This is Hawkshead Grammar School in the English Lake District, founded in 1585 by Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York. From 1778 until 1787 the Romantic poet William Wordsworth was a pupil here. He learnt Latin, Greek, Mathematics and Knife Skills.
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| Hawkshead Grammar School. |
For boys were allowed to bring knives into school, which they used industriously to carve their names and initials into the oakwood desks. You can see Wordsworth's own initials there, and his brother John's. The schoolmasters did not consider this a problem. They also encouraged the boarders to bet on cock fighting matches. (Knives and wagers? Not things allowed in school today, I fancy.) However, woe to those students who committed such misdemeanours as arriving late for class or missing church on Sunday. For these crimes stiff beatings were administered.
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| The schoolroom, Hawkshead Grammar School. |
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| The headmaster's study, Hawkshead Grammar School. |
While he was at Hawkshead, the young Wordsworth lodged with Ann Tyson and her husband in this cottage — which is now a B&B.
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| Ann Tyson's Cottage, Hawkshead. |
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| The earth is all before me. With a heart / Joyous, nor scared at its own liberty, / I look about; and should the chosen guide / Be nothing better than a wandering cloud, / I cannot miss my way. I breathe again! WORDSWORTH The Prelude |
