'The principal flank of Yewdale is formed by a steep range of crag, thrown out from the greater mass of Wetherlam, and known as Yewdale Crag.
'It is almost entirely composed of basalt, or hard volcanic ash, and is of supreme interest among the southern hills of the Lake District, as being practically the first rise of the great mountains of England out of the lowlands of England.
'And it chances that my own study window being just opposite this crag, and not more than a mile from it as the bird flies, I have it always staring me, as it were, in the face, and asking again and again, when I look up from writing any of my books: "How did I come here?"
* * * * *
'But as I regain my collected thought, the mocking question ceases, and the divine one forms itself, in the voice of vale and streamlet, and in the shadowy lettering of the engraven rock.
'"Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding."'—John Ruskin: Yewdale and its Streamlets.
Photo by Hills & Saunders, Oxford.
JOHN RUSKIN IN OLD AGE.
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