The Gentleman, the Witch, and the Beauty

Abstract

England’s Lake District seems authentically timeless. Wiry shepherds still trek the fells with tweed caps fitted to their heads and hessian sacks thrown over their shoulders, just as they did in the eighteenth century. The cottages are chiseled from the area’s fossil-rich stone, filled with ferns, insects, and shellfish, an indication, according to locals, that the Lake District was once submerged in salt water. Nature’s hectic sounds—birdsong, sheep-bleat, and waterfall—abound here, and yet hikers have reported experiencing a primeval quietness so distinctive that they could stand on a hillside and hear the wind rushing through a raven’s wing feathers far above. But this district’s most enduring feature is its ability to continually transform and still be itself. One minute it pours with rain, the next minute the sun throws an otherworldly light over the entire landscape.