As Lake District winters go, this was a warm one. So mild was the weather, and so low the cloud, that you might have thought it was the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” of Keats’ Ode to Autumn, rather than the “stern winter” of Wordsworth’s On the Power of Sound. It wouldn’t have been surprising to see daffodils emerging from the ground.
It made for miserable walking conditions. So I swapped the fells for the lake shore for a winter walk. Besides, Wordsworth claimed the best views were upwards from the lakeside, rather than downwards from the mountain tops. Not that you could see the mountain tops, or much else for that matter. The impenetrable cloud cover obscured pretty much everything above 100 metres.
Wordsworth also proclaimed Grasmere to be “the loveliest spot that man hath ever found.” It’s hard to disagree with that, but first you have to be able to see it. I used to live in the poet’s former home of Grasmere, in fact right in front of Dove Cottage, so this weather felt familiar. The last time I was here in 2017, it could not have been more different though. I was just grateful the rain held off.
The walk started just above Dove Cottage, the small home Wordsworth shared with his sister Dorothy and where he wrote his most celebrated poetry. The cottage is now tagged onto a newish museum complex. I have fond memories of living here, and a visit comes with many flashbacks. I headed uphill, past a sign to Alcock Tarn. It was a regular summer evening walk that sometimes included a swim in the tarn.
My destination though was Rydal. The quickest route there was on the Coffin Path. Before the villages of Rydal and Ambleside had their own churches, the only way to have a Christian burial was to carry a body to St. Oswald’s Church in Grasmere. A 14th century medieval church built on a 7th century site, it would be one of my final stops to visit the graves of Wordsworth, his sister Dorothy and wife Mary.
The Coffin Path offers fabulous views over Rydal Water to Loughrigg Fell. In 1965 a flying saucer was allegedly spotted hovering over Loughrigg. A newspaper report stated that two people had spotted a cigar-shaped object “glowing fiery red with sparks and making a deep droning noise”. The police were called and a mountain rescue team was sent out to search for evidence.
It may not have been a coincidence that the sighting took place at midnight. Pubs in Britain close around 11:30 pm. If extraterrestrials had tried to make contact today, no one would have been able to see them. Rydal Mount, Wordsworth home in his later, more illustrious years, was closed. I walked through the grounds of St. Mary’s Church instead and then around the lake.
There were a surprising number of people walking, but all the tourist attractions were still closed, as were most restaurants and cafes. The River Rothay connects Grasmere and Rydal Water, I followed it until I came to the southern end of Grasmere. When I lived here, on summer evenings we would come to swim from the beach. Today, even the ducks looked a bit disconsolate.
Skirting the western side of the lake, I was soon in Grasmere village. I’d hoped for a pub lunch but pretty much everywhere was closed. Bemused tourists wandered through the village looking for something to do. I headed to the church to see the Wordsworth family graves, but also because I felt certain the adjacent Grasmere Gingerbread Shop would be open. It wasn’t.
Defeated by holiday opening hours, I headed back to Dove Cottage (also closed) and stood for a few moments in reflection. One innovation since I lived here: speakers hidden in the walls pipe recordings of Wordsworth’s poetry into the street. I had the place to myself, it was rather lovely.
