To mark Lindsey’s birthday we headed towards Bassenthwaite in the north of the Lake District. After a light lunch at the lovely Thornthwaite Gallery, we drove round the lake to Mirehouse, a historic house with connections to Tennyson. The house interior is beautiful but, on this fine, spring day, it was the grounds which caught my eye.
Our next stop, on the way to Keswick, was St Kentigern’s church in Crosthwaite, built in the 13th century. Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, co-founder of the National Trust, was the vicar here for 34 years and there are many examples of Arts and Crafts work around the church, including some by the Keswick Society of Industrial Arts (KSIA) which he founded in 1884. This is also the final resting place of Robert Southey,
The church features the repeating themes representing the four miracles performed by St Kentigern: a tree, a robin, a fish with a ring in its mouth, and a bell.
