Research Day One

Dublin Airport at sunrise.

Manchester Railway Station, Manchester Airport.

Some of Manchester's Christmas lights.

The researcher off to the Library!

Jerwood Centre, Wordsworth Trust.  The road leads to Dove Cottage.

If I were back in Elsah, Illinois and wanted to do the work I did today with the Cornell editions of Wordsworth’s writings, I would have to drive 50 minutes into St. Louis to Washington University.  Because they don’t have all the editions, I would then have to note which editions I needed and order them via interlibrary loan through Principia College’s library, the Marshall Brooks Library.  Don’t get me wrong; this system can work, and I’m always grateful for the help I get from our librarians at home (thank you Deb, Lisa, and Edith!).  But it can sometimes be frustrating and time consuming as I piece together what I find at Wash U and what I need to order—especially if I forget to note something while at Wash U or lose track of which poem is in which volume.  Today I sat in the Wordsworth Library and surrounded myself with all the Cornell editions I needed—and I needed quite a few, seven to be precise.  There they all were, right in front of me.  I could easily flip from one to another to find just the right passage.  At one point, I realized that I needed Ernest de Selincourt and Helen Darbishire’s edition of The Excursion, and I walked over to the reference shelf and got it.  I know that for some scholars who work at major research libraries such a convenience may be commonplace, but for those of us at small institutions, it’s heavenly to have all these books at one’s fingertips.  Work that could have taken several days to accomplish at home took me one day.  I’m a little amazed.  This first week or so, I am polishing my manuscript for my book due to Ashgate by 1 March.  Thanks to the resources at the Library, this work is proceeding much more quickly than I had anticipated.  So even when using published works, a researcher finds that the Library is a tremendous help.

I have been in contact with Jeff Cowton for sometime about my stint at the Library, but the process to gain access doesn’t require much advanced notice.  You do have to let the staff know you are coming so that they can prepare items for you.  Once you arrive, you buzz to let them know that you are at the door, and they greet you warmly and usher you in.  Like most research libraries, a locker area is available for your personal items, and you have to read and agree to instructions that prohibit the use of pens near the books or unauthorized digital photography.  These are the same restrictions as those at most major research libraries such as the British Library or the Bodleian at Oxford, so no surprises there (and I’m so glad they take such precautions to preserve these manuscripts from harm).  Rebecca Turner (Beccy) met me at the door and introduced me around to the staff since I will be here so long, and then she settled me in the Reading Room and made sure I had whatever I needed. 

You might think that winter would be a time when not much is going on here, but you would be wrong.  The Museum and Dove Cottage are closed for the month for cleaning and revitalizing, and some of the staff seem busily engaged in that bustle. They all make sure not to disturb those reading, however.

 A local historian, Vivienne Rees, joined me in the Reading Room in the afternoon to take advantage of the Library’s collection of local history.  She seemed pleased with what she found—a very full scrapbook of local newspaper articles—and I very much enjoyed the chat we had about Grasmere.  Vivienne told me that the Grasmere Players, the local amateur theatre group, used to perform plays written in local dialects, but now, few are around who could understand those plays.  Some words have survived, however. She taught me two local phrases: “scrow” and “gae thrang.”  “My house is a scrow” means my house is a mess—a useful phrase—and it’s usually a mess when I’m “gae thrang” or up to my ears in work.  Both of these phrases seem related to Scots.  The Online Scots Dictionary says that “scrowe” means a multitude or crowd, “gae” means going, and “thrang” means crowded with people or busy with work.  The similarities are not surprising given how far north we are. I hope my students from my Scottish Literature course are paying attention!

The last time I worked at the library, I hadn’t noticed any windows in the Reading Room.  This time around, I saw that there is a nice window away from the books (to protect them from the direct sunlight).  It looks out across a field to the village, and for much of the morning, I could see the houses in town.  Before noon, the fog settled back down and left everything in a blanket of white.  We’ve had just one day of rain, but we have had several of fog.  The weather hasn’t kept us from getting out and walking around the village area.  Today my husband Chris walked down to the lake, around the graveyard where the Wordsworths are buried, and up to the road leading to Allan Bank.  What we do find a little difficult to get used to is that we have to plan these walks to get back by 4:30 if we don’t want to be out at dark.  I had made fun of Chris for buying headlamps for us; I’m eating my words now since the Library closes at 5:30, well past dark this time of year.

It’s wonderful to be here, to study Wordsworth’s poetry and then walk out the door and be part of the landscape that so inspired him.