| Romantic Circles

n055

The yew tree survives, and it now stands nearby the Old Church Country Hotel (near
Watermillock). The site Wordsworth mentions should not be confused with Old St. Martin’s
Church, Martindale, which still stands and boasts its own ancient yew.

n056

The “new” chapel mentioned by Wordsworth has since been replaced by a building constructed
in 1881 (All Saints Church, Watermillock). However, the tower at the building’s west
end dates from the 1550s. Bishop Owen Oglethorpe, who consecrated the fifteenth-century
building, was the lone clergyman willing to crown Elizabeth I in 1559 because of her
public Protestantism. He came to regret that decision. Queen Elizabeth imprisoned
him months later, and he died a religious martyr. Photo: Bob Jenkins, Wikimedia Commons.

n057

Also known as Saint Bede (c. 673–735), the monk often called “the Father of English
History.” His mention of Dacre (“Dacore”) appears in his Ecclesiastical History of England, chapter 32. At that time, Bede reports, the stream had a monastery beside it.

n058

This site’s history goes back to the thirteenth century, but its present fabric includes a seventeenth-century mansion built around a fourteenth-century pele tower. It was the seat of the Hudleston family from the 1500s until the 1970s. Photo: Mick Wragg, Wikimedia Commons.

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A pele tower built in the fourteenth century for protection from the Scots, it has since been occupied almost continuously. Photo: Geoff Gill, geograph.org.uk.

n022

Wordsworth refers to the sands of Morecambe Bay, a large expanse of intertidal mudflats, some 190 square miles of which become exposed at extreme low tides. People have been traversing the estuary for centuries, and accounts of the sometimes-treacherous crossing appear in guidebooks known to Wordsworth. Photo: a view of the Sands near Ulverston (Paul Westover). See also note to p. ix.

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n024

The modern Conishead Priory is a Victorian Gothic building, home to a Kadampa Buddhist community since 1976. The previous structure was demolished in 1821. Illustration: print from Thomas Allen’s Lancashire Illustrated (London, 1832), between p. 34 and p. 35. Courtesy of HathiTrust.

n025

Thomas West, A Guide to the Lakes. The first edition of this popular guidebook appeared in 1778, but it was already
in its ninth edition when Wordsworth began work on what became his Guide to the Lakes. After West died in 1779, William Cockin took up the task of updating and reissuing
his guidebook from the second edition forward.

n026

One of the earliest railway viaducts in Britain, the Wetheral Viaduct in Corby was built between 1830 and 1834. Photo: Eleanor Graham, Wikimedia Commons.