The Lake Country to Scotland

After a hearty breakfast at the Thistle, we left Liverpool and headed north through Cumbria, home of Wordsworth's beloved lake country. Early in the day, the wind was calm and the reflections in the lakes we passed were striking. The lake shown above borders the picturesque town of Windermere, where we stopped briefly for refreshments.

Our lunchtime destination was the town of Grasmere, where Wordsworth chose to be buried. Grasmere was a quaint little town with shops, restaurants, and several small museums. We had lunch at a little place called the Cumbria Carvery.
The southern entrance to Grasmere. The Cumbria Carvery is on the left.

After lunch. many of our group visited the grave of William Wordsworth at the north end of town.
Wordsworth is buried in the Grasmere churchyard. His sister Dorothy, to whom he bequeaths the wild ecstacies and sober pleasures of nature in "Lines (composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey)," is buried one gravesite away. Wordsworth also gave us this little gem:

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began,
So is it now I am a man,
So be it when I shall grow old
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man:
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

Sometime during the afternoon, we crossed the border into Scotland. Everything was about to change.

Hadrian's wall, built by the Romans in the fifth century, marks the northernmost incursion of the Roman Empire and approximates the border between England and Scotland.