The record-union., 1891-05-10
Wakeman's Wanderings Among
the English Lakes.
Descriptive of Rydal Mount, Word
worth's Old Home, the Noble
Westmoreland Retreats of the Poet,
His Grave and st. Oswald's Church
at Grasmere.
Especial Correspondence OF the SUNDAY
UNION Copyright. 1871
GRAsMERE, Eng, April IS, 1891

tremist and budding poet, with his sister
Dorothy-one Of the grandest types of
those women whose resistless sympathy
and encouragement are Of more benefit
to the world than the blatant pretensions
of all the female ''ists" that ever were
born, or ever will be born, into it-re-
turned to the English Lake region, the
land of their birth, and it remained their
home until their death.
tramped over the fell from Keswick
to Cockermouth, the ancient village in
which, in l777, the poet was born. The
grand scenery of the region lies in every
direction in endless change along the
winding way. To the east, Helvellyn
and Skiddaw, huge and dark, are con-
tinually presenting new forms of
majesty and color, or hiding in mysteri-
GUS beauty behind the f1eeting veilings
of tender passing clouds. One or
another of the lakes, Derwentwater,
Buttermere, Crummock Water, Enner-
dale Water, Loves Water or Bassenth-
waite Water, is never absent from view,
and from the height of lordly Grassmoor,
as from the peaks of Skiddaw and Hell
Vellyn, the entire lake district could again
be surveyed and feasted upon. Cocker
mouth itself is but one of the many
quaint old Cumbrian villages, which seem
as ancient and messy as the rocks out
of which they were hewn. 1t is a sweet,
dim, dreamful and songful old spot, for
the Derwent River sweeps melodiously
by, and the Cocker River, from which
the village derives its name, is emptied
into the Derwent at the village side.
Wordsworth's father, John Wordsworth
was an attorney here, and law agent to
Sir James Lowther, afterwards the Earl
of Lonsdale, who requited his services
by forcibly borrowing the earnings of
his lifetime, $4,000, which sum, years
after the death of both the Earl and his
victim, was returned to the Wordsworth
family. The house is long, two-storied,
hipped-roofed structure, standing at
corner of Main street and a recessed alley,
and must have been regarded as stately
affair in it's time. a tier of nine windows
in the second and eight in the first story
face the street, which is shut off by a
massive stone wall with wide coping and
monumental projections at regular in
tervals and at the corners. In the area
between the street wall and the house are
several pertly trimmed shade trees, and
the ample garden in the rear extends to
the banks Of the lovely Derwent.
Hawkshead, where the lad Wordsworth
passed his first years of school life, is in
the most northern part Of Lancaster,
where that shire pushes up in into the
southern reach Of the lake region. 1t lies
midway between the queen of the Eng
lish lakes, Windermere, and Coniston
Water, near which may be found the
home of John Ruskin, and neStles pretti-
ly beside the beautiful Esthwaite Water.
1t is by far the most antique village of
the lake country
"Au angles, twists and crooks
With penthouses and arches over gateWays
vents and hooks"
AS Gibson oddly sang; while its yew
l.
earlier verses were written, are quite as
majestic and far more beautiful than the
famous yews of Borrowdale. The old
school-house is standing just as Words
worth left it. 1t is noted in literature as
the Grammar School of Hawkshead," !"
and its Rules" in the handwriting of
Archbishop Sandy, of Y York, who founded
the school in 1885, may still be seen. 1t
is no more than tiny stone dungeon,
with wide, low windows, a single broad
low door, and whitewashed school-room
interior, where tall man would be in
danger Of humping the ceiling beams
with his head. The Schoolboy, Words
worth, cut his name into his desk, and
the Scared old plank is accordingly
prized as a precious relic. Everyone will
remember the good old dame, Anne Ty-
son, with whom Wordsworth lived, and
who was so much mother to him during
his boyhood days at Hawkshead. Her
1.-THE snow-white church upon the HILL"
made famous in the Prelude" stands as
then in near field. Around it the sheep
and lambs are grazing. But the old life
went out of Hawkshead with the hand
looms; you Will never find half score of
worshipers at service within it; and the
incumbency is so reduced that the village
rector himself rings the chime of bells
which calls the dim old folk that remain
10 this all but deserted shrine.
For some unaccountable reason, but
little Of Wordsworth's poetical devotion
was given to his birth spot, Cocker
mouth, or to his Youthtide haunts at
Hawkshead. Scenically their surround
lngs would seem to prompt the same,
equally with the more central lake region
upon which his highest genius was ex-
pended. While all the lake region is,
properly speaking, Wordsworth's own
land, the interest and feeling of the
thoughtful traveller seem to parcel the
district into two almost equally fascinat-
ing typographical and literary divisions
the northern and southern, though both
of these are central. These are very near
each other in miles, and tenderly near in
associative interest. The northern dis
trict is geographically dominated by
Skiddaw, SaddleDack and GrasSmoOr. 1t
possesses the beautiful lakes of Bassen-
thwaite, Derwent, Ullswater and Thrill
mere. 1t has keSwick town for central
point from which TO seek its scenic splen-
dors, while as a distinct area it seems
sacred 10 the memories of Coleridge,
Shelly and Southey. The southern and,
all things considered, perhaps the sun
nier and more exquisite of the two, is
overshadowed by the mountain monarch
of the whole lake region, Helvellyn, by
High street. by Sea Fell and Bow Fell,
and by Coniston Old Man from the old
British aid m0e7l-man of stOne) The
enhancing lakes of Coniston, Winder-
mere, Rydal and Grasmere silver its
noble daleS and Wales; in the hamlets of
Bowness, Ambleside, Rydal and Gras-
mere cluster its sweet old Cumbrian
homes, and their neighborhood is chiefly
rlte with memories of Martineau, He
mans, Arnold, Christopher North,n De
Quincy and Wordsworth.
The latter intended to build his home
at Applethwaite, on How Gill, lovely
spot ON the southern slope of Skiddaw,
within sight of Southey's Greta Hall
and keswick, and within hearing of the
chimes of old Crossthwaite church. The
land was a gift to him from Sir George
Beaumont of Colerton, and still remains
the property of his descendants. But on
his permanent return To the lake region
he made the ancient village of Grasmere
his home. This hamlet is on the main
coach road, traversing from north to south
the central and most beautiful portions OF
the lake district, and is but three miles
from Rydal and five from Ambleside,
which lie to the south. Here he resided
for three years-first at Dove Cottage, af-
terward occupied by DeQuincy, and now
forming a portion of the outbuildings of
busy inn; next in a roomier but less
comfortable house at Allen Bank, and
again in the parsonage of ithe ancient
Grasmere church. In 1913 the Words
worths moved TO 2ydal Mount, where the
poet remained until his death in 1850.
having uninterruptedly lived within a
fbraa mile radjIlS nf NChara ha ,nv, I; ~,