The Green, St. John’s in the Vale

Mondays have always brought on a state of dysphoria after the euphoria of a weekend away.

I think another post of St. John’s in the Vale is justified — a day late but heigh ho.

The photo is taken looking south from Lad Knott overlooking the hamlet of ‘The Green‘, which, legend has it, was a hideout for Vikings during 10th-century hostilities¹Harrison, Philippa. “Mountain Republic — A Lake District Parish: Eighteen Men, The Lake Poets and the National Trust”. Page 332. 2011. Head of Zeus..

On the left is the grandly named crag ‘the Castle Rock of Triermaine‘. Look closely and you can see the face where a large chunk of rock came down in 2018, now slowly becoming weathered.

It wasn’t always known as the Castle Rock of Triermaine, ‘Green Crag‘ is its much earlier name. William Hutchinson visited in 1774 and likened the crag to a castle in his ‘Excursion to the Lakes‘, an early tourist guide²Lindop, Grevel. “A Literary Guide to the Lake District”. Page 126. 1993. Chatto & Windus. ISBN 0701136154..

Sir Walter Scott was such a tourist, visiting in 1797 and again with Wordsworth five years later. So inspired was he, that he penned his poem ‘The Bridal of Triermaine‘ in which King Arthur comes to a castle and finding it deserted blows a bugle hanging outside. As should be expected the castle comes to life with ‘An hundred torches, flashing bright‘. King Arthur is entralled by ‘A band of damsels fair’, and only after three months does he manage to tear himself away³‘Arthurian Miscellany: The Bridal of Triermain, by Sir Walter Scott [1813]’. 2022. Sacred-Texts.com <https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/arthur/art155.htm> [accessed 12 September 2022]:

The Monarch, breathless and amazed,
Back on the fatal castle gazed:
Nor tower nor donjon could he spy,
Darkening against the morning sky;
But, on the spot where they once frown’d,
The lonely streamlet brawl’d around
A tufted knoll, where dimly shone
Fragments of rock and rifted stone.

Perhaps he wasn’t really trying.

• 1
  Harrison, Philippa. “Mountain Republic — A Lake District Parish: Eighteen Men, The Lake Poets and the National Trust”. Page 332. 2011. Head of Zeus.
• 2
  Lindop, Grevel. “A Literary Guide to the Lake District”. Page 126. 1993. Chatto & Windus. ISBN 0701136154.
• 3
  ‘Arthurian Miscellany: The Bridal of Triermain, by Sir Walter Scott [1813]’. 2022. Sacred-Texts.com <https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/arthur/art155.htm> [accessed 12 September 2022]