My three long weeks in London and England’s North was about to close. I had covered a lot, experienced much and my education was well rewarded.

My choice for the grand finale was easy. It was a place, like many dreamers before me had dreamed and visited; and now, a few miles from Carlisle, Cumbria, my dream was fulfilled.

The Lake District is England’s largest National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site. Covering 912 square miles, it is home to more than 200 spectacular mountains and fells (hills), along with lakes, rivers and small tarns, surrounded by thriving towns and historic monuments. It is landscape that has inspired numerous great works of art.

Below you’ll see a collection of photographs and a video by T-Boy photographer, Deb Roskamp, set to the poetry and prose of what has become loosely known as the Romantic Lake District Movement.

Poetry is composed of the best words in the best order. When we write, we string words together like beads, ever mindful of color and shape, the powerful nuances of meaning each word conveys. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1827.

We have hills which, seen from a distance almost take the character of mountains, some cultivated nearly to their summits, others in their wild state covered with furze and broom. These delight me the most as they remind me of our native wilds. – Dorothy Wordsworth, the sister of William Wordsworth.

Tintern Abbey

By William Wordsworth

Five years have past; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters! and again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur. – Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs

William Wordsworth (1770 -1850) was an English Romantic poet who, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, launched the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems. His life were dominated by his experiences of the countryside around the Lake District. Throughout this period many of Wordsworth’s poems revolved around themes of endurance, separation and grief – but written in a vernacular that the common man used each day. Wordsworth was Britain’s Poet Laurate from 1843 until his death.

Daffodils

By William Wordsworth

I wander’d lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze

(Also called I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud)

Ernst Behler, author of The Origins of the Romantic Literary Theory, wrote that Wordsworth’s poetic philosophy invoked the basic feeling that a human heart possesses and expresses. He had reversed the philosophical standpoint by “creating the characters in such an environment so that the public feels them belonging to the distant place and time.”

Epistle to Sir George Howland Beaumont, BART

By William Wordsworth

Far from our home by Grasmere’s quiet Lake,
From the Vale’s peace which all her fields partake,
Here on the bleakest point of Cumbria’s shore
We sojourn stunned by Ocean’s ceaseless roar

William Wordsworth used conversational language in his poetry to let the poet ‘I’ merge into ‘We’. This conversational tone persists throughout his poetic journey where he speaks in a communion with mass society, whose purpose will ultimately serve humanity.

The Cataract of Lodore

By Robert Southey

From its sources which well
In the tarn on the fell;
From its fountains
In the mountains,
Its rills and its gills;
Through moss and through brake,
It runs and it creeps
For a while, till it sleeps
In its own little lake.

Robert Southey (1774 -1843) was an English poet of the Romantic School, and Britain’s Poet Laurate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, Southey began as a radical but became steadily more conservative as he gained respect for Britain and its institutions.

Give me a map to look at, and I am content. Give me a map of country I know, and I am comforted: I live my travels over again; step by step, I recall the journeys I have made; half-forgotten incidents spring vividly to mind, and again I can suffer and rejoice at experiences which are once more made very real. Old maps are old friends, understood only by the man with whom they have traveled the miles. – Alfred Wainwright

Alfred Wainwright (1907-1991) was a British fellwalker, mapmaker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, published between 1955 and 1966, consisted entirely of reproductions of his manuscript, has become the standard reference work for 214 of the fells of the Lake District.

Scarce images of life, one here, one there,/Lay vast and edgeways; like a dismal cirque/Of Druid stones, upon a forlorn moor…

– John Keats. Taken from Hyperion, a passage believed to be about Castlerigg Stone Circle or perhaps a Druid Stone Circle a mile apart.

On the Road to Castlerigg

A turn on a small dirt road led us to Castlerigg Stone Circle. It was close to twilight and a long stretch of parked cars, vans and campers were already waiting, perhaps for hours, to witness that magic moment when the sun sets above the Stone Circle. Soon, people rushed from their parked vehicles, where they had been speaking on mobile phones, watching TV and cooking dinner, and we joined along with them, basking in the euphoric splendor.

Deb Roskamp’s videographic experiment taken for the center of Castlerigg Stone Circle.

Castlerigg Stone Circle is situated on a prominent hill to the east of Keswick, and is believed to be one of 1,300 stone circles in the British Isle and in Britanny, France. It was constructed in the late Neolithic to early Bronze Age around 3200 BCE, a period that lasted approximately from 3,200 to 2500 BCE, and is considered one of earliest stone circles in Britain and Western Europe. Many historians believe that the Castlerigg Stone Circle predates the better-known Stonehenge prehistoric stone circle by 500 years.
Much of our knowledge comes from18th-century antiquarians, who have assumed that the reason for its construction is its link to the Neolithic Langdale axe industry in the nearby Langdale fells, where Castlerigg was a place for trade or exchange of axes.

Castlerigg has no discernible solar alignments, nor any pagan Druid connection or modern New-Age religious movements. Nevertheless, it remains a popular site to visit during solstice celebrations, where its plateau forms a high natural amphitheater due to the surrounding hills, and, from within the circle, you can see some of the highest peaks in Cumbria. Every year, thousands of tourists travel to the site, making it the most visited stone circle in Cumbria.

Post Script: Where to stay in the Lake District

Securing an electric rental in Carlisle was akin to stepping into a computer with four wheels in comparison to our own hybrids back in the states. Our California education of the rules of the British road led to confusion, in particular trying to access roundabouts, and then meet with rushing traffic. But soon the road transitioned into a leafy one lane highway, with rivers, lakes, mountains and small villages on each side. We had informed many of our new Carlisle friends our plans to lodge in Lake District’s village of Keswick at a boutique hotel known as The Hazeldene. Our comments were meet with an enthusiastic yes! Word of mouth is always the best form of advertising, and dare I now advertise a stay at The Hazeldene, where we were meet by a charming staff who never said no.

The Hazeldene, built in 1892, is perfectly situated both on the edge and in the heart of Keswick. A five-minute stroll north and you’re within the village’s shops and restaurants, and a short walk away you can dip your toes in the refreshing waters of Derwentwater. With amazing views in every direction – the Borrowdale and Newlands fells to the south and Skiddaw to the north – The Hazeldene offered the ideal location for me to pause, rejuvenate and reflect on my three weeks in England. For further information about The Hazeldene: https://thehazeldene.co.uk.

Visit the series at:

What’s New and Old in London, Part I
What’s New and Old in London, Part 2
What’s New & Old in England’s North

Hadrian’s Wall: All Roads Really do Lead to Rome

There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing. – Alfred Wainwright

The post What’s New and Old in England’s North: Final Chapter appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Okay, is there anyone who actually made it through childhood without at least a cursory introduction to Peter Rabbit, Flopsy and Mopsy and that mean old farmer McGregor? Well, this is where they lived until Beatrix caught them and immortalized them forever in little 5” by 4”-sized books.

Her books sold more than any other children’s stories ever although I suspect Pat the Bunny, Peter’s more tactile cousin, has since given him a run for his money…

So first, something about that Lake District which Beatrix Potter so loved. The countryside is so tantalizingly green the color needs a new more enchanting name.

Quintessentially English replete with requisite sheep, rolling hedgerows, low slung stone walls criss-crossing the landscape into checkerboard squares, slate-roofed stone houses, and hot pink, orange-gold and deep purple explosions of color so vibrant as to rival the most brightly lit of neon Nikes so popular today. And by contrast, in the middle of the district, craggy mountainous regions lend an even more dramatic flair. And, oh yes, then there are the lakes — 16 of them; ergo, the District’s name.

A world so clichely picturesque, with OMG moments at every turn, which serves to explain the many artists who flocked here to replicate its beauty on canvas. An entire expanse of visual wonderment extending for miles in every direction that makes scenic overlook signs ridiculously redundant. All of which is a walker’s wonderland with public footpaths as plentiful on every country road as Starbucks are on every street corner in the U.S. No wonder Beatrix Potter fell in love.

I saw so many rabbits scampering about as we hiked the countryside, I felt this was an open invitation — as it must have been for Beatrix — to follow them further into their world, even if that turned out to be a very commercial but wonderfully inventive, creative, interactive enterprise appropriately nicknamed The World of Peter Rabbit. But more on that later.

And splattered throughout the countryside are hilly historic towns with cobblestone streets and hidden alleyways that now sport shops, pubs and curbside cafes, with such lyrical names as Branthwaite Brow, All Hollows and Beast Bank Lane. And a lot more stone, this time on buildings, many from the 16th-18th centuries, evoking memories of Renaissance–era maidens and merchants plying their trade, oblivious to the KFC establishment right across the street.

But there is nothing modern about a visit to Hill Top, Beatrix Potter’s home for 38 years and the site of many of her creations’ adventures. Many homes reflect the personalities of their owners — and sometimes even their pets. But rarely is a home so filled with the immediacy of its owner’s creations as is Hill Top, first purchased in 1905, that they appear so alive as to permeate not only the house but the surrounding village and countryside, all of which became additional characters in what were soon to become a series of beloved children’s books. And once you enter the grounds and garden of Hill Top, with all its original furnishings, you are transported back to the world as it was until the day she died. Except for the occasional young visitor who has been known to ask the guides, “So is she Harry Potter’s granny?”

Pick up “A Tale of Samuel Whiskers” lying about as you walk in and follow the book’s tale as you see the holes where the mice lived that threatened Tom Kitten! You can accompany Pigland Bland as he wanders thru the village and seek to protect Jemima Puddle-Duck’s egg as it lays hidden in the rhubarb patch. You can almost hear the Two Bad Mice discussing the ham and cheese that don’t seem quite edible because they are, of course, from Beatrix’s doll house which is right in front of you in the parlor.

And not only her stories — but her life. Her desks contain letters she wrote, often illustrated with little cartoons and drawings; the first edition of Peter Rabbit, which started simply as a story written in letter form in September 1893 to cheer up a sick son of her former governess, is available for viewing.

The whole house becomes alive through the illustrations in her stories — or is it that the illustrations become alive because they re-create the reality of her home? The parlor contains a table with some partially eaten biscuits and some correspondence Beatrix was evidently in the process of completing — clearly she is expected to return at any moment…

So much of the house, the grounds and the village reflected in the books remain unchanged, you can relive the delightful tales of your youth in a way no perfunctory read in your own living room can provide.

And indeed every area shop seemingly sells some version of Peter Rabbit memorabilia. Emblematic of how much he invades the neighborhood, when my husband and I stopped at a local pub for some requisite fish and chips, he asked about the soup of the day. When told by the bartender that it was carrot, he quipped: “How appropriate. No doubt Peter Rabbit’s favorite…”

And remember the rabbits cavorting in the countryside? Well, here’s where their namesake really comes alive. In the downtown section of Bowness-on-Windermere there stands a very different testimonial to the creations of Beatrix Potter. More commercial perhaps but no less intriguing.  The World of Beatrix Potter Attractions, unconnected with the National Trust preservation of Hill Top, offers an animated version of all 23 of Potter’s tales brought to life in an indoor re-creation of the Lake District countryside she loved and her lovable characters inhabited  complete with sights, sounds and smells.

I mean how thrilling is it to find that Jemima Puddle-Duck was a real duck that lived at Hill Top whose efforts to hatch her own eggs, thwarted by a conniving fox nearby, were protected by Kep the collie, Beatrix’s favorite sheepdog. You can’t get more real life than that — and we’re talking cartoon characters!

Throughout the attraction are life-size dioramas of scenes from her books, sometimes comprising an entire forest, that it’s hard to imagine that they were once only illustrations in a book the size of 4×5 inches???  The whole exhibit replicates a stroll through Beatrix Potter’s home and garden.

Each exhibit entreats the viewer to press a “Find out more” button which provides an explanation of what inspired Beatrix to write that particular story and how she developed those particular characters. Each larger-than-life display lifts the characters from the page to inhabit your consciousness in a way few fairy-tales — or for that matter, adult literary protagonists — ever will. There is so much background information about each character — and there are dozens — that it is almost impossible to absorb it all unless you are a very devoted Beatrix Potter aficionado. It’s a journey through a lifetime of literature.

Adele Wilson from Scotland, with nary a kid in tow was so obviously enthralled by the exhibits that I couldn’t resist asking why. “My granny used to read these books to me at night, and seeing these presentations brings it all back to life. I had forgotten how much I had loved all those stories.” She isn’t alone.

For more information, visit National Trust, The World of Beatrix Potter and Go Lakes.

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