Our second full day in The Lake District was slightly less rainy than the day before, so we decided to brave the elements and do a walk to Near Sawrey in order to visit Hill Top, Beatrix Potter's home and inspiration for many of her stories.
After our views from the bus the previous day, I looked forward to seeing the area first hand and taking some pictures. We did have light rain most of the day, but not enough to ruin plans. It was just enough to be a nuisance. The walk to Hill Top is a little over 3 miles, with a lot of gorgeous scenery and tiny villages along the way.
Once we got down to the lake, we had to take a ferry across to the other side.
Looking at Lake Windermere from Bowness
Claife Heights Viewing Station, built in 1790
Looking across the lake at Bowness.
The rest of the walk was just beautiful.
Author Beatrix Potter visited the Lake District with her family as a child a moved there as an adult. Hilltop was only her home for a short while as she met her husband shortly after moving and moved in with him. However, she kept Hilltop as her writing sanctuary. It was the inspiration for several of her stories. The home is now a museum set up with mostly her original furniture as well as memorabilia - letters, sketches, notebooks, etc.
It was so special to see the gardens as I could picture the little animals from the stories up to their shenanigans.
The small village of Near Sawrey also inspired Potter.
Notice the tupperware container to leave your money.
The rain started to come down harder after our visit to Hill Top so we took the bus to our next destination - Hawkshead. Beatrix Potter's husband was a lawyer in Hawkshead and his offices were left to the National Trust and turned into a Beatrix Potter Gallery. The gallery changes its exhibit regularly. During our visit, the exhibit showed Potter's artwork from her stories and the Lake District's inspiration, then and now. It was fun to see what some of the places we had visited looked like back in the day as well as how she portrayed them in her books. It was a lovely little gallery.
Letters and picture of the Pottery Family in the Lake District.
Part of the grammar school in the front while the St. Michael and All Angels' Church in the background.
After another long, wet day we took the bus back to Bowness, had some dinner across the street from our cottage and turned in for the night. The next day we checked out and boarded the train at noon to head back to London. The next day I said goodbye to the UK and flew home. The end!
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What a marvelous day this must have been!! Although the Beatrix Potter stories were not really favorites of my childhood, I read a historical fiction series about her life a few years ago which totally endeared her (and her characters) to me. I would have loved seeing all this! You got some wonderful photos, too!
ReplyDeleteYes! It was so neat! And when the Peter Rabbit movie came out earlier this year, I was able to share the stuff I had with my class to show them the stories behind it.
DeleteFunny that I didn't even know about the Peter Rabbit movie until you mentioned it... and it was one of the previews in the netflix movie we watched last night!
DeleteYour students are so blessed to have a fun teacher like you. I bet seeing your photos made the idea of seeing the movie all the more special!
Thanks Kelly! I appreciate it. It’s fun when we can do that kind of thing. It’s rare these days, but fun!
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