In August 1802 the poet, critic, philosopher and letter-writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge set off from Greta Hall in Keswick on a nine-day walk around the Lake District. This book retraces Coleridge's steps in circumstances as close as possible to those of the original walk - at the same time of the year, regardless of the weather. The book tells of three journeys - a recreation of Coleridge's original walk, a record of Hankinson's present-day impressions and an account of the long, complex journey made by the Lake District itself in almost 200 years. This book won the 1992 Portico Prize.