Legends of the Lake District

The Lake District is a region in Cumbria, North West England. Not unsurprisingly it’s quite full of lakes, but also cozy towns. One of the most popular is Grasmere, a pretty little thing near a (surprise) lake.

When they called it the Lake District, they weren’t kidding.

The most well-known inhabitant was arguably the poet William Wordsworth, who called Grasmere “the loveliest spot that man hath ever found”. We walk past St Oswald’s Church, where he is buried in the yard with a small fence protecting the tombstone.

The hills are alive with the sound of sheeps.

Around the corner we happened to find another local celebrity. We stumbled upon Storyteller’s Garden, where a man named Taffy Thomas was telling local ghost tales for a captivated audience. We joined the circle of people sitting on the grass around him, illuminated by torches.

He turned out to be an excellent storyteller and the small children shrieked as he roared “I am the ghost of Grasmere Gables!”. I later learned that Thomas had suffered a stroke at the age of 36, making him turn to storytelling as a kind of speech therapy.

Adequate stay for the night.

A man cannot live on tales alone, so we retreat into the Lamb Inn where I find a nice steak&ale pie.