William Wordsworth’s home from 1813 until his death in 1850, this grand
estate
is still in the
poet’s family, who occasionally drops by to check up on the
old place for a day or two, perhaps entertaining friends. The rest of the
year it is a fully-staffed museum, with multi-lingual guides and guidebooks
in most major languages (A Pig Latin guide was noticeably absent, however).
Nearby is the famous
Dora’s field (after his
daughter), full of thousands
of
daffodils, a spectacular sight if you hit it at the
right time of the
year. Local
legend maintains “
Daffodils” was based on this field, but in
truth the poem was written long before the
field was planted.
The house was originally much smaller, and the Tudor-style dining room still remains of the orignal, built in 1574. Later additions include the drawing room and library. Wordsworth originally rented the place after moving from Grasmere with the death of his two children and a falling out with Coleridge (my dates are a little shaky there). It still contains much of the original furnishings, including a portrait of Queen Victoria. The rest of the furnishings are apparently authentic from the era but not necessarily Wordsworth's.
As one tours the house and estate, it is important to keep in mind the major
change to the house: adequate light. In Wordsworth’s time, most of the windows
were much smaller and scarcer, giving the actual house a much drearier atmosphere.
It is no wonder, then, that he retreated to his flowing gardens, where the
grassy knolls rise and crash like frozen ocean waves, and trees overhang
a leisurely, refreshing path. The small hut that he built to write poetry
in still stands, and indeed one feels that if surrounded in this magical
atmosphere, one could also write trite verse such as
I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
That is until one actually tries to. However, almost anyone can catch the
spirit of Wordsworth's romantic impulses: the soot-covered, dingy interior
paled in comparison to the beautiful, breezy outdoors, and in a time when
industrialism threatened to consume all that was light and lovely in the
world.
Location: Rydal, Ambleside, Cumbria.
LA22 9LU.
Tel: 015394 33002