Rambling Around Rothay Park

Seemingly everywhere we travel, locals say the same thing.  “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change.”  Weather can be precocious, and in England, we never know quite what to expect.  For our trip last year, we prepared for cold and rain, and this proved wise, as you can see from my posts on Holmfirth and Yorkshire.  But a few days proved so warm and pleasant that walking around in jeans sapped my energy.  As I hadn’t packed any walking shorts, I spent my day in Ambleside wearing workout shorts.  If anyone noticed my gym attire, they didn’t remark on it.

The center of an ancient circle.

We picnicked beneath tall trees with intertwining branches.  We ate our sandwiches and Quavers, the latter like cheese-flavored pork rinds, yet light in taste and in calories.  After the frantic, condensed activity of Ambleside’s town center, we savored the relative quiet, and drank in the verdant fields and lush hillsides.  We walked around a recreation of an ancient stone circle, and photographed a boy playing catch with his dog in a stream.  We walked part of a hiking trail, envying those who lived nearby.  How could you ever tire of such a view?

Before we left, we spoke with an older couple that had traveled up for the day from their home in Blackpool.  Even though they lived in a famous tourism center, they seemed to regard it as just another big city.  Like us, they were glad they had chosen to visit the Lake District on such a warm and pleasant day.  The husband even offered me some sage advice.   “There’s a saying in England,” he said.  “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes, and it will change.” 

There’s only one problem with his assertion.  What if I like the weather, and I don’t want it to change?

Dragon Dave

P.S.  There’s so much more to see around Ambleside, that our photographs don’t do the area justice.  For more views, try the link below.

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More views of Ambleside

St. Mary the Virgin in Ambleside

During the Industrial Revolution, the Lake District became a popular place for the rich to build vacation homes.  Poets and artists visited the area, and proclaimed its natural beauty.  As their means of travel and their pocketbooks permitted, people from all levels of society visited the area, if only to spend the day there.  In time, wealthy inhabitants, and a growing tourism industry, poured more money into the coffers of developing towns.  Eventually Ambleside grew so large that Sir George Gilbert Scott was commissioned to design the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, and the present building was completed in 1854. 

A mural at the back of the sanctuary
testifies to its communal nature.

In some ways, St. Mary the Virgin may be no different from any other English church.  For example, I doubt Beatrix Potter has a significant connection with it, as she was raised in the Unitarian Church.  But the church has some nice features, and like most English churches, is open during the week, even when no worship service is being held.  This practice allows visitors to tour the sanctuary, enjoy a few minutes of solitude, and find inspiration in its art and architecture.  Like St. Oswald’s Church in Askrigg, St. Mary the Virgin has forged strong links with other (non Church of England) churches in its community.  A striking testament of ecumenical outreach is the new parish center, which a local Methodist church helped fund, and whose congregation now worships in the building’s Wesley Room.  For me, that makes St. Mary the Virgin a remarkable church.

Throughout the centuries, churches and denominations have made plenty of mistakes.  In my own life, I’ve experienced so many negative aspects of church life that I now find it difficult to regularly attend worship services.  But I’ll never stop loving churches, or the love that generations of congregants have lavished upon their buildings.  I appreciate the fact that so many churches in England are open during the week, and allow visitors to tour them on their own.  In so doing, priests and congregations truly make their sanctuaries holy places, where visitors can come in contact with the Divine, and feel the peace and serenity that such experiences yield.  Thus they give of themselves to people all over the world--many of whom they will never even see or speak with--who take back memories of spiritual experiences they will cherish for the rest of their lives. 

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries

St. Oswald’s in Askrigg

Related Internet Links

St. Mary’s in Ambleside

Ambling Around Ambleside

While other famous people have lived in the Lake District, this region of England is synonymous with Beatrix Potter, who spent vacations and holidays there in her youth, and opted to live there after she became a successful author.  This connection is reflected in sales literature and advertising: any brochure on the area is bound to mention important Beatrix Potter sites.  We opted to visit Ambleside, a town located in the southern portion of the Lake District.  In particular, we wondered how the Lake District, with its Beatrix Potter connections, might be different from the other English regions we had visited.  These included the town of Holmfirth in the Peak District, associated with the TV show “Last of the Summer Wine,” the town of Thirsk in the North York Moors, and the village of Askrigg in the Yorkshire Dales, the latter two being associated with author and veterinarian James Herriot. 

Unlike those other areas, the Lake District has long been a place for vacationers, so expect to pay to park anywhere you go, and perhaps also to use the public restrooms.  Most attractions, such as museums, charge admission and forbid you to photograph their exhibits.  You’ll find plenty of shops and pubs targeted at tourists, and the towns, parks, and attractions are bound to be busy whenever you go, so visit during the week if you can.

In addition to so many other worthwhile causes,
Beatrix Potter was also a major benefactor of the Armitt Museum.

We started our day in Ambleside with a visit to the Armitt Museum.  On the ground floor, I was most impressed with a collection of scientific drawings and paintings made by Beatrix Potter.  Instead of floppy-eared bunnies or cute farm animals, these were highly detailed representations of fossils and fungi.  I hadn’t realized that, before she wrote her children’s books, she had hoped to pursue a career in the natural sciences.  In addition to those displayed on the walls, I pulled out cabinet drawers, transfixed by her colorful and accurate sketches and watercolors. 

I loved these chairs.  Not only were they beautiful,
but extremely comfortable.

Upstairs, we fell into conversation with two docents in the research library.  The library holds a substantial collection of books covering every aspect of Lake District history, geography, and cultural heritage.  As a woodworker, I admired the furniture made by a nearby shop.  I also learned something interesting.  According to the docents, Beatrix Potter wrote children’s books, but she didn’t particularly like children.  Supposedly they unsettled her, and she strived to keep her distance from them.  At first, this seems difficult to understand.  After all, her first novel, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, was supposedly culled from stories she told a friend’s son in her letters.  But I think we’d all agree that it’s possible to love something in the abstract, and yet not love it in the concrete.

Bridge House was built over 300 years ago.
Photographers are still attracted by its charm.

If your wallet is slowing you down,
these shops can help lighten your load.

The Lake District draws visitors of all shapes and sizes.

After our visit to the Armitt, we wandered around town for a while, peering into shop windows, and even stepping inside a few.  But it was a warm, pleasant day, and we didn’t want to spend all of it indoors, when there was so much scenic beauty to explore.

Dragon Dave

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The Famous Woodworker of Kilburn