Lake District Literature

There was nothing secret or undiscovered about where I was headed this morning but Windermere, both bustling little town and big, bold, beautiful lake is considered by many to be the glittering jewel in Lakeland’s crown. Catch the bus to Ambleside. It may not sound luxurious but the open top tourist buses give you the wind in your hair and the best view from a top deck anywhere in Britain. And if the windy roads make for slow going – great! Why hurry through scenery as spectacular as this? I’m told that taking the lake cruiser is a stunning alternative. Arriving, eventually, in Ambleside at the northern tip of Windermere, I jumped out glad to give my legs a stretch up the famed high street where all manner of breathable anoraks and nutritious pasties can be found.

Actually, it was lunchtime, so I stretched to a taxi-ride to The Drunken Duck; a famous old inn perched halfway up a hill, where I used to drink as a teenager on my weekends under canvas but has now become famed as a gastronomic heaven far beyond the pork scratchings of my misspent youth. I was settling down with a half of Strong & Ugly, one of many beers brewed on the premises, when a local leaned across and told me how this hostelry acquired its name. According to legend, back in the Lakeland mists of time, a barrel burst and released its contents into the ducks’ feeding ditch, making it ‘happy hour’ for the poultry. The tale was told with a straight face, so it seemed polite to swallow it. What I was more eager to digest was the menu. And yes, one of the starters included Duck Roulette! I waddled out very replete, and bussed it down to the bustling town of Bowness-on-Windermere, where I checked in to the Old England Hotel and Spa. An imposing but welcoming place, with lawns that run down to the lakeside.

Now, here’s a question. What is the most visited literary shrine in the Lake District, attracting thousands of visitors from all around the world, not least Japan where the author is both a household name and a cult? Hill Top, Beatrix Potter’s home and thus home of Peter Rabbit, Mrs Tiggywinkle et al, is just a mountain bike ride away in the village of Near Sawrey. And neighbouring it is the Tower Bank Arms, a pub owned by the National Trust and featured in The Tale of Jemima Puddleduck.

“Purely out of curiosity, I ventured into the inn and ordered a lemonade, which seemed somehow fitting – though I could have chosen anything from local ales to fine wines, and a meal from a mouth-watering menu. Sipping my drink, I wondered if Miss Potter ever wandered down to Grizedale Forest. If she went down to the woods today, she’d be sure of a big surprise.”

Including a twenty foot wooden Viking and dangling from a tree, the biggest spider I’d ever seen. The sculptures scattered throughout the forest range from the mysterious to the playful to the bizarre but they are always intriguing and more are planned. And if it’s contemporary art you’re looking for, meet FRED. Europe’s largest festival of outdoor art, with works dotted all over Cumbria.  As a man more used to daffodils, I think Wordsworth would have been rather startled by seeing some of them. Coleridge, however, would have put it down to the Laudanum.