Easter Excursion Day 4 - Yorkshire Dales & Beatrix Potter Reprise

After a genuine English Breakfast ...

... We set out for home, opting for a route that took us through the Yorkshire Dales again, instead of through several genuine, but rather large English cities. This "highway" was slightly less slow than our previous Yorkshire Dales excursion, and we enjoyed our lunch break at Aysgarth Falls:

We had the path through the woods mostly to ourselves:

Since a walk in the woods is a good time for reflection on other things, I may as well admit that despite our distaste for the Lake's commercial, over-populated feel, tourist traps sometimes exist for a reason. Though unpleasant in the moment, our day in the "Lakes" did more to prompt new and stimulating avenues of thought than our more pleasant outings in Yorkshire.

Still checked out from the library, for example, is the (decoded) Journal of Beatrix Potter, as well as the National Trust's Beatrix Potter (1866-1943): The Artist and Her World. The lavishly illustrated second volume has helped me appreciate Beatrix Potter's children's book illustrations as serious art, and led me to admire the industry and skill of the author, artist, sheep-breeder, scientist, and conservationist:

“Her stories began as picture letters for real children; they ended as tributes to real animals. In the years between she painted and wrote to please herself. ‘The more spontaneous the pleasure – the more happy the result. I cannot work to order; and when I had nothing to say I had the sense to stop.’” (68). 

Still, if we ever have the chance to vacation in England again, it will be Yorkshire not the Lake District that makes it on our list of places to settle into.

A cow-free public footpath in Yorkshire Dales

Easter Excursion Day 3 - Wisdom Sits in Places

The scenes that inspired the imaginations of such luminaries as William Wordsworth, Beatrix Potter, and Arthur Ransome left us underwhelmed. We would probably have preferred the more desolate Yorkshire Dales and the wilds around Hadrian’s Wall to England’s most mountainous region anyway, but thanks to the Lake District’s celebrity authors, the place is now crawling with people—and we generally shun tourist destinations. Part of the problem was that we spent most of the day trying to avoid scratching the sides of our rental car as we hurried down narrow one-way lanes with two-way traffic, alternating between Google Maps and our road atlas, getting lost more than once in the process.

Our afternoon’s ordeal was locating a place to view the “Wild Cat” Island on Coniston Water that features in Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons:

On the left, the Old Man of Coniston:

Pictures taken, we straggled down to the genuine British Royal Oak Pub in Spark Bridge where I had booked a room for the night. There we left our navigator to take some much-needed rest, ventured out for a stroll, and discovered that the beauty of the scenery sinks in when you walk around in it—preferably off the beaten path.

If we had spent more time in the Lake District, we may have found out the easy way that the existence of a public bridle path does not mean it is necessarily safe to walk on. But enter we did, being careful to shut the gate behind us to prevent the egress of the curious cows in the pasture within:

Heading toward an outcropping of flint rock:

How does this selfie thing work?

A shadow selfie works better:

On our return, we discovered that the cows who had at first acknowledged us warily, now seemed prepared to prevent our escape, with two cows stationed at the gate ...

... and another group bunched together, ruminating nervously as we approached. To be safe, we climbed a nearby hillock where I stood and faced the herd and uttered my most menacing Moo. When that did not have the desired effect, we retreated nonchalantly to a corner of the pasture, with the cows, more curious than anything, hot on our trail:

Over one wall, a bog, over the other, a muddy sheep pasture:

Eventually, we climbed along the wall and made our escape. How long the cows stayed at their posts in the corner of the pasture is anyone’s guess:

We made our way back to the Royal Oak for a genuine British pub supper:

Bangers and Mash for me:

s. actually ate (most of) her French fries!

Easter Excursion Day 3 - A Beatrix Potter Matching Quiz

Picture 1

The two older members of the family are fans of Beatrix Potter, so we made a point of stopping at National Trust's Hilltop House on our long drive through the Lake District.

Can you match the pictures to the books they feature in? (Options: The Pie and the Patty Pan, The Tailor of Gloucester, The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, The Tale of Tom Kitten, The Two Bad Mice)

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Picture 7

Picture 8

Picture 9

Picture 10

Beatrix didn't do a lot of writing at Hilltop House, it turns out, but this room is preserved as her study:

Easter Excursion Day 2 - Naworth Castle and Lanercost Priory

On September 10, 1649, a twenty-seven-year-old Anne Murray—known to us by her married name, Anne Halkett—left London for Naworth Castle, where she stayed nine months. Naworth Castle was then the home of the twenty-one-year-old Charles Howard and his wife and cousin Anne Howard, Halkett’s childhood friend. (How convenient not to have to change your last name when you get married!)

Charles Howard

According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (and Wikipedia), Charles Howard successfully tacked with the changing political winds of the tumultuous 17th century. He was brought up as a Catholic and sided with Charles I during the English civil war, but then “distinguished himself” in battle on Cromwell’s side and served in parliament during the interregnum. After the restoration of Charles II, he was knighted and appointed ambassador to Russia, and then governor of Jamaica. By the end of it all he had amassed a fortune large enough for his grandson to build the palatial Castle Howard.

Today the 14th-century Naworth Castle is still in the Howard family, serving as the residence of Philip Howard, the second son of the twelfth Earl of Carlisle.



This means, unfortunately, that it is not open to the public, unless you can afford a private guided tour. But since the castle is just down the road from where we were staying, we decided to get as close as possible on our return from Housestead's Roman Fort. Here are the castle's front gates, both ancient and modern:

Since we qualify as the "public," we continued down the lane (driveway?) past the castle, where I took another photo:

The castle website—still under construction after all these years—does have a few nice pictures of the interior.

We were looking for the public footpath that runs through the back of the Howard estate where we hoped to getting a better view, but the footpath we chanced upon once we located a "car park" took us along the other side of the River Irthing to the ruins of Lanercost Priory:

The Parish Church of St. Mary Magdalene:   

The vicar of the Priory Church is a shepherdess. I wonder, are these her sheep?

We decided against paying the fee to see the English Heritage section of the Priory ruins, and entered the restored part of the 12th-century church instead, where we were treated to the equivalent of a free guided tour.

In brief, the Parish Church of St. Mary Magdalene and adjoining Augustinian Priory were built in the 12th-13th centuries at least partly out of stones from Hadrian’s wall. (This is apparently common in Cumbria. Our “guide” explained that you can tell Hadrian’s wall stones both from the colour of the local stone and the size: they had to be small enough for Roman soldiers to carry one at a time.) King Edward I made the Priory his home in 1306-7 when he tried to conquer Scotland; in 1538 the Priory was dissolved by Henry the 8th, and both Church and Priory were mostly left in ruins. Unlike Leicester Abbey, these ruins survive, and unlike the rather thorough iconoclasts in our area, the Cumbrian reformers missed a statue:

In 1649, when Lady Halkett visited Naworth Castle, the local parish church met in the old church's north aisle. I am given to understand, however, that she most likely attended services in the Castle’s private chapel, which had its own Anglican chaplain at a time when the Anglican order of service was proscribed from use in local churches. For some reason, the list of Lanercost ministers has a gap between 1637 and 1651, so we don’t know who would have officiated if she did visit the old Priory.

The nave of the old church was re-roofed in the 18th century, and then beautifully restored in the 19th by George Howard, the 9th Early of Carlisle, and his Pre-Raphaelite friends, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. (I do regret not paying the requested £1 donation so that I could take pictures of the restored church’s beautiful interior, but you can sample Google’s offering here.)

Of greater interest to us at that moment was the walking map our guide produced, indicating the public footpath that might have afforded us a better view of Naworth Castle. Alas, by the time we had rested our feet by the old Lanercost bridge and helped rescue a wandering puppy ...

... there arose a protest against venturing any further.

Easter Excursion Day 1 - Castles, Moors, and Walls

On what may be our last multi-day excursion before our return to Canada at the end of July, we sampled three more medieval castles, many miles of stone walls–most of which were rather too close to the side of the road for comfort–and some breath-taking views. Our destination on Monday was an AirBnB in Walton (“Wall Town”) in Cumbria, but instead of heading straight north on the M1 as Google directed, we took a few roads less-traveled by.

Our first diversion was an early lunch break at Pontefract Castle, the site of Richard the II’s death in 1400, under suspicious circumstances, and one of three castles on S’s bucket list. 

According to our road atlas, the castle is not far from the highway, but it was more difficult to locate than I anticipated. Locating parking was more difficult still. Entrance is free, which is good, because there was not much left after Oliver Cromwell finally crushed the Royalist forces who had withstood a four-month siege in the winter of 1648-49.

Cromwell's troops also ruined the nearby All Saints church:

The 19th-century restoration--creating a church within a church--is striking:

Since it was more-or-less along our route, we decided to make another stop at Middleham Castle, the long-time residence of Richard Neville, the king-making Earl of Warwick, and one of the favourite haunts of “King in the Car Park” Richard III (1452-1485).

From Middleham we opted for one of Google’s lesser alternatives that would, I thought, shorten our trip by seven miles and let us see more of the Yorkshire Dales to boot. So instead of returning to the main highway, we set out northwest into the national park. I neglected to consult our road atlas, which labeled the route across Redmire Moor from Leyburn to Reeth a DANGER AREA. Now, however, we know what a moor looks like; we can also confirm that moors are indeed prone to  impenetrable fog.*

From Reeth we abandoned Google for what our atlas indicated was a more established road through the villages of Healaugh, Feetham, Low Row, Gunnerside, Satron, Muker and Thwaite, among others. The one-way lane bordered on each side by stone walls was certainly scenic.

Unfortunately, since we were anxious to get to our destination before nightfall we didn’t stop to take pictures, but pictures wouldn’t do justice to the experience.

*Full disclosure:  The "Danger Area" sign is to let passersby know they are driving through a military shooting range not to warn them about unsafe roads or treacherous fog. Does that make you feel better?