The Wordsworths and Gardening
25 August, 7.30pm, Online
Dr Jeremy Davies and Dr Jane Roberts join Principal Curator Jeff Cowton to discuss their work, including a project to return the Garden-Orchard at Dove Cottage to the character and spirit in which the Wordsworths knew it. They will also share some of William and Dorothy’s writing on plants, as well as look at manuscripts and books from the Wordsworth Trust’s collection including the Wordsworths’ copy of William Withering’s An arrangement of British plants. This event accompanies ‘Experiments in Land and Society, 1793–1833’, an Arts and Humanities Research Council project that is supporting new research into the garden and historically informed enhancements to the outdoor spaces at Dove Cottage.
Refuge from the Ravens: Wordsworth rewritten by homeless Britain
8 September, 7.30pm, Online
In 1798, Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge sparked a literary revolution. Poems in everyday language told of people on the margins of society. Our new exhibition, Refuge from the Ravens: Wordsworth rewritten by homeless Britain, is a twenty-first century remix — new Lyrical Ballads made by people with experience of homelessness, and other vulnerable people, in poetry, art and song. In this online launch event Phil Davenport and Julia Grime, the project directors, will explain how the exhibition came about and share stories and creative work from the project. Professor Fiona Stafford will also introduce the original Lyrical Ballads and their historical context. There will be live poetry readings, and we will also take a detailed look at objects and manuscripts from the Wordsworth Trust’s collection.