LOST IN THE LAKES

Travel writer Tom Chesshyre spent a month in the Lake District for his new book, exploring Wordsworth’s landscapes of 'beauty and grandeur'. He tells us what he learned along the way

TOM CHESSHYRE

On each visit to the Lake District, my curiosity about this hallowed landscape so eulogized by the poets – “the loveliest spot that man hath ever found”, said William Wordsworth – has been piqued. How, though, to see it all, not as a serious climber, but as an “average Joe” walker interested in Wordsworth’s “sublime” scenery, the villages and towns, as well as the people, along the way? I consulted a series of Ordnance Survey maps. There were 1,342 miles of public footpaths and 544 miles of bridleways to explore across 912 square miles of land (the national park is 32 miles across and 40 miles from north to south). I read a large number of books, Wordsworth’s included. I plotted a vague route: a big wobbly circle taking in…

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Britain (Digital) - 1 Issue, May/Jun 2024

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