The Rivalry between Peter Crosthwaite and Thomas Hutton
Peter Crosthwaite and Thomas Hutton were both prominent within the tourist trade in the Lakes in the late eighteenth century. Both men worked as guides, showing travellers around Keswick and the surrounding area; and both established museums in Keswick within five years of one another.
The two men were, therefore, competing for customers, and though this was a common situation among all those looking to profit from tourists, the competition between Hutton and Crosthwaite became both personal and notorious.
Both started out as guides, leading visitors on treks up the fells and on boat trips across the lake. Crosthwaite styled himself as the premier guide to the Lakes, leading visitors along the more challenging and obscure peaks and routes, leaving the likes of Skiddaw to other, less experienced, guides. Hutton, who was noted as charismatic and amiable, used his charm to draw in custom, apparently forming lasting friendships with many of his customers, including William Wilberforce.
Crosthwaite claimed that Hutton deliberately misled his customers, telling them entertaining but not necessarily truthful tales. According to Crosthwaite, Hutton told “the great Mr Wright of Derby... that the People of Borrowdale always married one amongst another and were all Red-headed!!!”
Hutton’s antipathy towards Crosthwaite was equally strong, becoming
particularly evident at the 1789 Keswick Regatta. Along with a number
of fellow guides, he rowed to Pocklington’s island before the mock-battle
began, claimed that Crosthwaite had refused to ”fight”, and offered
to row the island-based spectators back to the shore.
After both men had established rival museums, the animosity between
them grew to such a degree that accusations of theft and violence
were levied. Crosthwaite’s journals contain many references to Hutton’s
attacks, detailing how they beat his son Daniel in the street and
stole exhibits.