The national parks in the United Kingdom are often times located in the wilderness of the country, the wild, spectacular and dramatic areas of the countryside that will bring tears to the eyes of the first time traveler staying in a Lakes hotel,  or simply looking out the window of a train bound for Edinburgh.   Each and every park is under their own jurisdiction, they manage the enhancement of the beauty that is found, and take part in the conservation and protection of that beauty.  The qualities of the heritage, the culture and the wildlife combine to make any trek into the wilderness of the United Kingdom an experience that one will never forget.  Sitting here today, I remember the open fields on the train from the Gatwick Airport to the University of London.  I remember the train ride that took place fifteen years ago, from London to Edinburgh.  The awful smell of cigarette smoke in the bar car combined with the flavor of the freshly drawn Guinness, with the castles and the heather growing along the tracks.

The national parks of the Lakes district are just one in a family of fourteen.  Others include Dartmoor, Loch Lomond, Northumberland, the Dales of Yorkshire, and Brecon Beacons to name just a few.  Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, these areas were remote and wild…seen as dangerous and un-civilized.  However, leave it to the poets who during this time found the region full of inspiration complete with the not tamed world, the un-discovered territory with all her attractions.  Wordsworth said of this region, that everyone has a right, everyone with an eye for and a sensibility for that which brings the heart and the senses to full enjoyment of the natural world.  By the beginning of the twentieth century, people became aware of the fact that to retain a bit of sanity, of well-being…time must be spent outside of the city life.  The freedom and the renewal of physical and spiritual energy depended upon that, and the parks became important to the lifestyle.  Much as Central Park in New York City is crucial to the mind set of New Yorkers, the parks located throughout the Lakes District in the United Kingdom have offered this peace and a bit of respite from the daily grind.