The town is very ancient, and irregularly built;
but at either extremity, and on points of the hill
above it, there are several neat and handsome houses,
surrounded by gardens well filled with fruit and
flowers. Beneath the town is a valley, whose verdure
is always kept fresh and brilliant by the streamlets
which flow down the sides of the hills, and by the
winding Rothay. The woods of Rydal hall, and of
the different glens which diverge from the valley,
adorn the prospect from Ambleside; whilst, in con-
trast to the towering and bulky form of Fairfield at
one extremity of the valley, the sheet of Windermere
opens out in sweet repose at the other.
We drove to the Salutation, an excellent inn, and
found the house quite full of visiters. However, a
party went away in the course of the same afternoon,
which made room for us. Having ordered dinner, we

* That part of Fairfield which is seen from Ambleside is gene-
rally called Rydal head ; yet this is more properly the head of
the valley of Rydal than the mountain itself; but as the valley
runs up in a wide ravine to the very summit of the mountain,
that summit is generally called Rydal head. The upper part of
most of the valleys, where they terminate among the mountains,
is called the dale head.
88 STOCKGILL FORCE.
