Grasmere: New Large Houses being built in the Valley
In the early years of our period, Thomas Gray wrote of Grasmere that “Not a single red tile, no gentleman’s flaring house, or garden walls, break in upon the repose of this little unsuspected paradise’. William Hutchinson in his guide was similarly “charmed with the view of GRASMERE... the scene was ornamented with a few humble cottages dispersed on the borders of the lake... It seemed to be the vale of peace.”
However, as Wordsworth remarked, as ”visitors flocked hither from all parts of the Island, the fancies of some of these were so strongly smitten that they became settlers”. Wordsworth did not object to outsiders building houses on principle, but had definite ideas about how the new houses should appear; in harmony with nature and as inconspicuous as possible — in terms of colour as well as “the position, apparent size, and architecture of a house”.
One of the first large houses to be built in Grasmere was Allan Bank. It was built in 1805 and Wordsworth was horrified: “Woe to poor Grasmere for ever and ever! ... when you next enter the sweet paradise of Grasmere you will see staring you in the face ... a temple of abomination”. Ironically, the Wordsworths would end up living there themselves between 1808 and 1811.
The Wordsworths’ ire was raised again with Samuel Barber’s improvements to his cottage Silver Ho, known to them as Mr. Gell’s cottage. In 1824, Mary Wordsworth, the poet’s wife, wrote that “His works at the Cottage begin to be too ridiculous for anything”.
Other large houses continued to be built in Grasmere: How Foot, to the south of Dove Cottage, was built in 1843, and Dale Lodge, home of Lady Farquhar, was also built by this time.
George Fennel Robson,
Grasmere, 1830, watercolour, The Wordsworth Trust.