Posted by Owen Roberts on November 12, 2006 at 23:42:00 from 195.92.67.65 user OwenRoberts.
I have today purchased a thirdhand copy of the above book compiled by Irvine Hunt in April 1974 (5th Impression June 1976).
It contains many pictures of the lake district people and activities around the period 1870-1912.
There are many interesting pictures including sheep farmers (the Dixons?), slate mining, charcoal burning, tourist trekking ponies, the Great Frost of 1895, wrestling, trail hounds and for the steam enthusiast - The Ratty and also a boiler that was used in a paddle stemer in summer and transferred to a narrow gauge railway engine in winter.
Most of the pictures are descriptively captioned. One interesting point was that charcoal burners always lit their mounds from the top and let them burn downwards. The reason was that if they were lit from the base, the weight of the unburned timber above would crush the charcoal below. Lucky the mound in PP was not large!
I found this a fascinating booklet and it covered the period of AR's formative years in the lake district.