Both a family movie and a speedboat have connections with Coniston Lake in Cumbria.
The film adaptation of Arthur Ransom’s Swallows and Amazons featured the little Wild Cat Island set within Coniston Waters, while British speed record breaker Donald Campbell was killed, during another attempt to go faster than ever before, upon its surface.
But it was the big house we saw on the shore that drew our attention while enjoying a trip around the lake.
Brantwood House was the final home of John Ruskin – writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era.
He’s also remembered as a champion of the painter JMW Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites – and for his legal run-in with artist James McNeill Whistler who sued him for libel.
What a view of Coniston Waters Ruskin enjoyed!
Inside another room, an object with a rather unusual connection with Bath.
