A Quantock Amble

The great beauty of these hills, says Dorothy Wordsworth, is their wild simplicity. We often hear of the 'Lakes poets', but in fact Coleridge wrote most of his best-known works (Kubla Khan, Christabel) while he was living in Somerset, and his neighbour, Wordsworth, started his poetic career here as well. Coleridge was the first to move to the Quantocks, invited by a friendly bookseller, from Nether Stowey, who had noticed a cottage to let at the bottom of his garden. A year later Wordsworth and his sister moved into the rather grand house of Alfoxton (now a hotel and passed towards the end of this walk).

This took place in the heady years after the French Revolution, and the ultimate aim of the two friends was to set up a sort of poets' commune, gathering like-minded radicals for a group emigration to America. In the meantime, the two young men revolutionised English poetry. They were key players in the Romantic Revival, overthrowing the stilted formal verse of the previous hundred years, by creating Romantic poetry as a means of describing and expressing strong emotion.

Amazingly, Coleridge's most celebrated work, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, was written in the Quantocks at a time when his entire experience of sea voyaging was a crossing of the Severn by the Chepstow ferry. The poem was roughed out in the course of a walk taken by Coleridge, Wordsworth and Wordsworth's sister, Dorothy. They set out from Alfoxton at 4pm on a November afternoon in 1797; this was timed so that they could watch from the Quantock ridge as dusk gave way to moonlight over the Bristol Channel. After crossing the Quantocks they continued by the coast path, finally arriving at Dulverton four days later. Coleridge's mesmeric Christabel recalls the wooded combes of Holford. In This Lime-tree Bower My Prison, Coleridge himself was frustratingly trapped at home in Stowey, after his wife Sara had spilt scalding milk on his foot.

'Now, my friends emerge

Beneath the wide wide Heaven - and view again

The many-steepled tract magnificent

Of hilly fields and meadows, and the sea'

Meanwhile, his friends were following your present walk up to Bicknoller Post and enjoying the view over the Bristol Channel. The different writing styles of the two friends were reflected in their walking styles: Coleridge liked to compose his verse whilst striding over awkward ground, whereas Wordsworth did so pacing up and down a gravel path.

Where to eat and drink

There is nothing currently at Holford. Nether Stowey has a good selection, with the Royal Oak being congenial and dog-friendly.

What to look for

Just below Dowsborough Fort is, apparently, the home of the Great Vurm of Shervage Wood. It lives on sheep, cattle, whortleberries and people. It sometimes looks like a fallen tree trunk; the only person to have survived meeting it was a woodman from Stogumber who actually sat down on it to enjoy his lunchtime cider and sandwiches. A small building in the wood near the car park (grid ref ST 153411) is a dog pound. In the 18th century the huntsman at Alfoxton's kennels was killed by his own hounds when trying to pacify them from barking at stray dogs. Accordingly Alfoxton donated this pound to the community.

While you're there

The Coleridge Cottage at Nether Stowey is managed by the National Trust. The lime tree bower is gone but you can see a bay tree planted by the poet, his massive inkwell, his sword and a lock of his hair as well as the rooms where he worked. The poet's privy has also survived. The cottage is open four afternoons a week except in winter.