Travel Report, Part three

 12 May 2011

 

We were heading to Wales, apparently, though not directly. Was quite a long driving day; I did a lot of reading. Along the way we stopped at both Tintern Abbey, which Wordsworth wrote a poem about, and another, smaller abbey which while not quite as impressive existed in a more pastoral setting, whereas Tintern had a little gift shop outside and a bit of a problem with overflying helicopters. They were both quite enjoyable to visit and I had a bit of fun jumping and climbing on a few of the lower bits of the collapsed walls. Though I must admit I've never liked Wordsworth very much and the abbey's context had obviously changed significantly over the years, I can certainly see where the spark of inspiration came from.

 

 

 

13 May 2011

 

birdsong & the wet smell of recent rain

& the soft & steady trickle of water

flow down the mossy roofs

& dripping to the ground from glistening leaves

after the rain make sound,

Make green music:

lively chartreuse jaunts & slow mossy dirges

& the great romance of slanting light & shadow

when the clouds part &

the flowers greet the sun with such vain

i cannot help but smile

& put away my camera

for such a song i think cannot be photographed,

Must be remembered.

& i wonder if i should apologize to blades of grass

& specks of moss on the cobblestones, for

trodding carelessly, & perhaps

setting them off their singing

 

May 14 2011

 

After the abbeys we went on to Hay-on-Wye, a town in Wales known for its extremely large and varied array of bookstores. Our accommodations in this place were extremely nice; I got my own room in what was essentially a small house with a living room and kitchen, which was stocked with food for breakfast. It also had the best internet access I'd gotten so far on this trip, which was nice. The day after we arrived in Hay-on-Wye was a free day; I spent the whole day exploring the town on my own, visiting bookstores and taking pictures. The castle bookstore, the curiosity shop and the honesty bookstore surrounding the castle were particularly fascinating, and I enjoyed being on my own for most of the day. I ultimately didn't buy anything in Hay-on-Wye, though.

Speaking of buying books, the copy of Jonathon Strange & Mr Norrel which I mentioned previously was in fact purchased in the city of Bath, where we also stopped on that day but which completely slipped my mind while I was journalling. In my defense it was a very busy day. Bath was actually very interesting, and pretty. It was a very old roman town built around the hot-springs, but the town that stands today is a very well-planned Victorian construction, and as such is very well designed and overall nice looking. Not a lot of grass or green space though; the whole area seems almost completely paved.

From Hay-on-Wye we moved to Grasmere in the Lakes District, where William and Dorothy Wordsworth lived and Samuel Taylor Coleridge and an number of other important first generation Romantic figures hung out. The Lakes District is by a wide margin the most beautiful place I've seen thus far, although Wales was certainly quite pretty. We're staying at a youth hostel in the town, which is ok but is an enormous step down from the extremely nice place we stayed in at Hay-on-Wye. Also, they made me pay fifteen pounds for internet that only works in one room and honestly isn't very fast, so even worse than the internet situation back at Poacher's inn.

The day we arrived at Grasmere we got to actually have supper inside Dove Cottage (where the Wordsworths lived) which was a huge honor. The people at the Wordsworth trust have been very nice to us and given us all kinds of opportunities to do interesting things. The next day we took a very long, very beautiful walk around the lake, stopping occasionally to read from Wordsworth's poems and talk about how they related to the surrounding area. We ended that walk at the Dove Cottage area, which also contains a gift shop, a museum and the Jerwick Center which houses important manuscripts and old books related to the Wordsworths and Romanticism in general. We had few hours of free type to explore the museum and eat our lunches (which we packed earlier with food from the hostel) which is when I wrote the poem in the previous entry. After that we got to actually go into the Jerwick center, where we talked to the guy who runs the place about manuscripts and what they tell us about the past and the writing process. I got to actually hold a first edition of Lyrical Ballads. Then an older lady turned up with some letters she was donating to the collection, just by coincidence while we were there, so we got to hear her story and see the manuscripts she had brought. It was a very lucky, unplanned coincidence and a lot of fun.

The next day (that is, today) was largely a driving day. We drove all the way to Scotland to see the Ruthwell cross and are currently on the way back. Once we're back we'll have supper, then the poet in residence at Grasmere will be doing something or other at the local pub, so we'll go to that. I have no idea who that is, but it should be interesting nonetheless.