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 The Ruskin monument on Friar’s Crag on the shore of Derwentwater close to Keswick in Lake District, England. |
I’ve been to Keswick many times and each time I’ve stood by this memorial admiring the beautiful lettering carved in the stone contemplating Ruskin’s inspiration for the Art & Craft movement. The movement’s philosophy is what my calligraphy studies were based on and it still is the basis on which I work – Ted
Friars Crag is a promontory jutting into Derwentwater on a stretch of shore about half a mile from the boat landing stages. Ruskin described the view as one of the three most beautiful scenes in Europe. There is an easy path suitable for wheelchairs from the boat landings, with clear views over to Derwent Isle, and across the lake to Brandlehow Woods, the first property acquired by the National Trust in the Lake District.
Friars Crag achieved its name because it was believed to be the embarkment point for monks making a pilgrimage to St Herbert’s Island, located south west of the crag.
It was through the efforts of Canon Rawnsley, vicar of Crosthwaite and one of the founders of the National Trust that much of Borrowdale was preserved from development. On his death in 1920 Friars Crag, together with Lords Island and Calf Close Bay were given to the Trust as his memorial. A plaque to his memory is set into a wall beside the Friars Crag Path.
Also at Friars Crag is a memorial, unveiled in 1900, to John Ruskin, who had many associations with Keswick. He once said Keswick was a place almost too beautiful to live in.
Keswick is a market town and civil parish within the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It had a population of 4,984, according to the 2001 census, and is situated just north of Derwent Water, and a short distance from Bassenthwaite Lake, both in the Lake District National Park. Keswick is on the A66 road linking Workington and Penrith, as well as the A591 road, linking it to Windermere, Kendal and to Carlisle (via the A595 road). It lies within the historic county boundaries of Cumberland.
Keswick was granted a charter for a market in 1276 by Edward I. The market is held every Saturday in the pedestrianised main street in the middle of the town. The marketplace features the Moot Hall which once acted as the town hall but is now a local tourist information office.
During the 16th century, small scale mining took place in Keswick, and it was the source of the world’s first graphite pencils. The pencil industry continued in the town until 2008, when the company moved to Workington on the Irish Sea coast.
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900) was an English art critic and social thinker, also remembered as a poet and artist. His essays on art and architecture were extremely influential in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
Ruskin first came to widespread attention for his support for the work of J. M. W. Turner and his defence of naturalism in art. He subsequently put his weight behind the Pre-Raphaelite movement. His later writings turned increasingly to complex and personal explorations of the interconnection of cultural, social and moral issues, and were influential on the development of Christian socialism.
Ruskin’s range was vast. He wrote over 250 works which started from art history, but expanded to cover topics ranging over science, geology, ornithology, literary criticism, the environmental effects of pollution, and mythology. After his death Ruskin’s works were collected together in a massive "library edition", completed in 1912 by his friends Edward Cook and Alexander Wedderburn. Its index is famously elaborate, attempting to articulate the complex interconnectedness of his thought. More on Ruskin at Wikipedia
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