Thomas West, a Jesuit Priest, published his Guide to the Lakes in 1778. This was the first true guide, written to give directions to the tourist, and it was to become the definitive and picturesque guide to the English Lakes for the next fifty years. It went through 11 editions, the final one in 1821.

West’s guide included all the major lakes except the more inaccessible Wastwater and Ennerdale Water, and recommended a route to be taken. He provided numbered stations, or places to stop, around each lake from which to take the view, or prospect.

West’s guide formalised the tour of the English Lakes, which had already become popular, and enabled inns, guides and other facilities to develop to serve the increasing number of visitors.

In particular, West established Ambleside as the centre from which to tour the southern lakes, and confirmed Keswick as the centre for the northern and western lakes. The second edition, 1780, included just one illustration, that of Grasmere looking from the south.

The poet Thomas Gray came as a visitor to the Lake District when he and fellow traveller Thomas Wharton spent several days in the area in autumn 1769. Gray’s companion was taken ill; but Gray continued the tour alone.

Whilst travelling, Gray wrote a journal detailing the events of the tour which he subsequently transcribed and sent, as a series of letters, to his friend.

These letters were never intended for a wider audience, having been written “solely for Wharton’s amusement”; however, a later friend, William Mason, upon reading Gray’s letters, clearly believed they would be of interest to a wider audience and subsequently published an edited and revised version.

The published letters, as edited by Mason, became an addendum to the second (1780) and subsequent editions of West’s Guide; and was included in Sketch of a tour from Lancaster round the principal lakes in Lancashire, Cumberland and Westmorland.