Home of 'The Beauty of Buttermere'

The Fish Inn, Buttermere in the Lake District, Cumbria.
Mary Robinson, 'The Beauty of Buttermere' (1778 - 1837) was the daughter of the landlord of the Fish Inn. She was a shepherdess, known for her beauty, and in 1802 she met John Hatfield, who called himself "Colonel Hope", the brother of an earl. Their marriage got a lot of attention, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote in the London Morning Post of "The romantic marriage". When Hatfield was exposed as an impostor, bigamist and forger, he was arrested. He escaped, to be captured in South Wales, tried at Carlisle, and hanged in 1803. In 1807 Mary married Richard Harrison, a farmer from Caldbeck and had four children. She is buried at St Kentigern's Church in Caldbeck.
The story of Mary captured the public imagination of the time and William Wordsworth wrote of her in 'The Prelude'. She is also the subject of Melvyn Bragg's 1987 novel, 'The Maid of Buttermere'.