Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
People are all aflutter demanding that the governments around the world step in and do something, anything, about the eventual end of oil and fossil fuels. It reminds me of the old saying,
The Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones!
However, now that I’m in the Lake District in England, I’ve had to revise that saying, because around here, near as I can tell the Stone Age never officially ended at all. Oh, not the people, they’re as modern as any … but they use stone everything. Now I was expecting stone houses … and I’d heard of (but never seen) stone roofs. Both of those they have aplenty.
But I wasn’t prepared for stone gateposts …
And while I’ve seen many stone fences in my time, they were always made of stones piled one atop the other. They have lots of those kinds of fences in the Lake District, but also another kind I’d not seen. These are made of single flat stone slabs stood on edge.
I didn’t inquire closely as to how the folks living in the stone houses with the stone fences and stone roofs might have constructed their beds and their toilets, that seemed a bridge too far, and I was afraid of what might be revealed ..
We’ve spent the night in Hawkshead, for no apparent reason other than that the YHA Youth Hostel here has the best rates in the area. And since the gorgeous ex-fiancee and I are both in our middle youth, it worked out fine.
As many people have claimed, the scenery here in the Lake District is gorgeous, and Hawkshead is no exception.
It’s one of the spots for which the term “bucolic” might have been invented.
Hawkshead is in the Beatrix Potter country, and the William Wordsworth country, and man, they don’t want you to forget either one. I guess Peter Rabbit must be big in Japan, because there were a couple of busloads of Japanese tourists at her house in Near Sawrey, and all the Beatrix Potter Official Stockist shops had Japanese translations on their signs. And Wordsworth’s name pops up everywhere, unfortunately sometimes to the detriment of what is assuredly a more interesting and recondite history:
The town has a lovely church which we visited and admired, but the folks here say it’s not that old, it only dates from the 1500s … bummer. Despite that disappointment, I did find Herman Melville’s dale that I mentioned in my last post, and I did follow it down to the lake as Melville said:
In this case, the lake was Lake Windermere, one lake over from the lake pictured above. From the number of sailboats I assume Windermere means “Windy Lake”, so I’m probably wrong about that, folk etymology being what it is … but windy or not, it is one of the most scenic lakes it’s been my pleasure to behold.
The turf around here is all clearly marked by the glaciers of the last Ice Age, with the characteristic rounded valleys and the hills sometimes scraped clean of dirt down to the bone. The glaciers make for a lovely soft kind of landscape, with all of the sharp points ground smooth.
On the northeast side of lake Windermere there’s a charming forest that runs along the lake. In one section there was no undergrowth, just acres of ferns …
Strangely, between the forest and the lake there’s also a place which is a caravan park with permanent residents, called “Strawberry Garden”. It’s in one of the world’s prettiest locations, right on the waterfront. Of course, it’s all marked
PRIVATE
This site is privately occupied by long term caravan owners.
THERE IS NO PUBLIC ACCESS
Here’s a shot of it from over the fence … a stone fence, as you might imagine …
Why did I find this strange?
Well, the site is owned, not by a private individual or a company, but by the National Trust. Says so right on the other sign:
THE NATIONAL TRUST
STRAWBERRY GARDEN
PRIVATE — Access to caravan site and cottages only.
NO UNAUTHORISED ENTRY
It has the National Trust logo on it and everything … I was gobsmacked. The National Trust is in the business of providing stupendous caravan spaces to the fortunate few, while the public is kept out entirely? How does that work? Gotta be some history there I’m unaware of.
We walked a couple of miles along Lake Windermere. It was absolutely stunning. My thanks to all who recommended the Lake District, our time here has been great. The only downside are the roads. Typically, the roads around this area are about one and seven-sixteenths car widths from side to side … in the wide parts … and there are always stone walls on both verges, which tend to focus one’s attention mightily. Add bicyclists and walkers and the odd horse or two, and it’s a Disneyland E-Ticket ride, except with real hazards.
Tomorrow we’re going to see Hadrian’s Wall, and then up into Scotland. The adventure continues. My thanks to everyone for their texts and comments. Unfortunately there are far too many to acknowledge individually, but I do read and appreciate them all. We’re headed for the land of haggis and sporrans, should be fun.
Best regards,
w.
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Re: slate roofs: Do you recall the movie “Traffic”, about a decade back? The “village” in the Cincinnati area, where the judge who was appointed drug czar (Michael Douglas) lived, has… well it’s been a while since I visited there so I’d better say had, quite a few.
Thatch is much pricier… due to the labor required for maintenance.
Chesterton, Ayres, Vindolandia …
How nice to know that I am not the only educated person left.
mikef2 says:
September 10, 2013 at 10:39 am
Hey Willis….welcome to Blighty. Its quite amusing to see things we take for granted being seen as ‘odd’……..you don’t have stone/slate tiles over in the ‘States? I did not know that. Enjoy your stay mate.
It depends a lot on which part of the state you’re in. East of Sacramento up I-80 are the towns of Rocklyn, Loomis, Penryn and Newcastle. A little farther south are Folsom and to the east Placerville and Shingle Springs up Hwy 50. There are major granite quarries along the I-80 stretch and there used to be – mostly gone now – pastures fenced with granite posts. The wire was run through holes bored in the posts. At Penryn a Cornish immigrant by the remarkable name of Griffith Griffith founded Penryn named for the town in Cornwall. He also established the Griffith Quarry, now a state park. Newcastle also had its quarries. At Folsom, during the late 19th century, the state had the future inmates of Folsom Prison quarry the granite and build their own prison. The old prison is a spectacular chunk of Gothic Revival stone work. North of Placerville on the South Fork of the American River is the Chili Bar dam and right next to it is the Chili Bar slate mine which produced huge amounts high quality, blue-black slate for use in pool-table beds, roof shingles, and pavers for floors and walks. The mine was a huge grid of tunnels that reached a thousand feet or so back into the mountain. It was reactivated recently and now is mostly an open pit operation. There are also marble and lime quarries scattered around that part of the state. The main limit on the use of stone is cost. Wood was and is much cheaper and far easier to extract.
Richardscourtney 3:12 am Sept 10th 2013:
Are you sure you live in Cornwall? The town near Redruth is spelt Camborne, not Cambourne.
I see you landed up at a “youth” hostel, Willis. Was that by any chance because I mentioned the possibility to you? It would be nice to think I might have been instrumental in saving you some cash. They’re all over the UK, especially in popular scenic spots.
It’s amazing that you might find slate roofs unusual, or stone houses: the latter are still occasionally built even in urban areas, where they may be posh and expensive. Most British houses are double-skinned, with an outer brick and an inner breeze block layer, linked by metal ties, with the gap between them these days often containing insulating material, as also does floor of the roof cavity.
Scotland, especially the highlands, have in abundance something that the rest of the UK doesn’t: grandeur. You really must remember to eat an authentic Scotch pie: they are delicious fresh and hot, if somewhat artery-clogging. Outside the urban areas, almost anywhere you can go is beautiful. The Isles of Mull and Iona on the West coast are fond memories of mine, as is Loch Lomond.
As proud as I am of our beautiful kingdom, France is more beautiful still. The only problem with it is the French, but nothing is perfect! 😉
Michael Larkin. Oh, come on! You can’t say “France is more beautiful still”. Then do you go on to say that Portugal or Italy is more beautiful than France? What about Canada? What about New Zealand? As you say, France is ruined by the French just like Spain is ruined by the Spanish, and France has some beautiful countryside and sea-sides. But Britain has a glorious diversity, from cityscapes (which are apparently, it turns out according to a survey, number 3 on a list of tourist sight requests) to rolling hills, oak-tree valleys, meandering streams, wonderful coastlines and some breath-taking views of all of them. Very few countries can match that DIVERSITY. There are many stunningly-beautiful countries across the world, but not many where there is such diversity which includes cityscapes. We, in Britain, are very lucky, and we often have to have it pointed out to us by people like Willis and Bill Bryson. We have an amazing history (not all of it glorious, admittedly) AND great scenery. There is not a single country other than Britain which has both. Italy has some history and great aesthetics, but can’t match Britain’s contributions during the Tudor and Victorian eras (etc.). We live in a stunning country, quietly being ruined by politicians, Europhiles and environuts.
Sorry, I have to leave now, otherwise I might have to set this to music.
@Michael larkin
‘Scotland, especially the highlands, have in abundance something that the rest of the UK doesn’t: grandeur’
See it while you can before Mad Alex Salmond covers it in even more windmills in his lunatic drive to ‘100% renewables by 2020’.
National trust … run by the elite for the elite paid for by the plebs.
It’s a bit like Robin Hood … but in reverse. Its welfare to the rich. “Are you old, spent all your money on frivolous shoots and don’t have enough left to keep you old ruin maintained – well look no further because there’s the National Trust welfare to the rich scheme.”
Willis, you’ve not mentioned how you’re finding the food here.
I second Michael Larkin on “Scotch Pies” have a napkin at the ready or the juice drips off your elbows 🙂 Another Scottish delicacy you might find in the fish n chip shops up there, “deep fried battered Mars Bar” to really test your constitution!
Did you manage to try “Jellied eels” around the London area? You might also find them for sale on the East Anglia coast, certainly an acquired taste, consider it a foody challenge!
Anywhere North of Manchester you might find a slice of “Black Pudding” served with the traditional “Full English Breakfast” if you travel east from there a similar “white pudding” can be found.
Then there’s the old shaggy dog tale about an American gastronomic guru who wanted to try every British dish, he traveled far and wide in search of an obscure British delicacy “Puy” the story winds round every hill in the country with a tavern, which had sold out of “puy” until years later he crawls into The Tan Hill Inn (World Famous as Great Britain’s Highest Inn, Near Reeth & Richmond in Swaledale and the North Yorkshire Dales National Park) “have you got any puy left”? … Yes Sir, would you like Sheppard’s Puy, Meat & Potato Puy, or Cheese n Onion Puy”?
Enjoy Scotland, Oban is worth a visit, if only to see the Scottish can be as eccentric as the English when it comes to building follys, McCaig’s Tower sits on the hill above Oban, a much smaller version of the Colosseum in Rome, Oban also has a nice little distillery http://www.oban.org.uk/listing/Oban-Distillery, the scenery along the road to Oban is some of the best in the country.
Lovely scenery.
But what a pity it is not better utilized by the planting of some windmills.
😉
Really enjoying your posts. It’s always interesting to hear a visitor’s impression of one’s own country.
Hopefully you’ll enjoy a drive around Lochs Lomond and Ness – beautiful. One thing no-one seems to have mentioned though: (as my Scottish mother always says), watch out, because some haggis are low-flying and can occasionally be a bit aggressive…
DaveF:
Yes, I live in Cornwall. I fail to understand why you would question it. My post code is TR11 4SL.
And, yes, I mistyped a ‘u’ into Camborne when making a frivolous point in this thread. It did not affect what I said in any way.
Strange how such trivia can interest people. And I don’t think that is a British thing: the egregious Phil wasted much of a thread because I mistyped recently.
Richard
Duster:
Thankyou for the info. about Penryn near Sacramento which has a stone quarry. The granite quarry of the original Penryn closed long ago.
I live close to the original Penryn which is adjacent to Falmouth. I have my lunch in the Penryn Asda cafe most days, and I take lunch in the historically interesting Kings Arms pub in the middle of Penryn most Sundays.
We all live in a small world. And there are more things which unite us than we know.
Richard
@TLM
The National trust do not own all coastal paths. Many have been placed by (Labour) Government edict and it is the landowners who have to build them and maintain them to NT H&S specifications. This has caused much trouble to many poorer coastal farmers especially with the H&S regulations and grazing cattle/sheep and badly behaved dogs.
Cornish ”stone walls” are called hedges.
Using the cheapest materials for house building is common world wide. America uses pine framed buildings, quick to assemble but poor in a tornado, but the lakes use common slate for walls and rooves which are slow to build but probably survive a tornado. Local building materials are picked from the fields by children, or were in olden days now, hopefully, the children are in school.
Richardscourtney September 11, 2013 at 3:06 am:
Why would I question where you live? Because the mistake you made is a common one by people from elsewhere, but not by locals. Why do you think spelling is trivial, Mr Cortny?
Willis
May I suggest as you travel South from Edinburgh that you use the A1 which will allow you to visit some lovely places like Berwick, Lindisfarne (Holy Island) and Bamburgh (stunning beach and castle used in numerous movies). You can then continue as far as Darlington where a detour will take you over the North Yorkshire moors to Whitby (home of Dracula story and port of Capt James Cook). Returning to York via either the moors or Scarborough.
When in York Minster look for the gold phone.
St Pauls cost per 1 minute call to God £10
Canterbury £5
Liverpool £1
York Minster 10 pence
It’s a local call!!
Regards and safe trip
Stone stairs and floors;
Wonderful stone stair at The Queens House at Greenwich, Inigo Jones, 1616, I hope you had time to see it. He learned about stone stairs on his travels in Italy. They work by torsion not as cantilevers. Common in good Georgian and Victorian houses and even Edwardian block of flats until modern engineers got nervous about why they don’t fall down and how to do sums to justify them. Another good example in The Monument in London, by Christopher Wren, 1671.
http://www.rmg.co.uk/about/history/queens-house/
http://www.themonument.info/
The stone landings are quite interesting too. There is an excellent suspended stone floor at Cawdor Castle, slate beams supporting slate slabs,from memory the beams span about 20 feet.
Too late for London but Cawdor may be possible still?
MACBETH
[Aside] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor!
The greatest is behind.
DaveF:
I am replying to your post at September 11, 2013 at 3:44 am because this thread is about amusing trivia, and there IS amusement to be had from the spelling of my family name .
Your entire post says
The misprint indicated nothing other than my thick fingers, and it would only lead to someone suggesting I was making a pointless lie if they had nefarious purpose.
And spelling is trivial. The English recogniSe that, and Americans recogniZe it, too. Of importance is that the meaning of the word is understood and not how it is spelt.
There are many spellings of my family name. I use Courtney but Courtenay is common and could be considered more correct because it is a better echo of the name’s origin.
Courtney derives from the Norman French name of cours de nez (pronounced core de nay). Literally translated it means ‘short of nose’ and is an insulting reference to the (once upon a time) family nose.
I am often amused that Americans sometimes provide a child with my family name as a given name. Presumably they say,
“That child has a stubby, little nose so we will call it Courtney”.
Richard (if you like, Cortny)
DaveF, give it a rest! Personally I’d give away one of my children to live in Cornwall!
ooops, forgot to mention that the Duffers book I referred to was Swaallos and Amazons which another poster also recommended…
My comment about France being more beautiful than the UK was meant as much as anything as a bit of a mischievousness , but for me personally, it is true. Some parts of France are staggering. I remember being absolutely gobsmacked by Mont Saint Michel, Chartres and Rheims. Nor do we have anything to compare with the Alps or the Riviera. Maybe we’re a bit more diverse, I’ll grant.
The Ghost Of Big Jim Cooley September 11 2013, at 5:19 am:
“….I’d give away on of my children to live in Cornwall.”
Why, is it one of your favourite – ahem – ‘haunts’?
Thanks, Willis. I enjoyed the photos and comments about building with stone. They remind me of the hauntingly beautiful song “Skellig” by Loreena McKennitt, about an Irish monk who spent his life alone in a “rocky cell” beside the sea, scribing the Word of God, in the days when all books were hand written & copied; when most people in the world were illiterate and routinely faced privations unimaginable in the Western world, today. Hmmm, I wonder why I mentioned that last bit?
Willis, I wish I would have known that you were headed to my neck of the woods, I would have happily taken you to a fine pub and bought you a pint. I live in the Lake District and now, you can see why I love living here so much. As for the roads, I have never had a problem with them, but then I was brought being driven and driving on them. It’s not a problem, so long as you are prepared to brake hard at any given moment.
I enjoy wizzing along what we call country lanes. I am delighted that you enjoyed your trip to my little beautiful part of the world, it is a bit like a very miniature version of the American Rockies. Very pretty and a delightful place to live.