" The inscription on Marshall's monument in the
north aisle of Pickering church which states that "he was indefatigable in
the study of rural economy" and that "he was an excellent mechanic, had a
considerable knowledge of most branches of science, particularly of
philology, botany and chemistry" is not an over statement of his merits.
[Illustration: The Ingle-Nook in Gallow Hill Farm near Brompton. Where
Wordsworth stayed just at the time of his marriage with Mary Hutchinson.]
In the year 1800 the little farm at Gallow Hill near Brompton was taken by
one Thomas Hutchinson whose sister Mary kept house for him. She was almost
the same age and had been a schoolfellow of the poet Wordsworth at Penrith
and had kept up her friendship with his family since that time, having
visited them at Racedown and Dove Cottage, while the Wordsworths had
stayed at the Hutchinson's farm at Sockburn-on-Tees. There was nothing
sudden or romantic therefore in the marriage which took place at Brompton
in 1802. Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy went down from London to the
pretty Yorkshire village in September, and stayed at the little farmhouse,
whose parlour windows looked across the Vale of Pickering to the steep
wolds on the southern side. The house, as far as I can discover, has not
been altered in the century which has elapsed, and the cosy ingle-nook in
the room on the right of the entrance remains full of memories of the poet
and his betrothed--his "perfect woman, nobly planned.
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