Previously on one of our day trips we visited Coniston and the Ruskin Museum. Named after the 19th century art critic and social reformer. On a more recent day out we decided to visit Brantwood, Ruskins home on the shore of Coniston Water. On arrival at the house we were treated to a 20 minute video about John Ruskin, his philosophies and life. A lot more interesting than we were expecting.
He was it seems one of the most important people of the 19th century.
As well as being one of the most acclaimed art critics of his time, Ruskin was passionate about the plight of the poorer classes of Victorian England. He travelled the country lecturing and spent his days writing letters to prominent industrialists and politicians. He recommended that the state should underwrite standards of service and production, with government training schools to promote education and health. Ideas such as minimum fixed wages, pensions for the elderly and destitute and government health care have since been incorporated into our everyday life, although not until long after Ruskins death
OK enough of the history lesson, we spent our day at Brantwood .wandering the house and gardens. Ruskin designed the house to take advantage of the beautiful lake views. His study, dining room and bedroom looked out to the lake at every possible angle.
The gardens are also designed to use all the land had to offer to its full potential. There was an ice cave, in which ice was kept and distributed to the entire community.
The creek through the garden was dammed into a series of ponds to irrigate the land. Very clever and made a good mirror.
There were walking tracks, sculptures and different gardens all over the estate and we had a great time discovering them all.
If you would like to further study the life of John Ruskin, there is some interesting and less biased information to be found on Wikipedia. We thought some slightly inappropriate for publishing in a family friendly blog.
This is the amazing view from the dining room and bedroom of Brantwood.
This is Brantwoods personal jetty, where the Gondola and ferry services dock. There was also a small man made harbour, built by Ruskin himself.
A man of many talents.
One late night after our evening meal, B2 found a new house mate curling up in our garden. We named him Henry and tried to make friends. Not the most sociable of friends, we found out that when he wants to run he can run really fast.
We were also lucky enough to have a day off recently that coincided with the annual county show. Luckily our friends J and H also had the day off so it was a great group outing.
The Westmorland County Show has been held every year for the past 212 years. It was a very wet, windy and definitely muddy day. Our borrowed Wellingtons were definitely a necessity.
We watched the cows, pigs and sheep being judged and then sampled to losers in the food tent. Ha ha ha.
There was every type of tractor imaginable, quad bikes, hunting lectures and sheep dog demonstrations. We even watched a comedy sheep show and eventually found the beer tent. YAY.
All in all a great day out and a fun couple of weeks.
Hopefully the next few will be just as eventful.
This horse really knows how to jump, and it wasn't even the winner.
Until next time, B1 and B2
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