ROBERT SOUTHEY (1774 – 1843) An English Romantic poet, essayist, biographer and historian who was Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death in 1843.
Known as one of the 'Lake Poets', Robert Southey lived at Greta Hall in Keswick. He wrote the original story of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. His version was simply called, 'The story of the Three Bears'. He is buried in the churchyard of St Kentigern's Church at Crosthwaite in the Lake District. A memorial inside the church by John Graham Lough bears an epitaph written by William Wordsworth who succeeded him in the post of Poet Laureate:
"Ye Vales and Hills, whose beauty hither drew
The poet's steps, and fixed him here, on you
His eyes have closed."
