New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-08-26
WORDSWORTHSHIRE.
Associations Recalled in a Tramp
across the Lake District.
KeswIck, August 10.

efrect as The art treasures or Florence. LII ttie
course of a single drive from Bowness TO Kss-
wick one may traverse the classic ground OK
1.-THE Excursion and pass the homes Of Chris
TOPPER North Harriet Martineau, Arnold Of
Rugby the Wilberforces, the Coleridges De
Quincy. Wordsworth, Southey and Shelley; and
not more than two three walks are needed for
widening the circuit until It includes Ruskin,
Tennyson, Scott Lockhart, Canning and Mrs.
Hemans. When the cottages have been Identified,
with their ivied walls, jessamine and lockwood,
Duddon Valley OF the Sonnets can be explored,
Yewdale with it's famous trees visited. Scotts
castle rock of ST. John found every fell. tarn
and sylvan path around Grasrnere observed. the
local color for "Danodiis' and ''rhe sonlnam-
bulist' supplied I'm Gowborrow Park, the oid
Man OF Coniston stared out of countenance and
Southey's jlnsling rhymes repeated at Keswich-
bridge. Before the pilgrimage is finished there
is a feeling of safety and exhaustion such as is
known at Florence when, beginning with the
Spanish Chapel and the Ufizi. has made
strenuous effort to see everything in a week
traveller of any degree Of sensitiveness soon
begins to suspect that the literary associations
may be less potent than he has imagined
Wordsworthshire, as Lowell styled IT, has be-
come the favorite motor drive of Americans. the
summer residence of rich English merchants and
the playground Of thousands OF trppers from
Lancashire and Yorkshire 1t is hardly credible
that either milonaires or workmen are drawn
to the English lakes by interest I'm Wordsworth
whose poetry, he told Matthew Arnold, never
brought him money enough to buy his shoe
strings. Swarms Of visitors may buzz about
the school in Hawkshead, where the poets name
is carved a bench. about Dove Cottage,
where he toasted his bread by the drawing room
fire and where De Quincy followed him with
teapot and opium decanter; and they may dofr
their hats at Grasmere Church. where he was
buried; but not one i'm a. hundred has ever read
1.-THE Excursion and the "Intimations Of Immor-
tally" Nor is there evidence when the coaches
trundle along the roads TO Coniston Water. kes-
wick Ullswater that the light hearted trav-
ellers deeply interested in the celebrities
whose names associated with Brentwood
Rydal Mount, Nab Cottage Fox Howe. Knoll
Greta Hail. The houses pointed out with
flourish of the drivers whip, but his road
side anecdotes are received with more zest than
his literary "reminiscences; and his diffuse NSpc-
sition of Manchester's water supply at Thrill
mere is listened to without passing thought of
the famous rock of Coeridge and the Words
worths, snatched from the waters and broken in
pieces with fragment left 10 be patched into
a cairn the mountainside. The personality
of the poet, essayist art writer counts for
little in attracting year after year thrOngs or
tourists and idlers to this resting place of genius
them into this beautiful tract Of mountain
forest. glen. mere and moOrland.
Wordsworth. in his time. was impatient when
ever even his closest friends such as COleridge
and De Quincy. ventured 10 express admiration
for the lake scenery. In autOcratic and
almost intOerant way he assumed that he alone
had the right point of view and was a unique
seer whose eyes had been opened to the beauties
and harmonies OF the wonderful region. Tranquil
nature now reveals herself to every sympathetic
eye and is beautiful from every point of view.
The dullest observer admire the grouping IF
the hills around Lake windermere. or Blea Tarn
and Langdale Pixies without seeing them
fracted through wOrdsworth's verse; and the
DuddOn Valley is lovely without help from tags
from the "Sonnets' and "Aira Force" the most
romantic OF silvery cascades. even il one has for
gotten the poetic legend of the somnambulist Of
Lyulph's Tower. The highest mountains. Sea-
fell, Helvellyn and Skiddaw. may be far from
the clouds and some OF the sixteen miniature
lakes may be insignificant pools, but the land
scape everywhere has exquisite finish and
parklike perfection lacking even in the fairest
estates of the beautiful motherland. There are
no finer bits of woodland in England than these
fells and glens. with their elms and pines. their
oaks and beeches. their sycamOres and ashes.
their frs yews and hollies: and what wealth of
color. what endless variety there is in the shap-
ing Of the mountain masses. the walls of lichen-
covered rocks, the verdant glades of turf, the
sparkling meres and the banks of bracken and
fern. One does not need to wear wordsworth's
plaid jacket and green shade in order 20 enjoy
a long tramp among these hills from Winder-
mere TO Keswich and the driver of the coach
can dispense with roadside explanations and
leave his we'll worn stock Of funny stories un-
opened and the passengers beside and behind
him will have in
watching the rugged fells, the openings of the
wild and sOmbre glens, the long lines of ivied
wall and shapely hedgerows. the gabled cottages.
with their roses and jessamine, and curving
roadways which will be perfect in loneliness IL
the foliage be not smeared with clouds of dust
raised by the motor cars. 1t is the finest drive
in England, even If one does not see Words
worth's daffodils dancing anywhere along the
road
The Lake District. while overcrowded with
tourists and cluttered with hotels has been sys-
tematcally protected against Disagreement
There has been a vigilant defence society. which
has restricted the operations of competing rail-
ways and villa building companies. While the
trains run into windermere. COniston and Kes-
wick and there is centre of railway traffic at
Lakeside, with trails of sandwich wrappers and
glass bottles leading into the woods. this beauti-
full section Of England has been reserved in the
main for the tranquil enjoyment Of artists men
OF letters students Of natural history and lovers
of sylvan scenery well as for the more rolliclI-
ing and nosier pleasures Of the masses. The en-
croachments of building companies on the shores
Of Windernere. ConistOn. Derwent and UIs-
water nave been strenuOusly resented. a few
Gays ago the Gowbarrcw estate OF nearly $50
acres was opened to the public by the National
Trust, after a three years campaign conducted