• Alston
• Allonby And Aspatria
• Ambleside And Troutbeck
• Appleby In Westmoreland
• Askam In Furness
• Barrow In Furness
• Bassenthwaite
• Borrowdale
• Bowness On Windermere
• Brough
• Buttermere
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• Broughton In Furness
• Carlisle
• Cartmel
• Cleator Moor
• Cockermouth
• Coniston
• Dalston
• Dalton In Furness
• Dent
• Grange Over Sands
• Grasmere
• Greenodd
• Grizedale
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• Kendal
• Keswick
• Kirkby Lonsdale
• Wasdale And Gosforth
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• Longtown
• Loweswater
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• Nenthead
• Newby Bridge
• Orton
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• Pooley Bridge
• Ravenglass And Eskdale
• Sedbergh
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• St Bees
• Skiddaw
• Staveley
• Tebay
• The Duddon Valley
• Threlkeld
• Ulverston
• Vale Of Lorton
• Wasdale
• Wetheral
• Whitehaven
• Wigton
• Windermere
• Workington
• Spa Hotels In Windermere The Lake District
• Hotels With Hot Tubs In Windermere
• Hot Tub Hotels In Windermere And The Lake District
• Romantic Breaks In Windermere And The Lake District
• Themed Hotels In Windermere And The Lake District
• Weekend Breaks In Windermere
• Windermere Attractions And Boat Trips
• Boutique Hotels And Accommodation In Windermere And The Lake District
• Windermere In The Rain
• One Way Ticket To Windermere Por Favor
• Horse Riding In The Lake District
• Walks In The Lake District
• Windermere Boutique Hotel Bedrooms
• Holiday Accommodation Wanted In The Lake District

Grasmere Lake the Lake District

Follow the pavements along the lakeside to its end, then take the footpath into Bainriggs, the wood at the s end of the lake. From here paths lead E, parallel to the road, towards Rydal; or s, to a footbridge over the Rothay and thence E to Rydal or w to circle Grasmere lake.

Despite much pounding by human feet Bainriggs in autumn may be seen as Dorothy Wordsworth describes it (October 12, 1800): We walked before tea by Bainriggs to observe the many colored foliage. The oaks dark green with yellow leaves, the birches generally still green, some near the water yellowish, the sycamore crimson and crimson tufted, the mountain ash lemon color, but many ashes still fresh in their summer green. Those that were discolored chiefly near the water. The lake, properly called simply 'Grasmere', makes its first fictional appearance in a wonderfully absurd sentimental Gothic novel, Ethelinde, or The Recluse of the Lake (1789) by Charlotte Smith, set in a fictitious 'Grasmere Abbey', 'on the borders of the small but beautiful lake called Grasmere Water, in the county of Cumberland [sic]'. There is disappointingly little landscape description, and one guesses that Mrs Smith had never been anywhere near Grasmere.

The lake's appearance has changed since Wordsworth's time. The building of the road and causeway along the E side in 1831 to carry the road obliterated a peaceful wooded and ferny shore; and in 1950 rocks at the SE corner were blasted to lower the water level and prevent the lake from flooding the village. This produced small gravelly beaches on the w shore (much appreciated by paddling children) but explains why Pearson's boathouse no longer touches the water.

Dorothy Wordsworth provides the best description of the Lake's general appearance two centuries ago: as she looked down from White Moss Common, it appeared 'a little round lake of nature's own, with never a house, never a green field, but the copses and the bare hills enclosing it, and the river flowing out of it.' Her journal is full of observations of the Lake its sounds, movements and colors, its endlessly changing appearances through the transformations of light, mist and cloud. At the end of January 1802, she and William amused ourselves for a long time in watching the breezes, some as if they came from the bottom of the lake, spread in a circle, brushing along the surface of the water, and growing more delicate, as it were thinner, and of a paler color till they died away. Others spread out like a peacock's tail, and some went right forward this way and that in all directions. The lake was still where these breezes were not, but they made it all alive.

Grasmere information and the Lake District

Dorothy Wordsworth often notes Grasmere´s reflections: on December 27 1801, for example, Grasmere was 'a beautiful image of stillness, clear as glass, reflecting all things,' although 'the wind was up, and the waters sounding.' Wordsworth once saw 'a remarkable appearance of an island ... on Grasmere lake, produced by a reflection from the rocks and woods ... on a sheet of ice on the lake, which made it appear as if an island of about four or five acres stood out from the lake, covered with wood and variegated with rocks, &c.' He thought at first 'that part of the mountain had slidden down into the lake; but ... afterwards, by comparing and examining the image,' he and Dorothy 'found it an exact reflection of part of the sides of the lake'.

The hut on the island is the subject of Wordsworth's poem 'Written with a Pencil upon a Stone in the Wall of the House (an Outhouse), on the Island of Grasmere' (1800): Thou see'st a homely Pile, yet to these walls The heifer comes in the snowstorm, and here The new dropped lamb finds shelter from the wind. And hither does one Poet sometimes row His pinnace, a small vagrant barge, up piled With plenteous store of heath and withered fern.

And beneath this roof He makes his summer couch. There were also pleasure trips, in borrowed boats, to the island. In July 1800 Coleridge and the Wordsworths enjoyed a picnic there, splendidly described in one of Coleridge's letters: We drank tea the night before I left Grasmere on the Island in that lovely lake, our kettle swung over the fire hanging from the branch of a Fir Tree, and I lay & saw the woods, & mountains, & lake all trembling, & as it were idealized thro' the subtle smoke which rose up from the clear red embers of the fir apples which we had collected. Afterwards, we made a glorious Bonfire on the Margin, by some alder bushes, whose twigs heaved & sobbed in the up rushing column of smoke & the Image of the Bonfire, & of us that danced round it ruddy laughing faces in the twilight the Image of this in a Lake smooth as that sea, to whom the Son of God had said, PEACE! William and Dorothy both made many observations of the lake at night. On July 30 1800 Dorothy and her brothers were boating on the lake in the late evening and watched 'a rich reflection of the moon, the moonlight, clouds and the hills, and from the Rays gap lie Dunmail Raise a huge rainbow pillar.'

There is a powerful nocturnal meditation in Wordsworth's 1807 poem 'Composed by the Side of Grasmere Lake', where the waters, steeled By breezeless air to smoothest polish, yield A vivid repetition of the stars and an oracular voice, mindful of the Napoleonic Wars then raging overseas, whispers 'Be thankful, thou; for, if unholy deeds Ravage the world, tranquility is here!' The lake had practical uses too: Wordsworth frequently caught pike, and Dorothy's journal records many fishing trips. On June 12 1800, for example, 'William and I went upon the water to set pike floats ... We returned to dinner, 2 pikes boiled and roasted.' Another common catch was 'bass' properly perch.

Before turning to the village, we consider the valley as a whole. It has often struck visitors as paradisal: Thomas Gray, the first to write about it in detail, saw it as he approached from Keswick in 1769 and thought it 'a little unsuspected paradise'; to William Wilberforce in 1779 it embodied 'the idea of Rasselas's happy Valley'. These perceptions owe much to the enclosed character of the valley. Dominated by the pyramidal Helm Crag to the N and by Loughrigg Fell to the s, it is almost completely surrounded by fells. Northward also is the spectacular 'inverted arch' (as Coleridge called it) of Dunmail Raise where the pass leaves for Keswick.

William Wordsworth poems

In an early fragment, 'Anacreon', Wordsworth describes how silvered by the morning beam The white mist curls on Grasmere's stream, Which, like a veil of flowing light, Hides half the land skip from the sight. In An Evening Walk, he gives an affectionate sketch of the valley; while in 'Home at Grasmere' (cl800) he recalls his early resolve that 'here/ Must be his Home, this Valley be his World' and gives thanks that now ... perchance for life, dear Vale, Beloved Grasmere (let the Wandering Streams

Take up, the cloud-capped hills repeat, the Name), One of thy lowly Dwellings is my Home. The same poem celebrates the harmonious diversity of the valley's landscape, natural and manmade: Thou art pleased, Pleased with thy crags, and woody steeps, thy Lake, Its one green Island and its winding shores; The multitude of little rocky hills, Thy Church and Cottages of mountain stone Clustered like stars some few, but single most, And lurking dimly in their shy retreats Or glancing at each other cheerful looks, Like separated stars with clouds between.

The landscape of the valley was used as the scene for Excursion V, although Wordsworth shifted its nominal location to 'the lower part of Little Langdale' to make a composite setting. Changes in the valley are lamented in the first part of 'The Tuft of Primroses' (1808): on their recent return from Yorkshire the Wordsworths had been saddened to see that the aerial grove, no more Right in the centre of the lovely Vale Suspended like a stationary cloud, Had vanished like a cloud together with other trees, leaving a barer landscape behind.

The principal change Wordsworth would notice now is the much greater density of building. Surprisingly, however, the character of the landscape as a whole has not been damaged, partly because there are now more trees so that groups of houses are screened and broken up. Grasmere Village and St Oswald's Church From the Dove Cottage car park follow A591 200yds and take the turning L (NW) to the village  This is Stock Lane (B5287). There is a large car park on the lane, and another at the village centre near the church. At the corner of the main road and Stock Lane is the Sports Field.

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