The Old Parish of Great Crosthwaite lies at the heart of England's Lake
District. From the moment of its in the sixth century AD, Crosthwaite
parish has pursued a remarkable course. Its sixty square miles were
governed, from medieval times, by eighteen annually chosen customary
tenants, who would run all non-ecclesiastical aspects of parish life.
After the opening up of Lakeland in the late 18th century, Crosthwaite
was a central part of the landscape that intoxicated the Lake Poets, but
in the 19th century, the legislative fervour of the Victorian state
would bring about the demise of the old parish system, sweeping away the
benign rule of the eighteen men. But a measure of redemption was at
hand: Canon Rawnsley, campaigning vicar of Crosthwaite from 1883,
pledged to defend the Lake District and its natural environment for
future generations. Thus did Crosthwaite become the crucible of the
National Trust and blazed a trail for a wider movement to preserve the
English landscape.
A Mountain Republic is both a pointilliste and sedulously constructed
record of an individual Lakeland parish and a wider history of a region
of England with a unique social, cultural and aesthetic resonance.