Wandering “Lonely as a Cloud” in the Lakes District? Watch Your Step.
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 01.29.06 | 12:51 PM ET
Cutbacks are likely coming to the national park region that was home to some of England’s greatest poets. The Guardian reports that the Lakes District, where Samuel Taylor Coleridge once resided and William Wordsworth wandered “lonely as a cloud,” will likely see major cutbacks in government funding and the closure of numerous visitor centers. “The measures, designed to plug a £1m shortfall, are likely to have a substantial impact on conservation in the region, with the suspension of programmes to protect streams, repair hedgerows and preserve the habitats of endangered species such as ospreys and red squirrels,” the newspaper reports.
Lakes District visitors usually head straight for the many hiking trails (“walking footpaths,” as locals call them). Said one observer, “This is a disaster - a dreadful disaster. At the very least the park needs money to maintain footpaths. We feel it’s like the foot and mouth nightmare all over again.”
Among the visitor centers likely to close is that in the village of Grasmere, home to Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage. These days, Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum are prime Lakes District attractions.
I once stayed in the YHA youth hostel in Grasmere while visiting Dove Cottage. The old Victorian is one of the most striking hostels I’ve ever seen.
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Jim Benning is the cofounder and coeditor of World Hum.
