From the district of the lakes to Wordsworth Country

Today, Wordsworth is regarded as Wordsworthian scholar Ernest de Selincourt imagined him in 1906, not merely as “the prophet of Lakeland, but almost its first discoverer.” Yet Wordsworth’s Guide to the Lakes (1835) was preceded by more than a half century of popular travel writing about the region.

The Lake District attracted writers, artists, and tourists at least in part because it was remote and rural--the very opposite of urban, London life. Yet isolation was the quality that compelled travellers to grapple with the unique and diverse northerly scenery in relation to Europe and the world.

By comparing the local to foreign geographies, especially the Alps, the earliest travellers to the region placed the English Lakes within a global travel network.

On display here are case items from the Wordsworth Country exhibit held simultaneously at Simon Fraser University and Dove Cottage. In this part of the exhibit you will find a brief history of Lake District guidebooks, from the mid seventeenth century through to the early twentieth century. It was the language, ideas and images used in these guidebooks that influenced not only how travellers, then and now, saw the Lake District, but were to influence how people saw beautiful areas elsewhere such as those in British Columbia.

You will see the earlier guidebooks that influenced Wordsworth, his text for the Select Views that became the first edition of his own Guide to the Lakes, and those that came after and were influenced by Wordsworth.

William Hutchinson, An Excursion to the Lakes in Westmoreland and Cumberland…in the Years 1773 and 1774, 1776.
In his guide to the Lakes, William Hutchinson defends and celebrates the English countryside....
Joseph Nicolson and Richard Burn, The History and Antiquities of the Counties of Westmorland and Cumberland, 2 vols, 1777.
Joseph Nicolson and Richard Burn’s carefully researched history of the Lake District was not...
Thomas West, A Guide to the Lakes, in Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire, 3rd ed, 1784.
The first edition of Thomas West’s Guide in 1778 was ‘dedicated to the lovers of landscape...
A popular new class of tourism began with William Gilpin’s sketching tours. Gilpin was the...
The Lake District attracted writers, artists, and tourists at least in part because it was...
Sarah Murray, A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of…the Lakes of Westmoreland, Cumberland and Lancashire, 1799.
‘I write because I think my Guide will be really useful to adventurers, who may follow my...
Joseph Wilkinson, Select Views in Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire, 1810.
The anonymous introduction to Joseph Wilkinson’s Select Views is by William Wordsworth. In...
Theodore Henry Fielding & John Walton, A Picturesque Tour of the English Lakes, 1821.
The Lake District can belong to anyone. For the native people, though, the love of place is...
Ten Lithographic Drawings of Scenery in the Vicinity of the Lakes, Taken from Nature, 1826. 
Here, state-of-the-art book illustration technology, lithography, combines with Lake District...
Jonathan Otley, A Concise Description of the English lakes, 3rd ed. 1827.
A tour to the Lakes looked different yet again under the direction of Cumbrian writer Jonathan...
Thomas Allom and Thomas Rose, Westmoreland, Cumberland, Durham, and Northumberland, 1832.
This lavishly illustrated book suggests that Lake District tourism is beneficial, indeed...
Charles Mackay, The Scenery and Poetry of the English Lakes, 1846.
In his guide Charles Mackay proclaimed: ‘The Lake District! the very name is suggestive of...
Black's Picturesque Guide to the English Lakes Including an Essay on the Geology of the District, by John Phillips, 6th ed.1853.
Black’s popular guide to the Lakes reinforced Wordsworth’s wish a generation earlier ‘to...
Tales & Legends of the English Lakes and Mountains Collected from the Best and Most Authentic Sources by Lorenzo Tuvar, 1852.
William Armistead (a.k.a. Lorenzo Tuvar) hoped to enhance the pleasure of the tourist through...
Harriet Martineau,  A Complete Guide to the English lakes, 1855, and A Description of the English Lakes, 1858.
After making the steep descent down Red Bank, the tourist might want to linger awhile on the...
Lake Scenery of England by J.B. Pyne, 1859.
The tinted chromolithograph here of James Barker Pyne’s painting of ‘Grasmere from Loughrigg...
Harry Goodwin toured the Lake District accompanied by Knight’s 1878 edition; the result was a...
Easton Smith Valentine, Wordsworth’s Country, as interpreted by his poetry, 1900.
Easton Smith Valentine presents Wordsworth’s Country as a “tour in fancy,” intended to bring...