We have in this Lake Country of ours very few sites connected with the royal family.  It is true that Queen Catherine Parr spent her girlhood’s days on the green hill, whose castle ruin still stands above the town of Kendal, it is also true that in memory of King Edward VII., the President of our National Trust, the Princess Louise, purchased the top of Grange Fell, and that the summit of this beautiful Borrodale hill is now called King’s Howe, but the only Queen we know to have visited our Lake Country is Queen Adelaide, who in the summer of 1840 spent a few days on Windermere. (p. 228)

Her name since that time has remained to us a possession by reason of a memorable visit by water to the grassy hill that stands between the main road and the Lake, immediately south of Miller Ground.  When a dweller at Wray on the shores of Windermere thirty-five years ago, Miller Ground was my nearest landing place for Windermere station, and the beauty of the scene from Adelaide Hill made me often trespass for the sake of the fine view. (pp. 228-229)

As I rested there, how often did I desire to be the owner of this beautiful knoll that the public might share its delight with me.  Little did I think then, for the National Trust was not in existence, that some day I should be permitted to help many public-spirited friends in the neighbourhood of Windermere to purchase this viewpoint for the enjoyment of the nation.  In those days there was fair freedom for landing on many portions of the lake shore; since then this possibility has ceased.  Owing to private purchases in the past few years, the public now have really no rights of wandering but on parts of the shore between Bowness and Waterhead. (p. 229)

Indeed, until this purchase was effected, though the public could freely land at Miller Ground and make their way thence to the main road and station beyond, there was no guarantee that some future owner would not close this same path, and only admit access of the public to the Lake on his own terms. (p. 229)

When I was collecting money for Manesty and Borrodale, a friendly challenge was sent to me to say that if ever the National Trust would attempt to obtain a portion of the foreshore on Windermere, £100 should be at my disposal.  Remembering this and still having a great longing that Adelaide Hill and its foreshore should one day be open to the public, I wrote to my friend, Gordon Somervell, and begged him to ascertain privately if this beautiful view-point was at all likely to be obtainable.  He threw himself heart and soul into the project, made inquiries with a negative result, though this much was learned that at a price the land was in the market.  Later, a private meeting of local friends was held, when it was determined that if it could be obtained at a certain price the scheme might be commended to Westmoreland and Lancashire north of the sands, as a county memorial of the late king. (p. 230)

Difficulties arose; a year passed by and the matter had apparently dropped, when another friend wrote to say that he had the offer of £1000 from a very generous contributor who had heard of the project, if only the matter could go forward.  This roused us to renewed negotiations.  We had in the owner of the Rayrigg property a very sympathetic ally.  The land was in trust and neither the owner nor the trustees could sell the land below its fair market price.  But a meeting was arranged with him and his co-trustee with the result that an option at a reduced sum was agreed upon for the twenty acres, including Miller Ground, and a definite undertaking was given at the same time that the right of way to and from the Lake should be part of the bargain. (pp. 230-231)

It then only remained to elect a committee representing the principal inhabitants of the neighbourhood, and to appeal privately for local subscriptions before issuing a public appeal.  The National Trust was sounded at the same time and was willing to co-operate.  At this juncture further delay was caused by the fact that a committee at Ambleside were engaged in collecting funds for ‘Borrans camp,’ and there was a great wish not to hamper them by issuing a rival appeal. (p. 231)

The sum which was to be raised for this priceless possession of Adelaide Hill was £5000, and though it was a large sum, landowners and others in the neighbourhood knew so well what prices were being paid for land adjacent to the Lake, that not a single one of those privately appealed to objected to giving help on the score of price, and as a matter of fact £2800 was subscribed before any appeal went abroad to the public. (pp. 231-232)

(Chapters at the English Lakes, pp. 228-249)

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If the Honister Pass steam-dragon has been baffled, other objectionable threats of invasion of Northern England’s recreation- and thinking-grounds are being made.  Other projects are already astir.  Our only chance of keeping Lakeland inviolate is to be on the watch with a powerful national, one might dare to say international, committee—for the Americans are as indignant as we are at the attempt on Borrodale—and the Scotch lakes and hills are in equal jeopardy—with a backing of Members of Parliament to help us at Westminster, and a considerable sum of money behind us for expenses if need be.  This can, it is thought, best be done by forming a PERMANENT LAKE DISTRICT DEFENCE SOCIETY, which, in league with the Commons Preservation Society, and such associations with such kindred aims, as the Kyrle and Ruskin Societies are, shall have a Guarantee Fund of not less than £5000 ready for use. (pp. 54-55)

The Executive of the Borrodale and Derwentwater Defence Committee have issued circulars, of which I append a copy, and the Guarantee Fund already is in process of formation. (p. 55)

Some time hence, who knows, a wise Government may enable the Lake District to have a special Act to protect it from railroad outrage for the people, as has been done in the Yosemite Valley of America (though there the State not only provided an Act, but first bought it up for the people’s use). (p. 55)

Meanwhile it is suggested, that as many members of the Wordsworth Society have already shown their zeal in the cause, it would be a gracious act to the memory of the great poet if, as a body, they elected to co-operate with the Lake District Defence Society. (p. 55)….

Professor E. Dowden of Dublin, in a letter of protest against the steam-dragon of Honister, wrote:—"As one century generally discovers the sins of its predecessors, and is hard on them, I have some hopes that the twentieth century, so close at hand, may grow indignant with the nineteenth for its destruction of so much that forms part of the true wealth of life, and resolve to act more wisely.”  Let us, as a Wordsworth Society, determine, so far as pertains to Westmorland and Cumberland, to help the nineteenth century to a timely repentance.  England is beginning to become a nation that believes in education.  There is hope that as the next generation will be much more busy to need the pleasure-grounds of Lakeland undestroyed, so it will be more capable of appreciating their peace and beauty undisturbed. (pp. 56-57)

(Transactions of the Wordsworth Society, 5 (1883), 45-58)

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I hear thy voice by Cumbria’s sobbing sea,
        Thy steps are printed in the lonely sand,
    O’er every vale and hill of Westmoreland
Thy gentle form bears company with me.
Most, by Winander’s castled shore I with thee
    I seem to hold sweet converse hand in hand,
    On bossy Loughrigg’s height at gaze to stand
O’er Langdale’s slopes and Bratha’s level lea.

The cold March woods will soon with Spring-time
          glow,
    But nevermore thy laughter by the rills
        Will sound, thy feet in prison are so fast;
    And tho’ thy spirit wanders as it wills,
To thy bright face I cannot look to know
        Which way the angel of the upland passed.

(Valete: Tennyson and other Memorial Poems, p. 159)

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Sir,—The Government must be credited with the wish to do all they can to succour the most pitiable of His Majesty’s subjects from slow starvation and death by cold and cruel usage.  But the winter is close upon them, and when we hear of military orders from the Chief of the German War Staff to intern French prisoners—as soon as captured—in the open air, and keep them with as little food as possible for 24 hrs as a kind of foretaste of their captivity, we shudder to think what may possibly be the lot of our own unhappy men who in this critical time fall into the enemy’s hands.  Have the Churches done, or are they doing, all that might be done to strengthen the hands of the Government?

(Times, 11 October 1918, p. 11)

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O Heavenly Father, Who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men, look down in mercy upon the peoples of Europe now in the throes of terrible war—succour the fallen, give hope to the dying, and comfort to those who are bereaved.  Look down on this country, we pray Thee in Thy great compassion; guide our King and his Councillors in wisdom and justice; and since we have been called to enter upon strife, give courage to our sailors and our soldiers, give patience to our people and willingness to bear all necessary self-sacrifice, and so fill us with the sense of unity and brotherhood, that we shall be willing to bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfil the law of Christ; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. Our Father, which art in heaven.

(Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 18 August 1914, p. 8)

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  1. A Prayer for Recruits
  2. The Power of Personal Service: A Sermon in Memory of Octavia Hill (Keswick, 1912)
  3. A Portrait of Cleopatra
  4. The Plumage Bill: “Murderous Millinery”