Gray's Journal Entry: ‘At the distance of nearly a mile from the Salutation Inn, at Ambleside, is Stock-Gill Force, a grand cascade, which, for its singular beauty, may almost be considered as a rival of the far-famed water-fall of Lowdore, near Keswick. Passing the Inn yard, we ascend a steep road, and, entering a copse, proceeded towards the Force. Long before we reached the cataract itself we could distinctly hear the thundering echo of the rushing water. The gill or torrent which supplies the cascade, takes its rise in the mountains behind Ambleside, and flows in a narrow channel through an opening of rocks, partially concealed by overhanging trees. Having reached the station which appears in the right foreground on the engraving, we looked upwards to the height of about three hundred feet. The torrent flows in two distinct streams, separated by a rocky yet verdant island, about forty feet wide, covered with moss and shrubs, and foaming with tremendous noise. After falling about one hundred and fifty feet, the streams unite, and are dashed from rock to rock into a dark gulph, unfathomable to the eye, from which it is concealed by some trees that stretch themselves across the basin. Thence the water flows over a rough and craggy channel, through a narrow gill or valley, luxuriantly adorned with rock and wood; and after forming two or three other pretty cascades, each of which would furnish a pleasing study to the artist, it falls into the Rothay, a little below Ambleside.’