Wordsworth - pictures from the poet's cottage
Admirable puddleshark who posts faithfully, even in trying circumstances, has put some seasonal Wordsworth poetry up on LJ, which made me feel very guilty about NOT posting some photos from my July visit to Wordsworth's Grasmere cottage. The light conditions were unusually harsh so the photos are a bit glaring (to my eye) but that is certainly true to life.
I regret that the visit did not warm me to either Wordsworth or the rest of the poets of that time (late 18th/early 19th C) associated with him and with the English Lakes (our Lake District is now a national park in the north west of the country) but I won't dwell on that! The photos show you the fine view of and from the cottage entrance with gate and vegetable plot, and then the upper garden (the cottage backs into a hill and one of the few things that the Wordsworths did there was to make a first floor window into a door leading straight into this upper flower garden). The upper garden was largely laid out by the Wordsworths and they had steps made so that a view could be taken from the topmost part of the property.
Anyway, onto the photos -
First, that gate and the vegetable plot beyond:
This is the front door (now - the house was an inn before the Wordsworths rented it so their front parlour was the public bar!):
I have no photos of the inside of the house as photography is not permitted. The upper garden looks on to the back of the cottage and out towards Grasmere (mere is another word for lake):
This is the "new" door from the upper floor straight into the upper garden:
This is the view from the main part of the upper garden:
Now for the steps that the Wordsworths had made to access the highest point:
and here is the view from the highest point:
There is a covered seat at the top so that you can catch your breath if you need to, or admire the view in any case. Behind the seat is the wall that marks the property boundary; the wall is an example of dry stone walling where no mortar is used but the stones are laid (in a successful bond with certain key stones going from front to back to avoid collapse) flat on each other. It is a style of walling common in areas where slates or flat pieces of stone (i.e. that don't require cutting or quarrying) occur naturally in the local environment.
On the way back down, I noticed some purple pansies in the depth of a flower bed - very pretty, I thought (especially, if, like me, purple is your favourite colour!):
Hope you enjoyed the visit :=)
I regret that the visit did not warm me to either Wordsworth or the rest of the poets of that time (late 18th/early 19th C) associated with him and with the English Lakes (our Lake District is now a national park in the north west of the country) but I won't dwell on that! The photos show you the fine view of and from the cottage entrance with gate and vegetable plot, and then the upper garden (the cottage backs into a hill and one of the few things that the Wordsworths did there was to make a first floor window into a door leading straight into this upper flower garden). The upper garden was largely laid out by the Wordsworths and they had steps made so that a view could be taken from the topmost part of the property.
Anyway, onto the photos -
First, that gate and the vegetable plot beyond:
This is the front door (now - the house was an inn before the Wordsworths rented it so their front parlour was the public bar!):
I have no photos of the inside of the house as photography is not permitted. The upper garden looks on to the back of the cottage and out towards Grasmere (mere is another word for lake):
This is the "new" door from the upper floor straight into the upper garden:
This is the view from the main part of the upper garden:
Now for the steps that the Wordsworths had made to access the highest point:
and here is the view from the highest point:
There is a covered seat at the top so that you can catch your breath if you need to, or admire the view in any case. Behind the seat is the wall that marks the property boundary; the wall is an example of dry stone walling where no mortar is used but the stones are laid (in a successful bond with certain key stones going from front to back to avoid collapse) flat on each other. It is a style of walling common in areas where slates or flat pieces of stone (i.e. that don't require cutting or quarrying) occur naturally in the local environment.
On the way back down, I noticed some purple pansies in the depth of a flower bed - very pretty, I thought (especially, if, like me, purple is your favourite colour!):
Hope you enjoyed the visit :=)