Rydal lies on the main Ambleside to Keswick road,just one and a half miles north of Ambleside.
Though a small village its attractions are many,Here during the latter part of his life (1813-1850) lived William Wordsworth, Rydal Mount being the fourth, and last, of his Lake District residences in adult life.
For 37 years he lived here and here too he wrote nearly half the poems he published in his day. Here he built up his fame and gathered his friends about him. Here DeQuincey came, and Hartley Coleridge to name but two. The house is open to the public, and as to be expected, attracts many thousands of visitors each year.
Wordsworth bought a sloping field here...Rashfield, ostensibly to build a house. The house never materialised so he renamed it 'Dora's Field' after his daughter. The main feature of the land comes to light in the spring,masses of daffodils and narcissi.
Rydal Hall has to be the most outstanding building in Rydal. The LeFleming's came to live at Rydal Hall in 1575....before the advent of the Lake poets the notable people of Rydal were the Flemings who had held the Rydal Hall estate for four centuries. Sir Daniel, a stout royalist, became after the Restoration, an equally active repressor of such people as Quakers and Dissenters, and was knighted.
Not far off is Wordsworth's Seat, a little rock where he loved to look across the lake, and at Fox How is the house built by Dr Arnold of Rugby, where Wordsworth would often look in for a chat. It was Arnold who gave nick-names to the three roads from Rydal Water to Grasmere. One was Old Corruption, another Bit-by-Bit Reform, the other Radical Reform.
The chapel of St Mary was actualy built by Lady LeFleming, she even laid the foundation stone in 1824. Up until this time local people had had to rely on using the parish church at grasmere for funerals, and even today a well known walk here is still known as "The Coffin Trail'. It's where coffins were carried over the rough road under Nab Scar to grasmere. Visitors to the church will notice that the gallery in the church was reserved solely for the use of the LeFleming family, whilst Wordsworth and his family occupied the pew in front of the pulpit.
Rydal's chief natural attraction is its small lake...Rydal Water...a modest little lake fed from Grasmerre by the river Rothay. At one time it was known as Rothaymere. The lake is steeply conscripted between the rocky hill Nab Scar on the north and the expansive plateau of Loughrigg Fell on the south.
It is a beautiful situation traversed by the central highway of the Lake District for more than half a mile along the northern shore of the lake, which is shallow with extensive reed beds encumbered with reeds, but its situation and its placidity much admired.
This area between Rydal and Grasmere is very popular with walkers. White Moss Common and Viewpoint were mentioned by Dorothy Wordsworth in her journal for 1st June 1802..."We went to look at Rydal. There was an alpine fire-look red upon the tops of the mountains...we saw the Lake in a new and most beautiful point of view between the two little rocks. This White Moss, a place made for all kinds of beautiful works of art and nature, woods and valleys, fairy valleys and fairy tarns, minature mountains, alps above alps".
White Moss House, built in 1730 was bought by William Wordsworth for his son Willie, and the poet often rested and composed poetry in the porch on his wanderings. He had moved to Rydal Mount at this time, but buying White Moss House gave William voting rights in Grasmere, which he used to help prevent the extension of the railway line from Windermere to Grasmere. The Wordsworth's owned the house until the 1930's. Today it is an internationally renowned small hotel and restaurant.
One of the oldest houses here is Cote How, it has a spinning gallery and dates from the 15th century. Fox How, another beautiful house, was built by Dr Arnold, one time Headmaster of Rugby School.
Nab Cottage, a typical Lake District farmhouse, has the date 1702 over the door. Wordsworth's great friend, Thomas deQuincey, lived here. Today it is a delightful guest house.
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