THE ENGLISH LAKE COUNTRY 



VIII 

 THE ENGLISH LAKE COUNTRY 



AONG the many hardy delusions of the kind 

 which contribute to an imperfect knowledge 

 of their own country by a majority of Britons, 

 is that which pictures Lakeland as always crowded 

 with tourists. Let any one who imagines such vain 

 things drop down upon Ullswater or Buttermere 

 between Easter and mid-July, or to be quite safe let 

 us say in May or June, which, by the way, are the nicest 

 months for such an enterprise. I venture to think he 

 would be astonished at the almost perfect solitude that 

 then reigns over the land. I have never been in the 

 Lake country within reasonable time in August, and 

 never at all at Easter. But the Easter invasion is 

 limited to a short week as regards the populace and 

 the well-to-do business folk, while for about three 

 more a moderate company of persons mainly con- 

 cerned with higher education scatter themselves about 

 the country. Whitsuntide is too short to count. A 

 brief rush for three or four days, and then all again is 

 peace except, alas ! for one blighting innovation of 

 yesterday. For one need not be anything approach- 

 ing a bigot in this particular to express the simple truth 

 that motors have been an unmitigated curse to Lake- 



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