Grasmere is a village in the Lake District of Cumbria, England, lying beside the lake of the same name.

It is famous as the home of the poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy at Dove Cottage:-

Dove Cottage was later also home to Thomas De Quincey, author of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater.

Side view:-

Side of house and garden:-

Part of back garden:-

Wordsworth’s bedroom:-

Sitting room of Dove Cottage:-

Back room:-

The graves of the Wordsworths are in the local cemetery:-

For the Great War Armistice anniversary some of the local lampposts were adorned with large poppies commemorating lads from the local school killed in the Great War.

Hero Oswald Hillerns:-

Henry Bowness Johnson:-

Cockermouth’s most famous son is the poet William Wordsworth.

There is a huge statue of a Lord Mayo on Main Street, though. From the inscription it sounds like Mayo was a bit of an imperial adventurer. He became Viceroy of India and was assassinated in the Andaman Islands!

Anyway, below is Wordsworth’s boyhood home on the junction of Main Street (right) and Crown Street (left.)

Quite imposing. And difficult to photograph without a car in the shot!

We viewed the house and garden – both overseen by the National Trust. We got there just as it was opening at eleven a.m. and there was a queue. Apparently at the height of the tourist season it’s mobbed.

Here’s a view of the garden from the house. It’s a bit sparse looking after the coldest early spring in Britain for 50 years. The River Derwent is a footpath or so beyond the wall at the back. It was from the terrace there I photographed the bridge over the Derwent I featured a couple of posts ago.

There is a small bust of Wordsworth on a pedestal on Gallowbarro – the bar of the “T” to Main Street and Crown Street.

Just to the right of where I took the above photo is a memorial fountain to both William and his sister Dorothy. This was taken at more or less a right angle to where I photographed their childhood home.