BEATRIX POTTER COUNTRY AND THE LAKE DISTRICT

Wherever you decide to travel in the Lake District, take a trip to see the attractions related to famous children´s author, Beatrix Potter. Hill Top is the farmhouse in Sawrey where she once lived and the Beatrix Potter Attraction in Bowness is a wonderful attraction for children and adults alike, where her famous characters come to life, including Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddleduck.

Those who think of Lancashire as being an area of dingy towns with forests of mill chimneys might reflect during this journey that for many centuries before local government was regained in 1974, most of the Lake District area belonged to the Red Rose County yet it is a glorious area of gentle hills, lakes and tarns, woodland, white walled farms and cottages. During a royal visit to the Lake District, the Queen had afternoon tea at one of the little whitewashed farms in Yewdale. Beatrix Potter met Peter Rabbit at Near Sawrey.

Tarn Hows, which is frequently portrayed in books and on picture postcards as an example of scenic Lakeland, has a haunting beauty despite being in a sense man-made. The water is retained by a dam to regulate its flow to the Monk Coniston estate. The trees, upstart conifers, impart a resinous smell.

SOUTH FROM AMBLESIDE

The A593 from Ambleside runs to the south of the sprawling, multi- turreted Loughrigg Fell, which is deserving of a visit by itself. Obtain a leaflet at the Bridge House, Ambleside, relating to a 4km nature saunter on the Fell, from which there are stunning views of Ambleside and Rydal Water.

The A593, in its meanderings, offers glimpses of the River Brathay (a Norse name for a broad river), which gathers up near the Three Shires Stone on Wry nose Pass and has transfusions of cold beck water from Little Langdale before presenting a whitewater spectacle. There is a National Trust car park south of Loughrigg Tarn.

YEWDALE NEAR CONISTON

The road to Coniston now climbs between tracts of indigenous woodland at the verge of the crags of the Borrowdale volcanic. A roadside tarn on the right, backed up by conifers, gives the journey a backwoods flavor. The road dips into Yewdale (valley of the yew trees), which is owned by the National Trust. Wordsworth described the valley as 'An area leve las a Lake and spread under a rock too steep for man to tread. The 17th century farms are architecturally outstanding.

THE OLD MAN OF CONISTON

Famous for its lake, Coniston also offers walkers a climbers a wealth of challenging peaks to conquer.
At Coniston, the presiding mountain is The Old Man of Coniston (2,635ft/803m), which can be climbed on a well marked route from the village by good walkers who, in chancy weather, have waterproof clothing. On the way up are many traces of mining and quarries for slate.

JOHN RUSKIN AND THE LAKE DISTRICT

The presiding spirit at Coniston is John Ruskin, whose grave at St Andrew's Church has a Celtic style cross of Tilberthwaite stone, with a design (reflecting his many interests) devised by his secretary and good friend, W.O. Collingwood, another notable writer. Collingwood shares the glory with Ruskin in the Ruskin Museum, founded in 1900. The Museum is a few minutes' walk from the church. Ruskin lived at Brantwood, east of Coniston Water, from 1872 until his death in 1900.

Brantwood may be reached by road from Coniston or, as indicated, by the steam yacht Gondola, which sails from Coniston Pier. If the weather is chilly, visitors can find shelter in the upholstered saloon. The original design for this 1859 steam launch was approved by that great arbiter of good taste, John Ruskin.

It lay wrecked in Nibthwaite Bay for many years but was rescued by the National Trust and given an extensive restoration. Notice how the steam engine is responsive and quiet as the craft glides through the water.

TARN HOWS NEAR CONISTON

A view of Tarn Hows, northeast of Coniston, appears on virtually every calendar with a Lake District content, and is almost as familiar to a Lakeland enthusiast as the back of the hand. Even so, like the Mona Lisa, it might be visited time and again without mental weariness. Tarn Hows is reached by turning left from the Coniston to Hawkshead road down a signposted byroad. A one-way system is in operation.

There is adequate car parking provided by the National Trust, including a car park for disabled people that are much closer to the lake. A good footpath leads around the tarn, which was created about a century ago by building a dam and merging three tarns. The views from the southern side of the lake, where the path takes to higher ground, are quite magnificent.

HAWKSHEAD THE LAKE DISTRICT

Traffic has virtually been eliminated from the narrow streets and squares of Hawkshead. A reflection of the popularity of this wonderful little town, with its white painted buildings, its narrow streets, yards and alleys, is the difficulty in finding space in the large car park.

The Old Grammar School, founded in 1585, is open to the public. William Wordsworth received part of his education here, and he carved his initials on his desk. He lodged with Mistress Tyson either at Hawkshead or nearby Colthouse (there were Tysons in both places). He enjoyed walking and also raven watching.

The poet Wordsworth now takes second place at Hawkshead to Beatrix Potter, whose spirit broods over several shops specializing in her books and related souvenirs, and at the National Trust's Beatrix Potter Gallery. The gallery occupies offices used by Beatrix's solicitor husband, William Heelis. There is an annually changing exhibit of original sketches and watercolors painted by the multi-talented Beatrix.

SAWREY AND BEATRIX POTTER

The Lake District was a magnet for authors and writers, and the most famous residents included Beatrix Potter and William Wordsworth.Follow the road from Hawkshead to Near Sawrey. Beatrix Potter's first Lake District holiday with her family was at Wray Castle, a Victorian spoof edifice near Windermere. She grew so fond of this quiet part of what was then North Lancashire that she used the royalties from her first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, published in 1900, to purchase HiII Top.Being one of the major attractions of the Lake District, and relatively small, a limited number of visitors will be admitted at any one time. When she married William Heelis, they resided in Castle Cottage (private) in Near Sawrey.

Follow the road to Far Sawrey. The large car carrying Windermere Ferry that now plies the lake is held on course by metal cables stretched from shore to shore. The journey takes only a few minutes. The ferry does not operate in the Winter months. Return to Ambleside by the A592 and the A591.

KESWICK

Keswick, northern capital of the Lakes, presides over Derwent Water and Bassenthwaite Lake; with Skiddaw (locally pronounced Skidder) clearing the 3,000ft/900m contour. Climbing the fell is not difficult, just protracted, and people usually start from Millbeck, near Applethwaite, or from Latrigg. Charles Lamb enthused after climbing it in 1802: its fine black head & the bleak air a top of it, with the prospect of mountains all about & about, making you giddy. Blencathra, its neighbour, provides a backdrop for the sprawling village of Threlkeld. Keswick retains a strong Victorian appearance which belies its age.

The name is Old English for 'cheese farm', the K being a dash of Old Norse. View Derwent Water in its setting of fells and woodland and then try to imagine the conditions over 1,300 years ago, when Herbert, a Christian saint, became a hermit on one of the islands.

Around 1540 the Lake District was industrialized with the arrival of German miners. They were employed to seek gold, but in the end they mined copper. Graphite, discovered in the 16th century and mined in the Seathwaite valley at the head of Borrowdale, has always been useful, but with the arrival of the pencil, Keswick assumed world eminence as a centre of pencil production. Tourism was the next boom.

MANSIONS AND MUSEUMS LAKE DISTRICT

The Lake District is obviously famous for its lakes, but there is much more to the region than first-time visitors expect. Take a look around the halls, mansions and museums of the Lake District to get a true flavour or the days gone by.

Keswick has a Moot Hall (market hall) which has the grand lines and spired tower of a church (with a one-handed clock) and rises from a traffic island in an area almost entirely devoted to tourism. The Moot Hall itself holds a tourist information centre.

KESWICK MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY

This fascinating attraction has a handy situation in Fitz Park and is a good starting point for anyone with an interest in local traditions. Purpose built from green volcanic slate, the museum has a delightful Victorian flavor. Among the exhibits are a scale model of the Lake District letters by the poets Wordsworth and Southey, and Hugh Walpoles' manuscripts.

GRETA HALL

This is the home of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and of Robert Southey in , is now a private home offering bed and breakfast. Of wide interest is the Cumberland Pencil Museum (open daily 9.30am-4pm). Entertaining displays (including the world's largest colorings pencil) relate to the mining of graphite and the making of pencils.

CASTLERIGG THE LAKE DISTRICT

Leave Keswick on the A59 1 and call at Castlerigg, which is well signposted. Here, set on a hill with a wondrous panorama of greater hills all around, 48 grey stones form an oval (not a true circle) about a 100ft (30m) across. Other stones form a rectangle to the east of the main group.

Was Castlerigg the centre of a tribal territory? No one knows. To the Victorian tourists, this was a haunt of Druids, but Castlerigg probably dates back to the much earlier Bronze Age.