Countrystride #37: HARDWICKE RAWNSLEY - Lakeland champion

...in which we celebrate the remarkable life of Canon Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley, campaigner, author and co-founder of the National Trust. As we wander from Rawnsley's old parish church of St Kentigern's, Crosthwaite, into Keswick, we chat with publisher and bookseller Stephen Matthews about the poet-priest's many passions – from rural crafts to Skiddaw bonfires; about the 'muscular Christianity' that made the Wolds-born orator a man of the people, and of the tireless campaigning punctuated by depressions that sealed Rawnsley's legacy as a Cumbrian Great.

• You can buy Steve's books A Canon in Keswick and A Peopled Landscape at BooksCumbria.

• You can also visit the Matthews' wonderful second-hand bookshop, Bookcase, at bookcasecarlisle.co.uk

Keswick School of Industrial Arts.

Our guest for the day: Stephen Matthews outside St Kentigern's Church, Crosthwaite.

St Kentigern's Church.

Keswick School of Industrial Arts.

Mark and Steve chat in Crow Park.

Steve's fabulous collection of Rawnsley's works (and his own).

Memorial plaque to Rawnsley close to Friar's Crag.

Dave gathering some authentic Derwent Water wave recordings.

Our map of the day's walk.