EIGHT GREAT MYTHS ABOUT THE LAKE DISTRICT

The poet Rilke once described fame as ‘the sum of the misunderstandings that cluster around a name.’ He was thinking of the sculptor Rodin, but his observation applies as much to places as to people. In this weekend residential course, we will explore some of the misunderstandings that have gathered around one of England’s most celebrated landscapes: the Lake District. Often imagined as a timeless refuge of wild nature – a place of refuge from modernity and a place of inspiration – the district is in fact much more complex. It is really about as ‘natural’ as Kew Gardens, and it bears the deep marks of Britain’s imperial reach, its Industrial Revolution and even its Atomic Age. Over the weekend, we will consider how poetry, art and industry have shaped what we now call ‘natural’. Through discussion and reading, we will reconsider what the Lake District is and what it has meant to Britain’s past and present.