As yet, I have
seen no wildness; everything is perfectly subdued and polished and imbued
with human taste, except, indeed, the outlines of the hills, which
continue very much the same as God made them. As we approached the head
of the lake, the congregation of great hills in the distance became very
striking. The shapes of these English mountains are certainly far more
picturesque than those which I have seen in Eastern America, where their
summits are almost invariably rounded, as I remember them. They are
great hillocks, great bunches of earth, similar to one another in their
developments. Here they have variety of shape, rising into peaks,
falling in abrupt precipices, stretching along in zigzag outlines, and
thus making the most of their not very gigantic masses, and producing a
remarkable effect.
We arrived at the Lowwood Hotel, which is very near the head of the lake,
not long after two o'clock. It stands almost on the shore of Windermere,
with only a green lawn between,--an extensive hotel, covering a good deal
of ground; but low, and rather village-inn-like than lofty. We found the
house so crowded as to afford us no very comfortable accommodations,
either as to parlor or sleeping-rooms, and we find nothing like the
home-feeling into which we at once settled down at Newby Bridge. There
is a very pretty vicinity, and a fine view of mountains to the northwest,
sitting together in a family group, sometimes in full sunshine, sometimes
with only a golden gleam on one or two of them, sometimes all in a veil
of cloud, from which here and there a great, dusky head raises itself,
while you are looking at a dim obscurity.
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