Grasmere (lake) in 1893. Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley felt that such a location should instead be in public ownership, and soon afterwards started the National Trust with Octavia Hill and Robert Hunter. " 'The lake flanked by grass'; 'gres', 'mere'. Early spellings in 'Grys-', 'Gris(s)-' might suggest ON 'griss' 'young pig' as 1st el.[ement], but the weight of the evidence points to OE/ON 'gres' 'grass', with the modern form influenced by Standard English...The medial '-s(s)e-' may, as suggested by Eilert Ekwall in DEPN, point to ON 'gres-saer' 'grass-lake' as the original name.". Plus the element "'mere' OE, ModE 'lake, 'pool'". Grasmere (lake) Grasmere
Hardwicke Rawnsley to protect the countryside. In 1883, having secured the support of Robert Hunter, solicitor to the Commons Preservation Society, the social reformer Octavia Hill, and John Ruskin, under whose influence Rawnsley had come while at Oxford, Rawnsley successfully led a campaign to prevent the construction of railways to carry slate from the quarries above Buttermere, which would have ruined the unspoilt valleys of Newlands and Ennerdale. This success led to the formation of the Lake District Defence Society (later to become The Friends of the Lake District). Besides Rawnsley, members included Robert Browning, the Duke of Westminster, Ruskin, and Alfred,