LANGDALE (LITTLE), an upland vale in Langdale chapelry, Grasmere parish, Westmoreland; contiguous to Lancashire. It commences at the E side of Wrynose mountain; is separated into two ravines down to Fellfoot by a projection of Wrynose; extends 3½ miles eastward into junction with Great Langdale at Elter-water; and is traversed by a chief head-stream of the river Brathay. The two ravines have a grand gloomy character; the left one contains Blea Tarn, celebrated in Wordsworth's "Excursion;" and the stretch of vale below the ravines presents an irregular, hillocky surface, and contains a lakelet called Langdale Tarn and a waterfall called Calwith Force.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))