Intention

In the preface to The Shepherd’s Life: A Tale of the Lake District, Rebanks attempts to inform his readers of the reality of the Lake District. He mainly uses personal anecdotes to show the mentality of the school children of the Lake District, who preferred to stay home and follow in their ancestors’ footsteps by becoming farmers and shepherds. His personal anecdotes also illustrate the clash of views between locals and outsiders:

We were too dumb to want to leave this area with its dirty dead-end jobs and its narrow-minded provincial ways. There was nothing here for us, we should open our eyes and see it. In her eyes, to want to leave school early and go and work with sheep was to be more or less an idiot. (ll. 28-30)

Rebanks also informs readers about the reality of the Lake District towards the end of the text, when he briefly presents what his book is going to b...