A Tour of the English Lakes
T2. Looking north-west down Thirlmere
Gray's Journal Entry: ‘Thirlmere or Wyburn Lake, also called Leathes-Water, is a narrow irregular sheet of water, indented with numerous little bays, about four miles in length, skirting, on its eastern side, along the immense base of Helvellyn, and receiving supplies from numerous torrents that precipitate themselves down the sides of that huge mountain, as well as from the surrounding mountains, which cast a deep brown shade over the surface of the water. . . . There is one peculiar feature belonging to Thirlmere, which distinguishes it from all the other lakes of Cumberland and Westmorland. About the middle, the land projects upwards of three hundred feet, and contracts the water to the size of a small river, rapid but not deep, over which has been thrown an Alpine bridge of three arches, if such they may be called, which consist only of one or two stout oaken planks with a hand-rail for the passenger’s security. The approach to this bridge is over a rude causeway of rough stones, upon which the arches are fixed; and beyond these the lake instantly resumes its former breadth.’
Farington's Art
Thirlmere c1800
Thirlmere c1800
Sketch and Engraving c1800: Looking down Thirlmere showing the old ‘celtic bridge’. This sketch was not used for the engraving. There is no engraving of this view in the 1789 volume.
Pixel View
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Location Hint: At the end of the Nineteenth Century Thirlmere was turned into a reservoir to supply water to Manchester. This raised the level of the water by about 40 feet and submerged farms and homesteads as well as the old ‘celtic bridge’ shown in both the sketch and engraving. The great outcrop of rock on the left side of the lake in the sketch and engraving can still be seen here but less distinctly as it is now well wooded. Thirlmere was treeless at the end of the Eighteenth Century. John Murray took into consideration the rise in water level and shot from the shore. Can you get higher up and still get the view?
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