With Rogue Herries Over Grange Fell

==Background==One stormy night in 1739, Francis ‘Rogue’ Herries brought his family to live in the house his grandfather built in Borrowdale. His son, David, ‘woke again to see that all the horses were at a standstill and were gathered about a small stone bridge.’ The ‘hamlet… clustered beyond the bridge’ was probably Grange. From there they crossed over a hill to come at last ‘into a little valley, as still as a man’s hand and bleached under the moon, but guarded by a ring of mountains that seemed to David gigantic.’ This is the village of Rosthwaite and the Hazel Bank hotel sits on the spot where the Herries house stood. However, this house never existed except in the imagination of the novelist Hugh Walpole (1884–1941) and between the covers of the four volume series he wrote, collectively known as The Herries Chronicle (1930–33). ==The Herries Family Saga==Walpole, one of the best-selling writers of his day, wrote over 50 novels. He bought a house above Derwent Water in 1923 and two years later announced that he was ‘pinning all my hopes on two or three Lakes’ novels, which will at least do something for this adorable place.’ What he eventually produced over a five year period was a romantic history of a Lake District family from 1730 to 1932. Woven into the Herries’ story are the major historic events of the period. The Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 passes near by in Carlisle, ‘Rogue’ Herries’ son David dies at Uldale as the Bastille falls in 1789 and Judith, his daughter, gives birth to her son Adam in Paris as Napoleon is finally defeated in 1815. ‘Rogue’ Herries, soon notorious in Borrowdale for his wildness, completes his infamy by selling his mistress at a fair. His consuming, unrequited love for Mirabell Starr, a gypsy woman, drives him to wander the country for hundreds of miles in search of her, confirming his reputation as a strange character. Finally at Rosthwaite, after 44 years in Borrowdale, he dies as Judith, the daughter of his old age, is born in 1774. Walpole was once allegedly asked to adjudicate between two rival claimants as to which house in Watendlath Judith had lived in. He supposedly told one of them that not only had she not lived in his house, she had never lived anywhere. There is still a plaque on a farmhouse there, proclaiming the building to be the home of Judith Paris. ==Glorious View==From the summit of King’s How there is a glorious view to the north over Derwent Water to Keswick and Skiddaw. Closer, in the plain of the River Derwent, with the steep sides of Cat Bells and High Spy rising behind, lies the tiny hamlet of Grange, where in the first of the Herries chronicles, ‘Rogue’ Herries lifted from the water the body of the old woman they had drowned as a witch. The bridge from which they threw her is visible.

From the bottom of the car park go through the gate and past Fold Head Farm, the fictional home of Judith Paris. Turn right and make for the little bridge, turning left on the far side to meet up with a much larger track. Continue for a few paces to a junction of tracks by a fingerpost to Rosthwaite and Dock Tarn. Ignore both options but pick up a faint path to the right, leading up to a gate in the wall. Go through this and continue up a narrow path between crags to a boggy area. Keep a wall on your right as you ascend towards Jopplety How.

When you reach a crossing wall, bear left to locate a single ladder stile (if you find a pair of single step stiles you’re too far to the right). Cross the ladder stile and continue around Jopplety How and up to the rocky little summit of Brund Fell. Beyond this, descend to a T-junction.

Turn right and descend on an obvious path, crossing a wall by a ladder stile. Cross another stile over a fence and turn right, along the edge of a boggy valley.

At the far side, by a prominent yew tree, turn left and follow a rocky path that ascends the ridge of King’s How. Pass the memorial to King Edward VII and continue over the summit, before descending on the far side, first along the ridge then dropping down to the left, back to the stile crossed earlier. Retrace your steps up to the T-junction and continue straight on, eventually descending very steeply by a wood to a gated stile. Over this turn left and ascend briefly to another gate, leading out on to the main Rosthwaite bridleway.

Turn left and follow this prominent track over Puddingstone Bank and back down to Watendlath.