Grasmere (the loveliest spot – according to Wordsworth!)
Grasmere is a pretty town in the Lake District, mostly associated as being the home of poet William Wordsworth. He lived at Dove Cottage and is also buried in the village. Famously writing:
“The most loveliest spot that man hath found”
Like so many places these days in the Lake District, it’s a beautiful village, but has become overrun with over-tourism in summer months. You are hard-pressed to find any business that doesn’t play on the Wordsworth connection. And just as William was against a railway station in Windermere (frightened it would lead to an influx of tourists), he likely would feel the same about his own home village.
Did you know daffodils (like all bulbs) are unsafe near animals (dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, horses, livestock?)
Follow the Countryside Code to keep all creatures safe. Keep dogs away from steep banks, mushrooms and toxic plants and and trees) and on leads during nesting season (and near barnyard friends and wild ponies).
How to upright an overturned sheep
If when out walking you see a sheep on its back (due to pregnancy or rain-soaked wool), just firmly right it back (or it will die) then stay with it, until the rain has drained off.
Rydal Mount (the other home of Wordsworth)
Just up the road is Rydal Mount, another home of Wordsworth (where he lived until he died age 80 in 1850) which glorious views over Lake Windemere and the surrounding fells. While Lake Grasmere is actually one of Cumbria’s smallest.
Unlike most writers’ homes, this is not owned by the National Trust but still by his family (so uniquely you don’t have to pay to visit the gardens, it’s free though donations are welcomed for upkeep).
Wordsworth designed the layout of these gardens himself, so he had a nice view while writing! As well as a poet, he was a keen landscape gardener.
Grasmere’s quaker history
Other things to love about Grasmere are the slate-roof buildings and there is even a nice little Quaker guesthouse (if you know your Quaker history, you’ll know that the Quaker movement was founded just up the road by George Fox in Ulverston.
He married the local judge’s daughter (a widow with several children) and they hardly saw each other, as one or the other was often in prison at any one time, for their peaceful yet radical beliefs.
