Wordsworth Grasmere

Wordsworth Grasmere Whilst living at Dove Cottage, Wordsworth produced most of his greatest and best-loved poems. He had known the valley as a boy, describing it as ‘paradise’.

In 1799, while on a walking tour of the Lake District, William Wordsworth saw Dove Cottage in Grasmere and decided to make it his home. Within a few weeks, Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy had moved in and were busily furnishing the home and planning a garden. It was whilst living here that Wordsworth produced most of his greatest and best-loved poems, and Dorothy wrote her fascinating Grasmere j

ournal. A visit to Dove Cottage today transports you back to this remarkable period of ‘plain living and high thinking’. The sights, sounds and smells bring to life the bustling family home the Wordsworths would have known over 200 years ago. In this humble Lake District cottage, you can feel how a unique combination of people and place came together and changed poetry forever.

Have you been inspired by Mary Bennet to dive deeper into the world of the Wordsworths?You’re not alone – we’ve loved we...
29/05/2026

Have you been inspired by Mary Bennet to dive deeper into the world of the Wordsworths?

You’re not alone – we’ve loved welcoming so many The Other Bennet Sister-inspired visitors to Wordsworth Grasmere recently and now it’s even easier to find the poetry, objects and stories behind the BBC adaptation of Janice Hadlow’s novel.

Follow the trail map to discover the poetry that opened Mary’s imagination to the healing power of nature.

Who knows what else you’ll find along the way…

Head to the website to download your very own trail map and plan your visit this summer.

Your bonnet, cravat and copy of Lyrical Ballads await…

wordsworth.org.uk/the-other-bennet-sister

Have you been inspired by Mary Bennet to dive deeper into the world of the Wordsworths?You’re not alone – we’ve loved we...
29/05/2026

Have you been inspired by Mary Bennet to dive deeper into the world of the Wordsworths?

You’re not alone – we’ve loved welcoming so many The Other Bennet Sister-inspired visitors to Wordsworth Grasmere recently and now it’s even easier to find the poetry, objects and stories behind the BBC adaptation of Janice Hadlow’s novel.

Follow the trail map to discover the poetry that opened Mary’s imagination to the healing power of nature.

Who knows what else you’ll find along the way…

Head to the link in the bio to download your very own trail map and plan your visit this summer.

Your bonnet, cravat and copy of Lyrical Ballads await…

This week we take a final look at our 'What We Treasure' exhibition, and we've saved one of our favourite treasures unti...
28/05/2026

This week we take a final look at our 'What We Treasure' exhibition, and we've saved one of our favourite treasures until last. This portrait, painted by Scottish watercolourist Margaret Gillies, depicts Dora Wordsworth, the beloved eldest daughter of William and Mary Wordsworth. A woman full of life and fun, her Aunt Dorothy once described her as being ‘of the dancing brood, and given to ecstasy’. Interestingly, this portrait was altered: Dora herself asked for her nose to be made smaller.

With our next exhibition just around the corner, this is your last chance to see Dora’s portrait and more in 'What We Treasure', open until Saturday 6 June.

Image: Dora Wordsworth by Margaret Gillies, 1839. Watercolour on Ivory.

'I walked to Ambleside with letters—met the post before I reached Mr Partridges, one paper, only a letter for Coleridge—...
27/05/2026

'I walked to Ambleside with letters—met the post before I reached Mr Partridges, one paper, only a letter for Coleridge—I expected a letter from Wm. It was a sweet morning, the ashes in the valleys nearly in full leaf but still to be distinguished, quite bare on the higher grounds. I was warm in returning, & becoming cold with sitting in the house—I had a bad head-ach—went to bed after dinner, & lay till after 5—not well after tea. I worked in the garden, but did not walk further. A delightful evening before the Sun set but afterwards it grew colder. Mended stockings &c.'

Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere journal, 27 May 1800



📸Gareth Gardner / Caroline Robinson

'Sauntered a good deal in the garden, bound carpets, mended old clothes. Read Timon of Athens. Dried linen—Molly weeded ...
19/05/2026

'Sauntered a good deal in the garden, bound carpets, mended old clothes. Read Timon of Athens. Dried linen—Molly weeded the turnips, John stuck the peas. We had not much sunshine or wind but no rain till about 7 o'clock when we had a slight shower just after I had set out upon my walk.

'I did not return but walked up into the Black quarter. I sauntered a long time among the rocks above the church. The most delightful situation possible for a cottage commanding two distinct views of the vale & of the lake, is among those rocks—I strolled on, gathered mosses, &c.

'The quietness & still seclusion of the valley affected me even to producing the deepest melancholy—I forced myself from it. The wind rose before I went to bed. No rain—Dodwell & Wilkinson called in my absence.'

Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere journal, 19 May 1800



📸Gareth Gardner / Caroline Robinson

Our next 'Go to the poets, they will speak to thee' online event is on 10 June with Kim Moore and Jean Sprackland.Ticket...
17/05/2026

Our next 'Go to the poets, they will speak to thee' online event is on 10 June with Kim Moore and Jean Sprackland.

Tickets: https://wordsworth.org.uk/blog/events/go-to-the-poets-jean-sprackland/

Jean will be reading from her recently published poetry collection Goyle, Chert, Mire (Cape, 2026). Jean’s collection explores the Blackdown Hills as a landscape where past and present meet.

Wordsworth’s poetry is rooted in such moments of transition: the instant when perception alters, when memory rises to meet the present, when the mind becomes attentive to what lies just beyond the familiar. Sprackland’s book traces similar thresholds—between illness and recovery, clarity and distortion, landscape and consciousness—revealing how these crossings shape our understanding of place and self.

Our open mic theme then is an invitation to engage with boundaries of any kind—geographical, temporal, emotional or cognitive—echoing the transformative encounters at the heart of both Sprackland’s work and Wordsworth’s enduring vision. Open mic slots are limited and must be booked in advance.

This exquisite harp-shaped needle case was made by Edith May Southey. Edith was the daughter of the poet Robert Southey ...
15/05/2026

This exquisite harp-shaped needle case was made by Edith May Southey. Edith was the daughter of the poet Robert Southey and a close friend of Dora Wordsworth, daughter of William and Mary Wordsworth.
For this needle case, Edith cleverly used needles of different lengths to create the strings of the tiny harp. William was inspired by this object to write a poem: ‘On Seeing a Needlecase in the Form of a Harp’!
Edith is pictured here as a young girl in 1809, in a portrait by Matilda Betham (1776–1852).

Edith's needle case and portrait are on display now in our exhibition 'What We Treasure', open until 6 June 2026.

'A sunshiny but coldish morning—we walked into Easedale & returned by George Rownson's & the lane. We brought home heckb...
12/05/2026

'A sunshiny but coldish morning—we walked into Easedale & returned by George Rownson's & the lane. We brought home heckberry blossom, crab blossom—the anemone nemorosa—Marsh Marygold—Speedwell, that beautiful blue one the colour of the blue-stone or glass used in jewellery, with its beautiful pearl-like chives—anemones are in abundance & still the dear dear primroses violets in beds, pansies in abundance, & the little celandine. I pulled a branch of the taller celandine.

'Butterflies of all colours—I often see some small ones of a pale purple lilac or Emperor's eye colour something of the colour of that large geranium which grows by the lake side. Wm observed the beauty of Geordy Green's house. We see it from our orchard. Wm pulled ivy with beautiful berries—I put it over the chimney piece—sate in the orchard the hour before dinner, coldish.

'We have now dined. My head aches—William is sleeping in the window. In the Evening we were sitting at the table, writing, when we were rouzed by Coleridge's voice below—he had walked, looked palish but was not much tired. We sate up till one o clock all together then William went to bed & I sate with C in the sitting room (where he slept) till ¼ past 2 o clock. Wrote to MH.'

Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere journal, 12 May 1802



📸Gareth Gardner / Caroline Robinson

Today we are sharing this beautiful watercolour of Dove Cottage painted by Dora, the eldest daughter of William and Mary...
08/05/2026

Today we are sharing this beautiful watercolour of Dove Cottage painted by Dora, the eldest daughter of William and Mary Wordsworth.

Dora was born in Dove Cottage and spent the first few years of her life there. Her aunt Dorothy describes her, age three, singing and playing with ‘her Baby…made of a pocket handkerchief’ and how ‘they are drinking together out of her tea things’.

Dora painted this watercolour of her childhood home in her early twenties, copying from an original drawing. This is one of the very few early depictions we have of Dove Cottage.

See this watercolour and more in our exhibition What We Treasure, only until 6 June 2026.

'A sweet morning we have put the finishing stroke to our Bower & here we are sitting in the orchard. It is one o clock. ...
06/05/2026

'A sweet morning we have put the finishing stroke to our Bower & here we are sitting in the orchard. It is one o clock. We are sitting upon a seat under the wall which I found my Brother Building up when I came to him with his apple—he had intended that it should have been done before I came. It is a nice cool shady spot.

'The small Birds are singing—Lambs bleating, Cuckow calling—The Thrush sings by Fits, Thomas Ashburner's axe is going quietly (without passion) in the orchard—Hens are cackling, Flies humming, the women talking together at their doors—Plumb & pear trees are in Blossom, apple trees greenish—the opposite woods green, the crows are cawing. We have heard Ravens. The Ash Trees are in blossom, Birds flying all about us. The stitchwort is coming out, there is one budding Lychnis. The primroses are passing their prime. Celandine violets & wood sorrel for ever more—little geranium & pansies on the wall.

'We walked in the evening to Tail End to enquire about hurdles for the orchard shed & about Mr Luffs flower—The flower dead—no hurdles. I went to look at the falling wood—Wm also, when he had been at Benson's went with me. They have left a good many small oak trees but we dare not hope that they are all to remain. The Ladies are come to Mr Gell's cottage we saw them as we went & their light when we returned. When we came in we found a Magazine & Review & a letter from Coleridge with verses to Hartley & Sara H. We read the Review &c.

'The Moon was a perfect Boat a silver Boat when we were out in the Evening. The Birch Tree is all over green in small leaf. More light & elegant than when it is full out. It bent to the breezes as if for the love of its own delightful motions. Sloe thorns & Hawthorns in the hedges.'

Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere journal, 6 May 1802



📸Gareth Gardner / Caroline Robinson

Address

A591, South Of Grasmere
Grasmere
LA229SH

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm

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+441539435544

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