University Extension Lectures

Syllabus

of a

Course of Six Lectures

on

The Lake School and the Lake Country

No. 236

by

Albert H. Smyth

Professor of the English Language and Literature, Central High School
Philadelphia

Copyright, 1903, by

Price, 10 cents

The American Society for the Extension of University Teaching
111 South Fifteenth Street, Philadelphia, Pa.

The Class.-At the close of each lecture a class will be held for questions and further discussion. All are urged to attend it and to take an active part. The subjects discussed will ordinarily be those arising from the lecture of the same evening. In centres in which no Students' Association (see below) has been formed, the class will afford opportunity for the lecturer to comment on the papers subImitted to him.

The Weekly Papers.-Every student has the privilege of writing and sending to the lecturer each week, while the course is in progress, a paper treating any theme from the lists given at the end of each part of the syllabus. The paper should have at the head of the first sheet the name of the writer and the name of the centre. Papers may be addressed to the lecturer, University Extension, 111 South Fifteenth street, Philadelphia.

The Students' Association.-Every lecture centre will be greatly helped in its work by the formation of a club or other body of students and readers desirous of getting the stimulus that working in common affords. This Students' Association will have its own organization and arrange its regular programme, if possible, both before and after as well as during the lecture course. The lecturer will always lend his help in drawing up programmes, and, when the meeting falls on the day of the lecture, will endeavor to attend and take part. Much of the best work of Extension is being done through the Students' Associations.

The Examination.-Those students who have followed the course throughout will be admitted at the close of the lectures to an examination under the direction of the lecturer. Each person who passes the examination successfully will receive from the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching a certificate in testimony thereof.

LECTURE I.

LIFE AND NATURE IN THE LAKE COUNTRY.

Geography of the Lake Country; its moorland, mountain ranges and lakes; disappearance of the forests; extraordinary rainfall (224 inches per year at Styhead Pass).

Geology of the Lake Country; its mountains are volcanic ash.

History; survival of Celtic blood among the dalesmen; Celtic names of places; prehistoric remains; ancient crosses, abbeys, churches, castles.

Social Aspects; cottage interiors; customs, amusements (wrestling), superstitions, folklore, dialect.

The Lake School of Poetry; how the "Lake Poets" came to reside in the region. The love of lonely nature a new passion in the world. How the "Lake Poets" were influenced by the French Revolution. The spirit of democracy in literature and government.

Illustrated by views of the tarns (mountain lakes), hows (hills), ghylls (ravines), forces (water-falls), lakes and mountains.

LECTURE II.

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF THE LAKES.

Gathering of the poets in the Lake Region. Wordsworth (1799), Coleridge (1802), Southey (1803), Wilson (1807). De Quincey came in 1809. Southey and Coleridge meet first at Oxford in 1794. Pantisocratic schemes. Coleridge and Wordsworth met 1795 Became intimate in 1797 at NetherStowey and Alfoxden.

Coleridge and De Quincey met 1807.

Rawnsley's "Literary Associations of the English Lakes." Reflection of Lake Country Scenery in the Work of the Lake Poets.

The antagonism of Francis Jeffrey and The Edinburgh Review.

Influence of the Lake Country in fostering the romantic spirit in English Poetry.

LECTURE III.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

Illustrated by Portraits of Wordsworth by Pickersgill, Boxall, and Haydon. Portraits of Mrs. Wordsworth, Dorothy and Dora; and pictures of his homes and of the places celebrated in his poems.

Born at Cockermouth, Cumberland, 1770, educated at Hawkshead, and St. John's College, Cambridge.

His life in the south of England, at Racedown, in Dorset, and in the Lake Country, at Dove Cottage, 1799-1808.

The publication of the "Lyrical Ballads" (1798).

The significance of the volume in the history of literature.

Wordsworth's attitude toward the French Revolution.
His view of Nature.

Residence at Rydal Mount, 1813-1850.