Souvenirs
A direct result of tourism was the production of souvenirs, either for use on sightseeing tours or as mementoes to take away.
Local booksellers, post offices and museums proved ideal outlets for the sale of souvenirs and Peter Crosthwaite, owner of Keswick’s first museum, sold a large variety: among the items for sale were ‘Mr. Farington’s Twenty Landscapes of the Lakes; ... West’s and Shaw’s GUIDES; Gray’s Landscape Glasses; Claude Lorrain’s Do. Pocket Compasses, Music, Spars, &c.’
Crosthwaite also produced handmade Aeolian harps, a particularly popular item according to his son Daniel: “The Aeolian Harp of my fathers invention, which we sell at seven [shillings] each... pleases the company so much when the wind suits, that I have sold 262 in one year”.
He also collected local minerals and produced his own maps of the fells — which enjoyed “considerable success, 3,370 sheets being ordered in 1786... and a further 4,450 by 1789”. Selling at 1s. 6d. each, this suggests a turnover of around £80 a year.
Other enterprising Cumbrians also took advantage of the opportunity to make money, as this 1844 article in the Carlisle Journal attests:
J.Flintoff, Begs to return his best Thanks to all who have been so kind as to Honour him with their patronage, and to inform the Public that he intends early to Publish a limited Number of MODELS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT, in Papier Mache, on a Scale of One Inch to a Mile, and Coloured either to Nature or Geologically, as Parties may wish.
Local minerals, photographed with kind permission of The Keswick Museum.
A page from peter Crosthwaite's account book, The Wordsworth Trust.