Books and drainpipes

Tullie House, Carlisle’s Museum and Art Gallery was built in 1689 by Thomas Tullie, Chancellor of Carlisle. The date can be seen on the rather wonderful, ornate lead downspouts that decorate the front of the house. The building, having been saved from demolition in 1890, was extended and opened as an ‘Institute of Science, Literature and the Arts’ in 1895.

Appropriate then that it is this weekend being used as one of the venues for Borderlines, Carlisle’s Book Festival, the other venue being the Crown and Mitre Hotel. We went to some excellent Festival talks today. Gordon went to something about extreme fell running (Steve Birkinshaw). I went to listen to Hugh Thompson describe a journey he made, with a mule called Jethro, across England from the Lake District to the Yorkshire Moors using old drovers’ roads and mule tracks. Highly entertaining. Then we were both in Tullie House listening to Brett Westwood talk about his book ‘Wonderland’ in which he describes something wonderful in the natural world for every day of the year. People might recognise the name from Radio 4 – Tweet of the Day, Natural Histories and he is also a consultant for Springwatch and Autumnwatch. He was inspiring to listen to, as he talked about some of his discoveries, often just on his doorstep. We bought his book. More tomorrow.