Besides having the length and breadth of Wensleydale to explore with or
without the assistance of the railway, Bainbridge has as its particular
possession the valley containing Semmerwater, with the three romantic
dales at its head. Counterside, a hamlet perched a little above the
lake, has an old hall, where George Fox stayed in 1677 as a guest of
Richard Robinson. The inn bears the date 1667 and the initials
'B.H.J.,' which may be those of one of the Jacksons, who were Quakers
at that time.
On the other side of the river, and scarcely more than a mile from
Bainbridge, is the little town of Askrigg, which supplies its neighbour
with a church and a railway-station. There is a charm in its breezy
situation that is ever present, for even when we are in the narrow
little street that curves steeply up the hill there are quite
exhilarating peeps of the dale. We can see Wether Fell, with the road
we traversed yesterday plainly marked on the slopes, and down below,
where the Ure takes its way through bright pastures, there is a mist of
smoke ascending from Hawes.
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