Barker - Wordsworth: a life

A Life

For my parents,
Richard and Judith Bateson,
with gratitude
for a lifetimes support and encouragement

Plate Sections

1. An early view of Cockermouth

2. The Market Place, Penrith

3. Hawkshead Grammar School

4. Belle Isle, Windermere, by Philip de Loutherbourg, 1786

5. William Wordsworth, by William Shuter, 1798

6. Anonymous silhouette of Dorothy Wordsworth

7. The High Sheriff of Lancashire Crossing Morecambe Sands , by Thomas Sunderland

8. Beggar, by John Harden

9. Peasant women, by John Harden

10. Anonymous silhouette of Mary Wordsworth

11. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, by Robert Hancock, 1796

12. The wreck of the Earl of Abergavenny in Weymouth bay, 1805

13. Sir George Beaumont, by George Dance, 1807

14. Anonymous silhouette of Sara Hutchinson

15. Grasmere, by Fennel Robson, 1830

16. Wordsworths plan for the winter garden at Coleorton, Leicestershire, 1806

17. No. 20 Great Russell Street, Covent Garden, by Herbert Railton

18. Breakfast party at Samuel Rogerss, 1815, by Charles Mottram

19. Rydal Water, by Thomas Chubbard, 1796

20. Architects drawings for the north elevation of the Wordsworths new house at Rydal Mount, 1826

21. The drawing room at Rydal Mount, by William Westall, 1840

22. Rydal Mount, by William Westall, 1831

23. Garden entrance to Rydal Mount, by K. J. Bennett, 1846

24. The Lower Falls at Rydal, by C. W. Bampflyde, 1780

25. An early photograph of Rydal Mount

26. William Wordsworth, by Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1842

27. Mary Wordsworth, by Margaret Gillies, 1839

28. Christopher Wordsworth, by George Robson, 1824

29. Henry Crabb Robinson, by J. J. Masquerier

30. William Wordsworth walking with Hartley Coleridge, copy by Mary Elizabeth Monkhouse after the original by John Peter Mulcaster, 1844

31. Mary Elizabeth Monkhouse

32. The Reverend Owen Lloyd, Jessy Harden and H. Almack at Brathay Hall, by John Harden, c . 1827

33. Dorothy Wordsworth, by Samuel Crosthwaite, 1833

34. Isabella Fenwick, by Margaret Gillies, 1839

35. John Wordsworths vicarage at Whitwick, Leicestershire, by Dora Wordsworth, 1828

36. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, by Charles Robert Leslie, c . 1824

37. Robert Southey, by Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey, 1832

38. William Wordsworth and Sir Walter Scott at the Yarrow, by George Cattermole

39. Dora Wordsworth, by Margaret Gillies, 1839

40. Anonymous silhouette of John Wordsworth

41. Willy Wordsworth with his daughter Mary Louisa

Chapter Head Illustrations

1. The Wordsworth House, Cockermouth

13. Possible sketch of William Wordsworth inside a Hawkshead Grammar School textbook, attributed to John Spedding, 1787

26. St Johns College, Cambridge, by R. B. Harraden, from Harradens Picturesque Views of Cambridge (Cambridge, 1800)

52. Miniature, said to be of Annette Vallon, artist and date unknown

79. Silhouette of Dorothy Wordsworth, artist unknown, c . 1806

101. Racedown, by S. L. May, date unknown

122. Alfoxton House and Park, by Miss Sweeting, engraved by R. Pocock

145. The Market Place, Goslar, Germany

171. William Wordsworth, by Robert Hancock, 1798

191. The Wordsworths cottage at Town End, by Dora Wordsworth, undated

215. The rescue of survivors from the wreck of the Earl of Abergavenny , published by Thomas Tegg, 24 December 1808, as the frontispiece to the anonymous pamphlet Correct Statement of the Loss of the Earl of Abergavenny

236. Brathay Hall, Ambleside, with Langdale Pikes beyond, seen across Windermere, by John Harden, 1808

256. William Wordsworth, by Henry Edridge, 1806

276. View of Grasmere Vale and Helm Crag from White Moss Common, by William Wordsworths niece Sarah Hutchinson, 1853

293. Undated miniatures, said to be of Thomas and Catherine Wordsworth

312. Blea Tarn, home of the Solitary in The Excursion , undated

332. Charles Lamb, by Robert Hancock, 1798

349. Lowther Castle and Park, Westmorland, engraved by Thomas Allom, after J. Thomas

367. Cascade de la Folie, Chamonix, France, by John Ruskin, 1849

382. Rydal Mount, by Dora Wordsworth, undated

396. Silhouette of William Wordsworth, by Maria Jane Jewsbury from her Kents Bank Mercury , 19 July 1825

410. Chalk drawing of William Wordsworth, by Henry Pickersgill; a preparatory study for the portrait commissioned by St Johns College, 1832

427. Silhouette of Sara Hutchinson, artist unknown, c . 1827

446. Informal sketch of William Wordsworth, probably drawn from memory, by Daniel Maclise (as Alfred Croquis) and published in Frasers Magazine , October 1832

463. Dorothy Wordsworth in her wheelchair, by John Harden after a visit to her in 1842

477. William Wordsdworth, by Jane Pasley, etched by John Bull, 1845

494. Dora Wordsworth, as bridesmaid to Sara Coleridge, by Miss Rainbeck, 1829

512. Portrait of William Wordsworth, by Henry Inman, 1844. Photograph by Professor Henry Reeds grandson

525. The Wordsworth graves in Grasmere churchyard. Photograph by Abrahams of Keswick, c . 1910

Illustration Acknowledgements

The author and publishers are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce illustrations:

Plate Sections

1, 41, John Garbutt; 2 from John Marsh & John Garbutt, Wordsworths Lakeland: Britain in Old Photographs (Stroud, Sutton Publishing, 1997); 3, 25, John Marsh; 4, 7, 8, 9, 32, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria, UK/Bridgeman Art Library, London, London; 5, Cornell University Library, USA; 6, 10, 14, 15, 19, 20, 22, 24, 27, 31, 35, 38, 39, 40, The Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere; 11, 13, 26, 36, 37, National Portrait Gallery; 12, Dorset County Council; 16, Pierpont Morgan Library/Art Resource, NY; 17 from Martin, In the Footprints of Charles Lamb, 1891 ; 18, e.t. archive; 21, 30, from Frances Blanshard, Portraits of Wordsworth (London, George Allen & Unwin, 1959); 23, University of Bristol; 28, Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; 29 from The Masquerier Album (HCR VIII) Trustees of Dr Williamss Library, London; 33, Trustees of Rydal Mount; 34 from The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: The Later Years: Part IV, 18401853 , edited by Ernest de Selincourt, revised by Alan G. Hill (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988).

Chapter Heads

1, John Garbutt; 13, Trustees of Hawkshead Grammar School; 26, 410, St Johns College, Cambridge; 52, 79, 101, 122, 191, 215, 256, 276, 293, 312, 349, 382, 396, 477, The Wordsworth Trust; 145, 446, Mary Evans Picture Library; 171, 332, National Portrait Gallery; 236, 463, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria, UK/Bridgeman Art Library; 367, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; 427, Paul Betz; 494, Trustees of Rydal Mount; 512, Cornell University, USA; 525, John Marsh.