The colour of the soil became more pronounced as we went forward, till the road itself became a veritable way of roses.  Who can describe the beauty of the hedgerows, fragrant with privet and honeysuckle, and filled with angelica, meadowsweet, and rue, wild roses, red sorrel, and gay with pink campion?  After four miles of this beauty we turned sharply to the right, and soon found ourselves entering the village of Nether Stowey, went by the little church with its quaint angular turret, the great retaining wall of the court-house and its parapet of yew, with quaint Queen Anne pleasure house high uplifted at the angle.  This court-house in old days was the seat of Alfred the Spaniard, and the families of de Chandos and Audley, and its high wall, it is believed, was built for protection against the Parliamentarians.  Tradition has it that in time of civil war many of the local gentry sent their valuables to be guarded by this great wall.  We went by some fine Scotch firs into the village—a village of the dead so far as human life was concerned, for nothing was stirring in the street.  We passed the clock tower, which now takes the place of the old market cross, and pulled up at the unpretentious little house, that a few years ago ceased to be a public house of call, under the title of “The Coleridge Cottage Inn,” and which has become a national monument to the genius of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. (pp. 91-92)

This cottage was first obtained on lease for a term of fifteen years, with option of purchase for £600 at the end of the lease, through the energy of a local committee of which Mr. Greswell, the Rector of Doddington, Mr. Ernest Coleridge, Mr. Dykes Campbell, and Mr. St. Barbe Goldsmith were lessees.  In 1906, Professor Knight visited Nether Stowey, and determined that what had been done for Wordsworth at Grasmere, should be done for Samuel Taylor Coleridge at Nether Stowey. (p. 92)

He re-organized the scheme and formed a committee, consisting of the Earl of Crewe, the Right Hon. Sir James Bryce, the Right Hon. Sir Edward Fry, Canon Beeching, Canon Rawnsley, Mr. G. W. Prothero, Mr. J. H. Etherington Smith, the Rev. W. Greswell, and Mr. Ernest Hartley Coleridge, and with the help of Mr. Frederick Harrison, and with a contribution of £200, given to the fund by Mr. Carnegie, and of £50 granted by the National Trust, he was enabled to purchase the property in 1908, and to transfer it to the National Trust in the following year. (pp. 92-93)

It has been restored with admirable care.  The outside, covered with cream-coloured rough-cast, is already becoming draped with creepers.  A well-designed tablet of sandstone as an inset in the wall, which was placed there as early as 1893, and became incentive to the leasing of the cottage, bears within a sculptured laurel wreath the words:

“HERE SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE MADE HIS HOME
1797-1800.”

We entered the house, and were welcomed by the present tenants, who showed us on the right hand a room which was the living-room of those days, and is now a picture gallery of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his friends.  The bookcase is filled with the biographies of the poet.  The table, chairs and couch were those of his time.  We could not help feeling how entirely analogous to the Town End cottage at Grasmere was this lowly dwelling, where plain living and high thinking went so well together, and where, as Richard Reynell tells us, Coleridge’s life was “happy without superfluities.”  In this little six-roomed house, four at the front and two at the back—for the other rooms are a later addition—Coleridge not only dwelt, but entertained his friends.  How often in this simple parlour had William and Dorothy Wordsworth held high discourse with the philosopher?  What pleasant converse had Charles Lloyd and Thomas Poole and Charles Lamb with him in those halcyon days of Coleridge’s early married life, when, as he himself writes, he found “Nature looking at him with a thousand looks of beauty, and speaking to him in a thousand melodies of love.” (pp. 93-94)

We lingered some time in the little room, which contains so many portraits of the poet, and wondered why it was there was no picture of his wife or either of his two sons, Hartley and Derwent.  Then passing upstairs we saw the little rough oaken-floored attic bedroom of the poet, that took our thoughts back again to the humble bedchamber of Wordsworth at the Town End cottage.  Thence into the tiny room opposite, that heard Sarah Coleridge’s earliest cry, and descending, entered the drawing room of the tenant of to-day, in which, as Coleridge has left on record, he waited so anxiously to hear of the birth of that darling child of his heart, who grew up to be such an accomplished and beautiful woman. (pp. 94-95)

(A Nation’s Heritage, pp. 90-99)

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A society, entitled ‘the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty,’ has been formed under the presidency of the Duke of Westminster.  It has obtained a charter, and has upon its council names that must needs commend it to the attention and confidence of Great Britain. (p. 246)….

[Under] the Ancient Monuments Protection Act, which is purely permissive, only certain prehistoric monuments in England and Scotland can be scheduled—that, in short, as far as the main bulk of the historic monuments and ruins above ground go, the Act is inoperative.   They [National Trust Executive members] also know that none of the societies most interested in the preservation of these monuments has a right as a corporate body to hold land or houses for the nation. (p. 247)

They feel, too, that local authorities with the best intentions will sometimes ruthlessly destroy for present gain what future generations would have held most dear.  They realise that these local authorities, unless very wisely guided, are at other times tempted, in zeal for so-called improvements, to so improve the places committed to their care as to do irretrievable damage to the charm of object or site and scene. (p. 247)

They are persuaded that as holidays and facilities of locomotion increase, and as tourists flock to the sea or to the countryside more and more for rest, the temptation to make money out of the beauties of Nature will increase also; and the speculating builder and the great hotel company promoters will have to be reckoned with, seeing that the landed proprietors are now finding land a poor investment, and are willing to part with it at a price.  For these reasons, they say, ‘let us exist as a body of men who are bound by charter to have and to hold not for ourselves only, but for the nation’s good, in statu quo, any historic monument, any historical site or house, any piece of beautiful scene, any waterfall, any glen, and headland, any river or lake or foreshore, which the generosity of private individuals shall hand to our keeping for a national possession; or which, as from time to time these fall into the market, may by contributions of friends to the cause be obtained.’  The National Trust is not only a custodian of the interests of property for the nation, it is an advisory board also; the amount of correspondence which already it has had to undertake in helping to form public opinion as to the preservation of worthy sites and scenes is very large.  Hardly an important ruin is threatened, or interesting house offered for sale, or a piece of vandalism in our island is suspected, but news comes to the office, and the help and sympathy of the Trust is sought. (p. 247)….

It is a thing unimaginable that men who wish to place some abiding monument to their dead friends shall one day say—‘Rather than be content with some dreary monument upon a grave, let me bequeath, to the perpetual joy, and thought, and health, and life of future generations, some fair scene such as my friend delighted in, some ruin which he loved to ramble in, the birthplace or the home of one of the thinkers of the past he held in honour.  It is now in the market, it will cost a few hundred pounds.  A tower on the city wall, for he was strong and a tower of strength in his day.  Some British camp upon the open fells, for he cared for those early days of England’s making.  Some breezy headland, for he faced all storms and feared no tides.  Some flashing waterfall, for his life was full of music: it was cut short, and fell like a broken purpose.  A width of purple moorland, for his views were wide.  A mountain top, for his vision was clear and fair.  An island glen, a woodland, for he loved the “quiet woody places of the land that gave him birth,” his soul abode with gentle solitude.’  Is it a thing undreamable of that in this coming year of golden jubilee men may say to one another, ‘Go to, let us remember the greatest writers, poets, and thinkers of the Victorian time; and if it be possible let us obtain for posterity one or other of the scenes most associated with their life’s work; and let the National Trust hold it as a memorial of her Most Gracious Majesty’s long reign’?  But whether these things be possible or no, it is possible to keep in active working order a little piece of very humble machinery for the welfare of future time, if only we will enrol ourselves as members of the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, or shortly ‘The National Trust.’ (p. 249) 

(Cornhill Magazine, 2 (February 1897), 245-9)

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When, weary of the stifling city’s hum,
I seek the quiet of the hills and dales,
I do rejoice to know the man that ails
In heart, or hope, or head, may hither come,
And here may learn how Nature, seeming dumb,
Can soothe where life’s tumultuous current fails—
Here find the still communion that avails
To fire imagination almost numb.
For not alone the Wanderer may read
An ‘elder Bible’s’ unexhausted page,
Or, scarce escaped from out the wars of creed,
May find a Gospel ‘uncorrupt of age,’
But here he feels his spirit’s greater need—
Wide Liberty, Man’s ancient heritage.

(Sonnets at the English Lakes, p. 3)

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It is the only body in our land with kindred aims, that has a charter, and can as a corporation hold whatever lands or houses come into its hands in trust for the nation.  By the articles of its association it cannot divide any profits among its members.  Its work is purely patriotic and public-spirited.  It aims at rescuing from the hands of the speculator or the jerry builder, or the improver, the beauty-spots of our land.  The waterfalls, the wild glens, the coast cliffs, the reaches of river, the celebrated view points, the stretches of moorland that from time to time may come into its possession to keep “secure from rash assault.”  It aims at securing from demolition or decay the historic houses or sites associated with the past history and literature of the land.  It aims at preserving any national monument or ruin of national interest from destruction; but it does not aim at being a wealthy corporation.  It looks upon itself rather as a body to receive gifts and be their custodian. 

(Nature Notes, 7 (September 1896), 190-1)

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