The English Lakes

A charming selection of sketches showing the Lake District as it was in 1922.

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"Tales and Legends of the English Lakes" by Wilson Armistead is a compilation of romance stories set in the Lake District that has long been regarded as the romantic "classic ground" of England. The district, it is true, is not particularly rich in historical incidents; nor has it been the scene of many great events; yet, it has been justly said by a popular writer, what it wants in history it more than makes up in poetry. True, it may appear to be richer in scenery than in legend, and in poetry than romance; but, the fact is, its legends and romance have been neglected. The district is highly suggestive of both, but it has had no Sir Walter Scott to make the most of them. A part of the land so famous for the beauty and for the song, independent of its Border proximity, is one peculiarly favorable to the lovers of old legends; its atmosphere is one in which fancy most delights to soar and to hover, and it contains a mine of materials for romance yet almost untouched.

With more than 20 million visitors each year, the Lake District retains its fascination for people from all over Britain and abroad. Ian Thompson, who grew up in nearby Barrow-in-Furness and went fell-walking from an early age, is well-equipped to reveal the area's allure. He tells how it was the chance combination of a fascination with the Alps and the outbreak of the Napoleonic wars that provided the spark for a national obsession. And in brief elegant chapters he shows how Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey and De Quincey transformed the perception of the region from one of 'horrid mountains' to 'vales of peace'. Later the work of J. M. W. Turner, John Ruskin, Beatrix Potter, Arthur Ransome and Alfred Wainwright, the great populariser of fell-walking, all in their different ways contributed to making the region what it is today. Crammed with fascinating detail and illustrated with Thompson's own superb colour photography and more than 80 other colour illustrations, The English Lakes is sheer delight.

In 1769 Thomas Gray (best known for his 'Elegy in a Country Chuchyard') made a tour of the English Lakes, and recorded it in a journal that is now widely accepted as the first example of modern travel writing. He delighted in what he saw and conveys vividly to us the lakes and the mountains through eighteenth-century eyes. A few years later the watercolourist Joseph Farington followed in Gray's footsteps and painted a series of key views along the way. These paintings, which were later engraved and published, are beautiful in the picturesque tradition, and, from a topographical point of view, are remarkably accurate, unlike the work of most artists of the time. John Murray has brought together for the first time Thomas Gray's journal, Joseph Farington's watercolours, and the engravings after the watercolours that sold widely at the time and were key to the popularising of the lakes. In addition he has photographed Farington's views as they appear today, and it is remarkable how many of them are so clearly and still easily recognisable today. Here is an unusual and original view of the Lake District, and one that has not been attempted before.

For centuries, the English Lake District has been renowned as an important cultural, sacred and literary landscape. It is therefore surprising that there has so far been no in-depth critical examination of the Lake District from a tourism and heritage perspective. Bringing together leading writers from a wide range of disciplines, this book explores the tourism history and heritage of the Lake District and its construction as a cultural landscape from the mid eighteenth century to the present day. It critically analyses the relationships between history, heritage, landscape, culture and policy that underlie the activities of the National Park, Cumbria Tourism and the proposals to recognise the Lake District as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It examines all aspects of the Lake District's history and identity, brings the story up to date and looks at current issues in conservation, policy and tourism marketing. In doing so, it not only provides a unique and valuable analysis of this region, but offers insights into the history of cultural and heritage tourism in Britain and beyond.