WILLIAM Wordsworth lived surrounded by an admiring coven of female relations.

Headed by the poet’s sister Dorothy they, included, inevitably, his fertile wife Mary, her sister Sarah Hutchinson and his favourite daughter Dora.

But fearing any break in the domestic circle he took against Edward Quillinan, an impecunious, half Portuguese widower who deigned to pay court to Dora.

Edward’s frustration is revealed in a letter describing a family expedition to climb Helvellyn in June 1839.

“I wish you could have seen the Old Poet (he was 69) seated, as we paused, writing his Waterloo Sonnet.'

This had been prompted by the recent unveiling of painting of the 1815 Battle.

“It is curious’ he continued.

"that even on great steep mountains the poet is followed by strangers, yet evidence of the reverence he is held in.

"Nobody can have the least idea how he is hunted flattered, puffed, etc. It is enough to spoil any human being’.

"Finally, after Dora threatened to starve herself to death, the Old Poet relented and the couple married in 1841 not at Rydal but at Bath.

The Poet’s daughters, Katie Waldegrave, Hutchinson, 2013.