[278]
views. Climbing the limestone hill, we ascend through a plantation of fine half-grown oaks to a resting place, where the eye is refreshed with softened scenery, through a woody vista; a long and distant reach of the Oure, Masham's spired church, rich meadows, waving corn-fields, and neat farmhouses. A gentle declination conducts us from hence to the rock walk, taking its name from the right-hand boundary, formed by a sudden perpendicular rise of the rock on that side. From this hollow another undulation of the ground brings us to Holland hill, a wooded eminence, on whose summit is found the rustic temple—a little open octagonal shed, commanding a prospect that sweeps over a diameter of thirty miles, with a foreground of high rock and deep woods. Here the path again assumes a new name, and under the appellation of the quarry bank, ascends towards Mowbray point, catching in its way the spire of Masham, and a worsted manufactory. Near the summit of this elevation is perched a sentry-box, which gives a map-like view of the right and left reaches of the river, and its grand accompaniments; lets in Kedlington church, and an immense flat, studded with villages and towns, and only bounded by the dim descried Hamilton hills. Yet this is but tame and uniform, when compared with the grand and diver-
