Last weekend, two of our team joined other York St. John University students on a writing retreat to Grasmere in the heart of the Lake District. The beauty of this location is unparalleled in the UK, and we took full advantage of it!
As the home of Dorothy and William Wordsworth, and Thomas De Quincy, we enjoyed a tour around Dove Cottage, staged to look and feel as though we were back in the early 1800s. A wood fire burning in the drawing room, recipes half-made in the kitchen, a soundtrack of chattering children underscoring it all, it felt like a home. After the tour, we were extremely fortunate to get access to the archives where we read passages of the diaries of William and Dorothy, including the earliest snippets of the daffodils poem and the prelude. The highlight was being able to hold a first edition Frankenstein, valued in the millions at 200 years old.
Other events on this writers' pilgrimage included a 6 mile walk around the lake, open mic night with the other students, writing workshops, and an evening in the pub trying the best Lakes Gin has to offer.
This trip was magical, inspirational, and refreshing. We would recommend:
Lucia's Coffee + Bakehouse for a raspberry and white chocolate blondie
Tweedies Bar for live music, great beer garden, and a brilliant selection of drinks
Grasmere Gingerbread Shop for the famous Gingerbread only made here as well as other ginger paraphernalia
Wordsworth Daffodil Garden is brilliant for character names, each tile of the path having at least one name engraved on it
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