Tales and Legends of the English Lakes

The lady of Sir Kay, another of King Arthur's knights, tries it on with no better success; and the ballad thus corroborates the old traditions reported by the earliest historian...

Nay, God forbid!--You recollect I mention'd A habit which disquietude and grief Had brought upon him; and we all conjectured That, as the day was warm, he had lain down Upon the...

He was alone, among strangers; he was exposed to the thousand little discomforts which are inseparable from the lot of him who has no place which he can feel to be a home. He en...

He returned to the metropolis an altered man. His gloom and abstraction had vanished, and he pursued his vocation with redoubled assiduity. But still his heart was absent in "th...

From this time he played a double game; his visits to Keswick became frequent, and his suit to the young lady assiduous and fervent. Still, however, both at Keswick and Butterme...

"He asked me," said Tom, "if the river was passable; and I told him it was, for nine of our family had just gone over. ('They were nine geese,' whispered Tom, 'but I did not tel...

In the early part of the summer of 1807, a very handsome young lady, apparently about twenty-two, came to the village of Hawes, and took lodgings there. She positively refused t...

Upon the forest-side in Grasmere Vale There dwelt a shepherd, Michael was his name; An old man, stout of heart, and strong of limb. His bodily frame had been from youth to age O...

She even possessed a vivacity that accompanied all her actions, and threw her real character into the distance. Though endued with the keenest sensibility, she appeared all life...

As soon as the carriage-door had been opened by the under-sheriff, he alighted with his two companions. A small-cart, boarded over, had been placed under the gibbet, and a ladde...

No part of the world possesses so many charms for the contemplative mind as the admirable scenery of our English Lake District. None can furnish so wide a field for the excursio...

While yet I gazed on Soutra's fell, A sight appeared (I live and tell!), Strange, ominous, and yet obscure, But fate has wrought the vision sure; Too soon explained, it bodes no...

On inquiring of the boatman who it was that had expended so much labour, he pointed out another stone, on which were the words, "John Longmire, Engraver," and informed us that i...

In sleep she sometimes walked abroad, Deep sighs with quick words blending, Like that pale queen, whose hands are seen With fancied spots contending; But she is innocent of bloo...

Mr. Baines, who, with a companion, ascended Helvellyn by this pass some years ago, thus describes it:--"The ridge we were upon--Striding Edge--was the shorter but more rugged pa...

"The lady sate the Monarch by, Now in her turn abash'd and shy, And with indifference seem'd to hear The toys he whisper'd in her ear. Her bearing modest was and fair, Yet shado...

"Yet wad I rather be ca'd Hobbie Noble, In Carlisle where he suffers for his fau't, Than I'd be ca'd the traitor Mains, That eats and drinks o' the meal and maut."

De Vaux had mark'd the sunbeams set, At eve, upon the coronet Of that enchanted mound, And seen but crags at random flung, That, o'er the brawling torrent hung, In desolation fr...

The Lady Eva, as well befits high-born dames, was somewhat romantic in her tastes, and would often row for hours upon the lake, and wander for miles through the woods, or even u...

Of Europe seem'd the damsels all; The first a nymph of lively Gaul, Whose easy step and laughing eye Her borrow'd air of awe belie; The next a maid of Spain, Dark-eyed, dark-hai...