Much of the Wordsworths’ lives centred around the garden and much of Wordsworth’s poetry reflects its importance. In a letter to Lady Beaumont, 11 June 1805, Dorothy writes, ‘I write to you from the Hut, where we pass all our time except when we are walking...’ Wordsworth enjoys the same spot, ‘I am now writing in the Moss hut, which is my study...’ (Letter to Sir George Beaumont, 1 August 1806). The poem devoted to this garden is A Farewell, which Wordsworth wrote in May 1802 commemorating his departure for Mary Hutchinson, whom he married in October 1802. Immediately, on their return, William, Mary and Dorothy ‘went by candle light into the garden and were astonished at the growth of the Brooms, Portugal Laurels, etc.’ The garden was a spot where Wordsworth loved to observe and then write about Nature, as in his poems The Green Linnet and To a Butterfly – ‘This plot of orchard-ground is ours; My trees they are, my sisters flowers.’ Here Wordsworth also wrote his poem To the Small Celandine, a flower which Dorothy said was his favourite. ‘There’s a flower that shall be mine, ’Tis the lesser Celandine.’ The spiritual and philosophical preoccupations of Wordsworth the poet were inextricably tied to the practical side of Wordsworth the gardener, as is seen in the following entry in Dorothy’s journal, Saturday 27 March 1802 – ‘A divine morning. At Breakfast Wm wrote part
of an ode. Mr Olliff sent the dung and Wm went to work in the garden.’ The ‘ode’ was Ode: Intimations of Immortality. The garden and orchard witnessed many occasions and moods in the almost nine years that the Wordsworths lived there. Everything from tea with their neighbours and evening walks and talks with Coleridge to more sombre occasions such as when their sailor brother, John, died at sea and Dorothy wrote to Jane Pollard, ‘he loved our cottage, he helped us to furnish it, and to make the garden – trees are growing now which he planted. Oh! my dear Jane! I must not go on.’ As the garden grew, it watched the Wordsworth family do likewise and it soon became a playground for the children, ‘the Children of some of our neighbours who have been today little John’s Visitors are playing below, equally noisy and happy.’ Soon the family outgrew Dove Cottage and moved into Allan Bank, which Dorothy ironically called ‘Mr Crump’s ruinous mansion’ which stared her in the face whilst she was ‘seated in a shady corner of the moss hut.’
WILLIAM AND DOROTHY’S GARDEN AT DOVE COTTAGE GRASMERE
The cottage was then occupied by Thomas De Quincey and sadly he destroyed the Moss Hut, trees and plants and Wordsworth soon refers to ‘the then beautiful Orchard at Town End’ and Sara Hutchinson writes that ‘Dorothy is so hurt...’ The episode led to a breakdown in their relationship with De Quincey. ***** Today, due to Dorothy and William’s delightful and meticulous accounts of the orchard and garden, the Trustees are able to maintain the grounds, as far as possible, exactly as the Wordsworths knew them.
‘We have… a small orchard and a smaller garden which as it is the work of our own hands we regard with pride and partiality.’ - Dorothy Wordsworth
Dove Cottage Garden
Features of the garden
When William Wordsworth arrived at Dove Cottage in December 1799 he immediately wrote to Samuel Taylor Coleridge referring to the plans he and his sister, Dorothy, already had for ‘our little domestic slip of mountain’, as he called their garden. Their grounds consisted of an overgrown garden and an orchard both with a delightful prospect, ‘the spot commands a view over the roof of our house, of the lake, the church, helm cragg, and two thirds of the vale.’
Wordsworth, with the help of John Fisher, a neighbour, put in the steps on the right which led up the garden to the terrace. Wordsworth flattened out this part of the garden so that he would be able to pace back and forth whilst composing and thinking. From the terrace there are lovely views of the lake and Silver Howe, the mountain directly opposite. The Wordsworths and their friends often sat enjoying these views from the Indian Bower which they built, ‘We have put the finishing stroke to our Bower and here we are sitting in the orchard’ (Dorothy’s journal, 5 May 1802). On the far side of the terrace steps lead past Coleridge’s Seat.
Wordsworth, the gardener Wordsworth had very definite views about gardens, landscaping, architecture and the environment. He felt strongly that houses ‘must harmonise with the surrounding landscape’ and he soon set about subduing the harshness of the whitewash on the outside of Dove Cottage by growing roses and honeysuckle and by training scarlet beans (runner beans) up the walls. Dorothy writes to her friend Jane Pollard, ‘we have trained scarlet beans upon threads, which are not only exceedingly beautiful, but very useful, as their produce is immense.’ The philosophy which dominated Wordsworth was that of the importance of nature which is evident throughout his poetry and which shaped his ideas for the garden. He felt that Nature could not be improved upon and it is with this in mind that he ‘landscaped’ the grounds. Things had their place and exotic plants and trees did not belong within an English cottage garden, so William and Dorothy set about collecting indigenous plants and shrubs.
Dorothy’s journal refers to Coleridge discovering a stone seat – Monday morning 1 September 1800 – ‘After dinner Coleridge discovered a rock-seat in the orchard. Cleared away the brambles.’ Beneath the terrace amongst the ferns lies the rock pool which Wordsworth writes about in his poem A Farewell, ‘Bright gowan, and marsh marigold, farewell! Whom from the borders of the Lake we brought, And placed together near our rocky Well.’ Wordsworth actually constructed his own well but Dorothy points out that although he was a good gardener he was not a great handyman and the well was often just a muddy pond when it dried up in summer! The path winds its way around the house to the front, past the yew tree which Wordsworth may have planted and which can be seen in an early picture of Dove Cottage (hanging in the upstairs bedroom). Both Dorothy and William refer in letters to enclosing the ‘two or three yards of ground between us and the road, this for the sake of a few flowers, and because it will make it more our own.’
‘the loveliest spot that man hath ever found’ William Wordsworth
The original Wordsworthian wall had been of traditional Westmorland slate which can still be seen in some areas of the Lake District today.
The seasons and the plants The Wordsworths delighted in their garden at all times of the year and Dorothy was constantly gathering plants and shrubs from the fells and the lakeside ‘I brought home lemon thyme and several other plants, and planted them by moonlight’ (journal, 4 June 1800). Throughout her journal she leaves us with an accurate record of what she collected and planted. She went to the blind man in the village for London Pride, took up orchises from the lakeside, gathered wild thyme and wild columbine from the hill above the house. Fascinated by white foxgloves Dorothy made a special trip, rowing across the lake to Loughrigg Fell to visit the white foxglove, and then on 21 August 1800 she gathered white foxglove seeds to plant. Much of the grounds were set aside for their own produce; the orchard had apple and pear trees and turnips and potatoes were planted. They had good crops of peas, beans and gooseberries, ‘I pulled a bag full of peas for Mrs Simpson.’ They also had their own bees and a ‘Bee-stand’.