Dove Cottage is a house on the edge of Grasmere in the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

of England. It is best known as the home of the poet

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

and his sister

Dorothy Wordsworth Dorothy Mae Ann Wordsworth (25 December 1771 – 25 January 1855) was an English author, poet, and diarist. She was the sister of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and the two were close all their adult lives. Dorothy Wordsworth had no a ...

from December 1799 to May 1808, where they spent over eight years of "plain living, but high thinking". During this period, William wrote much of the poetry for which he is remembered today, including his " Ode: Intimations of Immortality", " Ode to Duty", "

My Heart Leaps Up "My Heart Leaps Up", also known as "The Rainbow", is a poem by the British Romantic poet William Wordsworth. Noted for its simple structure and language, it describes joy felt at viewing a rainbow. Writing the poem Wordsworth wrote "My Heart Le ...

" and "

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (also commonly known as "Daffodils") is a lyric poem by William Wordsworth. It is one of his most popular, and was inspired by a forest encounter on 15 April 1802 between he, his younger sister Dorothy and a "lo ...

", together with parts of his autobiographical epic, ''

The Prelude ''The Prelude or, Growth of a Poet's Mind; An Autobiographical Poem '' is an autobiographical poem in blank verse by the English poet William Wordsworth. Intended as the introduction to the more philosophical poem ''The Recluse,'' which Wordsw ...

''. William Wordsworth married his wife Mary in 1802, and she and her sister joined the Wordsworths at Dove Cottage. The family quickly expanded, with the arrival of three children in four years, and the Wordsworths left Dove Cottage in 1808 to seek larger lodgings. The cottage was then occupied by

Thomas De Quincey Thomas Penson De Quincey (; 15 August 17858 December 1859) was an English writer, essayist, and literary critic, best known for his '' Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' (1821). Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quinc ...

for a number of years, before being let to a succession of tenants. The cottage was acquired by the

Wordsworth Trust The Wordsworth Trust is an independent charity in the United Kingdom. It celebrates the life of the poet William Wordsworth, and looks after Dove Cottage in the Lake District village of Grasmere where Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Wordswor ...

in 1890 and opened to the public as a writer's home museum in 1891. The house is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, and remains largely unchanged from Wordsworth's day. The site also includes Jerwood Centre containing manuscripts, books and art work as well as a museum that opened in 1981.

Before Wordsworth

Dove Cottage was built in the early 17th century, beside the main road from

Ambleside Ambleside is a town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Lakes, in Cumbria, in North West England. Historically in Westmorland, it marks the head (and sits on the east side of the northern headwater) of Windermere, England's larges ...

in the south to Keswick in the north. It was probably purpose-built as a

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

, and it is first recorded as the "Dove and Olive", an

inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

included in a list of public houses in Westmoreland in 1617. It remained a public house, sometimes called the "Dove and Olive Branch", until it closed in 1793. The history of the cottage is referred to in William's 1806 poem, "

The Waggoner ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

", in which the protagonist passes by "Where once the Dove and Olive-bough offered a greeting of good ale to all who entered Grasmere Vale". The building is constructed from local stone, with

limewash Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime (calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk calcium carbonate, (CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes used. ...

ed walls and a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roof. There are four rooms downstairs, and another four upstairs. The ground floor rooms retain the

oak panel An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ...

s and slate floors often found in well-built Lakeland houses of the period, and appropriate to their original function as drinking rooms in a public house. The fireplaces were altered in the 1790s to burn coal rather than the traditional Lakeland

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

Wordsworth

William Wordsworth had been born in

Cockermouth Cockermouth is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England, so named because it is at the confluence of the River Cocker as it flows into the River Derwent. The mid-2010 census estimates state that Cocke ...

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

in 1770, and knew the Lake District well from his childhood. He moved away to study at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 1787, and then travelled in Britain and Europe for 12 years. William first encountered Dove Cottage when on a walking tour of the Lake District with

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...

in 1799. William had been close to his sister Dorothy in their childhood, but they had spent many years apart. Although they had lived together in Somerset in 1797 and in Germany in 1798, William wanted to find a permanent home for them together. Dove Cottage was empty and available for rent, and they took up residence on 20 December that year, paying £5 a year to John Benson of Grasmere. On the ground floor, the main reception room was the "houseplace" or "kitchen-

parlour A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necessar ...

", by the main door, which contains a

cooking range A kitchen stove, often called simply a stove or a cooker, is a kitchen appliance designed for the purpose of cooking food. Kitchen stoves rely on the application of direct heat for the cooking process and may also contain an oven, used for b ...

and window seat, used for the main daily meal. A smaller room next to the houseplace was used by the Wordsworths as Dorothy's bedroom. A separate kitchen was used for the more arduous task of the domestic routine, with the fourth room being a small buttery, used as a

larder A larder is a cool area for storing food prior to use. Originally, it was where raw meat was larded—covered in fat—to be preserved. By the 18th century, the term had expanded. Now a dry larder was where bread, pastry, milk, butter, or cooked m ...

. The Wordsworths employed a neighbour, Molly Fisher, as a

maid A maid, or housemaid or maidservant, is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era domestic service was the second largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids ...

to do their washing and cooking. Upstairs, the room over the houseplace was William's study, with views over meadows to the lake, used by William for his composition and as a second parlour for light meals and entertaining. The three other rooms were used as bedrooms, with the small room over the buttery being used later as a nursery for William and Mary's children. The walls of the small bedroom were covered with newspapers in 1800 as an attempt at insulation (later removed, but copies were put back in the 1970s). There was no

running water Tap water (also known as faucet water, running water, or municipal water) is water supplied through a tap, a water dispenser valve. In many countries, tap water usually has the quality of drinking water. Tap water is commonly used for drinking, ...

inside the house, and the toilet was also outside in the garden. William and Dorothy took particular pleasure in the garden and orchard behind the house, their "little nook of mountain-ground", which was deliberately arranged in an informal "wild" state. William became a key member of a group of

Romantic poets Romantic poetry is the poetry of the Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. It involved a reaction against prevailing Enlightenment ideas of the 18t ...

in the Lake District, later known as the

Lake Poets The Lake Poets were a group of English poets who all lived in the Lake District of England, United Kingdom, in the first half of the nineteenth century. As a group, they followed no single "school" of thought or literary practice then known. They ...

Robert Southey Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...

lived in

Greta Hall Greta Hall is a house in Keswick in the Lake District of England. It is best known as the home of the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. Overview The official address of Greta Hall is Main Street, Keswick, but it is located some ...

in nearby Keswick. Southey and Coleridge were married to sisters, Sarah and Edith Fricker, and Coleridge himself moved his family to Keswick in 1800. Both Coleridge and Southey became a frequent visitors to Dove Cottage, but Coleridge's marriage was unhappy, and he departed Keswick in 1804. Nevertheless, he returned to visit the Wordsworths in Grasmere from time to time. The Wordsworths were also visited at Dove Cottage by

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...

Humphry Davy Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for t ...

, and

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

and

Mary Lamb Mary Anne Lamb (3 December 1764 – 20 May 1847) was an English writer. She is best known for the collaboration with her brother Charles on the collection '' Tales from Shakespeare'' (1807). Mary suffered from mental illness, and in 1796, aged ...

. In later years,

became a long-term guest. William Wordsworth's financial position had been strained since his father's death in 1783, but it improved somewhat in 1802 when the debts owed to his father by the 1st Earl of Lonsdale were finally paid with interest on the latter's death. As a result, William was able to marry Mary Hutchinson, a childhood friend, later that year. The cottage became their first marital home, still shared with William's sister Dorothy and now also with Mary's sister Sara. William and Mary's first three children were born in the cottage, John (1803), Dora (1804) and Thomas (1806). Dorothy kept a remarkable journal during the family's years at Dove Cottage. The journal was published in 1897 as ''The Grasmere Journal'', providing intimate details of the family's daily life and of their visitors. Wordsworth often took poetic inspiration from his sister Dorothy's journal. An entry in her journal from 1802, remarking upon

daffodil ''Narcissus'' is a genus of predominantly spring flowering perennial plants of the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae. Various common names including daffodil,The word "daffodil" is also applied to related genera such as '' Sternbergia'', ''Is ...

s near

Ullswater Ullswater is the second largest lake in the English Lake District, being about long and wide, with a maximum depth a little over . It was scooped out by a glacier in the Last Ice Age. Geography It is a typical Lake District "ribbon lake", ...

, was the inspiration for his poem "

" in 1804. Dove Cottage did not provide enough space for the Wordsworths' growing family and many visitors, and they left Dove Cottage for Allan Bank in Grasmere in May 1808. William had condemned this house as an eyesore when it was first built, and they moved on again in 1810 to the Old Rectory in the centre of Grasmere. Finally, in 1813, they moved to the much larger and better appointed

Rydal Mount Rydal Mount is a house in the small village of Rydal, near Ambleside in the English Lake District. It is best known as the home of the poet William Wordsworth from 1813 to his death in 1850. It is currently operated as a writer's home museu ...

, a few miles to the south just outside

. The Wordsworths continued to rent this property for 46 years, until Mary's death in 1859, William having died 9 years earlier. Rydal Mount was acquired in 1969 by Mary Henderson (née Wordsworth), William's great great granddaughter. It remains in the ownership of the Wordsworth family, and has been opened to the public since 1970.

After Wordsworth

Thomas De Quincey, a friend of the Wordsworths, took up residence in Dove Cottage in 1809, the year after the Wordsworths left. He had often stayed with the Wordsworths since 1807, and held William Wordsworth in high regards. De Quincey married the daughter of a local farmer, and remained in residence until 1820. His ''

Confessions of an English Opium Eater ''Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' (1821) is an autobiographical account written by Thomas De Quincey, about his laudanum addiction and its effect on his life. The ''Confessions'' was "the first major work De Quincey published and the on ...

'' was based on his experiences as an

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

addict, and describes him relaxing at the cottage with a

quart The quart (symbol: qt) is an English unit of volume equal to a quarter gallon. Three kinds of quarts are currently used: the liquid quart and dry quart of the US customary system and the of the British imperial system. All are roughly equal ...

laudanum Laudanum is a tincture of opium containing approximately 10% powdered opium by weight (the equivalent of 1% morphine). Laudanum is prepared by dissolving extracts from the opium poppy (''Papaver somniferum Linnaeus'') in alcohol (ethanol). Red ...

. He upset the Wordsworth family by making alterations to Dove Cottage and more importantly, its garden. The increasing size of his family forced him to move to

Fox Ghyll Fox Ghyll or Foxghyll, earlier Fox Gill, is a historic house near Ambleside in Cumbria, England, and is a Grade II listed building. It is a Regency building which seems to have been added to a much older house that was on the site. It was the home ...

, but he continued to rent Dove Cottage, and store books there, until 1835. Debts eventually forced him to leave the cottage for good. Dove Cottage then had a succession of tenants. The first usage of the name "Dove Cottage" is recorded in the 1851 census, when Christopher Newby, Coal Agent, resided with his wife and six children. In the 1860s, the house carried the sign "Dixon’s Lodgings: Wordsworth’s Cottage". In the late 1880s, the cottage was bought by Edmund Lee, the registrar of the Bradford County Court. Lee wrote poetry and the first biography of Dorothy Wordsworth whilst the cottage was in his possession. Lee's son, also called Edmund, was a novelist and poet, serving for some time as the Secretary of The Poetry Society. The

bought the cottage for £650 in 1890, with Lee maintaining an interest as a trustee. The Trust was formed by the Reverend

Stopford Brooke Stopford Brooke may refer to; * Stopford Brooke (chaplain) (1832–1916), Irish writer, critic, clergyman, and royal chaplain * Stopford Brooke (politician) (1859–1938), British Member of Parliament, 1906–1910 {{hndis, Brooke, Stopford ...

with the express purpose of preserving this place, which was so closely bound with Wordsworth's works. The cottage retained the name "Dove Cottage" after it was acquired by the Trust.

Recent times

The Wordsworth Trust has kept the cottage open to the public since July 1891. The cottage remains largely unchanged from Wordsworth's day, and the Trust has restored the garden to the "wild" appearance preferred by the Wordsworths. As a

tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural b ...

, Dove Cottage receives approximately 70,000 visitors a year. During 2020 and 2021, the Wordsworth Grasmere site benefitted from a major "reimagining". In addition to renovations at the cottage, the project provided new activities at the museum, new outdoor spaces to explore as well as a new café. A stone from Dove Cottage is represented in the

Rollins College Rollins College is a private college in Winter Park, Florida. It was founded in November 1885 and has about 30 undergraduate majors and several graduate programs. It is Florida's fourth oldest post-secondary institution. History Rollins Colle ...

Winter Park, Florida Winter Park is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 30,183 according to the 2022 census population estimate. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Winter Park was fo ...

Walk of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or muse ...

, consisting of stones brought from places associated with famous people.Walk of Fame: A Rollins Legacy. Compiled by Wenxian Zhang with David Smith and Patricia Strout. Olin Library, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida (2003)

Wordsworth Museum

The adjacent Wordsworth Museum exhibits manuscripts, landscapes and portraits. It was founded in 1935 in a small converted barn at Syke Side and opened by Poet Laureate,

John Masefield John Edward Masefield (; 1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate from 1930 until 1967. Among his best known works are the children's novels ''The Midnight Folk'' and ...

. The museum moved to a coach house nearby in 1981. The Jerwood Centre, an award-winning new building to house the collections of the Wordsworth Trust, was opened near Dove Cottage in 2005 by the poet and Nobel Laureate,

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

References

External links

The Wordsworth TrustLiterary Guide to the Lake District''

Grevel Lindop Grevel Charles Garrett Lindop (born 6 October 1948) is an English poet, academic and literary critic. Life Lindop was born in Liverpool to solicitor John Neale Lindop, LL.M. and Winifred (née Garrett), and educated at Liverpool College, then W ...

, 2005,
History of Dove CottageGrasmere — Dove Cottage / The Wordsworth Museum
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 18 April 2005 *" Breathless We Strive", a poem by

Florence Earle Coates Florence Van Leer Earle Nicholson Coates (July 1, 1850 – April 6, 1927) was an American poet, whose prolific output was published in many literary magazines, some of it set to music. She was mentored by the English poet Matthew Arnold, with wh ...

{{Coord, 54.4543, -3.0164, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Historic house museums in Cumbria Biographical museums in Cumbria Museums established in 1891 Grade I listed houses in Cumbria William Wordsworth Poetry museums Literary museums in England Tourist attractions in Cumbria 1891 establishments in England Grasmere (village) Cottages