“A WILD SCENE OF CRAG AND MOUNTAIN,” THE ROUGHLY THOUSAND SQUARE
MILES THAT COMPRISE ENGLAND’S LAKE DISTRICT INSPIRED THE IDEALS
OF THE ROMANTIC ERA AND FORMED THE ROOTS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL
MOVEMENT. by bruce stutz With Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal in
hand, I set out from Grasmere village toward Easedale Tarn along
the trail that begins not far from the stone cottage in the
English Lake District that she shared with her brother, William.
I cross a swift, stony stream named Sour Milk Ghyll and emerge
from a small stand of trees into open and rain-soaked meadows. I
find it as she described it, a “valley of streams and islands”:
lone old oaks secure the hillocks and embankments, and a
labyrinth of dry-stone walls frames the low pasturelands. The
winding path steepens, levels, and then steepens again. As I
summit its final rise a picture-book panorama opens up: a
spectacular hanging valley, a sprawling lake bordered by boggy
treeless plain, a glacial amphitheater surrounded by high, sharp
peaks. It’s been more t