Commander of Curiosities

Anyone who has been to Keswick Museum will recognise this immediately as the Musical Stones or a Lithophone. This one was made in the 19th century by a local stonemason, using Skiddaw stones. The one I wanted to photograph, but couldn’t as it is in a highly reflective glass case, is the one in the museum made by Peter Crosthwaite in 1785. The reason I wanted to blip this was because today we went to a fascinating talk at the museum all about this guy.

Peter Crosthwaite from Keswick had a varied career, including several years at sea working as a Commander for the East India Company. He returned to Keswick and became a guide, taking people up the Lake District mountains. He was an inventor, a cartographer and often regarded as an eccentric. He was at the forefront of the burgeoning tourist industry in the Lake District, playing a key role in the organisation of the famous Keswick Regatta that brought thousands of people in and really kick-started the tourist boom in the area.
 
In 1781 he established a museum, or Cabinet of Curiosities, in Keswick using a lot of things that he had collected whilst travelling by sea. The museum was not where the current museum is, but further down the main street in a square, now called appropriately enough – Museum Square. One of the founders of the current museum was his grandson, John Fisher Crosthwaite, and has some of the items that were in the original museum.
 
Jamie Barnes, who gave the talk, told many, many stories about this amazing guy. One he told us was about how Peter Crosthwaite attracted people into his museum. Apparently when a carriage was passing the building, he and his assistants used to open a window and play musical instruments, extremely loudly, until the occupants came inside to have a look. One of the instruments was the musical stones!
 
An excellent talk – supposed to be half hour, but was actually an hour, and kept the large audience totally engrossed.