Preface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction Old Lakeland: The Golden Age Ideal Land Tenure: A Lake District Survey Wordsworth and Cobbett: A Comparison Wordsworth and Burke: A Contrast Wordsworth: A Weberian Account General Conclusion Appendix I: Wordsworth's Use of the Words Peasant and Peasantry in his Poems 1787-1850 Appendix II: Wordsworth and 'the vices of an archaic tenurial law': A Rebuttal of Criticisms by V.G. Keirnan Reference Notes Bibliography Index

Wordsworth's romantic critique of industrial life and society was backward-looking. His 'Golden Age ideal' of pastoral life and rural relationships falls within the scope of English 'populism' as found among the middle ranks of small independent producers and their idealogues. Furthermore his rural education and up-bringing in the remote North of England explain his long-term shift from radical and whig reformer to tory placeman in the years 1789 to 1832 as well as his relative demise as a poet.

MARK KEAY is a freelance historian and biographer. He received a postgraduate award scholarship from the School of Australian and International Studies at Deakin University, Geelong, to research 'Golden Age theories' both in Modern English History and Literature.