Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

We all got into the car, a Flying Standard, and I got the best seat luckily – at the right window side. I was looking out at the scenic views of Cumberland, as the car slowly climbed the gradients heading inland. My mother always used to turn into a romantic, talking about paintings and poetry whenever we headed out into the Cumbrian countryside.

She loved the purple heather-strewn hills and mountains of the Lake District and the highlands and Western Isles of Scotland. My parents often talked romantically about the nature walks we took, and how magical it felt. 

Paintings

My mother had even urged my father to purchase two paintings by the well-known Cumbrian landscape artist, Edward Horace Thompson⁴⁶.

They were not too expensive at the time, but after the death of the artist in the same year I was born, 1950, his paintings increased greatly in value. The paintings hung on the walls of my parents’ homes for seventy years!  

Poetry

Not only did my mother love the lake artists, but also the lake poets, such as William Wordsworth. She would often sit by the fireside in the evenings reading his poems, sometimes reading them aloud, so we could listen to the wonderful words, rhymes and rhythms. One of her favourite poems by Wordsworth was “The Thorn”.

There is a Thorn it looks so old
In truth, you’d find it hard to say
How it could ever have been young
It looks so old and grey
It stands erect, this aged Thorn
Not higher than a two years’ child
No leaves it has, no prickly points
It is a mass of knotted joints
A wretched thing forlorn
It stands erect, and like a stone
With lichens is it overgrown

But of course, as a kid, I couldn’t really grasp how hills and mountains could be romantic or magical at most. We just liked wading in the streams, running through the woods, and up and down the hillocks. 

As an adult, however, it is not difficult to understand how the Lake District has inspired both poets and artists. In fact, I have taught English poetry including the lake poets for many years in my position as Professor of English Language and Literature. 

However, the Romantic past of the Lake District has been besmirched by the nuclear installation at Sellafield (where my father worked), as it has produced considerable radioactive pollution ruining the beaches, amongst other things.   

We finally reached Eskdale. We still had our best clothes on so our mother told us to be careful when we were playing. When we were on picnics, day trips and holidays in Scotland or the Lake District, such as Eskdale, we didn’t need toys or sports equipment bought in shops – Nature ‘the big freebie shop’ was more than enough for us. With this, the next few stories will be about our horses Tea Cake and Dobbin, our activities around the nearby Brookes and Rivers, the West Ferry, and my Birth Origins

⁴⁶ Edward H. Thompson: A Phenomenal Talent by C.W. Richardson, 1988. https://jamesalder.co.uk/edward-h-thompson/