Day Ten - Hill Top House (Beatrix Potter) & Brantwood (John Ruskin)
We drove south to Ambleside and then further south, up into the hills, to find the homes of English author Beatrix Potter, who wrote & illustrated children's books, and, John Ruskin, a kind of Renaissance Man of the late 1800s. I admit to knowing almost nothing about either person, prior to visiting.
Both destinations are fairly remote, with the narrowest roads we encountered on the trip.
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look for Hawkshead, Far Sawrey, and Conniston Water |
BEATRIX POTTER'S HILL TOP HOUSE
Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) was a British writer, illustrator, natural scientist and land conservationist. In her mature years she lived with her husband at a home at Far Sawrey where she became a prizewinning breeder of Herdwick sheep.
Of the 30 books she wrote, 23 were children's books, the most popular being The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
Beatrix Potter loved the Lake District beginning with family trips here when she was a child.
By 1905 Beatrix Potter had become a very successful author, and purchased Hill Top House & farm, near Hawkshead. With steady income from books and especially from her innovative spin-off merchandizing, she was able to buy many large farms, often at auction, to prevent modern development of this area.
The huge amount of land which she assembled - fifteen very large farms - was willed upon her passing to the newly formed National Trust. Her generous gift sowed the seed for what eventually became the Lake District National Park. Talk about a legacy !
info here is from wikipedia
note - you can enlarge any part of a picture by left-clicking in and then out again.
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managed by National Trust |
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Hill Top house |
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period furniture & dishes |
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original edition |
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early piano |
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period wallpaper |
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naturalist art | ||
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Linnean plant classification book |
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interiors |
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writing sample |
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illustration |
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book in the gift shop |
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Beatrix Potter, young.... | |||
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...and old |
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apricot rose in the garden |
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tiny town of Near Sawrey |
HAWKSHEAD
We stopped at nearby Hawkshead to have a look around, checking out St. Michael's church. Next door was a Grammar school which Wm. Wordsworth attended when young. Otherwise, Hawkshead is a kind of a tourist town in rolling hills terrain, hoping to capitalize on Beatrix Potter's fame, with B&Bs, restaurants, galleries & shops.
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a church in Hawkshead |
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St. Michael's & All Angels |
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Celtic cross |
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the lay of the land |
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interior |
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Hawkshead Grammar School | |||
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more Wordsworth history |
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backwards clock |
BRANDTWOOD
John Ruskin (1819 - 1900) was an art patron, an art critic, a watercolorist, and a social thinker. In his extensive writings, he emphasized the connection between nature, art, and society.
For a few years John Ruskin was a charismatic orator & influencer, teaching at Oxford, where he drew crowds of students to his lectures. He became so popular that every academic lecture from his classes had to be repeated later, in a public forum. Ruskin apparently had eloquence, and a deep & captivating voice. He encouraged people of his time to think about larger moral issues.
The impressive Ruskin-designed house has a great auxiliary cafe in a beautiful old stone building, where we took a coffee break before touring the house. It was grey & rainy today.
We were the only visitors in the large art-filled home. Docent-less, we wandered around individually and saw the artwork & read the displays. It is a well-designed house, with lots of light and views everywhere. The house sits on a large property which extends down to lake level.
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Rich at Brantwood |
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overlooking Conniston Water |
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living room |
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dining room |
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statue of Gandhi |
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artwork by Ruskin |
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John Ruskin, young & old |
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view towards town of Conniston |
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what was J. R. like ? |
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sculpture of Ruskin |
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the words of the artist Gutzon Borglum |
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Conniston Water froze in Feb. 1895, see note 1 |
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Ruskin-designed wallpaper |
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recent artwork by Hideyuki Sobue, see note 2 |
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more interiors |
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Ruskin designed fire place |
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he liked to have art around |
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crow's nest & scaffolding |
| the town of Conniston |
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tour boat on Conniston Water |
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Brantwood |
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his extensive garden |
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multi-leveled garden |
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note 1 - in this photo John Ruskin is third from the left. Others include a local builder, Ruskin's current & future head gardeners, as well as coach & stable boys, and other Brantwood staff (the house can be seen in the background). No other family members of Ruskin are present.
note 2 - Hideyuki Sobue is a Japanese artist who resides in the Lake District. He recently painted images of Wm. Wordsworth and J. Ruskin, presenting his "Conversation with Ruskin" lecture at the Ruskin house in September, 2019, one month before we visited.
Our destinations today required driving on the narrowest of roads, sometimes curvy and breath-taking, but fortunately traffic volume was low. Once back at Ambleside, the road north to Keswick was wide with really good scenery, see photo below.
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Andrew Locking photo |
go to next page - Derwent Water boat launch & etc.
return to 2019 UK trip index
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