n observer familiar with the
several vales, must, from their various position in relation to the sun,
have had before his eyes every possible embellishment of beauty,
dignity, and splendour, which light and shadow can bestow upon objects
so diversified. For example, in the vale of Winandermere, if the
spectator looks for gentle and lovely scenes, his eye is turned towards
the south; if for the grand, towards the north: in the vale of Keswick,
which (as hath been said) lies almost due north of this, it is directly
the reverse. Hence, when the sun is setting in summer far to the
north-west, it is seen, by the spectator from the shores or breast of
Winandermere, resting among the summits of the loftiest mountains, some
of which will perhaps be half or wholly hidden by clouds, or by the
blaze of light which the orb diffuses around it; and the surface of the
lake will reflect before the eye correspondent colours through every
variety of beauty, and through all degrees of splendour. In the vale of
Keswick, at the same period, the sun sets over the humbler regions of
the landscape, and showers down upon _them_ the radiance which at once
veils and glorifies,--sending forth, meanwhile, broad streams of rosy,
crimson, purple, or golden light, towards the grand mountains in the
south and south-east, which, thus illuminated, with all their
projections and cavities, and with an intermixture of solemn shadows,
are seen distinctly through a cool and clear atmosphere. Of course,
there is as marked a difference between the _noontide_ appearance of
these two opposite vales. The bedimming haze that overspreads the south,
and the clear atmosphere and determined shadows of the clouds in the
north, at the same time of the day, are each seen in these several
vales, with a contrast as striking. The reader will easily conceive in
what degree the intermediate vales partake of a kindred variety.

I do not indeed know any tract of country in which, within so narrow a
compass, may be found an equal variety in the influences of light and
shadow upon the sublime or beautiful features of landscape; and it is
owing to the combined circumstances to which the reader's attention has
been directed. From a point between Great Gavel and Scawfell, a
shepherd would not require more than an hour to descend into any one of
eight of the principal vales by which he would be surrounded; and all
the others lie (with the exception of Hawswater) at but a small
distanc