Immortalized by Wordsworth and other English Romantic poets, as well as by the landscape painters Constable and Turner, the Lake District is one of the loveliest areas of Britain. Chiefly a national park (dotted with charming villages), this astonishingly picturesque region is a walker’s paradise. Steep glacial valleys backdropped by cloud-shrouded peaks contain the deep and enigmatic lakes that give the area its name. Due to its proximity to major cities such as Manchester, the Lake District becomes crowded in summer and on weekends for much of the year. We prefer spring, when the tops of the hills — here known as “fells,” a word derived from Old Norse — are still touched with snow and the crowds have yet to arrive.