William's Cloud

“I often wonder,” William Wordsworth mused in 1840, “what will become of Rydal Mount after our time. Will the old walls and steps in front the house remain, or will they disappear beneath beautiful mosses, wild mushrooms, and other flowers?” The English poet needn’t have worried. More than 185 years later, little has changed in and around his farm in the Lake District, near Rydal.

By chance, I stumbled upon the house where the wordsmith of British Romanticism lived from 1813 until his death in 1850. On a sunny day, I set off on the “Coffin Walk” from Ambleside. The first part led to the churchyard of St. Oswald’s in Grassmere. At one time it was the only consecrated place in the area and the path, past fields of sheep and goats, was used for transporting coffins, hence the name.

I knew Grassmere was associated with Wordsworth, but not that he had lived at Rydal. William and his Dorothy were tenants of Lady Anne de Fleming, the resident of the imposing Rydal Hall. In 1825, I learned, Lady Anne announced that she intended to grant the lease to a relative. He had no security of tenure, and the poet was determined to avoid eviction at all costs.

He bought an adjacent field and said he wanted to build on it, blocking the view from Royal Mount. In fact, he went so far as commissioning an architect to design it. The threat worked, and he was able to stay. In 1969, Rydal Mount was bought by Mary Henderson, a great-great-granddaughter. It remains in the hands of the Wordsworth family, but since 1970 it has been open to any paying romantic who wants to step back

in time.

Many of Wordsworth's belongings still remain in the house, from pots, pans, books, and children's toys. Perhaps the most beautiful feature is the garden. Visitors in spring can see "a horde of dancing daffodils," supplemented with snowdrops in Dora's Field. William and Dorothy planted the field after the death of their eldest child, Dora, from tuberculosis in 1847. It offers a beautiful view of Rydal Water, one of Cumbria's many lakes.

At the entrance to Rydal Mount stands Wordsworth's most famous line of poetry: "I wandered lonely as a cloud." Less well-known is his poem about this idyllic setting:

"ADIEU, Rydalian laurels! that have grown / And spread as if ye knew that days might come / When ye would shelter in a happy home / On this fair mount, a poet of your own / One who ne'er ventured for a Delphic crown / To sue the god; but, haunting your green shade.

All seasons through, is humbly pleased to braid / Ground-flowers, beneath your guardianship self-sown / Farewell! no minstrels now with harp new-strung / For summer wandering quiet their household bowers / Yet not for this wants Poesy a tongue / To cheer the itinerant on whom she pours / Her spirit, while he crosses lonely moors / Or, musing, sits forsaken halls among.”

I read these lines sitting on a bench. An eagle flew past, followed a short time later by a fighter jet.