The Woman of Letters at Home: Harriet Martineau and the Lake District

“HOW MANY TRAVELLERS from all lands have visited this dwelling among the Westmoreland mountains as a shrine!” (377). So begins Maria Weston Chapman's 1877 homage to The Knoll, Harriet Martineau's Ambleside home. By the 1870s The Knoll had become a regular stop on literary tours of the Lake District. This was of course partly due to the fact that Martineau's literary reputation had established her as a central figure in most major political and social controversies of her day, including industrial relations, women's rights, and abolition. By the time she came to settle in the Lake District, Martineau had already published over a dozen successful works, including Illustrations of Political Economy, Society in America, and Deerbrook. She had also published numerous articles in literary periodicals such as the Westminster Review, Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, and the Monthly Repository.