Matadi

Founded by Sir Henry Morgan Stanley in 1879, Matadi is an important sea port in present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo and is situated on the Congo River. It is the last major port before the river becomes unpassable for many miles.

Banana

Banana is a small Atlantic seaport in present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. The important port is located on the mouth of the Congo River, on Banana Creek and conveniently sheltered from the ocean.

Grand-Popo

Grand-Popo is a town in Benin (formerly Dahomey, 1600–1904). The town originally grew because of the slave trade. Today, most of the original town has been destroyed by coastal erosion.

Skybarrow Crag, Ullswater

This area, on the shore of Ullswater, is likely where Wordsworth "stole" the boat in the famous scene described in Book 1 of the Prelude.  The "rocky steep" overhanging the boat is likely to have been Skybarrow Crag, and the cliff Wordsworth saw rearing up behind it was likely Glenridding Dodd.

Click here to go to the "Wordsworth: Poetry and Place" tool and see a "reenactment" of the boat stealing by myself and Nicole Bouchard (Baylor English PhD student).

Hawkshead Grammar School

Wordsworth studied at this small school in Hawkshead from 1779, when he moved to the village after his mother's death, until 1787, when he left to attend St. John's College at Cambridge University.  Established in 1585, the school would have held many boys at a time going through different grades of schooling.  The room was not always quiet: apparently, cock fights were sometimes staged inside the main room.  It seems to have been common practice for boys to carve their names into their desks, and Wordsworth was no exception.

Ann Tyson's Cottage

After being "transplanted"  (Prelude 1805 1.308) to Hawkshead from Cockermouth following the death of his mother in 1778, Wordsworth lodged with Ann Tyson at this cottage. His sister Dorothy was sent to live with a series of other relatives, starting in Halifax.