“If that glass should break or fall,
Farewell the luck of Eden Hall”—
is implicitly believed in; Askham, of which we have already spoken; Greystoke Castle, where “Belted Will” Howard and his wife, “Bessie with the braid apron,” lived; Shap, with its ruined abbey; Ulleswater, the grandest of lakes—wild, lovely, and beautiful, with its banks at its more sylvan end here and there studded with charming villas; Sharrow Bay, a “home of taste,” the seat of Anthony Parkin, Esq., where Art is more happily wedded to Nature than is usually the case, and where the views of the lake are more charming than from any other point; Lyulph’s Tower; Haweswater, another exquisite lake; Hackthorpe, rich in antiquarian interest, but rendered for all time famous as the residence of one of the most gifted sons of Art, Jacob Thompson,[52] from whose easel at the “Hermitage” emanate those marvellous conceptions which have created for him his “name and fame for all time;” Lowther village, planned in military style, and with adjoining battery; Bampton, Helton, and a score or two other places—these are not a tithe of the attractions which the immediate neighbourhood of Lowther Castle presents, and which are all easily visited by the stranger. Thanks to the railway companies—to the Midland more especially, by the formation of its Settle and Carlisle line—the Lake district is opened out to the world, and is able to be visited with real pleasure, with economy of time, with immense benefit, and with perfect comfort. By the line to which we have alluded the traveller passes along the side of one of the loftiest of the whole ranges of mountains, and sees the country mapped out beneath him in rich profusion of wood and meadow and stream, the towns and villages dotted about here and there, and the becks and streams, the tarns and lakes, the rocks and mountains, opened out before him, charmingly diversified and rendered rich in colouring by the ever-changing atmosphere. From London, without change, all this can be reached by the Settle and Carlisle route, and the visitor may thus in a few brief hours be transported from the busy town life of the metropolis into the very heart of the most lovely scenery the world can produce.
CLUMBER.
CLUMBER, the seat of his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, is charmingly situated within about four miles from Worksop, and on the borders of Sherwood Forest. The drive from Worksop, up Sparkin Hill, and so along the highway for the forest, is lovely in the extreme, the road being well wooded on either side, and presenting glimpses of forest scenery that are peculiarly grateful to the eye. Leaving the main road to the left, and entering the grounds by the Lodge, a carriage drive of a mile or more in length through the well-wooded park leads to the mansion, which is at once elegant, picturesque, and “homely.” To it, however, we are only able to devote very brief attention.
Clumber is of comparatively modern erection, having been first built in 1770, and received since then many important additions. It has, therefore, no history attached to it. The place was, till about that time, simply a wild tract of forest land, which the then noble duke who planned and carried out the works cleared and cultivated at an enormous outlay, forming the extensive lake at an expense of some £7,000, and erecting the mansion at a princely cost.