Samual Taylor Coleridge stayed here for two months following his marriage to Sarah Fricker in St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, 1795. Coleridge’s poem ‘The Eolian Harp’, was completed during their stay. In this, the cottage is described as:
'...our cot o'ergrown With white-flower'd Jasmin, and the broad-leav'd Myrtle, (Meet emblems they of Innocence and Love!) And watch the clouds, that late were rich with light, Slow saddening round, and mark the star of eve Serenely brilliant (such should Wisdom be) Shine opposite! How exquisite the scents Snatch'd from yon bean-field ! and the world so hushed! The stilly murmur of the distant Sea Tells us of silence.' (ll.3-12)
In a similar tone as ‘The Eolian Harp’, which depicts the relationship between the landscape of Clevedon and its impact on the subjective viewer, in ‘Reflections on having left a Place of Retirement’ (1796), the land of Clevedon is praised and seen full of life. In contrast to the first poem, which centres around a celebration of active nature, the second sets the luxurious calm of retirement against the 'toil' of others. Thoughts of the city and active life encroach upon the scene. The two poems represent important developments of the Conversational mode and draw much from the impact of the surrounding landscape through which the couple frequently walked. The Clevedon surrounds provide an active background, animated in the heavily scented evening air and the glimpse of sails on the Bristol Channel.
In George Gissing's 1893 novel The Odd Women, Clevedon is described as 'chiefly interesting' to Dr. Madden 'for its literary associations. Tennyson he worshipped; he never passed Coleridge's cottage without bowing in spirit'. Gissing was persuaded to visit Clevedon by a newspaper advertisement in the Daily Graphic, 1891, which described the seaside town as perfect from a health restoring point of view.