THE LAKE DISTRICT (NW ENGLAND)

28 JUNE 2023, Paisley, Scotland (west of Glasgow)

English trains are very quiet so it was a real treat to take the train from Tiverton Parkway in Devon, 238 miles north to Leeds (4.5 hours). We stayed around the corner from the train station at a very nice Hilton so we could easily take the next train the following morning from Leeds to Carlisle (“the most beautiful train ride in the UK”), another 137 miles. The train stations were quaint and fun to pass through and it was a delight to once again enjoy the beautiful countryside, with countless pastures filled with sheep and cows, rolling green hills and high mountains in the distance. 

We then rented our third car of the trip and headed to Keswick (pronounced Kezik for some reason), which is at the northern end of The Lake District. Again, it was quieter here than in the heart of the tourist area farther south—a lovely, very walkable town—and we loved the B&B we stayed in (Dorcester House). It was here that we started experiencing intermittent rain almost every day for the rest of our trip, but we knew this was likely so we finally got to use the raingear we brought.

We especially enjoyed spending half a day on Lake Windemere—the largest natural lake in England (10.5 miles long and 1 mile at its widest). What made it even more fun is that we were on a boat—a tour boat, but we always enjoy being on the water! The first 2 hours we cruised down to the south end and back (to about the middle), then stayed on the same boat to cruise up to the north end and back. The west side of the lake was much less populated, with a few large manors and some campgrounds, together with the largest contiguous woodlands in all of England (said to include every tree species that grows in England). The east side was far more populated with lots of marinas and far more sailboats than we expected as well as many classic wooden boats. What a delight it was to spend time on the water and take in the spectacular scenery. 

Are you a fan of Beatrix Potter? I was raised reading her books and so were my two girls, so we loved the Tales of Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin, Mrs. Tittlemouse, Benjamin Bunny and others. A lot of Lake District tours were filled when we tried to book them, but alas we found a half-day van tour featuring the world of Beatrix Potter. We first drove to the home where she first visited the Lake District at age 16, a Victorian neo-gothic villa estate called Wray Castle. There was a later family photo there—Beatrix is on the far right.

After that, we got to go inside the beloved home she created for herself—a charming 17^th Century farm house called Hill Top Farm that still contains all of her own personal furnishings, collections and family heirlooms. In both the house and the surrounding gardens, we could see that many of the drawings in her books incorporated features of her home and garden (note the white gate below right, as an example). 

We were disappointed when we got to nearby Hawkshead (where poet William Wordsworth once studied) that the Potter Gallery was closed for repairs, as this is where many of her original drawings were displayed, but we did see some of them in her home. We loved being in her garden where some of the same plants are growing (including Peter Rabbit’s vegetable garden). There was a fun quote near the entrance to her home where plants were climbing up the walls. Here Beatrix Potter wrote: “The flowers love the house, they try to come in. Houseleek grows on the window sills and ledges; wisteria climbs the wall, clematis chokes the spout’s casings…. But nothing more sweet than the old pink cabbage rose, that peeps in at the small-paned windows.”

One of the things we were told on this tour was that Beatrix Potter was home-schooled and had a very lonely childhood, with very few friends. So the animals on her family’s farm became her friends. The more she got to know them, the more she wanted to draw them, and that’s how her books began. She especially loved sheep and she also was responsible for reviving several breeds of sheep that would have become extinct in the early 20^th century. (We also discovered Herdwick sheep, originally introduced here by the Vikings, and loved their unusual coloring-below center). 

After enjoying this tour so much, I really want to read more about Beatrix Potter. Not only was she an amazing artist, story teller and lover of animals, but she so loved the beauty and charm of her beloved Lake District that when she died, she bequeathed all of her properties (4000 acres and 14 farms) to England’s National Trust so it would remain unspoiled and available for the public to enjoy forever. Bless Beatrix!! Here are scenes from some of her properties:

We made two other stops around Keswick before heading to Scotland. The first was to The Pencil Museum! In the 1500’s shepherds discovered a high-quality graphite in the nearby hills and used them to mark their sheep. The first pencil factory opened at this Museum’s site in 1832 (now called the Derwent Cumberland Pencil Company), and by 1953, they were making 14,000,000,000 pencils a year, enough to circumnavigate the earth 62 times! Who knew!?! We also got to see “the world’s largest colored pencil,” 26 feet long and weighing 984 pounds! 

We especially liked seeing how pigments are created for colored pencils. If you wonder why the good ones are so expensive, know it is a very scientific and lengthy process to get each color precisely the right texture and hue! And did you know there were pencils created during WWII that hid a secret map and compass inside so soldiers could find their way out if they got caught behind enemy lines? As we’ve said before, we never know what we might learn on these adventures!!!

Our last stop as we left Keswick for Scotland was the Castlerigg Stone Circle, one of the oldest stone circles in England, laid out 5,000 years ago (Neolithic), overlooking a beautiful valley, beneath some of the highest peaks in the Lake District. There are many debates about the purpose of stone circles, often associated with astronomical, solar and lunar events. It is believed that Castlerigg may have been a meeting place where residents engaged in trade and/or religious ceremonies before a ritual exchange of stone axes (found in some of its few excavations). It was a bit misty during our morning visit, which made it all the more mystical…a nice way to say farewell to the stunning Lake District.