‘Come forth into the sunshine of issues,” implored William Wordsworth in his 1798 poem The Tables Turned, extolling the virtues of a great old style stroll in nature. Treading by way of his homeland of the Lake District greater than two centuries later, on a radiant early spring day, sunbeams casting by way of the naked branches to anoint the daffodils, it’s a compelling edict.
As a founding father of England’s Romantic poetry motion, Wordsworth’s legacy is synonymous with the rolling, rugged landscapes of the Lakes. He and his contemporaries Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey had been collectively referred to as the “Lake Poets”, and to gaze on the area’s deep, nonetheless waters and scrabble throughout its fells is to grasp the supply of his creative inspiration, centuries on.
That, at the very least, is the intention of a brand new strolling route devoted to the literary large’s life and work. The Wordsworth Way – which was unveiled on 7 April to rejoice the poet’s 255th birthday – threads strands of pre-existing footpaths collectively to type a signposted 14-mile path stretching from the shores of Ullswater to the vacationer city of Ambleside. It’s a area that Gordon Lightburn, Chair of Buddies of the Ullswater Manner, which delivered the challenge with companions together with Wordsworth Grasmere and the College of Cumbria, refers to as “the cradle of the Romantic literature motion”. The route contemplates the previous poet laureate’s “plain residing and excessive considering” philosophy by connecting locations linked to his verses and his private historical past, in addition to these of his family and friends.
“The concept is to get folks experiencing the Lakes the way in which the Romantics did, by slowing down, noticing the main points within the panorama, and reflecting on nature,” says Jade Cookson, a College of Cumbria alumnus who wrote a guidebook on the brand new route. “It’s about seeing the world by way of Wordsworth’s eyes and understanding why this place meant a lot to him.”
The Wordsworth Manner will be loved as a 14-mile point-to-point stroll, or a extra leisurely 21-mile route involving three different round walks, with handy public transport hyperlinks at both finish. The stroll itself presents a mixture of bracing fell strolling round Grisedale Tarn, and civilised strolling by way of the village of Grasmere to offer a sweeping overview of the poet’s life and affect, whereas work and pencil sketches featured within the information carry to life the views as they might have appeared in Wordsworth’s day.
Kicking issues off, stroll one is an 8.3-mile yomp from Glenridding village up in direction of Grisedale Tarn and the craggy horizons of Helvellyn. Contemplating the poet’s adolescence, it takes in poignant websites such because the Brothers Parting Stone, a memorial immortalising a goodbye between Wordsworth, his sister Dorothy and his brother John, who would go on to die at sea. The indistinct-looking weather-beaten rock, which is signalled by a steel plaque, bears an inscription from Wordsworth’s poem In Reminiscence of My Brother, by which he probes his grief. Its uncovered location excessive on the fells, surrounded by nothing however grass, rocks and rolling hills, hints on the loneliness the phrases depict.
Immediately I’m choosing up the route in the beginning of stroll two in Grasmere, the place the grownup Wordsworth and his brood lived for nearly 15 years. A contemplative pause on the household graves, which lie within the churchyard of the historic St Oswald’s, within the shade of a sequence of yew timber planted by the poet, presents a way of his community-mindedness. I’m distracted, although, by the scent of Cumbrian rum butter drifting by way of the moss-covered headstones: the varsity home that Wordsworth’s kids attended is now residence to the oldest gingerbread store within the UK, Sarah Nelson’s Grasmere Gingerbread. I replenish on the crumbly, chewy biscuits for my trek underneath the noon solar over the flat fields in direction of the commanding Bitter Milk Ghyll waterfall, a favorite spot of William and Dorothy. I deal with the steep climb to a solitary lookout bench at Greenhead Gill, whose “tumultuous brook” and “upright path” is immortalised in Wordsworth’s lyrical poem Michael. Pausing for breath on the bench on the fringe of the slope, I’m shocked at how dramatic the drop is, however the peaceable valley appears largely unchanged because the day he wrote: “The mountains have all opened out themselves / And made a hidden valley of their very own.”
Persevering with on, I decide up stroll three at Wordsworth’s former residence of Dove Cottage on the sting of the village, which has been preserved, together with its charming fellside backyard, as an ode to his day by day life with Dorothy alongside his rising household. It’s properly price a pit cease, as is the adjoining museum providing detailed context of his artistic life. From right here, I take the trail that rises gently to satisfy a historic and sometimes scrabbly coffin route providing serene views over a tranquil-looking Rydal Water, which ends at Rydal Mount, one other home rented by Wordsworth.
This part of the route focuses on household, main me to find the hushed enclave of John’s Grove, the place William and Dorothy would keep in mind their brother, and later to Dora’s Area, a daffodil-covered patch of land that Wordsworth purchased to recollect his eldest daughter, whom he outlived. From there, I proceed on to stroll 4, which examines the influence of his legacy by exploring the houses and lives of extra literary figures linked to Wordsworth and the Lakes. It weaves on straightforward footpaths to Ambleside, taking in homes previously occupied by Thomas De Quincey and Harriet Martineau, and concludes on the web site of the well-known “Wordsworth steps” at what was once the residence of his relative Dorothy Harrison, and is now a part of the College of Cumbria’s Ambleside campus.
Dorothy Wordsworth typically takes centre stage on this stroll, her phrases showing often in Jade Cookson’s guidebook to carry anecdotes and locations to life. Because the reader approaches the Bitter Milk Ghyll waterfall, for instance, a passage from Dorothy’s diary remembers “the valley of its winter yellow, however the mattress of the brook nonetheless in some locations virtually shaded with leaves”; whereas a cease on the Rectory, one other Wordsworth residence en route, pertains to excerpts from a tragic letter that Dorothy wrote to Thomas De Quincey to explain the loss of life of William’s younger daughter Catherine, which occurred through the household’s time on the home. “A part of doing that is to attempt to give her just a little bit extra recognition as properly; the popularity that she deserves,” says Lightburn. He asserts boldly: “Her prose is much better than William’s, and her poetry is simply nearly as good.” Cookson was additionally eager to spotlight her function within the Wordsworth story: “His large physique of labor was a staff effort,” she says. “His sister, Dorothy, and spouse, Mary, performed an enormous function in shaping his work.”
It’s arduous to not surprise what Wordsworth, who was steadfastly against tourism within the space, would have made from the Lake District in the present day, with its luxurious inns and site visitors continually snaking between Windermere and Ambleside. “He’d most likely have combined emotions,” says Cookson. “He’d doubtless object to the crowds and infrastructure, however may respect efforts to preserve the panorama.” That stated, because the Wordsworth Manner proves, alternatives to show off the crushed path and take a extra meditative route nonetheless abound.
For extra data, see ullswaterheritage.org/wordsworth-way. The Wordsworth Manner: A Literary Strolling Information Between Glenridding and Ambleside by Jade Cookson is on the market from Verey Books and Catstycam for £7.50.
