A WALKING cane with the handle carved in the image of a famed Lakeland poet and author is being sold at auction.

The 19th century walking cane has its ivory pommel decorated with the bust of William Wordsworth.

A silver collar on the stick has a London hallmark for 1892.

The cane is expected to sell for £100 to £150 in the sale on Tuesday by Antony Cribb of Abingdon in Oxfordshire.

Wordsworth lived from 1770 to 1850 and helped launch the bRomantic Age in English literature.

He was born at Cockermouth, went to school at Hawkshead and later lived at Grasmere.

He was appointed the nation's Poet Laureate in 1843.