Welcome back to the adventures of Scotland The Brave in the UK of Great Britain. With his Guardians, Scotty explored London, Stonehenge and Bath, Exeter and Plymouth, Glastonbury, Cardiff and Ludlow, and Chester, and Liverpool. (You can catch up with the story by clicking those links.) Next, they mounted their trusty Tour Bus and traveled due north to the Lake District in Cumbria . This is a land of great rugged hills with marvelous names like Brow Haw, Skidded, and Dow Crag.
CUMBRIA. They were passing through a land with much history. According to the Romans, the Carvetii tribe were here long ago. The Romans came and conquered them, as Romans tended to do. When the Romans finally left, around 400 CE, a little Brittonic kingdom grew up around here called Rheged.
About 300 years later, Rheged was swallowed up by its neighbour, the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Later came the Vikings to settle and trade. And then of course came the Normans. For a classic children’s story about those times, take a look at The Shield Ring. by Rosemary Sutcliff.
Guardian Mark is forever astonished at how much history the various peoples of Britain have managed to squash into such little bits of land. And the sheep graze on.
LAKE WINDERMERE. These days, thousands of tourists like Scotty and his Guardians pour in to the Lake District. This is another kind of invasion, but a much nicer one. Tourists come there to hike the great hills and to go boating on the big lakes of Windermere and Coniston Waters. Beatrix Potter lived in the Lake District and Wordsworth fell in love with it.
Windermere is 11 miles long and up to a mile wide. (The English have yet to invent Kilometers). We arrived on The Lakeside and Haverthwaite Steam Train which runs from Haverthwaite to the southern end of Lake Windermere. From the piers at Lakeside Station we set out to cruise on this lake renowned in poems and novels.
Scotty loved the cruise. Between showers of rain he popped out on to the deck and took in the hills and sights all around. He wanted to write a Romantic Poem about it himself. Perhaps he could have sketched the scenery. However, his paws struggle with quills.
Lots of people like to sail on the lake. There were sailing vessels moored everywhere and a lot of boat houses and little jetties.
There are fine houses and holidaying places around much of the shore, and a lot of woods.
Eventually they arrived at a town called Bowness. They wandered about the fore-shore and admired the holiday attractions and parks and gardens.
If you are braver even than Scotland the Brave, you might risk going down on to the little beaches where you can get mobbed by swans and ducks. In their determination to get a bit of food, the smaller birds will even land on you. The rain drifted away and Scotty posed for another ‘Scottie’ or selfie or two.
Guardian Mark tried rather hopelessly to identify the hills and peaks that are visible from the lake. Scale Head, perhaps? Claire Height maybe. And perhaps Castlewood Hill and Black Braw and Great Green How were somewhere in the distance. What splendid names, anyway.
We boarded the tour bus and travelled north through beautiful countryside. We were now making a dash for Gretna Green just as in all the finest Regency Period romances.
In the next episode, Scotty crosses an invisible border to arrive in Scotland at last. Don’t miss that one! (Click on the FOLLOW buttons so as to not miss anything.
BOOKS with Scotland in them (our Scotty, that is)
Scotty is the star of a very special book called When A Brave Bear Fights Cancer: A Get Well Soon Gift by Carola Schmidt. In the book, Scotty a little bear who gets a bad sickness called cancer. He’s worried and often scared because cancer is scary. But the doctors and nurses and other patients help him. The book is to help kids feel much more brave when they are getting treatment. It’s available in paperback and Kindle. Look for the brave little bear wearing trews on the cover.
You can also see Scotty in all the books by Mawson. One is called It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In (in that one he delivers the post) and another is She Ran Away From Love (he delivers the post again.) In Dreamy Days and Random Naps you can see him being a king and also a superb guitarist. Don’t miss that one! This is what the books look like:
Mawson’s Guardian says: You can find Mawson’s books on this Link here, and on his Writer-Bear Page on Amazon.
You have wandered into Mawson Bear’s web-den. Mawson is a Ponderer of Baffling Things (between naps) and the Writer-Bear of It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In and She Ran Away From Love.
‘This little story made me well up. A lovely, poignant story with delightful illustrations.’ Jackie Law, Amazon Top 500 reviewer, about It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost in.
The book brings back such nostalagic memories that it made it comforting, like a old security blanket.’ FNM Book reviews about Bright World.
Mawson Bear 