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Guide to the Lakes, William Wordsworth's travelers' guidebook to England's Lake District, has been studied by scholars both for its relationship to his Romantic poetry and as an early influence on nineteenth-century  geography. Originally written because Wordsworth needed money, the first version was published in 1810 as anonymous text in a collection of engravings. The work is now best known from its expanded and updated 1835 fifth edition.

Publishing history
The beauty of the Lake District was already well-known in 1810, the year Wordsworth's guide to the lakes was first published, as an anonymous introduction to a book of engravings of the Lake District by the Reverend Joseph Wilkinson. For example, in 1775 the poet Thomas Gray published a journal of his visit to the area, describing the vale of Grasmere as "an unsuspected paradise." The first Lakeland visitors' guide (as opposed to a traveler's journal) appeared in 1778, when Thomas West published a route for travelers that included advice on viewing the landscape.

Wordsworth explained his goal to a reader in May 1810, saying, "What I wished to accomplish was to give a model of the manner in which topographical descriptions ought to be executed, in order to their being either useful or intelligible, by evolving truly and distinctly one appearance from another."

In 1820, Wordsworth published a second, longer version of the Guide attached to his Duddon sonnets. In 1822, Wordsworth's text was first published as a separate volume. Fourth and fifth revised editions followed in 1823 and 1835; the last of these is generally considered definitive.

Modern editions are based on the expanded fifth edition, published in 1835.

Organization
Relevant quote from Wordsworth's text: "'In preparing this Manual, it was the Author's principal wish to furnish a Guide or Companion for the Minds of Persons of taste, and feeling for Landscape, who might be inclined to explore the District of the Lakes with that degree of attention to which its beauty may fairly lay claim. For the more sure attainment, however, of this primary object, he will begin by undertaking the humble and tedious task of supplying the Tourist with directions how to approach the several scenes in their best, or most convenient, order.'"
 * Directions and information for the tourist


 * Description of the scenery of the lakes
 * View of the country as formed by nature
 * View of the country as affected by its inhabitants
 * Changes and rules of taste for preventing their bad effects


 * Miscellaneous observations
 * Excursions
 * Ode ("The pass of Kirkstone")
 * Itinerary