WINDERMERE, ESTHWAITE, AND CONISTON LAKES, FROM THE TOP OF LOUGHRIGG FELL,-WESTMORLAND.

This large engraving presents a most interesting and extensive prospect of lake and mountain scenery, including the lakes of Windermere, Esthwaite, and Coniston, seen from the top of Loughrigg Fell. To avoid repetitions in the descriptive portion of our work, we refer the reader, for copious particulars respecting Lake Windermere, to pages 14, 30, and 169.

Coniston Mere, or Thurston Lake, as it is sometimes called, is about six miles in length from north to south, and three-quarters of a mile at its greatest breadth from east to west. Its greatest depth is twenty-seven fathoms. The shores are beautifully indented, and several bays appear in succession. Both sides of the lake are marked with coppices, interspersed with verdant meadows, and with patches of rocky surface; above which, the mountains, clothed with verdure, and rendered picturesque by fragments of rock, gradually elevate themselves.

A pleasant road winds along the side of the lake, sometimes through thick groves and low woods, which scarcely admit a sight of the water; at other times, over naked tracts, commanding a full prospect of the lake. At the foot of a mountain, on the west side of the water, stands the village of Coniston, pleasantly situated; and in its vicinity are the delightful residences of Waterhead and Coniston Hall. Above the verdant banks, which are sparingly studded with villages, seats, and cottages, the dark and rocky steeps ascend to an alpine height, and encircle the head of the lake.

Mrs. Ratcliffe describes, in very glowing terms, the beauties of Coniston Water:"This lake appeared to us one of the most charming we had seen. From the sublime mountains which bend round its head, the heights on either side decline towards the south into waving hills, that form its shores, and often stretch in long sweeping points into the water, generally covered with tufted wood, but sometimes with the tender verdure of pasturage. The tops of these woods were just embrowned with autumn, and contrasted well with other slopes, rough and heathy, that rose above, or fell beside them to the water's brink, and added force to the colouring which the reddish tints of decaying fern, the purple bloom of heath, and the bright golden gleams of broom, spread over these elegant banks. Their hues, the graceful undulation of the marginal hills and bays, the richness of the woods, the solemnity of the northern fells, and the deep repose that pervades the scene, where only now and then a white cottage or a farm lurks among the trees, are circumstances which render Thurston Lake one of the most interesting, and perhaps the most beautiful, of any in the country."

We have alluded to Esthwaite Water in a preceding description.