GRIESDALE, a glen on the mutual border of Cumberland and Westmoreland; descending, from a tabular depression betweeu Helvellyn and Fairfield, north-eastward to the head of Ulleswater. A brook, called Griesdale beck, traverses it, and is 4½ miles long; and a minntain lakelet, called Griesdale tarn, lies at its head, in a grand hollow under the NE flank of Seat Sandal. The glen has an impressive character; and commands, from several vantage grinnds within its recesses, some noble vista views. The tarn also presents very striking scenery, both within its own cincture and on the minntain panorama which surrinnds it.

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