Day 5: The Lake District and Yorkshire Moors

On Tuesday, 5/27/08 we visited the Lake District and the Yorkshire Moors. The Lake District featured many forms of hills, with a more rocky terrain towards the upper limited and gently rolling hills at the bottom. Looking from Wordsworth’s house window, the gardens frame the blue lake in the distance with more gentle hills in the background. From every angle exists a clear division between the harsher environment and the greener, temperate hills and pastures, yet both views are possible to see within each line of sight causing a combination of the two extremely different landscapes. The Yorkshire Moors are similar, yet there is less of a focus on the gardens and more on the hilly pastures. The most striking scene is the cemetery upon walking up to the Bronte Parsonage; it sets a dreary tone for the rest of the view, especially if it is raining.
After viewing spot, Emily Bronte immediately comes to mind. Wuthering Heights takes place on the ever weather-changing moors. The Heights household, the Earnshaw residence, is located on the harsher, steeper hills and crags of the moors, while the passive household of Thrushcross Grange lies within the gentle hills below the Heights. The Heights is known for its high winds and fierce storms, while the Grange is likely to have more moderate conditions. Through Wordsworth’s window I can see Cathy and Heathcliff racing their horses along the rocky Heights towards the gentle Grange, or Mr. Lockwood struggling over the upper crags during a storm, taking refuge at the reclusive Heights. At the Yorkshire Moors past the Parsonage, a vast pasture sits before me. Above that lies a large sloping hill with thick, unkempt grass. I picture Cathy and Edgar’s tombs buried within that mound, with Heathcliff’s recent burial forced between the two, adding to the tangled quality of the grassy pastures. The wind blows over the moor and the closing to Wuthering Heights (also my dramatic reading) crosses my mind. I too can feel “…the soft wind breathing through the grass…” and can visualize the “unquiet slumbers” upon the moors (Bronte 322).
Bronte already does a remarkable job of using the geography to shape her characters: Heathcliff and Cathy’s wild spirits belong in the dark and violent Heights with its rocky summits and powerful winds, while refined Edgar and Isabella of the Linton family belong in the lower calm region of the Grange. Going to both locations, the Lake District and Yorkshire, only strengthen Bronte’s talent. It is amazing for a reader to visit these attractions and pick out scenes from the novel by just scanning the horizon. Certainly the geography speaks for itself. Besides Wordsworth’s house and the Bronte’s Parsonage turned into small museums, there is no mainstream marketing. The districts are still small and preserved to capture what it was like back when the Bronte sisters were writing novels, or what Wordsworth would have been doing while writing poetry. The area stresses the importance of these writers, but does not present it in a flashy, tourist attraction type of way.