Lynda Aylett-Green’s not-too-serious piece, ‘Wordsworth in Derbyshire’ got second prize in this year’s NAWG competition and she’s really delighted to have been placed. The Duke of Devonshire is waiting impatiently at Chatsworth as he’s told the poet to write a flattering sonnet about his stately home, though surely fourteen lines isn’t enough to describe the splendours of Chatsworth! The Duke waits with mounting irritation for ‘Mr Wordsmith’ and hears that the poet has been distracted by the legend of a hillside in Darley Dale. When finally ‘Mr Wordless’ prefers to visit Haddon Hall he threatens to ruin the poet’s reputation. ‘Too late’ the Duchess tells him, Wordsworth’s fame is already greater than the Duke’s.
