This is a brief account of the life and activities of an obscure, provincial gentleman who managed to combine the role of country squire in Nottinghamshire with a life of fantasy in Cumberland. As a wealthy eccentric, Joseph Pocklington (1736-1817) was able to indulge his taste for rather vulgar display, and while his buildings and exploits around Derwentwater attracted the condemnation of such worthies as Wordsworth and Coleridge, nevertheless, he contributed to the promotion of tourism in the Lake District and has left tangible proof of his passing in his houses which survive there.