" …The beauty coming and the beauty gone, some happy tone of meditation, slipping in between the beauty coming and the beauty gone..."
William Wordsworth, Most Sweet It Is, 1835
The French Revolution was about to begin, the American War of Independence was about to end. But it was then, in the early 1780s, that Mr Edward Thorneycroft built a house overlooking the north eastern shore of Lake Windermere.
By the 1800’s, The Samling, as the house is known, was in the hands of a John Benson, landlord to the poet William Wordsworth. Walking from Dove cottage in nearby Grasmere, it was to The Samling that Wordsworth came to pay rent.
Take the same route and it’s easy to understand how the countryside came to inspire some of the greatest poetry ever written in the English language. Born in Cumberland, Wordsworth was a huge influence, both on poetry and wider world. His belief that a man close to nature was the purest and best of beings was the moving spirit behind his writings.
He and Lord Byron (who was married at Seaham Hall, a sister establishment of The Samling) were the regular subject of university debates as to who was the country’s best poet.
Needless to say, they didn’t get on.
History
