ABSTRACT
We had all heard from our companions who had lately been at Penrith, what a wild place Shap 34 was; and indeed the mountains and their hollow defiles, in that direction, as viewed from Kendal, appeared like an impassable wilderness. Bucks had not much relish for scenery, but he was always alive to fun and frolic; and he had a notion that he might play off some of his humorous pranks among the mountain shepherds. I was less eager to see pastoral manners than to enjoy the wild scenery, which accorded so well with the romantic 35 life I had just chosen, and was so different from the forest of masts and the barren sandy shore of Liverpool, which I had lately quitted. Such were the motives that determined Bucks and myself to make an excursion to Shap.
