'But if thou (like Cocytus,' etc.
<BR><BR>
        Many years ago, when I was at Greta Bridge, in Yorkshire, the 
      hostess of the inn, proud of her skill in etymology, said, that 
      "the name of the river was taken from the 'bridge', the form of 
      which, as every one must notice, exactly resembled a great A." Dr. 
      Whitaker has derived it from the word of common occurrence in the 
      north of England, "to greet;" signifying to lament aloud, mostly 
      with weeping: a conjecture rendered more probable from the stony 
      and rocky channel of both the Cumberland and Yorkshire rivers. The 
      Cumberland Greta, though it does not, among the country people, 
      take up 'that' name till within three miles of its disappearance 
      in the river Derwent, may be considered as having its source in 
      the mountain cove of Wythburn, and thence flowing through 
      Thirlmere. The beautiful features of that lake are known only to 
      those who, travelling between Grasmere and Keswick, have quitted 
      the main road in the vale of Wythburn, and, crossing over to the 
      opposite side of the lake, have proceeded with it on the right 
      hand.
<BR><BR>
        The channel of the Greta, immediately above Keswick, has, for 
      the purposes of building, been in a great measure cleared of the 
      immense stones which, by their concussion in high floods, produced 
      the loud and awful noises described in the sonnet.
<BR><BR>
        "The scenery upon this river," says Mr. Southey in his 
      Colloquies, "where it passes under the woody side of Latrigg, is 
      of the finest and most rememberable kind:--
<pre>
            '---- ambiguo lapsu refluitque fluitque,
             Occurrensque sibi venturas aspicit undas.'"
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