Gaskell Blog © Katherine C.
The opening paragraph of The Moorland Cottage cottage is very descriptive, I’ve collected a series of photographs to create a visual tour of what Mrs. Gaskell describes:
If you take the turn to the left, after you pass the lyke-gate at Combehurst Church…
You will come to the wooden bridge over the brook
Keep along the field-path which mounts higher and higher…
In half a mile or so, you will be in a breezy upland field, almost large enough to be called a down, where sheep pasture on the short, fine, elastic turf.
You look down on Combehurst and its beautiful church-spire.
After the field is crossed, you come to a common, richly colored with the golden gorse and the purple heather, which in summer-time send out their warm scents into the quiet air.
The swelling waves of the upland make a near horizon against the sky; the line is only broken in one place by a small grove of Scotch firs, which always look black and shadowed even at mid-day…
When all the rest of the landscape seems bathed in sunlight.
The lark quivers and sings high up in the air; too high–in too dazzling a region for you to see her. Look! she drops into sight; but, as if loth to leave the heavenly radiance, she balances herself and floats in the ether. Now she falls suddenly right into her nest, hidden among the ling, unseen except by the eyes of Heaven…
With something like the sudden drop of the lark, the path goes down a green abrupt descent; and in a basin, surrounded by the grassy hills, there stands a dwelling, which is neither cottage nor house, but something between the two in size.
Gaskell Blog 
Just as I pictured it:-)
This is a wonderful post! I’ll second Alison’s comment and say this is pretty much what I imagined as I read it.
Lovely pictures – imagination can only take one so far and it’s wonderful to see the real thing.
Wow, remarkable! That was a great feast for the eyes after reading such a detailed description.
I can just picture it all now, so perfectly wonderful. This is my treat for the day……….Thank you Katherine.
IF a picture is worth a thousand words these provide a novel in themselves. They gorgeously illustrate EG’s words. Job well done in finding jsut the right illustration for each word picture.
Really beautiful! The pictures chosen perfectly describe the opening paragraph, Many thanks for including this!
I have just started reading this little novel and now stumbled upon your blog and this lovely post. Such wonderful pictures. It is my first Gaskell.