England, Day Seven

♫ The Power of Music ♫

Today is our last day in the Lake District!  Tomorrow we will be heading south to visit for three more days before we depart out of Southampton.  Let's not think about leaving yet, let's enjoy our day going to Cockermouth to visit the childhood home of William Wordsworth.  Cockermouth is just outside of the Lake District in Cumbria.

On our way to Cockermouth we caught a glimpse of this beautiful hot air balloon!

See the beautiful stone wall going up the hill?  There were miles and miles of these gorgeous walls on our way to Cockermouth!

Herdwick Tup statue unveiled by HRH the Prince of Wales on March 25, 2005

We passed a lovely church on our way.  As you can see we had a beautiful day--lovely blue skies!

We then see the childhood home of William Wordsworth.

As you can see William Wordsworth was from a wealthy family.  Let's park the car and check out the inside of this lovely Georgian home.

This is the birthplace of William Wordsworth.  The property is owned by the National Trust and they have left it as it would have been in the 1770's.

We'll enter the home through the front door.  This is the entrance.

We pass by lavendar and a lovely poppy filled wall.

Look up at the chimney pots before we go in!  Aren't they interesting?

We enter the home in a large foyer and we are directed to the Dining Room.

I am in awe over this beautiful room.  The dental mouldings and plaster ceilings are lovely!

We then went into the study and gazed upon this gorgeous secretary!

We then were guided into the most charming kitchen.

The ladies in the photo were preparing Rum Butter and invited us to have some.  It was delicious.  They offered a recipe for the butter and some information on its origin.

"The origin of Rum Butter is somewhat lost within the depths of time and there are several apparent stories about its origin, but what is certain is that it was popular and found throughout the area during the Georgian period.  Whitehaven played a role in the sugar and rum trade, and so it is reasonable to assume that most of the ingredients for rum butter in the Wordsworth's house had only travelled from Whitehaven.
Rum butter seems to have had and association with new born children in the Lake District area, and all the local women would have gathered to share a bowl of Rum butter, bestowing good luck upon the new child."

This recipe is based on one in the Cockermouth Cookery Book, from the 18th century.

Soft Brown Sugar   12 oz   340g
Butter                      8oz    225g
Rum                        3tbsp   45ml
Nutmeg(grated)       1/2 whole nutmeg, or 1 tsp
AllSpice                    Pinch

1. Mix the sugar and spices together.
2. Moisten the sugaar and spice mixture with rum.
3. Warm the butter until it is just melted, and then slowly stir it into the sugar mixture.
4. Pour the mixture into a basin and sprinkle with caster sugar.

They also shared a recipe for Kendal Gingerbread

Plain flour            1lb    450g
Butter                  8oz   225g
Dark brown sugar 8oz   225g
Ground ginger      3tsp    15ml
Salt                     pinch
Candied Lemon peel       A little

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees centigrade
2. Mix the dry ingredients
3. Rub in the butter
4. Press the mixture into greased flat baking tins, to a thickness of about 1cm
5. Bake for 35-40 minutes
6. Cut when hot, and remove from the tin when cooled

This makes a short gingerbread based upon the Lake District recipe from Kendal, making more of a hard biscuit that the more common softer gingerbread.  Gingerbread was extremely popular during the 18th century and several different recipes appear in the surviving cookbooks of the period.  The recipes have evolved from Medieval variations which use bread crumbs, into what we recognise today as gingerbread, which was often pressed into moulds to make shaped biscuits, occasionally of gingerbread men!

I have not tried these recipes, but hope to during the holidays.  I will have to translate the amounts and oven tempuratures when I do.

Let's look out the window at the walled garden!

Leaving the kitchen we take the stairs to view upstairs.  I love the detail on the stairs!

Upstairs Study

There were quotes of Wordsworth on several walls.

I love the tea service in this room.

The bedrooms are lovely.

This was a child's room filled with lovely toys.

Okay, it's clear I want to live here!  William Wordsworth enjoyed his childhood here with his family.  He was the second of five children of John and Ann Wordsworth.  The docent reminded us that William and his siblings enjoyed the outdoors as many children do.  They spent many hours playing in the creeks and fields that surrounded their home.

Going into the walled garden we enjoyed the lovely flowers and flowering apple trees.

We went into the tearoom for some lunch.  They had the best cream of mushroom soup I've ever eaten!  Also we had a giant cheese scone!

We enjoyed a lovely morning at the Wordsworth home and now we have more places to see today.  So stay tuned.