Posted by Robert Dilley on May 06, 1999 at 00:52:26 from geog-rc2006f.lakeheadu.ca:
In Reply to: Re: Then, and Now... posted by Woll on May 05, 1999 at 20:08:32:
Having known the Lake District (on and off) for some 45 years, I would suggest that once you get away from the main tourist honeypots and the most popular trails it is not that much changed from AR's day -- especially if you go there out of the principal tourist seasons (late May/early June is a good time to avoid the worst crowds and the worst rain). Telephones? Forty years ago we lived just inside the northern edge of the park, on the fringe of the Caldbeck Fells, and had no phone. I suspect that even today some of the remoter farms, like Tyson's, could be phoneless and even electricityless still. Anyone closer than I am right now care to update me?
As for the Broads, I read recently (was it on TarBoard?) that the percentage of sailboat hirings is increasing. Also, remember AR's stories took place out of the main boating season. We went there in early June a few years back and found it relatively uncrowded (sorry, had to hire a motor launch -- wasn't willing to trust my family to my rudimentary sailing skills. Don't think I was very Margolettish, though).
I would say -- go for it! Use your imagination to picture it as it would have been all those years ago. In the Lake District, the mountains haven't changed.