I gather from it that the
hotel must have been rebuilt or repaired from an old manor-house, which
was itself erected by a family of Prestons, after the Reformation, and
was a renewal from the Abbot's residence. Much of the edifice probably,
as it exists now, may have been part of the original one; and there are
bas-reliefs of Scripture subjects, sculptured in stone, and fixed in the
wall of the dining-room, which have been there since the Abbot's time.
This author thinks that what we had supposed to be the school-house (on
the authority of an old book) was really the building for the reception
of guests, with its chapel. He says that the tall arches in the church
are sixty feet high. The Earl of Burlington, I believe, is the present
proprietor of the abbey.
THE LAKES.
July 16th.--On Saturday, we left Newby Bridge, and came by steamboat up
Windermere Lake to Lowwood Hotel, where we now are. The foot of the lake
is just above Newby Bridge, and it widens from that point, but never to
such a breadth that objects are not pretty distinctly visible from shore
to shore. The steamer stops at two or three places in the course of its
voyage, the principal one being Bowness, which has a little bustle and
air of business about it proper to the principal port of the lake. There
are several small yachts, and many skiffs rowing about. The banks are
everywhere beautiful, and the water, in one portion, is strewn with
islands; few of which are large enough to be inhabitable, but they all
seem to be appropriated, and kept in the neatest order.
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