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William
Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in a fine Georgian
house in Cockermouth, now called Wordsworth House. His father
John was estate agent to Sir James Lowther, who owned the
house.
The garden at the back, with the River Derwent flowing past,
was a place of magic and adventure for the young William.
William has an elder brother Richard, a younger sister Dorothy
and two younger brothers John and Christopher.
His childhood was spent largely in Cockermouth and Penrith,
his mother's home town. William and Dorothy and his future
wife Mary Hutchinson attended infant school in Penrith between
1776 and 1777.
William's mother died in Penrith when he was 8. His father
died when he was 13, and is buried in the churchyard of All
Saints Cockermouth. All Saints church rooms is on the site
of the Cockermouth school that William attended as a boy.
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From 1779 until 1787 William attended the Grammar
School in Hawkshead, lodging with Ann Tyson at Colthouse initially,
then with his brothers. At Hawkshead William thrived - receiving
encouragement from the headmaster to read and write poetry.
During these years he made many visits to the countryside,
gaining inspiration as the powers of nature exercised their
influence.
He then went to St John's College Cambridge, where he was
not a notable student, but inevitably matured in thought and
sophistication. In 1795 he received a bequest of £900
which gave hive the means to pursue a literary career.
In 1795 the Wordsworths stayed in a cottage in Dorset, where
they met Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. In the
years ahead a close relationship developed between William,
Dorothy and Coleridge. William and Coleridge then undertook
a tour of the Lake District, starting at Temple Sowerby, and
finishing at Wasdale Head, via Grasmere. At Grasmere they
saw Dove Cottage, then an empty Inn called the Dove and Olive
Branch.
In December 1799 William and Dorothy moved into Dove Cottage,
in Grasmere. Coleridge having previously moved to Greta Hall
in Keswick. Dorothy was William's secretary as William dictated
his poetry. In 1802 William married his childhood companion
Mary Hutchinson, and the first three of their five children
were born. Thomas de Quincey was a permanent guest, and in
1808 as the cottage became inadequate, they moved to Allan
Bank in Grasmere, a large house that William had condemned
as an eyesore when it was being built.
They lived here for two years, with poet and friend Coleridge.
They then moved to the Old Rectory, opposite St Oswald's Church,
a cold and damp house where his two youngest children died.
In 1813 they moved to Rydal Mount, where William and Mary
stayed until their deaths in 1850 and 1859. Whilst at Rydal
Mount William became Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland,
and had an office in Church St Ambleside. In 1820 he published
his 'Guide through the District of the Lakes'. In 1842 he
became the Poet Laureate, and resigned his office as Stamp
Distributor.
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He helped to choose the site of St Mary's
Church, built just below Rydal Mount, and where he was
church warden from 1833 to 1834.
In 1850 William caught a cold on a country walk, and
he died on 23 April, St George's day, 80 years after
his birth. He and Mary who died 9 years later have a
simple tombstone in the churchyard of St Oswald's Church
in Grasmere, now one of the most visited literary shrines
in the world.
William Wordsworth wrote some 70000 lines of verse,
40000 lines more than any other poet. Opposite Wordsworth
House in Cockermouth is a memorial to William Wordsworth
unveiled on 7 April 1970, the bicentenery of his birth.
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