William Wordsworth's Childhood Home
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (382115)
Rockingham, Australia
May 5, 2017 7:29pm CST
While we were in England in 2015 we visited a town called Cockermouth in Cumberland. Here, the National Trust looks after the house where poet William Wordsworth was born.
It has been fitted out as it might have been when William was growing up there and volunteers were dressed in the period and even cooking and doing other chores as might have been the case when William was a boy. We were even treated to a biscuit cooked in the wood stove.
William was born in 1770, one of five children. His mother died at the age of 31 in 1778 and his father died just five years later when William was just 13. The children were then sent to live with relatives.
The gardens and meadows surrounding this pretty town and indeed the great Lake District landscape were to greatly influence Wordsworth in later years.
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20 responses
@chrissbergstrom (10767)
• Banks, Oregon
6 May 17
I am not familiar with him so sad to have parents die when so young
2 people like this
@arthurchappell (44941)
• Preston, England
7 May 17
A great writer - a home i'd love to visit soon
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@arthurchappell (44941)
• Preston, England
7 May 17
@JudyEv there is a museum to him and his sister Dorothy elsewhere in the Lake District too
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@JudyEv (382115)
• Rockingham, Australia
7 May 17
@arthurchappell Dorothy is mentioned quite a bit in the booklet we picked up.
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@JudyEv (382115)
• Rockingham, Australia
6 May 17
He was apparently pretty wild as a boy but it couldn't have been an easy life at the time.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
6 May 17
Last summer my boys and I went to a reenactment of the War of 1812 at a battlefield not far from here where battles of that war had actually taken place. There was a house there also furnished with period pieces. A commandant had once lived there, though he lived there in the mid 1800's, after the war. Still it was fun to tour and see how the commandant had lived. Some of the pieces in his home were actually some of his trophies from his world travels. He had weapons from Fiji and things like that. We weren't able to get too close though.
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@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
7 May 17
@JudyEv It was very interesting and informative. I'm glad my boys got to see it and learn about history.
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@JudyEv (382115)
• Rockingham, Australia
7 May 17
It can be very interesting can't it? I love going through places like this.
@1hopefulman (45111)
• Canada
6 May 17
Thanks for the tour and history of this poet's home and and his family situation. If I wanted to read one poem, which one should I read?
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@1hopefulman (45111)
• Canada
8 May 17
@JudyEv I never heard of it but it is nice.
"I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze." (WILLIAM WORDSWORTH)
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@JudyEv (382115)
• Rockingham, Australia
8 May 17
@1hopefulman It's a lovely poem isn't it? I'm glad you liked it.
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without having his parents by his side
@teamfreak16 (43602)
• Denver, Colorado
9 May 17
Was there ever a greater name for a writer?
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@responsiveme (22923)
• India
6 May 17
I can still recite his "Daffodils"...and his lines about the times of the French Revolution
"Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!-" always sort of defines the exuberance of youth to me.
(My mother used to teach English and so we grew up hearing quotes for every situation
)
)1 person likes this
@Gita17112016 (3611)
• Trinidad And Tobago
7 May 17
This is so very interesting. Did the volunteers and others do this to make a living? And did they do it every day?...or was it a special demonstration just for you and you family? It sounds like a museum but it is not often you have live re-enactment taking place.
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@JudyEv (382115)
• Rockingham, Australia
7 May 17
There might have been a paid person in the office next door but I very much doubt that the volunteers were paid. They continued with their bits and pieces all day so it wasn't something special just for us. And it was done out like a museum but I guess a 'living' one.
@snowy22315 (208958)
• United States
7 May 17
I don't think I am familiar with him. I think I have heard the name however.
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@allknowing (153530)
• India
6 May 17
I thought we were shown something while we were in London but I am not sure or must have been the museum.
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@TiarasOceanView (70020)
• United States
7 May 17
A lovely place the Lake District.
So nice you got to have a hot bikky out of the stove
Yes he is a very famous person in history.
Look at the head on him as we Irish would say lol
Yes he is a very famous person in history.
Look at the head on him as we Irish would say lol1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
6 May 17
the name of that town is unfortunate, lol
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@andriaperry (118793)
• Anniston, Alabama
6 May 17
Very interesting. I like visiting these type of places when I travel.
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@JudyEv (382115)
• Rockingham, Australia
6 May 17
I'm more used to it now but I would forget that the well-known names all had a day-to-day existence like the rest of us.
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
6 May 17
That is the type of place that I enjoy visiting.
1 person likes this
