Catching Up

It’s been ages since I’ve posted anything.  We’ve had many visitors, two trips to London, and lots of planning activities both for the Principia Lifelong Learning trip coming up this June and the Principia England Abroad for 2014.  And, oh yes, some research! But before I get into those activities, I have a real treat.  Katie Stanley, our good friend and professional photographer for Principia College, came to visit us last week.

 

Katie took some wonderful photos (mostly of sheep), which I am pleased to share with you.  Thank you, Katie, for the great shots.

This week, Chrissy Steele arrived from Principia College.  Chrissy leads the England Abroad with me and resident counselor Caleb King.  We’ve done two together, and this next one we plan to spend a full week in the Lake District.  What a perfect place for orientation to English culture and team building!  Everyone we met at local hostels and cultural sites were so helpful.  Rachel Litten at Brantwood (Ruskin’s last home and a real gem) opened our eyes to what can be done there, and even though I thought I knew all that the Wordsworth Trust could provide, Kate Hollier gave us even more to add to our list!  We also had a delightful lunch with Melissa and Laurence Harwood.  Melissa teaches movement, and we discussed how she might help us with the team building aspects of the week. And Laurence told us wonderful stories about his godfather, C. S. Lewis.  I can't wait to read his book, C. S. Lewis, My Godfather.  The students who take part in 2014 will have a rich experience here, and we can’t wait.

The research has been going well if slowly.  I continue to learn about libraries and book clubs in Wordsworth’s day.  Two full days in the British Library during one of our recent trips to London found me pouring over subscription and circulating library catalogs to see if anyone was buying The Excursion just after it was published, and if not (and the answer is mostly that they were not), what they were buying.  A short but not complete definition of the difference between subscription libraries and circulating libraries is that subscription libraries were libraries formed by individuals who were pooling their resources to be able to buy and enjoy books; circulating libraries were operated by booksellers who were trying to increase and supplement their sales.  I’ve had such fun that I think I am going to introduce my Romantics class to these catalogs, some of which are available electronically, to get them to think about the difference between what was popular and what has entered the canon of British literature (see David Allan's very informative book, A Nation of Readers).  Many, many books were published each year, and most of them we have not heard of and do not read.  Even among the authors we do read, we generally only study a portion of what readers then would have devoured.  Byron is perhaps the best example.  By 1860, Sam’s Subscription Library (which was really a circulating library in London) carried 21 titles by Byron.  These lists are a clear reminder of how important reading was to this age.  It was, after all, the only form of daily entertainment.  As Sally Bushell has pointed out in her excellent book Rereading the Excursion, people didn’t just read a work once.  They read it, then read it aloud to family, and then often read it again to themselves.  As the letters show that I have been reading, much conversation centered around what one had recently read.

At any rate, it’s been a great and very full last few weeks.  Here are a few photos from some rambles and planning trips.

One of three hostels in Grasmere.  Several of the hikers in the Walking with Wordsworth trip in June will be staying here.  It's a bit of a hike out of town, but the location is so idyllic and beautiful.

The YHA in Keswick.  I remember falling asleep to the sound of the river when our last abroad stayed here.

The inside of one of the many hostels we looked at.  Ambleside perhaps?  At any rate, it gives one a sense of the accommodations.

Lambs love to climb rocks.

Chrissy and Chris on the coffin trail between Rydal and Dove Cottage.

Dove Cottage.

Chris finally tracked down the local milk man, whose cows are a short walk from here.  And now our milk is delivered to our doorstep twice a week in these pint bottles.  These are the first of the English strawberries this season.  Yum!

A Different Type of Research

Wordsworth's first view of Grasmere.

Ambleside's Roman Fort ruins

At the end of June, a group of adventurers will be joining me for a week to walk in the Lake District and learn about Wordsworth.  The walking portion of this Principia Lifelong Learning will be led by Chuck Wilcoxen, and I will be joining them at key points to lecture and discussion William Wordsworth.  (Chuck coaches Track and Field at the College, but he's also a children's book author.  Check out his book, Niccolini's Song.) But I am choosing the walks for their relation to Wordsworth and their scenic value.  Most of these walks I have taken in part, but I have felt the need to take the walks in full to make sure that they are reasonable.  So this past week, Chris and I tried several of them.

The first walk we tried is the one from Ambleside to Grasmere—except we did it in reverse for our convenience.  The group will be staying at the Ambleside Youth Hostel, so that location will be the starting point.  Nearby are the ruins of the Ambleside Roman Fort or Galava.  The walk will go past this site and then by pass the town to the main road.  From there, it will go through fields to Rydal Hall.  The group will visit Rydal Mount, Wordsworth’s last home, and then proceed along the Coffin Trail to Dove Cottage and to Grasmere.  The walk was very pleasant, and every time we turned around to see what the groups view would be, we were rewarded with beautiful views.

The second walk was one from Grasmere to Hawkshead along quiet “B” roads and paths.  The walk stops first at the point Wordsworth is thought to have first scene Grasmere.  Highlights along the way are Skelwith Bridge with it’s beautiful slate picnic tables along the river and views of Loughrigg Tarn.  The walk finishes with a wander past Green End Cottage in Colthouse, where Wordsworth boarded during the last half of his school years at Hawkshead, and then enters Hawkshead very near to the school.  

Next up will be a hike from Grasmere to Borrowdale, but we need a full day and an early start to do that hike.  We’ve done part of the hike—or at least in the neighborhood on the way up to Easedale Tarn. So far, I’m very pleased with the hikes and think the group will enjoy this introduction to Wordsworth’s Lake District.  Now that’s the kind of research to do on a bright sunny day!