Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, Vol. 2 (of 2)

In Short

This second volume brings together private travel diaries, mountain excursions, and continental records kept by Dorothy Wordsworth, along with contributions from her circle. Recording walking tours across the Scottish Highlands, alpine treks in Switzerland and Italy, and later visits to Belgium and the Isle of Man, the entries capture landscapes, regional architecture, local costume, and passing encounters. Unintended for publication in her lifetime, the prose endures because of its startling clarity, quiet reverence for rural life, and vital role in shaping English Romanticism's vision of the natural world.

The Story

The volume opens in the midst of the 1803 Scottish expedition undertaken by Dorothy Wordsworth alongside her brother William and their friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge. After Coleridge departs early due to poor health, the brother and sister continue through the wild, unpredictable terrain of the Western Highlands. They travel in a modest open Irish car pulled by an uncooperative horse, navigating rocky roads around Loch Long, Cairndow, Loch Awe, and the desolate expanse of Glen Coe. Every mile demands physical fortitude: William frequently dismounts to guide the horse across torrents and boulder-strewn tracks, while Dorothy walks alongside, unbothered by drenched clothing, basic fare of freshly caught herring, or rudimentary roadside inns. Along the way, the austere grandeur of the mountains blends with memorable human moments—a lone boatman drifting past with charcoal sacks, a cheerful family sheltering them by Loch Lomond, or haymakers standing poised with their pitchforks under an evening moon.

As their Scottish itinerary loops back through Dunkeld, Callander, and Edinburgh, Dorothy records the city's misty silhouette from Arthur's Seat and visits literary acquaintances such as Walter Scott near the sylvan banks of the River Jed. The narrative then shifts across subsequent journeys, including a November ramble through the home fells and an extensive 1820 continental tour. Landing at Calais, Dorothy observes Catholic cathedrals, continental domestic arrangements, and the varied, picturesque costumes of German towns along the Rhine, such as Andernach and Coblentz. From there, the party advances into the Swiss Alps and Northern Italy. They cross Lake Lucerne, survey the debris of the fallen mountain at Goldau, climb the dizzying heights of the Gemmi Pass amidst barren crags, and descend into the lush, vine-clad slopes above Lake Como to seek the source of the Fiume Latte.

The concluding sections preserve complementary perspectives, including Mary Wordsworth's 1823 journal of their voyage across the Channel to Ostend—featuring reflections dictated by William on the true height of Shakespeare’s Cliff—and Dorothy's 1828 walks along the coastal bluffs, holy wells, and whitewashed chapels of the Isle of Man. Throughout decades of movement, the narrative tracks an unwavering devotion to seeing the world without artifice, ending quietly in the coastal churchyards of Ramsey.

How It Unfolds

Wandering the Scottish Highlands Dorothy and William journey through rough Highland passes, enduring dark glens, torrential mountain streams, and broken carriage roads. After Coleridge's departure, they continue past Loch Awe and King's House, taking shelter in humble waterside huts where local boatmen and cottagers offer warm firesides and simple meals.

Reflecting on Scottish Towns and Borderlands Reaching Edinburgh, Dorothy surveys the city from Arthur's Seat, finding the industrial buzz and rising smoke transformed into an imaginative, visionary panorama in the heavy rain. In Jedburgh, they join Walter Scott for quiet walks along the river, observing local customs, ancient refuge caves, and the town's austere churchyard.

Crossing the Channel to the Continent Landing in post-Napoleonic France, Dorothy examines continental cathedral life, domestic interiors in Calais, and the antique dignity of worshippers in Coblentz. She delights in regional costumes, from stiff transparent butterfly caps worn by German bourgeoises to the rustic straw hats of country folk promenading beneath cathedral avenues.

Ascending Alpine Passes and Italian Lakes The party traverses the Swiss mountains, climbing the sheer rock face of the Gemmi Pass where narrow tracks overhang staggering precipices and lone monkshood blossoms in the chinks. In Italy, they labor under intense heat to reach the crystal waters of the Fiume Latte, adorning their bonnets with wild evergreens.

Voyaging to Belgium and the Isle of Man Mary Wordsworth records a rough night crossing to Ostend, where burning ship tar illuminates the busy harbor under mottled stars, accompanied by William's meditations on coastal cliffs. Dorothy concludes her travels on the Isle of Man, strolling across green steeps to ancient whitewashed sanctuaries and storied holy wells.

The People

Dorothy Wordsworth acts as the tireless center of every entry. Seeking genuine encounters with unfamiliar terrain and ordinary people, she faces rough tracks, bad weather, and crude accommodations with steady composure, finding spiritual sustenance and poetic clarity in the quiet details of rural life.

William Wordsworth serves as her constant travelling companion and fellow observer. Driven to study landscape, local geography, and human character, he handles the practical burdens of travel—leading difficult horses and turning heavy carts on steep cliffs—while transcribing his impressions and poetry alongside Dorothy’s prose.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge begins the Scottish tour with the siblings, seeking health and creative stimulation. Hampered by bodily ailments and low spirits, he resolves to leave the party early at Arrochar, parting ways before the rougher Highland tracks.

Mary Wordsworth appears both as a fellow traveler on the continental journeys and as an independent diarist. Observing coastal landscapes with an artist's eye, she notes harbor scenes, illuminated night docks, and William’s philosophical remarks with quiet intelligence.

The Highland and Continental Peasantry, including boatmen, haymakers, guides, and churchgoers, provide essential direction and shelter, leaving an enduring impression on the travellers through their generous hospitality and distinctive local customs.

In Its Own Voice

While traversing the desolate moorland above King's House, Dorothy reflects on how a harsh, uncultivated environment stimulates the imagination:

"The low ground was not rocky, but black, and full of white frost-bleached stones, the prospect only varied by pools, seen everywhere both near and at a distance, as far as the ground stretched out below us: these were interesting spots, round which the mind assembled living objects, and they shone as bright as mirrors in the forlorn waste."

Observing a Sunday promenade near a German cathedral, she notices how varied classes share public spaces in unpretentious harmony:

"Here you see formality and simplicity, antiquated stateliness and decent finery brought together, with a pervading spirit of comfortable equality in social pleasures."

Descending from the severe cliffs of the Gemmi into the Italian valleys, she documents the sudden return of intense plant life:

"The earth thus supported is covered with melons, pumpkins, Indian corn, chestnut-trees, fig-trees, and trees now scattering ripe plums."

What It's Really About

Beneath the practical itineraries lies an investigation into how the human mind receives and internalizes natural landscapes. Dorothy Wordsworth looks past conventional notions of the picturesque to examine how wild solitude and everyday labor coexist within a single view. The journals consistently ponder the dignity of ordinary human life, showing that an unadorned Highland hut or a quiet churchyard holds as much spiritual weight as a famous monument. Travel serves as a discipline of deep attention: by recording weather, topography, dialect, and costume with patient accuracy, the writer reveals how outward encounters become inward resources, cultivating an enduring sense of kinship with the natural world and the working people who inhabit it.

Why Read It Today

Readers drawn to classic travel memoirs, nature writing, and the roots of Romantic poetry will find this volume an indispensable, refreshing companion. Unlike formal travelogues designed to impress or instruct, Dorothy Wordsworth’s writing feels remarkably direct, intimate, and free of authorial vanity. Her descriptions place the reader directly on the cart track beside her, smelling the peat smoke, hearing the roar of mountain torrents, and feeling the damp chill of alpine fog.

The book is not without its historical challenges. It moves at the slow, methodical pace of nineteenth-century foot travel, lingering over daily mileage, carriage repairs, and detailed architectural descriptions. Modern readers will also encounter occasional period perspectives regarding foreign customs, church practices, and rustic habits. Yet these minor historical distances pale beside the extraordinary freshness of Dorothy’s voice. Her prose captures the rare art of paying complete, generous attention to the world, offering a grounding antidote to the speed and distraction of contemporary life.