Christina Rossetti
Grasmere, Cumbria
Visit the heart of the Lake District today and you may well see the descendants of the benighted animals described in Christina Rossetti’s poem The Lambs of Grasmere. The eponymous village is dominated by the legacy of the Wordsworths, but Rossetti was also a fan of this once remote agricultural community. Though best known nowadays for the carol In the Bleak Midwinter, her poem about ‘starved and thinned’ lambs on flooded pastures, saved only by shepherds bearing flasks of milk, illustrates the harshness of life in these parts in the 19th century. There are many fine walks you can embark on from Grasmere, but perhaps the one that gives you the greatest return for your efforts is a 4½ mile circuit around Rydal Fell. First head along the narrow lane beside the Swan Hotel, forking left and taking the footpath up to Heron Pike. From here you can enjoy an easy ridge walk across Rydal Fell with tremendous views of the surrounding hills, meres and sheep. You can make a short detour to the summit of Great Rigg and back or simply take the footpath down to Stone Arthur and Grasmere.
‘Her poem about “starved and thinned” lambs on flooded pastures, saved only by shepherds bearing flasks of milk, illustrates the harshness of life in these parts in the 19th century.’