Geeky facts!

Geeky facts! about Dove Cottage and the Wordsworths

• Dove Cottage was originally a pub called the The Dove & Olive. It is mentioned in a list of pubs & inns of Westmorland in 1617.
  
  
• Last license for the Dove & Olive was issued in 1793.
  
  
• The lane outside was the main route through the Lake District - the present main road was built in the 1830's.
  
  
• William and Dorothy Wordsworth moved in to Dove Cottage in December 1799.
  
  
• Windows were taxed. Westmorland allowed 7 tax-free windows. William paid six shillings for an extra 2. Charles Lamb applied the expression 'daylight robbery' (from the days of Highway robbery) to the window tax.
  
  
• Dorothy began her Journal in May 1800 and finished it in January 1803.
  
  
• William married Mary Hutchinson in October 1802.
  
  
• Three children were born at Dove Cottage; John b.1803, Dora b.1804, Thomas b.1806.
  
  
• James Losh (a friend of William Wordsworth) noted that Wordsworth paid rent of £5 a year (and six shillings in taxes) in 1800. William later told Miss Fenwick that he paid 'as a married man £8 a year' (Alfoxden House had cost them £23). He had an income of approx. £70-80 (interest of a legacy of £900 from Raisley Calvert, a school friend). The average local wage was £15-20 a year. Wordsworth was comfortable but not rich during these years. His writing didn't supply a reliable income at Dove Cottage.
  
  
• Dove Cottage was acquired by a national subscription set up by the Reverand Stopford Brooke in 1890. The first proposal to acquire it was in 1862. In 1872 a letter on the idea was published and it was discussed. It was bought by Mr Lee of Bradford. He sold it in 1890 for £650 to the Dove Cottage Trustees who acquired it by way of a public subscription: "A Disciple of 'the Poet who gave us The Prelude' 50", "Three Lovers of Wordsworth", "We are seven, Working Women", Lord Tennyson. It opened to the public in 1891.
  
  
• The Wordsworth family left Dove Cottage and moved to Allan Bank in Grasmere in May 1808.
  
  
• The windows at the front of the cottage were enlarged in 1890's by the Trustees. They also built a porch in 1890's to protect the original front door and put in electric lighting in the 1950's.