Ambleside, Westmorland : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Ambleside. You may be able to find further references to Ambleside in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Ambleside township with railway station Bartholomew
AMBLESIDE a small town, a township, a chapelry, and a subdistrict Imperial

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Ambleside within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
George Head Workington and the Lake District 11
Celia Fiennes 1698 Tour: Lancaster to Carlisle 2
William Adams On Tramp 1
William Camden Durham, Lancashire and Westmorland 1
John Wesley 1765-8: Justice for Methodists; Methodist Character; Instructions to Parents 1
John Wesley 1781-4: An Ideal Circuit; Wesley in his Eighties; Wesley Visits Holland; Scotland 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Scandale 0 2
Rydal 1 2
Clappersgate 0 2
Brathay 0 2
Lakes 0 1
Troutbeck 0 2
Low Wood 0 2
Loughrigg 0 2
Low Wray 0 2
Skelwith 0 2
Elterwater 0 2
Grasmere 1 2
Easedale 0 2
Kentmere 1 2
Outgate 0 1
Applethwaite 0 2
Deepdale 0 2
Little Langdale 0 1
Windermere 12 6
Patterdale 0 3

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Ambleside. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
AMBLESIDE John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
AMBLSIDE Celia Fiennes Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary (London: Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, 1888).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.