Wandering through a small field bursting with cheerful daffodils, and subsequently, through the adjacent, attractive St Mary’s church yard to the little lane that contains Rydal Mount, the home of William Wordsworth, and Rydal Hall, you may be inclined to think that the abundant display was in honour of William. You would be wrong. Dora’s field was given to William’s daughter, Dora. When Dora’s death preceded that of his own, grief-stricken William planted hundreds of daffodil bulbs in the field in her memory. The chapel of St Mary was built by Lady le Fleming, of Rydal Hall in 1824. William Wordsworth helped to choose the site, which was originally an orchard.

Bursting with joy, Dora’s Field is a victory for all those that champion hope in the midst of sorrow, as golden flowerheads nod and sway in their multitudes and St Mary’s church tower soars up with yew and oak into the upper echelons of the vase as if giving a final farewell to the man, who, for all his wonderful words are worth, worshiped in this church, his family pews still found there, and was church warden from 1833-1834.

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.