The Windermere Regatta
The regatta held on Lake Windermere proved extremely popular amongst the affluent visitors to the Lakes, as well as the local well-to-do competitors hoping to emerge victorious from the various races and events.
The picturesque scene at such an event can perhaps be best imagined from the following description in the Lancaster Gazette: “So numerous an assembly of beauty and fashion was never remembered as gracing this enchanting spot”.
The central event of the regatta was the boat race — an endeavour which required “much manoeuvring and excellent sailing”. As with other regattas, competitions also included foot races and wrestling.
The 1809 event began with a night ball in the White-Lion Inn; the next day’s main event was a race twice around the lake, competed by a vast array of rowing and sailing boats and watched by a crowded bank of visitors from all over the country. A celebratory dinner was held afterwards for the competitors.
Earlier, in 1806, the men and women attending this feast had been
separated: “Upwards of forty ladies afterwards dined in a tent erected
at the door of that beautiful place belonging to J.C. Curwen, Esq.
called the Station; while the gentlemen enjoyed ‘The feast of reason;
and the flow of the soul’ at the Ferry House”.
William Wordsworth and Sir Walter Scott attended the regatta in 1825.
Newspaper cutting from the Westmorland
Advertiser,
17 July 1824, The Wordsworth Trust.