Follow in the Footsteps of Britain’s Greatest Writers
Follow in the Footsteps of Britain’s Greatest Writers
Embarking on walking holidays through the wondrous landscapes of the Lake District will take you into a world that has inspired many of Britain’s greatest poets. The Romantic Poets were drawn to the area and formed a group called the Lake Poets and this landscape has provided inspiration for some of the most beautiful words ever written.
Romantic Inspiration
The late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries provided us with some of the greatest poets ever to put pen to paper, and some of the most notable of these were inspired by the Lake District. William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge and John Ruskin were all moved to write their beautiful poetry when living in or visiting this area of England. Although John Ruskin was born in London he spent a lot of his childhood in the Lake District and some of his earliest memories were of his time here. He wrote: “The first thing which I remember as an event in my life was being taken by my nurse to the brow of Friar’s Crag on Derwentwater.” His experiences there went on to have a great influence on his writing. Later in life he bought a property in the area at Coniston called Brantwood House, which remained his home until he died in 1900. You can visit Brantwood House and it is easy to see where Ruskin got his inspiration, while walking through the gardens and admiring the beautiful views of the mountains and Coniston Water. Ruskin is buried in the churchyard at Coniston. And reading Chinatown: Western Europe’s Taste Of The East.
Walking holidays in this spectacular region are best taken with the words of William Wordsworth drifting through your thoughts. His prose is among that which just about everybody can recite, and perhaps his most famous come from his quintessential Lake District poem Daffodils:
“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.”
The setting and inspiration for the poem Daffodils is thought to be Glencoyne Park, Ullswater, which Wordsworth visited with his sister Dorothy who recorded the visit in her diary. Wordsworth was born just outside the National Park and is said to have been responsible for the upsurge of tourism in the area after he wrote his Guide through the District of the Lakes in 1820. He moved into Rydal Mount in 1813 and, today, the William Wordsworth Trust is based at Dove Cottage another Wordsworth residence in the area – both properties can be visited by the public.
Another great poet who took his inspiration from the Lake District was Samuel Coleridge who, although born in Devon, became one of the Lake Poets with his friend William Wordsworth. After taking a walking tour in the Lakes in 1799, Coleridge decided to live there and rented a house in Keswick.
Wherever your walking holidays lead you in the Lakes District, you are sure to pass close by a place that has inspired one of these great writers. Their words have captured the beauty of the landscapes and reflect their love of this place. Vale Tourism.