by beatriceotto | Dec 21, 2017 | a quote to note
In Dorothy Wordsworth’s journals, you sense the extent to which she supported her brother’s writing. Some things she records become material for his poems. She also reads aloud to him, including his own compositions, and copies out his poems. But beyond...
by beatriceotto | Dec 21, 2017 | a quote to note
A hot drink of port, sugar, lemon, and spice, named after a Colonel Francis Negus (d. 1732), who invented it. In Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal, it seems to have been used medicinally, along with broth. A delicious sounding toddy for a miserable winter cold....
by beatriceotto | Nov 7, 2017 | readers & reading
Branwell Bronte, the sister-eclipsed son in a family of six, caused them and his father great heartache through alcoholism and opium addiction, dying young. However, in a saner moment, he wrote to Wordsworth of another, healthier craving. ‘I read for the same...
by beatriceotto | Jun 21, 2017 | put in a good word
Another word for ‘chaffinch’, though it seems obsolete. Not that this should prevent our reviving it, it has a charming, affectionate sound. Source: Dorothy Wordsworth, The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals, ed. and introduction by Pamela Woof (Oxford:...
by beatriceotto | Jun 21, 2017 | put in a good word
This use of ‘fretted’ seems to mean worn or damaged by weather, and ‘teazed’ is an old spelling of ‘teased’, here apparently meaning pulled or damaged. I know what she means about the weeds… we have bad hair days, bad garden...
by beatriceotto | Jun 21, 2017 | put in a good word
This seems to mean something like smoothing out and folding linen, though it would baffle people now. ‘Mary walked to Ambleside for letters, it was a wearisome walk for the snow lay deep upon the Roads & it was beginning to thaw. I stayed at home &...
by beatriceotto | Jun 21, 2017 | put in a good word
Wordsworth uses this term several times – apparently an obsolete term for picking or gathering apples. ‘We pulled apples after dinner, a large basket full.’ Sunday 12 October 1800. Source: Dorothy Wordsworth, The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals, ed....
by beatriceotto | Jun 21, 2017 | put in a good word
Dorothy Wordsworth refers to ‘flowering and marking’, meaning to embroider identification signs on linen. I recently bought some wonderful, secondhand and fine quality bedlinen, with flowers and monograms beautifully embroidered along the top edge of what...
by beatriceotto | May 26, 2017 | put in a good word
Scottish & N. English: Alternative spelling of ‘sike’ meaning a small stream or rill, typically one that flows through marshy ground and is often dry in summer. Source: Dorothy Wordsworth, The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals, ed. and introduction by...
