Daily Yellowstone journal., 1891-05-12
WAKEAAN'S WANDERINGS
WHERE WORDSWORTH SANG AMONG
THE ENGLISH LAKES.
The Poets birthplace, His BoyhOod's
School, His Famous Home at RydaI
Mount. and His Most Noted Haunts,
Limned by a Loving Hand.

GRAsMERE, England, April 2s-Just as
the present century was coming in, Words.
worth, the then political extremist and
budding poet, with his sister Dorothy
one Of the grandest types Of those women
whose resistleas sympathy and encourage
ment are Of more benefit 70 the world than
the blatant pretensions Of all the female
lists" that ever were born, or ever will be
born, into it-returned 20 the English lake
region, the land Of their birth, and it re-
mained their home until their death
tramped over the fell from Keswick to
COckermouth, the ancient village in which,
In IN, 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 continually presenting new
forms Of majesty and color, or hiding in
mysterious beauty behind the fieeting veil
inRs Of tender passing clouds One or an
other OF the lakes, Derwentwater Butter.
mere, Crummock Water, Ennerdale Water
Loves Water or Bassenthwaite Water, is
never absent from view, and from the
height Of lordly Grassmoor, as from the
peaks Of Skiddaw and Helvellyn, the en-
tire lake district could again be SURVEYED
and Toasted upon. Cockermouth itself Is
but one Of the many quaint old Cumbrian
villages, which seem as ancient and mossy
as the rocks out Of which they were hewn.
II Is a sweet, dim, dreamful and sonRful
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 Words
worth, was an attorney here, and law agent
TO Sir James LOwther, afterward the Earl
Of Lonsdale, who requited his services bv
forcibly borrowing the earnings Of his life
time, 5000, 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 a corner Of Main
street and recessed alley, and must have
been regarded as a 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 of by a massive stone wall
with wide coping and monumental pro
jections at regular intervals and the cor.
ners. In the area between the street wall
and the house are several pertly trimmed
shade trees. and the ample garden in the
rear extends 70 the banks Of the lovely
Derwent.
Hawkshead, where the lad Wordsworth
passed his first years Of school life is in the
that shire pushes up into the southern
reach Of the lake region. Il lies midway
between the queen Of the English lakes,
Windermere, and COnistOn Water, near
which may be found the home Of John |
huskin, and nestles prettily beside the |
beautiful Esthwaite Water IL is by far the |
most antique village Of the lake country
"Au angles, twists and crooks. |
With penthouses and gables over archways, |
vents and nOoks."
as Gibson oddly sang; while its yew trees.
under which many of Wordsworth's earlier |
verses were written, are quite as majestic |
and far more beautiful than the famous |
Jews Of Borrowdale. The old schoolhouse |
is standing just as Wordsworth left it. |
IL Is noted in literature as the Grammar
School Of Hawkshead," and its Rules,
In the handwriting Of Archbishop Sandy, |
Of York, who founded the school in 1885, |
may still be seen. IL is no more than a |
tiny stone dungeon, with wide, low win
dOws, a single broad. low door. and white
washed schOOlroOm interior, where a tall /
man would be in danger of humping the
ceiling beams with his head. The school
boy, Wordsworth, cut his name into his /
desk, and the Scared old plank is accord
tngly priced as a precious relic. Every one
will remember the good dame, Anne Tyson,
with whom Wordsworth lived, and who
was so much a mother to him during his
boyhood's days at Hawkshead. Her cot
tage is still standing; and
The snow white church upon the hill"
made famous in the Prelude, /" stands as
then in a 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 "A half score of
worshipers at service within il; and the
is so reduced that the village
rector himself rings the chime Of bells
which calls the dim old folk who remain
TO this all but deserted shrine.
For some unaccountable reason, but lit
tie Of Wordsworth's pOetical devotion was
given 10 his birth spot, Cockermouth, or
to his youthtide haunts at Hawkshead.
their surroundings would seem
to prompt the same, equally with the more
central lake region upon which his highest
genius was expended. While all the lake
Is, properly speaking, Wordsworth's
land, the interest and feeling Of the
thoughtful traveller seem to parcel the dis
trict into two almost equally fascinating
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 asso-
ciative interest. The northern district Is
geographically dominated by Skiddaw,
5addleback and GrassmOor It possesses
the beautiful lakes Of Bassenthwaite, Der
went, Ullswater and Thirlmere; it has
keswick town for a central point from
which 10 seek its scenic splendOrs; while
Is a distant area il seems sacred to the
of Coleridge, Shelley and
The southern, and. all things
,onsidered rerhane tha eunniar av,a 49,. |
sxquisite Of the two, is Overshadowed by
he mountain monarch Of the whole lake
'egion, Helvellyn, by High street, by Sea
Fell and Bow Fell, and by Coniston Old
Nan (from the old British aid mden-hil
II stonel Iheentrancing lakes OF Coniston,
Nindermere, Rydal and Grasmere silver
q noble dales and wales; In the hamlets Of
3owness, Ambleside. Rydal and Grasmere
luster its sweet old Cumbrian homes, and