Dorothy Wordsworth describes to Lady Beaumont how she received a letter from her: 'A few minutes before your letter arrived, William [Wordsworth] had set forward with his Daughter on his back, and our little Nursemaid and I were on foot following after, all on our road over the high mountain pass betwixt Grasmere and Patterdale, by which road we were going to Park House to remove the Child from the danger of catching the hooping-cough which is prevalent at Grasmere. The letter was sent after us and we halted by the way-side to read it ...'