Here and Back Again

The Friends House in London

The Reading Room at the Quaker Library.

Friendly librarians at the Quaker Library waiting to help researchers.

The British Library with Kings Cross in the background.

Ever wonder what sheep look like in the snow?  This fellow said hello on our afternoon walk to the Arts & Book Festival.

Poet Judy Brown takes a look at some of her fellow authors’ offerings at the Festival.

For an American scholar used to driving long distances, London is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Grasmere—a mere 4 hour trip by public transportation—and that means that its scholarly resources are well within reach.  So this week, Chris and I undertook the journey so that I could visit the Quaker Library.  They own a letter by the Quaker poet Thomas Wilkinson which contains a reference to Wordsworth, and I wanted to see it again.  We loaded up a backpack, locked up the house, and walked to the bus stop down the road.  In Windermere, we caught a train to Oxenholme, where we changed trains.  That train went straight on to London Euston with only three or four stops in between.  A quick change to Kings Cross and a short walk brought us to our hotel.  The journey was unbelievably easy and fast.  This efficient service means that you can wake up in the Lake District and be in downtown London by lunch. 

It’s always a pleasure visiting the Friends House in London.  It’s a peaceful place with a small bookstore covering a wide range of spiritual topics, a nice café, and the Library.  One cannot spend time there without walking away with a deep respect for the Quaker’s centuries-old commitment to social justice.  In Wordsworth’s day, that commitment contributed significantly to the anti-slavery movement, prison reform, and reform for the care of the mentally ill.  Thomas Wilkinson, a poet and gardener, was friends with both Wordsworth and anti-slavery campaigner, Thomas Clarkson.  His letters reveal a man who was well connected socially and who enjoyed much of that social life but who also thought deeply about religious and political issues.  As I looked through a batch of letters between Wilkinson and his friend Dorothy Parker, I came across several manuscripts of his poems that he included in letters to her.  This trading of manuscripts interested me since Wordsworth did the same, sending Wilkinson a copy of his poem “To a Spade” written in Wilkinson’s honor.  What other poetry was flying between writers in the mail of the period, I wondered.  The Friends House is just down the street from the British Library, so I took advantage of their collection as well to explore the works of several other poets Wilkinson mentioned.  Right now the Library has an exhibit up on Detective stories, which Chris and I enjoyed very much. 

One does not have to go to London for activity, however.  Grasmere has plenty to offer.  This weekend, the Wordsworth Trust hosts the Arts & Book Festival.  Last night we walked through the newly fallen snow to meet other intrepid travelers at the Wordsworth Hotel to listen to Nicholas Roe talk about his new biography on John Keats and Matthew Sturgis discuss his book on the history of tourism in Rome.  This morning, MP Rory Stewart discussed the challenges of writing travel literature in a modern world where one’s audience is already well traveled and well educated about the region one hopes to discuss.  This afternoon we will braved the now melting snow in the rain to hear the Trust’s Poet in Residence, JudyBrown.  I’ve shared the Library Reading Room with Judy, and it was well worth the walk.  I especially appreciated the moments of bright visual imagery that sparkled through the poems.

With all this activity, perhaps the thing that surprised us the most this week was the feeling we had when we stepped back into our house here in Grasmere after our London trip.  We felt we were back home—really truly home.  We haven’t been here that long, so the feeling took us by surprise.  But I think it says something both about the way the encircling hills seem to embrace us and the warm welcome we’ve received from all the local people.  We really do feel at home in Grasmere.