Legends of the Lake District

When some explorer rolled through Cumbria in ages past, he must have a sudden rush of bad inspiration. Yes, the Lake District is full of lakes, but come on. Surely there must be another name available to use?

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

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

The hills are alive with the sound of sheeps.

Around the corner I stumble upon Storyteller’s Garden, where a man named Taffy Thomas is telling local ghost tales for a captivated audience. I join the circle of people sitting on the grass around him, illuminated by torches in the darkness.

What I first dismissed as a sorry cosplay edition of Gandalf turns out to be an excellent storyteller. The small children shrieks as he roars “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 I retreat into the Lamb Inn for a decent steak&ale pie.