August 2024
Claude Glasses at the Wordsworth Trust August 2024
Shap writers had a lovely engaging day in Grasmere learning about Claude Glasses.
When we arrived we only had a vague idea about what they are but with practical demonstrations in the garden at Dove Cottage and conversations with our two guides for the day (Alex McKay and Suzanne, who had come over from Canada), we came away most enlightened and entertained.
Our morning began with a quest into the meaning of the word ‘picturesque’ and exactly what it meant to us.
We had an almost private view of the lovely Dove Cottage, and although most of us have been many times before, each time we visit, there is something new to marvel at. And the way the cottage is set out with a meal on the table and a half darned sock that Dorothy may have been working on, it is as if we have stepped straight into the 1800’s and William and Dorothy have just left the room. (Perhaps they are looking at the ‘picturesque’ views in the garden). We particularly feel their presence in that room.
Although that day was silver with mist and we could not see the lake from the garden, it was still atmospherically beautiful. And with the aid of the large Claude glass that Alex set up for us, it gave a lovely tonal impression of the surroundings, most intriguing.
We looked at tourist impressions of the Lake District in the museum and were both entertained and fascinated, particularly with some of the eccentric characters who visited the Lakes in Wordsworth’s time who bought or built houses here.
At the Jerwood Centre we had an opportunity to look at special exhibits, artwork of the time, some exquisite painting and drawings of Tintern Abbey amongst them. Plus a notebook in which William Wordsworth listed his poems and made detailed notes on each. We had never seen this before.
All this detail really brings the Wordsworths alive and actually rounds out their characters and idiosyncrasies!
We had a most lively and lovely day.
Victoria Stevenson (Shap Writers – Old Courthouse)
