Abigail Across the Pond

Sorry, we've been without Wifi for a few days so I haven't been able to post anything. Here are a bunch of pictures from a bunch of cool places from the last week. :)  Last Saturday we hiked 10 miles in the rain and the fog. That was fun. :)  On Monday we hiked Helvellyn, the 2nd highest mountain in England, which is located in the Lakes District.  At the summit!  We went to Grasmere, home of William Wordsworth, and saw his grave.  The Lakes District!  A cool cave  Wordsworth's garden outside his house.  An original copy of Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads.  Holding a first edition copy of Frankenstein that Wordsworth owned and had in his library.  Books from Wordsworth's library.  Beatrix Potter country!  Hilltop, Beatrix Potter's home  Beatrix Potter's hat and shoes  The original paintings!  And some pretty flowers in Hawkshead, the town just dow...

Lots of cool pictures from the last couple of days but not a lot of time to post, so here's a super quick update:  The Bronte house in Haworth where Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte all grew up.  The library where the girls probably wrote some of their famous novels.  The Bronte moors covered in heather  This is called Bronte falls, and is a place that the Bronte sisters came often on their walks through the moors.  This was an art instillation along our hike that was called "Literary Landscape."  Today, we are in Yorkshire Dales National Park. This rocky outcropping is where they shot some of the scenes from Harry Potter 7, part 1.  A very different landscape than those we've been in thus far. this might just look like interesting bark at first, but those are actually a bunch of coins stuck into the wood over the years, and the tree has grown up around them.  Lots of love!

Today we toured Chatworth House. It is owned by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, who still live in part of the house. It has been passed down in their family since 1549. It is also the house that they used as the set of Pemberley in the Keira Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice.     A few photos from inside the house.  And another of the outside. :)  The gardens, once again, were probably my favorite part. Here is a maze in part of the gardens, as well as a few other pictures.  The estate is so large that they have these stone markers around the gardens that tell you how far away you are from the front door of the house. I thought this was pretty funny.  There were also several fun sculptures and art pieces in the gardens as well, like this umbrella piece.  Get ready for the biggest scandal of the century: The Lion King wasn't actually set in Africa, it was set in the Peaks District in England!...