The Rock of Names
In this short video, Professor Simon Bainbridge talks to Kate Ingle, a research student at Lancaster University, about ‘The Rock of Names’, a remarkable object which is cared for by The Wordsworth Trust.
In the summer of 1802, William, Dorothy and their close friends, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Mary and Sara Hutchinson carved their initials into a rock face. Simon and Kate discuss the importance of inscription and the naming of places to William and Dorothy as they settled into Grasmere.
William and his friends are generally referred to as ‘The Wordsworth Circle’ and this video mentions several members of the Circle.
If you want to find out more about the different members, you can find their biographies in the downloads section below.
After watching this video, reflect on whether you have created any names, or nick-names for special places? Think about the type of places you named, how you named them and who uses these names.
Then turn to the next step which examines Wordsworthian place naming more closely.
William Wordsworth: Poetry, People and Place
William Wordsworth: Poetry, People and Place
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