Mirehouse is a 17th-century house to the north of Keswick in

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

, at the foot of Dodd, near

Bassenthwaite Lake Bassenthwaite Lake is a body of water in the Lake District in North West England, near the town of Keswick. It has an area of , making the fourth largest of the lakes in the region. The lake has a length of approximately long and maximum wid ...

and St Bega's Church, on the

A591 road The A591 is a major road in Cumbria, which lies almost entirely within the Lake District national park. A 2009 poll by satellite navigation firm Garmin named the stretch of the road between Windermere and Keswick as the most popular road in B ...

. Although still a family home it and its grounds are open to the public and in 1999 won the award for 'Best Heritage Property for Families in the UK'.

History

Mirehouse was built in 1666 by Charles Stanley, 8th Earl of Derby, who sold it in 1688 to his agent, Roger Greg. The Greg family and then their descendants, the Storys owned the estate until 1802 when Thomas Story left it in his will to John Spedding. The Spedding family, who still own the house, have enlarged the house several times, with the last major changes occurring in the 1960s, when extensive renovation work was carried out, and in the 1980s, when the ground floor and grounds were opened to the public. The grounds now include a bee garden, a wild flower

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable con ...

, a "poetry walk", squirrel island and adventure playgrounds. The Spedding family had strong links to a number of poets, including

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of ...

Robert Southey Robert Southey (; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic poetry, Romantic school, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth an ...

, Edward FitzGerald and

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...

. In celebration of these poetic links, an annual Poetry competition is now held.

References

{{Reflist

External links

The Mirehouse
Country houses in Cumbria Historic house museums in Cumbria Gardens in Cumbria 1666 establishments in England Grade II* listed buildings in Cumbria