Poet hailed as Lake District's first 'influencer'

Beloved Romantic poet William Wordsworth was the first "influencer" to champion the Lake District and call for its conservation, a new exhibition claims.

Wordsworth penned his Guide to the Lakes more than 200 years ago, combining practical advice for visitors with his own poetic reflections on the beauty of Cumbria.

A new permanent exhibition at his former home in Grasmere, known as Allan Bank, looks at the "less well known" role he played in involving wealthy landowners into the area's conservation.

It will feature 19th Century photography displayed on large scale lightboxes of landscapes Wordsworth helped protect, including Ullswater and Grasmere.

The exhibition is called Wordsworth the Influencer - a play on the modern term that refers to people who use their large social media following to promote certain ideas or products.

Content featuring the Lake District is hugely popular across social media such as Instagram and TikTok, driving visitors to sites promoted on the platforms.

The exhibition points to Wordsworth's own influence that he exercised by attracting tourists to the Lakes with his book and by working with wealthy landowners to preserve landscapes.

Harvey Wilkinson, curator at the National Trust-owned house, said: "Wordsworth had a defining role in how the Lake District was perceived, visited and ultimately protected."

The poet had a close relationship with the wealthy Leeds family headed by John Marshall, who built a portfolio of villas and parkland estates in the Lakes with the guidance of Wordsworth and his sister - and fellow poet - Dorothy.

The National Trust said many of the famous landscapes were "preserved by Marshall's ownership", including beauty spot Tarn Hows, later handed to the charity.

"For the Lakes this was an epic landscape conservation story covering almost 150 years before the modern protection of the National Park," a spokesman said.

In his guide book, Wordsworth talked of his concerns about losing the natural world to modern development.

The spokesman added: "The guide was an early and internationally significant call for conservation advocacy, he suggested that the Lake District should be a national property to protect it from industrialisation and overdevelopment."

The exhibition, which opens on 1 April, will include a first edition copy of his Guide to the Lakes and illustrations by Joseph Wilkinson, who famously depicted the area in his watercolour sketches at the time.

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