They load our
supper and breakfast tables with trout, cold beef, ham, toast, and
muffins; and give us three fair courses for dinner, and excellent wine,
the cost of all which remains to be seen. This is not one of the
celebrated stations among the lakes; but twice a day the stage-coach
passes from Milnethorpe towards Ulverton, and twice returns, and three
times a little steamer passes to and fro between our hotel and the head
of the lake. Young ladies, in broad-brimmed hats, stroll about, or row
on the river in the light shallops, of which there are abundance;
sportsmen sit on the benches under the windows of the hotel, arranging
their fishing-tackle; phaetons and post-chaises, with postilions in
scarlet jackets and white breeches, with one high-topped boot, and the
other leathered far up on the leg to guard against friction between the
horses, dash up to the door. Morning and night comes the stage-coach,
and we inspect the outside passengers, almost face to face with us, from
our parlor-windows, up one pair of stairs. Little boys, and J----- among
them, spend hours on hours fishing in the clear, shallow river for the
perch, chubs, and minnows that may be seen flashing, like gleams of light
over the flat stones with which the bottom is paved. I cannot answer for
the other boys, but J----- catches nothing.
There are a good many trees on the hills and roundabout, and pleasant
roads loitering along by the gentle river-side, and it has been so sunny
and warm since we came here that we shall have quite a genial
recollection of the place, if we leave it before the skies have time to
frown.
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