Thomas de Quincey’s walking stick

Walking A Stick Back Home: The history of Thomas de Quincey's walking stick

This fine, much used, walking stick made of blackthorn, is carved with the name de Quincey on the inside, just below the handle, along with his last address in Edinburgh '42 Lothian Street'.

When Thomas de Quincey (author of the best-selling Confessions of an English Opium Eater) died in December 1859, his landlady, Miss Jane Stark, who had looked after him during his last years, inherited his walking stick, and in the 1870s she decided to give the stick to a young chemistry student called Samuel Crowden who in turn gave it to his brother. And so the stick was passed on down from one generation to the next within the Crowden family for 130 years until it reached James Crowden, a poet and historian who decided to give the walking stick to Dove Cottage. Thomas de Quincey not only knew the Wordsworth's very well when they lived here, he also took on the tenancy of Dove Cottage when they left.

The return of the walking stick became the subject of a BBC Radio 4 feature programme broadcast in May 2008 called Walking a Stick Back Home which explored Thomas de Quincey's old haunts in Edinburgh and the Lake District. It was presented by James Crowden with the help of Grevel Lindop and produced by Matt Thompson of Loftus Productions.

The stick was presented by him to The Wordsworth Trust on Friday 2nd May 2008.

Thomas de Quincey is most famous for his book Confessions Of An English Opium Eater, and also wrote many essays including Murder As A Fine Art. He was a huge influence on Poe, Kafka, Dostoevsky and Borges.