Morning journal and courier., 1891-05-09
MIR. wAKEMAN,S JOURNEYINGs.
At Grasmere, England-The English Lake District-Where Wordsworth Sang-A Tramp From Keswfck to CockermOuth.

n
 CockermOuth.
 GRAsMERE, England, April 2S. To the Editor of the JOURNAL. AND COURIER:
 Just as the present century was coming in, Wordsworth, the then political extre- mist and budding poet, with his sister Dorothy-one of the grandest types of those women whose resistless sympathy the world than the blatant pretensions of all the female 'ists" that ever were born, or ever will be born, into it-returned to the English lake region, the land of their birth, and it remained their home until their death.
 I tramped over the fell from Keswick to Cockermouth, the ancient village in which, in TIT, the poet was born. The grand scenery of the region lies in every direc- ton in endless change along the winding way. To the east, Helvellyn and Skid daw, huge and dark, are continually pre- senting new forms of majesty and color, or hiding in mysterious beauty behind the feeting veilings of tender passing clouds. One or another of the lakes, Derwentwa- ter, Buttermere, Crummock Water, En- nerdale Water, Loves Water or Bsssen- thwaite Water, is never absent from view, and from the height of lordly Grassmoor, as from the peaks of Skiddaw and Helvel- lyn, 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. It is sweet, dim, dreamful and songful old spot, for the Derwent river sweeps melodiously by, and the Cocker river, from which the will lage derives it's name, is emptied into the Derwent at the village side. Words worths father, John Wordsworth, was an attorney here. and law agent to Sir James Lowther, afterward the Earl of Lonsdale, who requited his services by forcibly bor- rowing the earnings of his lifetime, five thousand pounds, 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- roof structure, standing at & corner of Main street and recessed alley, and must have been regarded as & stately affair in its 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 monu- mental projections at regular intervals and at the corners. In the area between the street wall and the house are several pert ly 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, l ern reach of the lake region. It lies mid way between the queen of the English lakes, Windermere, and Coniston Water, near which may be found the home ot John Ruskin, and nestles prettily beside l the beautiful Esthwaite Water. It is by far the most antique village of the lake country
 | With penthouses and gables over archways l vents and nooks,"
 as Gibson oddly sang; while it's yew trees Her verses were written, are quite as ma iestic and far more beautiful than the ia
 movs yews of Borrowdale. The old schoo house is standing just as Wordsworth lief
 it. It is noted in literature as the "Gram
 mer School of Hawkshead," and it
 "Rules," in the handwriting of Archbish
 of Sandy, of York, who founded tn,
 school in 1885, may still be seen. It is n'
 more than @ tiny stone dungeon, witl
 wide, low windows, single broad, lov
 door, and whitewashed schoolroom inte
 rior, where tall man would be in dange
 of pumping the ceiling beams with hi
 his name into his desk, and the scarret
 old plank is accordingly prized as pre-
 cious relic. Every one will remember tn
 good old dame, Anne Tyson, with whom
 Wordsworth lived, and who was SO mucl
 mother to him during his boyhood'
 days at Hawkshead. Her cottage is stil
 standing; and
 .'The snow white church upon the hin''
 made famous in the Prelude" stands a
 then in 8 near field. Around it the shee]
 and lambs are grazing. But the old Tiff
 went out of Hawkshead with the hand
 looms; you will never find half score O
 worshipers at service within it; and tn
 incumbency is so reduced that the villag
 rector himself rings the chime of bell } which calls the dim old folk that remail to this all but deserted shrine.
 For some unaccountable reason, but lit
 tie of Wordsworth's poetical devotion wa
 given to his birth spot. Cockermouth, o
 to his youthtide haunts at Hawkshead Scenically their surroundings would seer } to prompt the same, equally with the nor [ central lake region upon which his highes genius was expended. While all the lak region is, properly speaking, Word