Lancrigg

It's a long way from Dumfries, but for Sir John Richardson (mentioned yesterday) the route included expeditions to the Arctic - the last of these was in a fruitless search for his missing friend, Sir John Franklin. Richardson settled here at Lancrigg near Grasmere, in the house of his mother-in-law. He died here in 1865.

This house has seen visits from Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Robert Burns, Wilkie Collins - and was actually acquired for Richardson's mother -in-law by William Wordsworth acting as agent.

As I mentioned - Richardson was a contemporary and friend of Robert Burns. Father Gabriel Richardson was a brewer in Dumfries and in 1795 Burns wrote this Epitaph for him....

Here Brewer Gabriel's fire's extinct,
And empty all his barrels:
He's blest-if, as he brew'd, he drink,
In upright, honest morals.