NEXT April, when the daffodils are in full bloom, it will be 250 years since the birth of one of the world’s most celebrated poets, William Wordsworth.

It was Dove Cottage in Grasmere, a former pub in the heart of the Lake District and Wordsworth’s home for eight years, that set the scene for his most prolific period of writing. Inspired by the garden and surrounding fells, his verse would revolutionise English poetry forever - and more than two centuries later, Dove Cottage attracts pilgrims of Romantic poetry and tourists from around the world.

But the Wordsworth trail doesn’t end in Grasmere. A short drive away, in the small village of Rydal, is Wordsworth’s other Lakeland home, where he lived from 1813 until his death, aged 80, in 1850. He and his wife Mary lived at Rydal Mount with their three surviving children, John, Dora and William, and it was where Wordsworth wrote many of his poems and published the final draft of his most famous work, Daffodils.

A frequent visitor was Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who would walk down from his home in Keswick.

Dating from the 16th century, and extended over the centuries, Rydal Mount retains the look and feel of a lived-in family home. Owned by descendants of Wordsworth, it contains a fascinating array of the family’s possessions, including furniture, artworks, manuscripts and letters, and the five-acre garden, still as Wordsworth designed it, looks out to glorious views of Lake Windermere, Rydal Water, the smallest of the lakes, and surrounding fells.

In the drawing-room a portrait above the fireplace is the only known one of Dorothy, Wordsworth’s sister, and her little dog, Miss Belle, a stray that followed Wordsworth and his son home one day. A more recent portrait is of Wordsworth’s great great grandaughter, Mary Henderson, who purchased Rydal Mount in 1969. Also in the room is a statue of the Curious Child, named by Wordsworth in Book IV of the Excursion.

In the adjoining library are portraits of Wordsworth throughout his life, his cutlass chair, said to be one of the poet’s favourite chairs, and his sofa, bringing to mind the line in Daffodils: ‘For oft, when on my couch I lie in vacant or pensive mood...’

In William and Mary’s bedroom a letter on the mantlepiece is Wordsworth’s reply to Queen Victoria, declining an invitation to be Poet Laureate. He was later persuaded to change his mind - on condition that he needn’t write any poetry! - and the 1843 certificate is displayed.

Dora’s bedroom is poignant, as it was here at Rydal Mount where she died of tuberculosis, aged 43, leaving her father inconsolable. In the room is a letter she wrote four months before her death. Dora accompanied Wordsworth on many of his tours and when she died he wrote: “She is ever with me and will be to the last moment of my life.”

After her death in 1847, William and his wife and sister planted hundreds of wild daffodils in a small field next to the garden. Dora’s Field now belongs to the National Trust and each spring is covered in a carpet of yellow.

Dorothy, Wordsworth’s close companion for over 50 years, lived with the family at Rydal Mount. In her bedroom is a picture of Caroline Vallon, Wordsworth’s daughter by French lover Annette Vallon, from his time in Revolutionary France.

Heading downstairs, we reached the dining-room, which has the flagged floor and oak beams of the original Tudor cottage, where afternoon tea was laid out on the table. It felt very special to dine in the room where Wordsworth and his family once gathered around the table.

The dining-room can be hired for cream teas or dinners, and the house is licensed for weddings. Can there be a lovelier location than the home of a Romantic poet?

In the tea-room, located in the old saddlery over the coach house, there’s a selection of homemade cakes.

Wordsworth believed a garden should be in harmony with the countryside. The beautiful Rydal Mount garden, blending into surrounding fells, consists of rare shrubs, terraces, rock pools and an ancient mound, used in the 9th Century for beacon fires to warn of border raiders. In season, a spectacular display of colour arises from daffodils, bluebells and rhododendrons. Following a leaflet trail highlighting plants and trees of interest, we climbed steps built by the poet to a summer house, where a curved path leads out to the fell. Below is Isabella’s Terrace, built for a family friend, then Dora’s Terrace, discovered in 1994. We took a breather in the “Writing Hut” where Wordsworth created much of his work. A servant at Rydal Mount once told a visitor: “This is my Master’s library where he keeps his books - his study is out of doors”. It is here in the garden, close to nature, where you can almost hear the scratch of his pen.

l Rydal Mount is open seven days a week, 9.30am-5pm, April 1 to October 31 and Wednesday-Sunday, 11am-4pm until March 31. Visit rydalmount.co.uk or call 01539 433002.