J----- wished to go on, and I allowed him to climb, till he appeared to
have reached so steep and lofty a height that he looked hardly bigger
than a monkey, and I should not at all have wondered had he come rolling
down to the base of the rock where I sat. But neither did he get
actually within the castle, though he might have done so but for a high
stone fence, too difficult for him to climb, which runs from the rock
along the hillside. The sheep probably go thither much oftener than any
other living thing, and to them we left the castle of St. John, with a
shrub waving from its battlements, instead of a banner.
After dinner we ordered a car for Ambleside, and while it was getting
ready, I went to look at the river of St. John, which, indeed, flows
close beside our inn, only just across the road, though it might well be
overlooked unless you specially sought for it. It is a brook brawling
over the stones, very much as brooks do in New England, only we never
think of calling them rivers there. I could easily have made a leap from
shore to shore, and J----- scrambled across on no better footing than a
rail. I believe I have complained of the want of brooks in other parts
of England, but there is no want of them here, and they are always
interesting, being of what size they may.
We drove down the valley, and gazed at the vast slope of Helvellyn, and
at Thirlmere beneath it, and at Eagle's Crag and Raven's Crag, which
beheld themselves in it, and we cast many a look behind at Blencathra,
and that noble brotherhood of mountains out of the midst of which we
came.
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