William Wordsworth at Rydal Mount, Ambleside, Cumbria

From Allan Bank the Wordsworths moved to the Old Rectory in Grasmere, and after that settled into Rydal Mount near Ambleside in 1813, where Wordsworth became Distributor of Stamps. William stayed here until his death at the age of eighty in 1850.

The dining room.

In pride of place over the mantelpiece is the mezzotint portrait of Robert Burns (1759–96), a writer of huge influence on Wordsworth's poetry.

Spice cupboard made by Edward Knott, whose family owned the house between 1700 and 1780. It is dated '1710' and bears Knott's initials 'E. A. K.'.

The chair needlework was done by Mary and Dorothy and William's sister-in-law Sarah. 

The drawing room. This room and the library were knocked into one in 1968.

William and Mary by Margaret Gilles, 1839.

A note in the room at the side of this statue says that Wordsworth called this statue 'The Curious Child', which he mentions in 'The Excursion':

'...I have seen
A curious child, who dwelt upon a track
Of inland ground, applying to its ear
The convolution of a smooth-lipped shell,
To which, in silence hushed, his very soul
Listened intensely, and his countenance
Brightened with joy, for from within soon were heard
Murmurings, whereby the monitor expressed
Mysterious union with its native sea.
Even such a shell the universe itself

Is to the ear of faith...'

The library, from the drawing room.

The Georgian barometer bought back for Rydal Mount at an auction by Susan Andrew, William's great-great-great-granddaughter.

William and Mary's bedroom.

Dorothy's bedroom.

Sculpture of Wordsworth by Ophelia Gordon Bell (1915–75).

Dora's bedroom. She was Wordsworth's oldest daughter, born in 1804. Although not in very good health, she married Edward Quillian in 1841 but died six years later.  Wordsworth had previously bought a field adjoining Rydal Mount, which is now known as 'Dora's field'. On her death, William and Mary planted it with daffodils.

Isabella Fenwick (1783–1856), a good friend of William and Mary who managed to persuade the poet into the good of Dora marrying Edward Quillian.

'To commemorate

the sesquicentary

of the death of

WILLIAM

WORDSWORTH

at Rydal Mount on the

23rd of April 1850

This plaque was

placed here in the

Millennium

Year'

The sesquipedalian plaque at the entrance to Rydal Mount, commemorating the 150th year since William Wordsworth's death.

My other William Wordsworth links:

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William Wordsworth in Cockermouth, Cumbria
William Wordsworth in Hawkshead, Cumbria
William Wordsworth at Dove Cottage and Allan Bank in Grasmere, Cumbria
William Wordsworth in Grasmere, Cumbria (continued)

William Wordsworth at Dove Cottage and Allan Bank in Grasmere, Cumbria

Dove Cottage, where William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy moved at the end of 1799, to be joined by Mary after her marriage to William in 1802. Before, it had been and inn called the Dove and Olive Bough. Three children were born in four years, and the growing family moved to Allan Bank about a half mile away, on the other side of Grasmere. The cottage is now a memorial to Wordsworth's stay, and an extensive museum has been built a few yards from it.

Bedroom on the ground floor.

The kitchen.

With the adjoining larder.

The master bedroom.

Where the children slept, with newspapers on the wall as insulation. The Wordsworth Trust has faithfully used copies of newspapers of the day.

The living room-cum-study.

William and Dorothy lovingly tended the garden, seen here with an arbour at the back.

The view of the cottage and background from the garden.

In the museum, masks of Coleridge and Wordsworth.

Wordsworth by Francis Legatt Chantrey (1820).

The poet Felicia Hemans (1793–1835), who visited the Wordsworths at Rydal Mount in 1820. Hemans is most popularly remembered for 'Casabianca', specifically for the line 'The boy stood on the burning deck'. This bust was created in 1829 by Angus Fletcher (1799–1862).

Allan Bank once belonged to Canon Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley, a co-founder of the National Trust. The Wordsworths moved here in 1808, although William hated it and called it a 'temple of abomination.'

The chapel at the side of the house.

After a disastrous fire in 2011 caused by an electrical fault, the general consensus was to leave the interior as it is.

Photos of Beatrix Potter and Hardwicke Rawnsley, who was a friend of Potter's father Rupert, who took the photo in 1885. Beatrix first met Rawnsley when she was sixteen.

The view from the window.

My other William Wordsworth links:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
William Wordsworth in Cockermouth, Cumbria
William Wordsworth in Hawkshead, Cumbria
William Wordsworth at Rydal Mount, Ambleside, Cumbria
William Wordsworth in Grasmere, Cumbria (continued)

William Wordsworth in Hawkshead, Cumbria

'Hawkshead Grammar School

Attended by

William Wordsworth

1779 – 1787'

William's elder Brother Richard also attended this school. Unfortunately it was lunch hour when we were here so were unable to see the inside, although this old fuzzy photo from the Wordsworth museum, Grasmere, gives an idea of what we missed:

My other William Wordsworth links:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
William Wordsworth in Cockermouth, Cumbria
William Wordsworth at Rydal Mount, Ambleside, Cumbria
William Wordsworth in Grasmere, Cumbria (continued)
William Wordsworth at Dove Cottage and Allan Bank in Grasmere, Cumbria

William Wordsworth in Cockermouth, Cumbria

Wordsworth House, Cockermouth, Cumbria. The house dates from between 1670 and 1690, and in the 1760s was in the possession of James Lowther. The lawyer John Wordsworth was Lowther's agent and John moved in here free of rent in 1765, marrying Ann Cookson the following year. Of their children, William (the future poet) was the second born (in 1770), and Dorothy (the sister to whom William was very close) was the third, born in 1771. The property is owned by the National Trust, which has re-constructed the interior and the garden to show how the property might have looked in the 1770s.

The front office, with a mahogany desk dated 1776. John represented Lowther in legal matters and also ran his own legal business.

The back office, the room where John's clerk perhaps worked.

The splendor of the dining room.

The kitchen. The souvenir guide Wordsworth House and Garden (2014) suggests that Ann and her maid would have consulted such books as Experienced English Housekeeper by Elizabeth Raffald, an author this blog has mentioned before in relation to Manchester and Stockport.

The drawing room, with replica Wilton carpet.

A view of the garden, partly destroyed in the 2009 flood but now renewed.

'IN THIS HOUSE WAS BORN

ON APRIL 7^TH 1770

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH,

POET LAUREATE.

HE DIED AT RYDAL MOUNT, GRASMERE

APRIL 23^RD 1850,

INTERRED IN GRASMERE CHURCHYARD.

DOROTHY HIS SISTER, 1771–1855'

Opposite Wordsworth House is a small memorial garden, with a fountain dedicated to both William and Dorothy Wordsworth.

'WILLIAM

WORDSWORTH

1770 – 1850'

William's mother Ann Wordsworth died in 1778, and his father John Wordsworth in 1783.

My other William Wordsworth links:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
William Wordsworth in Hawkshead, Cumbria
William Wordsworth at Rydal Mount, Ambleside, Cumbria
William Wordsworth in Grasmere, Cumbria (continued)
William Wordsworth at Dove Cottage and Allan Bank in Grasmere, Cumbria