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Beatrix Potter in the Lake District

March 2, 2012

Beatrix Potter is one of the names that quickly comes to many people’s minds when they think of the Lake District. However, unlike William and Dorothy Wordsworth, she was not native Cumbrian. She was a London-born lady who fell in love with the Lake District early in life during holidays there with her family in [...]

Still More Wordsworth Places in the Lake District

January 3, 2012

Recently I’ve written several times about Lake District places associated with William Wordsworth, the great nineteenth century romantic poet. In addition to describing a visit to Wordsworth House in Cockermouth and seeing the tremendous work that has been done to recover from the devastating floods of November 2009, I posted a further article summarising the [...]

Jeremy Irons reading Wordsworth’s “Daffodils” [Video]

December 15, 2011

This afternoon I was in the process of preparing another article on Wordsworth for after Christmas (Yes, occasionally I do manage to do things in advance!) when I came across a video of Jeremy Irons reading “Daffodils”. I hadn’t planned on putting up anything new today but am sure that many of my readers here [...]

Going to the Wordsworth House? Which one?

December 6, 2011

Wordsworth House, Cockermouth “We’re going to the Wordsworth House this afternoon.” “Oh good. You’ll enjoy that. Which one?” It’s easy to imagine that kind of conversation between Lake District visitors over a lunch table. Currently there are three houses with strong Wordsworth connections open to the public, and before long the three will be four. [...]

Some Places to Visit in the Lake District

October 28, 2011

[Updated from a 2008 post]In addition to the lakes themselves there is a wide variety of things to do in the Lake District. There are places to visit ranging from the literary connections of Dove Cottage at Grasmere (home of the poet William Wordsworth) to the practicalities (although also with artistic potential) of the pencil [...]

Cockermouth: More Men of Science

September 10, 2011

On our main page about the Cumbrian town of Cockermouth there is mention of John Dalton the eminent early-nineteenth century scientist who first proposed the atomic theory of matter. John Dalton was, however, not the only eminent scientist to be born in or around Cockermouth. Just a few years older was William Woodville (1752-1805), also [...]

John Dalton: Scientist from Cockermouth

September 9, 2011

John Dalton was one of the scientific giants of the early 19th century. In the 1960s I often attended lectures at the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society on George Street, Manchester. (The “Lit and Phil” still exists, now based at the Manchester Business School). Inside the building great prominence was given to John Dalton, and [...]

Wordsworth’s Birthplace, Cockermouth

August 9, 2011

This afternoon in the Cockermouth sunshine the confluence of the Cocker and the Derwent looked tranquil. On 19th November 2009 it was a very different picture. Record volumes of rainwater poured down the two rivers from the Lake District mountains and inundated the centre of this historic town. Parts of the town that day were [...]

The Ancient Mariner, Watchet

June 18, 2011

On Saturday we had a rather damp experience of the Quantock Hills until we arrived at Watchet harbour, when the sun came out to greet us. I’ll write more about Watchet later, but for now here is a picture of the statue in the harbour area. The Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived for several [...]

Wordsworth and the Lake District Rivers

January 18, 2011

I sat down to write about the River Duddon, but something more emerged. Recently I’ve been posting on Twitter a daily quotation from William Wordsworth, chiefly from his poetry. The difficulty, though, is Twitter’s limitation to 140 characters. It restricts one’s ability to do full justice to the bard. Having started to write this morning [...]

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