Wildlake's Way, because it came to them out of the wood, which on
that north side stretched away from nigh to the lip of the valley-
wall up to the pine woods and the high fells on the east and north,
and down to the plain country on the west and south.

Now when the Weltering Water came out of the rocky tangle near the
pass, it was turned aside by the ground till it swung right up to the
feet of the Southern crags; then it turned and slowly bent round
again northward, and at last fairly doubled back on itself before it
turned again to run westward; so that when, after its second double,
it had come to flowing softly westward under the northern crags, it
had cast two thirds of a girdle round about a space of land a little
below the grassy knolls and tofts aforesaid; and there in that fair
space between the folds of the Weltering Water stood the Thorp
whereof the tale hath told.

The men thereof had widened and deepened the Weltering Water about
them, and had bridged it over to the plain meads; and athwart the
throat of the space left clear by the water they had built them a
strong wall though not very high, with a gate amidst and a tower on
either side thereof. Moreover, on the face of the cliff which was
but a stone's throw from the gate they had made them stairs and
ladders to go up by; and on a knoll nigh the brow had built a watch-
tower of stone strong and great, lest war should come into the land
from over the hills. That tower was ancient, and therefrom the Thorp
had its name and the whole valley also; and it was called Burgstead
in Burgdale.

So long as the Weltering Water ran straight along by the northern
cliffs after it had left Burgstead, betwixt the water and the cliffs