A country house that is romantic even by William Wordworth's standards has come on the market in the Lake District for £3million. A favourite destination for Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy, Eusemere - five miles from Penrith, Cumbria - was built in the late 18th century for the slave abolitionist Thomas Clarkson. The 16-acre estate adjacent to Ullswater includes a six-bedroom house, a boathouse, three terraced cottages and a farmhouse with planning consent for conversion. It is bordered by the Helvellyn and High Street mountains and is being marketed by the Penrith agent Farmers' & Kidd's, and by Savills.

During his time at Eusemere Clarkson - a friend of William Wilberforce - welcomed much of the Lake District's high society. Visitors included Sir Walter Scott and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, as well as Wordsworth, who wrote part of his most famous poem, Daffodils, there after he and Dorothy were enchanted by the flowers on the lakeside at nearby Glencoyne Bay. Dorothy wrote in her journal on April 15, 1802: “We set off after dinner from Eusemere. When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow Park we saw a few daffodils close to the waterside...I have never seen daffodils so beautiful.”

The house became famous again in 1970 when it was bought by the textile magnate Lord Kagan - inventor of the Gannex raincoat worn by Lyndon Johnson and Nikita Khrushchev, as well as Harold Wilson, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. Kagan, who died in 1995, fell in love with Eusemere while flying over the area in his plane. He used the house as a retreat, especially after his ten-month jail sentence for tax evasion in 1980.

The house is still owned by Kagan's family and his daughter, Jenny, 42, who married there in June, is handling the sale. “My brothers Daniel and Michael have moved to America and my mother is getting on, so sadly we felt it was time to let it go,” she said. “Having grown up in the house and always known it full of people, I feel it deserves to be lived in,” she said.

Lady Kagan, 84, said that she had enjoyed some of the happiest times of her life at Eusemere. “I feel very nostalgic about it,” she said. “It has such a wonderful atmosphere and character. But I'm afraid it needs a poet's imagination to do justice to it and I am too old to look after the place.”

Kyle Blue, of Farmers' & Kidd's, says that the house is “nothing fantastic internally” but that the layout is exceptional. “The kind of person who is prepared to pay £3 million for the estate will probably want to modernise the interior too - especially the bathrooms and kitchen,” he said.

A celebrity buyer is a distinct possibility, the agent says. “But there is no truth in the rumour that a Portuguese footballer who plays for Manchester United is interested,” he joked.

Penrith Farmers' & Kidd's:

01768 862135, pfandk.co.uk

Savills: 020-7016 3789, savills.com

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