Easter Walks, with Ron Freethy: Around Grasmere

WE ALL know how crowded the Lake District gets over Easter and in high summer, yet in spring it can be at its most beautiful.

Take Grasmere for example, where I spent a lot of my youth during the 1950s.

The word Grasmere is derived from Gris Mere, meaning the Lake of the Pigs. Nearby Grizedale also comes from the Norse word meaning the Valley of the Pigs.

This dates from the time when wild boar ranged the forests of the Lake District but all the porkers had disappeared by the 16th century, along with the wolves.

Nobody can think of Grasmere without mentioning William Wordsworth (1770-1850), whose most famous poem was Daffodils -- flowers that still grow in wild profusion in the area, especially around Grasmere and Ullswater.

People don't often think of the poet as a good athlete but, in fact, he was an expert rower and his nephew was a crew member in the first ever Boat Race in 1826, when Cambridge won.

William's sister, Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855) was a gifted writer. She wrote a magnificent prose article in praise of daffodils, which William certainly adapted (copied might be a better word) from her diary!

So, I don't blame the Women's Liberation Movement for getting angry that men in the 18th and 19th centuries took all the credit. William, who married Mary Hutchinson, and Dorothy, who never married, spent their most prolific years at Dove Cottage, in Grasmere, and it is fitting that the house should now be a museum to their memory.

I have long been a collector of old postcards and have two dated June 20, 1930, addressed to my aunt -- one showing Dove Cottage interior and another depicting the talented Dorothy Wordsworth in her middle age.

I also have a photograph taken in 1957 showing the Church of St Oswald, which the Wordsworths both loved. William planted the yews fronting the 14th century church and wrote a poem in their praise of the Yew Tree.

He is buried in Grasmere Church and this is a mecca for those who loved his words.

If you like buying books about Wordsworth then Grasmere is the place to find them. You should certainly read his poems but, if you get the chance, read his sister Dorothy's prose which may well have been the major influence in the words of one of England's finest poets!

There is plenty of parking in Grasmere and lots of lovely places to stroll -- providing you keep away from the peak periods. Here you will find a tangle of tourists instead of a host of golden daffodils.