An Atlas of The English Lakes Find!
"An Atlas of The English Lakes" is written by John Wilson Parker and was published in 2002 by Cicerone Press. I am delighted to say that the author, John Parker, is a resident of Grange and a regular visitor to the library. In fact I had the pleasure of a chat with John, and his wife Jenny, today when I had the chance to tell them about the Reading Detectives project.
This unique atlas of the Lake District records in extraordinary detail the seventeen lakes of the national park. The author's hand -drawn and tinted charts are an accurate guide to the 124 miles of shoreline that may be explored by boat as well as 250 miles of pathways and roads running alongside these picturesque waters. As the flyleaf says 'The 57 charts of the lakes provides a wealth of detail for the visitor exploring on foot, horseback and cycle, canoe or rowing boat, plus the ferries, steamers, launches and cruisers that ply several of the larger lakes'.
John Parker spent all his working life as a cartographic surveyor with the Ordnance Survey and this explains why the detail of the charts is so incredible. Every page is like a miniature art work filled with absolutely fascinating facts. Open any page and discover something that you didn't know before. For example, on page 48, I learned of a tiny marine shrimp that was marooned by glacial action which adapted to the fresh water of Ennerdale and was unique to Britain and which only became extinct in recent years. Or on page 70 I learned that Brandlehow Woods, on the side of Derwentwater, were the site of the National Trust's first Lakeland property and were dedicated to public use during a hurricane on 16th October 1902 in the presence of HRH Princess Louise, the sister of Edward VII.
I have often thought that the mountains of the Lake District are so special because of the lakes that mirror their reflections either at ground level or from the heights above and sometimes the most unexpected views are captured when the walker is looking up rather than down. There is also the added bonus of seeing more in the way of wildlife, whether it be animals, birds, flowers or trees beside the water than is ever seen up on the fells. This book describes plenty of walks which would be great for families and also tells the visitor where boats can be hired on the different lakes. This Reading Detective will certainly be heading out on some of these lakeside paths in the very near future.
9 October 2009 from Mary Rossall
Finds
- On Lindale Hill
- Grange-over-Sands: The Story of a Gentle Township
- The Silent Traveller: A Chinese Artist in Lakeland
- Red Ike
- Cumbrian Privies
- Ethel Fisher's West Cumbrian Dialect titles
- The Embalmer's Book of Recipes by Ann Lingard
- Nella Last's Peace
- Riding the Stang by Dawn Robertson
- Life on the Fell - a pictorial chronicle of a Lakeland community
- About Scout Scar
- William Wilberforce - A Summer Diary 1779
- Beatrix Potter - the unknown years
- Smoke over Shap by Margaret Potter
- Songs of a Cragsman by George Basterfield
- The Grasmere Dialect Plays
- The Grizedale Experience: Sculpture, Art & Theatre in a Lakeland Forest
- An Atlas of The English Lakes
- How Hall. Poetry and Memories. A Passion for Ennerdale by Tom Rawling
- Stumpy, Hero of the Lakes
- The High Places by A. Harry Griffin
- The Highest House in Wathendale
- Kendal by Roger Bingham
- Secrets and Legends of Old Westmorland
- Reminiscences of Wordsworth Among the Peasantry of Westmorland by Canon Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley
- Little Gods by Jacob Polley
- A Lakeland Summer
- Hunter of Harter Fell by Joseph E Chipperfield
- And Nobody Woke Up Dead
- An accessible paradise
- The Fleming Family novels and Graham Sutton
- Excursion to Loweswater. A Lakeland Visit 1865
- Writing on the Wall
- Beyond Scafell by Alan Robinson
- Rogue Herries by Hugh Walpole
- Kendal In The Nineteenth Century by A Wainwright
- In There Somewhere
- The Bondwomen by W G Collingwood
- "Ah'd Gaa Back Tomorra!"
- A Cumbrian Copper by Ray Huddart
- The Arsenic Labyrinth by Martin Edwards
- Old Will Stories by Dudley Hoys
- The Shield Ring by Rosemary Sutcliff
- T'Bacca Queen by Theodora Wilson Wilson
- Furness and the Industrial Revolution
- The Shadow of Black Combe
- The Painted Letters of Percy Kelly
- Ivver Sen
- Lakeland in the 1830s
- Wasdale Climbing Book By Michael Cocker
- Riding High by Barbara Sneyd
- Deborah in Langdale
- Early Recollections of Grange
- Hazard's Way by Roger Hubank
- Yan, Tan, Tethera
- Talk of the Town
- Capturing the Mountains
- Hope On, Hope Ever
- Mildred Edwards: Our City Our People 1889 - 1978 Memories
- Lakeland Limericks
- Surrounding loveliness
- Haweswater by Sarah Hall
- Coast to Coast by Jan Minshull
- Sunshine To The Sunless
- Geese, cattle wallopers and secret Irish paths
- Anarchists, Angels and wet Bank Holiday Mondays
- A more unconventional kind of find...?
- Skiddaw Summit by Kathleen Jones
- Thorstein of the Mere: A Saga of the Northmen in Lakeland
- Wednesday Early Closing
- Smoke Across The Fell
- The Sand Pilot of Morecambe Bay
- The Chronicles of Boggerthwaite
- Carrock Fell
- Feet in the Clouds
- Hercules and the Farmer's Wife
- Shepherd's Warning
- The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices
- I've been so busy reading I haven't had time to blog!
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