The Worcester spy., 1898-11-06
Wordsworth's S
Old Home
is SADLY CHANGED.
Dove Cottage and the
Churchyard After 80 Years.

1t is interesting to note the extent to
which the memory of Wordsworth, al
though he has been dead nearly fifty
years, overrules this scenery. The very
coachman will point you out this or
that spot associated with his name and
work with infinite zest. WorGsWorth's
four successive houses, one Ct the,
Grasmere vicarage, entirely rebuilt,
WordsWorth's Seat the Wishing Gate
also renewed-the Stepping Stones
there are a hundred such associations.
Even the persistence of the family of
Wordsworth in the district strikes the
imagination. Here at Stepping Stones
cottage lives Mr. Gordon Wordsworth,
a grandson of the poet, and here in the
Grasmere road Mrs. Mayor, q grand
daughter of Wordsworth, whose hus-
band, Colonel Mayor. would seem to be
very popular in the neighborhood
Dove cottage at Grasmere, where
Wordsworth spent his early married
life, and where he was followed by De
Quincey is the most frequently Wis
tied spot in the district associated with
the poet. Since Mr.. Stopford Brooke
and the Wordsworth society took pos
session of the cottage some few years
ago, there have been a multitude of Wis
itors, who pay their sixpence readily
enough to see the simple cottage in
which Wordsworth lived with his sis
ter while some of his best lyS, IS We're
being composed, and where - early
married life was passed. l found that
Professor Knight was engaged in ar
ranging the library of Wordsworthiana
that he has collected, and which with
considerable flourish of trumpets he
has presented to the Dove cottage
trustees. He sat, while ] was there, in
the family sitting-room, apparently re-
senting the entrance of the merely
frivolous public. 1, as one of at-pub-
lie, resent the appearance Of Professor
ready it has lost much of the charm
which it had in old days, before it was
made into a show place. Then It was
only accessible to the enthusiast by
payment of a trifle to the cottager who
lived there. Its rough, unkempt char
acter and its wild garden gave it more
of an atmosphere suggestive of its fa-
nous occupants. Now it is too tidy
too well organized 10 have much sug-
gestio:n Of poetry, and when one
of it's little rooms is crowded
up with all kinds of spick
and span books about Wordsworth
most of which are worthless, the last
touch will be given to the Vulgarising
of the place.
The graves in Grasmere church yard
have been often described. Words
worth, his wife, his daughter, his
grandchildren lie side by side, and
Hartley Coleridge not far away One
tombstone l had not noticed before. 1t
records the death of Arthur Hugh
Clough and his burial at Florence,
where many of US have seen the
tomb, not far from that of Mrs. Brown
ing. Inside Grasmere Church there is
fine tablet to Wordsworth. and at
Ambleside there is a Wordsworth
chapel adjoining the church 1 have
been also to Hawkshead, where one
can enter the schoolsroom undisturbed
and see WordsWorth's name carved in
a bench. The school benches may well
be a hundred years old. and the boy
Wordsworth at any rate looked up at
the portrait of Archbishop Sandys, the
founder of the school, which stiIl,forms
its principal decoration. In Hawkshead
think the Wordsworth traditions are
freest from the taint of vulgarity.
There are many other memories
called up by a few views of Lakeland.
Harriet Martineau, once the most
talked-of writer of the day, and with
sufficient intellectual arrogance to have
1ufnlSneQ IOftn a dozen OF so Oh sue
cessful authors, lives only as a vague
memory. Who reads her stories, her
controversial papers, her voluminous
histories? Her Guide to the Lakes,
which I have also, is readable and is
worth reprinting. L doubt if her other
books will ever be republished. But
suppose that her house at Ambleside
will always be pointed out 1t is still
occupied by members of her family.
DR. Arnolds house also-Fox How--is
occupied by a Miss Arnold, and Mr..
w E. Forster's widow, also an Arnold,
occupies Fox Ghyll. But there are no
Southeys, Shelleys, De Quinceys and
Wilson's to carry on the traditions of
that golden age.-Clement Shorter, in
November Bookman.