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Coleridge and Wordsworth in the Quantocks

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Coleridge and Wordsworth in the Quantocks Coleridge and Wordsworth in the Quantocks Written and designed by Terence Sackett of the Friends of Coleridge Why did the two poets choose the Quantocks? Samuel Taylor Coleridge first visited Nether Stowey in 1794, while on a walking A fine country house for the Wordsworths tour of Somerset with the poet Robert Southey. Crossing the River Parrett at Coleridge first met William Wordsworth in Combwich, they visited Coleridge’s Cambridge friend Henry Poole at Shurton. Bristol. The two poets took to each other Henry Poole took them to Nether Stowey where Coleridge was introduced to immediately. the man who was to be his most faithful friend and supporter – the tanner and In 1797 Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Stowey benefactor Thomas Poole. were renting a country house at Racedown Poole accompanied them on a visit to the home of his conventional cousins at in West Dorset. Coleridge, keen to renew nearby Marshmills. The poets shocked them with their radical republican views and deepen the friendship, rushed down to and support for the French Revolution – England was at war with France at the persuade them to move to the Quantocks. Thomas Poole time and there was a serious threat of a French invasion. They found his enthusiasm impossible to resist. Once again Tom Poole was given the task CHRISTIE’S A poor choice of cottage of finding a house for the Wordsworths to Alfoxden House, near Holford to rent. Alfoxden, just outside the village of In 1796 Samuel Taylor Coleridge was living in Bristol. ‘There is everything here, sea, woods wild as fancy Holford and four miles from Stowey, could In his characteristically courageous and foolhardy ever painted, brooks clear and pebbly as in not have been more different to Gilbards. manner he was lecturing against slavery in one of Cumberland, villages so romantic; and William England’s main slaving ports, as well as publishing his It was an impressive country house set in and I – in a wander by ourselves – found out a own anti-government newspaper The Watchman. With broad parkland, with the bonus of glorious sequestered waterfall in a dell formed by steep the government clamping down on free speech, he was views of the Bristol Channel outside the hills covered with full-grown timber trees.’ sailing very close to the wind. door. They moved there in July 1797. VICTORIANPICTURELIBRARY.COM DOROTHY WORDSWORTH, LETTER TO A FRIEND He lost money on his newspaper, and was gaining a reputation as a political agitator. Desperate to Gilbards in Coleridge’s time, Soon after William and Dorothy moved into concentrate on his writing and to make a fresh start, by E H New Suspicious characters – are Alfoxden, Coleridge was seeing them almost he appealed to Tom Poole to find somewhere for him every day. to live in the Quantocks. The chance to rent a house in A fresh start they spying for the French? Adscombe failed, and Poole could only find Gilbards, Coleridge began life in Nether The three excited friends wandered the a delapidated cottage in Lime Street. Poole strongly Stowey with a strict timetable: Quantock hills and combes together, advised Coleridge not to take it, but the poet was ‘From seven to half past eight I work discussing their plans to collaborate in determined, and he and Sara and their three-month- in my garden; from breakfast till 12 changing the course of English poetry. old son Hartley moved in on the last day of 1796. I read & compose; then work again With their unconventional behaviour and With a sizeable vegetable garden and a household to – feed the pigs, poultry &c. till two their habit of walking everywhere – which run, this was just what he needed – a welcome respite o’clock – after dinner work again till gentlemen did not do – it was hardly from political life, and the chance to fulfil his dream of Tea – from Tea till supper review. So surprising that they aroused the suspicions being a poet. jogs the day; & I’m happy.’ of the local people. ‘Who are they? What are they writing in their notebooks? Are they spying for the French?’ ‘Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee’ When John Thelwall, the notorious revolutionary Coleridge was particularly keen for … ‘For I was reared TERENCE SACKETT who had been tried for Hartley to experience the country In the great city, pent ’mid cloisters dim, treason, was seen with childhood he himself had been denied. And saw nought lovely but the sky and stars. The track leading to Higher Hare Knap them in Stowey there was His father had died when he was just But thou, my babe! shalt wander like a breeze 4 February. Walked a great part of the way to Stowey outrage. The government nine, and he had been sent away to By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags with Coleridge. sent an agent, James Christ’s Hospital, a boarding school in Of ancient mountain, and beneath the clouds, John Thelwall 5 February. Walked to Stowey with Coleridge, returned by Walsh, down to investigate. London, isolated from his family. He Which image in their bulk both lakes and shores Woodlands. He followed them around for a fortnight. wrote passionately to Hartley in his And mountain crags … 6 February. Walked to Stowey over the hills. Fortunately for them he reported back to beautiful poem Frost at Midnight: Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee …’ 22 February. Coleridge came in the morning to dinner. London that they were only ‘a mischiefuous 23 February. William walked with Coleridge in the morning. [sic] gang of disaffected Englishmen’, but no FROM DOROTHY WORDSWORTH’S ‘ALFOXDEN JOURNAL’ (1798) real security threat to the country. 2 3 The Quantock landscapes and people that Barking Quantock sessile oaks Coleridge and Wordsworth knew in 1797 for Tom Poole’s Stowey tannery The Quantock countryside that the two Leather was a vital raw material in the 18th century, used to poets knew more than two hundred years make saddles, harnesses, and shoes. ago was very different from what we see Tannin is the active ingredient in the process of transforming today. The lanes and field paths would have hides into leather. Bark is a rich source of tannin, and Poole’s been busy with people on the move, most tanyard relied on a constant supply cut from sessile oaks working within a mile of their homes, and from the Quantock woods, which would have been busy the hills and combes were full of noise and with Poole’s foresters. Branches and twigs were beaten to activity. split the bark. The bark strips were bundled and carried by Wagons rattled between the villages, horse and cart down from the hills to Nether Stowey. ARCHIVE PICTURE VIEWS QUANTOCK ploughmen stumbled through the furrows Coleridge would have regularly talked to the oak barkers behind oxen teams, eagle-eyed shepherds Barking oaks in the Quantock’s during his Quantock walks with Tom Poole. Great Wood c1900 watched from Longstone Hill, and out in TERENCE SACKETT the combes around Holford men were barking oaks for Tom Poole’s tannery. The view towards Dowsborough from Longstone Hill Coppicing the Quantock woodland The Quantocks would have rung with the sound of the woodman’s axe. Many of its woods were coppiced – look Charcoal burning in the remote Quantock combes out for trees that have sprouted a number of trunks close to Smoke rises from charcoal burners’ fires in Bincombe, the ground. Young oak, hazel and sweet chestnut tree stems the deep wooded combe running below the old coach were cut down every ten to twenty years to near ground level, road leading to Dead Woman’s Ditch. The traditional leaving only the stools. New growth quickly emerged, and the method of charcoal burning is almost as old as the cycle was begun anew. Coppiced wood was vital to everyday Quantock Hills. Charcoal is made by allowing heaps life in the late 18th century, and was used for planking, pea of wood, covered with damp sods and wet sand, to and bean sticks, rustic furniture, sheep hurdles, fencing, pit burn slowly with a carefully regulated supply of air. props, hedging sticks, and tool and broom handles. Coleridge and Wordsworth would have met charcoal You can see abandoned coppice on Cothelstone Hill and burners regularly on their Quantock walks. In Five Coppiced woodland along the Coleridge Way below Dowsborough. VICTORIANPICTURELIBRARY.COM Lords the terraces where the charcoal burners worked and had their camps can still be seen. Encounters on the hills Vital firewood and furze for cottage fires Coleridge was an inveterate talker. He would strike up a conversation with anyone and When you walk through the everyone. However, once he got into his stride Quantock combes today you it was almost impossible to get a word in, and will see that the woodland is it was said of him that ‘he is very great in littered with fallen branches. monologue, but he has no idea of dialogue’. TERENCE SACKETT Many of the trees were During their daily walks in and around the victims of the heavy snows Quantock hills the two poets encountered Sheep on Castle Mount, Nether Stowey of 2012. They have been left pedlars, shepherds, foresters, farm workers, Wordsworth was particularly affected by a by the AONB as habitats for beggars, and tradesmen of all kinds. The story told to him by Tom Poole about an old wildlife. Quantock paths and tracks were well-trodden shepherd on the common near Alfoxden, In 1797 every last branch and routes between the villages. whose flock had been reduced to a single ewe.
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