The back of Dove Cottage, copyright Donna Hatch
On the edge of Grasmere in England’s Lake District nestles a little cottage known as Dove Cottage, famous for being the residence beloved poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Wordsworth. The siblings lived there in harmony from December 1799 to May 1808, enjoying their “plain living, but high thinking.”
The two-story limestone structure was originally an inn and pub called the “Dove and Olive Bough” during the 17th century. While living in what became known simply as “Dove Cottage,” the scholarly brother and sister wrote, designed gardens—and maintained them with their own hands—and enjoyed a simple country life.
Entrance to Dove Cottage, copyright Donna Hatch
The enchanting setting deep in the inspirational beauty of the Lake District provided one of the most productive times of Wordsworth’s writing career. Wordsworth often enjoyed long, intellectual discussions with other poets, authors, and scholars.
Dorothy Wordsworth was an accomplished seamstress. Her famous Grasmere journal is scattered with glimpses into every day life including sewing and mending along with writing and going for long walks. Her words inspired many her brother’s poems, and her journal often notates that she hoped certain passages that would give him pleasure. In her journal, she described her discovery of a field of daffodils which her brother later immortalized in one of his best-loved poems, and a favorite of my mother’s, “I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud.”
Donna enjoying a bench in the garden behind Dove Cottage copyright Donna Hatch
In 1802, William Wordsworth wed Mary Winn Hutchinson in 1802. His new wife, as well as her sister, moved into Dove cottage with the Wordsworths. Over the next four years, the family expanded to include three children. This surely must have created cramped quarters, so in 1808, the family sought a larger home and left behind their beloved Dove Cottage. However, the words they penned while living in Dove Cottage are preserved and celebrated.
Sources:
https://wordsworth.org.uk/visit/dorothy-wordsworth-a-stitch-in-her-time.html
https://wordsworth.org.uk/home.html
…and a guided tour I took while visiting Grasmere
Dove Cottage, a cottage to inspire poets posted first on http://donnahatchnovels.tumblr.com/
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