WHERE WORDSWORTH SLEEPS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21326, 29 October 1932, Page 9 (Supplement)

WHERE WORDSWORTH SLEEPS

RUSH-BEARERS* FESTIVAL Wordsworth was buried at Grasmere, near an old church named after Oswald, King of Northumbria in the seventh century. Recently descendants of Wordsworth and Christopher North went to Grasmere Church for the yearly rushbearing festival. Wordsworth's kindred must have inherited something of his poetic spirit, for there is surely poetry in the survival of a village festival as old as English life. When houses had earthen floors they were strewn with rushes. Before carpets were common wooden floors were treated in the same way. Within living mem Pry poor people put clean aand on their floors. Just how old the rush-bearing ceremony i 3 at Grasmere no one knows, but it is known to have been held for more than 300 years. The rushes were always cut from the neighbouring lake, and carried in procession round the village, with music. A service was held in the church, followed by a feast. This year the procession was led by a fiddler playing a lively old tune. Rush-bearing hymns were sung in a church adorned with many garlands of flowers and rushes; the rushbearers were afterward given a feast—of gingerbread!