This weekend John and I wandered north to
the Lake District in Cumrbia. We both
fell instantly in love with the area. Hills,
mountains, trees, lakes, tarns, rivers, woods, stones walls, quaint villages,
beautiful farms, sheep and cows and cotton-tailed rabbits. It is a glorious
combination of beauty, both wild and domesticated.
The area is a walker’s paradise with so many
walking trails that they are almost too many to accurately chart. Thanks go to Beatrix Potter and the founders
the National Trust: Octavia
Hill, Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley who worked together to raise public awareness
of the railway developments threatening the Lake District. Their collaboration
led to the foundation of The National Trust (1885) for the Preservation of
Historic Buildings and Natural Beauty, to hold land and buildings in perpetuity
“for ever, for everyone” Hence, the Lake District remains as it was in their
day -- relatively undeveloped and unspoiled and spectacularly beautiful.
We stayed in a little
cottage in New Sawrey, Hawkshead, just down the street from Hill Top, the first
home the Beatrix Potter bought with her earnings from her books of Peter
Rabbit. We spent our days hiking along
lakeshores, forests and farmland. Three days there were absolutely wonderful but
not nearly enough time to do it justice. I look forward to returning soon with
good hiking boots, rain gear, and an up-to-date guidebook of trails. (Yes, we got lost using a 1992 guide book.)
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| Hill Top: Beatrix Potter's beloved home |
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| This is the land that Beatrix Potter worked to hard to preserve |
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| Tarns How (Tarn means little lake) |
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| Tarn How is an easy walk -- just 2 miles around the lake |
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| with beautiful views everywhere you look. |
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| Thanks to the National Trust, the land is very much like it was 150 years ago. |
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| I don't know why I find gates and styles so appealing |
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| We didn't see many fishermen. We did see 4 scuba divers in this lake though! |
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| We enjoyed a bit of blue sky one evening |
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| The lake near Hill Top |
The beauty of the Lake DIstrict
Lake District Notables:Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) is best known for her beautifully illustrated children's books of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck and friends. She spent many childhood holidays in the Lake District and these influenced her work. Squirrel Nutkin sailed on Derwentwater and Hawkshead was the setting for The Tale of Johnny Townmouse.
With the profits from her highly successful publications, Beatrix Potter bought Hill Top farm, and other hill farms and estates in the Lake District. She became an expert Herdwick sheep breeder and the first female president designate of the Herdwick Sheepbreeders' Association. When she died in 1943 she left 14 farms, sheep and 4000 acres of land to the National Trust.
William Wordsworth’s (1770-1850) 'Daffodils' poem beginning “I wander’d lonely as a cloud” is the quintessential Lake District poem. Born in Cockermouth, just north of the National Park, he went to school in Hawkshead. He returned to his beloved Cumbria after attending Cambridge University.Wordsworth’s Guide through the District of the Lakes published in 1820 sparked off the first beginnings of mass tourism to the area.
His words on the mountains of Lake District: "in the combinations which they make, towering above each other, or lifting themselves in ridges like the waves of a tumultuous sea, and in the beauty and variety of their surfaces and colors, they are surpassed by none".My favorite lake: Tarns How (or the Tarns)Great place to stay: The Gardener’s Cottage at Garn’s Manor in New Sawrey. Or Rose Barn in Outgate.
