De Quincey in his Recollections was to describe Greta Hall and the arrangements, therein. "The house itself -- Greta Hall -- stood upon a little eminence ... overhanging the river Greta. There was nothing remarkable in its internal arrangements: in all respects, it was a very plain, unadorned family dwelling; large enough, by a little contrivance, to accommodate two, or, in some sense, three families, viz., Mr. Southey and his family; Coleridge and his; together with Mrs. Lovell [Lowell], who, when her son was with her, might be said to compose a third." De Quincey then goes on to make reference to the fact that all of the adult women at Greta Hill were sisters; and how, given that they all had children living under the same roof, that among the many amusing jests of Southey's there was the one where he called the hill on which Greta Hall was placed, the aunt hill. "The house had, therefore been divided (not by absolute partition into two distinct apartments, but by an amicable distribution of rooms) between the two families of Coleridge and Southey." The two families might live apart during the day but would meet together at dinner.8

By comparing it to that of Wordsworth's, de Quincey was to write of Southey's library at Greta Hall:

"... the two or three hundred volumes of Wordsworth occupied a little, homely bookcase, fixed into one of two shallow recesses formed on each side of the fireplace by the projection of the chimney in the little sittingroom up stairs. ... I believe Wordsworth rarely resorted to his books ... On the other hand, Southey's collection occupied a separate room, the largest, and every way the most agreeable, in the house; and this room styled, and not ostentatiously (for it really merited that name), the Library. ... The books were chiefly English, Spanish, and Portuguese; well selected, being the great cardinal classics of the three literatures."9