[The Prose Works of William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth]@TWC D-Link bookThe Prose Works of William Wordsworth PART III 121/137
Whatever the most fastidious taste could require to constitute a perfect landscape, is not only found here, but in its proper place.
In front, and immediately under the eye, is a smooth expanse of park-like enclosure, spotted with native elm, ash, &c.
of the finest growth: on the right a skirting oak wood, with jutting points of grey rock; on the left a rising copse.
Still forward are seen the aged groves of Bolton Park, the growth of centuries; and farther yet, the barren and rocky distances of Simonseat and Barden Fell contrasted with the warmth, fertility, and luxuriant foliage of the valley below. 'About half a mile above Bolton the valley closes, and either side of the Wharf is overhung by solemn woods, from which huge perpendicular masses of grey rock jut out at intervals. 'This sequestered scene was almost inaccessible till of late, that ridings have been cut on both sides of the river, and the most interesting points laid open by judicious thinnings in the woods.
Here a tributary stream rushes from a waterfall, and bursts through a woody glen to mingle its waters with the Wharf: there the Wharf itself is nearly lost in a deep cleft in the rock, and next becomes a horned flood enclosing a woody island--sometimes it reposes for a moment, and then resumes its native character, lively, irregular, and impetuous. 'The cleft mentioned above is the tremendous STRID.
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