upon a certain series 
 of objects is only repeating in another form what the 
 fell-farmers mentally suffer from, viz., a need of the 
 corrective influences of comparison. 
 
 It would be absurd to say that the face of Nature 
 is at all times ' beautiful ' (i.e., to human perception), 
 or that her beauty is not, at exceptional seasons, 
 transcendently and abnormally so ; and this certainly 
 applies with emphasis to a wild mountainous district 
 like that of Wythburn. The landscape here, like the 
 weather, varies to a marvellous extent. 
 
 Among the more remarkable of what I have termed 
 1 scenic effects,' the following may be noted as occur- 
 ring during about a year's residence at this place ; for, 
 let it be noted, in relating phenomena of this class, 
 that each season has its peculiar record, and that 
 particular years may also abound in special features. 
 Yet a lifetime will never exhaust the effects to be 
 observed, and the oldest inhabitant, like the youngest, 
 may readily meet with a glorious ' surprise,' so de- 
 pendent are these transformations on the endless 
 modifications of cloud and light. 
 
 The year 1890, in this district one of almost con-
 
 The Flooded Fells. 31 
 
 tinual rain, was most rich in those effects that belong 
 to flood and fountain. 
 
 After a few days of unusually heavy rain a great 
 rush of water comes down by Dog Ghyll from Harrop 
 Tarn and the adjoining fells, and when the sun bursts "~ 
 from the departing clouds a glorious sight is visible 
 from the coach road and valley near the 'Cherry 
 Tree ' and Waterhead. In a short time this road will 
 be submerged, or at any rate disused. But this grand 
 sight will remain, and it is one of the finest to be seen 
 in the valley. Innumerable silvery streams, gleaming 
 in the sunshine, burst out upon the fell sides and 
 pursue their serpentine course down the mossy banks 
 and fern-clad slopes. Here and there a flat surface of 
 rock, coated by the descending stream, throws off a 
 dazzling sheet of brilliant light which resembles a 
 mirror in the full blaze of the sun. Numerous little 
 snake-like rivulets appear on the sides of the fell, and, 
 winding downwards for their appointed length, dis- 
 appear again, like the rivers on the maps of Africa 
 that excited our wonder forty years ago. All is glitter- 
 ing with light, and the earth and air seem to vibrate 
 with the roar of innumerable torrents. The pure blue 
 sky and the bright green of budding fern and unfolding 
 sycamores constitute a delightful picture, that has 
 long made the ' City ' and Wythburn Fells a lode-star 
 to the tourist's eye in spring and early summer. What 
 a contrast is all this to the dark and dreary prospect
 
 32 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 from the western side of the valley on a drizzling 
 November evening ! Little does the tourist know 
 what it means to live in such a place as this the winter 
 through ! 
 
 Next let us notice the view of Helvellyn from the 
 opposite side of the valley, when the ruddy light of 
 a winter sunset falls upon the snow that wraps in its 
 mantle the broad reaches of the mountain's breast. 
 It is nearly dark as we climb towards Harrop Tarn, 
 and the lights in the valley begin to glimmer un- 
 certainly in the mystery of the twilight. Yet the glow 
 remains on the upper pastures of the mountain and 
 reflects a weird, ruddy glamour to the valley beneath. 
 It seems to cling with strange pertinacity to the 
 heights, but dies slowly away when the stars begin 
 to peep out. I may notice also that a curious 
 luminosity about nightfall seems at times to shine 
 from the descending ghylls, especially when rushing 
 down after a flood. It would almost appear that the 
 water is affected by some kind of phosphorescence, 
 so strong does this glow appear at times. But this 
 remark can scarcely be applied to account for the 
 glow upon the heights. 
 
 We pause now to chronicle an experience of a 
 different order, viz., the natural music of the water- 
 falls. There is a passage expressing De Quincey's 
 delight in the river-music (quoted by Rawnsley in his
 
 Chime of the Torrent. 33 
 
 ' Coach Drive at the Lakes '). It shows how the 
 4 Opium-eater ' and his friend Charles Lloyd listened 
 to the Brathay waters' chime, and hearkened with 
 profound emotion and awe to the sound of ' pealing 
 anthems, as if streaming from the portals of some 
 illimitable cathedral.' May we not say, indeed, that 
 the entire expanse of the visible frame of Nature, 
 ceiled with 
 
 ' This glorious canopy of light and blue,' 
 
 is actually one grand cathedral ? 
 
 Such ' pealing anthems ' may be heard, though not 
 at all times, issuing from the boulder-marked, steep 
 declivities of Helvellyn Ghyll. 
 
 This music is best heard in the still air when the 
 storm has departed, and a great mass of water is 
 descending from the upper pastures. 
 
 To account for the harp-like sweeps of sound, the 
 rhythmic cadences and deep bass undertones that 
 strike at intervals upon the ear, we remember that 
 the volume of music from the Ghyll itself is reflected 
 from innumerable points and varying distances. This 
 varied configuration, especially when the breeze is 
 favourably responsive to the water's music, is probably 
 a main cause of the natural orchestra, but not the 
 only one. Doubtless it depends chiefly on the vary- 
 ing movement and mass of the descending water, 
 and again, subjectively, on the sensibility of the 
 hearer's ear.
 
 34 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 ' O marvellous music of the mountain pass ! 
 O harper, that dost thrill the inner ear ! 
 Can aught of mortal minstrelsy surpass 
 Thy voice Eolian, thine anthem clear, 
 Helvellyn Ghyll ! The wind of Autumn drear 
 With sudden burst about thy cataract raves, 
 Yet speaks with magic tones that waft me near 
 To sunny scenes beyond the rolling waves, 
 Where choral -girded sands a sapphire ocean laves. 
 ' Music of Nature ! ocean wave and stream 
 Meandering mellifluous ; mountain rills 
 That chime sonorous, ray'd in silver gleam, 
 Your pealing anthem the hushed spirit fills 
 With deep delight and awe profound, that thrills 
 Man's inmost being, for he heareth there 
 In sounding water, stream and echoing hills 
 And every movement of the ambient air 
 One master-touch supreme that tuneth everywhere. 
 ' A touch that trembles on the shimmering sea, 
 That sways with organ swell where billows dash, 
 That whispers sweetly from the flower-strewn lea, 
 From every fell where floods as silver flash, 
 And where the mad cascades in fury clash. 
 Hark ! By the placid lake in slumber laid 
 A tiny tinkling tells the wavelet's plash ! 
 Knowest thou whose hand their varied music made ? 
 Unheard, He heareth all, One is by all obeyed ! 
 ' " There is in souls a sympathy with sounds " 
 So wrote a poet once, so all men feel ; 
 This universal frame o'erflows, abounds 
 With voices and with instruments ; a peal 
 Resounds, re-echoes, and soft harp-tones steal 
 Forth from the cataract that thunders strong 
 Upon the mountain steep : so thousands kneel 
 In some vast fane, a glad rejoicing throng, 
 And heaven receives their praise, accepts their choral song.' 
 
 S. B.
 
 Helm Wind. 35 
 
 When the wind is about E. to E.N.E., i.e., from 
 the Ulleswater side of Helvellyn, and rises to about 
 half a gale, a dry, brownish, smoke-like cloud settles 
 on the top of the mountain, where it forms a kind of 
 cap or ' helm.' Hence no doubt arises the term & * ' 
 
 r" 
 
 ' Helm Wind '; or, as it is often pronounced, ' Helium - 
 Wind.' This wind and its attendant cloud have 
 awakened a good deal of interest among observers 
 of natural phenomena. The following remarks are 
 rather suggestive than explanatory. 
 
 During my residence at Wythburn the cloud was 
 seen chiefly in the spring. It is usually, I think, 
 preceded by a few days' dry weather, and the wind 
 is generally strong when it is seen fully developed. 
 This last fact should be noted. The cloud has 
 frequently the appearance of smoke rolling over the 
 ground, and continually whirling about. The wind, 
 even when blowing violently, does not disperse it. 
 Its cohesion, and the tenacity with which it clings to 
 the mountain, are most remarkable. The fringe of it 
 hangs down over the fells, yet rarely divides. It is 
 most unusual to see any portions pass across the 
 valley. 
 
 This tenacity and affinity for the solid mountain are 
 apparently due to some force of attraction. 
 
 The attraction is perhaps only apparent, and the 
 following is probably a more rational explanation : 
 The cloud is mainly a forming and dissolving one 
 at the same time, and owes its origin to the impact of 
 
 32
 
 36 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade' 
 
 a cold current on the invisible vapour rising from the 
 ground. 
 
 The dissolving of the particles will thus take place 
 chiefly at the edges of the mountain, where the cold 
 wind meets warmer currents ascending from the 
 valleys. 
 
 I have been informed that a very similar appearance 
 is witnessed at Coniston, upon the ' Old Man,' and is 
 generally attended there by a cold wind. 
 
 It is also strikingly manifested on Cross Fell, near 
 Appleby. Such cloud phenomena present difficult 
 problems. 'Who can tell the balancings of the 
 clouds ?' says the author of the Book of Job. 
 
 The ' Helm Wind ' is generally gusty, and accom- 
 panied by a roaring noise and a whirling motion of 
 the broken ' cumulus ' clouds, which are evidently light 
 in texture, and composed of small particles, though 
 compact in form as they appear upon the mountain. 
 
 After rain, the formation of fresh clouds may be well 
 seen on a calm day from the fell opposite to Helvellyn. 
 The vapour rises in an invisible form to about two- 
 thirds of the height of the mountain, and on reaching 
 a certain elevation becomes at once visible, and 
 ascends in well defined columns straight up in front 
 of the rocks pillars of ascending cloud, of which the 
 base and lower part consist of invisible vapour. I may 
 notice here, in passing, that clouds may be regarded 
 as of two classes, viz., visible and invisible. The
 
 The Artist's Fairyland. 37 
 
 latter are often found among those that belong to the 
 cirrus type, and which are consequently prismatic ; 
 an illustration of which may be found in the halo of 
 fine cirrus seen sometimes in a comparatively clear sky, 
 and maintaining a circular outline due to refraction. 
 The same may be seen when ice-clouds drift over the 
 moon, as they pass into the position of a 60 angle of 
 refraction. 
 
 The crimson glow on the crags is at times a 
 glorious sight. It is seen most frequently in spring 
 and autumn, and, at Wythburn, from the west side of 
 the valley. 
 
 After a day's heavy rain, when the clouds roll away 
 at sunset, and the streaming light of the setting 
 luminary bursts beneath their retreating canopy, a deep 
 crimson or ruby glow falls in a mass upon the top of 
 the moss-clothed crags. As the rich red light gradu- 
 ally fades away, first into deep-toned ruby and then into 
 the sombre gray of dusk, while the giant peaks above 
 assume weird resemblances and fantastic magnitude in 
 the shadowy light, the hush of a deep peace seems to 
 descend around us, and the landscape becomes, in the 
 poet's phrase, ' most touching in its majesty.' 
 
 Descending to the point where the lake is narrowest, 
 by the winding road which traverses the rough pastures 
 known as Dale Head Park, we come to the bridge 
 that crosses Thirlmere. Here the outline of the hills 
 both near and distant is wonderfully varied. The
 
 38 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade' 
 
 lake twists and winds with many a jutting rock and 
 inlet, sharp crags rising on one side and the lower 
 slopes of Helvellyn on the other. The sunset effects 
 here are perhaps unrivalled in the district. The 
 variety of outline in lake and hill, the pure and delicate 
 atmospheric tints, the gradation of light and shade 
 from the deep purple and gray of the sleeping lake to 
 the sunlit slopes of the upper fells, combine to produce 
 a picture which may well be termed 'The Artist's 
 Fairyland.' But the tourist might stay for weeks, aye 
 months, before witnessing such a striking effect of 
 Nature's painting and of the Divine handiwork as the 
 writer saw one autumn evening in 1890. Returning 
 from the west side of Thirlmere when the sun had 
 lately dipped behind the crags of Armboth, I was 
 traversing the lower road that winds through Dale 
 Head Park. Deep undertones of green and gray, 
 purple and brown, wrapped the valley in a delicious 
 and softened harmony of colour, blending delightfully 
 with the evening stillness. Brighter lights painted the 
 heights of the rocks and fells. As I turned to survey 
 the track I had passed over, an exclamation of rapture 
 and delight burst spontaneously from my lips at the 
 sight that suddenly presented itself. It was the 
 seventh heaven of colour. An indescribably touching, 
 warm, and delicate tint of light gold had overspread 
 the whole of one slope of the mountain, softly spotted 
 and gemmed, as it were, by the boulders and crags 
 that marked its surface. This light blended in tone
 
 Cloud Procession. 39 
 
 with the pure sky above, and contrasted most har- 
 moniously with the stronger tints of brown and green 
 in the dark woods and shadowy depths of the valley 
 below. 
 
 Such a variety, richness, and harmony of colouring 
 has, I think, rarely been seen, even here. ' Gloria in 
 excelsis ' is the involuntary response of the spirit when 
 Nature presents such scenes to our view. 
 
 ' The undevout astronomer is mad ' has become a 
 proverb, and it expresses in a word the spiritual 
 teaching of Nature. 
 
 Might we not also say with the poet, on witnessing 
 such scenes, that the undevout mountaineer is mad ? 
 Yet who will venture to assert that reverence is a 
 noticeable feature of life in these remote valleys ? I 
 speak of the outward expression ; for the inner spirit 
 does exist, I think, among the people. 
 
 Once or twice in the early autumn there was seen 
 from Westhead a striking cloud phenomenon. Ad- 
 vancing in compact line, and with almost level summits, 
 a phalanx of grayish-blue cumuli descended with steady 
 movement from the heights of Dunmail Raise, and 
 solemnly pursued their way through the lower part of 
 the valley towards the lake. Their upper surface was 
 distinctly defined, and the objects on the slope of 
 Helvellyn just above them were distinctly visible. This 
 definition of the upper line in clouds of this character 
 is unusual.
 
 40 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 It is a fine sight to watch this continuous steady 
 advance of the trailing cumulus clouds as they move 
 through the calm autumnal air, drawn, as it appears, 
 by some mysterious force of attraction to the other end 
 of the valley. They rise over the pass, dip down 
 quietly like a flock of gigantic sheep, descend into the 
 vale beyond, and pursue their way as if animated by a 
 common instinct. Doubtless there is a current of air 
 running along the bottom of the valley, which bears 
 them forward. Somewhat similar is the advance of a 
 sea fog over the still water on a calm September after- 
 noon, when the vanguard of the mist advances in well- 
 defined packs towards the land. 
 
 On they come, not a breath of air moves, they 
 ascend the hillocks and spread over the ground, the 
 mist almost penetrates one's bones. Presently, the 
 day disappears, and a vast impenetrable pall is spread 
 over land and sea. In a few moments the whole of 
 Nature's visage is transformed.
 
 CHAPTER V.
 
 ENUDATION BOULDERS SOILMAKERS BIRDS OF 
 THE VALLEY.
 
 V. 
 
 IT is believed by some geologists that many of the 
 lakes were, in former days, considerably larger 
 than they are at present, and that one main cause of 
 the lessening of their area has been the accumulation 
 in the valley of the detritus from the hills. How 
 many ages have elapsed since Helvellyn and similar 
 volcanic mountains stood in their full stature baffles 
 the imaginative to conceive. Like Dartmoor, I 
 suppose, they are to be reckoned but the stumps of 
 those fire-breathing giants that once poured their lava 
 streams over the surrounding country. And allowing 
 for change of climate, as indicated in a changing 
 fauna and flora, it is probably fair to assume that for 
 an immense period of time the same disintegrating 
 processes have been at work which are in operation at 
 the present day. Slow, but sure, is the mill that 
 grinds down the mountain range and pours its 
 particles into lake and sea. Prodigious, too, though 
 scarcely noticed, is the result of the working of those
 
 44 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 1 little things,' moss and fern, frost and raindrop, that 
 effect this mighty transformation throughout the 
 ages. 
 
 An interesting illustration of the power of these 
 tiny workers is now to be seen on the side of the hill 
 just above the old toll-bar on the Grasmere side of 
 Wythburn Vicarage. There, imbedded in the green 
 grass, close to the track of an old pack-horse road, lies 
 a large boulder, whose descent from the jutting rock 
 of Helvellyn above is a matter of recent history. 
 About two years ago a party of men were playing a 
 social game in the old toll-gate cottage, when a 
 rumbling noise like thunder was heard for a few 
 moments, and then it ceased suddenly and all was 
 still again. In the morning the boulder, which had 
 fallen from the cliff almost immediately behind, was 
 found tilted on its edge in the grass above the 
 cottage. It weighs many tons. 
 
 It was thought desirable by the natives to fix this 
 erratic monster by digging an enlarged bed into which 
 it might settle down comfortably and abstain from 
 further careering into the valley. It would, indeed, 
 have resulted in total ruin to the building if this 
 stone had continued its descent, for the track, still 
 visible on the hillside, shows that it was making for 
 the cottage. 
 
 Not far from this stone, reposing in the field 
 beneath, are two or three gigantic blocks, which, 
 reasoning from the above incident, have probably
 
 Boulders. 45 
 
 fallen in the same way. Just above Stenock buildings 
 are others still larger. 
 
 Another case of the descent of a boulder from the 
 cliff on the side of Helvellyn took place on the 2 6th 
 or 27th of January, 1891. The stone was about a 
 ton in weight, and in its descent crossed the high 
 road a few hundred yards on the Grasmere side of 
 Wythburn Old Toll Bar. To the pedestrian or 
 vehicle which had chanced to meet this headlong 
 monster dashing into the valley it would have proved 
 as ' awkward ' as the railway train to the historic 
 ' coo ' which George Stephenson regarded with such 
 composure. It crashed through the two walls on 
 each side of the road, leaving a clear gap in each, and 
 settled upon the lower pasture not far from the coach 
 road, and the writer drove past not many hours 
 afterwards. 
 
 Thus two notable boulders have transferred their 
 resting-place from mountain to valley within a space 
 of eighteen months. But I would ask the reader to 
 reflect, first, how many such cases have happened 
 without any record being made ; and, further, what 
 must be the sum of those which have descended in 
 the vast periods of time which geology assigns to the 
 epochs that have elapsed since the Cumbrian vol- 
 canoes arose, when storm and frost first began to 
 batter their rugged sides ? The enormous number of 
 such stones now concealed beneath the soil may offer 
 some reply to this.
 
 46 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 The ' perching ' of boulders by the agency of ice in 
 the glacial period is now a generally accepted theory, 
 and has doubtless been much corroborated by existing 
 phenomena and processes still in operation. Still, 
 such specimens as the 'Bowder stone' and the various 
 large 'rocking stones' must remain a marvel on 
 account of their magnitude. But when we reflect 
 upon the immense periods during which the denuding 
 processes now acting have been in operation, we 
 should, I think, allow that a vast number of these 
 mammoth blocks must have fallen during these long 
 stretches of time, an inference corroborated by an 
 examination of the deposit in the valleys. At Wyth- 
 burn the process of making the new road on the west 
 side of the valley has shown a large number of stones, 
 probably so deposited, and containing volcanic ash, 
 dark-gray granitic blocks, masses with undulating 
 cleavage, spar with lead ore, etc., much of this being 
 imbedded in red or ferruginous earth, also washed 
 from above. The mass of gravel of this kind is, in 
 parts, very thick, and the size of the stones varies 
 from that of a pin-head to a boulder of 50 to 
 100 tons. The extent to which the smoothing 
 operation of ice and snow has polished the rocks 
 about Stenock and Dog Ghyll suggests again the 
 extended duration of this age of the earth's history. 
 
 Certainly this valley affords an instructive lesson in 
 the work of denuding forces ; work which, unobtrusive 
 and unregistered in man's history, has moulded, in
 
 Soilmakers. 47 
 
 ages past, the landscape of the present, and to-day is 
 forming the landscape of the future. The effect of 
 these forces in the production of soil, too, is a matter 
 of such vital interest to the human race, and is here 
 so strikingly brought before us, that we are led to 
 consider the forces whose operation justly entitles 
 them to be called soilmakers. 
 
 Next to the powerful and more mechanical effect of 
 the forces above referred to, viz., ice and snow, wind 
 and weather, we give the chief place to plants. 
 
 Yet the work of plants in disintegrating the rock is 
 not only in the absorptive power and molecular forces 
 that reside in the rootlets, pedicles, and the like, but 
 may be seen sometimes exerting a powerful mechanical 
 action in raising and splitting large blocks of stone 
 from the foundation they have occupied for ages. 
 
 Not long ago I was standing in one of those 
 delightful winding rocky lanes, partly formed by 
 Nature and partly hewn by hand, which abound in 
 Cornwall, when a builder, who was picking out the 
 foundation of a workshop, pointed out to me the root 
 of a fir-tree which had penetrated down into the solid 
 slate rock from the high bank above, a distance of 
 something like 20 to 25 feet. The thick root stem 
 emerged from a chink in the freshly-hewn stone, and 
 had the strong aroma of the fir upon it. These 
 roots, piercing to so remarkable a depth, utilize those 
 curious deep fissures which here often contain a 
 deposit of marble, and which probably originated
 
 48 'Beneath Helvellyns Shade.' 
 
 after the formation of the rock, when cooling from 
 the intense heat of some volcanic upheaval. 
 
 Even fungus exerts, at times, strong mechanical 
 action. It has been known to raise up and utterly 
 displace heavy slabs of stone in a footway. The 
 action, too, of small cryptogams, lichens, etc., is not 
 a slight action in the end. If their work is slow, it is 
 complete. The larger blocks of slate in some Cornish 
 hedges are garmented with a continuous, close-fitting 
 white lichen, whose growth defies calculation as to 
 age, for it is continually rising, Phoenix-like, and spread- 
 ing from its own ruins. 
 
 Large blocks of slate clothed with this plant are 
 often as white as if covered with plaster, and I do not 
 doubt that the lichen is sometimes as old as the 
 towering sycamore that waves above it. Near the old 
 town of Padstow, where lichens, together with hart's- 
 tongue and other ferns, abound, the old slate hedges 
 are often beautifully variegated, and their harmonious 
 tints, in the later autumn, somewhat compensate for 
 the absence of colour in the landscape around. Such 
 a hedge-bank is pictured before me as I write; the 
 fresh young tufted hart's-tongue peeping through the 
 chinks of gray slate that compose the ' hedge ' ; lichen 
 and moss covering the stone ; the deep blue water of 
 Padstow Harbour lying below, with the white sands 
 of Rock and St. Enodoc glistening in the sunshine 
 beyond. 
 
 How silently and harmoniously do the disintegrating
 
 Soilmakers. 49 
 
 forces of Nature's tiny agents work ! How mighty is 
 their power ! ' Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi, sed saepe 
 cadendo.' 
 
 Thus we see that a great variety of agents, some 
 mighty and instantaneous in action, such as the 
 earthquake and the hurricane ; others slow and con- 
 tinuous for ages ; some animal, some vegetable, some 
 mechanical, some molecular, have for ages been at 
 work in the production of that apparently shapeless 
 substance which we term 'soil.' Did I say shapeless ? 
 An application of the microscope would for ever dispel 
 that idea, for it would reveal organisms manifold, and 
 minerals whose crystalline forms evidence the Divine 
 hand of Him Who fashioneth all these things, as 
 plainly as when He paints the lily or constructs the 
 eye of the bee. But whether we regard the soil as a 
 shapeless mass, or as ' architecture in disguise,' it is 
 plain from the illustrations which have been adduced 
 that it is a resultant product of forces infinitely varied, 
 both in character, power, and manner of operation. 
 To analyse fully, to catalogue and to expound the 
 method of their operation would require at least a 
 volume. Let us now pass on to the feathered inhabi- 
 tants of the valley. 
 
 To enter at any length into the natural history of 
 Wythburn would be beyond the purpose of these 
 pages, so I shall almost confine myself to birds 
 on the one hand and ' Vaporology,' as Professor 
 
 4
 
 5O ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 Ruskin has termed the study of clouds, upon the 
 other. 
 
 The buzzard, the heron, and the wild duck are the 
 most noticeable of the feathered inhabitants. The 
 first-mentioned bird is frequently to be seen about the 
 crags at the back of Westhead, and soaring over the 
 fields on the western side of the valley. This hawk 
 may readily be discriminated from the other species 
 by the great breadth of its wings, which seem to cover 
 almost all the space between the head and tail ; and 
 also by its circling flight. During the summer these 
 birds depart to the high fells, where they spend the 
 season. They were frequently visible in the spring of 
 1890, but not a single bird was seen by the writer 
 during the summer. No doubt they had departed to 
 more inaccessible places to bring up their young. 
 
 Walking one day between Westhead and Stenock, 
 a wild duck rose up almost from my feet, soared over 
 the wall, and skimmed away into the valley. A 
 numerous progeny of yellow ducklings rushed about, 
 piping with dismay. They divided into two companies, 
 one of which made for a hole in the wall, into which 
 they thrust themselves precipitately, quite regardless 
 of the means of exit. The nest of this bird was 
 probably placed on the mossy ground among the large 
 boulders just below the road. 
 
 The heron, popularly termed a ' crane,' has usually 
 been seen by the writer sailing over from Harrop 
 Tarn down by Dog Ghyll to the low fields at the
 
 Birds of the Valley. 51 
 
 southern end of Thirlmere, or returning the same 
 way. How leisurely and with what an easy swing 
 does this stately bird move his pinions ! Yet, when 
 timed, it is found that they vibrate at least twice in a 
 second. How different from the rapid whirr of the 
 wild duck, whose wings vibrate at double or treble 
 that speed ! The flight of birds has been much 
 studied of late years, and there are few more interesting 
 subjects for the naturalist. Much more amazing, 
 however, is the propelling mechanism of the bee, by 
 which the tiny creature can keep pace with and at 
 times even outstrip a carrier pigeon ! 
 
 The raven is not common now in this district, 
 perhaps never has been, its predatory habits being 
 too well known to allow it to pass unmolested. The 
 sheep farmers tell us that a raven or two can ' manage 
 a lamb.' The name ' Raven Crag,' by St. John's-in- 
 the-Vale, seems to indicate that these birds were more 
 numerous before the days of fire-arms. 
 
 The kestrel I have not seen nearly as often about 
 Wythburn as in the level country. On one occasion, 
 however, I witnessed an aerial tournament between 
 one of these birds and a buzzard. They dashed at 
 each other repeatedly with no serious result. The 
 buzzard made the most determined attempts to clutch 
 his assailant, who easily evaded the contest, and re- 
 turned, loudly shrieking, to harass his enemy. After 
 this had gone on for some time, with loud cries 
 on both sides, the kestrel skimmed away to a little 
 
 42
 
 52 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 distance, and began quietly ' wind-hovering ' for his 
 prey. 
 
 The cuckoo abounds in spring amid the fern-clad 
 knolls and crags of Wythburn fells. One reason for 
 this abundance may be found in the number of small 
 birds whose nests are easily accessible, and whose 
 movements can be watched from the rocks, in the 
 nesting season. Those of the various chats, titlarks, 
 wagtails, and the like, are doubtless found with greater 
 ease in this open ground than in a wooded country, 
 and the troublesome egg accordingly soon disposed 
 of. Often may you see the sly old bird sitting upon a 
 boulder or a jutting mass of rock, doubtless to survey 
 the ground below, and mark the nesting-places of her 
 would-be dupes. 
 
 Of all the smaller birds inhabiting this valley the 
 stone-chat appears in spring the most numerous- 
 Probably it does not greatly exceed in numbers several 
 other species, e.g., the wren and the chaffinch, but its 
 restless habits and its white patched tail-coverts render 
 it more conspicuous. 
 
 Before the ferns and flowers are fully out, it is 
 perhaps the most cheerful object that catches the eye 
 of a strolling naturalist on these bare and rocky 
 hill-sides. Its lively movements and chirpy trilling 
 note render it an adornment to the solitude, and 
 a slight compensation for the absence of those 
 delightful summer visitants, the blackcap and the 
 garden-warbler, which frequent our groves and gardens.
 
 Birds of the Valley. 53 
 
 The summer in this valley seems so short that one 
 wonders that birds of passage make their way here 
 at all. 
 
 Of ' summer warblers ' I may notice, however, that 
 the willow wren is common enough, and may be heard 
 among the larches as high up as Westhead. The 
 garden-warbler and blackcap appear conspicuous by 
 their absence. No wonder, when the size of the 
 gardens attached to the various farms is considered. 
 Surely there is room for more fruit-trees here ! 
 
 The sedge-warbler is to be found along the brook 
 by the ' City.' This bird has a wide range of habitat 
 in England, and appears very common in Lancashire. 
 It is a most amusing creature. One wonders at the 
 exactness of the imitative notes, considering the rapidity 
 of their utterance. 
 
 The tree-pipit and whin-chat are both found here, 
 the latter being common. 
 
 Of hirundines the swift is but rarely seen. The 
 house-martins, much less numerous than the swallows 
 in many parts of England, are more numerous at Wyth- 
 burn, almost every farm and cottage being tenanted 
 by this home favourite. Sand-martins are somewhat 
 rare, doubtless for want of sandy banks and soft cliffs 
 wherein to burrow. 
 
 The thrush appears to be a commoner bird than 
 the blackbird in this valley ; at any rate it was so 
 during the very wet summer of 1890. A few years 
 ago the latter bird seemed in many parts largely
 
 54 ' Beneath Helvellyns Shade.' 
 
 in excess of the thrush, but, happily, the balance 
 seems now restored. 
 
 With this note I will conclude my brief sketch of 
 the ornithological features of the valley of Wythburn, 
 which may, from the position in which it has been 
 written, be termed a ' bird's-eye view ' of my feathered 
 friends.
 
 CHAPTER VI.
 
 PARSONS OF THE DALE AND MOUNTAIN WALKER OF 
 SEATHWAITE DOGS AND SHEEP PET SHEEP.
 
 
 VI. 
 
 MUCH has been written concerning Cumbrian 
 dalesmen now, we are told, rapidly becom- 
 ing extinct. But the characteristics of this hardy race, 
 continually fortified by contest with a boisterous 
 climate and social isolation, will be hard to obliterate. 
 Certainly they have not gone from the district of Wyth- 
 burn. The new order, indeed, has greatly encroached 
 upon the old in the matter of homely occupations, 
 such as spinning, candle- making, and the like, but 
 this new condition of things is regarded habitually 
 from the old standpoints. We are ' Cummerland 
 fwoak,' and you are strangers, is an abiding truth, ever 
 potent within the real dalesman's breast. 'We are 
 the people of the place, and you are the midges 
 which flit about us the summer through, for your own 
 pleasure,' is his normal and constant feeling towards 
 the world-stream that fine weather brings to his doors. 
 If, however, we cannot admit that the sons of the 
 soil are disappearing very rapidly, so far as social 
 customs go, it is doubtless true that the aboriginal
 
 58 ' Beneath Helvellyns Shade.' 
 
 'parson of the dale' has now become a veritable 
 ' antique.' The wonderful Walker type of parson may 
 be considered about as extinct as the Dodo. 
 
 An antiquary may find, however, some attractive 
 and amusing lore relating to the last vestiges of the 
 race of 'dale parsons.' They were, like most other 
 human beings, greatly the ' creatures of circumstance.' 
 Anyone who has spent, like the writer of these pages, 
 a severe winter in the vale of Wythburn, will under- 
 stand that, though you may open your church, light a 
 good fire, and ring a bell, you cannot compel the 
 inhabitants to come to a service. Stories not wanting 
 in authenticity are rife, which tell how, when the all- 
 important business of publishing ' banns ' has been 
 committed to the vicar, it has been necessary to 
 proceed to the village inn to beg some of the house- 
 hold to attend for this special purpose, long after 
 service-time had passed ; and how, on another occa- 
 sion, parson and clerk had to proceed, in an adjoining 
 valley, to a farm at a distance for some witnesses to 
 the legal declaration. One service on Sunday and 
 none in the week (nor any other meetings), and con- 
 gregations so reduced by bad weather as to be almost 
 ' nil,' cannot be thought a condition favourable to 
 developing clerical enthusiasm. 
 
 It is, perhaps, astonishing that men thus situated 
 should in so many cases have contrived entirely to 
 abstain from any practical devotion to art, science, or 
 literature ; yet it will, I believe, be found that among
 
 Parsons of the Dale. 59 
 
 those so isolated only a small minority have dis- 
 tinguished themselves in such pursuits. 
 
 ' . . . Unless above himself 
 He can erect himself, how poor a thing is man !' 
 
 is a truth that applies to a man's surroundings as well 
 as to his individuality. 
 
 Who can estimate the stimulating power of 
 sympathy ? Most of us have felt at times how much 
 the force of genial companionship and the friendly 
 rivalry of school days has had to do with our educa- 
 tion ; they have been powerful factors in our develop- 
 ment, largely determining the after career, and 
 affording a stimulus more constant and more subtle 
 in operation than magisterial exhortation or the 
 golden glitter of a prize. In all these things, as 
 says the poet, most truly the boy is ' father of the 
 man.' 
 
 Much allowance is due to the eccentricities or 
 moral peccadilloes of a 'dale parson' or mountain 
 'priest.'* To a student of Nature the scenery of 
 mountain and moorland is a powerful incentive to 
 thought and research, and the classic adage, 'Nunquam 
 minus solus quam quum solus,' represents an enjoy- 
 able fact. But to those not gifted with a strong 
 desire to utilize leisure and to realize the charms of 
 that freedom which the old poet tells us is ' a noble 
 
 * This is the word usually applied to the church clergyman 
 by the people in many Cumberland parishes.
 
 60 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 thing,' there is much of the oppressive and monotonous 
 in remote situations. Too many among us need still 
 to apply the Wordsworthian precept, ' Let Nature be 
 your teacher.' 'Let no man,' said the philosopher 
 to those who desired admission to the sanctum of 
 his science, ' let no man who is not a geometer enter 
 here,' and it might perhaps be for the happiness of 
 some country parsons if the patron of the living in- 
 scribed upon the rectory gate, 'Let no parson who is 
 not a naturalist enter here.' 
 
 The lowering effect of isolation and depressing 
 weather, with a leaden pall of nimbus and a down- 
 pour almost unbroken for weeks together, causes 
 some men to feel life hardly ' worth living.' Oh ! the 
 blessed result of a real living hobby ; one which not 
 only engrosses a man's faculties, but brings him into 
 vital contact with the throbbing heart of humanity ! 
 Thanks, ten thousand times to the penny and the 
 parcel post which thus became the means of saving 
 many denizens of the wilderness from the miseries of 
 a morbid self-consciousness or a fixed idea.* 
 
 Good postal arrangements bring the life of the 
 world, for the reader and thinker, to the most remote 
 parishes, and perhaps the most valuable result to be 
 obtained by this modern machinery is that it places 
 
 * During the month of August, 1891, the rain-fall in Borrow- 
 dale was seven times that of some parts of England, and averaged 
 nearly one inch a day. On one day it appears that as much rain 
 fell as during the whole month at Boston in Lincolnshire.
 
 Parsons of the Dale. 61 
 
 the investigator of Nature or the litterateur en rapport 
 with those that are of kindred tastes. 
 
 A number of Cumbrian clergy once discussed 
 together what pursuit would be adopted by each as 
 an intellectual refuge in case an isolated mountain 
 parish were assigned to him. One spoke in favour 
 of Geology, another of Art, another Natural History, 
 and so on. At last a quiet individual was asked 
 what hobby he would adopt. He promptly and 
 decidedly replied, ' I should drink !' Sad, but 
 perhaps not true alone of the candid one who made 
 the remark. And the anecdote suggests a serious 
 reflection for all who contemplate embracing a life 
 of solitude, whether they have a sufficiency of spiritual 
 and mental armour to fit them for the encounter with 
 the enemy in the wilderness. 
 
 The custom of collecting ' Chapel Wage ' a toll 
 generally amounting to a few shillings, from the fell 
 farms, which exists also in the Furness district is 
 in some places, I imagine, in lieu of hospitality to 
 the mission priest, who in former days took up his 
 quarters in rotation at the various houses. It would 
 appear that the clergy a few centuries ago did not 
 suffer from an abnormally active brain, as the custom 
 was to leave the sermons in church from Sunday to 
 Sunday and draw them forth to be read as occasion 
 required. So we can well believe that the priests of 
 those days, some of whom could not indite a decent 
 letter in English, were but little in need of intellectual
 
 62 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade' 
 
 hobbies to divert their vacant hours. But the old 
 order has quite given place to the new. If the priest 
 of those days had to spend much of his time at the 
 fell-side farms, it would not be surprising that he 
 should assimilate largely to the style of the farmers 
 themselves, from whom he was often only one degree, 
 if at all, removed in birth and early association, and 
 not seldom came from their own class. Great was 
 the difficulty of obtaining well educated men to 
 settle in these lonely parishes. Can we blame the 
 bishops for stretching a point and ordaining men 
 who at any rate might sympathize with the farmer's 
 trials if they could not greatly elevate his mental 
 tone ? The ' modus vivendi ' was first to be found. 
 
 As bearing on the matter of a ' clergy supply ' the 
 reader will find a letter addressed by Wonderful 
 Walker to the archbishop respecting the ordination 
 of his son, in the Notes to Moxon's Edition of 
 Wordsworth's Poems (1845). The account of Won- 
 derful Walker is, indeed, wonderful enough ; and in 
 spite of his long continued toils, clerical, scholastic, 
 and farming, he reached the age of ninety-three. 
 
 ' In memory of the Reverend Robert Walker, who died the 
 25th of June, 1802, in the 93rd year of his age and 67th of his 
 curacy at Seathwaite. 
 
 1 Also of Anne, his wife, who died the 28th of January, in the 
 93rd year of her age.' 
 
 Such is the inscription in Seathwaite churchyard 
 upon Walker's tomb. It testifies to the fact that he
 
 Walker of Seathwaite. 63 
 
 at any rate needed not the reproof contained in the 
 poet's lines : 
 
 1 Withdraw yourself from ways 
 That run not parallel with Nature's course," 
 
 for his habits must have been singularly in accord 
 with the soundest principles of hygiene. His industry 
 was certainly admirable. ' Eight hours in each day 
 during five days in the week, and half of Saturday, 
 except when the labours of husbandry were urgent, 
 he was occupied in teaching.' 
 
 But what would the High Churchman of to-day 
 think of his manner of prosecuting his labours? 
 ' His seat was within the rails of the altar ; the com- 
 munion table was his desk, and like Shenstone's 
 schoolmistress, the master employed himself at the 
 spinning-wheel while the children were repeating 
 their lessons by his side.' 
 
 Now comes the explanation of the mystery of 
 Walker's leaving behind him a sum in thousands 
 after holding a benefice of 3$ per annum. 'Nor 
 was his industry with the pen, when occasion called 
 for it, less eager. Entrusted with extensive manage- 
 ment of public and private affairs, he acted in his 
 rustic neighbourhood as scrivener, writing out petitions, 
 deeds of conveyance, wills, covenants, etc., with 
 pecuniary gain to himself and to the great benefit 
 of his employers. These labours (at all times con- 
 siderable) at one period of the year, viz., between
 
 64 'Beneath Helvellyris Shade' 
 
 Christmas and Candlemas, when money transactions 
 are settled in this country, were often so intense that 
 he passed great part of the night, and sometimes 
 whole nights, at his desk. His garden also was 
 tilled by his own hand ; he had a right of pasturage 
 upon the mountains for a few sheep and a couple 
 of cows which required his attendance ; with this 
 pastoral occupation he joined the labours of hus- 
 bandry on a small scale, renting two or three acres 
 in addition to his own less than one acre of glebe, 
 and the humblest drudgery which the cultivation of 
 these fields required was performed by himself.' 
 
 But the frugality practised in Walker's household 
 was perhaps more remarkable than the industry which 
 he showed. ' The fuel of the house, like that of 
 their neighbours, consisted of peat procured from the 
 mosses by their own labour. The lights by which 
 in the winter evenings their work was performed 
 were of their own manufacture.* They are made of 
 rushes dipped in any unctuous substance which the 
 house affords. ' White ' candles, as tallow candles 
 are here called, were reserved to honour the Christmas 
 festivals, and were perhaps produced upon no other 
 occasions. Once a month, during the proper season, 
 a sheep was drawn from their small mountain flock 
 and killed for the use of the family, and a cow, 
 
 * The only approach to modern luxury that Wordsworth could 
 note at Seathwaite was the neat woollen covering of his ' family 
 pew,' spun by Walker's own hands.
 
 The Modern Curate. 65 
 
 towards the close of the year, was salted and dried 
 for winter provision ; the hide was tanned to furnish 
 their shoes.' 
 
 The picture is truly idyllic, and amid these multi- 
 farious labours the noblest feature is that this mountain 
 priest never lost his spirituality nor forfeited the 
 dignity of his position. He was not only 'facile 
 princeps' but with no second. Yet the thoughtful 
 reader who knows this north country will recognise 
 that Walker possessed enormous advantages over 
 many of his modern brethren. He was supported 
 by sympathy, for he lived among his own people ; he 
 enjoyed the mental stimulus of living in a glorious 
 country ; he was eminently adapted through his love 
 of Nature to the position assigned to him by Pro- 
 vidence : he was, in fact, a born and accomplished 
 naturalist, and last, but not least, the freedom with 
 which he pursued his toils, and the interest which he 
 took in them, were enhanced by the knowledge that 
 his returns would be proportionate to his skill and 
 industry. He led a free life and practically suffered 
 from no ' clerical disabilities.' 
 
 How different the life of many a curate to-day ! 
 Existing upon a pittance stipend, with no long-service 
 pension in prospect, and all chances of preferment 
 against him ; knowing that thousands more men are 
 ordained than those for whom a ' living ' can be pro- 
 vided ; preaching often to men of wealth, who care not 
 to ask if he can meet his expenses, and who will not 
 
 5
 
 66 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 even give a guinea to the only society existing to 
 augment his income ; with all the yearning aspirations 
 of spiritual life, and a burning desire for intellectual 
 expansion, yet unable to purchase even books to con- 
 tinue his studies ; for such men to continue toiling in 
 towns through the best years of their life for the 
 eternal interests of a cynical society, is in the writer's 
 judgment a sight even more wonderful than the per- 
 sonality of a Wonderful Walker ! 
 
 Only once in about a year's residence among the 
 sheep-farms did a collie run at the writer with signs of 
 ferocity. He was startled by suddenly catching sight 
 of a stranger turning a corner. These dogs behave, as 
 a rule, uncommonly well to strangers. There was a 
 strong and nobly-formed creature that used to lie on 
 the low wall in front of my room with steadfast gaze 
 fixed upon the valley below, and ears intently listening 
 to every sound that came up the hill-side. He had 
 lost one eye by the onslaught of a cat. These country 
 cats, I may note, are often more than a match for a 
 dog. How I wished for an artist to paint that scene ! 
 Beyond, the mighty mountain, with soft, fleecy clouds 
 hanging half-way up its steep green sides ; above these 
 the upper reaches of receding moorland, the tiny little 
 white church slumbering at its base, the cluster of 
 dwellings beside it, the deep stillness just broken by 
 the chime of the waters and the merry laughter of the 
 children just loosed from school, and the noble collie
 
 Dogs and Sheep. 67 
 
 with limbs extended upon the low wall peacefully 
 watching the scene below. But let the master's call 
 or whistle be heard, and in a moment he is down and 
 across the fields, scouring the stray sheep away to 
 their proper feeding-ground. A truly typical Cumbrian 
 picture. 
 
 Out of five of the farm dogs, two occasionally 
 attended my walks. One of these possessed some 
 clerical sympathies, and not only continued with me in 
 a long visiting round, but once, when I had taken a 
 mission service among the navvies then working in 
 the valley, came and stood quietly by my side upon 
 the platform, facing the audience as I addressed them. 
 It was dangerous to attempt a removal. 
 
 Not a little has been written on the independent 
 powers of some dogs in taking sheep from station to 
 station. The story, however, of the collie that would 
 take a flock without a shepherd from Ambleside to 
 Keswick, stopping the would-be wanderers at every 
 lane and ' lonnin,' usually excited a significant smile 
 upon the faces of Wythburn farmers. This tale was 
 just a little too strong for them. 
 
 In good faith, however, we were told of sheep being 
 so taken home by a dog, from Cockermouth Market 
 to their owner's place a mile or two away. 
 
 The instances of sheep returning from long distances 
 to their early home pastures, traversing a town on the 
 way and often doing the journey by night, are very 
 curious and well authenticated. The shepherds 
 
 52
 
 68 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 meetings upon the uplands of Skiddaw and Helvellyn 
 to restore and receive again their long lost ' woollies,' 
 the jovial good feeling that presides on these occasions, 
 the invigorating climb up the hill-sides, the tales that 
 beguile the way, the lively clamour of the gathering, 
 and the enthusiasm and splendid work of the dogs, all 
 combine to form a striking scene, and one that abides 
 long in the memory of those that witness it. For a 
 lively and full description of this episode of Cumbrian 
 life I must refer the reader to the animated description 
 of the Rev. H. D. Rawnsley, of Keswick.* 
 
 When the hounds are in full cry along the mountain- 
 side, the echoes of their music from rock to rock round 
 this close-pent valley strike somewhat strangely upon 
 the ear, and as you watch from the fell-side opposite, 
 the sound rises and falls and comes wafted close to 
 you, but you rarely catch sight of the dogs. Mar- 
 vellous, indeed, does it seem that a hare can be 
 tracked at all over such ground and at such a pace ; 
 but this is quite a favourite hunting-ground for the 
 Windermere harriers. A notable pack is that long 
 kept by Colonel Ridehalgh, of Fell Foot, and many a 
 day of keen sport have they given to the gentry of the 
 district. Up and down the mountain-side twice or 
 even three times in a day, after a journey by boat and 
 carriage from the far end of Windermere, with perhaps 
 a five or six mile walk thrown in, seems a pretty good 
 day's work 
 
 * See Cornhill Magazine, 1890.
 
 Pet Sheep. 69 
 
 The singular force of the faculty of scent possessed 
 by these hounds was amusingly illustrated in the case 
 of a young member of the pack which lodged at the 
 farm where I had my own quarters. This dog, a 
 young hound of great promise and very amusing ways, 
 would come for a treat to enjoy the fireside on the 
 hearthrug in my parlour. When I dropped a choice 
 morsel he would invariably follow the zigzag path it 
 had taken, passing his nose backwards and forwards, 
 and come within an inch of the prey, but never 
 attempting to snap it, though it was plain to be seen, 
 and only two inches off. It must be caught by the 
 track, and nothing but the track. 
 
 A pet lamb is a poetical subject, but I imagine 
 that even Wordsworth would scarcely have indited a 
 poem on a pet sheep. At Steel End Farm, however, 
 where I stayed for a short time, there were two of 
 these useful creatures which had become quite a part 
 of the household. Judging by their condition they 
 must have thought life very well worth living. This 
 old farmhouse, so strikingly situated at the base of 
 Steel Fell, presented a kitchen interior of a wonder- 
 fully quaint and primitive character. Just a peep up 
 the steep side of the fell, with the soft light, streaming 
 through the little window in a way that would have 
 delighted Rembrandt, illumining a varied collection 
 of dogs, cats, sheep, and fowls, and the blithe and 
 bonny daughters of the family, radiant with good- 
 humour, passing cheerily to and fro, formed a sight
 
 70 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 to gladden the heart and amuse the fancy of any 
 chance wanderer over those picturesque solitudes. It 
 seems strange that so few painters seem to have 
 studied these Cumbrian interiors. 
 
 Each of the principal farmers keeps a dictionary of 
 sheep marks, a most useful compilation, by which 
 they are enabled to ascertain the owner of any stray 
 animals that appear in their flock. This dictionary, 
 which dates, I believe, from Keswick, works by the 
 system of double marking, viz. by the brand and 
 cutting of the ear. These two marks, with their 
 varieties and combinations, afford a large number of 
 signs. The dictionary, with its illustrations, fills so 
 useful a function that one wonders how matters were 
 adjusted before its introduction. Uncomfortable 
 suspicions as to sheep-stealing must have been more 
 common in the ' pre-dictionary ' days than now. 
 
 The ' Herdwicks,' as these fell sheep are termed, 
 are a lively race. How comfortably they ensconce 
 themselves among the crags of Wythburn and Borrow- 
 dale, cropping the fresh herbage below the jutting 
 crags, and how blithely they skip over the freshly built 
 stone fence, as they contemptuously chuck the rattling 
 stones behind them from off its moss-capped summit ! 
 
 Many attempts have been made to account for the 
 presence of these Spanish-looking sheep upon the 
 Cumbrian hills, and one of these assigns their origin 
 to their ancestors swimming ashore from the wreck of 
 a ship in the 'Invincible' Armada a very improbable
 
 Herdwicks. 71 
 
 suggestion. But whatever stock they spring from, 
 there is no question as to the quality of their mutton ; 
 well-flavoured, nutritious, and without extra fat, which 
 is doubtless removed by lively exercise upon the fells. 
 Their wool, too, seems very strong and durable. A 
 farmer who wore the produce of his own flock told 
 me that after expenses of spinning, making and trim- 
 ming were paid (thirty shillings), a suit of good 
 country-spun cloth would last him five or six years. 
 Five shillings a year for cloth. Ponder this, ye beaux 
 of Piccadilly !
 
 CHAPTER VII.
 
 WYTHBURN AND WORDSWORTH THE WAGGONER 
 ROCK OF NAMES.
 
 VII. 
 
 PASSING over Dunmail Raise, and taking the 
 ancient road on the left, where the incline 
 begins to be steep, you descend, with a long stone fence 
 on your right, to Steel End Farm. This was evidently 
 the most manageable track for making the original 
 road to Westhead and the City, and the primitive 
 settlements on the west side of the valley. After 
 passing Steel End the road dips to a rushing brook, 
 with moss-grown boulders of various sizes scattered 
 along its bed. Looking south-west, you see the recess 
 or ' intake ' (pronounce ' intik ') that bends inward 
 towards the Langdale Pikes. It is a striking, secluded, 
 and lovely scene. Here is the origin of the Greta, of 
 which this brook is the parent. 
 
 Speaking of this stream, in a note upon the sonnet 
 'To the River Greta, near Keswick,' Wordsworth 
 writes as follows : 
 
 ' The Cumberland Greta, though it does not among 
 the country people take up that name till within three 
 miles of its disappearance in the river Derwent, may
 
 76 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 be considered as having its source in the mountain 
 cove of Wythburn, and flowing through Thirlmere, 
 the beautiful features of which lake are known only 
 to those who, travelling between Grasmere and 
 Keswick, have quitted the main road in the vale of 
 Wythburn, and crossing over to the opposite side 
 of the lake, have proceeded with it on the right 
 hand.' 
 
 Wordsworth also mentions the remarkable noises 
 caused by the concussion of stones in the river-bed 
 during floods ; and Southey quotes, as characteristic 
 of it, the following lines : 
 
 ' . . . Ambiguo lapsu refluitque fluitque 
 Occurrensque sibi, Venturas aspicit undas. ' 
 
 Wordsworth's sonnet may be given here : 
 
 1 Greta, what fearful listening ! when huge stones 
 Rumble along thy bed, block after block, 
 Or, whirling with reiterated shock, 
 Combat, while darkness aggravates the groans : 
 But if thou (like Cocytus from the moans 
 Heard on his rueful margin) thence wert named 
 The Mourner, thy true nature was defamed, 
 And the habitual murmur that atones 
 For thy worst rage, forgotten. Oft as Spring 
 Decks on thy sinuous banks her thousand thrones, 
 Seats of glad instinct and love's carolling, 
 The concert for the happy then may vie 
 With liveliest peals of birthday harmony : 
 To a grieved heart thy notes are benisons.' 
 
 Into this mountain brook, behind the Nag's Head, 
 and near the wooden footbridge on the way from
 
 The Waggoner. 77 
 
 Westhead to Wythburn Church, falls Helvellyn 
 Ghyll. Along its banks the angler may enjoy some 
 of the most remarkable and impressive scenes that 
 Cumbrian mountains can afford. Trout are not 
 large nor plentiful ; still they are to be had (by per- 
 mission of the Manchester Corporation). Wordsworth 
 is quite correct in directing the tourist to the west 
 side of the valley for lovely views, though it must be 
 allowed that the scene from the Cherry Tree towards 
 Dog Ghyll is, in flood-time, singularly attractive. 
 
 Over the Greta Brook and the Dog Ghyll the 
 Corporation of Manchester are taking their new road 
 by strong bridges, now probably completed. 
 
 The ' Waggoner ' is the poem which, c par ex- 
 cellence,' connects the author of the ' Excursion ' 
 with Wythburn. 
 
 Never, perhaps, was a poem of humorous incident 
 so completely and exactly descriptive of a journey 
 among the hills as this a notable instance of the 
 power of poetic genius to cast a halo of glory around 
 the most ordinary occurrences of life. A country 
 carrier proceeding to a distant town along a mountain 
 road is overtaken by a thunderstorm, during which 
 he falls in with a wandering sailor, upon whose wife 
 and child he takes pity and shelters them in his cart. 
 They jog along, companions in misfortune, through 
 the hurly-burly of the elements. Descending into 
 the valley they approach the village inn, from which 
 proceeds the sound of music and the revelry of the
 
 78 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 dance. The temptation is irresistible ; they enter and 
 join in the revelries. ' It is the village merry night,' 
 and the sailor by-and-by seizes his opportunity and 
 produces a model of a man-of-war, which had been 
 brought there by an ass, and with which he astonishes 
 Benjamin the carrier and the simple natives of the 
 vale. So the fun is kept up and the waggon with 
 its contents left to take care of itself. 
 
 At last they set forth again, the sailor's ass carry- 
 ing the ship, and the waggoner's mastiff tethered to 
 the back of the wain. Morning approaches as they 
 enter Keswick, and on meeting the master, who has 
 set forth in search of his man, angry words ensue and 
 a catastrophe occurs, not only to Benjamin the 
 waggoner, but to the inhabitants of the vale ; for, as 
 the poet concludes : 
 
 Two losses had we to sustain, 
 We lost both waggoner and wain.' 
 
 In this poem the interest of which is largely 
 local one characteristic of Wordsworth is strikingly 
 illustrated, viz., the faithfulness with which every 
 topographical feature is seized upon and delineated. 
 An illustrated edition of it would form an admirable 
 companion to the tourist in his walk from Rydal to 
 Keswick. 
 
 ' Who does not know the famous Swan ?' 
 From this inn the view towards Langdale as you 
 sit on the Keswick coach-top is, in certain states of 
 the atmosphere, simply entrancing. The variation
 
 The Waggoner. 79 
 
 of light and shadow and the wonderful fluctuation 
 and expression of the hill outlines here and about 
 half way to Dunmail Raise are almost unrivalled. 
 
 The Helm Crag, the Astrologer, the Ancient 
 Woman, ' the Hollow long and bare ' by the road- 
 side, the Cairn of King Dunmail, all are accurately 
 noted in their order, and when the waggoner reaches 
 the top he hears a female voice imploring help. 
 Then: 
 
 ' There came a flash, a startling glare , 
 And all Seat Sandal is laid bare. ' 
 
 Seat Sandal is, indeed, bare enough at most times, 
 and these two lines give a curious instance of word- 
 painting. 
 
 Directly after, he hears the woman's husband 
 calling to him. He had pitched his tent there and 
 must collect his baggage. Soon they pass 'Wyth- 
 burn's modest house of prayer.' 
 
 If this old church, says the poet, 
 
 ' Had, with its belfry's humble stock, 
 A little pair that hang in air, 
 
 Been mistress also of a clock 
 
 ****** 
 
 Twelve strokes that clock would have been telling 
 Under the brow of old Helvellyn.' 
 
 Then comes the Cherry Tree (now an inn no 
 longer), and afterwards they pass the spot where was 
 the ' Rock of Names,' which the reader will find 
 referred to below.
 
 8o ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 The dance at the Cherry Tree is a vigorous piece 
 of description. 
 
 ' Blithe souls and lightsome hearts have we 
 Feasting at the Cherry Tree. 
 This was the outside proclamation, 
 This was the inside salutation. 
 What bustling, jostling high and low, 
 A universal overflow. 
 What tankards foaming from the tap ! 
 What store of cakes in every lap ! 
 The Thunder had not been more busy. 
 With such a stir you would have said 
 This little place may well be dizzy. 
 'Tis who can dance with greatest vigour ? 
 'Tis what can be most prompt and eager ? 
 As if it heard the fiddler's call, 
 The pewter clatters on the wall ; 
 The very bacon shows its feeling, 
 Swinging from the smoky ceiling.' 
 
 Passing to the poem entitled ' Fidelity,' in which 
 we have the wonderful endurance of poor Gough's 
 dog so touchingly described, we get beyond the 
 confines of the Wythburn parish, if, indeed, the sum- 
 mit of Helvellyn can be considered at all parochial ; 
 but some traditional explanations of that marvellously 
 sustained life are still to be had from the ' oldest 
 inhabitants ' of the valley. All lovers of animals will 
 rejoice that a permanent record is now placed in 
 memory of the devotion of the faithful creature which 
 originated the beautiful words of the poet concerning 
 Him 
 
 ' Who gave that strength of feeling great 
 Beyond all human estimate.'
 
 The Rock of Names. 81 
 
 Not long ago an anecdote concerning a dog came 
 under the writer's notice, which illustrates fidelity in a 
 striking way. The owner of this creature wished to 
 destroy it, and, taking the animal to the edge of some 
 deep water, made various ineffectual attempts to do so. 
 At last he slipped, and, falling into the stream, nearly 
 lost his life, recovering consciousness upon the bank to 
 find that the animal he had attempted to destroy had 
 saved his own life. 
 
 Two poets have sung the praises of poor Cough's 
 companion, and the verses of Scott, perhaps, will 
 long remain better known than ' Fidelity.' 
 
 We now pass on to the 'Rock of Names.' After 
 leaving the Cherry Tree, our friend the waggoner 
 and his sailor companion passed the pretty cottage (now 
 Wythburn Post Office) and the spot where recently 
 have stood the navvies' huts. Their course is close 
 by the edge of Thirlmere, and this circumstance calls 
 to the poet's mind the pleasant recollection of the 
 time when he, with near and dear companions carved 
 their initials upon the face of the rock at the roadside. 
 In the note * to the poem of the 'Waggoner,' we find 
 that a passage relating to the ' Rock of Names,' which 
 came after the line, ' Can any mortal clog come to 
 her?' had been suppressed by Wordsworth. This 
 rock, containing his own initials and those of his 
 friends, was close by the spot where Benjamin is guided 
 
 * Moxon's edition, 1845.
 
 82 'Beneath Hekellyrfs Shade' 
 
 by the star-glimmer upon the fountain to find the 
 watering-place. Thus : 
 
 ' A star declining towards the west 
 Upon the watery surface threw 
 Its image, tremulously imprest, 
 That just marked out the object and withdrew. 
 Right welcome service ! 
 
 ***** 
 
 Rock of Names, 
 
 Light is the strain but not unjust 
 To thee and thy memorial trust, 
 That once seemed only to express 
 Love that was love in idleness. 
 Tokens, as year hath followed year, 
 How changed, alas, in character.! 
 For they were graven on thy smooth breast 
 By hands of those my soul loved best, 
 Meek women, men as true and brave 
 As ever went to a hopeful grave. 
 Their hands and mine, when side by side, 
 With kindred zeal and mutual pride 
 We worked until the Initials took 
 Shapes that defied a scornful look. 
 Long as for us a genial feeling 
 Survives, or one in need of healing, 
 The power, dear Rock, around thee cast. 
 Thy monumental power shall last 
 For me and mine ! Oh thought of pain 
 That would impair it or profane ! 
 Take all in kindness then, as said 
 With a staid heart but playful head ; 
 And fail not thou, loved Rock, to keep 
 Thy charge when we are laid asleep.' 
 
 Why did the poet suppress these lines ? Doubtless 
 on account of the length of the digression they would
 
 The Rock of Names. 83 
 
 have formed in a narrative so short and simple, a 
 digression, too, of a purely personal and subjective 
 kind. 
 
 But how full of interest have they now become to 
 us through the lapse of time, and how immensely 
 greater is that interest, as relating to the poet himself 
 than anything that he tells us concerning Benjamin 
 the Waggoner ! 
 
 During the writer's residence at Wythburn, it fell 
 to his lot to make various inquiries for the welfare of 
 the pieces of this Rock of Names, when removed by 
 the road-makers of the Manchester Corporation. How 
 astonished would Wordsworth have been, if told that 
 this rock would be taken to pieces by navvies, whose 
 work would turn Thirlmere into a reservoir ! 
 
 May these letters though it seems much to hope 
 long be preserved to fulfil the wish of the poet ; con- 
 veying, too, to future generations a pleasing memento 
 of the fact that lasting friendship and the kindliest 
 of human sentiments can lodge within a philosopher's 
 breast. 
 
 62
 
 CHAPTER VIII.
 
 CLOUDLAND LETTER FROM RUSKIN SUNSET SCENE 
 FROM WORDSWORTH CLOUD OUTLINES.
 
 VIII. 
 
 EVERY student of modern poetry must be 
 familiar with that marvel of imagination, ' The 
 Cloud,' of Shelley. In the poet's vision the subject of this 
 chapter assumes an individuality which, to some, may 
 appear only imaginative, yet it represents a truth of 
 science. 
 
 A cloud is an organism which performs a most 
 important function. Since Luke Howard published 
 early in the present century his tractate containing 
 the classification which has held the field among 
 meteorologists ever since, it is surprising that so little 
 advance should have been made in this study, 
 especially in this matter of classification. The truth 
 seems to be that Howard's types are so obviously 
 natural, and his remarks, generally, so accurately based 
 on real observation, that it is rather extension that is 
 needed than correction of the work of this original 
 observer. 
 
 The composition of clouds does not appear to have 
 received the attention which it demands. Not long
 
 88 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 ago a London paper published a question relating to 
 clouds, followed by an answer to it, which began with 
 the following words : ' Clouds are nothing but fogs 
 and mists.' This is obviously absurd, and illustrates 
 forcibly the ignorance that prevails upon the subject. 
 Not only should the various forms of water, i.e., ice, 
 sleet, crystals, etc., be taken into the account, but also 
 the forms of the crystals and particles themselves. 
 The study of clouds is a wide one. Its importance 
 has been fully recognised by Prof. Ruskin, one of the 
 greatest observers of this or any age. In acknow- 
 ledging a magazine article published by the present 
 writer a few years ago, Ruskin replied as follows : 
 
 ' I am extremely glad to see the interest which you 
 express in clouds. There is no study now open to 
 you in all the expanse of science where so much can 
 be done by dexterous attention and patience without 
 the aid of costly instruments and in the lovely and 
 healthy laboratory of the air. As you rightly feel, 
 also, the study is a peculiarly clerical one, whether in 
 the beauty of its subject or practical use to a country 
 congregation sermons in general have too much of 
 the stars in them, and too little of the weather.' 
 
 The interest attaching to this study is fourfold. 
 Clouds appeal to the artist, the poet, the man of 
 science, and the divine. Two at least of these fields 
 are recognised by the author of ' Modern Painters ' in 
 the letter above quoted, as well as in his published 
 works; and the pages of Holy Scripture might be
 
 Sunset Splendours. 89 
 
 largely quoted especially the Book of Job and the 
 Psalms in corroboration of their importance as 
 spiritual teachers. It is not a part of our purpose in 
 the present work to dwell on this spiritual aspect of 
 cloudland, as we are now dealing with the phenomena 
 of the physical world; but one striking expression 
 may be cited as showing how clouds affected the 
 imagination of the Hebrew poet of old time. 
 
 It is said of the Almighty that ' He maketh the 
 clouds His chariot ' (Ps. civ. 3). How striking and 
 how full of consolation is this statement when applied 
 to the antitypes of the clouds, viz., the clouds of 
 sorrow, perplexity/ and care among men ! In these 
 things Divine providence is as manifest to the eye of 
 faith as is the reign of Divine law in the physical 
 heavens. 
 
 The fact that Wordsworth delighted in observing 
 the sky must be evident to all students of his poems. 
 Not only does he paint the cloud appearances by 
 strokes of graphic word-painting in many scenes where 
 other writers would have been content to omit them, 
 but he dwells upon their features in a manner that 
 shows they were to him an essential feature of the 
 landscape. In one passage of the 'Excursion,'* 
 which may justly be termed sublime, he gives a 
 massive and splendid picture of a ' sky revelation/ 
 as it might be termed, which abides in the memory 
 of those that read it. 
 
 * Book II., conclusion.
 
 go 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 After searching for and finding in the morning mist 
 an old man who had been lost on the mountains, the 
 return journey is begun, and then one of the rescue 
 party describes the sky picture : 
 
 ' A step, 
 
 A simple step that freed me from the skirts 
 Of the blind vapour, opened to my view 
 Glory beyond all glory ever seen 
 By waking sense or by the dreaming soul. 
 The appearance instantaneously disclosed 
 Was of a mighty city ; boldly say 
 A wilderness of building, sinking far 
 And self-withdrawn into a boundless depth 
 Far sinking into splendour without end. 
 Fabric it seemed of diamond and of gold, 
 With alabaster domes and silver spires, 
 And blazing terrace upon terrace, high 
 Uplifted ; here serene pavilions bright 
 In avenues disposed ; there towers begirt 
 With battlements that on their restless fronts 
 Bore stars illumination of all gems. 
 
 * * * # * 
 
 Oh, 'twas an unimaginable sight ! 
 Clouds, mists, streams, watery rocks and emerald turf, 
 Clouds of all tincture, rocks and sapphire sky, 
 Confused, commingled, mutually inflamed ; 
 Molten together, and composing thus 
 Each lost in each that marvellous array 
 Of temple, palace, citadel and huge 
 Fantastic pomp of structure without name 
 In fleecy folds voluminous enwrapped.' 
 
 Such is the manner in which the scenery of cloud- 
 land appeals to the imagination of the poet, and such
 
 Messenger Cloud. 91 
 
 descriptions are instructive, as illustrating the truth 
 that the sense of beauty is not only a faculty that 
 varies largely in individual natures, but one that is 
 intensified and sublimated by the vitalizing power of 
 circumstances when they kindle a fostering emotion 
 within the soul. It is, as in the incident to which 
 the verses refer, when the feelings are aroused, that 
 Nature presents herself to us in her most trans- 
 cendental and glorified aspects. It is not merely the 
 material sense that is at work. 'Don't you wish you 
 could, madam ?' was the just retort of the painter to 
 the lady who objected that she could see no such 
 colours in Nature as he depicted upon his canvas. 
 Tentative, indeed, though the efforts both of painter 
 and poet may often appear, yet they are not on that 
 account ineffectual, for they speak by the power of a 
 kindred and sympathetic instinct to all who possess 
 the sense of natural beauty strong within their souls. 
 
 Special phenomena, attractive both to the scientist 
 and the poet, abound undoubtedly in our Lake 
 district The ' Helm Cloud,' visible on Coniston 
 Old Man, Helvellyn, Skiddaw, and Cross Fell, has 
 been previously spoken of. A kindred appearance, 
 though not perhaps so striking, is the ' Messenger ' 
 cloud. This is of a more defined outline and of 
 smaller size than the ' Helm.' Very often it may be 
 observed during and before rainy weather bending at 
 some distance over the summit of a distant peak and 
 deriving an evident correspondence of outline from
 
 92 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 the configuration of the solid rock beneath it. In 
 texture it generally resembles the kind of stratus that 
 prevails in wet weather in the intervals between 
 showers, but is usually darker in tint and apparently 
 of a looser composition. The interesting problem is 
 to account for the bending over and adapting itself to 
 the form of the mountain, yet remaining at a distance 
 from it. This appearance reminds us that we have 
 not only to allow for the effect of gravitation of the 
 earth as a planet, but for the mass attraction of its 
 protuberances, in estimating the forces in operation. 
 Again, that the heat radiation in such cases will be 
 lateral in some degree, as well as vertical ; and last, 
 but not least, that surface currents must at times blow 
 right over the tops of the hills, causing precipitation 
 at a given distance, according to difference of tem- 
 perature between the current and the lower stratum. 
 
 A more striking and curious phenomena is the 
 gradual enveloping of a mountain by a thick envelope 
 of mist which assumes the cirro-cumulus form. This 
 appearance, which I witnessed one evening in autumn 
 from Millom, occurs now and then on Black Comb. 
 From a distance imagination might convert these 
 clouds into a closely-packed flock of gigantic sheep, 
 feeding upon and completely covering the whole 
 upper surface of the hill. The phenomenon is rare. 
 
 There can be no doubt that wind often determines 
 the general form of masses of cloud, e.g., the ' anvil ' 
 cumulus; but that it has any considerable influence
 
 Cloud Outlines. 93 
 
 in originating the main types is doubtful. It is certain 
 that the most satisfactory indications of weather 
 change are to be derived from clouds that have been 
 formed in a comparatively still atmosphere. This 
 fact may be illustrated by observing the piles of 
 cumulus which gather before a thunderstorm, a form 
 of cloud which rarely fails to give a note of warning 
 when the storm is still distant. 
 
 Cloud outlines next claim our attention. 
 
 By the outline of a cloud we may readily distinguish 
 its class and peculiar characteristics. Although 
 the term ' cumulus ' (a mass) does not indicate so 
 well as the names of Howard's other two types the 
 form which it presents to the eye, the varieties of the 
 cloud are, by outline alone, more distinctly defined 
 than those of any other. It would be possible to 
 form a classification of the various species of the 
 cloud almost entirely by their outlines. 
 
 We select two forms, both valuable as weather 
 prognostics, to illustrate the use of observing outlines. 
 The first is the Electric Cumulus,* and the second 
 the Anvil Cloud of Sir J. Herschell. The outline of 
 the electric cumulus is very sharp and hard, not 
 broken by large indentations and loose feathery pro- 
 cesses like that of the commoner kinds of cumulus, 
 formed rapidly by exhalations from the earth, and 
 drifting near its surface ; but we have almost a con- 
 
 * Described by the writer in the Quarterly Journal of the 
 Brit. Meteor. Society ', Jan., 1872.
 
 94 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 tinuous line, often terminating in stratus or nimbus 
 below, yet rising to a vertex, conical or rounded, with 
 small curves and minute projections, showing the 
 rounded protuberances on the surface of the cloud. 
 
 There is no cloud that possesses a more distinct 
 outline than this, and none which exhibits more 
 brilliant effects of light. As a weather-prognosticator 
 it is best observed at a distance, and near the horizon, 
 when the form of the summit may be more exactly 
 discerned. 
 
 We now consider the Anvil Cloud. 
 
 This species, alluded to by Sir John Herschell in his 
 ' Familiar Lectures on Science,' cannot be regarded as 
 so strictly a form of cumulus as that which we have 
 just noticed, inasmuch as it exhibits at times a great 
 tendency to the form of stratus, and occasionally to 
 that of cirrus ; or, perhaps we should rather say, to the 
 form of cumulo-cirrus.* As an indicator of wind, this 
 cloud may probably be regarded as unrivalled. It 
 frequently appears two or three days before heavy 
 gales, especially when they are of long duration, as 
 about the Equinoxes. Without being hypercritical, 
 we may distinguish three varieties of the cloud, the 
 outlines of which are characteristic. The first variety 
 possesses greater affinity for ordinary cumulus than the 
 other two, and it often shows great resemblance in 
 
 * This cloud, also an excellent indicator of wind, does not 
 appear to have received the attention it deserves from meteoro- 
 logists. The reader must not confound it with cirro-cumulus.
 
 Thunderstorms. 95 
 
 many points to the electric cumulus. It occurs for the 
 most part in large masses or banks, the summits of 
 which as it drifts along with the wind, stand out in 
 sharp relief against the upper sky, and exhibit the 
 most striking and fantastic resemblances to terrestrial 
 objects, beetling crags, towers, and heads of animals 
 the last being of frequent occurrence. When of this 
 variety, the anvil cloud appears to be highly con- 
 densed, and is of a dark bluish or slatey tint. It is 
 generally, I believe, the precursor of heavy rain as 
 well as wind. 
 
 The second variety of the cloud, which approaches 
 to stratus, exhibits a more irregularly formed 'anvil,' 
 the ' waist ' being usually much more conspicuous on 
 one side than on the other. This is also a dense 
 cloud, without much marking on its surface, the out 
 line being not nearly so irregular as that of the variety 
 just described. It is of a lighter tint, gray or muddy 
 bluish, and does not, I think, occur in an isolated 
 form, but rises from a bank of lower stratus or cumulo- 
 stratus. It is also a wet-weather cloud. 
 
 The third variety is a kind of aggregated cirrus, 
 generally of a dark tint, and seen at high altitudes in 
 windy weather. This lacks the consistency and volume 
 of ordinary cumulus, and spreads itself out almost in 
 a sheet, with rounded edges, and without surface 
 marking. 
 
 The year 1872 was remarkable both for its excessive 
 rainfall and the number and destructive violence of its
 
 96 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade' 
 
 thunderstorms. It was equally remarkable for the 
 variety and striking character of its cloud forms. The 
 electric cumulus was scarcely absent for a day during 
 the whole period over which the thunderstorms 
 extended. On one occasion, when leaving Liverpool 
 for Blackburn, I observed three or four conical piles 
 of the cloud upon the horizon in the direction of the 
 latter town ; the weather was beautiful at Liverpool, 
 but a storm, as I learnt on arriving at my destination, 
 had raged there at the time I observed the cloud so 
 many miles away. 
 
 There can be little doubt that this phenomenon 
 may often be seen at a distance of 50 to 100 miles 
 from the point where the storm breaks. 
 
 Another remarkable form that appeared during the 
 summer of 1872 was the 'Festooned' or Pocky 
 Cloud, as some have termed it. Professor Poey some 
 years ago alluded to it as a 'new' variety. Since then, 
 however, it has been shown to be of ancient date, and 
 a somewhat elaborate and interesting account of earlier 
 observations was contributed by Mr. Scott to the 
 Quarterly Journal of the Meteorological Society, April, 
 1872. I have myself observed the cloud on several occa- 
 sions, though only once or twice in perfect form. The 
 droplets or festoons which form the lower outline of 
 the cloud have a semi-elliptical or egg-shaped form, 
 were very dark, and extended over a considerable 
 portion of the heavens. In the most perfect example 
 noted by me (about twenty years ago), the pendulous
 
 Symmetrical Forms. 97 
 
 processes or droplets had an almost perfectly circular 
 outline, even, and well defined. The festoons were 
 about four or five degrees in apparent diameter, their 
 altitude being perhaps a mile. The whole mass from 
 which the droplets depended was not large, and moved 
 with the wind, the curves meanwhile retaining their 
 form intact. What made the case most singular was, 
 that the regularity of the outline could be maintained, 
 even a few moments, under the variable atmospheric 
 conditions of the time. Though the outlines were so 
 regular, the surface of the cloud had a very nimbus- 
 like appearance, and was of a lurid yellow tint. The 
 sky was not overcast at the time. 
 
 The more usual concomitants of this form are, how- 
 ever, a dark turbid sky and a ' pallium ' of cirro- 
 cumulus subsiding into nimbus or nimbo-stratus. 
 Under these conditions I observed it twice during 
 the stormy summer of 1871, one of the cases 
 being immediately after a thunderstorm. The fact of 
 its being emphatically a foul-weather cloud adds 
 interest to the investigation, for heavy rain and wind 
 usually follow its appearance. My own observations 
 indicate, however, that rain is more certain to follow 
 than wind. In Lancashire it is sometimes termed 
 'rain-ball.' 
 
 The origin of these symmetrical cloud-forms is very 
 difficult to determine. Mr. Scott, in his paper above 
 referred to, attaches considerable importance to the 
 experiments of Sir J. Herschell and Mr. Jevons, by 
 
 7
 
 98 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 whom it has been shown that a similar appearance 
 may be produced by gradually mixing two fluids of 
 slightly different specific gravities. 
 
 The nature, however, of the forces which determine 
 the peculiar symmetry of such forms seems almost 
 equally obscure in the case of the experiments as in 
 that of the atmospheric phenomenon they are used to 
 illustrate.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 7 2
 
 INVERTED PYRAMID CUMULUS DROPPING CUMULUS 
 
 FESTOON CLOUD HIGH RAIN-CUMULUS LAW OF 
 
 ALTITUDES HAIL AND SNOW CLOUDS.
 
 IX. 
 
 WE now call attention to a cloud which may be 
 denominated ' pyramid cumulus.' Strictly 
 speaking, it should be inverted pyramid cumulus, as 
 the point or apex is generally turned downwards 
 toward earth, or inclined at an angle with the horizon. 
 The mass of the cloud, which is often very irregularly 
 shaped at the larger end, partakes for the most part 
 largely of the character of stratus or nimbus, and the 
 surface is often marked by sinuous lines, which 
 radiate from the inverted apex upwards. 
 
 The cases in which I have observed this form of 
 cloud have generally been during a thunderstorm, 
 about its climax, or after the rain has begun to fall. 
 One of the most striking occurred during a storm 
 which discharged itself about thirty miles from the 
 point of observation. Like the ordinary electric 
 cumulus,* the pyramid cumulus sometimes rises to a 
 great elevation, and is visible at a vast distance, when 
 the lightning may be seen darting and playing about 
 * See Journal of Meteor. Soc., January, 1872.
 
 IO2 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 its surface, thus indicating the violence of the storm 
 over which it hovers, while the weather in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the observer may be perfectly fine.* 
 
 The cloud derives interest from its evident con- 
 nection with that conical or funnel-shaped form of 
 cumulus which attends the formation of a waterspout, 
 and thus gives an indirect confirmation to the theory 
 that this latter phenomenon is a result of electrical 
 action. It seems quite evident that the violent action, 
 both on the water and on the atmosphere, which is 
 exerted by a waterspout, and the tremendously rapid 
 movement of the particles, can only result from the 
 presence of a force acting with enormous power from 
 molecule to molecule. 
 
 To afford a raison d'etre for this phenomenon, and 
 for that of the sand -pillar, from the ordinary mechanical 
 laws regulating large masses of air, seems an obvious 
 impossibility. But it may be objected that, if the 
 pyramid cumulus and other cognate cloud forms are 
 due to electric action of the air or vapour particles, 
 how does it happen that the surface of these clouds 
 and their general contour do not change more rapidly ? 
 To this it may be replied, that if an observer were so 
 placed as to obtain a distinct and near view of the 
 component particles of the cloud, he might (and 
 probably would) observe a very rapid motion among 
 them. For at a distance of several miles appearances 
 
 * A case of this kind occurred about the year 1869, and was 
 described by me in the Intellectual Observer.
 
 The Whirling Sand-pillar. 103 
 
 are very deceptive as to material composition,* move- 
 ment of particles, etc. ; and it is also plain that identity 
 of visible form at two different moments is no proof 
 whatever of an identity of component particles. Take, 
 for example, the rainbow, which exhibits such exquisite 
 symmetry and such apparent stability of form as 
 altogether to preclude the idea of change or motion, 
 while it is well known that the bow and its colouring 
 are due to refraction of light through a constant 
 succession of falling drops, so that not only do two 
 persons see different rainbows, but no one can see 
 the same rainbow two moments together. 
 
 In the symmetrical marking which the pyramid 
 cumulus occasionally assumes, we have a remarkable 
 resemblance to the form taken by the whirling sand- 
 pillar of the desert. A whirlwind is evidently the 
 originating force, but whether the direction of the 
 currents is originally upwards or downwards I must 
 leave to other observers to determine. Some persons 
 seek an explanation of these forms in the action of 
 two vapour currents of different densities meeting 
 each other ; but in the cases we have just considered, 
 where a rapid motion is observed, the atmosphere all 
 around being still, we may perhaps find a solution in 
 the generation of electricity by heat or evaporation. 
 
 * A singular phenomenon may often be noticed in connection 
 with rain, which has not been fully explained, viz., the darting 
 to and fro of small particles among the larger drops, like minute 
 snowflakes flitting about in defiance of gravitation.
 
 104 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade. 1 
 
 The ' festoon ' cloud, which is commonly seen before 
 squally weather and with a falling temperature, may, 
 however, be due to ascending currents of vapour 
 meeting colder currents of air descending towards the 
 earth. 
 
 We now examine the ' dropping ' cumulus. I am 
 not aware that previous writers have considered this a 
 distinct species; but it deserves to be so recognised 
 for two reasons, viz., its value as a weather prophet 
 (indicating wind and rain), and the curious inquiries 
 which it suggests concerning the coherence of cloud 
 masses, and the relation which the forces that 
 determine this coherence bear to that of gravitation. 
 A very ancient writer * has pointed out the scientific 
 problems involved in this adjustment of mechanical 
 laws, as yet far from solution. 
 
 There is a close affinity between this form and the 
 ' festoon ' cloud. The latter ought perhaps to be 
 regarded as a variety of the 'dropping' cumulus. 
 The most curious characteristic of the cloud we are 
 now considering is its manner of hanging down end- 
 wise towards the earth. It appears at times to have 
 a hollow space within ; for a kind of outward shell 
 may be seen to form in the first instance, gradually 
 developing from a vapoury strip or band, and rapidly 
 assuming a semi-cylindrical shape (almost that of a 
 bolster), and acquiring at last a full rotundity of 
 outline. I have observed several masses formed in 
 * Book of Job, chap, xxxvii., v. 16.
 
 East and West Coasts. 105 
 
 this way, parallel to each other, and all in different 
 stages of development. 
 
 Among the accidental varieties of ' dropping ' 
 cumulus, two curious forms may be noted, viz., that 
 of a double cone and of a dumb-bell. The last- 
 mentioned may be closely allied to the ' anvil ' cloud, 
 but is looser in texture and generally more rapid in 
 motion and change of form. 
 
 It has been remarked by some observers that the 
 characteristics of the rarer clouds are very local, but it 
 must be borne in mind that the same result will be 
 observed where the conditions are the same. 
 
 There seems to be a difference in the average 
 altitude of clouds on the west and east coasts of 
 England, those of the latter having the greater eleva- 
 tion. The estuaries of the Mersey and of the Dee 
 present a very interesting field of observation ; the 
 varieties of cloud being numerous, the changes of 
 form rapid, and the gradations of colouring and of 
 light and shade rich and deep. To account for these 
 phenomena we have : i. The irregularity of the coast- 
 line, with two considerable rivers lying close together. 
 2. The hills of North Wales. 3. The intermingling of 
 currents, and the evaporation from the Gulf Stream. 
 The part of east Kent, viz., that between Sandwich 
 and Dover, presents finer effects in the rich glow of 
 the upper sky, especially before sunrise and after sun- 
 set; a clear yet soft and rich golden light, into the 
 depths of which the eye seems to penetrate, at times
 
 io6 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 intensely beautiful. This glow was seen on several 
 occasions in November, 1877. The purity and depth 
 of the ruby-tinted cirro-stratus at sunset is also very 
 noticeable. The fine effects of cloud about Liverpool 
 were, I believe, well known to the great painter 
 Turner, who spent many a day making studies in the 
 district. The excess of vapour arising from flats and 
 sand-banks gives a hazy and delicate effect to the 
 light, very suggestive in a picture. 
 
 With regard to these differences of atmospheric 
 effect caused by change of locality, it appears that 
 such change is found rather in the grouping, elevation 
 and effects of light and colour, than in the forms 
 themselves, though there are certain forms, no doubt, 
 quite local, especially in mountainous districts. These 
 generally owe their origin to geographical configura- 
 tion, and their study lies as much within the province 
 of the physical geographer as that of the meteorologist. 
 The curious disc or cap which is seen near the peak 
 of some mountains, and which maintains its form in a 
 breeze of wind, must have its particles in rapid motion ; 
 being caused by the continuous impact of vapour 
 currents upon a colder stratum, which determines 
 condensation and visibility. This is a good example 
 of the principle stated above, that identity of visible 
 form at two different moments is no proof of identity 
 in the particles. The flame of a candle, which can- 
 not, chemically, remain the same two moments to- 
 gether, affords also an illustration of this. A cloud,
 
 1 High Rain-cumulus' 107 
 
 like the human body, may often be likened to an 
 eddy. Physiology teaches us that the body is sustained 
 by a constant motion of particles absorbed from ex- 
 ternal sources and passed off again after undergoing a 
 change of form ; yet no one doubts that he possesses 
 the same body which he had, say, ten years ago. 
 The saying that ' sameness ' must not be confounded 
 with ' thisness ' and ' thatness ' (or identity) in its strict 
 sense, is applicable in both cases. Every clcud, as 
 has been remarked by Espy, is either a forming or a 
 dissolving one ; but I think we may extend this, and 
 say that some clouds are both 'forming' and 'dis- 
 solving ' at the same time ; e.g., cirro-cumulus, forming 
 from cirrus and melting into nimbus. 
 
 But we now pass on to consider a form of cumulus 
 which is associated with very wet weather, and which 
 I do not think has yet had a distinguishing title 
 accorded to it. This I propose to call the ' High rain- 
 cumulus.' It is not a common species, and is mostly 
 seen in autumn and spring. It deserves the name 
 that I have given it, on account of the tremendously 
 heavy showers that attend its appearance, and the 
 great elevation which it often attains. Unlike most 
 forms of cumulus, which it is best to observe when 
 somewhat near the horizon, so that the vertex may be 
 seen in outline, this cloud reveals its characteristics 
 best when almost overhead. Let the reader picture 
 to himself a mild, muggy day in spring or autumn ; 
 everything soaking with recent showers, with heavy,
 
 io8 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 lumpy-looking masses hanging about the horizon, and 
 a drift of flattish, irregular cirro-cumulus occupying 
 the upper stratum.* Some of the masses of cumulus 
 will be observed to throw off limbs or projections 
 which swell out, and, ascending almost to the upper 
 drift, seem to creep over the zenith much in the 
 manner of a thunder-cloud when the electricity is 
 gathering just over the place of observation. The 
 cloud then forms into a kind of sheet (as seen from 
 below) with rounded outline, and the edge broken 
 with many small, curling indentations, somewhat like 
 the leaves of some plants. The lower portion has a 
 flat appearance, as if repelled rather than attracted by 
 the earth. The elevation is considerable, and the 
 tint of the cloud a dirty gray or slate-colour. 
 
 This kind of cloud frequently forms in enormous 
 masses, as may be seen from its great altitude, and the 
 manner in which the sheet extends towards the 
 horizon ; but, though much flatter in form than most 
 varieties of cumulus, its surface is often broken or 
 nodulous, like that of hail cumulus or electric cumulus 
 when these are ready to discharge their contents. The 
 peculiar form of this species is probably due in part to 
 the saturated condition of the lower atmosphere at the 
 time of its occurrence, and I have given to it the 
 special designation of ' rain ' cumulus to indicate the 
 
 * See remarks below on the relative height of different species 
 of cloud.
 
 Law of Altitudes. 109 
 
 excessively wet weather that it is generally associated 
 with. 
 
 One of the most remarkable facts in connection 
 with atmospheric phenomena is this that certain 
 characteristic forms of cloud find their habitat within 
 a certain zone, or at certain distances from the earth's 
 surface. Omitting stratus, we find them usually in the 
 following order, ascending from the earth: (i.) Cumulus; 
 (ii.) Cirro-cumulus ; (iii.) Cirrus. The second of these 
 appears to be an intermediate stage between cirrus, 
 the ice-cloud in its normal state, and cumulus ; or 
 between cirrus and nimbus ; and it has a very great 
 range of altitude. Thus it might appear to be an 
 exception to the law that form depends partly on 
 elevation ; but it will, I think, be admitted that, as a 
 general rule, it occupies a region lying between that of 
 the other two species. But besides altitude there are 
 doubtless relations existing between the banks of 
 cloud themselves which affect the question of form. 
 This especially would be the case where there was 
 strong interchange of electrical action. 
 
 But whatever may be the cause of the law we speak 
 of, this fact deserves attention, that any decided 
 deviation from the law is significant of a disturbed 
 condition of the atmosphere, and often is indicative of 
 approaching storms. Let us take two cases to illus- 
 trate this; in very thundery weather the two great 
 types of cloud show a tendency to interchange their 
 places in regard to altitude ; that is to say, cumulus
 
 I TO 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 rises to an abnormal height, and cirrus descends to an 
 unusually low position. This may generally be verified 
 by watching the course of a thunderstorm ; when the 
 peaks of the first-mentioned cloud may often be 
 observed at a great distance thrusting their pale yellow 
 pinnacles into the azure of the heavens, long before the 
 first muttering of the storm is heard, and while the 
 mass of cloud is far beyond the horizon. On the 
 other hand, when the hurly-burly is over and the rain 
 has ceased, masses of nimbo-cirrus may at times be 
 seen throwing up their silvery crests, and curling over 
 the earth like gigantic breakers. This last-mentioned 
 appearance, which has a splendid effect, is, I believe, 
 never seen except in thundery weather, or rather 
 during electrical disturbance, and it is not easy to 
 account for the existence of such forms by the action 
 of wind. The last remark applies also to what we may 
 call ' star ' cirrus ; that is, cirrus streaks radiating from 
 a common centre in all directions (a form of cloud also 
 connected with thunderstorms), and to that form which 
 resembles the feathering of an arrow, parallel rays 
 running from both sides of a common axis.* 
 
 ' We shall have stormy weather, sir ; those animal 
 clouds have been seen again to-day.' Such was the 
 remark made to me by a countrywoman in Kent, and 
 
 * Observations made continually during many years since 
 this law of interchange of altitudes was first noticed by me in 
 the Popular Science fteview, have fully confirmed the truth of 
 the foregoing remarks concerning its relation to atmospheric 
 disturbance.
 
 Hail and Snow Clouds. in 
 
 this observation was true enough to nature ; it agreed 
 also with my own notes at the time on the appearance 
 of 'anvil cloud,' or fracto-cumulus. 'Ram's-head' 
 cloud might not inappropriately be the term used to 
 describe this drifting bank of hail or rain, which 
 often marks the sky with such striking and fantastic 
 outlines. Observe these dark rolling masses at sunset 
 on an autumn afternoon, and see what kind of weather 
 the night brings with it driving sleet and sudden 
 gusts of wind, with ' bursts ' of hail rising often to a 
 furious and full-blown nor'wester, which make one 
 thankful for a good roof overhead. 
 
 The general form and type of the ' hail cloud ' is 
 pretty well known to observers of atmospheric pheno- 
 mena. In most cases it greatly resembles the snow- 
 cumulus, though generally more craggy in outline, 
 harder in its edges, and more attended by stratus* at 
 its base. There are, however, several types of snow- 
 cloud. When drifting against a clear sky, the latter 
 presents a more fleecy and softer edging, though in its 
 general form it must be grouped, like that which 
 originates hail-showers, with the class of ' animal ' 
 cloud, i.e., condensed! fracto-cumulus. Both of these 
 are again closely akin to the electric cumulus or cone 
 cloud (see Science Gossip for July, 1879). Here we 
 
 * This indicates a closer affinity with the rain-cloud, or 
 nimbus. 
 
 f This is the term adopted by Professor Poey, and indicates 
 a mass broken by wind.
 
 112 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 ought to note the frequent connection existing between 
 the hail shower and electrical discharges, and the part 
 that electricity is known to play in the condensation 
 and cohesion of the watery particles. 
 
 Let us notice now that a law seems to hold good in 
 regard to the origin of the different forms of cloud, 
 through which it is possible to forecast weather by 
 observing them. This is ' a law of correspondence ' 
 between the particles composing a cloud and the 
 general form of the mass. It varies its manifestations 
 with the temperature and other physical conditions of 
 the medium in which the vapoury particles are float- 
 ing ; yet the principle involved in the connection 
 between the form of the body and the molecules 
 which compose it is constant; it depends upon the 
 manner of their aggregation. 
 
 It is a physical or chemical question to determine 
 the special forms that will be originated by given 
 component particles under given physical conditions. 
 To determine such resultant forms in the case of 
 previously unknown substances, is a problem difficult 
 in the highest degree, and I suppose practically in- 
 soluble in the generality of instances, except where 
 an approximating form may be guessed at, by wit- 
 nessing the evolutions that result from analogous 
 substances. 
 
 To forecast, for example, the general form which 
 would be assumed by an aggregation of the crystals of 
 some hitherto uncompounded chemical, would be an
 
 Construction by Analogy. 113 
 
 impossibility, except by examining the effect of known 
 combinations almost similar in composition. 
 
 Still more difficult would it be to suggest the form 
 likely to be taken by a tree, from an examination of 
 the seed, though even here analogy might suggest 
 something. But it could suggest nothing as to the 
 reason of their taking the particular form under 
 observation. The seeds of two different plants may 
 be exceedingly alike in general structure and compo- 
 sition, yet the form of their leaves and stem will 
 present the widest possible diversity. 
 
 Yet in considering the process of growth, we must 
 not overlook the variety of elements which may be 
 absorbed from the earth and atmosphere. It is not a 
 question of the simple evolution of a given material 
 into an organism from a given embryo, but of the 
 drawing into a focus or vortex a great variety of 
 elements, operated on by an almost equal variety of 
 forces. The laws which regulate the operation of 
 those forces are the laws which originate the various 
 forms that meet our eyes, and produce a resulting 
 structure characterized by permanence and beauty. 
 
 An Owen may rebuild, from the fragments pre- 
 sented to him, the frame of a being long extinct, 
 whose remains lie embedded in the bowels of the 
 earth, and we accept his construction because we 
 believe it to be based on the order of nature shown 
 by the exact observation of analogous forms. But 
 even Owen's efforts to reconstruct would be simply 
 
 8
 
 H4 ' Beneath Helvellyris Shade.' 
 
 abortive, and the result a falsity, were it not for the 
 permanence and continuity of law in Nature. With- 
 out the operation of fixed law within the component 
 particles, no species, either in the animal or vegetable 
 world, could possess continuity of form. 
 
 It is sufficient for our present purpose to direct 
 attention to the relation existing between ' mass ' and 
 'particle.' But it is also necessary to point out that 
 there must always be a great defect in the value of 
 illustrations from the mixing of liquids of different 
 density, such as those adduced by the late Professor 
 Jevons. Interesting as these experiments are, the 
 movements and elasticity of the atmosphere vary too 
 greatly from those of liquids to allow experiments in 
 mixing to be of much practical value in regard to 
 ascertaining the causes of the forms of cloud. 
 
 Suffice it to remark that, inasmuch as the form of the 
 mass largely depends on the nature of the particles 
 whether ice, snow, sleet, hail, or rain we have 
 probably in the particular forms which the mass 
 assumes an adequate reason for the belief that weather 
 may be forecasted from them.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 82
 
 CLOUD CLASSIFICATION, WITH NOTES ON CIRRUS.
 
 X. 
 
 OF the three main types of cloud, Cirrus, Cumulus, 
 and Stratus, there is none which presents 
 greater diversities of form and more interesting 
 problems in physical research than the cirrus. 
 
 Ornamenting as it does the highest reaches of the 
 upper sky with its pure and graceful feathery and 
 flower-like figures, and forming by its transitional 
 modification so great a number of unlooked-for and 
 attractive combinations, it has always been a favourite 
 with the student of weather, and has afforded to the 
 tourist and pedestrian a source of infinite amusement 
 and speculation. 
 
 The remarks now given on this cloud are based on 
 observations extending over many years. The subject 
 is admitted to be a difficult one, yet it is surprising how 
 much misconception has become current respecting 
 this form of cloud. For example, in a popular 
 educational work on ' Physiography,' in use in national 
 schools, the writer seems to be under the impression 
 that cirrus has a tendency to lie in certain defined
 
 n8 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 positions, as N.N.E. or S.S.W., etc., and it is suggested 
 that this is due to some regular currents of the upper 
 atmosphere. Now the fact is well known to any 
 moderately informed observer of clouds that cirrus has 
 no fixed direction at all, nor any tendency to take one, 
 but lies in any direction whatever, and that also in the 
 most eccentric way, so that the ingenious author of 
 the above-named explanation is very much in the 
 same position as certain philosophers when endeavour- 
 ing, at the waggish instance of Charles II., to account 
 for a phenomenon that was non-existent. 
 
 The truth is that Nature is infinitely wider, far 
 more varied in her forms, and far more subtle in her 
 operations than most of us are aware of. One of the 
 cardinal vices of a science which only deserves the 
 name of ' pseudo-science,' but which does duty with a 
 vast number of untrained minds, is the building of 
 systems and the over-free use of technical or special 
 nomenclature. I use the word technical, yet it must 
 be pointed out that ' technical ' does not apply here 
 exactly as in more defined sciences. Take the word 
 oxygen. Every chemist at once understands by this 
 word a gas possessing certain properties that recur to 
 his memory whenever he uses the word. It is not so 
 with such terms as occur in treating of the forms of 
 cloud, e.g., cumulo-cirro-stratus. Such compound 
 terms may represent a variety of forms according to the 
 extent 'to which each type of cloud is represented in the 
 given expression ; thus a ' cumulo-cirrc-stratus ' might
 
 Observation and Connotation. ng 
 
 be more or less of cumulus, cirrus, or of stratus in any 
 particular instance, so that the forms represented by 
 this one expression might vary considerably and in- 
 definitely. 
 
 It is obvious, therefore, that if any headway is to be 
 made in the study of clouds it must be by a larger and 
 more exact acquaintance with actual forms rather than 
 by ingenious attempts at fresh nomenclature. Every 
 modification, even the most minute and delicate, 
 represents some force or other at work in the air around ; 
 it may be heat, cold, wind, gravitation, electricity, or 
 perhaps earth-magnetism ; but whatever the force may 
 be, it has a distinct action on the particles of the cloud, 
 and the cloud in its turn is a clear index to the existence 
 and operation of these forces. 
 
 It is just this fact which renders the accumulated 
 stores of weather lore possessed by gamekeepers, 
 sailors, farmers, etc., so valuable. Though often 
 deficient in power of description, men whose occupa- 
 tion partly compels them to a study of natural pheno- 
 mena often acquire a very considerable acquaintance 
 with the forms and phenomena presented to them. 
 Accurate observation and a retentive memory will 
 give a store of forms and data which may constitute the 
 basis of formulated science. But the want of a trained 
 reasoning faculty makes such weather lore empirical, 
 and the want of a power of exact expression limits its 
 value to the individual. 
 
 At the same time this simple connotation of facts
 
 I2O 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 and local appearances will be of far more use than the 
 mere building up theories, or the invention of a 
 technical jargon based on the observations of other 
 people. It matters little how familiar the expression, 
 or whether the language be Latin, French, or English, 
 so long as it is accurately used, and does duty for an 
 actual phenomenon. Consequently, if the phrase 
 ' Ram's-head cloud ' or ' Bead cloud ' pictures a given 
 type better than ' Fracto-cumulus ' or ' Stratiforial- 
 cumulus,' I should have no hesitation in using it. 
 With regard to such terms as ' Stratiforius ' and 
 ' Cumuliforius,' suggested by a certain author in 
 Science Gossip, January, 1888, it is hard to see how 
 science, which is the understanding of facts, can be 
 advanced by extending the use of Latin or Greek 
 terminology. My own aim is to induce others to 
 observe the wonders of the sky for themselves. 
 
 The writer referred to, in criticising my articles on the 
 ' Types of Storm Cloud,' seems to wish to omit cirrus 
 altogether as a type of cloud forming a class. But 
 cirrus as truly forms a class of cloud as cumulus itself. 
 It can never be classified as a variety of cumulus or 
 stratus. It differs from stratus in its composition, and 
 undoubtedly consists of ice. This has been shown 
 repeatedly by its optical effects, and confirmed by the 
 researches of balloonists. 
 
 If we are to have two main classes, and not the 
 three suggested by Luke Howard, they will un- 
 doubtedly be represented by 'cumulus' and 'cirrus,'
 
 Curves of Cirrus. 121 
 
 or ' ball cloud ' and ' hair cloud,' corresponding to 
 ' vapour' and 'ice.' 
 
 ' Stratus,' or ' flat ' and ' straight ' forms, together 
 with the various compound forms ' cirro-stratus ' and 
 ' cumulo-cirro-stratus ' will then find their proper place 
 as transitional modifications. I may notice that these 
 ' transitional modifications ' and composite varieties 
 afford most interesting subjects for speculation, and 
 indicate in a striking manner the variety of forces at 
 work upon the watery vapour during weather change. 
 To these various forces, coupled with the molecular 
 properties both of ice and water, are due the innumer- 
 able varieties of cloud scenery ; but the attempt to 
 group all the forms of cloud under two such terms 
 as ' cumuliforius ' and ' stratiforius ' as suggested above 
 would be, to my mind, about as logical as to invent 
 two fine terms, and then endeavour to arrange the 
 whole animal kingdom under them. 
 
 This is playing Procrustes with a vengeance in 
 order to make science 'easy.' But ' vaporology,' as 
 Professor Ruskin terms it, can never be made easy in 
 this way. It demands, not only a good general know- 
 ledge of physics, but considerable reasoning power 
 and a capacious memory. 
 
 Cirrus at its greatest elevation sometimes presents 
 curves of great beauty. One of these resembles the 
 letter 5> thick in the middle and tapering to the ends. 
 The cloudlets lie somewhat apart. 
 
 I call this ' double curve ' cirrus. It may be termed
 
 122 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 a modification of the cloud called in popular parlance 
 ' Mackerel Scales.' No doubt it is a transitional 
 modification, indicating a disturbed state of atmo- 
 sphere. One side of the cloud is firmly defined, the 
 other softly brushed away, so as to blend imperceptibly 
 with the blue of the sky. 
 
 This cloud I have classed with cirrus on account of 
 its great altitude and its curvilinear form. Others 
 might be disposed to rank it with cirro-cumulus, inas- 
 much as it is composed of separate cloudlets aggre- 
 gated together. The matter of altitude has unfor- 
 tunately been taken too little count of by meteorolo- 
 gists, in regard to cloud classification, and this is the 
 more remarkable as altitude, by causing variation of 
 temperature, generally determines the crystalline or 
 non-crystalline form of atmospheric vapour. This 
 fact appears to me of such importance that it should 
 form the basis of classification ; heat and cold being 
 the primary factors of molecular condition, and 
 these forces being regulated by distance from the 
 earth. 
 
 Thus we might have first, second, and third ' zone ' 
 clouds, corresponding to cumulus, composite forms, 
 and cirrus. 
 
 With regard to the origin of this double curve cirrus, 
 a spirally moving current might be suggested. It 
 may be classified with ' storm clouds,' like the patches 
 of parallel stratus known by the name of 'hen scarts,' 
 which when seen in the upper zone should be regarded
 
 Height of Cirro-Cumulus. 123 
 
 as straight cirrus ; so also may the ' mackerel scales ' 
 just referred to, being generally at a great altitude. 
 ' Mackerel scales ' may be regarded as ' single ' curve 
 cirrus ; ' double ' curve cirrus being a variety of the 
 same cloud arising from a more complicated current 
 or movement. 
 
 The most remarkable case of ' double curve ' cirrus 
 observed by me was followed by stormy, wet weather. 
 
 It may be taken as an axiom of weather forecasting 
 that small patches of well-defined and oddly-shaped 
 clouds of the cirrus or cirro-cumulus type generally 
 indicate stormy and changeable weather. 
 
 With regard to spiral currents of air in the upper 
 drift, I may say that the forms which they seem 
 responsible for, e.g., " twist ' or ' screw '* cloud, are 
 nearly always followed by rain or wind and rain. The 
 ordinary type of cirrus, so common in fine summer 
 weather, is of a much flatter form and looser structure 
 than those now referred to. 
 
 These curiously formed patches appear to attain 
 the greatest height of any forms visible from the earth.\ 
 In passing I may note that the highest cloud ever 
 observed by me was a very beautiful layer of cirro- 
 
 * The term ' curl ' cloud has been adopted by so many writers 
 generically for cirrus, that I avoid its use here. ' Ringlet ' 
 would be more exact than ' screw ' for this variety. 
 
 t All ordinary forms of cloud appear blue when elevated to a 
 sufficient distance from the observer. The highest clouds seen 
 from a balloon are probably quite invisible from the earth, being 
 tinted blue by distance.
 
 124 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 cumulus sprinkled over the upper heavens, resembling 
 pale blue pellets of snow, almost blended in tint with 
 the blue heaven above. Just as the most distant stars 
 are shrouded in the abyss of space, so the highest 
 forms of cloud disappear in the azure distance of the 
 sky. We must not forget that there are visible clouds 
 and invisible. 
 
 Visibility frequently depends upon position with 
 regard to the sun or moon, as the case may be. On 
 a moonlight night, especially in stormy weather, clouds 
 may be seen to become visible just as they approach 
 the angular position of the ordinary halo (60). Then 
 they pass from sight again when that position is 
 passed, and the refraction is unnoticed. Sometimes a 
 circular ring of matted cirrus appears about the sun or 
 moon for a considerable time, caused solely by 'the 
 fact of its position with respect to the source of light 
 corresponding to the angular distance above mentioned. 
 Similar phenomena occur, too, in connection with 
 coronae, which depend upon the lesser refractive 
 power of water. 
 
 In considering these and kindred phenomena we 
 should not forget the prodigious amount of vapour 
 floating above us, and the calculation of an eminent 
 astronomer, that if all this vapour held in solution by 
 the atmosphere were precipitated, twenty feet or more 
 of snow would very soon cover the whole surface of 
 the earth. 
 
 As local notes are usually valued by students of
 
 Honey-comb Cirrus. 125 
 
 science, I will give here a few observations relating to 
 the crystalline and semi-crystalline clouds of the upper 
 drift (cirrus, cirro-stratus," and cirro-cumulus) taken in 
 the vicinity of Helvellyn during the remarkably wet 
 summer of 1890. 
 
 From May to August the weather was almost con 
 tinual wet, a single fine day occurring, however, at 
 times. For the most part, the sky resolved itself into 
 two distinct pallia, represented by rolling cumulus and 
 cumulo-nimbus in the lower drift, which was but little 
 removed above the mountain top, and, in the upper 
 drift, the above-mentioned crystalline forms, which 
 almost invariably appeared when the lower drift broke 
 for a brief interval of fair weather. 
 
 The appearance of these cloudlets was almost in- 
 variably the signal for another wet day immediately 
 following. 
 
 Their forms were very varied, but two generic types 
 were for the most part predominant, viz., the 'hen 
 scart ' or short parallel cirro-stratus, usually thought to 
 denote wind ; and the ' honeycomb ' form of cirro- 
 cumulus, which often covers a considerable portion of 
 the sky. 
 
 Patches of cirrus overlaid one upon another, ap- 
 parently adhering and moving together in one system, 
 were often seen. These patches maintain their shape 
 in a wonderful manner in the face of the wind, and 
 their form can scarcely be accounted for by wind 
 alone. The 'honeycomb' type of cirrus is transitional,
 
 126 'Beneath Helvellyns Shade.' 
 
 and seems to represent the first formation of a bank 
 of cirro-cumulus. 
 
 If the sudden re-arrangement of particles, which we 
 call crystallization, is determined by electricity, and if 
 this again be dependent on earth magnetism, we have 
 a chain of connection between ' cosmic ' force and the 
 daily change of weather. We cannot but believe that 
 ' law ' operates in every movement of the atmosphere 
 as much as among the stars ; yet, how unaccountable 
 many cloud movements are ! How many theories 
 have been advanced with regard to the stratified 
 and aggregated forms called Noah's Ark ! 
 
 These long bands of cirro-stratus and straight-cirrus 
 (forming really an extended oblong pallium) almost 
 invariably were followed by a wind that blew at right 
 angles, or nearly so, to the line of the cloud. 
 
 This special form of pallium, which is doubtless 
 transitional, corresponds, it may be, with a zone of 
 magnetic influence, as above suggested. It certainly 
 has a tendency to north and south direction, at least 
 in Wythburn Valley ; but to say that cirrus generally 
 has any particular direction is erroneous. 
 
 Space forbids that I should here attempt a new 
 theory of classification. Let me rather exhort all 
 observers of clouds to accurately note the outline, 
 volume, colouring, manner of aggregation, and espe- 
 cially the elevation of each type which they undertake 
 to examine. 
 
 Accurate observations are the substance ; classifica-
 
 Nature ' The Art of God.' 127 
 
 tion is, after all, but a shadow, a process of human 
 imagination. The very unity and immensity of 
 physical law forbids the completion of theories with 
 respect even to a section of her domain, and reverence 
 demands that we should continue with much patience 
 our researches in so wide a field, never forgetting the 
 exhortation of the poet of Rydal Mount : 
 
 ' Let Nature be your teacher.' 
 
 For Nature is herself neither more nor less than 
 'The art of God.'
 
 CHAPTER XI.
 
 CAIRN OF DUNMAIL NATURE, NORMAL AND AB- 
 NORMAL BARROWS THE FARMER'S TOILS SOME 
 LOCAL NAMES CITY OR SITTING ?
 
 XI. 
 
 lASSING over the desolate height of Dunmail 
 Raise one summer afternoon (1890) we ob- 
 served, as the coach skirted the well-known cairn of 
 the Cumbrian warrior 
 
 ' Last King of rocky Cumberland,' 
 
 a labourer busy in the centre of the heap, erecting a 
 monument as an ornament, with the stones lying 
 around him. This ornament was a sort of pyramid, 
 surmounted by a knob, that suggested a huge tobacco 
 jar. Ornamenting a cairn ! What would the poets 
 have said to this ? 
 
 What shapes must have visited that unhappy mortal 
 in the silent watches of the ensuing night ? Turning 
 to him, as the coach passed by, our driver, with 
 expressive look and warning tone, called out from 
 his box : ' Take care the old gentleman don't come 
 up !' There was a sarcasm on his grave face, and a 
 droll turn in that driver's neck quite noteworthy for 
 a Northern Jehu. 
 
 92
 
 132 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 That knobby pyramid's day was of short duration, 
 and a poet's remonstrance was said to have been the 
 efficacious power of removal removal that restored 
 to the ancient pile its poetry once more. All honour 
 be accorded to the poet ; for not many are the 
 kingly monuments that Cumbria can boast ! 
 
 This is the spot that bears the grim and grue- 
 some record that Edmund, the Saxon King, defeated 
 (A.D. 945) the last monarch of the Celts Dunmail or 
 Dumhnail slew him, and cruelly put out the eyes 
 of his two sons. 
 
 1 A cruel place to dout* a mortal's eyes, 
 So fair the scene, yet here the deed was done ! 
 Cast, with a sigh, the tributary stone 
 For those two sons whose sire hereunder lies. 
 That day when Edmund, with victorious cries, 
 Stormed up the pass and broke gray Cumbria's throne, 
 He little thought those blinded boys had won 
 The surer realm where pity never dies. 
 And those brave lads, whose only fault was this 
 They helped their father for the British right, 
 Hot on their eyes the brand might sear and hiss 
 And bring with pain of hell unending night, 
 But better blindly grope the mountain ways 
 Than see the Saxon over Dunmail Raise.' 
 
 H. D. RAWNSLEY. 
 
 The boundary that divides Westmorland and 
 Cumberland, passes along the brook beside this cairn 
 and through the cairn itself, hence the desire in some 
 quarters to make the pile still more conspicuous. But 
 
 * Dout = do out, cf. doff.
 
 The Beautifying Touch of Nature. 133 
 
 the cairn and its memory will probably survive when, 
 should the world last so long, the Manchester Water 
 Works have become a mysterious antiquity of the 
 hoary past. 
 
 The efforts of man to mark the features on Nature's 
 face and to intensify her lessons, sometimes of long 
 duration, though for the most part soon swept away 
 or metamorphosed by the forces that surround them, 
 are themselves a part of her own operation. Why 
 should an ant-hill or the house of a beaver be re- 
 garded as the handiwork of Nature, and not so the 
 cairn of a warrior or the mausoleum of a statesman ? 
 The ' evolutionist ' will echo Why, indeed ? but the 
 moralist will point out how vastly different is the 
 effect upon the lines of beauty and grace, and will tell 
 you that ugliness and sin go hand in hand, and that 
 there is a screw loose in man's machinery. He will 
 take you to the slums of Whitechapel, or to the 
 ' pandemoniac ' atmosphere of Chemicopolis, and ask 
 you, If that is Nature, what must be the need of 
 revelation when Nature abnormal differs from Nature 
 normal by such a gulf? Are not man and Nature, 
 though he be her son, too often conflicting elements ? 
 Are not his proudest works too often a painful illustra- 
 tion of the truth that while beauty is skin deep, ugli- 
 ness may be bone deep ? 
 
 But that beautifying and softening power that 
 moderates the hideousness of man's monstrosities, 
 and humiliates the excrescences that he dignifies with
 
 134 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 the title of Architecture, is mighty, and, like Truth, 
 will prevail. It is not merely an enduring force in 
 the elements that surround us, but a permanent 
 quality in the very structure of their atoms. Not 
 more surely does oxygen effect its protean migrations 
 from sea to cloud, from cloud to tree, from tree to 
 earth or air, and from earth or air to ocean again ; 
 and not more by virtue of abiding and beneficent law, 
 than do the forms of lichen, of moss, of fungus and 
 fern deposit their spores, and plant their beauteous 
 shapes upon the hideous wall or the unsightly house- 
 top. This harmonizing power, this decorative genius 
 of atom and molecule, is a thing that the atheist and 
 evolutionist will do well to ponder carefully. The 
 development of the individual species is one thing, 
 its adaptation and adjustment to each and all that 
 surround it is quite another. What can be more 
 delightful to contemplate in Nature than the resurrec- 
 tion of beauty from the ashes of the hideous ? what 
 more pleasing to reflect upon than the enduring power 
 of her beneficent touch, which no lapse of ages can 
 destroy ? 
 
 In the rugged and stony soil of the mountains to 
 erect a grave by the casting of stones is a less arduous 
 process than to excavate it with pick and mattock. 
 And the mountain wolves which must have been 
 common in the days of Dunmail would more readily 
 unearth the gravel than burrow through the blocks of 
 the cairn. Barrows, however, in the lower ground
 
 Toils of the Farm. 135 
 
 must always have exceeded cairns in number. Not a 
 mile from the spot where I wrote these words, there 
 rises from a level meadow the rounded heap which 
 passes in tradition for the 'Grave of Ella.' The 
 ancient barrow was a kind of natural crematorium, 
 more perfect, probably by virtue of its greater exposure 
 to the elements, than is the modern grave. And the 
 cairn, too, upon the mountain would be more perfect 
 still by the ceaseless permeations of the rain storm 
 and the snow. To search for the remains of mortality 
 in a cairn would be like looking for water in a sieve. 
 
 The burial of a Sow on a dark stormy night, the 
 picks resounding among the hills and the work going 
 on ' by the lantern dimly burning,' was a sight 
 which the writer once witnessed (at a distance) with 
 melancholy interest. 
 
 What a saga might thereon have been indited. 
 How earnest were the efforts to save the prolific 
 mother as she lay and gasped out her poor life, and 
 how assiduously and tenderly were her unconscious 
 sucklings cared for by the farmer's family ! How 
 they screamed for the comforting bottle, and how 
 plump and joyful they grew up to maturity ! 
 
 One of the most trying features in the life of farmers 
 holding stock is the sudden illness of an animal in the 
 night-time, with no farrier at hand. On such occa- 
 sions the solemn consultations, the long night-watch- 
 ings, the concocting of hot gruel, and general solici- 
 tude for the dumb patient, might often put to shame
 
 136 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade' 
 
 the languid efforts of those in charge of poor 
 humanity. 
 
 The life of a fellside farmer is not all poetry. Look 
 at the passionate shepherd's song : 
 
 1 Come, live with me and be my love, 
 And we will all the pleasures prove 
 That hills and valleys, dale and field, 
 And all the craggy mountains yield. 
 
 ' There will we sit upon the rocks, 
 And see the shepherds feed their flocks 
 By shallow rivers, to whose fall 
 Melodious birds sing madrigal.' 
 
 Compare this with the scene of operations on a 
 dark February morning, about five or six o'clock. 
 Out go the sturdy sons of the soil, in the dark, with 
 clogs clattering upon the cobbles, lantern in hand, to 
 look after sick sow, asthmatic calf, wandering sheep, 
 and others of their numerous tribe, and that, too, after 
 watching, perhaps, half the night, and minus breakfast. 
 The song they sing within them is but little after 
 Marlowe, and may be supposed to run somewhat in 
 this style : 
 
 ' Oh ! it's up in the morning at five, 
 And out in the teeth of the blast ; 
 When the wind on the fell's fit to flay you alive, 
 And the rain might be raining its last ! 
 
 ' And it's toil, toil, toil, 
 
 And trudge, trudge, trudge ; 
 For small is the fruit of a shepherd's moil, 
 When the elements bear him a grudge.' 
 
 S. B.
 
 Names from the 'Bloomeries.' 137 
 
 A townsman, indeed, would scarcely credit the 
 narrative of work performed by some of the sheep- 
 farmers, and it is marvellous how few accidents occur 
 even when snow lies thick upon the hills ; but they 
 have narrow escapes at times in rescuing sheep on the 
 fells. 
 
 Local family names do not present much that is 
 peculiar to this district, being such as are to be found 
 in other parts of Cumberland. Some of the older 
 families of the last generation have departed, having 
 sold their estates to the Manchester Corporation. The 
 Corporation own the lake and the land contiguous 
 to it. 
 
 The chief names now occurring are the following : 
 Hinde, Thwaite, Cole, Walker, Birkett (in the female 
 line), Hawkrigg, Thompson, Bell, and, till recently, 
 Gilbanks. 
 
 Cole, we may note, represents the older form of 
 'coal,' and doubtless the older form of the article 
 also not c sea-coal,' but timber. In the old registers 
 ' colliers,' or ' collyers,' were those who attended to 
 the supply of wood fuel for the bloomeries, blomaries, 
 or bloom-smithies, which at one period were suppressed 
 in some districts by royal mandate, on account of 
 their consumption of the wood needful for other 
 uses. 
 
 Ashburner, a name very local in the Furness 
 district of Lancashire, refers to the same work, to wit, 
 that of these smelting places which were scattered all
 
 138 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 about the country when the great iron-works were un- 
 known. 
 
 Thwaite, a place as well as a personal name, abounds 
 in Cumberland, Westmorland, North Lancashire, 
 and Yorkshire, with and without a vast variety of 
 prefixes. The thwaite, or ' clearing ' of the cross, 
 fragrant with memories of St. Kentigern and St. 
 Hubert, is the ancient site upon which arose the now 
 venerable church of Crosthwaite, to which that of 
 Wythburn was long a chapel of ease, and to which it 
 still pays tithe. Thwaite is by natives usually pro- 
 nounced T'wait. 
 
 The names of Hinde, Walker, Thompson, and Bell 
 present nothing etymologically that is peculiar to the 
 district, and are English rather than Cumbrian. 
 
 Birkett and Hawkrigg are suggestive. 
 
 Birkett in other places assumes a variety of forms, 
 and is very frequent all round Keswick, the members 
 of this family forming quite a clan, of which many 
 members have been highly respected in this district 
 for generations. 
 
 The object-names Hawk and Rigg, combined in 
 Hawkrigg, remind us of an ornithological feature of 
 the ' ridges ' and rocks in the vicinity of Wythburn, 
 viz., the abundance, greater in former days than now, 
 of the falcon tribe. Proportionate to this abundance 
 is the absence of skylarks in the lower ground, due 
 apparently to the ease with which their enemy, dashing 
 from his home upon the cliff, might secure them in
 
 Cloth-fuller or Walker. 139 
 
 mid-air while soaring from the valley beneath. This 
 name of Hawkrigg, a highly-respected name in Wyth- 
 burn and St. John's in the Vale, is singularly appro- 
 priate to the part of Wythburn about the City and 
 Westhead. 
 
 The City,* as has been suggested by one who is no 
 mean scholar, is neither more nor less than a corrup- 
 tion of ' Sitting,' that is, the place of session of the 
 early judges, met to adjudicate in criminal cases. We 
 can then picture the white-bearded patriarchs seated 
 in solemn conclave upon the semicircle of boulders 
 facing the central rock, and, after the giving of sentence, 
 sternly watching the miserable captive led away to be 
 decapitated on that very rock, before the assembled 
 witnesses. 
 
 The name of Walker, as Canon C. W. Bardsley tells 
 us, signifies, not a person of great walking power, but 
 a fuller. He quotes a statute of Elizabeth, which 
 includes a ' woollen weaver, cloth-fuller, otherwise 
 called tucker or walker.' 
 
 * This word ' City ' is also the traditional name of a hamlet 
 adjoining the now busy town of St. Helens in Lancashire.
 
 CHAPTER XII.
 
 NORSE ORIGIN OF DIALECT FANNY GRAHAM THE 
 POSTMAN AND THE CALF MID-COUNTY DIALECT 
 BALLAD.
 
 XII. 
 
 SPEAKING of the settlement of Adam of Leece 
 at Ulverston, Canon Bardsley remarks : 
 ' Adam of Leece settles in Ulverston as a good 
 centre of industry, but Roger of Ulverston does not 
 settle in Leece. Hence Leece in our registers but 
 not Ulverston.* These local terms,' he adds, 'single 
 or compound, are reminders of a far more distant 
 immigration, that of the Norseman. In beck, and gill, 
 and tar;;, and dale, a.\\& force orfoss, and .///, and scale, 
 and holme, and thwaite, and mire, we see affixes or 
 suffixes which tell us the particular race that ran their 
 adventurous ships upon the perilous coasts of Cumber- 
 land and Furness. It was a Norwegian rather than a 
 Danish raid.' In other ways, too, this author notes 
 that the dialect of Furness indicates 'clear traces of 
 this dim and far-off invasion.' 
 
 The above remarks apply very generally to Wyth- 
 burn and other districts in Cumberland. 
 
 * ' Chronicles of the Town and Church of Ulverston.'
 
 144 ' Beneath Helvellyris Shade.' 
 
 To those who are not familiar with this northern 
 dialect, the following specimens* of the style and 
 humour of the people may not be devoid of 
 interest. 
 
 The hardiness of some of the poor people is 
 phenomenal. 
 
 Fanny Graham, when ninety-three years of age, 
 walked one morning from Lazonby to Plumpton, 
 between four and five miles. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Harrison, meeting her, said : 
 
 ' I wonder, Fanny, you don't walk with a 
 stick.' 
 
 'Shaff o' ye,' says Fanny, 'it's nought but pride o' 
 ye. I rackon nought of fwok walking wid a stick till 
 they're up in years a bit.' 
 
 A neighbouring old woman called to see her during 
 the keen cold of the early part of January, 1871, when 
 Fanny was about ninety-seven and still fresh. Be- 
 wailing their hard fate, she said : 
 
 ' Oh dear, Fanny ! this hard weather 'ill finish beath 
 thee and me, I think.' 
 
 ' Humph !' says Fanny, ' a likely story, indeed ! 
 Thou mun speak for thysel' ; I'll git through't, I'll 
 warrant me. Dee, indeed ! What's to make us dee, 
 I wonder? We sartenly can stand a bit cold like 
 this !' 
 
 A postman in the far west of the county overtook a 
 
 * From ' Cumbrians,' by the kind permission of Messrs. 
 Callander and Dixon.
 
 The ' Good Old Times.' 145 
 
 butcher leading a calf by a cord tied round his own 
 waist, and vainly endeavouring to induce the animal 
 to cross a foot-bridge on the path. The butcher 
 requested the postman to stand behind the calf and 
 blow his horn when the calf was got into a favourable 
 position. 
 
 When the word was given to ' Blaa, Jimmy, blaa !' 
 a sudden and loud blast was given, and over leapt the 
 calf into a deep moss-pool, dragging the butcher along 
 with it. On recovering his feet, he turned to the 
 astonished postman and roared out : 
 
 ' Thaaw fooal, thaaw ! That was far oor girt a blaa 
 for a fat cofe.' 
 
 As an illustration of the power of the vernacular, 
 the following is significant : 
 
 Doctor, to sick child : ' Open your mouth, child, 
 and put out your tongue.' 
 
 No response, but -a vacant stare. 
 
 'This must be a very stupid child of yours, my 
 good woman.' 
 
 1 It's ye 'at's stupid. Neabody but a feull wad talk 
 tul a bairn that way. Oppen thy gob, hinny, and put 
 out thy lolly.' 
 
 The child was all obedience when addressed in a 
 language it understood. 
 
 As a memorandum of the good old times, when 
 people more easily made a living, the following 
 verses illustrate the mid-county dialect (' Cumbriana,' 
 p. 236): 
 
 10
 
 146 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 1 Fwok tells of oald times sek good oald times 
 
 They bed when they were o' young, 
 And niver sek times sen them oald times 
 Was read on or heard on or sung. 
 
 I' winter time, when t' weather was coald, 
 
 They hardly stirrt out at neuk ; 
 Bit to fetch in a trugful o' peats 'cross t' foald 
 
 And sledder about and smeuk. 
 
 They wad thresh a bit, mebby, and fodder their kye, 
 
 And poo a lock out o' t' hay mew ; 
 And at neet after milkin', and supper put bye, 
 
 Mak swills, or wad card skin woo. 
 
 Or mappen wad beetle a carlin sark, 
 
 On t' beetlin' steann at t' door, 
 Or plet a few strings o' hemp efter dark, 
 
 Or caper about on t' clay floor. 
 
 A carlin sark, new, was rumplement gear, 
 
 To wear next a maisterman's skin ; 
 So he lent it to t' sarvent to beetle and wear, 
 
 By way of a brekkin in. 
 
 T' oald fwok were drist in a duffel blue, 
 And t' youngsters in heamm-spun gray ; 
 
 And nowder were often ower clean or new 
 Bit darn't frae day to day. 
 
 And o' wad hev bracken or strea in their clogs, 
 Or stickin' ower t' edge o' their shun, 
 
 And wad clammer up t' fell, or striddle through bogs, 
 Od, man ! but this was laal fun.' Etc.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 102
 
 MAN AND NATURE WATERSHED ANCIENT WOODS 
 POET'S WALK MUTATIONS OF OXYGEN.
 
 XIII. 
 
 CONSPICUOUS upon the summit of the ridge 
 of rocks that overhang the farm of Westhead 
 are two stone figures built of small boulders from the 
 fell and styled by the natives, the ' Modest Man ' and 
 the ' Modest Woman.' It is pretty well-known that 
 these were erected by some young men, residing at 
 one of the farms within recent years. It is astonish- 
 ing how long such structures will endure in so exposed 
 a situation. This remark applies also to the walls, 
 devoid of mortar, that mark the higher ground. The 
 latter are, however, subject to continual rebuilding of 
 the upper portion, each farmer being responsible for 
 his own. The work of man, even here, has had a 
 considerable effect in modifying nature. Allusion 
 has been made to the ' bloom-smithies ' and their 
 influence first in denuding and afterwards covering 
 the country again with plantations. So thick were 
 the woods in former days between the Valley of 
 Wythburn and the town of Keswick, that it is said to 
 have been a remark of the natives, that a squirrel
 
 150 'Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 might have travelled from Wythburn Church to 
 Keswick without ever touching ground. Whether the 
 Manchester Corporation will think it desirable to 
 plant afresh upon the hill-sides, now bare enough in 
 most parts, remains to be seen. The ground is, 
 first and foremost, a watershed for the Lake of 
 Thirlmere now, or soon to be, a reservoir for the 
 city of Manchester. Will the extension of the woods 
 increase the quantity or improve the quality of the 
 water ? Experts must decide. But one thing seems 
 plain enough, that woods upon a hill-side must 
 tend to moderate its descent. It is, I believe, allowed 
 that where a large tract of land with heavy rain-fall has 
 been much stripped, the torrents have become the 
 more unmanageable, and floods more dangerous and 
 excessive. And it will not be disputed that woods 
 have a tendency to attract vapour and to distil the 
 freight of the passing clouds. 
 
 It would seem, therefore, that with regard to 
 the descent of water, woods are in two respects 
 desirable, and the question of their influence on 
 quality remains. This is partly solved already. For 
 if the lake of Thirlmere, with the mass of timber 
 now around it, yields water as pure as it undoubtedly 
 is, it seems unreasonable to imagine that a judicious 
 planting of the hill slopes again would in any appreci- 
 able degree deteriorate it. Whether these considera- 
 tions will weigh with the Manchester Corporation 
 time alone can show ; but that the beauty of the
 
 Wonder-working Oxygen. 151 
 
 district would be enhanced by an extension of the 
 woods few, I think, will deny. 
 
 The new road to the west of Thirlmere, opening 
 out as it does such lovely views to the tourist, will 
 largely compensate for other changes that many might 
 be disposed to deplore. The walk over the hills to 
 Watendlath will by it be made shorter, for intending 
 pedestrians can then alight from their carriages 
 and ascend at Armboth. This was a walk that 
 the poets delighted in ; 'Wordsworth, Coleridge, 
 De Quincey, Arnold, Rossetti, Faber, must have been 
 in their element here. The solemn and the beautiful, 
 the impressive and the tender, things vast and delicate 
 and mysterious, the romance of history and the 
 inner shrine of Nature's sanctuary, the borderland of 
 the visible and the invisible, ever changing and ever 
 fresh, are here. Here, indeed, is the Kingdom of 
 Oxygen. 
 
 Looking at the little forces which man exerts upon 
 the earth, how utterly futile they seem when con- 
 trasted with the silent, continuous action of those in 
 Nature's machinery. The marvellous magic-working 
 substance we call Oxygen how various, how immense 
 are its operations ! Now it breaks to powder and 
 brings to dust the hardest stone or the toughest metal ; 
 again, it paints with beauty and kindles with fresh 
 bloom the rosy face of a child ; now it builds up a 
 crystal or a flower, and again, it tears to pieces their 
 shattered remains ; now it fills the air with freshness
 
 152 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade. 
 
 and life ; again, it gives fierce destructive power to the 
 conflagration that lays a city in ashes. Ever active, 
 ever changing its form, its operations, in quantity, 
 energy and variety, exceeds the dreams of human 
 arithmetic. Inscribed on every page of Nature's book, 
 he that runs may read : 
 
 ' Ars-celare artem.' 
 
 And here is art that never wearies. 
 
 Ten thousand times ten thousand metamorphoses, 
 continued unintermittingly from that day ' when 
 the morning stars sang together and all the sons of 
 God shouted for joy ' to the present time, have not 
 sufficient to destroy the character of that wonder- 
 working gas or fairy which we term Oxygen. 
 Endless must have been the migrations, inconceivable 
 the work of almost every particle of it that enters into 
 the outer crust of the earth, yet it is still young and 
 active, or man's days would soon be ended. Whence 
 comes this immense, unchangeable and sublime 
 vitality ? Echo, like the materialist of to-day, answers 
 where ? But the poet replies : By the law of Duty, 
 by the fiat of The Eternal : 
 
 ' Flowers laugh before Thee in their beds, 
 And fragrance in Thy footing treads ; 
 Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong, 
 And the most ancient heavens by Thee are fresh and 
 strong.'
 
 CHAPTER XIV
 
 A WYTHBURN HOMILY: VOICES OF THE MOUNTAIN.
 
 XIV. 
 
 ' Neither is there any rock like our God.' I SAM. ii. 2. 
 
 LONG ages ago, in that remote and forgotten 
 past when man, defenceless and illiterate, 
 fled from his stronger fellows to the fastnesses of the 
 mountains, he found in their solemn and majestic 
 forms a fascination full of mystery and awe. 
 
 The faculty of worship and the sense of unseen 
 existences readily associated themselves with the most 
 striking of Nature's forms, and the traditional vestiges 
 of a Divine revelation gave solemnity and interest to 
 the customs of his tribes. Thus the mountains have, 
 from the earliest dawn of history, been regarded as the 
 embodiment of spiritual powers, as the type of endur- 
 ing strength, of purity, and of truth. The living 
 streams, that descend from their cloud-capped summits 
 to revive the. thirsty cattle that wander over' their 
 verdant sides, have rightly been regarded as fitting 
 symbols of that spirit-life and refreshment whose 
 source is eternal in the heavens; and the peaceful 
 lakes that slumber at their feet, and mirror the beauty
 
 156 * Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 of the sky, have justly been taken at least by 
 the Christian as picturing the fulness of Divine 
 love; the inexhaustible fountain of cleansing and of 
 peace. 
 
 How inestimable are the blessings of the rain and 
 dew distilled from the treasures of the air by the 
 attractive force of the everlasting hills ! They descend 
 to water the thirsty plain and restore the fainting 
 myriads of the close-pent city, they facilitate by the 
 force of their streams the operations of industry; 
 they form the most delightful means of transit ; they 
 are the avenues to a thousand varieties of human 
 enjoyment. How sublime, too, are the thoughts 
 suggested by the mountain torrent, and the living 
 waters that owe their birth to its moss-crowned crags I 
 
 'There is a river, the streams whereof shall make 
 glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles 
 of the Most High.' 
 
 ' I will look unto the hills, from whence cometh my 
 help.' 
 
 ' And he arose and did eat and drink, and went in 
 the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights 
 unto Horeb the Mount of God.' 
 
 'The strength of the hills is His also.' 
 
 ' Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ?' 
 
 Thus nobly does the grand old language of the 
 Hebrew poets bring before us both the beauties 
 of Nature's face and the glorious truths which they 
 symbolize in the spirit world the Divine handi-
 
 A Song of Triumph. 157 
 
 work and its lessons ; and chief among these, the 
 things that they reveal concerning the Lord Himself. 
 ' Acquaint thyself with Him and be at peace, so shall 
 good come unto thee ;' thus wrote the poet-dramatist 
 of Nature in the early dawn of the Church's history ; 
 so taught the Lord Jesus, Himself the true and living 
 way to the Father. ' This is life eternal that they 
 might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
 Christ whom Thou hast sent.' 
 
 When Hannah uttered in her sublime song of praise 
 the striking words of the text, a great crisis was 
 approaching in the history of the chosen people. It 
 was near at hand. Wickedness had found its way 
 into high places, and crimes of the deepest dye 
 stained the characters of those who should have been 
 the leaders of the nation. The measure of their 
 iniquity was now full, and the axe was laid to the root 
 of the tree. The Lord arose ' as a man of war ' to 
 avenge His people. 
 
 Therefore the song of this mother in Israel sounds 
 a clear note of triumph : it is the triumph of right 
 over wrong, of holiness over corruption, of humble 
 and neglected worth over the vain and short-lived 
 boasting of the tyrant of this world : it is the triumph 
 of the Lord Himself over His adversaries. Such a 
 song, too, was that of Mary, when, in the fulness of time 
 the Lord appeared to redeem His people; a song 
 perhaps not mightier than this of Hannah, but relative 
 to a grander theme. ' He hath showed strength with
 
 158 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 His arm ; He hath scattered the proud in the imagi- 
 nation of their hearts.' 
 
 We observe that in the songs of Hannah, and of 
 Miriam, of Deborah and Mary, in the utterance of 
 power from the mouth of a woman, there appears the 
 evidence of that wisdom of God which chooseth the weak 
 things of the world to confound the strong. May we 
 not add too, that this wisdom, exercised in the govern- 
 ment of the world is in perfect agreement with the 
 plan observed in Nature, where results of the first 
 importance are effected by a mechanism so simple as 
 almost to elude observation ? In all these things we 
 own the master touch of the Supreme Architect as well 
 as the glory of His work, whether it be in nature or 
 in human history; and we realize the force of the 
 patriarch's question, ' Canst thou by searching find out 
 God ?' and that word, too, of the Psalmist, ' Thou art 
 a God that hidest Thyself.' 
 
 And ought we not also to realize the force of that 
 grand lesson shown in the history of His Church, a 
 lesson that has so tried the patience of His people to 
 learn, viz., that 'Though clouds and darkness are 
 about Him, righteousness and judgment are the habi- 
 tation of His seat ?' 
 
 Yes : ' There is no rock like our God,' none like 
 Him for mystery and for majesty; for perfection in 
 plan, and for excellence in working ; it is He alone 
 who, both in nature and in history, bringeth mighty 
 things to pass.
 
 Repose in God's Handiwork. 159 
 
 Would that we all could realize in our own hearts 
 the grand sustaining power of this blessed and eternal 
 truth that God is infallibly and absolutely just ! 
 
 In the contemplation of Nature under the solemn 
 shade and mighty presence of Helvellyn, a hill so well- 
 known to traveller and poet, we are led first to con- 
 sider the rock, as forming the mountain that adorns 
 the landscape. 
 
 And therefore I call attention to its solemn mys- 
 terious grandeur; its vastness, its impressive power 
 and mysterious suggestiveness. 
 
 These characteristics belong more or less to every 
 mountain, from the glorious peaks of the Andes and 
 Himalayas to the fern-clad slopes and mossy peaks of 
 our own varied Lake district. The sublime aspects 
 of every mountain range, the world over, speak to the 
 human race like an abiding voice with an ever-endur- 
 ing lesson, to tell the vastness of the Divine plan, 
 the perfection of the Divine architecture and the 
 insignificance of man. And who will deny that 
 these are lessons which it is very wholesome for us all 
 to learn? Amid the harassing cares, the feverish 
 competition, the losses and the sorrows of an ever- 
 changing life, to be alone for a time amid the pure, 
 refreshing and hope-inspiring influences of mountain 
 and vale, of moor and torrent, is like a draught of 
 nectar to the thirsty soul. 
 
 And the sense of a perennial constancy that breathes 
 through the wilder scenes of Nature's wondrous archi-
 
 160 ' Beneath Hclvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 tecture is a mighty power to soothe and to heal. It 
 falls upon the spirit with the sweet calm and solemn 
 music of an enduring sabbath. Amid these peaceful 
 scenes the vision and the hope of those pictured 
 glories of seer and prophet seem unfolded to our view, 
 for the grandest strains of prophet and psalmist are 
 always in harmony with the voice of the everlasting 
 hills. And, both from our own meditations and from 
 the inspired pages, one grand lesson should come 
 home to every thoughtful mind. It is set forth in the 
 sublime words of Milton : 
 
 'These are Thy glorious works, Parent of good, 
 Almighty ! Thine this universal frame 
 Thus wondrous fair ; Thyself how wondrous then, 
 Unspeakable, that sit'st above these heavens 
 To us invisible, or dimly seen 
 In these Thy lowest works ; yet these declare 
 Thy goodness beyond thought and power Divine.' 
 
 And if we admit with our greatest philosopher 
 that it is better to believe all the fables of the 
 Koran, than that the universal frame of nature is 
 without a controlling mind, we must also acknow- 
 ledge that the Divine plan and purpose have con- 
 trolled it from the beginning and will control it to the 
 end. Some of you will have read of a great man who 
 lay fretting upon his bed, as to what would happen 
 when he was taken from the world 'Sir,' said his 
 servant, ' don't you think that God managed this world 
 before you were brought into it ?' ' True, indeed,'
 
 Balance in Nature. 161 
 
 said the master. 'Then, sir,' replied the servant, 
 'cannot you trust Him to manage it when you are 
 gone ?' 
 
 The kindly reproof was not without effect; it 
 calmed the troubled spirit. And, indeed, if we could 
 but regard aright this mighty spectacle of Divine 
 government in the world about us we should gladly 
 perceive the force of our Blessed Lord's utterance 
 concerning one of His miracles ' My Father worketh 
 hitherto and I work.' 
 
 Throughout the long continued conflict waged in 
 both the realms of nature animate and inanimate 
 to effect, in the one the balance of opposing forces, 
 in the other the preservation of life, a mighty arm has 
 held the reins and directed the advance of those 
 mysterious wheels which the prophet beheld full of 
 eyes, animated by living spirits, and terrible in their 
 vast circumference. 
 
 Balance and mutual attraction amid the mighty 
 orbs that circle through the fields of space ; balance 
 in the winds that course about our planet and in the 
 clouds that water the thirsty soil ; balance in the tides 
 that roll their ceaseless course from shore to shore ; 
 balance throughout the realms of the animated world, 
 and a limit assigned to the increase and the habitation 
 of every creature ; balance of every constant exactness 
 in the very affinities of the atoms and elements that 
 compose the soil ; and the hand that poises the scales 
 through all this unimaginable diversity of government 
 
 ii
 
 162 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade. 
 
 more unshaken in strength than the foundation of 
 Himalayas or of Andes, and more pure in equity than 
 the virgin snows that robe their summits. 
 
 Such is the spectacle that the broader aspects 
 of nature present to the devout believer. And 
 when we turn to look more closely at the structure of 
 this wondrous world, we find the various parts that 
 compose it no less fertile in their teaching. The 
 spiritual lessons, which nature seems to retain for the 
 thoughtful, as the philosophers of old preserved their 
 choicest enigmas for the true votaries of their science, 
 will often be found most striking. The value of such 
 works as ' Bible Teachings in Nature,' ' Natural Law 
 in the Spiritual World,' is great, not merely as afford- 
 ing intellectual refreshment together with striking 
 illustrations of spiritual truth, but specially as present- 
 ing to us a clearer view of the grand unity of Nature 
 and a suggestive reminder that her teaching is co- 
 extensive with her dominion. Bird and beast, insect 
 and flower, earth, sea and sky, are ever opening before 
 us a volume of lessons that expand more and more as 
 the faculty of observation is developed within us. 
 
 Look at the multitude of tiny creatures fern and 
 flower and moss in all their varieties that find a 
 habitation upon our lonely hill-sides. Who would 
 have imagined that the ( gentle rain from heaven ' and 
 those minute forms of life could modify, as they have 
 done, the hard volcanic rock that surrounds us here ? 
 Yet by such tiny creatures is the soil produced, and
 
 Things Little but Mighty. 163 
 
 the very character of our scenery determined. How 
 true it is that in the natural world, as in the spiritual, 
 the work accomplished by the weak things in the end 
 surpasses that of the strong. And in both worlds, we 
 shall do well to notice the evidences of His hand who 
 is not dependent on instruments, but creates them, to 
 effect His purposes, for history as well as the life of 
 individuals abounds with illustrations of the truth that 
 ' great events from trifling causes spring.' And we 
 may ask, how can an event be really trifling if great 
 ones depend upon it ? And again who but He, who 
 holds in His hand both great and small, can control 
 the chain of circumstances? 
 
 The mighty rock and the tender little plants that 
 cluster upon it are inseparably connected. They 
 clothe its rugged sides with a garment of beauty, they 
 mould its outline, and add expression to the land- 
 scape. The effect of their work continued through 
 the ages is incalculable. Let us read in this parable 
 of nature these comforting truths first, that the lives 
 and the prayers of the little ones are effectual with 
 God; second, that little deeds in the aggregate lead 
 to grand results; third, that His helpless and innocent 
 ones are specially dear to the Great Father of all. 
 
 A simple-minded and faithful woman once sym- 
 pathized with a great missionary, and toiled with dili- 
 gence to advance his work for Christ. ' Greet Mary, 
 who bestowed much labour upon us,' writes St. Paul to 
 the Romans. Those nameless little acts of sympa-
 
 164 ' Beneath Helvellyns Shade' 
 
 thetic care and industry have gained for Mary an 
 imperishable name, a name fragrant with holy love, a 
 name which is inscribed in the Book of God for ever. 
 
 Thus in nature and in the pages of Holy Scripture 
 we may see, if we will, touches of infinite tenderness 
 illustrations of the truth that He who hath His 
 dwelling so high the High and Holy One that in- 
 habiteth eternity can condescend to dwell with him 
 that is of a lowly and contrite spirit, and can say of 
 all His innocent children, ' Suffer them to come unto 
 Me.' 
 
 And now we turn to consider that eternal Rock 
 from whence flows the stream of our salvation, that 
 stream of which it was written by the Psalmist, ' There 
 is a river the streams whereof shall make glad the 
 City of God. The holy place of the tabernacles of 
 the Most High.' That Rock, once smitten for us, hath 
 sent forth abundantly the healing waters through the 
 wilderness of this perishing world. Will ye come to 
 these mighty waters and wash and be healed, or will 
 ye turn to the profitless Abana and Pharpar of the 
 City of Destruction? 
 
 ' Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
 Let me hide myself in Thee ! 
 Let the water and the blood 
 From Thy riven side which flowed 
 Be of sin the double cure : 
 Cleanse me from its guilt and power !' 
 
 So let us learn an abiding lesson from : i, the 
 loftiness and purity ; 2, the strength and endurance ;
 
 The Mountains of God. 165 
 
 3, the life-giving streams of the ' Mountains of God.' 
 Truly, if any object in nature can be worthy of the 
 grand old Hebrew phrase, it is a glorious mountain 
 with its peaks encircled by the mystery of cloudland, 
 with its verdant pastures and bubbling brooks. We 
 gaze across the valley when the cloud-procession is 
 moving from pass to pass in its majestic array, and the 
 crests beyond lift up their snowy summits into the 
 glorious serenity of the unsullied sky. They look down 
 as it were with compassion upon the troubles and 
 turmoil of this mortal strife. They speak to us and 
 tell us to look to Him who sitteth above the heavens. 
 ' Be ye holy,' they say, ' for the Lord your God is 
 holy.' ' As the heavens are higher than the earth, so 
 are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts 
 than your thoughts.' There is no rock so high as our 
 God, in purity, in holiness and love. Again, the 
 mountains are strong and endure. They resist the 
 batteries of the storm from age to age, their inaccess- 
 ible strongholds become the refuge of the outcast and 
 the vanquished, and when nations have flourished and 
 passed away and their very names are forgotten, these 
 silent preachers endure. They point to heaven to tell us 
 that our home is there and not upon earth ; with solemn 
 and majestic voice they rebuke the mad passions, the 
 insane cupidity, the debasing frivolities of men; but 
 their grandest lesson, their peculiar voice consists in 
 this, that they are the ' Mountains of God.' They are 
 His, and of Him they speak.
 
 1 66 ' Beneath Helvellyn's Shade.' 
 
 Compared with the greatest works of man, the moun- 
 tains are indeed everlasting ; but moss and raindrop, 
 snow and storm are surely though slowly, bringing 
 down their pride to the valleys beneath ; it is the 
 Lord alone who endureth throughout all generations, 
 and who changeth the face of nature as a garment. 
 It is the Lord only who is a sure refuge for the 
 oppressed from all their enemies, their castle to which 
 they may continually resort. Pure, indeed, and refresh- 
 ing are the streams that well forth from the solitudes 
 of the mighty hills, but those who drink of their 
 waters shall thirst again. The Lord alone is that 
 Eternal Rock from which floweth the water of life, 
 the perennial stream of which, if a man drink, he shal 
 live for ever. 
 
 May it be the blessed privilege of all who read 
 these words to draw from the wells of salvation that 
 spiritual life which shall bear fruit for ever in the 
 paradise of God ! 
 
 ' I heard the voice of Jesus say, 
 
 " Behold I freely give 
 The living water, thirsty one, 
 
 Stoop down, and drink, and live :" 
 I came to Jesus, and I drank 
 
 Of that life-giving stream ; 
 My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, 
 
 And now I live in Him.' 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, Londoti, E.C.
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed.
 
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