 |
 |
|
|
|
site name:-
|
Conishead Priory
|
|
|
parish
|
Ulverston parish, once in
Lancashire
|
|
|
county:-
|
Cumbria
|
|
|
|
viewpoint; station
|
|
|
coordinates:-
|
SD304757
|
|
|
10Km square:-
|
SD37
|
|
|
|
|
1Km square |
SD3075 |
|
|
|
|
descriptive text:- |
West 1778 (11th edn 1821)
|
|
|
|
Guide book, A Guide to the Lakes, by Thomas West,
published by William Pennington, Kendal, Cumbria once
Westmorland, and in London, 1778 to 1821. |
|
|  |
goto source.
|
|
|
|
Page 43:-
|
|
|
|
... the views from the house [Conishead Priory] are both
pleasing and surprising. They are at once grand and ele-
|
|
| |
goto source.
|
|
|
|
Page 44:-
|
|
|
|
[ele]gant, rural and marine. On the eastern side, you have a
fine aestuary, spotted with rocks, isles, and peninsulas, a
variety of shore, deeply indented in some places, in others
composed of noble arched rocks, craggy, broken, and fringed
with wood; over these, hanging woods, intermixed with
cultivated inclosures, covered with a back ground of
stupendous mountains. As a contrast to this view, from the
other end of the gravel walk (between two culminating hills,
covered with tall wood) is seen, in fine perspective, a rich
cultivated dale, divided by hedge-row trees; beyond these,
hanging grounds cut into inclosures, with scattered farms,
and above them all, a long range of waving pasture ground
and sheep walks, shining in variety of vegetation. This
sweet pastoral picture is much heightened by the deep shade
of the towering wooded hills, between which it is viewed.
Turn to the left, the scenery is all reversed. Under a range
of tall sycamores, an expanse of water bursts upon the eye,
and beyond it, land just visible through the azure mist.
Vessels traversing this bay are also seen in a most
picturesque manner, and, from the lower part of the house,
appear sailing through the trees, and approaching it till
they drop anchor just under the windows. The range of
sycamores has a fine effect in this sea view, by breaking
the line in the
|
|
| |
goto source.
|
|
|
|
Page 45:-
|
|
|
|
watery plain, and forming an elegant frame to a very
excellent picture. By turning a little to the right, the
prospect changes. At the head of a sloping inclosure, and
under the skirts of a steep wood, a sequestered cottage
stands in the nicest point of beauty.
|
|
|
|
There is a great variety of pleasing views from the
different meandering walks and seats in the wood: one at the
hermitage, and another at the seat in the bottom of the
wood, where Ulverston and the environs make a pretty
picture. From under the shrubbery (on the eastern side of
the house, and from the gate at the north end of the walk,
behind a swell of green hills) if the afternoon sun shine,
the conical summits of distant mountains are seen glistening
like burnished gold, and pointing to the heavens in a noble
style. But as this sweet spot is injured by description, I
shall only add, that it is a great omission in the curious
traveller, to be in Furness and not see so wonderfully
pretty place a place, to which nature has been so profuse in
noble gifts, and where art has lent its best assistance,
under the regulation of an elegant fancy, and a refined
taste [1].
|
|
|
|
[1] And where it is not too much to go on in a language of a
still higher kind,-
|
|
|
|
Here hills and vales, the woodland and the plain, / Here
earth and water seem to strive again; / Not chaos-like,
together crush'd and bruis'd, / But, as the world,
harmoniously confus'd.
|
|
|
date:-
|
1778
|
|
|
period:-
|
18th century, late; 1770s
|
|
|
|
|
Old Cumbria Gazetteer - JandMN: 2008
|
|
|
