He was to achieve one of his greatest ambitions to see the trust

He was to achieve one of his greatest ambitions, to see the trust acquire a record of Turner’s visit to the Lakes in 1797, only a few days before his death Today there are hundreds of pictures in the collection. Under Woof’s leadership the trustees embarked on a programme to explain to the world at large the relationship of poetry to the surrounding landscape, and how the circles of British Romantic writers interacted amongst themselves, and with the other arts. When in 1977 Woof acquired for the trust a watercolour of Grasmere and Helm Crag by Francis Towne’s pupil John White Abbott, no one could have predicted how central the importance of pictures – watercolours, oils, drawings and prints; portraits, landscapes and book illustrations – were to become to this mission. In 1982, a pioneering exhibition showed how artists discovered the Lake District from the late 18th century onwards, the beginning of a theme in which Woof was greatly encouraged by Peter Bicknell. He worked constantly, with spectacular success, to add manuscripts and books to the collection; but they were only part of his vision of Romanticism. Now, new and more commodious provision to show objects and papers was created alongside the cottage in a converted barn.

Until then, the tranquil existence of Dove Cottage had remained largely unchanged since its purchase in 1890 by a group of enthusiasts led by Stopford Brooke and Canon H.D. Rawnsley for the preservation of the place where Wordsworth wrote some of his finest poetry and, in Brooke’s words, “for the eternal possession of those who love English poetry from all over the world” Woof took the original trustees’ purpose as a challenge The tranquillity of the cottage was meticulously preserved There had always been a museum room. Facilities for readers were vastly improved in what was proving a golden age of Wordsworth scholarship. With the help of the architecture department at Newcastle, Dove Cottage was repaired in 1977-79. In 1978 he became secretary and treasurer to the trustees, and then in 1989 the first full-time Director. To have rescued these papers from neglect was a major achievement in itself For Woof it was only the beginning.

The work was to be done by Sandy Cockerell, near Cambridge, and so Woof now began a period of triangular journeyings, hitching lifts (he never learned to drive) from Newcastle over the Pennines to Grasmere, from there taking batches of papers by train to Cambridge, and so on back home. In 1962 Woof was appointed lecturer in the English department at Newcastle, and his mixture of persuasiveness and scholarly responsibility made him an obvious person to join the Trustees of Dove Cottage In 1974 he became the collection’s honorary keeper. Led by him, the trustees applied in 1970 for a grant from the Pilgrim Trust for a long programme to repair Wordsworth’s papers. While the papers were greatly respected, they were not in the best of condition: the collection was manifestly in need of professional care. He and Pamela rented a cottage in nearby Rydal, and Robert worked his way through the boxes, a treasure-trove that was still not properly sorted or listed. After a spell teaching at Toronto, the Lord Adams of Ennerdale Fellowship at Newcastle University was tailor-made for Robert Woof – a Lancastrian, with interests in Wordsworth; he returned to take it up in 1961.

But he needed, above all, to spend long periods with the papers given by the Wordsworth family to Dove Cottage, in Grasmere. He also courted Pamela Moore, a contemporary in the English school at Oxford who was now likewise in Toronto. Their marriage in 1958 brought not only family happiness but also an intellectual partnership of unique effectiveness, Pamela’s work on Dorothy Wordsworth complementing Robert’s own particular interests. Woof chose what he needed, and worked at his dissertation on the two major early Romantic poets. He was born in Lancashire in 1931, and after Lancaster Royal Grammar School went up with a scholarship to Pembroke College, Oxford, to read English. From there he was attracted to postgraduate study in Toronto, where some of the best work on the Romantic poets was going on.