Spending some time reading. Letters between the Wordsworth’s and the Beaumonts.
John Constable considered his time in the area as life changing. He spent many hours sketching in the gardens of Coleorton Hall and copying some of Beaumont’s collection of classical paintings by the great masters. These formed the basis of Beaumont’s gift to the National Gallery where they are still on show.
Mrs Wordsworth’s letters and notes are homely.
Dorothy was with them here too.
No! Not Dorothy from the Wizzard of Oz – Dorothy Wordsworth – but that’s got me thinking… you don’t need to know!
But imagine Dorothy and Toto skipping up the road to Swannington and meeting not the Scarecrow but good old William Wordsworth and on they skip. Stopping to catch their breath in Swannington itself. Dorothy clicks her heels and is gone.
Wordsworth tells Beumont to build a church on the spot where the red shoed girl vanished and he does.
I’m visiting it tomorrow – really.
