English and Foreign Scenery-Charm of the Lake District-Geology of the Country-Borrowdale and its Plumbago-The most Rainy Spot in Britain-Rosthwaite Spring and the Cuckoo-Grange-Traces of Glacial Action-Lodore and its Fall-Derwentwater-An Unlucky Earl-The Lady's Rake-Bassenthwaite - Keswick and its Memories-The Poets:" Southey, Coleridge-Skiddaw-The Vale of St. John-The "Druid Circle."

ENGLISH travellers are sometimes reproached by stay-at-home

friends with wandering over other lands before they have thoroughly explored their own. Occasionally the accusation has in it a show of justice-we are all too apt to care for that which is difficult of attainment, simply because it is difficult, and to prize the hothouse flower, because it is a hot-house flower, above that which blossoms on the hedgebank before our own door. Still, if before crossing the Channel we were to wait until we had seen all in the United Kingdom, we should not begin our journey til age, if not stiffening our joints, was at any rate depriving them of their early elasticity, and should be undertaking the more laborious journeys just when the easier travelling amid home comforts would be most appreciated. Still more, it may be doubted whether any one who has not visited foreign lands can thoroughly appreciate his own country, or at any rate can enjoy its scenery as perfectly as one who is able to estimate from experience its similarity to, and difference from, that of other districts of Europe. For it must not be forgotten that in its scenery, as in its geology, our land is a sort of epitome or museum. Scandinavia may be said to stretch down to Scotland; the great plain of Northern Europe extends into the Cambridgeshire fens, and fringes the Lincolnshire wolds. In the moors of Cornwall and in the wilds of Kerry we seem to have the last lingering relics of sunnier climes, and to reach across the Atlantic waves to the heaths that fringe the margin of the Bay of Biscay.

Viewed in this light, North Wales, and still more the Lake District, are an epitome of an epitome. The Solway Firth is close at hand to the latter, but this is no longer Caledonia stern and wild. Between the hills of Galloway and of Cumberland there is a difference even

more marked than between the lake districts of Switzerland and of Italy. Of the last, indeed, we are not seldom reminded when in Cumbria; for around its lakes we have just that happy blending-though in a more northern latitude-of ruggedness of outline with luxuriance of detail, which is the peculiar charm of the sub-Alpine region of Northern Italy.

Each of the Cumbrian lakes will find its own supporters. Whether the palm be given to Derwentwater or not, few, we think, will deny that it occupies among its fellows very much the same position as the Lake of Orta among those of North Italy. It is indeed small, but it is so complete in itself. The northern end of Windermere, the southern of Ulleswater, may be as luxuriantly beautiful; but each of these near the other extremity subsides into comparative tameness. The mountain outlines around Buttermere may be as grand, but their slopes are a little bleak and chilly. They are even grander around Wastwater, but there they are often almost dreary. The charms, in short, which each of the other lakes enjoys separately, are to a very great extent combined in Derwentwater. Like Orta, also, Derwentwater is simply oval in form. It is about three miles long, and the breadth is about half the length; is 238 feet above the sea, and seventy feet in greatest depth-a glassy bead through which the Derwent runs like a thread. The river-valley just beyond the lower end of Derwentwater bends round rather towards the west beneath the feet of Skiddaw, so that the lake from many points of view seems to be completely embosomed in mountains. These are unusually varied in shape, and in this variety is one of the greatest charms of the scenery. It is due, we need hardly say, to the geological structure of the district, which is in many respects exceptionally interesting.

The rocks which constitute the chief part of the Lake District proper belong to the upper portion of that series which the first describer of it and of them, the illustrious Sedgwick, himself a dalesman, called the Cambrian, but which is now more generally designated -whether rightly or not is at present immaterial-by the name of Lower Silurian. To the same period belong the Welsh Cader Idris and the Arenigs, as well as Snowdon. These in the neighbourhood of Derwentwater are represented by a great mass of rather soft, dark, slaty rock, called from the mountain which is composed of them-the Skiddaw Slates, together with a very thick series of rocks, varying from the coarsest possible fragments, piled pell-mell together, to fine slate, all generally very hard and of a greenish colour. Thus the contours of the two districts are wholly different-the rounded head of Skiddaw being typical of the one, the sharp peak and ridges of Grisedale Pike of the other. In this latter district. the greater part of Derwentwater is situated, and it is not difficult for the eye to follow almost the line of junction of the two formations along the mountain-slopes. The Borrowdale series, as it is called, occupies the greater part of the country in which occur the principal lakes, and consequently the most beautiful scenery. Yet, as the traveller gazes upon it ---upon calm sheets of water nestling amid woods, and guarded by silent crags, on which the motto "Peace on earth" seems everywhere written-he little thinks, as a rule, of the wild turmoil amid which those rocks were first deposited. At that time all this fair land must have been studded thick with volcanoes, which ejected volleys of shattered rock, clouds of ashes, and streams of incandescent lava. Here the larger blocks, sometimes several cubic feet in volume, were piled up, as may still be seen, in wild confusion; there the finer

sediment seems to have fallen into lagoons, or have been spread about by the sea, so that at last more than two miles in vertical thickness of these deposits, now stiffened into solid stone, were accumulated. Even some of the crags which look down upon Derwentwater are streams of lava, which, when once the eye is accustomed to the changes in aspect that as is natural, have been wrought by long lapse of ages, can be seen to present all the characteristics of the streams which have flowed from the volcanoes of Eifel or Auvergne. During all this time little vegetation seems to have clothed the land, few living creatures to have tenanted the waters; for throughout this 12,000 feet of rock no trace of an organism has yet been found. This, however, was only a local peculiarity. We are not to suppose that the earth was then without form and void.

The relics of living creatures are entombed in the dark slates below; and in other parts of England, where rocks of this age are found, there is evidence of abundant life. Here, either the nature of the rocks. may have been unfavourable to the preservation of the remains of creatures entombed within them, or, what is perhaps more probable on the whole, the rapid discharge of volcanic material may have been detrimental to the growth of vegetation on the land and the presence of living creatures in the water. Volcanic rocks, it is true, will at last give rise to a fruitful soil, but for many a yearafter many a century-the rugged surface of the lava bed, and the waste of loose ashes, remain unclothed by the green herb, scarce affording a resting-place to the arid lichen.

Happily for the lovers of scenery, the mountains of the Lake District are not generally rich in minerals, so that they have been kept free from gaunt chimneys and bare rubbishheaps, which defile the landscape and sometimes poison the streams and the air. True, indeed, if it become the fashion to treat it as the reservoir of the northern towns, and other lakes share the fate which seems likely to befall Thirlmere, the future traveller will have to feast his eyes on tanks, no doubt laid out as ornamental sheets of water, and on dams disguised as ornamental rockwork. Be that day far distant from Derwentwater!

In Borrowdale, however, as the upper valley of the Derwent is called, about six miles from the lake, there is near the hamlet of Seathwaite a mine of considerable celebrity, and formerly of great value, producing, not one of the ordinary metals, but the substance popularly called "black lead." It is perhaps needless to say that this has nothing to do with the metal lead. "Black lead," or "plumbago," called generally in science "graphite," is simply mineral carbon, which can be readily distinguished from the common ore of lead-galena (obtained largely in some parts of Cumberland)-by its lightness, its different lustre, and the

GRAPHITE IN BORROWDALE.

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black streak which it easily makes upon paper. It is, in fact, own brother to the diamond, but, strange fantasy of nature, the one is in almost all respects the exact converse of the other-the one opaque and black, the other translucent and colourless-the one among the softest, the other the hardest of minerals.

The mine has been worked for many years, and was in even higher reputation a century or two since than at the present day. We are informed by Mr. Robinson, in his "Natural History of Westmorland and Cumberland,"* that "its composition is a black, pungent, and

shining earth, impregnated with lead and antimony. Its natural uses are both medicinal and mechanical. It is a present remedy for the cholic; it easeth the pain of gravel, stone, and strangury; and for these and the like uses it is much bought up by apothecaries and physicians, who understand more of its medicinal uses than I am able to give account of. The manner of the country people using it is thus:-First they beat it small into meal, and then take as much of it, in white wine or ale, as will lie upon a sixpence, or more if the distemper require it. Besides these uses that are medicinal, it hath many other uses which increase the value of it. At the first discovering it the neighbourhood made no other use of it but for marking their sheep; but now it is made use of to glaze and

Quoted in Nicholson and Burns' " History and Antiquities of Westmorland and Cumberland," p. 80. (London: 1777.)

harden crucibles, and other vessels made of earth and clay, that are to endure the hottest fire, and to that end it is wonderfully effectual, which much enhanceth the price of such vessels."

In an Act of Parliament, 25 Geo. II., c. 10, it is made felony to break into "any mine or wad hole of wad or black cawke, commonly called black lead, or to steal any from thence ;" and it is recited that "the same hath been discovered in one mountain or ridge of hills only in this realme, and hath been found by experience to be necessary for divers useful purposes, and more especially in the casting of bomb shells, round shot, and cannon balls."

The mine is first mentioned in a grant of a portion of the manor of Borrowdale (a part of the abbey lands of Furness) from James I. to William Whitmore and Jonas Verdon. The mine appears to have been opened in different places, where the mineral appeared at the surface, and after a sufficient quantity had been taken up to supply the demand for a few years, it was again strongly closed. In these old workings gunpowder does not appear to have been used. The mineral is found in irregular veins, and the more "varicose" these are, the better for the miners. According to Mr. J. C. Ward,* "the plumbago occurs in close connection with a dyke of highly altered diorite, lying between two other masses of intrusive blue trap (diabase) of a compact character;" but the exact history of its origin and production cannot yet be said to be determined. Probably it is of vegetable origin-a bed of some carbonaceous material having been altered by the intrusion of the above igneous rocks. The purer varieties contain about 85 to 90 per cent. of carbon, with a little iron oxide and earthy matter.

At the beginning of the present century the value of the mine was estimated at £2,700 a year. The mine is still worked, but we believe is not so productive as formerly; indeed, it is only within the last few years that it has been reopened, after remaining for long closed in consequence of one or two failures. It has a peculiar value, owing to its suitability for lead pencils. This variety is "of rare occurrence, and consequently fetches a high price. No graphite has been so much in request for this purpose as that of Borrowdale in Cumberland, but graphite adapted to the manufacture of crucibles may be procured in abundance at various localities, at a moderate price. It is the peculiar state of aggregation which gives value to the Borrowdale graphite, and not its purity, for, according to Karsten, it leaves on combustion not less than 13.3 per cent. of ash, whereas some of the Ceylon graphite, which is of comparatively small value for pencils, contains only traces of foreign matter."+ The manufacture of the plumbago into pencils is carried on at more than one mill in the town, but most of the mineral is imported-chiefly, we believe, from Mexico. A method also has been discovered (Brockedon's patent) of converting by pressure powdered plumbago into a mass sufficiently solid to serve for pencils.

In other minerals of commercial value the neighbourhood of Derwentwater is not rich, although veins of lead, iron, cobalt, nickel, antimony, and copper exist, and have been from time to time worked, not, however, as a rule with great success, except in the case of the last. The copper mines of Newlands valley, though now discontinued, were formerly of great value, and in the reign of Queen Elizabeth "the most famous at that time in England, and perhaps

Geology of the Northern Part of the English Lake District," p. 63. + Percy, "Metallurgy," p. 103.