Day 4 Great Lakelanders

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After a full English breakfast, we will depart by coach to the shores of Esthwaite, which is  situated between lakes Windermere and Coniston. This small lake featured in the lives of both the poet Wordsworth and the children’s author Beatrix Potter who both walked along it’s shoreline. It was whille resting nearby, that Wordsworth encountered a friend who asked him why he was seated there and not reading books; please read his poem describing this moment following this days description.

Throughout Wordsworth’s work, nature provides the ultimate good influence on the human mind. All manifestations of the natural world, from the highest mountain to the simplest flower. Wordsworth repeatedly emphasizes the importance of nature in developing an individual’s intellectual and spiritual development. A good relationship with nature helps individuals connect to both the spiritual and the social worlds. For Wordsworth, Esthwaite was one of those places that he could experience that re-connection with nature and visited it on many occasions. He quite clearly had a great fondness for the lake and this is expressed in his poem “left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree near Esthwaite Water”. This great affinity with the place had begun as boy, when he studied at the nearby Grammar school at Hawkeshead and continued throughout his life.

From Esthwaite we travel to the nearby village of Hawkeshead to visit the very schoolhouse that Wordsworth attended. The museum houses a unique collection of historic artifacts relating to the ancient School, some of which date back to the sixteenth century. Amongst these are the original desks and seats used in Wordsworth’s day, many of which have been inscribed with their signatures, including that of the poet himself. Whilst in the village we will also have the opportunity of visiting the Beatrix Potter Gallery which house an exhibition of selected drawings and illustrations by Beatrix Potter, many of which will be recognizable from her delightful children’s books. We will have time to walk around the streets of this attractive Lakeland village which contains many interesting buildings and shops and has remained largely unchanged since Wordsworth vivid description of the village in his poem ‘The Prelude’.  After this we’ll embark for the farm “Hill Top” that was Beatrix Potter’s home in the nearby village of Sawrey.

Sawrey village is situated south of Esthwaite Lake and is famous for it’s associations with the famous children’s author Beatrix Potter who lived at Hilltop Farm within the village and based many of her stories on fictional animal characters living in the area around her home, “The Tale Of Tom Kitten”, “The Fairy Caravan” and “The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck” to name but a few.  The farmer in Tale of Tom Kitten was called “Farmer Potatoes”, all the locals knew she had based it on real life “Farmer Postlethwaite”.
Although initially bought by the authoress as a retreat from her London home using proceeds from the sale of her books, it was to become her main creative base for new story books and long walks within the surrounding countryside a source of her inspiration. Today this 17th century farmhouse is open to the public and visitors can experience how the house would have appeared at the time Beatrix Potter lived there. We will then take one of her favourite walks to Moss Eccles Tarn a picturesque stretch of water south of the village and return along the northern shoreline of Esthwaite. We will complete the day with a spectacular cruise on Lake Windermere to Ambleside to rendezvous with our coach for return journey to the hotel.

Here is the poem that Wordsworth wrote to explain to his friend why he just ‘sat’ on the lakeshore with no book to read, he expressed the opinion that by simply sitting there to observe, he can learn much about the natural world around him and through this have a better understanding of himself.

“Expostulation and Reply”

“WHY, William, on that old grey stone,

Thus for the length of half a day,

Why, William, sit you thus alone,

And dream your time away?

“Where are your books?–that light bequeathed

To Beings else forlorn and blind!

Up! up! and drink the spirit breathed

From dead men to their kind.

“You look round on your Mother Earth,

As if she for no purpose bore you;

As if you were her first-born birth,

And none had lived before you!”

One morning thus, by Esthwaite lake,

When life was sweet, I knew not why,

To me my good friend Matthew spake,

And thus I made reply:

“The eye–it cannot choose but see;

We cannot bid the ear be still;

Our bodies feel, where’er they be,

Against or with our will.

“Nor less I deem that there are Powers

Which of themselves our minds impress;

That we can feed this mind of ours

In a wise passiveness.

“Think you, ‘mid all this mighty sum

Of things for ever speaking,

That nothing of itself will come,

But we must still be seeking?

“–Then ask not wherefore, here, alone,

Conversing as I may,

I sit upon this old grey stone,

And dream my time away,”

1798.

Day 4 Highlights:

• Esthwaite - Lake important to Beatrix Potter and W. Wordsworth in their lifetime where each walked along it’s shores.
• Hawkeshead – Quaint village where Wordsworth attended school and Beatrix Potter Gallery are located.
• Schoolhouse Wordsworth attended - located in Hawkeshead, dates back to the 16th c.
• Beatrix Potter Gallery – Houses a collection of paintings, drawings and illustrations by Beatrix Potter.
• Hill Top -Farm owned by Beatrix Potter where we will pay a visit.
• Sawrey - Village where Hill Top farm is located, many of her stories are based on characters and buildings from this town.
• Moss Eccles Tarn – We’ll take a walk along this beautiful little tarn (lake) that was a favorite walk of Beatrix Potter.
• Cruise on Lake Windermere - We’ll cruise across Lake Windermere to Ambleside to end our day.