Dorothy's First Impressions of Dove Cottage

In a letter to Mrs John Marshall, on 10th-12th September, 1800, Dorothy describes her feelings about her new home:

We are daily more delighted with Grasmere, and its neighbourhood; our walks are perpetually varied, and we are more fond of the mountains as our acquaintance with them encreases. We have a boat upon the lake and a small orchard and a smaller garden which as it is the work of our own hands we regard with pride and partiality. . . . Our cottage is quite large enough for us though very small, and we have made it neat and comfortable within doors and it looks very nice on the outside, for though the roses and honeysuckles which we have planted against it are only of this year's growth yet it is covered all over with green leaves and scarlet flowers, for we have trained scarlet beans upon threads . . . . We sit in a room above stairs and we have one lodging-room with two single beds, a sort of lumber room and a small low unceiled room, which I have papered with newspapers and in which we have put a small bed without curtains."

(Letters, EY , 295-296).