- Hardcover: 504 pages
- Publisher: Frances Lincoln; New Ed edition (1 Oct 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0711224196
- ISBN-13: 978-0711224193
- Product Dimensions: 24.4 x 18.6 x 4.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 484,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
This magnificent book presents a detailed portrait of the buildings, the landmarks and the scenery of the old county of Westmorland. First published in 1975 to mark the incorporation of the county into Cumbria, it has been in demand ever since as both a record of a lost county, as an informed and engaging record of one of the loveliest and least spoiled parts of Britain, where nature, culture and history have combined to leave a memorable and exhilarating legacy. Every single parish is included, with its notable buildings or landscapes mapped and illustrated, and its historical or other features of interest discussed and described. Though written "by an amateur, for amateurs" the author's deep knowledge of and close familiarity with the countryside pervade and illuminate the text and the two thousand line drawings.
About the Author
Born in Blackburn in 1907, Alfred Wainwright left school at the age of 13. A holiday at the age of 23 kindled a life-long love affair with the Lake District. Following a move to Kendal in 1941 he began to devote every spare moment he had to researching and compiling the original seven Pictorial Guides. He described these as his 'love letters' to the Lakeland Fells and at the end of the first, The Eastern Fells, he wrote about what the mountains had come to mean to him:
"I suppose it might be said, to add impressiveness to the whole thing, that this book has been twenty years in the making, for it is so long, and more, since I first came from a smoky mill-town (forgive me, Blackburn!) and beheld, from Orrest Head, a scene of great beauty, a fascinating paradise, Lakeland's mountains and trees and water. That was the first time I had looked upon beauty, or imagined it, even.
Afterwards I went often, whenever I could, and always my eyes were lifted to the hills. I was to find then, and it has been so ever since, a spiritual and physical satisfaction in climbing mountains – and a tranquil mind upon reaching their summits, as though I had escaped from the disappointments and unkindnesses of life and emerged above them into a new world, a better world.
In due course I came to live within sight of the hills, and I was well content. If I could not be climbing, I was happy to sit idly and dream of them, serenely. Then came a restlessness and the feeling that it was not enough to take their gifts and do nothing in return. I must dedicate something of myself, the best part of me, to them. I started to write about them, and to draw pictures of them. Doing these things, I found they were still giving and I still receiving, for a great pleasure filled me when I was so engaged – I had found a new way of escape to them and from all else less worth while.
Thus it comes about that I have written this book. Not for material gain, welcome though that would be (you see I have not escaped entirely!); not for the benefit of my contemporaries, though if it brings them also to the hills I shall be well pleased; certainly not for posterity, about which I can work up no enthusiasm at all. No, this book has been written, carefully and with infinite patience, for my own pleasure and because it has seemed to bring the hills to my own fireside. If it has merit, it is because the hills have merit."
A. Wainwright died in 1991 at the age of 84.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Ambleside is a small Lakeland town that, by the good fortune of a favourable location, is known far beyond the district and even internationally. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Ambleside is a small Lakeland town that, by the good fortune of a favourable location, is known far beyond the district and even internationally. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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1 review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Wainwright and Vanished Westmorland
6 Sep 2005
Format:Hardcover
As the historic county of Westmorland disappeared for ever, submerged under modern Cumbria, Alfred Wainwright - author of the famous series of guidebooks to the Fells of the Lake District - accepted an invitation to write a history of the vanishing county. Originally published as a limited edition, it has now been re-issued. It is a labor of love on a grand scale. The history and geography of every village and parish in Westmorland is recorded in Wainwright's inimitable style. Every page is hand-drawn and hand-written. There are line drawings of important and of humble dwellings, and of familiar views, accompanied by his dry but nostalgic commentary, written in his now famous right-justified printing. Some material is taken from the guide books, but most is new. For all lovers of the English Lake District this is a book to savor; a book to dip into on cold winter's nights; above all, a book that will bring back vivid memories to the British exile in a foreign land.
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