The Local Connection

A warm welcome to families

and a cozy corner to think about Wordsworth.

Local school children introduce the exhibit

and explain the contents of the cases.

Mark Ward paints a railing and perhaps contemplates his next poem or blog.

The Wordsworth Trust is best known for its protection and preservation of Dove Cottage and of the writings of Wordsworth and other Romantic authors.  But the Trust is also active in the community of Grasmere and holds important historical records for the village.  This week has opened my eyes to the work Jeff Cowton and his staff do to make this connection with the local population a vital and meaningful one.  We came back from being away for a few weeks on personal business to find a new room in the museum—the Family Activity Room.  It’s the first room off the front door now, and it’s a warm and inviting spot for families to be introduced to life as it was in Wordsworth’s day.  But what impressed me more than the presence of the activity room was how it was constructed—with the help of local school children.  Photographs of four local schoolchildren introduce one to the museum cases, and the explanations of the items in the case are written by the children.  I haven’t seen that type of involvement in a museum before, and I can imagine that it made the children feel as if the museum is their museum, which it is really.

On Thursday, we had another example of this deep connection when our landlords invited us to come along to a meeting the Trust was holding regarding Grasmere history.  It was, hands down, the most interesting village event we’ve attended yet.  Jeff Cowton and his assistant Steven had photos and maps displayed in a PowerPoint presentation, and he invited attendees—local villagers interested in Grasmere history—to help him date the photos and identify the buildings.  The exchange was lively, friendly, and hugely informative.  Some villagers brought photos, which Steven uploaded during a break, and the gathering enjoyed chatting about those as well.  Jeff invited the group to think about next possible steps, and they discussed the possibility of an interactive map of the history of the buildings of Grasmere or a special exhibit devoted to Grasmere and World War I for next year’s anniversary.  I was so struck by his openness and his engagement with the group.  What if all museums saw the integral link they have to their communities and worked to embrace and include that community?  Such activity highlights the continuity between the distant past and the recent past of those who live here.

One person who sees such a connection is Mark Ward, who maintains the house and grounds and who leads tours of the house.  Fittingly, besides being a handyman, Mark is a poet.  I’ve been on two tours with Mark, and he adapts the information to the audience. But in every tour, he includes Wordsworth’s comment that two of the poems in Lyrical Ballads “were written with a view to shew that men who do not wear fine cloaths can feel deeply” (Early Letters 261-2).  His blog tries to do much the same; he highlights locals and includes bits of stories from them, recipes, and relevant poems from other poets.  Those interested in his poetry should check out his official website as well.

Making connections with the village is certainly a highlight of our time here.  Badminton has moved to Monday nights, and Chris continues to enjoy that social activity.  Recently, we had a very nice chat with Diana Matthews, the high sheriff of Cumbria, and learned a bit about her job greeting visiting royals and encouraging and supporting local craftspeople.  We are watching the Lakes slowly fill with tourists, and we notice that the local population is becoming much busier with the work that goes along with an active tourist trade.  We hope that they will still find time to share occasional stories with us.  They are stories we will cherish for a long time.

A Quiet Week

The lambs have arrived!  Two little ones are in the right of the screen.  In the middle, you can see a little one who decided the way to avoid the cold snow is to sit on mama's back.  Smart lamb!

Apparently sheep turn into caravans during bank holiday weekends.

On one of our driving excursions, Eifel enjoys the solitude of the beach.

This phone booth is in the middle of nowhere on the road to Hardknot Pass, which was closed by snow.  Our question is, who answers it when it rings?

Sometimes in research, the most important thing to do is to take some time and just think.  And that’s largely what happened this week.  Eifel and Chris were doing a lot of hiking, which left the house empty and quiet (not that either of them are noisy!).  I spent a good deal of the time sitting on the couch looking at our amazing view and thinking about what I had found and what I still needed or wanted to find.  By the end of the week, I had a much clearer sense of next steps.

One of those next steps will take me to the County Record Offices to look at local subscription library records for the years surrounding the publishing of the Excursion.  One day this week, I took the bus down to Kendal to take a look at the Kendal Book Club records.  I had read that Wordsworth was a member of the Book Club, and I wanted to see if that affected what they bought.  I didn’t quite time the bus correctly, unfortunately, and got there with just 45 minutes to look at the records.  While I need to go back to make sure of what I saw, a few things were clear.  Wordsworth had not yet joined the book club by 1814 or even by 1817, the last year’s record I saw.  The book list for 1817, a book list that is somewhat cumulative (not including books individual members may have bought from the club over the years), contained no books by Wordsworth.  Southey and Scott were fully represented, and several of the Excursion’s competitors from 1814 were present in the book list.  So far, I’ve seen two examples of book clubs but have yet to examine any subscription records.  I’m curious to see if there is a difference in the types of books between the two types of organizations.

Despite my bad timing of the buses, I would like to extol the virtues of public transportation.  Part of our time here is an experiment in public transportation.  I’ve learned a few things.  One is that there are some times you just need a car.  If you don’t have one, someone else has to drive you.  While this can sometimes be fuel efficient car-pooling, sometimes people have to drive distances to pick you up.  And then you haven’t lowered your carbon footprint at all.  So that’s something to take into account.  One doesn’t want to always be beholding to one’s friends, as grateful as one is for them.  A car is also extremely useful for exploring.  We rented a car to do some sightseeing with Eifel and to take him up to St. Andrews at the end of the visit.  We wouldn’t have been able to get to some of the little out of the way spots—such as the Hermitage Castle in Scotland—without a car.  Nonetheless, even with all these caveats, being car free has been liberating.  Once we got used to planning for the extended time it takes to travel by bus, we began to enjoy it.  Let someone else negotiate the narrow lanes of the Lake District while we sit up in the double-decker bus and enjoy the views!  We’ve seen more of English culture too on the bus than we would have in our car, and we’ve met some of the nicest people while waiting for the bus.  Can someone set up a bus system in little Elsah, Illinois?  That would be great.

I will be taking two weeks off from my blog while I take care of some other business.  But look for me then for new pictures and updates.