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back to object record
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On the Road, Lake District
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This transcription is of the descriptive text for the Lake
District in On the Road, vol.5 London to Glasgow and the
English Lakes, published by E J Burrow and Co, Cheltenham,
Gloucestershire, 1920s. The item used in is a private
collection.
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Page 14:-
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... At Lancaster we are at the mouth of the Lune, which must
be crossed by Skerton Bridge on leaving the town and soon we
are travelling less than two miles from the coast, through
Slyne and Bolton-le-Sands, to where the ironworks of
Carnforth impose themselves boldly upon the landscape. In
another two or three miles we run out of Lancashire into
Westmorland.
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The Lake District
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And now for the most spectacular part of the journey. For a
majority of those who travel this road it will stand,
perhaps, as the road to the Lakes rather than as the road to
Glasgow. The gateway to the Lake District from the south is
Kendal, marked as we approach it by the ruins of Kendal
Castle crowning a hill to the right. Kendal is an
interesting old town with memories of Border warfare. Of its
ancient houses the most curious is one in Wildman Street
called the 'Castle Dairy.' This is typical of what most
houses in Kendal were formerly like - built with an eye on
the need for defence. Its walls are of great thickness and
the house
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Page 15:-
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is provided with hiding places. The church is notable
chiefly for its monuments, including one to a
seventeenth-century vicar with a quaint rhyming inscription.
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From Kendal there is a choice of routes through the Lake
District to Carlisle, which is the western gateway to
Scotland. Those travellers who are anxious to see as many of
the lakes as possible should follow the western route which
we will describe first. The eastern route via Penrith gives
a straighter course to Carlisle for those passing right
through to Scotland; it shows splendid mountain scenery but
misses the lakes
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The western route, on leaving Kendal, heads straight for
Windermere, climbing up a steep hill to an old toll-gate,
passing through Staveley and then descending to Windermere
town, which has grown up as a modern holiday centre on the
very shore of the beautiful lake of the same name, the
largest of the group. Lake Windermere has beautifully wooded
banks. The road runs close beside the lake to its northern
end at Ambleside, with Langdale Pikes, showing up as the
outstanding element in the glorious mountain country ahead.
Across the lake to the left rise such famous peaks as
Coniston Old Man (2,633 feet); farther away and more to the
north the loftier forms of Scafell Pike (3,210 feet) and
Scafell (3,162 feet). But closer at hand, right upon our
course, is the beauty spot of Low Wood, on the shore of the
lake, where steamers embark
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Page 16:-
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passengers for trips down the long narrow lake. Ambleside is
surrounded by grand mountain scenery. The town has some
quaint corners down its side streets, although wearing for
the most part an essentially modern appearance. It is but
two miles from here to Rydal, where Wordsworth's home may be
seen. the house is called Rydal Mount; only the exterior can
be viewed. The road passes close beside the tiny but very
charming lake of Rydal Water, past Nab Cottage, the home of
the poet Coleridge and then almost immediately touching
Grasmere Lake with wonderful views across to the mountains
beyond. At the northern end of the lake is Grasmere village,
a great place of literary pilgrimage, for Wordsworth is
buried in the churchyard. But Grasmere village is also
resorted to for the famous lakeland sports held here.
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Now the road goes almost due north to the long-shaped lake
of Thirlmere, at the approach to which is Wythburn village.
Close at hand on the right mighty Helvellyn lifts its proud
peak 3,118 feet above sea level, the chief of a long
backbone of mountains. Thirlmere now serves as a reservoir
for Manchester's water supply. Our road runs close beside
the lake for its entire length, and then goes across country
to Keswick, where lovely Derwentwater is close at hand on
the left. This is one of the broader lakes and its wooded
shores and pretty islands give it a distinctive beauty of
its own. The two mountains rising boldly to the north of
Keswick are Skiddaw (3,054 feet) and Saddleback (2,847
feet). Our road keeps to the west of Skiddaw, passing
between the mountain and Bassenthwaite Lake. At Bottrell,
five miles beyond the northern end of the lake, the road
changes its course to pass along the northern slopes of the
Skiddaw range, with lowlands spreading away on the left to
Solway Firth and so comes through Thursby to the ancient
city of Carlisle.
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The Alternative Route
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The eastern route from Kendal to Carlisle calls for less
detailed description; the scenery is grand but without the
lakes to punctuate the long succession of mountains. This is
some of the loneliest country in England, a rare place for
deep snowdrifts even in winters that are mild elsewhere. The
road climbs Shap Fell to a height of 1,400 feet, with a bog
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Page 17:-
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at the top and then a descent to Shap village. This district
is the place of origin of those great boulders of Shap
granite whose presence in widely separated parts of England
affords one of the most striking evidences of the glacial
epoch of the dim past. Ages before man lived in Britain
great glaciers ground their incredible way across the
primeval landscape, rolling along with them detached
fragments of the rocky mountains whose ultimate shape they
helped to fashion. Passengers up the Great North Road may
see one of these boulders of Shap granite at Thirsk in North
Yorkshire, sixty
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miles from Shap as the crow flies, and goodness knows how
many more miles by the devious ways of glaciers. The name of
Shap is famous in English geology. At Shap we are not far
from Lowther Castle, Lord Lonsdale's seat, which is to the
left of the road. At Clifton, farther along, is one of the
peel towers which were considered an indispensable adjunct
to any house of importance during the troublous times of
Border raids. These peel towers were not parts of extensive
castles but single towers to which the householder could
withdraw his family for safety at the approach of danger. It
was on Clifton Moor that Prince Charlie's band of
Highlanders fought and lost the last battle to take place on
English soil in 1745. Beyond here the grand old fortress of
Brougham Castle, partly Norman, is to the right, while on
the other side
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Page 18:-
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is soon passed the prehistoric earthwork called King
Arthur's Round Table. The Eamont River is crossed by a
fifteenth-century bridge and the climb beyond carries us
into Cumberland.
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Penrith is now close ahead, guarded by Beacon Hill and with
the merest fragment of its castle lingering near the railway
station. The town has some old inns and many old houses
built in narrow streets in a way that helps to conjure up
pictures of hand-to-hand fighting twixt English and Scots.
The churchyard contains two ancient sandstone pillars with
traces of Runic decoration, set at either end of what is
known as the Giant's Grave. A good road leads from Penrith
to carlisle, descending by way of Plumpton Head and High
Hesketh into the valley of the Eden.
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Across the Border
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Carlisle, like Lancaster, has that stern, cold look that
belongs to northern towns built to resist weather and hard
knocks. But that is now only a superficial impression and
beneath one finds in Carlisle a great wealth of historical
and artistic interest. The cathedral no longer has its
former magnificent size, the nave being only a quarter of
its ancient length, but it contains rich examples of
medieval art and being built of red sandstone like the
cathedrals of Chester and Lichfield it glows with warm
colour in the sun. Carlisle Castle has also been preserved
in large measure and in modern times has served as Army
barracks. A modern but striking architectural work is the
handsome bridge by which we cross the Eden to continue our
northward journey.
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Scotland is now less than ten miles ahead and, like many
runaway couples of the past, we hasten now to Gretna Green.
The actual border is crossed at Sark Bar toll-house, where
the small River Sark is also crossed, a mile before reaching
Gretna Green village. ...
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