THE stars of the Lake District literary scene in the 19th century liked nothing better than a good meal when they were on their travels.

So popular was the Royal Oak Hotel on Station Road, Keswick, that it gained a reputation as The Poet’s Dining Room.

Among those to try the dining experience was William Wordsworth, most associated with Grasmere and Coniston-based writer, artist and critic John Ruskin.

Sir Walter Scott wrote part of Bridal of Triermain there.

Other visitors included Lord Tennyson and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Well known visitors with rather less of a literary connection included the famous Lakeland huntsman John Peel and the Skiddaw Hermit – who turned up bare-footed.

The dining room now forms part of the Poets Interiors shop in Packhorse Court but retains many of the architectural features, including an unusual group of stained glass windows depicting its famous guests.

John Ruskin, William Wordsworth, Hartley Coleridge, Thomas de Quincey, John Peel and Samuel Taylor Coleridge all feature in the window designs.

The Ruskin window has the wording: “The first thing I remember as an event in life was being taken by my nurse to the brow of Friar’s Crag on Derwentwater.”

The Royal Oak was the headquarters of the 18th century pack horse trade which took everything from sheep fleeces and lead ore to gunpowder and rum around the Lake District and beyond.

It was also a place to halt or to change horses for mail and stage coaches.