European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 26, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Literary pilgrimage to the Lake District the haute at  wet we William Wordsworth a j bom. British Tounta Airt Only photo by Joseph Lelyveld new Yore times the idea initially was no Only to escape Bur to escape to some place Lovely and no Only of escape 1o some place Lovely but tomake a literary pilgrimage we would go to Wordsworth count re Iri the Lako District. Strictly speaking it could be called sophomoric because it had something vaguely to do with a course Laken As a Sophomore in romantic poetry now some 30 years in the Pas Sopho Royric too in its unexamined Assumption thai a literary pilgrimage is an activity thai can easily be pursued in ones and twos. In the Lake District i discovered As i wandered not lonely As a Cloud As Wordsworth had it but passively As a sheep in a heed of like minded Gawker a Miary Pilgrim is just anole a name Lor a tourist this Herd was being firmly Diquen from Liny room to Liny room o Dove cottage. She Reisui Bishop Public House where the poet lived will his sister Dorothy when he wrote much of his greatest verse. The rent in 1799, when they moved in was five pounds a year. Five pounds is now what it costs Tor a couple to take the guided tour. You pick up your tickets in a Wordsworth Gill shop where you can Purchase in addition to a Long shelf of words world books a William Wordsworth Ceramic place or bust a Dorothy Wordsworth doa Dove cottage sweater or Pencil Sharpener or various table Mats. Hangings and postcards on Ine theme of daffodils each naturally embellished with lines from Tho Wordsworth Lyric or the whole poem. Having boned up a in Lyle for the trip. I though i knew How Tittle Grafi cation or humor Wordsworth himself would have Chen cd from the Wordsworth Industry Tor already in 1810 he was in veiling with passion in his own guide to the lakes against " he disfigurement which this country has undergone As a Jesuit of the influx of tourists and settlers. The Poel. Decrying a warping of the natural mind and All the deformity and ungraceful Ness lha derive from affectation. Sid nol Admire Tho oversized Villas they built now Many of those buildings and much larger ones built in the subsequent decades of the 9th Century have been convened and further enlarged into hotels that typically take their names Tram Hia poems. Solera Long one of tha poet s descendants an actor named flip Hart Wordsworth is Likely to be found giving readings from Jha Pray dub in the prelude room of the Wordsworth Hole. Wordsworth does Wordsworth at the Wordsworth. In mathematical terms hat is Wordsworth cubed but whatever the poet might have Ell it is an act of reverence As Well As Commerce. Wordsworth May forever be the Besl guide to the Lake District and the Lake is libel the Ideal salting for his poems by in Grasmere it can also be acknowledged in a lighthearted but reverential Way that his purity of soul could some limbs express itself As  i gave up my abstract musings about what Wordsworth might or might not have Jelf As i based at his effects preserved Ike the relics of a Saint in the Small Wordsworth museum and a enl to Dove collage. Here were is tinted spectacles a Small Box containing the Flaxen Tocks of his daughter Dora a checked Coal that had been piously re Woven by expert garment restorers even the poet s socks embroidered with his initials. There wore a so fascinating a Naptes of manuscript revisions but i was beginning to Feal sidled by the British tendency to adore the past and ready to Stop the King of our weekend in the Lake District As a pilgrimage. M was the country itself that the poet had revered and it was still Only necessary to step outside Page 16 the stars and stripes tuesday August 26,1986 to see Why. Thomas a Quincey calculated in his recollections of the lakes and to e Lake poets that Wordsworth must have walked 175,000 to 180,000 Miles in the area. Waging is what a Pilgrim must do to see the Lake District and the constantly changing harmonies of water a fils and sky the poets found in it preferably walking Uphill. Once you Start it usually takes about five minutes before you pass the last House and find your Seit in 3 Sheepfold waging along the lower slopes of the gentle cumbrian  beside dry Sale Walls thai May a hundreds of years old and generally unc urious sheep. Although i saw Only one Herdsman with a Crook this remains pastoral country Iri More than a literary Somse. There Are hundreds of Miles of footpaths in the Lake Dis Ricl of Var ing degrees of difficulty and literary evocative Ness. A really serious hiker who wants to go Ridge walking and trekking through Mountain passes waiting for curtains of Ornist rain and Cloud to part briefly revealing vistas 0\ Sunart landscape will exhaust himself years before he exhausts Inhat the area has of offer the cumbrian  Are actually lower than the catskills. But they can be treacherous because of Gale Force winds and rain gusting from the trash sea Mph title or no warning. Heedless inexperienced or ill equipped walkers Are frequently involved in accidents on its upper reaches called fells farther Down the slopes a visitor who wants to meditate whore Wordsworth Sal while writing one of his Lucy poems stands a Good Chance of being guided to the very Boulder by one of the scholarly guidebooks that Flag the hiker s maps with Horary footnotes. Encase hikers seem to coma in two Fritses would be alpinist and serious weekend walkers Over equipped and fastidiously costumed for their excursions with knickers headgear sweaters slickers heavy socks sensible shoes ordnance Survey maps thermoses of Tea and walking Slicks. I had none of these Maccoul moments when i went hurtling up the Hillside behind Rydal mount the spacious residence Wordsworth inhabited in the fast 37 years of his he. I was t going  in particular. I just wanted Loput some distance Between Mysell and the sense of Musty piety that overcame me while too Kirg a uninspiring portraits of the poet s descendants to Side of 15 minutes 1 was experiencing Wordsworth Ian Solitude and Tranquillity from a Vantage Point that blocked out the weekend traffic of bumper to bumper tourist buses while furnishing an unimpeded View of the Small Lako called Rydal water and the Promontory known As Loughrige fell. Thus inspired i abandoned my intention of driving on to the Village of Cockermouth to visit the poet s childhood Home. Enough was enough. Tha next morning instead my wife and i took a popular me up Greenhead Gill a sheepish Ravine thai toy just behind Michael s Nook the Superb country Hoel where we stayed in Grasmere which resolutely ignores the poet s abjuration to Plain  of course Worth swot in wrote too of Greenhead Chi and this bold  Futey Wio journey thither find themselves alone with a few sheep with locks and stones and kites thai overhead Are sailing in the say. Ii is in truth an utter Solitude in truth. At the top of our climb we came upon a still Mountainside Pond nestling in a hollow left by some prehistoric Glacier afro Csc Tarn. I is called a Tarn being a Mai lure Mountain Lake the District ail 880 Square Miles of it. Gets its name from its 15 larger takes i3n0h9, l,3izbfmm Wynde roat 10 a Milesian Jungho Rydal water at nol quite a mile. The tarns of which Shore Are said to be More than 100 tucked away in the . Can be regarded As a Bonus. England s much loved Countryside is of course thoroughly cull Ivalee a Frimm i Hon Millen Uma of human . Aunt Rimrod hedge offering about As much wildness As it normally Atlo is Man also built Iarj Stone Walls and Uhlir in to pcs � Leleu