A collection of essays concerned with topographical writers who published work on the west country between c. 1600 and 1900. It provides an assessment of some famous writers such as Leland, a guide to the sources for the west Country and an analysis of the development of the genre.

The history of the Cragg family, who lived in England until 1859 before emigrating to Sydney Australia. The story commences in the heart of England's Lake District in a Keswick poor house and moves to the towns of Workington and Cockermouth. The majority of the family, while in Cockermouth, enter the woollen mills in the midst of a socially tumultuous time where mass rallies call for significant political change and widespread enfranchisement. Hunger, disease, imprisonment and the hint of rebellion.