Thurs., 25 Sept.: Dove Cottage and Tarn Hows

As you will see from the photos, it was a gray and soggy day with occasional tiny little peeks at the sun, but nevertheless misting or raining the whole time. I dragged Hal off to see one of the houses where Wordsworth lived, Dove Cottage.

As seems to be the custom, you cannot take pictures inside, so photos are of the gardens and exterior.  He and his sister, Dorothy, rented the former pub in Town End (just outside Grasmere village) in 1799 ( for 8 pounds a year) and lived there almost 9 years. The building is almost 300 years old and he loved it because of the unobstructed views of Grasmere lake and the fells; other buildings have since blocked that view except from the very top of the back garden.

Experts say he wrote some of his best poems while living there. A few years after moving in, he married; he and Mary had 3 children there, even though there were only 3 bedrooms plus a tiny little add on space for the children. Given that they often had house guests who stayed for weeks and that Mary Wordsworth was expecting a 4th child, they finally moved and eventually settled at Rydal Mount (which we did not visit) just up the road toward Ambleside. He loved to ice skate on Esthwaite nearby. He composed his poems while walking, using the rhythm of his footsteps to maintain meter; then he would return home and dictate this first draft to either Mary or Dorothy, who wrote them all down. How do I know all this? A bit of reading and a very nice guide at Dove Cottage named Trent, who is from Washington state and completing a master's degree at BYU on the Romantic poets. He is doing is capstone project working at Dove Cottage and the adjacent Wordsworth museum. It is truly amazing how much of the original furniture has been preserved, as well as voluminous journals, correspondence and manuscripts.
Then we wandered into the village of Grasmere, bought some of the "world famous" gingerbread,

continued our search for a shirt and hat for Hal,  and had a really nice pot of tea, accompanied by a raspberry-blueberry scone with clotted cream and jam -- oh sigh.
Hal was feeling a little better today, so we decided to drive to Tarn Hows and walk around the lakes. The GPS took us 10 miles north before we realized there was no way we were going to get there that way and just drove back to Ambleside to reconnoiter. I looked up driving directions on the computer and, after having a sandwich,  we headed south, ending up on the tiniest roads yet. "Single track with passing spots" was how they were described. Ha!
But Tarn Hows was indeed very lovely

and we had a nice walk on a gravel path the entire way around. Many of the trees were planted by the man who combined three small swampy lakes into one larger one, and this oak tree had spreading branches that had to have been 25-30 feet long.

Having seen this phenomenon a couple times on previous walks, I was again struck by several tree stumps or downed trees with many coins pounded into them. I have no idea what the significance is -- can anyone shed light on this mystery??

As we came back to the car park, we again encountered a couple who were walking their Akitas; they proceeded to buy two ice cream cones and feed them to the dogs!

The Brits are obviously even nuttier about their dogs than we are. There were several informative signs in the little information center

and, lo and behold, I learned about the unusual black sheep with white faces I have seen so many of since coming to the Lake District.

We drove through Coniston, saw no reason to stop or linger, and came back to the apartment to try and use up food in the refrigerator for our last dinner here.