Behind Dove Cottage is the Wordsworth museum. Opened in October 1981, it contains the original manuscripts of Dorothy's journals, some of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's work and also that of de Quincy, Sir Walter Scott and Sir Humphrey Davy, the inventor of the miner's safety lamp who was a friend of Wordsworth. Coleridge and the Wordsworths used often to meet at Thirlmere, the half way point between their homes, and here they carved their initials on a rock. The rock alas was broken when it was moved during the construction of the reservoir, but Canon Rawnsley, the founder of the National Trust, gathered the pieces into a pyramid and in 1984 this "Rock of Names" with its inscription "WW MH TW STC JW SH" was moved to the quarry at the rear of the museum.
Tel: 015394 35544 The museum is open daily