Esthwaite Water

The road to Sawrey and Hawkshead skirts the eastern side of tiny Esthwaite Water. While attending school in Hawkshead, Wordsworth often walked around the lake in the mornings. He wrote, in the Prelude,

. . .I travelled round our little
lake, five miles
Of a time!

The lake ends in a National Nature Reserve, a fen area called Priest Pot that has remained undisturbed for 400 years.

When an adult, Wordsworth composed Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree near Esthwaite Water.

. . .if the wind breathe soft, the curling waves,
That break against the shore, shall lull thy mind . . .

The lake has good fishing: pike, perch, and trout.

Esthwaite Water is off the B5258 from Near Sawrey to Hawkshead.

Photos courtesy of Tony Richards

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