Image: The Wonders of the World in Nature, Art and Mind Robert Sears 1843

Description: 'Druidical remains, near Keswick, Cumberland' 'THE Druidical Circle, represented in the accompanying plate, is to be found on the summit of a bold and commanding eminence called Castle-Rigg, about a mile and a half on the old road, leading from Keswick, over the hills to Penrith,—a situation so wild, vast, and beautiful, that one cannot, perhaps, find better terms to convey an idea of it than by adopting the language of a celebrated female writer, (Mrs. Radclifle,) who, travelling over the same ground years ago, thus described the scene: " Whether our judgment," she says, " was influenced by the authority of a Druid's choice, or that the place itself commanded the opinion, we thought this situation the most severely grand of any hitherto passed. There is, perhaps, not a single object in the scene that interrupts the solemn tone of feeling impressed by its general character of profound solitude, greatness, and awful wildness. Castle-Rigg is the centre point of three valleys that dart immediately under it from the eye, and whose mountains form part of an amphitheatre, which is completed by those of Borrowdale on the west, and by the precipices of Skiddaw and Saddleback, close on the north. The hue which pervades all these mountains is that of dark heath or rock; they are thrown into every form and direction that fancy would suggest, and are at that distance which allows all their grandeur to prevail. Such seclusion and sublimity were indeed well suited to the dark and wild mysteries of the Druids."'
Title: The Wonders of the World in Nature, Art and Mind Robert Sears 1843
Credit: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=sKxBz47jKHwC&ots=v-sdjG4CS4&dq=The%20Wonders%20of%20the%20World%20in%20Nature%20Art%20and%20Mind%20Robert%20Sears%201843&pg=PA520#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Author: Robert Sears
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No