Armitts And Beatrix Potter

The first room was dedicated to the Armitt sisters and Beatrix Potter. Mary Loiuse Armitt was the driving force behind the museum’s creation. She wanted there to be a place in Ambleside that ‘...would tell the history of the long lost past to the present.’  Her main interest was musicology and she became a Reader at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Annie Armitt outlived both her sisters and ensured Mary’s wishes of the formation of the library. She also published several novels, the most famous being ‘The Garden At Monkholme.’  Sophia Armitt was the eldest, studied art and produced excellent drawings and paintings, their subjects being botanical and the Lakeland landscape. An example of one of her watercolours was on display and was indeed very good. There was obviously a lot of talent in the Armitt family. You have to admire the creativity of these people. 

You also have to admire the other woman that shares the room, Beatrix Potter. Examples of her mycological watercolour musings were also on display. She is of course famous for her illustrated children’s books. I have to confess that I’ve never actually read any of them (Asterix and Obelix was more my thing), although given their popularity I assume they are pretty good. She ended up managing 8,000 acres of the Lake District and this finally ended up in the National Trust’s hands.    

The 17th century stone cross head of Ambleside’s market cross also finds a home in this room. The accompanying information board describes its remarkable journey to finally end up at this particular spot. This includes a very opportunistic retrieval from a skip in 1970 and moved from house to house as a garden feature, eventually ending up in Kent. It must be the luckiest stone cross head, well…in Ambleside. 

What Did The Romans Ever Do For Us?

The remaining two rooms on the ground floor were dedicated to the Romans in Ambleside. There were several artefacts on display including fragments of intricately decorated Saiman pottery, jewelry and other odds and ends. There was even a bronze colander with tiny holes pierced for drainage. Probably the most interesting display was of a large gravestone. It was for a chap called Flavius Romanus who was responsible for distributing the wages and provisions to the army. The fort at Ambleside came under attack at some point and 35 year old Flavius didn’t live to tell the tale. The inscription on the gravestone says ‘IN CAS INTE AB HOST’ which is an abbreviation of ‘IN CASTELLO INTERFECTUS AB HOSTIBUS’ meaning ‘killed in the fort by enemies.’ 

A height poster on a wall indicated that both myself and the Kapitan far exceeded the height requirement to join the Roman Legions. Unfortunately, the Cabin Boy was 2 centimetres short of the target, even wearing her healed shoes. The Kapitan couldn’t resist getting dressed up in the outfit of a centurion. If anybody is casting for the lead actor on Gladiator III out there, then I’d look no further than...well, existing actors in Hollywood.

Wainwright Exhibition

The upper floor contained a room for the library and another for the Wainwright Exhibition. The latter proved very interesting. There were obviously quite a lot of examples of his work and books, including some copper plates of his drawings. His cameras were on display: a Rolliecord, Minolta Tele and an Olympus OM10. I also owned an OM10 as a youngster and viewing this one left me feeling a little nostalgic as well as very old. There was a bronze sculpture of the great man’s head, with a pipe protruding from his unsmiling lips. I was hoping to see the photographs of the four different women that were found in his wallet when he died, but I couldn’t find any reference to them. There was a reconstruction of his chair, desk and typewriter, together with a pipe rack within easy reach. An Ensign 220 camera was placed on top of the desk, a model that was given to him as a leaving present when he left Blackburn for Kendal in 1941. 

We left the Armitt Museum into bright sunshine; so much for the weather forecaster’s prediction of thunderstorms. The museum had provided an interesting insight into Beatrix Potter, the Romans and Alfred Wainwright. The Kapitan said he loved dressing up as a Roman Legionnaire. I told him that the Legion of the IXth were looking for new recruits if he was interested. He asked me where he could join up.