button to main menu  Martineau's Complete Guide to the English Lakes, 1855

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Page 52:-
If there is commotion from gusts or eddies of wind, the effect is even more remarkable. Little white clouds are driven against the rocks,- the spray is spilled in unexpected places; now the precipices are wholly veiled, and there is nothing but the ruffled water to be seen: and again, in an instant, the rocks are disclosed so fearfully that they seem to be crowding together to crush the intruder. If this seems to the inexperienced like extravagance, let him go alone to Easedale Tarn, or to Angle Tarn on Bowfell, on a gusty day, and see what he will find.
  Wordsworth's grave
  Dove Cottage
  Rydal Water
  Nab Cottage

After his return to the Red Lion, and his dinner, the stranger will go to the churchyard. In the church is a medallion portrait of Wordsworth, accompanied by an inscription adapted from a dedication of Mr. Keble's. The simple and modest tombstone in the churchyard will please him better. At present it bears only the name of the poet,- in his case, an all-sufficient memorial: but it is understood that some dates and other particulars will be filled in hereafter. Beside him lies his only daughter, and next to her, her husband,- whose first wife is next him on the other side. Some other children of Wordsworth, who died young, are buried near; and one grandchild. Close behind the family group lies Hartley Coleridge, at whose funeral the white-haired Wordsworth attended, not very long before his own death. This spot, under the yews, besides the gushing Rothay and encircled by green mountains, is a fitting resting-place for the poet of the region. He chose it himself; and every one rejoices that he did.
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