A delicious breakfast of haddock and poached egg at The Hideaway, Windermere is a good start to the day. We head to Ambleside to check out the rather eccentric Wray Castle, a mock gothic edifice (designed by an accountant who had an interest in architecture) built as a retirement home in 1840 for a surgeon, Dr Dawson, and his heiress wife.
It is here we discover that Wray Castle was the first place author Beatrix Potter visited in the Lake District as a young girl of 16. Her parents rented the castle for their summer holidays and one of the guests they entertained was Hardwicke Rawnsley, the cousin of the heir to the castle. The time Beatrix spent then must have led to her love for the area which later saw her buying Hill Top farm near Wray Castle in 1905 with royalties from her first few books. She bought much land in the area, including most of the land surrounding Wray Castle.There are photographs on display in Wray Castle taken by Beatrix Potter’s father that help you to imagine what the castle looked like in the nineteenth century. There are also several of the Potter family with Rawnsley.
After a tour of the castle we take a boat ride around Lake Windermere and then resume our Beatrix Potter trail at Hill Top, her seventeenth century cottage at Near Sawney. It is wonderful to step inside her world and catch glimpses of some of the sources of inspiration for her much loved stories and illustrations.
Each room has a well worn copy of one of her books opened at the relevant page that was inspired by either the room’s objects or its aspect.
When you step into the charming cottage garden, a mix of flowers and vegetables, you can easily imagine Peter Rabbit hiding from the farmer Mr McGregor.
We take a short wander along the road to stop for a late afternoon drink at the seventeenth century Tower Bank Arms pub, the front of which was drawn in her book The Tale of Jemima Puddleduck.
Outside are a pair of rather splendid sized squash growing and inside a couple of men discuss who won the best looking marrow over an ale.