Moreover, it
was rippled with a breeze, and so, as I remember it, though the sun
shone, it looked dull and sulky, like a child out of humor. Now, the
best thing these small ponds can do is to keep perfectly calm and smooth,
and not attempt to show off any airs of their own, but content themselves
with serving as a mirror for whatever of beautiful or picturesque there
may be in the scenery around them. The hills about Rydal Water are not
very lofty, but are sufficiently so as objects of every-day view,--
objects to live with; and they are craggier than those we have hitherto
seen, and bare of wood, which indeed would hardly grow on some of their
precipitous sides.
On the roadside, as we reach the foot of the lake, stands a spruce and
rather large house of modern aspect, but with several gables and much
overgrown with ivy,--a very pretty and comfortable house, built, adorned,
and cared for with commendable taste. We inquired whose it was, and the
coachman said it was "Mr. Wordsworth's," and that "Mrs. Wordsworth was
still residing there." So we were much delighted to have seen his abode,
and as we were to stay the night at Grasmere, about two miles farther on,
we determined to come back and inspect it as particularly as should be
allowable. Accordingly, after taking rooms at Brown's Hotel, we drove
back in our return car, and, reaching the head of Rydal Water, alighted
to walk through this familiar scene of so many years of Wordsworth's
life.
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