Wordsworth as Business Man

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Wordsworthians have long been puzzled and perhaps a little distressed by the poet's apparent shift in political opinion. It is curious that in all the discussion that has resulted no one has said much about Wordsworth's rather vigorous life as a man of business. The story begins with the popular picture of Wordsworth “virtuous, simple, and unaffectedly restricting every want and wish to the bounds of a very narrow income”, with his “little cottage, and the sister and wife dressing the mutton leg in the same room where it was to be eat.” There is probably some truth behind this picture, though it belongs to an earlier period than that of Scott's letter. For some years after his father's death (1784) Wordsworth very likely had more expectations than cash. But since his uncles and guardians were prepared to contribute almost 460 to his college expenses, Wordsworth's only real hardship must have been in not having his own money at hand. Moreover Wordsworth's father, who, in succession to his father and to his cousin, John Robinson, the favorite of George II, had been attorney and land-agent to the Earl of Lonsdale, left only part of his estate tied up in the famous debt owed by the Earl. It is difficult to determine the size of the remainder. Words worth's elder brother, had about 100 a year; and there seems to have been other real and personal property. Gordon Wordsworth, working from the account of his greatgrandfather, lists the following property as belonging at some time to John Wordsworth: the Sockbridge estate; “the various ‘Cattle Gates’ upon the moor”; Ingmire Close, which he had bought from his father-in-law, and which gave him a vote in Cumberland; two fields near Cockermouth, which had cost 200; and “other small properties in various parts of Cumberland.” And the other children must have had some share in an estate at Newbiggin, in Westmorland.