The Middle Reach of Ullswater
“After Rain.”
been the abode of outlaws and was practically unvisited. Later, the Abbots of Furness allotted great portions of land in their domain to their “villeins.” This gave a lead to the Feudal Lords who gradually followed suit, and thus the outlying parts of the district became dotted with farms and homesteads. These ultimately encroached further and further into the mountains.
With nobody to dispute their ownership, these “small holders” built stone walls up the mountain sides to mark the boundary of their claim and to form enclosures for their stock. These walls, hundreds of years old and apparently meaningless to us to-day, still form a very characteristic feature of the scenery. It may be thought by some that they are a disfigurement, but if so this is due to the cutting down of much timber and woods which no doubt formerly hid them from view. In any case they are grey, lichen-covered, and in entire keeping with the district. From this period onward, whilst guarding their homes and possessions from predatory bands of freebooters, the Lakeland yeomen or “statesmen” steadily improved their holdings, cleared the forests, reclaimed the marshes and gradually gave to the countryside the aspect it wears to-day.
It was about the year 1700 that people first began to take an interest in its scenery, the poet Gray being, in 1767, the first person of note to visit it. His writings and descriptions of the scenery did much to make it known to the outside world. Indeed, he was the real discoverer of Lakeland, the precursor of those bands of tourists who, in yearly increasing numbers, visit it for the sole purposes of feasting upon its beauty and drinking in its elevating and healthful influences.
CHAPTER II.
Windermere and Ambleside.
WINDERMERE recalls the name of one who made it peculiarly his own—that genial-hearted philosopher, Christopher North (Professor Wilson), who has left on record that “the best time to visit it is from January 1st to December 31st.” A true lover of our largest lake, he also said that “it has the widest breadth of water, the richest foreground of wood, and the most magnificent background of mountains, not only in Westmoreland, but, believe us, in the whole world.”