Grasmere and the Wordsworths

" ... this little unsuspected paradise"

Thomas Grey, a visitor to Grasmere in 1756, wrote the words that are quoted above. A modern visitor to Lakeland arrives in the Vale with surprise as well as delight, looking around at hills that seem to spring directly from the valley floor, at bountiful woodlands and at a lake with a wooded island, presided over by Helm Crag, with its jumbled boulders - strange broken outlines, wrote Grey.

William Wordsworth and his family occupied several houses in Grasmere before moving to Rydal. The Poet lived at Rydal Mount for a further 37 years. This booklet is a handy guide to Wordsworthian haunts. The spirit of Wordsworth seems to brood over the district where he lived, walked and composed his celebrated verse. These is also a chronology, plus details of short walks in the Grasmere district.