Newcastle University

However, The English Lakes, a new book by Newcastle University’s Ian Thompson, (published by Bloomsbury on 2 April 2010) shows how the early literary explorers were less than complimentary about the region’s charms.

The late 17th century traveller, Celia Fiennes, who visited every county in England on horseback, had very little positive to say in her memoir. She thought the local cottages looked like places for cattle to shelter, describing them as ‘villages of sad little hutts made up of drye walls, only stones piled together’.

And by the time author Daniel Defoe visited in 1726 very little had changed. He regarded the region as being ‘all barren and wild, of no use or advantage either to man or beast’.

“In the middle of the 18th century, a chance combination of a fascination with the Alps and the outbreak of the Napoleonic wars provided the spark for a national and later, international, obsession,” said Dr Thompson. “What is amazing is not only that there was a complete turnaround in public opinion within a few decades, but that the Lake District still manages to retain its natural beauty and tranquillity despite its popularity.”

In his book, Dr Thompson charts the evolution of the Lake District into the tourist attraction it is today and explains how many writers helped transform the public perception from ‘horrid mountains’ to ‘vales of peace’ long before its most famous resident, William Wordsworth, waxed lyrical about its beauty and seclusion.

As any visitor to a book shop in the Lakes will know, the region has inspired many writers to put pen to paper and as a result, it’s often hard to stand out from the crowd. But Dr Thompson’s book is a little bit different. “There are books about the cultural traditions, and it’s not one of those, neither is it a guidebook or a topographical study, although there are elements of these within it,” he explained. “It’s really about the cultural phenomenon of the Lake District as much as the place itself.”

When he began his research he discovered that Norman Nicholson’s The Lakers had originated from a similar idea decades earlier. By strange coincidence, The Lakers was actually published in 1955, the year in which Dr Thompson was born just a stone’s throw from Nicholson’s home in Millom.

“I feel a certain affinity with Nicholson,” he said. “I could actually see Millom from the top of my street when I was growing up. In a lot of ways this book feels like I’m closing a circle that was set in motion in my schooldays, from the time our teacher made us read Nicholson’s poems – and that’s a very satisfying feeling.”

As a poet, Nicholson focused more on the region’s literary giants and had less to say about visual artists. The English Lakes offers a different perspective, one which owes much to Dr Thompson’s professional training as a landscape architect, and takes the cultural history a step further, through from the early explorers to the creation of the National Trust, the formation of the National Park, and the current bid to get the region declared a World Heritage Site.

Although it was the lakes, rather than the mountains, which drew the early tourists, the rise of fell walking as a leisure activity can also be traced through literary sources.

Gothic novelist Ann Radcliffe enjoyed ascending Skiddaw in 1794 and William, Dorothy and Mary Wordsworth all walked the hills, as did Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Even Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins – neither of them hearty outdoor types – joined in, climbing Carrock Fell, one of the summits at the back of Skiddaw, in the autumn of 1857.

However, Collins, who only had a packet of ‘clammy gingerbread nuts’ in his pocket to sustain him, got so wet through he questioned why he had ever left London and its ‘nice short walks in level public gardens’.

In The English Lakes, Dr Thompson explores how the many artists, guides, climbers, conservationists and storytellers who visited and lived in the region have each, in their different ways, added to the Lake District’s magical allure. His own colour photographs provide many of the 80 illustrations in the book.

Dr Thompson will be talking about The English Lakes at the Words by the Water literary festival in Keswick on 7 March 2010.

About the author: Ian Thompson grew up on the outskirts of Barrow-in-Furness, a ‘town of the industrial revolution’. It was a nuclear shipyard at the end of a 30 mile cul-de-sac, with brick streets and factories but also the sublime expanse of Morecombe Bay and the Lake District on his doorstep. He believes this backdrop was the perfect grounding for a landscape architect  - the contrast between the industrial town and fantastic natural scenery.

It was a chance work placement at Cumbria County Council which put him on his chosen career path, while studying Philosophy at Newcastle University (1974-77). The planning department thought they were getting a geography student and had no idea what to do with him, so they put him in with the landscape architects. A few days of pub lunches, drives in the Lakes and a few meetings in between made it look like an ideal career choice!

He later completed a B Phil and Ph D in landscape architecture at Newcastle University and after qualifying, he worked in practice first in Glasgow and then on Tyneside. Between 1986 and 1992 he was a senior landscape architect in the Planning Department of Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council. He currently teaches in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape at Newcastle University. He is also the author of The Sun King’s Garden: Louis XIV, Andre Le Notre and the Creation of the Gardens of Versailles published by Bloomsbury in 2006.

About the Lake District: The Lake District is little more than 30 miles wide and its highest fell, Scafell Pike, reaches only 3,210 ft (978m), considerably less than Scotland’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, at 4.409ft (1,344m) and a mere blip compared to the Matterhorn at 14,691 ft (4,478m).

Despite its relatively small scale, the Lake District played a central role in the growth of Picturesque tourism, the emergence of Romantic sensibility, the development of landscape conservation and environmentalism. It also was a key driver behind the formation of the National Trust and the 20th century campaign for national parks.

About the book: The English Lakes: A History by Ian Thompson ISBN: 9780747598381. Published by Bloomsbury: April 2010.