Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, Vol. 1 (of 2)Wordsworth, Dorothy
General
Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Wordsworth, Dorothy
Authors, English -- 19th century -- Diaries; Wordsworth, Dorothy, 1771-1855 -- Diaries; Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850 -- Family
On Friday morning, July 9th, William and I set forward to Keswick on
our road to Gallow Hill. We had a pleasant ride, though the day was
showery.... Coleridge met us at Sara's Rock.... We had been told by a
handsome man, an inhabitant of Wytheburn, with whom he had been talking
(and who seemed, by the bye, much pleased with his companion), that C.
was waiting for us. We reached Keswick against tea-time. We called at
Calvert's on the Saturday evening.... On Monday, 12th July, we went to
Eusemere. Coleridge walked with us six or seven miles. He was not well,
and we had a melancholy parting after having sate together in silence by
the road-side. We turned aside to explore the country near Hutton-John,
and had a new and delightful walk. The valley, which is subject to the
decaying mansion that stands at its head, seems to join its testimony to
that of the house, to the falling away of the family greatness, and the
hedges are in bad condition. The land wants draining, and is overrun
with brackens; yet there is a something everywhere that tells of its
former possessors. The trees are left scattered about as if intended to
be like a park, and these are very interesting, standing as they do upon
the sides of the steep hills that slope down to the bed of the river, a
little stony-bedded stream that spreads out to a considerable breadth at
the village of Dacre. A little above Dacre we came into the right road
to Mr. Clarkson's, after having walked through woods and fields, never
exactly knowing whether we were right or wrong. We learnt, however, that
we had saved half-a-mile. We sate down by the river-side to rest, and
saw some swallows flying about and under the bridge, and two little
schoolboys were loitering among the scars seeking after their nests. We
reached Mr. Clarkson's at about eight o'clock after a sauntering walk,
having lingered and loitered and sate down together that we might be
alone. Mr. and Mrs. C. were just come from Luff's. We spent Tuesday, the
13th of July, at Eusemere; and on Wednesday morning, the 14th, we walked
to Emont Bridge, and mounted the coach between Bird's Nest and Hartshorn
Tree.... At Greta Bridge the sun shone cheerfully, and a glorious ride
we had over Gaterly Moor. Every building was bathed in golden light. The
trees were more bright than earthly trees, and we saw round us miles
beyond miles--Darlington spire, etc. etc. We reached Leeming Lane at
about nine o'clock: supped comfortably, and enjoyed our fire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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