In July 1800, the workaholic Dorothy Wordsworth recorded how she coped with a rare weather event in Grasmere; a heat wave.

“July 24: The house was a hot oven and yet we could not bake pies. I was so weary I could not work, so I sat with William in the orchard.

“July 26: It was too hot to walk until near dark, and then sat upon the wall mending my shoes.

“July 27: Very warm. John [William and Dorothy’s younger brother] bathed in the lake. I gathered wild strawberries and walked to Ryedale.

“July 28: I made pies in the morning. In the evening, it was so very warm that I was too tired to walk.

“July 29: We gathered peas for dinner. Still very hot. I was sick and weary.

“July 30: John and I walked in the evening. Still warm...

“July 31: All morning I was copying poems. Gathered peas. Coleridge came very hot.

“August 3: Less hot. I mended my shoes. I made pies and stuffed a pike-baked - a loaf. There was vernal greenness upon the grass, from the morning rains. Peas for dinner.”