Not without trembling

. . . That river and those mouldering towers
Have seen us side by side, when, having clomb
The darksome windings of a broken stair,
And crept along a ridge of fractured wall,
Not without trembling, we in safety looked
Forth, through some Gothic window's open space,
And gathered with one mind a rich reward
From the far-stretching landscape . . .
 
This was Wordsworth, in The Prelude, describing how he and his sister climbed the tower of Brougham Castle over 200 years ago.
 
River Eamont (part 21)

I don't like heights
I certainly don't like looking out of windows at height
I don't like spiral staircases
I don't like confined spaces
 
But, I needed this picture and I had to take it. So today we made the most of a lovely sunny afternoon and visited the castle again. And I did climb the 'darksome windings' of a broken stair (possibly not as broken as 200 years ago!) and 'crept along a ridge of fractured wall' (now with safety railings!). I did indeed look through 'some Gothic window's open space' and saw this 'far-stretching landscape'. What we do for Blip! (The galling thing is that a few weeks ago the three children did the same thing, without a qualm.)
 
This picture is important for the journey we are making along the River Eamont for several reasons. It shows the point at which the River Lowther flows into the Eamont, Lowther coming from the left, to create one much wider and deeper river. (However, we are not absolutely sure that this is the point of joining, it could be further back and this is just the Eamont divided by an island, but nevertheless at this point the two rivers are one.)It shows how the Roman fort, which predated the castle, and the castle itself, were both sited to use the two rivers as protection. (The big house was built on the site of an old mill, which obviously used the river for power.)  
 
One extra photo is a view of the castle showing its site above the river. The other one is a view of what was once the Chapel (on an upper floor) - you can see the 14th century three-arched 'sedilia', which is where the clergy would sit, and the deeply set windows above.
 
(More about the castle in the previous Blip in the series.)