ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how Takagi's travel essay by the Lakes: Visiting Poetical Sites of Wordsworth was in many ways a significant measure of Wordsworth's global, cultural and environmental appeal and legacy. Following the usual routine, Takagi's group of tourists marched noisily into Dove Cottage. Stopford Brooke had argued forcefully that Dove Cottage should be secured for its preciousness to English-speaking men and women over the world; now Takagi was expressing its peculiar appeal to the Japanese an appeal that has gathered further impetus since his visit. It is notable that Takagi's tour did not include Rydal Mount. A generation earlier than Takagi, Doppo Kunikida, a novelist and enthusiastic Wordsworthian, preferred to read The Excursion rather than The Prelude. By 1925, it seems, The Prelude had replaced The Excursion as the more desirable companion for Wordsworthian pilgrims and the following year Earnest De Selincourt would publish his monumental edition of Wordsworth's great autobiographical poem.
