The Lake District, Cumbria

 
England has few wide open places left. One of the few is the Lake District in the north-west of England. This is the area made famous by the poet Wordsworth. It has a rugged beauty that few places can match.

 


General view of the Lakes with their surrounding Fells.
   
 

Grasmere

This is a scene that Wordsworth must have known, looking down on Grasmere Lake, which gave him his inspiration for the poem below:


I wandered 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.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
   

 

Windermere

Windermere is the largest of the lakes and the most popular with tourists as it is one of the easiest to get to. Despite this, it is possible to escape the crowds by travelling to the southern end of the lake. Many people are still lucky enough to live right on the waters edge, though a number of these former homes of the wealthy have been converted into hotels.

 

  
 

Ullswater

Many people claim that Ullswater is the most beautiful of the lakes and this may be due to its relative quiet. It is less accessible to the day tripper than, for example, Windermere.
   
 

Buttermere
   
 

For more view of the Lake District this fascinating website has a number of 360o panoramas - Virtual Cumbria