At Rydal Mount

Rydal Mount House

The Garden

Another spacious and more comfortable dwelling where Wordsworth spent more than thirty seven years of his life is the house on a hill called "Rydal Mount" on the outskirts of Ambleside, from where one can have a fine view of the lakes, Rydal Water and Grasmere Lake surrounded by hills and valleys. Wordsworth led a very frugal life in his humble residence of Dove Cottage in  1808. Due to lack of sufficient  accommodation he moved to Allan Bank in 1810 at the north end of Grasmere. The poet disliked the damp and humid place and moved to the parsonage at Grasmere. His two children  Catherine and Thomas died in the same year1812. The poet, unable to stay there with his loss of beloved children, shifted his  residence to Rydal Mount in 1813. He took this on rent from Lady Diana de Fleming of Rydal Hall. This house is very spacious with four bed rooms, a study room and a kitchen. Wordsworth wrote many poems here and revised his earlier works.Though  Wordsworth passed away in 1850, his family continued to live here till 1859, the year of Mary Hutchinson's death. Wordsworth's great-great grand daughter Mary Henderson purchased this property in 1969 and since then has been managed by the descendants of Wordsworth's family. Here we can see the portraits of Wordsworth's family as well as many of his manuscripts. In the room at the entrance there are many published books and works on Wordsworth. My younger daughter, sensing my zeal, bought a copy of the "Prelude"and gifted it to me by which my long cherished desire of owning the masterpiece has been  been fulfilled. Later when I expressed my desire to meet the descendants of Wordsworth's family, the lady near the counter informed me that they had gone to London to spend their vacation.

Drawing Room

Dining Room

St. Mary Church

Inside View of St.Mary Church

 The main attraction of this house is the garden in a spacious area of four acres. Wordsworth, interested in landscape gardening, planted many varieties of herbs, flower plants and trees. Even now nearly twenty-six varieties of plants are seen. It is a very colorful garden with flowers like daffodils, blue bells, rhododendrons etc. The poet liked Nature in her wild and natural state and so he preserved the touch of wilderness with clumps of thickly grown bushes and trees and with a steep slope down providing a view of the distant lakes. In stead of sitting in his study room, he preferred to sit on the wooden bench on the elevated mound in midst of Nature and put down his poetic feelings as if he got instant communication with Nature. His beloved daughter, Dora, inherited some of the poetic qualities of her father and wrote a traveller's journal. At the age of 39 she married Edward Quillinan much against her father's wishes in 1843. Unfortunately she died in the prime of her youth due to Tuberculosis  in 1847. This tragic incident affected the old poet very much and later he could not write much.

Mary Hutchinson

Rydal Mt. Garden

In her memory Wordsworth planted hundreds of daffodils in a field near St.Mary's Church. The chapel of St.Mary is just a few yards away from Rydal Mount. Wordsworth used to visit this church often and also acted as church warden from 1833 to 1834. In 1838 Wordsworth was conferred with honorary doctorate  by Durham University in and by the Oxford University in 1839. He was given a civil pension of 300 pounds a year by the Government and was honored with the prestigious position  as Poet Laureate of England in 1843 after Robert Southey's  death.


 As a tireless walker Wordsworth used to undertake long walking tours around the lakes and hills and  recorded his observations and knowledge about the Lake District in his prose book "Guide to the Lakes". Many critics think that his shorter poems have more poetic appeal to the readers as they seem to be more spontaneous and creative without any prosaic and tiresome passages. But to get at the true spirit of Wordsworth's poetry and enjoy the majestic rhythm of his verse, one should have patience to read his long poems like "Tintern Abbey", "Prelude"and "Excursion". In his sonnets also one can find diversity, personal feelings and reflections on various themes and incidents. Just like Nature his poetry is simple and plain without any artificial beauty and is as bare as a rocky mountain with crystal-clear springs here and there, dotted with pretty clusters of wild flowers peeping through unexpected corners. As W.H. Hudson says "Wordsworth finds a never failing principle of joy in Nature" and added spiritual beauty to her natural beauty. As Matthew Arnold said," (When inspired) Nature Herself seems... to take the pen out of his hand and to write for him with Her own bare, sheer, penetrating power." In his letter to Lady Beaumont in 1807, Wordsworth wrote:"to be incapable of a feeling poetry, in my sense of the word, is without love of human nature and reverence for God."  How true of his own feelings and of his poetry!

 Dr. Thomas Arnold, father of Matthew Arnold, after visiting Rydal Mount described the abode of Wordsworth in glowing terms. " No where on earth have I seen a spot of more perfect and and enjoyable beauty." A visit to Rydal Mount really gives us a clear idea about Wordsworth's love for Nature and his attachment to his native rural surroundings.

Dora Wordsworth

Dora's Field

 Let me conclude my article with the following sonnet composed by me when my younger daughter apprised me of her first visit to Grasmere, --- a fitting tribute to this great lover of Nature and humanity.


                              "Dear Daughter! Blest art thou indeed to see
                               The holy dwelling of the eminent bard
                               Of Nature born in Nature's lap, and trod
                               On grassy plains surrounded by the valleys green;
                               Grasmere, the very sound evokes untarnished beauty
                               With country pleasures still alive unscarred
                               By urban ways; a real pastime you had;
                               The clear blue sky and lakes with verdant scene 
                               May flash upon your visionary mind 
                               Cute daffodils, Reaper's Song and Leech-Gatherer's skill
                               The slopes of Rydal Mount and Alfoxden
                               Where the noble poet enjoyed and bliss did find 
                               The rural hospitality you tasted with thrill
                               A feast indeed-- no doubt-- beyond pollution's ken.


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                                                                                                                                                                              October 20, 2013,                                              SOMA SESHU G.