• Alston
• Allonby And Aspatria
• Ambleside And Troutbeck
• Appleby In Westmoreland
• Askam In Furness
• Barrow In Furness
• Bassenthwaite
• Borrowdale
• Bowness On Windermere
• Brough
• Buttermere
• Brampton
• Broughton In Furness
• Carlisle
• Cartmel
• Cleator Moor
• Cockermouth
• Coniston
• Dalston
• Dalton In Furness
• Dent
• Grange Over Sands
• Grasmere
• Greenodd
• Grizedale
• Hawkshead
• Kendal
• Keswick
• Kirkby Lonsdale
• Wasdale And Gosforth
• Kirkby Stephen
• Longtown
• Loweswater
• Maryport
• Melmerby
• Milnthorpe
• Nenthead
• Newby Bridge
• Orton
• Penrith
• Pooley Bridge
• Ravenglass And Eskdale
• Sedbergh
• Seascale
• Shap
• Silloth And Solway
• 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

Things to do in Grasmere the Lake District

Due west of Dove Cottage, the corner cottage with small lean to outhouse on the end wall is Ashburner's Cottage, home of Thomas Ashburner and his wife Peggy. Ashburner, who helped the Wordsworths with odd jobs, had been a 'statesman' but had mortgaged his land and, after a bitter struggle to pay his debts, sold it. Wordsworth's poem 'Repentance', much of which was 'taken verbatim from the language' of Peggy Ashburner, bitterly attributes the financial disaster to discontent and a 'covetous spirit'.

Ashburner survived his wife and seems to be the widower described in Excursion VI, which also sketches the cottage garden with its honeysuckle, roses, pinks and beehives, the eldest daughter indoors busy at her spinning wheel and the whole house full of a sober gaiety.

N of Ashburner's Cottage, on the corner between A591 and the road to Dove Cottage is Rose Cottage, home from 1829 to 1840 of Hartley Coleridge, who was looked after by Mrs Diana Le Fleming (an arrangement made for him by the Wordsworths). Every few months he would wander off drinking and rambling about the country, sleeping in barns or haystacks, leaving a trail of unpaid bills which the Wordsworths settled for him.

To reach the two old 'roads' over White Moss Common to Rydal, turn uphill past Dove Cottage. 50yds uphill from Sykeside Farm and adjoining Chestnut Cottage is Sykeside Cottage, a small house with a tall metal gate. Fleur Adcock's poem 'The Keepsake' (collected in The Incident Book, 1986) is an elegy for Pete Laver, the poet, illustrator and librarian of the Wordsworth Library who lived here and died on Scafell in 1983. The poem describes an evening spent in this cottage.

A little way uphill a gate leads down into the garden of How Foot, now a hotel, formerly the holiday home of the Rev. William Spooner (1844-1930), Warden of New College, Oxford, who gave his name to the 'Spoonerism'. The famous examples ('you have hissed my mystery lecures; you have tasted the whole worm') are apocryphal; but he did indeed make such slips. He was a keen walker in the area and is buried in Grasmere churchyard. Continue uphill to the corner of the road; opposite the duck pond is How Top Farm. Dorothy Wordsworth describes a funeral here in 1800:

About 10 men and 4 women Bread, cheese, and ale. They talked sensibly and cheerfully about common things ... The cffm was neatly lettered and painted black, and covered with a decent cloth. They set the corpse down at the door; and, while we stood within the threshold, the men with their of a funeral psalm ... When we got out of the dark house the so was shining, and the prospect looked so divinely beautiful as I never saw it. It seemed more sacred than I had ever seen It, and yet more allied to human life.

The Roads to Rydal

Two old 'roads' to Rydal diverge. The road to R (s) signed Rydal s he former carriage road over White Moss Common. That to L (E) uphill is the bridleway or 'Upper Path'. We take the carriage road first.

John's Grove, the Wishing Gate and Glowworm Rock Opposite How Top Farm is Wishing Gate House, formerly Dry Close, once the home of Colonel John Danson, a bibliophile who built up a famous and historically important collection of erotica, bequeathed at his death in 1978 to Trinity College, Oxford.

After 150yds the wall moves away from the upper side of the road leaving an open area of grass and reeds. The small iron gate in the wall that runs downhill to rejoin the road leads into John's Grove, socalled because it was a favorite place of Wordsworth's brother John, described by the poet as 'Meek, affectionate, silently enthusiastic, loving all quiet things, and a Poet in everything but words.' The grove commands a good view over the lake and island, with Silver How in the background. Now mainly oak, beech and hazel, it was largely a 'firgrove' in Wordsworth's day. There is a seat in the middle of the grove, and the path rejoins the road at the end.

The grove is described in Wordsworth's poem 'When, to the attractions of the busy world', which relates how Wordsworth on his walks sheltered here from the bitter winter weather of 17991800; the following year he noticed for the first time a path through the wood and discovered that his brother John had worn it By pacing here, unwearied and alone, In that habitual restlessness of foot That haunts the Sailor measuring o'er and o'er His short domain upon the vessel's deck While she pursues her course through the dreary sea. During John's absence at sea and after his death the family associated it especially with memories of him.

On April 28 1802 'a beautiful morning' William and Dorothy lay in the grass in the trench under the fence, listening to the waterfalls and the birds. There was no one waterfall above another it was a sound of waters in the air the voice of the air ... we both lay still, and unseen by one another; [William] thought that it would be as sweet thus to lie so in the grave, to hear the peaceful sounds of the earth, and just to know that our dear friends were near. The lake was still; there was a boat out. Silver How reflected with delicate purple and yellowish hues, as I have seen spar. In the autumn of 1804 Wordsworth came here: my favorite grove he wrote.

Now tossing its dark boughs in sun and wind, Spreads through me a commotion like its own, something that fits me for the Poet's task inspiring him to continue Book VII of The Prelude, which had lain untouched for six months. 150yds s past John's Grove is the Wishing Gate, a plain wooden gate overlooking the lake. According to Wordsworth local tradition promised that wishes made there would be granted. It was a favorite spot of Wordsworth's sister-in-law Sara Hutchinson, and was sometimes known in the family as 'Sara's Gate'.

On October 31 1801 Dorothy walked here with Mary Hutchinson; Dorothy was much affected when I stood upon the second bar of Sara's gate. The lake was perfectly still, the sun shone on hill and vale, the distant birch trees looked like large golden flowers. Nothing else in color was distinct and separate, but all the beautiful colors seemed to be melted into one another, and joined together in one mass, so that there was no difference, though an endless variety, when one tried to find it out.

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