Thirlmere Lake.

tories , and the picturesque bridge to disappear , and the meadows , now so green and luxuriant , will be sunk deep in the dark reservoir . It was in vain that the lovers of Nature prayed to stave off the deluge . In vain was it pointed out that Ullswater would have afforded a supply which would have been sufficient , without materially disturbing the natural size of the lake . It was urged that Thirlmere naturally runs through the valley of St . John ' s

to the Greta and Derwent , and to the sea at Workington . But now its flow is to be intercepted , ancl sent more than one hundred miles in the opposite direction to that which Nature sent it . And for what reason ? Because Manchester says she wants it , although a very short time before she said she had a supply enough to serve for years and years to come . And so , because Manchester Corporation has a great purse , it overcame all obstacles , and

proved the doctrine of the Skiddaw Hermit to be true , that " money power " is the god of this world . We ought to notice , before taking leave of Thirlmere , that the ghosts have taken flight from Armboth House . An honest and respected yeoman and dalesman will still tell you that he recollects a strange light hovering over him all the way from Wythburn , by the shore of the lake , to Legburthwaite . That when deaths occur at the house the bells ring ,

and strange clattering noises are heard . But these strange doings may be expected to disappear when Manchester engineers take up their residence at Armboth , as the Water Committee have already clone by turns at Dalehead . The rock where the lake poets—Wordsworth , Southey , and Coleridge—have , like ordinary folk , immortalised themselves b y incising their initials , W . W ., R . S ., S . T . 0 . and D . W . Dorathe poet's sisterwill be sunk in forty or

, , , , fifty feet of water , together with Clark ' s leap ancl its present surroundings . But the great originator of the scheme promised that the great dam sbould become a carriage drive , and the lake being twice as big would be twice as beautiful , and all manner of graceful trees would be added to enhance its future grandeur .

It was in vain that evidence was produced to show that a terrific waterspout fell in 1749 , on the 22 nd of August . This was recorded in the " Gentleman ' s Magazine" some two or three years after by a writer who visited the scene from Cockermouth . Legburthwaite Mill was washed away , and one offthe millstones buried in the rubbish and never recovered . A chasm was cut in the shivery rock by the waterspout , and Adam Walker states in his " Tour from London to the Lakes " that it " excavated in the side of the mountain a gullthat

y would have held St . Paul ' s ! " An old inhabitant produced his grandfather ' s diary , which gave evidence of nine distinct waterspouts , all of which fell within the ancient parish of Crosthwaitei wherein the vale of St . John ' s and Thirlmere are situated . He also spoke of one which he himself witnessed the effect of in the year 1846 . Mr . William Wordsworth , son of the late Poet-Laureate , also gave evidence

of a waterspout which fell on Wansfell in June or July , 1822 , which did immense damage . He thought that waterspouts mi ght wash away the dam , and cause great devastation . Sir Edmund Beckett made merry at the fishing up of a " grandfather ' s diary , " and also about the huge clam destroying the " picturesqueness of Thirlmere . " But it was a foregone conclusion with the Committee , and the opposition mi ght just as well have spared their patriotic

feelings and their money at the same time . Manchester could have got a supply of water much nearer home if she liked ; but there was novelty in tapping the Lake country , and turning the beautiful lake of Thirlmere to a deep , dark , swollen pool , and what Manchester has done may be also done by Newcastle-on-Tyne and other large places ; only in future let them go to the larger lakes , ancl leave the smaller ones undammed . One thing , however , is certain—Manchester is paying handsomely for tho property . Already a hole has been made into a quarter of a million sterling , and the Armboth estate is under an arbitrator ' s attention , with a demand of nearly £ 100 , 000 for the