As we needed to make a quick trip back to Ulverston today, we decided to combine this with some more exploraration of the Rusland Valley.
Our first destination was Well Knowe, the home of the poet and dramatist Gordon Bottomley from 1894 to 1914. Bottomley was visited at this pretty house by many of his literary friends including Edward Thomas and Lascelles Abercrombie. Bottomley also regularly entertained the artist, Paul Nash, with whom he conducted a lifelong correspondence. It was at Well Knowe that he composed the hauntingly beautiful Cartmel Bells:
O, Cartmel bells ring soft to-night,
And Cartmel bells ring clear,
But I lie far away to-night,
Listening with my dear;
Listening in a frosty land
Where all the bells are still
And the small-windowed bell-towers stand
Dark under heath and hill.
As well as the dedication to Edward Thomas in Bottomley's play The Riding to Lithend:
Here in the North we speak of you
And dream (and wish the dream were true)
That when the evening has grown late
You will appear outside our gate -
As though some Gypsy Scholar yet
Sought this far place that men forget;
I bring my play, I turn to you
And wish it might to-night be true
That you would see this small old house
Twixt laurel boughs and apple boughs.
Next we visited Wall Nook. Arthur Ransome rented this property for the summers of 1905, 1906 and 1907. Bottomley, Thomas and Abercrombie all visit Ransome at this property, walking over the fields on a footpath now called the Poets' Path. We didn't have enough time for the walk but have promised ourselves a return visit.
From Wall Nook we left Cartmel and drove across to Lake Windermere to find Low Ludderburn, Arthur Ransome's house from 1925 to 1935. It was here that Ransome was visited by the Altounyan family (the original inspiration for the Blackett and Walker children). Here he wrote Swallows and Amazons, Swallowdale, Winter Holiday, Coot Club and Pigeon Post.
We carried onto Storrs Hall, an opulent early nineteenth century mansion. Wordsworth stayed here for some days in August 1825 with the owner Colonel Bolton. He wrote "the weather was as Elysian as the scenery; there were brilliant calvacades through the woods in the mornings, and delicious boatings on the Lake by moonlight...."
We loved the ornate Egyptian pediments at the front of the Hall, and the view across the Lake is stunning.
We had such a relaxing day and it was splendid to imagine such wonderful writers in their homes pursuing their craft, being visited by friends and enjoying the countryside surrounding them.