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Wordsworth’s House, Rydal Mount “It is needless to speak of the glory shed over the Lake Country by the pen of Wordsworth, who gave an abiding expression to the influence which the varying moods of nature could exercise over the mind which frnkly lent itself to their charm. But, besides his descriptions of natural scenery, Wordsworth has also caught the historic character of the [...] by a simple and independent life. Yet his pen tended to sweep away their last remains—he made the Lakes a place of fashionable resort, and thereby drew them from their primitive isolation and made them part and parcel of the world around. As villas arose the old farmers disappeared; their land became valuable for building sites; they sold it, and disappeared from their ancestral homes. When the poet Gray visited Grassmere he found it inhabited by twenty-six dalesmen. It may be doubted if at the present day more than two or three survive.” (p. 135) [more...] |
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The book cover for “The Story of Some English Shires” Green and gold book cover. |
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The Bridge at Durham Etched by J.C. Varrall from a drawing by Thomas Hearne in the British Museum. Walter & Boutall ph. sc. [more...] |
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Stokesay Castle “Shropshire is one of the most picturesque, as it is one of the most interesting, of English counties, possessing an interest of its own, as being the border-land between England and Wales, and associated with all the scenes of their unequal contest. It owes its picturesqueness and its historical interest to the same causes; it is the district where [...] [more...] |
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In Needwood Forest “. . . the Roman road from leicester to Chester skirted the Forest of Needwood, and was held by a station at Uttoxeter” (p. 177) [more...] |
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Courtyard, Naworth Castle The story of the ill-planned rising of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland has already been told. One of their associates was Leonard Dacre, who held the castle of Naworth, and gathered round him the ‘rank riders of the Borders.’ Elizabeth ordered him to be apprehended, and Lord Hundson set out from Berwick to join Lord Scroop at Carlisle, [...] the allegiance of the North for Queen Elizabeth, and dealt a decisive blow at the rebellion.” (p. 117) [more...] |
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Prestbury Old Hall The best picture I could find online of this building (or what seems to be the same building) has a caption saying “it used to be the Priest’s House and is thought to date from the year [...] [more...] |
