This famously scenic corner of Cumbria in the northwest, a 5½-hour drive from London, is dotted with hills and mountains (including England´s highest, Scafell Pike, 3,209 feet) as well as charming villages and towns like Grasmere, Kenwick, and Windemere. In fact, it´s part of a UNESCO World Heritage national park, and here the landscape is closely intertwined with literature, especially that of the "Lake Poets" of the first half of the 19th century such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Ruskin, Robert Southey, and William Wordsworth. Visit Dove Cottage in Grasmere, where Wordsworth wrote many of his most famous poems, then continue to Rydal Mount and Gardens, his later home in the eponymous village just north of Windemere. Another house well worth a visit is Ruskin´s Brantwood.
The other major literary figure associated with the Lake District is Beatrix Potter, creator of Peter Rabbit and other beloved characters, visitors can see her 17th-century stone farmhouse Hill Top, near the village of Sawrey, pretty much as she left it, and it brings her stories to life in fields and farmhouses recognizable from her illustrations. Other sites which celebrates her legacy here include also 17th-century Yew Tree Farm in the village of Coniston, also owned by Potter later in life (you can even overnight here as a self-catering accommodation); The World of Beatrix Potter in Bowness-on-Windemere, themed on her characters; and various locations for the 2006 biopic Miss Potter, starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor.
Read more in my post 5 of Europe´s Top Destinations for Literary Travelers.
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