ABSTRACT
When I was about fifteen I got on to Wordsworth ... and the next time I went to the Lakes ... I realised that on the map it said "Green Head Gill" and it struck me like a thunderclap really, that this was the Green Head Gill which is the scene of "Michael". And then the whole thing struck me that I could actually go up there and look at that old sheepfold, and that of course he's writing about Helvellyn and I'd like to go up Helvellyn! He's writing about his boat on Ullswater - I'd like to go and see! What were those mountains that worried him so much, and, therefore, I was then going up with the dual purpose - I was following the steps of Wordsworth and his contemporaries. And that gave a great new dimension to my walking.
