Making pies and poetry Wordsworth's family home in Cockermouth has been brought to 18th-century life. Anne Campbell Dixon reports

• Published in: Daily telegraph (London, England : 1969)
• Main Author: Anne Campbell Dixon
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: London (UK) Daily Telegraph 18.09.2004
• Subjects: Lowther, James; Wordsworth, John; Wordsworth, William
• ISSN: 0307-1235

The poet Wordsworth's lifelong connection with the Lake District is known the world over - visitors to Dove Cottage, the Grasmere home he shared with his sister Dorothy, and Rydal Mount, his later marital home, find themselves rubbing shoulders with Japanese, American and European tourists. But there is a third Wordsworth home in Cumbria which is far less famous, and far less visited: Wordsworth House at Cockermouth, the poet's birthplace and childhood home. The reason for Wordsworth House's relative lack of popularity is easy to see: it is the house in which Wordsworth was born, but has little to show for the fact, whereas Dove Cottage has manuscripts and memorabilia and Rydal Mount retains the atmosphere of a Wordsworth family home and is still occupied by his descendants. The National Trust, owners of Wordsworth House, wanted to increase its appeal, but how? [John Wordsworth] was presumably a loyal servant, because life seemed both secure and idyllically happy to the Wordsworth children during their early years at Cockermouth. Their mother probably struggled to keep up the front that such a grand house demanded; the principal reception rooms were finely furnished by Sir [James Lowther], so that his agent could impress visitors, but the family's private quarters were sparsely equipped and the young Ann Wordsworth (she was only 17 when she married) had to do all the cooking and housekeeping, with the help of only a housemaid.