introduction to grasmere & rydal...

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey and Sir Walter Scott also stayed here, whilst the writer Thomas de Quincey moved into Dove Cottage on Wordsworth's departure. From the 18th century onwards, many artists journeyed here in search of ‘the picturesque and the sublime', including William Green, John Constable and JMW Turner.

In more recent times, the Heaton Cooper family succeeded in capturing the changing moods of the Lake District in watercolours. Given this long association with artists and painters it is highly appropriate that Grasmere has the honour of hosting the annual Lakeland Artists' Society Exhibition every year.

The nearby hamlet of Rydal is associated with two influential families: the Le Flemings and the Wordsworths. Rydal Hall was the home of the Le Fleming family who moved here from Coniston Hall, Rydal Mount was Wordsworth's home for the last 37 years of his life.