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:

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