Today's talk at the Armitt Library in Ambleside was about Elizabeth Gaskell and her Cumbrian Tales. Most of Gaskell's Cumbrian Tales were written in the 1850s, during the period when she was most frequently a visitor to the Lake District. The Tales include: Martha Preston; The Old Nurse's Story; Cumberland Sheep-Shearers; Half a Life-Time Ago and The Half Brothers. They all demonstrate her deep knowledge and love of the Cumbrian landscape.
In all of these novels common themes are weather and climate; exploring the fells and the role of the imagination in high places. For Elizabeth Gaskell, as for Dorothy Wordsworth and Harriet Martineau, being "wildered on the fells" meant a source of imaginative connection, and a means to connect with the Lakes, both imaginatively and physically.
Whilst living for most of her life in Manchester, Gaskell was a regular visitor to the Lake District and outlying areas. She met William Wordsworth in 1850 and befriended Harriet Martineau. In so many senses Gaskell was a true Laker. She also had an affection for Silverdale and wrote Ruth whilst staying at Lindeth Tower in the village. Silverdale featurs in The Sexton's Hero published in 1847. Gaskell wrote: "beyond, lay meadow green and mountain grey, and the blue dazzle of Morecambe Bay, as it sparkled between us and the more distant view".
The Lake District played an important role in much of Gaskell's fiction, both as the main landscape, and also as a foil to the industrial settings of her major novels.
In A Dark Day's Night she wrote of an upland scene "the ascent looked disheartening, but at almost every step we gained increased freshness of air; and the crisp short mountain grass was soft and cool in comparison with the high road...When our breath failed us during the steep ascent....we turned round and admired the lovely views, which from each succeeding elevation became more and more beautiful".
Today's talk was really interesting and I left determined to seek out and read many of the short stories I haven't previously read. It will be fascinating to enjoy a different aspect of Elizabeth Gaskell's writing.