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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41506 ***
+
+[Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate this text
+as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and
+other inconsistencies.]
+
+
+
+
+Dorothy Wordsworth.
+
+
+
+
+DOROTHY WORDSWORTH
+
+_THE STORY OF A SISTER'S LOVE._
+
+BY
+
+EDMUND LEE.
+
+London:
+
+JAMES CLARKE & CO., 13 & 14, FLEET STREET.
+
+1886.
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+MISS QUILLINAN,
+
+A STRONG LINK
+
+BETWEEN THE PAST AND PRESENT GENERATIONS
+
+OF THE FAMILY OF WHICH
+
+DOROTHY WORDSWORTH
+
+WAS SUCH A DISTINGUISHED ORNAMENT,
+
+THIS LITTLE WORK IS (BY PERMISSION)
+
+GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+This little book owes its origin to the fact that, with the exception of
+Professor Shairp's Sketch contained in the preface to the "Tour in
+Scotland," no biography or memoir of the subject of it has hitherto been
+written. Seeing what an important part Miss Wordsworth occupied in
+influencing the revival of English poetry at the close of the last
+century, this has frequently been to me a matter of surprise. To the
+best of my knowledge, she does not even occupy any place in the numerous
+sketches of famous women which have from time to time appeared. At the
+same time the references to her in the biographies of her brother and in
+the reviews of his works are many.
+
+My main object in the present work has been, so far as permissible, to
+gather together into the form of a Memoir of her life various allusions
+to Miss Wordsworth, together with such further particulars as might be
+procurable, and with some reflections to which such a life gives rise.
+My task has, therefore, been one of a compiler rather than an author.
+
+I acknowledge my great indebtedness to all sources from whence
+information has been obtained. In addition to the authorities after
+mentioned, I desire especially to mention the kindness of Dr. Sadler for
+his permission to reprint the letters of Miss Wordsworth to the late
+Mr. Henry Crabb Robinson, published in his "Diary and Reminiscences";
+and of Mr. F. W. H. Myers for the like permission to make use of some
+letters which for the first time appeared in his "Wordsworth."
+
+However far I have failed in my original design, and however imperfectly
+I may have performed my self-appointed task of love, it cannot be
+doubted that no name can more fittingly have a place in female biography
+than that of Dorothy Wordsworth.
+
+  BRADFORD, 1886.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+  CHAPTER I.
+
+  Introductory                                                       1
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+
+  Childhood and Early Life--Early Influence--Wordsworth
+    in France--Settlement at Racedown                                6
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+
+  Raisley Calvert--Residence at Racedown--Coleridge--Removal
+  to Alfoxden                                                       17
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+
+  Alfoxden--Hazlitt--Charles and Mary Lamb--Cottle--Residence
+  in Germany                                                        29
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+
+  The Lake District                                                 44
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+
+  Life at Grasmere                                                  59
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+
+  Some Memorial Nooks--Lancrigg Wood--Emma's Dell--William's
+  Peak--Point Rash Judgment--Rock of Names                          71
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  The Circle Widened--Mrs. Wordsworth                               81
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+
+  Tour in Scotland--Miss Wordsworth's Journal                       93
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+
+  Life at Grasmere--Capt. Wordsworth                               112
+
+  CHAPTER XI.
+
+  De Quincey--His Description of Miss Wordsworth--Removal
+  to Allan Bank                                                    120
+
+  CHAPTER XII.
+
+  The Children of Blentarn Ghyll--Deaths of Wordsworth's
+  Children                                                         131
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.
+
+  Removal to Rydal Mount--Dora Wordsworth                          139
+
+  CHAPTER XIV.
+
+  Friends--Tour on Continent                                       146
+
+  CHAPTER XV.
+
+  Further Influence                                                155
+
+  CHAPTER XVI.
+
+  Illness and Last Years                                           169
+
+  CHAPTER XVII.
+
+  A Quiet Resting-place                                            186
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+  Miss Wordsworth's Poems                                          194
+
+  CHAPTER XIX.
+
+  Journal of Tour at Ullswater                                     203
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF AUTHORITIES.
+
+  _The Poetical Works of Wordsworth._
+
+  _Memoirs of Wordsworth_, by the late Bishop of Lincoln.
+
+  _Wordsworth's Prose Works._
+
+  _Miss Wordsworth's Tour in Scotland._ Edited by Principal Shairp.
+
+  _Wordsworth's Description of the Lakes._
+
+  _Tait's Edinburgh Magazine_, 1839 and 1840.
+
+  _Recollections of the Lakes_, by De Quincey.
+
+  _Life of De Quincey_, by H. A. Page.
+
+  _Memoirs of Hazlitt_, by W. Carew Hazlitt.
+
+  _Diary and Reminiscences of Henry Crabb Robinson._
+
+  _Wordsworth_, by F. W. H. Myers (_English Men of Letters_).
+
+  _Autobiography of Sir Henry Taylor._
+
+  _Memoir of Sara Coleridge._
+
+  _Autobiography of Mrs. Fletcher._
+
+  _Cottle's Early Recollections of Coleridge._
+
+  _Howitt's Homes and Haunts of the British Poets._
+
+  _Letters of Charles Lamb_, by T. N. Talfourd.
+
+  _The Lake Country_, by Mrs. E. Lynn Linton.
+
+  _The English Lake District as Interpreted in the Works of Wordsworth_,
+  by Professor Knight.
+
+  _Blackwood's Magazine._
+
+  _The Transactions of the Wordsworth Society._
+
+
+
+
+                                  "I knew a maid,
+
+        .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .
+    Birds in the bower, and lambs in the green fields
+    Could they have known her, would have loved; methought
+    Her very presence such a sweetness breathed,
+    That flowers, and trees, and even the silent hills,
+    And everything she looked on, should have had
+    An intimation how she bore herself
+    Towards them, and to all creatures. God delights
+    In such a being; for, her common thoughts
+    Are piety, her life is gratitude."
+
+                                    THE PRELUDE.
+
+
+
+
+DOROTHY WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+The influences which help to shape human destiny are many and varied. At
+some period in the early history of two lives, beginning their course
+separately, one of them, by coming into contact with the other, is
+quickened into deeper vitality, and the germ of a great and unthought-of
+future is formed. Lives touch each other, and from thenceforth, like
+meeting waters, their onward course is destined, and flows through
+deeper and broader channels.
+
+Among the most commanding of human influences is that of _woman_. As
+mother, or sister, or wife we find her, at every period of a man's
+existence, occupying a prominent part as his guide, comforter, and
+friend. Not unfrequently it happens that the influence of a sister is
+the greatest, and that to which a career is due. Especially is this so
+when the mother dies whilst the brother and sister are young. The
+influence of the wife, all-powerful though it may be, is of a later
+date, when character and conduct have to a great extent become formed,
+and the tendency of genius settled. When the sister's companionship
+gives place to that of the wife, a career may have become developed. In
+this way the most dominant power may remain unrevealed; and the
+blossoming and perfection of character may never be traced to their
+original source.
+
+Many pleasant stories of affection between brothers and sisters, and of
+their inspiration of each other, have been told; and many more have
+existed among those who have lived unhistoric lives, and whose annals
+are recorded only among memories which linger round lonely hearths.
+Lovely and pleasant in their saddened lives were Charles and Mary Lamb.
+The way in which they were each devoted to the other, and in which they
+were bound up in each other's well-being to the complete forgetfulness
+of self, suggests a pleasing and pathetic picture of fraternal fidelity,
+while it reveals a domestic history the most touching and tragic the
+world has known.
+
+We have a companion picture, but a more happy and pleasant one, in the
+lives of William and Dorothy Wordsworth.
+
+The culture and well-being of a nation depend largely upon the
+character, purity, and progress of its literature. To no class of
+writers has the world been more indebted than to its poets--those "rare
+souls, whose thoughts enrich the blood of the world." It was well said
+by one of these: "Poetry has been to me its own exceeding great reward.
+It has soothed my afflictions; it has multiplied and refined my
+enjoyments; it has endeared solitude; and it has given me the habit of
+wishing to discover the good and the beautiful in all that meets and
+surrounds me."
+
+Among those who have permanently elevated and enriched our English
+literature during the present century, none is entitled to a more
+honoured place than is William Wordsworth, our greatest laureate; and
+none of the influences which entered into his life, and served to build
+up his great career, and to complete his great work, can fail to be of
+interest. And of all the world's benefactors--of all who in any of the
+primary departments, have achieved most signal distinction, has none
+been more indebted to the aid of another, than was Wordsworth to the
+devoted aid and the constraining and softening power of his sister.
+
+In many respects there is a marked similarity between the lives of
+Charles and Mary Lamb and those of William and Dorothy Wordsworth. The
+burden of the story of each is that of a brother's and sister's love.
+But there is also a great difference. While one is the tale of an elder
+sister's affection, and of the brother's self-sacrifice for the tender
+care of her during periods of nature's saddest affliction, the other
+tells how a younger sister consecrated her life to her brother's
+greatest good, relinquishing for herself everything outside him in such
+a way that she became absorbed in his own existence. But as a
+self-sacrificing love always brings its own reward, the poet's sister
+attained hers. She is for all time identified and associated with her
+brother, who, with a grateful love, has "crowned her for immortality."
+As Mr. Paxton Hood remarks: "Not Laura with Petrarch, nor Beatrice with
+Dante, nor the fair Geraldine with Surrey, are more really connected
+than is Wordsworth with his sister Dorothy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CHILDHOOD AND EARLY LIFE.
+
+
+Dorothy Wordsworth was the only daughter and third child of John and
+Anne Wordsworth. She was born on Christmas Day, 1771, at Cockermouth, in
+Cumberland, being a year and nine months younger than her famous
+brother, the poet. John Wordsworth, the father, was an attorney-at-law,
+who had attained considerable success in his profession, being the
+solicitor of the then Earl of Lonsdale, in an old manor-house belonging
+to whose family he resided. Miss Wordsworth's mother was, on the
+maternal side, descended from an old and distinguished family, being the
+only daughter of William Cookson, of Penrith, who had married Dorothy
+Crackenthorp, whose family, we are informed, had, since the early part
+of the fourteenth century, resided at Newbiggen Hall, Westmoreland. The
+Wordsworths themselves traced their descent from a Yorkshire family of
+that name who had settled in the county about the time of the Norman
+Conquest.
+
+Dorothy had the misfortune to lose her excellent mother when she was a
+little more than six years old. After this great loss her father's
+health declined, and she was left an orphan at the early age of twelve.
+The sources of information concerning her childhood are very meagre.
+
+We cannot doubt that for the qualities of mind and heart which
+distinguished her she was, in common with the other members of her
+family--her four brothers, who all won for themselves successful
+careers--indebted to her parenthood, and especially to her mother, of
+whom the poet says:--
+
+                      "She was the heart
+    And hinge of all our learning and our loves."
+
+The beauty and gentleness of disposition by which, in after years,
+Dorothy Wordsworth developed into such a perfect woman were not absent
+in her early childhood. Although we know so little, we have abundant
+testimony that as a child she was fittingly named _Dorothea_--the gift
+of God--and that then her life of ministry to her poet-brother began. We
+can well imagine how the little dark-eyed brunette, sparkling and
+impulsive damsel as she was, and the only girl in the family, became the
+darling of the circle. In after years, when her favourite and famous
+brother had entered on the career which she helped so much to stimulate
+and to perfect, we find in his poems many allusions to her, as well in
+her prattling childhood as in her mature years. The sight of a butterfly
+calls to the poet's mind the pleasures of the early home, the time when
+he and his little playmate "together chased the butterfly." The kindness
+of her child heart is told in a few expressive words. He says:--
+
+    "A very hunter did I rush
+      Upon the prey;--with leaps and springs
+    I followed on from brake to bush;
+    But she--God love her!--_feared to brush
+      The dust from off its wings_."
+
+The sight of a sparrow's nest, many years after, also served to bring to
+the poet's remembrance his father's home and his sister's love. The
+"bright blue eggs" appeared to him "a vision of delight." In them he saw
+another sparrow's nest, in the years gone by daily visited in company
+with his little sister.
+
+    "Behold, within that leafy shade,
+    Those bright blue eggs together laid!
+    On me the chance-discovered sight
+    Gleamed like a vision of delight.
+    I started, seeming to espy
+      The home and sheltered bed,
+    The Sparrow's dwelling, which, hard by
+    My Father's house, in wet or dry,
+    My sister Emmeline and I
+      Together visited.
+    She looked at it and seemed to fear it,
+    Dreading, though wishing, to be near it:
+    Such heart was in her, being then
+    A little Prattler among men.
+    The Blessing of my later years
+      Was with me when a boy:
+    She gave me eyes, she gave me ears;
+    And humble cares, and delicate fears;
+    A heart, the fountain of sweet tears,
+      And love, and thought, and joy."
+
+It is to her early thoughtfulness that the poet alludes in another poem
+having reference to the same period. In this poem he represents his
+sister and her young play-fellows gathering spring flowers, and thus
+records her prudent "Foresight":--
+
+    "Here are daisies, take your fill;
+      Pansies, and the cuckoo-flower:
+    Of the lofty daffodil
+      Make your bed or make your bower;
+    Fill your lap and fill your bosom;
+    Only spare the strawberry-blossom!
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    God has given a kindlier power
+    To the favoured strawberry-flower.
+    Hither soon as spring is fled
+      You and Charles and I will walk;
+    Lurking berries, ripe and red,
+      Then will hang on every stalk,
+    Each within the leafy bower;
+    And for that promise spare the flower!"
+
+An incident showing the tender sensibility of her nature when a child is
+also deserving of special mention. In a note to the "Second Evening
+Voluntary," Wordsworth says: "My sister, when she first heard the voice
+of the sea from this point (the high ground on the coast of Cumberland
+overlooking Whitehaven and the sea beyond it) and beheld the sea spread
+before her, burst into tears. Our family then lived at Cockermouth, and
+this fact was often mentioned among us as indicating the sensibility for
+which she was so remarkable."
+
+The death of their mother was, however, the signal for separation. Her
+brother William was sent to school at Hawkshead, in North Lancashire,
+and Dorothy went to reside with her maternal grandfather at Penrith.
+Subsequently, during her brother's school and college days, we are
+informed that she lived chiefly at Halifax with her cousin, occasionally
+making lengthened visits at Forncett, to her cousin, Dr. Cookson, Canon
+of Windsor. Although they were in this way for some years deprived of
+each other's society, except during occasional college vacations, they
+were not forgotten by each other, and their early love did not grow
+cold. Wordsworth, having gone to Cambridge in 1787, during one of his
+early vacations visited his relations at Penrith, when he was for a
+short period restored to his sister's society. In his autobiographical
+poem, "The Prelude," he has thus recorded the fact:--
+
+    "In summer, making quest for works of art,
+    Or scenes renowned for beauty, I explored
+    That streamlet whose blue current works its way
+    Between romantic Dovedale's spiry rocks;
+    Pried into Yorkshire dales, or hidden tracts
+    Of my own native region, and was blest
+    Between these sundry wanderings with a joy
+    Above all joys, that seemed another morn
+    Risen on mid noon; blest with the presence
+    Of that sole Sister ----
+    Now, after separation desolate,
+    Restored to me--such absence that she seemed
+    A gift then first bestowed."
+
+It cannot be doubted that the poetic tendency of Dorothy Wordsworth's
+mind, like that of her brother, was fostered by the beauties of the
+natural scenery in the midst of which a large portion of her childhood
+was cast. The beauty of wood, and lake, and mountain early sank into
+their receptive minds, and helped to make them what they became, both to
+each other, and to the world. To the influence of Nature in the maturing
+of their intellect, the development of both mind and heart, it may be
+necessary to refer later.
+
+During the last of his college vacations--that of the year 1790, so
+remarkable in French history--Wordsworth made a three months' tour on
+the Continent with his friend, Mr. Robert Jones. Writing to his sister,
+then budding into womanhood, from the Lake of Constance, a fine
+description of the scenery through which they were passing, he says: "I
+have thought of you perpetually; and never have my eyes rested upon a
+scene of great loveliness but I have almost instantly wished that you
+could for a moment be transported to the place where I stood to enjoy
+it. I have been more particularly induced to form those wishes, because
+the scenes of Switzerland have no resemblance to any I have found in
+England; consequently it may probably never be in your power to form an
+idea of them." And he concludes by saying: "I must now bid you adieu,
+with assuring you that you are perpetually in my thoughts."
+
+Wordsworth took his degree, and left Cambridge in 1791. Being undecided
+as to his future occupation, he spent the succeeding twelve months in
+France. His life for some time was wandering and uncertain. He has
+himself stated that he was once told by an intimate friend of his
+mother's that she had said the only one of her five children about
+whose future life she was anxious was William; and he, she said, would
+be remarkable either for good or for evil.
+
+Wordsworth's experience of the French Revolution was far from being
+happy. His expectations were ruthlessly disappointed. With his ardent
+spirit he could not be an unconcerned observer of the stirring events
+which then agitated that ill-fated country. He had bright hopes of great
+results from the Revolution--of signal benefits to mankind. How bitterly
+he was disappointed we learn something from "The Prelude." The awful
+scenes of the time of blood and terror which followed were so deeply
+imaged on his mind, that for years afterwards they haunted his dreams,
+and he seemed
+
+    "To hear a voice that cried,
+    To the whole city, sleep no more."
+
+Fortunately for him he was obliged to return home, led, as he afterwards
+acknowledged, "by the gracious Providence of heaven."
+
+It was now quite time that Wordsworth should determine upon his future
+career; and this important subject seems to have occasioned some anxiety
+amongst his friends. His father, having been taken away in the prime of
+life, had not been able to make much provision for his children,
+especially as a considerable sum which had been due to him from the Earl
+of Lonsdale remained unpaid. It had been intended that, after leaving
+the University, Wordsworth should enter the Church. To this, however, he
+had conscientious objections. On other grounds the profession of the law
+was equally distasteful to him. His three brothers had chosen their
+pursuits, in which they all lived to distinguish themselves; but the one
+who was destined to be the greatest of them all, we find, at the age of
+twenty-three, still undetermined as to his future course of life. He
+had, indeed, at an early age, begun to write some of his earlier poems,
+to which, it is worthy of remark, he was incited and encouraged by his
+sister. Among other pieces, his "Evening Walk," addressed to his sister,
+had been composed when, at school and during his college vacations, he
+had been "far from that dearest friend."
+
+However much Wordsworth's relatives and friends generally may have been
+disappointed in his want of decision, Dorothy's confidence in him and
+her love to him never wavered. In a letter, written to a dear friend,
+dated February, 1792, she says, speaking of her brothers Christopher and
+William: "Christopher is steady and sincere in his attachments. William
+has both these virtues in an eminent degree, and a sort of violence of
+affection--if I may so term it--which demonstrates itself every moment
+of the day, when the objects of his affection are present with him, in a
+thousand almost imperceptible attentions to their wishes, in a sort of
+restless watchfulness which I know not how to describe, a tenderness
+that never sleeps, and, at the same time, such a delicacy of manner as I
+have observed in few men." Again, writing in June, 1792, to the same
+friend, she says: "I have strolled into a neighbouring meadow, where I
+am enjoying the melody of birds and the busy sounds of a fine summer's
+evening. But, oh! how imperfect is my pleasure whilst I am alone! Why
+are you not seated with me? and my dear William, why is he not here
+also? I could almost fancy that I see you both near me. I hear _you_
+point out a spot, where, if we could erect a little cottage and call it
+our own, we should be the happiest of human beings. I see my brother
+fired with the idea of leading his sister to such a retreat. Our parlour
+is in a moment furnished; our garden is adorned by magic; the roses and
+honeysuckles spring at our command; the wood behind the house lifts its
+head, and furnishes us with a winter's shelter and a summer's noonday
+shade. My dear friend, I trust that ere long you will be, without the
+aid of imagination, the companion of my walks, and my dear William may
+be of our party.... He is now going upon a tour in the West of England
+with a gentleman who was formerly a schoolfellow--a man of fortune, who
+is to bear all the expenses of the journey, and only requests the favour
+of William's company. He is perfectly at liberty to quit this companion
+as soon as anything more advantageous offers. But it is enough to say
+that I am likely to have the happiness of introducing you to my beloved
+brother. You must forgive me for talking so much of him. My affection
+hurries me on, and makes me forget that you cannot be so much interested
+in the subject as I am. You do not know him; you do not know how amiable
+he is. Perhaps you may reply: 'But I know how blinded you are.' Well, my
+dearest, I plead guilty at once; I _must_ be blind; he cannot be so
+pleasing as my fondness makes him. I am willing to allow that half the
+virtues with which I fancy him endowed are the creation of my love; but
+surely I may be excused! He was never afraid of comforting his sister;
+he never left her in anger; he always met her with joy; he preferred her
+society to every other pleasure--or, rather, when we were so happy as to
+be within each other's reach, he had no pleasure when we were compelled
+to be divided. Do not, then, expect too much from this brother, of whom
+I have delighted so to talk to you. In the first place, you must be with
+him more than once before he will be perfectly easy in conversation. In
+the second place, his person is not in his favour--at least, I should
+think not--but I soon ceased to discover this; nay, I almost thought
+that the opinion I had formed was erroneous. He is, however, certainly
+rather plain, though otherwise has an extremely thoughtful countenance;
+but when he speaks, it is often lighted up by a smile which I think very
+pleasing. But enough, he is my brother; why should I describe him? I
+shall be launching again into panegyric." Again she says: "William
+writes to me regularly, and is a most affectionate brother."
+
+It is gratifying to know that this warm attachment of Miss Wordsworth to
+her brother was at all times returned. In the year 1793, when they were
+discussing the means of realising their cherished idea of retiring to
+their little cottage, Wordsworth writes: "I will write to my uncle, and
+tell him I cannot think of going anywhere before I have been with you.
+Whatever answer he gives me, I certainly will make a point of once more
+mingling my transports with yours. Alas! my dear sister, how soon must
+this happiness expire; yet there are moments worth ages." Again he says:
+"Oh, my dear, dear sister, with what transport shall I again meet you!
+with what rapture shall I again wear out the day in your sight!... I see
+you in a moment running, or rather flying, to my arms."
+
+In the early part of 1794, having still no fixed residence, we find
+Wordsworth staying at Halifax. Writing in February of that year to a
+friend, he says: "My sister is under the same roof with me; indeed, it
+was to see her that I came into the country. I have been doing nothing,
+and still continue to do nothing. What is to become of me I know not."
+About this time the brother and sister together made a tour in the Lake
+District. She writes: "After having enjoyed the company of my brother
+William at Halifax, we set forward by coach towards Whitehaven, and
+thence to Kendal. I walked, with my brother at my side, from Kendal to
+Grasmere, eighteen miles, and afterwards from Grasmere to Keswick,
+fifteen miles, through the most delightful country that was ever seen.
+We are now at a farmhouse about half a mile from Keswick. When I came I
+intended to stay only a few days; but the country is so delightful, and,
+above all, I have so full an enjoyment of my brother's company, that I
+have determined to stay a few weeks longer."
+
+In his uncertainty of mind Wordsworth projected the publishing of a
+periodical, and afterwards contributing to the London Newspaper Press.
+That the latter scheme was not put into practice was owing to the fact
+that just at this time an incident occurred which had no small influence
+upon what may be considered the turning point in his life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+RACEDOWN AND ALFOXDEN.
+
+
+To all lovers of Wordsworth it is well known how, while he was yet
+undecided as to his future calling, he went to nurse a young friend
+named Raisley Calvert, who was afflicted with a malady which threatened
+to prove fatal, and by whose side he felt it his duty to remain. After a
+protracted illness his friend died, and bequeathed him a legacy of £900.
+It is probable that in this generous act, to which Wordsworth has more
+than once recorded his indebtedness, Mr. Calvert was actuated by mixed
+motives; that it was to be regarded not only as an expression of
+gratitude, but that he also perceived in his friend talents which others
+were slow to recognise, and desired thus to provide him with the means
+of devoting himself, at any rate for a time, to the pursuit of poetry.
+However this may be, the incident cannot but be regarded as a link in
+the chain of providential circumstances which combined to prepare the
+poet for his future high calling. It is not, however, intended in this
+sketch to refer to Wordsworth himself more than is necessary for the
+purpose of elucidating any events in the life and character of his
+sister, or of tracing her influence upon him. Having thus obtained the
+means of livelihood for a few years, one of their cherished hopes was
+realised. His childhood's playmate became his constant and lifelong
+companion, devoting herself to him and his interests and aims as only a
+noble woman could have done.
+
+At what a critical time Miss Wordsworth thus entered more closely into
+the life of her brother we learn from his biography, as well as from his
+works. Dejected and despondent by reason of the scenes of which he had
+been an eyewitness in France, and the terrible days which followed,
+Wordsworth was at this time greatly in danger of becoming misanthropic,
+and of giving way to a melancholy which might have coloured all his
+life, and deprived his works of the healthful and educating influence
+which they breathe. All disappointment and sorrow may become the
+precursor of blessing, the mother of a great hope. It is the bruised
+herb that exudes its fragrance; the broken heart that, when bound,
+pulsates most truly. It was a saying of Goethe that he never had an
+affliction which did not turn into a poem. But disappointment may also
+be the parent of gloom, and pave the way to a spirit of morose
+indifference. At such junctures a life may, by the skilful leading of a
+wise affection, be saved for beauty and happiness, for greater good and
+more exalted attainment and enjoyment, by reason of the very sorrow
+which, unhallowed, would have plunged it into bitterness.
+
+However much Wordsworth's goodness of heart and ardent love of Nature
+helped to protect him, it was at this critical period that he was
+chiefly indebted to the soothing and cheering power of his sister for
+uplifting him from the gloom which had gathered around him, and for
+restoring and maintaining that equable frame of mind which from
+thenceforth unvaryingly characterised him. Her clear insight and womanly
+instinct at this time saw deeper into the sources of real satisfaction;
+and her helpful and healing sympathy came to his aid. By her tact she
+led him from the distracting cares of political agitation to those more
+elevating and satisfying influences which an ardent and contemplative
+love of Nature and poetry cultivate, and which sweet and kindred human
+affections strengthen and develop. It remained for Miss Wordsworth, if
+not to awaken, to draw out and stimulate her brother's better nature, to
+deaden what was unworthy, and to encourage, by tender care and patient
+endeavour, that higher life towards which his mind and soul were turned.
+She became, and for many years continued to be, the loadstar of his
+existence, and affords one of the most pleasing instances of sisterly
+devotion and fidelity on record. In her brother was verified the poet's
+prophecy:--
+
+    "True heart and shining star shall guide thee right."
+
+Well was it for Wordsworth, and for us, that he had a sister, and that
+it was to this brother--one after her own heart--she at this juncture
+devoted herself. In this we may see another of the providential
+circumstances that beset the career of Wordsworth. As Spenser says:--
+
+                    "It chanced--
+    Eternal God that chance did guide."
+
+Writing of Miss Wordsworth at this time, her nephew, the late Bishop of
+Lincoln, says: "She was endowed with tender sensibility, with an
+exquisite perception of beauty, with a retentive recollection of what
+she saw, with a felicitous tact in discerning and admirable skill in
+delineating natural objects with graphic accuracy and vivid
+gracefulness. She weaned him from contemporary politics, and won him to
+beauty and truth."
+
+A writer in _The Quarterly Review_, many years ago (I believe the late
+Mr. J. G. Lockhart), referring to this period, writes: "Depressed and
+bewildered, he turned to abstract science, and was beginning to torment
+his mind with fresh problems, when, after his long voyage through
+unknown seas in search of Utopia, with sails full set and without
+compass or rudder, his sister came to his aid, and conducted him back to
+the quiet harbour from which he started. His visits to her had latterly
+been short and far between, until his brightening fortunes enabled them
+to indulge the wish of their hearts to live together, and then she
+convinced him that he was born to be a poet, and had no call to lose
+himself in the endless labyrinth of theoretical puzzles. The calm of a
+home would alone have done much towards sobering his mind. While he
+roamed restlessly about the world he was drawn in by every eddy, and
+obeyed the influence of every wind; but when once he had escaped from
+the turmoil, into the pure and peaceful pleasures of domestic existence,
+he felt the vanity and vexation of his previous course."
+
+Wordsworth himself, afterwards writing of this same period of his life,
+says:--
+
+    "Depressed, bewildered thus, I did not walk
+    With scoffers, seeking light and gay revenge
+    From indiscriminate laughter, nor sit down
+    In reconcilement with an utter waste
+    Of intellect.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                            Then it was--
+    Thanks to the bounteous Giver of all good!--
+    That the beloved sister in whose sight
+    Those days were passed, now speaking in a voice
+    Of sudden admonition--like a brook
+    That did but _cross_ a lonely road, now
+    Is seen, heard, felt, and caught at every turn,
+    Companion never lost through many a league--
+    Maintain'd for me a saving intercourse
+    With my true self; for, though bedimmed and changed
+    Much, as it seemed, I was no further changed
+    Than as a clouded, and a waning moon;
+    She whispered still that brightness would return.
+    She in the midst of all preserved me still
+    A poet; made me seek beneath that name,
+    And that alone, my office upon earth."
+
+We thus find Miss Wordsworth keeping house with her brother, who, having
+at length determined upon his course of life, was, in 1795, living at
+Racedown Lodge in Dorsetshire. From this time forth, amid all the
+changes of fortune and condition, they were close and life-long
+companions.
+
+However great may have been her influence upon him previously, it now
+became a moulding and educating power. They were both in the strength of
+their youth--that time of radiant enjoyment--bound not only by that most
+endearing of natural ties, but by tastes, aims, and hopes most
+singularly mutual. The close association of daily intercourse and
+community of thought, together with a thorough sympathy, seemed now, as
+only an ardent enthusiasm and devoted love of kindred objects can do, to
+cement their lives. In this their first home, the only one which they
+had really known since childhood, and to which they had so longingly
+looked forward, they were all in all to each other. Separation from the
+busy world, and from society, was no hardship to them, so long as they
+were uninterrupted in the society of each other, and in the pursuits
+they loved. Though in a part of the country, then so remote that they
+had only a post once a week, they went into raptures over their lot. The
+house which they temporarily occupied was, we are informed, pretty well
+stocked with books, and they were industrious in both indoor and outdoor
+occupations. They read, and thought, and talked together, rambling
+through the lovely combs and by the ever-changing sea. "My brother," she
+says, "handles the spade with great dexterity," while she herself was
+engaged in reading Italian authors.
+
+A writer in _Blackwood_, a few years ago, referring to Miss Wordsworth
+at this time, says: "She had been separated from her brother since their
+childhood, and now at the first moment when their re-union was possible,
+seems to have rushed to him with all the impetuosity of her nature.
+Without taking his sister into consideration, no just estimate can be
+formed of Wordsworth. He was, as it were, henceforward, the spokesman to
+the world of two souls. It was not that she visibly or consciously aided
+and stimulated him, but that she _was_ him--a second pair of eyes to
+see, a second and more delicate intuition to discern, a second heart to
+enter into all that came before their mutual observation. This union was
+so close, that in many instances it becomes difficult to discern which
+is the brother and which the sister. She was part not only of his life,
+but of his imagination. He saw by her, felt through her, at her touch
+the strings of the instrument began to thrill, the great melodies awoke.
+Her journals are Wordsworth in prose, just as his poems are Dorothy in
+verse. The one soul kindled at the other. The brother and sister met
+with all the enthusiasm of youthful affection, strengthened and
+concentrated by long separation, and the delightful sense that here at
+last was the possibility of making for themselves a home." After
+referring to their pecuniary means, the writer adds: "And with this, in
+their innocent frugality and courage, they faced the world like a new
+pair of babes in the wood. Their aspirations in one way were infinite,
+but in another modest as any cottager's. Daily bread sufficed them, and
+the pleasure to be derived from Nature, who is cheap, and gives herself
+lavishly without thought or hope of reward."
+
+Although at this remote place friends and visitors were few, it was here
+the Wordsworths first made the acquaintance of Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
+who, in conjunction with Southey, had already begun to make a name. This
+acquaintance ripened into a close and uninterrupted friendship, only to
+be ended by death. It was here also that Wordsworth composed his tragedy
+_The Borderers_ and "The Ruined Cottage," which latter poem afterwards
+formed the first part of the "Excursion." The ardour with which the
+young poets entered into each other's plans, and the enthusiasm of the
+sister, who was in such perfect _rapport_ with them, is gathered from
+her statement that the "first thing that was read when he (Coleridge)
+came was William's new poem, 'The Ruined Cottage,' with which he was
+much delighted; and after tea he repeated to us two acts and a half of
+his tragedy _Osorio_. The next morning William read his tragedy _The
+Borderers_."
+
+The following description of Coleridge, from the pen of Miss Wordsworth,
+cannot fail to be of interest. Writing to a friend, she says: "You had a
+great loss in not seeing Coleridge. He is a wonderful man. His
+conversation teems with soul, mind, and spirit. Then he is so
+benevolent, so good-tempered and cheerful, and, like William, excites
+himself so much about every little trifle. At first I thought him very
+plain--that is, for about three minutes. He is pale, thin, has a wide
+mouth, thick lips, and not very good teeth; longish, loose-growing,
+half-curling, rough, black hair. But if you hear him speak for five
+minutes, you think no more about them. His eye is large and full, and
+not very dark, but grey--such an eye as would receive from a heavy soul
+the dullest expression; but it speaks every emotion of his animated
+mind. It has more of the 'poet's eye in fine frenzy rolling' than I ever
+witnessed. He has fine dark eyebrows and an overhanging forehead."
+
+By the side of this striking picture of Coleridge may be fittingly
+placed his first impressions of Miss Wordsworth. Writing to Mr. Cottle
+from Nether Stowey, in Somersetshire, where he was then residing, he
+says: "Wordsworth and his exquisite sister are with me. She is a woman,
+indeed!--in mind, I mean, and heart; for her person is such that, if you
+expected to see a pretty woman, you would think her ordinary; if you
+expected to see an ordinary woman, you would think her pretty; but her
+manners are simple, ardent, impressive. In every motion her most
+innocent soul outbeams so brightly that who saw her would say:
+
+    'Guilt was a thing impossible in her.'
+
+Her information various; her eye watchful in minutest observation of
+Nature; and her taste a perfect electrometer. It bends, protrudes, and
+draws in at subtlest beauties and most recondite faults."
+
+From this description of Coleridge it might appear that Miss Wordsworth
+was one of those happy possessors of a face and features which though in
+repose might appear homely, became illumined by the sweet smiles of
+love--flashed into beauty by the gleam of the soul-lit eye.
+
+The pleasure which the friendship of Coleridge afforded them induced
+Wordsworth and his sister to change their residence in order to be near
+him. Accordingly, in the summer of 1797, they settled at Alfoxden, near
+Nether Stowey. Alfoxden is described by Hazlitt as a "romantic old
+family mansion of the St. Aubins," and he gives the additional
+information that it was then in the possession of a friend of the poet,
+who gave him the free use of it. De Quincey states that he understood
+that the Wordsworths had the use of the house on condition of keeping it
+in repair.
+
+Although Miss Wordsworth afterwards spoke of Racedown as the dearest
+place of her recollections upon the whole surface of the island, as the
+first home she had, she was soon enamoured of her new abode, and the
+scenery of Somersetshire. Of the neighbourhood of Nether Stowey she
+says, in a letter to a friend, dated 4th July: "There is everything
+there--sea, woods wild as fancy ever painted; brooks clear and pebbly as
+in Cumberland; villages as romantic; and William and I, in a wander by
+ourselves, found out a sequestered waterfall in a dell formed by steep
+hills, covered by full-grown timber-trees. The woods are as fine as
+those at Lowther, and the country more romantic; it has the character of
+the less grand parts of the neighbourhood of the lakes."
+
+Being settled at Alfoxden, she writes again, on 14th August: "Here we
+are, in a large mansion, in a large park, with seventy head of deer
+around us. But I must begin with the day of leaving Racedown to pay
+Coleridge a visit. You know how much we were delighted with the
+neighbourhood of Stowey. The evening that I wrote to you, William and I
+had rambled as far as this house, and pryed into the recesses of our
+little brook, but without any more fixed thoughts upon it than some
+dreams of happiness in a little cottage, and passing wishes that such a
+place might be found out. We spent a fortnight at Coleridge's: in the
+course of that time we heard that this house was to let, applied for it,
+and took it. Our principal inducement was Coleridge's society. It was a
+month yesterday since we came to Alfoxden.
+
+"The house is a large mansion, with furniture enough for a dozen
+families like ours. There is a very excellent garden, well stocked with
+vegetables and fruit. The garden is at the end of the house, and our
+favourite parlour, as at Racedown, looks that way. In front is a little
+court, with grass-plot, gravel-walk, and shrubs; the moss roses were in
+full beauty a month ago. The front of the house is to the south; but is
+screened from the sun by a high hill which rises immediately from it.
+This hill is beautiful, scattered irregularly and abundantly with trees,
+and topped with fern, which spreads a considerable way down it. The deer
+dwell here, and sheep, so that we have a living prospect. From the end
+of the house we have a view of the sea, over a woody, meadow country;
+and exactly opposite the window, where I now sit, is an immense wood,
+whose round top from this point has exactly the appearance of a mighty
+dome. In some parts of this wood there is an under-grove of hollies,
+which are now very beautiful. In a glen at the bottom of the wood is the
+waterfall of which I spoke, a quarter of a mile from the house. We are
+three miles from Stowey, and not two miles from the sea. Wherever we
+turn we have woods, smooth downs, and valleys with small brooks running
+down them, through green meadows, hardly ever intersected with
+hedgerows, but scattered over with trees. The hills that cradle these
+valleys are either covered with fern and bilberries, or oak woods, which
+are cut for charcoal.... Walks extend for miles over the hill-tops; the
+great beauty of which is their wild simplicity: they are perfectly
+smooth, without rocks.
+
+"The Tor of Glastonbury is before our eyes during more than half of our
+walk to Stowey; and in the park, wherever we go, keeping about fifteen
+yards above the house, it makes a part of our prospect."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+RESIDENCE AT ALFOXDEN.--REMOVAL TO GRASMERE.
+
+
+The year succeeding the time when Miss Wordsworth and her brother became
+resident at Alfoxden was one of glowing enjoyment and fruitful industry.
+We are not without a few pleasing pictures of this charmed primitive
+period of their lives--its profitable intercourse, its delightful
+rambles.
+
+    "Upon smooth Quantock's airy ridge we roamed,
+    Unchecked, or loitered 'mid his sylvan combs;
+    Thou, in bewitching words with happy heart,
+    Didst chant the vision of that ancient man,
+    The bright-eyed mariner; and rueful woes
+    Didst utter of the Lady Christabel--
+    And I, associate with such labours, steeped
+    In soft forgetfulness the livelong hours,
+    Murmuring of him who, joyous hap, was found
+    After the perils of his moonlight ride,
+    Near the loud waterfall; or her who sate
+    In misery near the miserable thorn."
+
+We can imagine the happy meetings and rapturous feelings of the two
+young poets in the company of the bright young woman, who was gifted
+with a no less poetic soul, wandering amid the delightful scenery of
+Somersetshire, revelling in the beauties of woodland and ocean, and the
+pleasant evenings, when each read to the other his growing poems; and
+they together discussed their ambitious schemes for the golden future,
+receiving the suggestions and approval of the ever-sympathetic sister
+and friend. Wordsworth has described this as a "very pleasant and
+productive time" of his life.
+
+It was during one of the short tours of Wordsworth and Coleridge, with
+the bright and faithful Dorothy by their side, inspiring and stimulating
+(the expenses of which tour they desired to defray by writing a poem),
+that the story of "The Ancient Mariner" was conceived. Wordsworth has
+said of it in a passage oft-repeated:--
+
+"In the autumn of 1797, Mr. Coleridge, my sister, and myself, started
+from Alfoxden pretty late in the afternoon, with a view of visiting
+Linton and the valley of stones near it; and as our united funds were
+very small, we agreed to defray the expense of the tour by writing a
+poem, to be sent to the new Monthly Magazine. In the course of this walk
+was planned the poem of 'The Ancient Mariner,' founded on a dream, as
+Mr. Coleridge said, of his friend, Mr. Cruikshank. Much the greatest
+part of the story was Mr. Coleridge's invention; but certain parts I
+suggested. For example, some crime to be committed, which was to bring
+upon the Old Navigator, as Coleridge afterwards delighted to call him,
+the spectral persecution, as a consequence of that crime and his own
+wanderings. I had been reading in 'Shelvocke's Voyages,' a day or two
+before, that, while doubling Cape Horn, they frequently saw albatrosses
+in that latitude--the largest sort of sea-fowl, some extending their
+wings 12 or 13 feet. Suppose, said I, you represent him as having killed
+one of these birds on entering the South Sea, and that the tutelary
+spirits of these regions take upon them to avenge the crime. The
+incident was thought fitting for the purpose, and adopted accordingly. I
+also suggested the navigation of the ship by the dead man; but I do not
+recollect that I had anything more to do with the scheme of the poem."
+
+It was about this time that the Wordsworths made the acquaintance of
+Hazlitt. He was then staying with Coleridge, who took him over to
+Alfoxden. Of this visit Hazlitt says:--
+
+"Wordsworth himself was from home; but his sister kept house, and set
+before us a frugal repast; and we had free access to her brother's
+poems, the lyrical ballads, which were still in manuscript, or in the
+form of sybilline leaves. I dipped into a few of these with great
+satisfaction, and with the faith of a novice. I slept that night in an
+old room, with blue hangings, and covered with the round-faced family
+portraits, of the age of George I. and II., and from the woody declivity
+of the adjoining park that overlooked my window, at the dawn of day,
+
+    'Heard the loud stag speak.'
+
+"Next morning, as soon as breakfast was over, we strolled out into the
+park, and, seating ourselves on the trunk of an old ash tree, that
+stretched along the ground, Coleridge read aloud, with a sonorous and
+musical voice, the ballad of 'Betty Foy.' I was not critically or
+sceptically inclined. I saw touches of truth and nature, and took the
+rest for granted. But in 'The Thorn,' 'The Mad Mother,' and 'The
+Complaint of the Poor Indian Woman,' I felt that deeper power and
+pathos, which have been since acknowledged,
+
+    'In spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,'
+
+as the characteristics of this author, and the sense of a new style and
+a new spirit in poetry, came over me. It had to me something of the
+effect that arises from the turning up of the fresh soil, or of the
+first welcome breath of spring,
+
+    'While yet the trembling year is unconfirmed.'
+
+"Coleridge and myself walked back to Stowey that evening, and his voice
+sounded high,
+
+    'Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate;
+    Fixt fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,'
+
+as we passed through the echoing groves, by fairy stream or waterfall,
+gleaming in the solemn moonlight.... We went over to Alfoxden again the
+day following, and Wordsworth read us the story of 'Peter Bell' in the
+open air. There is a _chant_ in the recitation, both of Coleridge and
+Wordsworth, which acts as a spell upon the hearer, and disarms the
+judgment. Perhaps they have deceived themselves by making habitual use
+of this ambiguous accompaniment. Coleridge's manner is more full,
+animated, and varied; Wordsworth's more equable, sustained, and
+internal. Coleridge has told me that he himself liked to compose in
+walking over uneven ground, or breaking through the straggling branches
+of a copsewood, whereas Wordsworth always composed walking up and down
+a straight gravel walk, or in some spot where the continuity of his
+verse met with no collateral interruptions.... Returning the same
+evening, I got into a metaphysical argument with Wordsworth, while
+Coleridge was explaining the different notes of the nightingale to his
+sister, in which we neither of us succeeded in making ourselves
+perfectly clear and intelligible."
+
+This year was also celebrated by an introduction to Charles Lamb (the
+quaint and gentle-hearted "Elia") and his excellent sister Mary. Lamb
+was an old schoolfellow, and a close friend of Coleridge. They had been
+boys together at the Christ's Hospital, where the sympathy between them
+had been formed which became a life-long bond. A short emancipation from
+the toils of the East India House found Lamb and his sister spending a
+little time with Coleridge at Nether Stowey. From the time of the
+commencement of the acquaintance of Mary Lamb and Dorothy Wordsworth in
+this manner, their friendship was constant and their correspondence
+frequent. While, in temperament, they were totally unlike each other,
+there was that in the tenor of their lives, in the tender and helpful
+devotion of each of them to her brother--a devotion in both cases so
+warmly reciprocated--together with much in common in their tastes and
+pursuits, which served to cement a friendship begun under such
+pleasurable circumstances.
+
+The poem "To my Sister," written in front of Alfoxden, is suggestive of
+the happy rural life at this time enjoyed by the poet and his sister.
+What lover of Wordsworth does not remember how on "the first mild day
+of March," when, to the receptive spirit of the poet, each minute of the
+advancing, balmy day appeared to be lovelier than the preceding one,
+while, sauntering on the lawn, he wrote, desiring her to hasten with her
+household morning duties, and share his enjoyment of the genial
+sunshine?
+
+    "It is the first mild day of March:
+      Each minute sweeter than before
+    The red-breast sings from the tall larch
+      That stands beside our door.
+
+    "There is a blessing in the air,
+      Which seems a sense of joy to yield
+    To the bare trees, and mountains bare,
+      And grass in the green field.
+
+    "'My sister! ('tis a wish of mine),
+      Now that our morning meal is done,
+    Make haste, your morning task resign;
+      Come forth and feel the sun.
+
+    "'Edward will come with you--and, pray,
+      Put on with speed your woodland dress;
+    And bring no book; for this one day
+      We'll give to idleness.
+
+    "'No joyless forms shall regulate
+      Our living calendar:
+    We from to-day, my Friend, will date
+      The opening of the year.
+
+    "'Love, now a universal birth,
+      From heart to heart is stealing,
+    From earth to man, from man to earth;
+      --It is the hour of feeling.
+
+    "'One moment now may give us more
+      Than years of toiling reason:
+    Our minds shall drink at every pore
+      The spirit of the season.
+
+    "'Some silent laws our hearts will make,
+      Which they shall long obey;
+    We for the year to come may take
+      Our temper from to-day.
+
+    "'And from the blessed power that rolls
+      About, below, above,
+    We'll frame the measure of our souls:
+      They shall be tuned to love.
+
+    "'Then come, my Sister! come, I pray,
+      With speed put on your woodland dress;
+    And bring no book: for this one day
+      We'll give to idleness.'"
+
+It was also during their residence at Alfoxden that Miss Wordsworth and
+her brother made their tour on the banks of the Wye, so signally
+memorialised in his famous lines on Tintern Abbey, of which he says, no
+poem of his was composed under circumstances more pleasant for him to
+remember. Its elevating reflections and rhythmic strains take captive
+the affections of the lover of Nature, and linger in his memory like the
+music of youth. In this place our interest in it arises from the
+allusions it contains to his beloved companion. He refers to the sweet
+sensations which, in hours of weariness in towns and cities, he has owed
+to the beauteous forms of Nature to which his mind has turned. He calls
+to memory the time when he had, indeed, loved Nature more passionately,
+and compares it with his present more mature and thoughtful affection,
+concluding with a fervid address to her who was by his side, and whose
+presence imparted an added charm--that of double vision--to every object
+and feeling; a sense of blessing shared:--
+
+    "For thou art with me here upon the banks
+    Of this fair river: thou, my dearest Friend,
+    My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch
+    The language of my former heart, and read
+    My former pleasures in the shooting lights
+    Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while
+    May I behold in thee what I was once,
+    My dear, dear Sister! And this prayer I make,
+    Knowing that Nature never did betray
+    The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege
+    Thro' all the years of this our life, to lead
+    From joy to joy: for she can so inform
+    The mind that is within us, so impress
+    With quietness and beauty, and so feed
+    With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
+    Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
+    Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
+    The dreary intercourse of daily life,
+    Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
+    Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
+    Is full of blessings. Therefore let the moon
+    Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;
+    And let the misty mountain-winds be free
+    To blow against thee; and, in after years,
+    When these wild ecstasies shall be matured
+    Into a sober pleasure; when thy mind
+    Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,
+    Thy memory be as a dwelling-place
+    For all sweet sounds and harmonies; oh! then,
+    If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,
+    Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts
+    Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,
+    And these, my exhortations! Nor, perchance,
+    If I should be where I no more can hear
+    Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams
+    Of past existence--wilt thou then forget
+    That on the banks of this delightful stream
+    We stood together....
+            Nor wilt thou then forget
+    That after many wanderings, many years
+    Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,
+    And this green pastoral landscape, were to me
+    More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!"
+
+Although Coleridge was at this time married, his wife does not seem to
+have entered very warmly into his pursuits--not, indeed, with the same
+interest that Miss Wordsworth did. It cannot be out of place, since it
+is a matter of almost common knowledge, to remark that we have in
+Coleridge one more instance of the many men of genius who have not been
+very suitably mated. Mrs. Coleridge did not feel the sympathy in her
+husband's aims to enable her to take pleasure in their intellectual
+conversations or perpetual rambles. In both of these Miss Wordsworth
+delighted. De Quincey, in his uncontrollable propensity to chatter, has
+taken occasion from this fact to suggest that Mrs. Coleridge resented
+the familiar friendship of the poetic trio. Although not mentioning Miss
+Wordsworth by name, he refers to a young lady who became a neighbour and
+a daily companion of Coleridge's walks, and who was "intellectually much
+superior to Mrs. Coleridge," in a way that shows that none other than
+Miss Wordsworth could be alluded to. He adds: "Mrs. Coleridge, not
+having the same relish for long walks or rural scenery, and their
+residence being at this time in a very sequestered village, was
+condemned to a daily renewal of this trial. Accidents of another kind
+embittered it still further. Often it would happen that the walking
+party returned drenched with rain; in which case the young lady, with a
+laughing gaiety, and evidently unconscious of any liberty that she was
+taking, or any wound that she was inflicting, would run up to Mrs.
+Coleridge's wardrobe, array herself, without leave asked, in Mrs.
+Coleridge's dresses, and make herself merry with her own
+unceremoniousness and Mrs. Coleridge's gravity. In all this she took no
+liberty that she would not most readily have granted in return; she
+confided too unthinkingly in what she regarded as the natural privileges
+of friendship, and as little thought that she had been receiving or
+exacting a favour as, under an exchange of their relative positions,
+she would have claimed to confer one." Although De Quincey states that
+the feelings of Mrs. Coleridge were moderated by the consideration of
+the kind-heartedness of the young lady, that she was always attended by
+her brother, and that mere intellectual sympathies in reference to
+literature and natural scenery associated them, it is to be regretted
+that the perfectly innocent friendship should have been the cause of
+this small gossip, a thing in which De Quincey rather delighted, and
+which sometimes mars the pleasurableness of his otherwise felicitous
+recollections. He was not at this time acquainted either with Coleridge
+or the Wordsworths, and the information could only have been derived
+from them during subsequent years of confidential friendship, and not
+intended for repetition. However it may have appeared to her then, Mrs.
+Coleridge had in the future much cause to be thankful for the
+disinterested friendship of Miss Wordsworth.
+
+How conducive to the best interests of her brother at this time was the
+companionship of Miss Wordsworth, and how complete was his restoration
+to a healthy and vigorous life after the political distractions of his
+Continental experience we gather from an allusion in the _Biographia
+Literaria_ of Coleridge. Referring to his life at Nether Stowey, he
+says: "I was so fortunate as to acquire, shortly after my settlement
+there, an invaluable blessing in the society of one to whom I could look
+up with equal reverence, whether I regarded him as a poet, a
+philosopher, or a man. His conversation extended to almost all subjects,
+except physics and politics; with the latter he never troubled
+himself."
+
+The residence of Miss Wordsworth and her poet brother at Alfoxden, was
+terminated by circumstances which serve to illustrate at once something
+of the political attitude of the times, and also of the mental condition
+of their rustic neighbours in Somersetshire. Coleridge tells an amusing
+story how he and Wordsworth were followed and watched in their rambles
+by a person who was suspected to be a spy on their proceedings employed
+by the Government of the day. Whether this be well founded or not, the
+mere fact of two men living in their midst, without any apparent object,
+appears to have rather discomposed their neighbours. Why should they be
+continually spending their time in taking long and apparently
+purposeless rambles, engaged in earnest conversation? It was
+inconceivable that any one should walk a few miles in the light of the
+moon merely to look at the sea! They must be engaged in smuggling, or
+have other nefarious designs. In connection with this subject, there is
+one good story told. Some country gentlemen of the neighbourhood
+happened to be in the company of a party who were discussing the
+question whether Wordsworth and Coleridge might be traitors, and in
+correspondence with the French Administration, when one of them
+answered: "Oh! as to that Coleridge, he is a rattlebrain that will say
+more in a week than he will stand to in a twelvemonth. But Wordsworth,
+he is the traitor. Why, bless you! he is so close that you'll never hear
+him open his lips on the subject from year's end to year's end." The
+public belief in the absurd theory of Wordsworth's traitorous designs
+was, however, sufficient to induce the owner of the mansion in which he
+lived to put an end to the occupation.
+
+The reputation of his friends and visitors suffered with his. In
+allusion to this, Mr. Howitt says: "The grave and moral Wordsworth, the
+respectable Wedgewoods, the correct Robert Southey, and Coleridge,
+dreaming of glorious intellectualities beyond the moon, were set down
+for a very disreputable gang. Innocent Mrs. Coleridge and poor Dolly
+Wordsworth were seen strolling about with them, and were pronounced no
+better than they should be. Such was the character that they
+unconsciously acquired that Wordsworth was at length actually driven out
+of the country."
+
+It may not be out of place to repeat here Mr. Cottle's version of the
+affair. He says: "Mr. Wordsworth had taken the Alfoxden house, near
+Stowey, for one year (during the minority of the heir), and the reason
+why he was refused a continuance by the ignorant man who had the letting
+of it arose, as Mr. Coleridge informed me, from a whimsical cause, or
+rather a series of causes. The wiseacres of the village had, it seemed,
+made Mr. Wordsworth the subject of their serious conversation. One said
+that he had seen him wandering about by night and look rather strange at
+the moon! And then he roamed over the hills like a partridge! Another
+said he had heard him mutter, as he walked, in some outlandish brogue
+that nobody could understand! Another said: 'It is useless to talk,
+Thomas. I think he is what people call a wise man (a conjurer).' Another
+said: 'You are every one of you wrong. I know what he is. We have all
+met him tramping away toward the sea. Would any man in his senses take
+all that trouble to look at a parcel of water? I think he carries on a
+snug business in the smuggling line, and in these journeys is on the
+look-out for some _wet_ cargo!' Another very significantly said: 'I know
+that he has got a private still in his cellar; for I once passed his
+house at a little better than a hundred yards' distance, and I could
+smell the spirits as plain as an ashen faggot at Christmas!' Another
+said, 'However that was, he was surely a desperd (desperate) French
+Jacobin; for he is so silent and dark that nobody ever heard him say one
+word about politics!' And thus these ignoramuses drove from their
+village a greater ornament than will ever again be found amongst them."
+
+After leaving Alfoxden, in the autumn of 1798, Miss Wordsworth
+accompanied her brother during a residence of six months in Germany,
+their chief object being the attainment of a knowledge of the language.
+Although, from the absence of society at Goslar, where they were, they
+do not seem to have been fortunately circumstanced in this respect,
+Wordsworth was, according to his sister, very industrious, and here
+composed several poems.
+
+Their life in Germany was not altogether without adventure. Mr. Howitt
+gives an account of an incident related to him by the poet of his
+arriving late one evening, accompanied by Miss Wordsworth and Coleridge,
+at a hamlet in Hesse Cassel, where they were unable to gain admittance
+to the inn, and feared having to pass the night in the open street. A
+continued knocking at the inhospitable doors only brought out the
+landlord armed with a huge cudgel, with which he began to beat them.
+Regardless of their personal danger, and thinking of their female
+companion, to whom the prospect of an inclement night in the open air
+was by no means cheering, Wordsworth and his friend managed, after
+warding off the blows of the cudgel, to force their way into the house,
+and by reasoning with the surly landlord, and appealing to his better
+feelings, induced him to afford them a scanty lodging for the night. It
+appears that strangers travelling in these remote parts at this time
+received scant courtesy, even from those professing to provide them with
+entertainment, and that personal violence and plunder were not
+unfrequently resorted to.
+
+On returning to England in the spring of 1799, Wordsworth, after
+spending some months with friends at Sockburn-on-Tees, wisely determined
+to have a fixed place of abode for himself, and, of course, his sister;
+eventually selecting that spot which is more than all others associated
+with his name and memory. A walking tour in company with his friend
+Coleridge in Westmoreland and Cumberland, resulted in his fixing upon
+Grasmere as the future home of himself and his faithful sister. To this
+place they accordingly repaired, walking a considerable part of the
+way--that from Wensleydale to Kendal--"accomplishing as much as twenty
+miles in a day over uneven roads, frozen into rocks, in the teeth of a
+keen wind and a driving snow," amid the crisp and biting blasts of a
+winter day, arriving at Grasmere--so long the scene of their future
+labours and rambles--on the shortest day of the last year in the last
+century.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE LAKE DISTRICT.
+
+
+The lake and mountain district of England, which has now become so
+famous, was happily chosen by these children of Nature as their
+residence. Born as they both were on its outskirts, they had long been
+familiar with its beauties, and the only matter for surprise is that
+they had not earlier turned their faces to their native hills instead of
+spending some intervening years elsewhere.
+
+No region could have been more in harmony with their sympathies and
+pursuits. The hardy inhabitants of these dales, and the simplicity of
+their lives and manners, formed fitting objects of study and reflection
+for the single-minded poet of Nature, who came to live and die amongst
+them. It is quite unnecessary, in these days of travel and of
+guide-books, which have done so much to make the district familiar
+ground, to give any description of it. It may not, however, be out of
+place to quote an extract or two from Wordsworth's own Description of
+the lakes. Referring to the aspect of the district at different seasons
+of the year, he says:--"It has been said that in human life there are
+moments worth ages. In a more subdued tone of sympathy may we affirm
+that in the climate of England there are, for the lover of Nature, days
+which are worth whole months--I might say even years. One of these
+favoured days sometimes occurs in spring-time, when that soft air is
+breathing over the blossoms and new-born verdure which inspired Buchanan
+with his beautiful 'Ode to the First of May'; the air which, in the
+luxuriance of his fancy, he likens to that of the golden age--to that
+which gives motion to the funereal cypresses on the banks of Lethe; to
+the air which is to salute beatified spirits when expiatory fires shall
+have consumed the earth, with all her habitations. But it is in autumn
+that days of such affecting influence most frequently intervene. The
+atmosphere becomes refined, and the sky rendered more crystalline, as
+the vivifying heat of the year abates; the lights and shadows are more
+delicate; the colouring is richer and more finely harmonised; and, in
+this season of stillness, the ear being unoccupied, or only gently
+excited, the sense of vision becomes more susceptible of its appropriate
+enjoyments. A resident in a country like this we are treating of will
+agree with me that the presence of a lake is indispensable to exhibit in
+perfection the beauty of one of these days; and he must have
+experienced, while looking on the unruffled waters, that the imagination
+by their aid is carried into recesses of feeling otherwise impenetrable.
+The reason of this is that the heavens are not only brought down into
+the bosom of the earth, but that the earth is mainly looked at, and
+thought of, through the medium of a purer element. The happiest time is
+when the equinoctial gales are departed; but their fury may probably be
+called to mind by the sight of a few shattered boughs, whose leaves do
+not differ in colour from the faded foliage of the stately oaks from
+which these relics of the storm depend; all else speaks of tranquillity;
+not a breath of air, no restlessness of insects, and not a moving object
+perceptible, except the clouds gliding in the depth of the lake, or the
+traveller passing along, an inverted image, whose motion seems governed
+by the quiet of a time to which its archetype, the living person, is
+perhaps insensible; or it may happen that the figure of one of the
+larger birds--a raven or a heron--is crossing silently among the
+reflected clouds, while the voice of the real bird, from the element
+aloft, gently awakens in the spectator the recollection of appetites and
+instincts, pursuits and occupations, that deform and agitate the world,
+yet have no power to prevent Nature from putting on an aspect capable of
+satisfying the most intense cravings for the tranquil, the lovely, and
+the perfect, to which man, the noblest of her creatures, is subject."
+
+His description of the Cumbrian cottages--
+
+    "Clustered like stars some few, but single most,
+    And lurking dimly in their shy retreats,
+    Or glancing on each other cheerful looks,
+    Like separated stars with clouds between--"
+
+is exceedingly happy.
+
+"The dwelling-houses and contiguous outhouses are, in many instances, of
+the colour of the native rock, out of which they have been built; but
+frequently the dwelling or fire-house, as it is ordinarily called, has
+been distinguished from the barn or byre by rough-cast and whitewash,
+which, as the inhabitants are not hasty in renewing it, in a few years
+acquires, by the influence of weather, a tint at once sober and
+variegated. As these houses have been, from father to son, inhabited by
+persons engaged in the same occupations, yet necessarily with changes in
+their circumstances, they have received without incongruity additions
+and accommodations adapted to the needs of each successive occupant,
+who, being for the most part proprietor, was at liberty to follow his
+own fancy; so that these humble dwellings remind the contemplative
+spectator of a production of Nature, and may (using a strong expression)
+rather be said to have grown than to have been erected--to have risen,
+by an instinct of their own, out of the native rock--so little is there
+of formality, such is their wildness and beauty. Among the numerous
+recesses and projections in the walls, and in the different stages of
+their roofs, are seen bold and harmonious effects of contrasted sunshine
+and shadow. It is a favourable circumstance that the strong winds which
+sweep down the valleys induced the inhabitants, at a time when the
+materials for building were easily procured, to furnish many of these
+dwellings with substantial porches; and such as have not this defence
+are seldom unprovided with a projection of two large slates over their
+thresholds. Nor will the singular beauty of the chimneys escape the eye
+of the attentive traveller. Sometimes a low chimney, almost upon a level
+with the roof, is overlaid with a slate, supported upon four slender
+pillars, to prevent the wind from driving the smoke down the chimney.
+Others are of a quadrangular shape, rising one or two feet above the
+roof; which low square is often surmounted by a tall cylinder, giving
+to the cottage chimney the most beautiful shape in which it is ever
+seen. Nor will it be too fanciful or refined to remark that there is a
+pleasing harmony between a tall chimney of this circular form, and the
+living column of smoke, ascending from it through the still air. These
+dwellings, mostly built, as has been said, of rough unhewn stone, are
+roofed with slates, which were rudely taken from the quarry before the
+present art of splitting them was understood; and are, therefore, rough
+and uneven in their surface, so that both the coverings and sides of the
+houses have furnished places of rest for the seeds of lichens, mosses,
+ferns, and flowers. Hence buildings, which in their very form call to
+mind the processes of Nature, do thus, clothed in part with a vegetable
+garb, appear to be received into the bosom of the living principle of
+things, as it acts and exists among the woods and fields; and, by their
+colour and their shape, affectingly direct the thoughts to that tranquil
+course of Nature and simplicity, along which the humble-minded
+inhabitants have, through so many generations been led. Add the little
+garden with its shed for beehives, its small bed of pot-herbs, and its
+borders and patches of flowers for Sunday posies, with sometimes a
+choice few too much prized to be plucked; an orchard of proportioned
+size; a cheese-press, often supported by some tree near the door; a
+cluster of embowering sycamores for summer shade; with a tall fir
+through which the winds sing when other trees are leafless; the little
+rill, or household spout, murmuring in all seasons; combine these
+incidents and images together, and you have the representative idea of
+a mountain cottage in this country so beautifully formed in itself, and
+so richly adorned by the hand of Nature.
+
+"Till within the last sixty years[1] there was no communication between
+any of these vales by carriage-roads; all bulky articles were
+transported on pack-horses. Owing, however, to the population not being
+concentrated in villages, but scattered, the valleys themselves were
+intersected, as now, by innumerable lanes and pathways leading from
+house to house and from field to field. These lanes, where they are
+fenced by stone walls, are mostly bordered with ashes, hazels, wild
+roses, and beds of tall fern, at their base; while the walls themselves,
+if old, are overspread with mosses, small ferns, wild strawberries, the
+geranium, and lichens; and if the wall happen to rest against a bank of
+earth, it is sometimes almost wholly concealed by a rich facing of
+stone-fern. It is a great advantage to a traveller or resident, that
+these numerous lanes and paths, if he be a zealous admirer of Nature,
+will lead him on into all the recesses of the country, so that the
+hidden treasures of its landscapes may, by an ever-ready guide, be laid
+open to his eyes."
+
+A much more recent writer, Mrs. E. Lynn Linton, in her charming work,
+full of graceful description and exquisite poetry, thus writes of the
+scenery of one of the lakes after a storm:--
+
+"The woods glittered and sparkled in the sun, each dripping branch a
+spray of golden light, and the light was married to the loud music of
+the birds flowing out in rivulets of song. Countless flies shot through
+the air, and vibrated on the water; and the fish leaped up to catch
+them, dimpling the shining surface with concentric ripples, and throwing
+up small jets of light in the smooth black bays. Every crag and stone,
+and line of wall, and tuft of gorse, was visible on the nearer hills,
+where the colouring was intense and untranslatable; and on the more
+distant mountains, we could see, as through a telescope, the scars on
+the steeps, the slaty shingles, and the straight cleavings down the
+sides, the old grey watercourses, threaded now like a silver line--those
+silver lines, after the storm, over all the craggy faces everywhere; we
+could see each green knoll set like an island among the grey boulders,
+each belt of mountain wood, each purple rift, each shadowed pass, slope
+and gully, and ghyll and scaur--we could count them all glistening in
+the sun, or clear and tender in the shade; while the sky was of a deep,
+pure blue above, and the cumulus clouds were gathered into masses white
+and dazzling as marble, and almost as solid-looking.
+
+"And over all, and on all, and lying in the heart of everything,
+warming, creating, fashioning the dead matter into all lovely forms, and
+driving the sweet juices like blood through the veins of the whole of
+earth, shone the glad sun, free, boundless, loving--life of the world's
+life, glory of its glory, shaper and creator of its brightest beauty.
+Silver on the lake, gold in the wood, purple over the hills, white and
+lazuli in the heavens--what infinite splendour hanging through this
+narrow valley! What a wealth of love and beauty pouring out for the
+heart of all Nature, and for the diviner soul of man!"
+
+Of the mountain tarns, which in their solitary grandeur gleam like
+diamonds, she writes:--
+
+"It is very lovely to watch the ripple of a tarn: a wonderful lesson in
+wave curvature, if small in scale, yet as true as the wildest ocean
+storm could give. Ever changing in line, and yet so uniform in law, the
+artist and the hydrographer might learn some valuable truths from half a
+day's study of one of these small mountain sheets of water. Now the
+broad, smooth, silky curves flow steadily across; now a fine network
+spreads over these, and again another network, smaller and finer still,
+breaks up the rest into a thousand fragments; then the tarn bursts out
+into tiny silver spangles, like a girl's causeless laughter; and then
+comes a grey sweep across the water, as if it shivered in the wind; and
+then again all subsides, and the long, silky flow sets in again, with
+quiet shadows and play of green and grey in the transparent shallows. It
+is like a large diamond set in emerald; for the light of the water is
+radiance simply, not colour; and the grass, with the sun striking
+through, is as bright as an emerald."
+
+If one more extract from Mrs. Linton may be culled, it is to the
+following reflections that a day spent on Helvellyn gives rise:--
+
+"Ah! what a world lies below! But grand as it is on the earth, it is
+mated by the grandeur of the sky. For the cloud scenery is of such
+surpassing nobleness while it lasts, and before it is drawn up into one
+volume of intensest blue, that no kind or manner of discord mars the
+day's power and loveliness. Of all forms and of all colours are those
+gracious summer clouds, ranging from roseate flakes of dazzling white
+masses and torn black remnants, like the last fragments of a widow's
+weeds thrust aside for her maturer bridal; from solid substances, firm
+and marble-like, to light baby curls set like pleasant smiles about the
+graver faces: words and pictures, in all their changes, unspeakably
+precious to soul and sense. And when, finally, they all gather
+themselves away, and leave the sky a vault of undimmed blue, and leave
+the earth a gorgeous picture of human industry and dwelling--when field
+and plain, and mountain and lake, and tarn and river are fashioned into
+the beauty of a primeval earth by the purity of the air and the
+governing strength of the sun and the fragrant sweetness of the summer,
+and when the very gates of heaven seem opening for our entering where
+the southern sun stands at gaze in his golden majesty--is it wonder if
+there are tears more glad than many smiles, and a thrill of love more
+prayerful than many a litany chanted in the church service? In the very
+passion of delight that pours like wine through the veins is a solemn
+outfall--in the very deliciousness of joy an intensity that is almost
+pain. It is all so solemn and so grand, so noble and so loving, surely
+we cannot be less than what we live in!
+
+"Let any one haunted by small cares, by fears worse than cares, and by
+passions worse than either, go up on a mountain height on such a
+summer's day as this, and there confront his soul with the living soul
+of Nature. Will the stately solitude not calm him? Can the nobleness of
+beauty not raise him to like nobleness? Is there no Divine voice for him
+in the absolute stillness? No loving hand guiding through the pathless
+wilds? No tenderness for man in the lavishness of Nature? Have the
+clouds no lesson of strength in their softness? the sun no cheering in
+its glory? Has the earth no hymn in all its living murmur? the air no
+shaping in its clearness? the wind no healing in its power? Can he stand
+in the midst of that great majesty the sole small thing, and shall his
+spirit, which should be the noblest thing of all, let itself be crippled
+by self and fear, till it lies crawling on the earth when its place is
+lifting to the heavens? Oh! better than written sermon or spoken
+exhortation is one hour on the lonely mountain tops, when the world
+seems so far off, and God and His angels so near. Into the Temple of
+Nature flows the light of the Shekinah, pure and strong and holy, and
+they are wisest who pass into it oftenest, and rest within its glory
+longest. There was never a church more consecrated to all good ends than
+the stone waste on Helvellyn top, where you sit beneath the sun and
+watch the bright world lying in radiant peace below, and the quiet and
+sacred heavens above."
+
+Probably there is no spot of English ground to which more pilgrimages
+have, during the last half-century, been made than the vale of Grasmere,
+which has for all time been rendered classic by the residence therein of
+Wordsworth and those sons of genius who loved to gather around him; and
+almost every prominent object and scene in which has been immortalised
+by his pen.
+
+To lovers of his poetry the spirit of Wordsworth yet casts a spell over
+the landscape; and mountain and vale and lake are almost as articulate
+to the hearing ear as are the storied stones of Rome. But Life's
+grandest music is audible only to the ready ear. It is to the "inward
+eye" of love, gathering its treasured harvest, that the brightest halo
+is revealed. Earth may be
+
+                    "Crammed with heaven,"--
+    "But only he who sees takes off his shoes."
+
+As Nature whispers her secrets to her true lovers; so it is to the
+searching eye that the historic pile presents a vision of years, and the
+decaying cottage or hoary mountain speak of those who consecrated its
+stones or roamed beneath its shade.
+
+Apart, however, from the interest which attaches to this locality from
+its many cherished associations, it is of unsurpassed beauty and
+loveliness. The scenery of this favoured district, so pleasingly varied
+as to inspire at once with gladness and awe, to thrill with rapture or
+to charm into repose, culminates in the transcendent loveliness of the
+mountain-guarded vale of Grasmere. It takes captive the affections like
+the features of a familiar friend.
+
+The poet Gray, writing concerning it more than a century ago, says:
+"Passed by the little chapel of Wiborn [Wythburn], out of which the
+Sunday congregation were then issuing. Passed by a beck near Dunmail
+Raise, and entered Westmoreland a second time; now began to see Helm
+crag, distinguished from its rugged neighbours, not so much by its
+height, as by the strange, broken outline of its top, like some
+gigantic building demolished, and the stones that composed it flung
+across each other in wild confusion. Just beyond it opens one of the
+sweetest landscapes that Art ever attempted to imitate. The bosom of the
+mountains here spreading into a broad basin, discovers in the midst
+Grasmere Water; its margin is hollowed into small bays, with eminences,
+some of rock, some of soft turf, that half conceal and half vary the
+figure of the little lake they command. From the shore a low promontory
+pushes itself into the water, and on it stands a white village, with a
+parish church rising in the midst of it, having enclosures, cornfields,
+and meadows, green as an emerald, which, with trees, and hedges, and
+cattle, fill up the whole space from the edge of the water, and just
+opposite to you is a large farmhouse at the bottom of a steep, smooth
+lawn, embosomed in old woods, which climb half way up the mountain
+sides, and discover above a broken line of crags that crown the scene.
+Not a single red tile, no staring gentleman's house breaks in upon the
+repose of this unsuspected paradise; but all is peace, rusticity, and
+happy poverty, in its sweetest, most becoming attire."
+
+This description must, of course, at the present day be somewhat
+modified. The scene upon which the eyes of the author of the Elegy
+rested is now varied by many residences and signs of human contact then
+absent.
+
+In an account of a visit to Grasmere at a much later period, the late
+Nathaniel Hawthorne says: "This little town seems to me as pretty a
+place as ever I met with in my life. It is quite shut in by hills that
+rise up immediately around it, like a neighbourhood of kindly giants.
+These hills descend steeply to the verge of the level on which the
+village stands, and there they terminate at once, the whole site of the
+little town being as even as a floor. I call it a village, but it is no
+village at all; all the dwellings stand apart, each in its own little
+domain, and each, I believe, with its own little lane leading to it,
+independently of the rest. Many of these are old cottages, plastered
+white, with antique porches, and roses, and other vines, trained against
+them, and shrubbery growing about them, and some are covered with ivy.
+There are a few edifices of more pretension and of modern build, but not
+so strikingly as to put the rest out of countenance. The Post Office,
+when we found it, proved to be an ivied cottage, with a good deal of
+shrubbery round it, having its own pathway, like the other cottages. The
+whole looks like a real seclusion, shut out from the great world by
+those encircling hills, on the sides of which, whenever they are not too
+steep, you see the division lines of property and tokens of
+cultivation--taking from them their pretensions of savage majesty, but
+bringing them nearer to the heart of man."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] This was written in 1810.
+
+
+
+
+    "Only a sister's part--yes, that was all;
+      And yet her life was bright, and full, and free.
+    She did not feel, 'I give up all for him;'
+      She only knew, ''Tis mine his friend to be.'
+
+    "So what she saw and felt the poet sang--
+      She did not seek the world should know her share;
+    Her one great hunger was for 'William's' fame,
+      To give his thoughts a voice her life-long prayer.
+
+    "And when with wife and child his days were crowned
+      She did not feel that she was left alone,
+    Glad in their joy, she shared their every care,
+      And only thought of baby as 'our own.'
+
+    "His 'dear, dear sister,' that was all she asked,
+      Her gentle ministry, her only fame;
+    But when we read his page with grateful heart,
+      Between the lines we'll spell out Dora's name."
+
+                                --ANON. IN _The Spectator_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+LIFE AT GRASMERE.
+
+
+The unpretentious cottage which became the first Grasmere home of
+Wordsworth and his sister in those days when they were still sole
+companions, though changed in its surroundings, is happily still allowed
+to retain its old features. It stands on the right of the highway, just
+on the entry into Grasmere, on the road from Rydal--the old coach
+road--a little distance beyond the "Wishing Gate," and at the part of
+the village called Town End. It was formerly an inn, called "The Dove
+and Olive Bough," and is still known by the name of Dove Cottage. It
+overlooks from the front the beauteous lake of Grasmere, though the view
+from the lower rooms is now considerably obstructed by buildings since
+erected. Behind is a small garden and orchard, in which is a spring of
+pure water, round which the primroses and daffodils bloom, as they did
+when lovingly reared by Miss Wordsworth. A dozen steps or so, cut in the
+rocky slope lead up to a little terrace walk, on a bit of mountain
+ground, enclosed in the domain, and sheltered in the rear by a fir-clad
+wood. Altogether it was an ideal cottage-home for the enthusiastic young
+couple. From the orchard are obtained views almost unrivalled of
+mountain, vale, and lake, embracing the extensive range from Helm Crag
+and the vales of Easdale and Wythburn, down to the wooded heights of
+Loughrigg. Words cannot do justice to the idyllic sweetness and beauty
+of this poet's home, as it must have been when Wordsworth described his
+chosen retreat as the
+
+    "Loveliest spot that man hath ever found."
+
+The "sweet garden-orchard, eminently fair," has now, however, a
+neglected appearance, and must be very different from the time when the
+loving hands of the poet and his sister carefully tended the trees and
+flowers, of which he says:--
+
+    "This plot of orchard ground is ours,
+    My trees they are, my sister's flowers."
+
+De Quincey speaks of the house as being immortal in his
+remembrance--just two bow shots from the water--"a little white cottage,
+gleaming in the midst of trees, with a vast and seemingly never-ending
+series of ascents rising above it, to the height of more than three
+thousand feet."
+
+Wordsworth's satisfaction at finding himself, at length, in the
+companionship of his beloved sister, in this his first permanent and
+peaceful abode, is thus expressed in a portion of a poem which was
+intended to form part of the "Recluse," of which, as is well known, the
+Prelude and the Excursion only were completed. I am indebted for the
+extract to the "Memoirs of Wordsworth," by the late Bishop of Lincoln.
+It will be observed that the poet's ardent attachment to his sister was
+in no degree abated, and that he ungrudgingly bestowed upon her the
+generous praise so much merited:--
+
+    "On Nature's invitation do I come,
+    By Reason sanctioned. Can the choice mislead,
+    That made the calmest, fairest spot on earth,
+    With all its unappropriated good,
+    My own, and not mine only, for with me
+    Entrenched--say rather, peacefully embowered--
+    Under yon orchard, in yon humble cot,
+    A younger orphan of a home extinct,
+    The only daughter of my parents dwells;
+    Aye, think on that, my heart, and cease to stir;
+    Pause upon that, and let the breathing frame
+    No longer breathe, but all be satisfied.
+    Oh, if such silence be not thanks to God
+    For what hath been bestowed, then where, where then
+    Shall gratitude find rest? Mine eyes did ne'er
+    Fix on a lovely object, nor my mind
+    Take pleasure in the midst of happy thought,
+    But either she, whom now I have, who now
+    Divides with me that loved abode, was there,
+    Or not far off. Where'er my footsteps turned,
+    Her voice was like a hidden bird that sang;
+    The thought of her was like a flash of light
+    Or an unseen companionship, a breath
+    Or fragrance independent of the wind.
+    In all my goings, in the new and old
+    Of all my meditations, and in this
+    Favourite of all, in this, the most of all....
+    Embrace me, then, ye hills, and close me in.
+    Now, on the clear and open day I feel
+    Your guardianship: I take it to my heart;
+    'Tis like the solemn shelter of the night.
+    But I would call thee beautiful; for mild
+    And soft, and gay, and beautiful thou art,
+    Dear valley, having in thy face a smile,
+    Though peaceful, full of gladness. Thou art pleased,
+    Pleased with thy crags, and woody steeps, thy lake,
+    Its one green island, and its winding shores,
+    The multitude of little rocky hills,
+    Thy church, and cottages of mountain stone
+    Clustered like stars some few, but single most
+    And lurking dimly in their shy retreats,
+    Or glancing at each other cheerful looks
+    Like separated stars with clouds between."
+
+The early years of their residence at Grasmere were signalised by calm
+enjoyment, no less than by active industry. Miss Wordsworth's life
+retained its characteristic unselfishness, its devoted ministry. The
+cottage itself was furnished at a cost of about £100--a legacy left to
+her by a relative, and their joint annual income at that time amounted
+to about as much. That they were still poor did not detract from their
+happiness, but probably served only to promote it. We find this refined,
+sensitive young woman (she was now twenty-eight), engaged very much in
+domestic duties, doing a considerable part of the work of the house,
+without a thought of discontent. Her poetic enthusiasm and cultured mind
+did not unfit her for the common duties of life, or detract from her
+high sense of duty and service. Happily she had learnt--as every true
+woman does--that there is no degradation in work; that it is not in the
+nature of our tasks, but the spirit in which they are performed, that
+the test of fitness is to be found. Notwithstanding, however, her other
+duties, Miss Wordsworth found time to be a true help to her brother. As
+his amanuensis she wrote or transcribed his poems, read to him, and
+accompanied him in his daily walks. She had also that rare gift of the
+perfect companion of being able to be silent with and for him,
+recognising the apparently little-known truth that a loved presence is
+in itself society. In one of his poems, "Personal Talk," he says:--
+
+    "I am not one who much or oft delight
+    To season my fireside with personal talk,--
+    Of friends, who live within an easy walk,
+    Or neighbours, daily, weekly, in my sight:
+    And, for my chance acquaintance, ladies bright,
+    Sons, mothers, maidens withering on the stalk,
+    These all wear out of me, like forms with chalk
+    Painted on rich men's floors, for one feast-night.
+    Better than such discourse doth silence long,
+    Long, barren silence, square with my desire;
+    To sit without emotion, hope, or aim,
+    In the loved presence of my cottage-fire,
+    And listen to the flapping of the flame,
+    Or kettle whispering its faint undersong."
+
+In one of the MSS. notes, alluding to this sonnet, Wordsworth has said:
+"The last line but two stood at first better and more characteristically
+thus:
+
+    "'By my half-kitchen and half-parlour fire,'"
+
+And he adds: "My sister and I were in the habit of having the tea-kettle
+in our little sitting-room; and we toasted the bread ourselves, which
+reminds me of a little circumstance, not unworthy of being set down
+among these _minutiæ_. Happening both of us to be engaged a few minutes
+one morning, when we had a young prig of a Scotch lawyer to breakfast
+with us, my dear sister, with her usual simplicity, put the toasting
+fork, with a slice of bread, into the hands of this Edinburgh genius.
+Our little book-case stood on one side of the fire. To prevent loss of
+time he took down a book, and fell to reading, to the neglect of the
+toast, which was burnt to a cinder. Many a time have we laughed at this
+circumstance and other cottage simplicities of that day."
+
+Miss Wordsworth, at this period, also kept a diary, or journal, which,
+we are informed, is "full of vivid descriptions of natural beauty." The
+few extracts from it which the world has hitherto been allowed to see
+are of deep interest, affording, as they do, a pleasing picture of their
+daily occupations, the incidents which gave birth to many of her
+brother's poems, and the circumstances under which they were written.
+For the subject of many of them he was indebted to her ever-watchful and
+observant eye, and several were composed while wandering over woodland
+paths, by her side. The knowledge of this not only serves to remind us
+of the sustained character of Miss Wordsworth's directing and
+controlling influence upon her brother, but gives an additional interest
+to the poems. Thus, in her journal, she writes: "William walked to
+Rydal.... The lake of Grasmere beautiful. The Church an image of peace;
+he wrote some lines upon it.... The mountains indistinct; the lake calm,
+and partly ruffled, a sweet sound of water falling into the quiet lake.
+A storm gathering in Easedale, so we returned; but the moon came out,
+and opened to us the church and village. Helm Crag in shade; the larger
+mountains dappled like a sky." Again: "We went into the orchard after
+breakfast, and sat there. The lake calm, the sky cloudy. William began
+poem on 'The Celandine.'" The next day: "Sowed flower-seeds: William
+helped me. We sat in the orchard. W. wrote 'The Celandine.' Planned an
+arbour; the sun too hot for us." "W. wrote the 'Leech Gatherer.'" These
+instances might be multiplied. Wordsworth has himself recorded how that
+about this time he composed his first sonnets, "taking fire" one
+afternoon after his sister had been reading to him those of Milton. Her
+helpful aid, as a literary companion, is thus referred to by Mr.
+Lockhart: "His sister, without any of the aids of learned ladies, had a
+refined perception of the beauties of literature, and her glowing
+sympathy and delicate comments cast new light upon the most luminous
+page. Wordsworth always acknowledged that it was from her and Coleridge
+that his otherwise very independent intellect had derived great
+assistance."
+
+In a letter, dated September 10, 1800, Miss Wordsworth thus describes
+their home and home-life: "We are daily more delighted with Grasmere and
+its neighbourhood. Our walks are perpetually varied, and we are more
+fond of the mountains as our acquaintance with them increases. We have a
+boat upon the lake, and a small orchard, and smaller garden, which, as
+it is the work of our own hands, we regard with pride and partiality.
+Our cottage is quite large enough for us, though very small, and we have
+made it neat and comfortable within doors, and it looks very nice on the
+outside; for though the roses and honeysuckles which we have planted
+against it are only of this year's growth, yet it is covered all over
+with green leaves and scarlet flowers; for we have trained scarlet beans
+upon threads, which are not only exceedingly beautiful but very useful,
+as their produce is immense. We have made a lodging-room of the parlour
+below stairs, which has a stone floor, therefore we have covered it all
+over with matting. We sit in a room above stairs; and we have one
+lodging-room, with two single beds, a sort of lumber-room, and a small,
+low, unceiled room, which I have papered with newspapers, and in which
+we have put a small bed. Our servant is an old woman of sixty years of
+age, whom we took partly out of charity. She was very ignorant, very
+foolish, and very difficult to teach. But the goodness of her
+disposition, and the great convenience we should find, if my
+perseverance was successful, induced me to go on."
+
+It is recorded in the transactions of the Wordsworth Society for 1882,
+that Professor Knight thus alluded to the journals of Miss Wordsworth,
+written during the years 1800, 1801, 1802, and 1803: "These journals
+were a singularly interesting record of 'plain living and high
+thinking;'--of very plain living, and of very lofty thought,
+imagination, and feeling. They were the best possible commentary on the
+poems belonging to that period; because they shewed the manner of life
+of the brother and the sister, the character of their daily work, the
+influences of Nature to which they were subjected, the homeliness of
+their ways, and the materials on which the poems were based, as well as
+the sources of their inspiration. One read in these journals the tales
+of travelling sailors and pedlars who came through the lake country, of
+gipsy women and beggar boys, which were afterwards, if not immediately,
+translated into verse. Then the whole scenery of the place and its
+accessories, the people of Grasmere Vale, Wordsworth's neighbours and
+friends, were photographed in that journal. The Church, the lake, its
+Island, John's Grove, White Moss Common, Point Rash Judgment, Easedale,
+Dunmail Raise--everything given in clearest outline and vivid colour.
+Miss Wordsworth's delineations of Nature in these daily jottings were
+quite as subtle and minute, quite as delicate and ethereal, as anything
+in her brother's poems. Above all there was in these records a most
+interesting disclosure of Dorothy Wordsworth's friendship with
+Coleridge--and a very remarkable friendship it was. One also saw the
+sister's rare appreciation of her brother's genius, amounting almost to
+a reverence for it; and her continuous self-sacrifice that she might
+foster and develop her brother's powers. Well might Wordsworth say, 'She
+gave me eyes, she gave me ears,' Another very interesting fact
+disclosed in those journals was the very slow growth of many of the
+poems, such, for example, as 'Michael' and the 'Excursion,' and the
+constant revisions to which they were subjected."
+
+The poem, "To a Young Lady, who had been reproached for taking long
+walks in the country," written about this time, was, I am informed on
+excellent authority, addressed to Miss Wordsworth. It will be observed
+that the prophecy therein contained did not in all respects meet with
+fulfilment:--
+
+    "Dear Child of Nature, let them rail!
+    --There is a nest in a green dale,
+    A harbour and a hold;
+    Where thou, a Wife and Friend, shalt see
+    Thy own heart-stirring days, and be
+    A light to young and old.
+
+    "There, healthy as a shepherd-boy,
+    And treading among flowers of joy,
+    Which at no season fade,
+    Thou, while thy babes around thee cling,
+    Shalt shew us how divine a thing
+    A Woman may be made.
+
+    "Thy thoughts and feelings shall not die,
+    Nor leave thee, when grey hairs are nigh,
+    A melancholy slave;
+    But an old age serene and bright,
+    And lovely as a Lapland night,
+    Shall lead thee to thy grave."
+
+Thus were passed, in happy converse and mutual love and help, the three
+years which intervened between Miss Wordsworth and her brother going to
+Grasmere, and the marriage of the latter. A tour which they together
+made on the Continent in 1802 pleasantly varied this period. A sonnet of
+Wordsworth's composed when on this occasion, they were, in the early
+morning, passing Westminster Bridge is well known. It is here repeated
+only that his sister's account of her impressions may be placed along
+with it. He says:--
+
+    "Earth hath not anything to shew more fair;
+    Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
+    A sight so touching in its majesty;
+    This City now doth, like a garment, wear
+    The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
+    Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
+    Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
+    All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
+    Never did sun more beautifully steep
+    In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
+    Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
+    The river glideth at his own sweet will:
+    Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
+    And all that mighty heart is lying still!"
+
+Miss Wordsworth in her almost equally graceful prose writes: "Left
+London between five and six o'clock of the morning, outside the Dover
+coach. A beautiful morning. The city, St. Paul's, with the river--a
+multitude of boats--made a beautiful sight as we crossed Westminster
+Bridge; the houses not overhung by their clouds of smoke, and were
+spread out endlessly; yet the sun shone so brightly, with such a pure
+light, that there was something like the purity of one of Nature's own
+grand spectacles." She adds: "Arrived at Calais at four in the morning
+of July 31st. Delightful walks in the evening; seeing, far off in the
+west, the coast of England, like a cloud, crested with Dover Castle, the
+evening star and the glory of the sky; the reflections in the water were
+more beautiful than the sky itself; purple waves brighter than precious
+stones for ever melting away upon the sands."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+SOME MEMORIAL NOOKS
+
+
+It may not be inopportune to mention, in this place, a few of the spots
+in the neighbourhood of this, their early home, with which the memory of
+Miss Wordsworth is more especially associated. By Wordsworth himself,
+indeed, the whole of the Lake district of England has been immortalised,
+and is more associated with his name and life than is the country of the
+Trossachs with that of Sir Walter Scott. In illustration of this it is
+only necessary to refer to his poems on the naming of places and
+inscriptions. This fact alone, no less than the exalted teaching and
+beauty of many of his works, will serve to preserve the memory of
+Wordsworth; and probably thousands, to whom he would otherwise be only a
+name, will become acquainted with him as a loved and trusted teacher. If
+the spirits of the departed ever return and hover over the scenes of
+earth which were loved and hallowed in the old-world life, it needs no
+force of the imagination to fancy that of this most spiritual of women,
+lingering by sunny noon or shady evening near the haunts, where, with
+her kindred companion, she walked in happy converse. Among such favoured
+nooks probably the next in interest to their loved "garden-orchard"
+would be found the beauteous vale of Easedale. Here is a terrace walk in
+Lancrigg wood which Wordsworth many years after said he and his sister
+discovered three days after they took up their abode at Grasmere; and
+which long remained their favourite haunt. The late Lady Richardson, in
+an article in "Sharpe's London Magazine," referring at a later period to
+this place, says: "It was their custom to spend the fine days of summer
+in the open air, chiefly in the valley of Easedale. The 'Prelude' was
+chiefly composed in a green mountain terrace, on the Easedale side of
+Helm Crag, known by the name of Under Lancrigg, a place which he used to
+say he knew by heart. The ladies sat at their work on the hill-side,
+while he walked to and fro, on the smooth green mountain turf, humming
+out his verses to himself, and then repeating them to his sympathising
+and ready scribes, to be noted down on the spot and transcribed at
+home."
+
+The winding path leading up to the tarn on the west of Easedale brook,
+on the other side of the valley, is, perhaps, still more closely
+identified with Miss Wordsworth. The first of his "Poems on the Naming
+of Places" was, he has stated, suggested on the banks of the brook that
+runs through Easedale, by the side of which he had composed thousands of
+verses. The poem is as follows:--
+
+    "It was an April morning: fresh and clear
+    The Rivulet, delighting in its strength,
+    Ran with a young man's speed; and yet the voice
+    Of waters which the winter had supplied
+    Was softened down into a vernal tone.
+    The spirit of enjoyment and desire,
+    And hopes and wishes, from all living things
+    Went circling, like a multitude of sounds.
+    The budding groves seemed eager to urge on
+    The steps of June; as if their various hues
+    Were only hindrances that stood between
+    Them and their object: but, meanwhile, prevailed
+    Such an entire contentment in the air
+    That every naked ash, and tardy tree
+    Yet leafless, shewed as if the countenance
+    With which it looked on this delightful day
+    Were native to the summer.--Up the brook
+    I roamed in the confusion of my heart,
+    Alive to all things, and forgetting all.
+    At length I to a sudden turning came
+    In this continuous glen, where down a rock
+    The Stream, so ardent in its course before,
+    Sent forth such sallies of glad sound that all
+    Which I till then had heard appeared the voice
+    Of common pleasure: beast and bird, the lamb,
+    The shepherd's dog, the linnet and the thrush
+    Vied with this waterfall, and made a song
+    Which, while I listened, seemed like the wild growth
+    Or like some natural produce of the air,
+    That could not cease to be. Green leaves were here;
+    But 'twas the foliage of the rocks--the birch,
+    The yew, the holly, and the bright green thorn,
+    With hanging islands of resplendent furze:
+    And, on a summit, distant a short space,
+    By any who should look beyond the dell,
+    A single mountain-cottage might be seen.
+    I gazed and gazed, and to myself I said,
+    'Our thoughts at least are ours; and this wild nook,
+    MY EMMA, I will dedicate to thee.'
+    --Soon did the spot become my other home,
+    My dwelling, and my out-of-doors abode.
+    And, of the Shepherds who have seen me there,
+    To whom I sometimes in our idle talk
+    Have told this fancy, two or three, perhaps,
+    Years after we are gone and in our graves,
+    When they have cause to speak of this wild place,
+    May call it by the name of EMMA'S DELL."
+
+It is hardly necessary to mention that Miss Wordsworth is more than once
+in the poems referred to as the poet's sister "Emma" or "Emmeline." It
+is, perhaps, rather difficult to determine on what precise spot they
+stood when this poem was composed, and to which the name of "Emma's
+Dell" was given. Professor Knight, in his very interesting work, "The
+English Lake District, as interpreted by Wordsworth," concludes that the
+place is where the brook takes a "sudden turning" a few hundred yards
+above Goody Bridge; but there are other spots in the brook a little
+further up the valley to which the description in the poem is probably
+equally applicable.
+
+Another poem of the same series may appropriately here find a place,
+containing, as it does, a loving allusion to Dorothy. This time it is
+Miss Wordsworth herself who gives the name of _William's Peak_ to the
+rugged summit of Stone Arthur, situated between Green Head Ghyll (the
+scene of Wordsworth's pastoral poem "Michael") and Tongue Ghyll, a short
+distance on the right-hand, side of the road leading from Grasmere to
+Keswick:--
+
+    "There is an Eminence,--of these our hills
+    The last that parleys with the setting sun;
+    We can behold it from our orchard-seat;
+    And, when at evening we pursue our walk
+    Along the public way, this Peak, so high
+    Above us, and so distant in its height,
+    Is visible; and often seems to send
+    Its own deep quiet to restore our hearts.
+    The meteors make of it a favourite haunt:
+    The star of Jove, so beautiful and large,
+    In the mid heavens, is never half so fair
+    As when he shines above it. 'Tis in truth
+    The loneliest place we have among the clouds.
+    _And She who dwells with me, whom I have loved
+    With such communion, that no place on earth
+    Can ever be a solitude to me_,
+    Hath to this lonely Summit given my Name."
+
+As this poem was written in the first year of their residence at
+Grasmere, the reference in the closing lines can be to no other person
+than Miss Wordsworth.
+
+Still another poem of the series owes its origin to a walk by the poet,
+in the company of his sister and Coleridge. The path here referred to,
+by the side of the lake has, we are informed, lost its privacy and
+beauty, by reason of the making of the new highway from Rydal to
+Grasmere:--
+
+      "A narrow girdle of rough stones and crags,
+      A rude and natural causeway, interposed
+      Between the water and a winding slope
+      Of copse and thicket, leaves the eastern shore
+      Of Grasmere safe in its own privacy:
+      And there, myself and two beloved Friends,
+      One calm September morning, ere the mist
+      Had altogether yielded to the sun,
+      Sauntered on this retired and difficult way.
+
+    --"Ill suits the road with one in haste; but we
+      Played with our time; and, as we strolled along,
+      It was our occupation to observe
+      Such objects as the waves had tossed ashore--
+      Feather, or leaf, or weed, or withered bough,
+      Each on the other heaped, along the line
+      Of the dry wreck. And, in our vacant mood,
+      Not seldom did we stop to watch some tuft
+      Of dandelion seed or thistle's beard,
+      That skimmed the surface of the dead calm lake,
+      Suddenly halting now--a lifeless stand!
+      And starting off again with freak as sudden;
+      In all its sportive wanderings, all the while
+      Making report of an invisible breeze
+      That was its wings, its chariot, and its horse,
+      Its playmate, rather say, its moving soul.
+
+    --"And often, trifling with a privilege
+      Alike indulged to all, we paused, one now,
+      And now the other, to point out, perchance
+      To pluck, some flower or water-weed, too fair
+      Either to be divided from the place
+      On which it grew, or to be left alone
+      To its own beauty."
+
+The poem goes on to relate how they saw in the distance, angling by the
+margin of the lake, a man in the garb of a peasant, while from the
+fields the merry noise of the reapers fell upon their ears. They
+somewhat hastily came to the conclusion that the man was an idler, who,
+instead of spending his time at the gentle craft, might have been more
+profitably engaged in the harvest. Upon a near approach they, however,
+found that he was a feeble old man, wasted by sickness, and too weak to
+labour, who was doing his best to gain a scanty pittance from the lake.
+It concludes by alluding to the self-upbraiding of the three friends, in
+consequence of their too rashly formed opinion:--
+
+                              "I will not say
+    What thoughts immediately were ours, nor how
+    The happy idleness of that sweet morn,
+    With all its lovely images, was changed
+    To serious musing and to self-reproach.
+    Nor did we fail to see within ourselves
+    What need there is to be reserved in speech,
+    And temper all our thoughts with charity.
+    --Therefore, unwilling to forget that day,
+    My Friend, Myself, and She who then received
+    The same admonishment, have called the place
+    By a memorial name, uncouth indeed,
+    As e'er by mariner was given to bay
+    Or foreland, on a new-discovered coast;
+    And _Point Rash-Judgment_ is the name it bears."
+
+Another memorial of Miss Wordsworth in her prime is to be found in the
+"Rock of Names," which stands on the right-hand side of the road from
+Grasmere to Keswick, near the head of Thirlmere, and about a mile beyond
+"Wytheburn's modest House of Prayer." This was a meeting-place of
+Wordsworth and Coleridge, who was then resident at Keswick, and their
+friends. On the surface of this "upright mural block of stone,"
+moss-crowned, smooth-faced, and lichen-patched, are cut the following
+letters:--
+
+    W. W.
+    M. H.
+    D. W.
+  S. T. C.
+    J. W.
+    S. H.
+
+It is hardly necessary to state that the initials are those of William
+Wordsworth, Mary Hutchinson (afterwards his wife), Dorothy Wordsworth,
+Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Wordsworth (the poet's brother), and Sarah
+Hutchinson (the sister of Mrs. Wordsworth). It is greatly to be
+regretted that on the completion of the projected reservoir of the
+Manchester Corporation, this rock, unless steps are taken for its
+preservation, will be submerged in its waters. Seldom did half-a-dozen
+more poetic and fervent natures meet and leave a more unique, and
+attractive memorial. It is to be hoped that means will be adopted not
+only to have the rock removed to a place of safety, but also to preserve
+it from further mutilation. Although these initials have withstood the
+storms and blasts of more than four score winters, they are yet
+perfectly distinct and legible, and their original character is
+preserved. Whilst there are, unfortunately, now other initials and marks
+upon the face of the rock, it is more free from them than might have
+been expected. The very fact of attention being called to such an
+interesting memento, while being a source of pleasure to the admirers of
+the gifted children of genius who made this their trysting-place, also
+arouses the puerile ambition of those whose interest centres in
+themselves, and to whom no associations are dear, to inscribe their own
+scratch. In this way there has already been added the letter J. before
+the original D. W. of Miss Wordsworth. Wordsworth's allusion to this
+rock, in a note to some editions of his poem, "The Waggoner," is as
+follows:--
+
+
+               ROCK OF NAMES!
+
+    "Light is the strain, but not unjust
+    To Thee, and thy memorial-trust
+    That once seemed only to express
+    Love that was love in idleness;
+    Tokens, as year hath followed year,
+    How changed, alas, in character!
+    For they were graven on thy smooth breast
+    By hands of those my soul loved best;
+    Meek women, men as true and brave
+    As ever went to a hopeful grave:
+    Their hands and mine, when side by side,
+    With kindred zeal and mutual pride,
+    We worked until the Initials took
+    Shapes that defied a scornful look.--
+    Long as for us a genial feeling
+    Survives, or one in need of healing,
+    The power, dear Rock, around thee cast,
+    Thy monumental power, shall last
+    For me and mine! O thought of pain,
+    That would impair it or profane!
+
+    *       *       *       *       *
+
+    And fail not Thou, loved Rock! to keep
+    Thy charge when we are laid asleep."
+
+In this place a reference by Wordsworth to his little poem, commencing
+"Yes, it was the mountain echo," will be of interest. "The echo came
+from Nab-scar, when I was walking on the opposite side of Rydal Mere. I
+will here mention, for my dear sister's sake, that while she was sitting
+alone one day, high up on this part of Loughrigg fell, she was so
+affected by the voice of the cuckoo, heard from the crags at some
+distance, that she could not suppress a wish to have a stone inscribed
+with her name among the rocks from which the sound proceeded."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE CIRCLE WIDENED.--MRS. WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+The year 1802 was a memorable one to Miss Wordsworth no less than to her
+brother. With interests so inseparable, the happiness of one was that of
+the other. After the somewhat agitated period of his early life, when he
+was for a time in danger of shipwreck, and his noble-hearted sister came
+to his rescue and helped to steer his course into the placid waters of
+content and well-grounded hope, Wordsworth was in all respects
+remarkably fortunate, and his life more than usually serene and happy.
+Next to the blessing which he possessed in his sister, Wordsworth was
+largely indebted to his admirable wife. In October of this year he had
+the good fortune to marry his cousin, Mary Hutchinson, of Penrith--a
+lady whom it would be almost presumption to "even dare to praise." As
+his early friend (and they had in childhood attended the same dame's
+school together) they had strong sympathies in common, with, at the same
+time, much of that contrast of temperament which, in married life,
+renders one the complement of the other, and contributes not a little to
+the completion and unity of the dual life. The marriage of those whom
+"friendship has early paired" can hardly be otherwise than serenely
+happy; beginning their life, as they thus do, each with the same store
+of early memories, they have a common history into which to engraft
+their new experiences and hopes. Speaking of his marriage, the poet's
+nephew says: "It was full of blessings to himself, as ministering to the
+exercise of his tender affections, in the discipline and delight which
+married life supplies. The boon bestowed upon him in the marriage union
+was admirably adapted to shed a cheering and soothing influence upon his
+mind." In a poem, entitled "A Farewell," Wordsworth has thus expressed
+the thoughts with which he left his cottage with his sister to bring
+home the bride and friend:--
+
+    "Farewell, thou little Nook of mountain-ground,
+    Thou rocky corner in the lowest stair
+    Of that magnificent temple which doth bound
+    One side of our whole vale with grandeur rare;
+    Sweet garden-orchard, eminently fair,
+    The loveliest spot that man hath ever found,
+    Farewell!--we leave thee to Heaven's peaceful care,
+    Thee, and the Cottage which thou dost surround.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Fields, goods, and far-off chattels we have none:
+    These narrow bounds contain our private store
+    Of things earth makes, and sun doth shine upon;
+    Here are they in our sight--we have no more.
+
+    "Sunshine and shower be with you, bud and bell!
+    For two months now in vain we shall be sought;
+    We leave you here in solitude to dwell
+    With these our latest gifts of tender thought;
+    Thou, like the morning, in thy saffron coat,
+    Bright gowan, and marsh-marigold, farewell!
+    Whom from the borders of the Lake we brought,
+    And placed together near our rocky Well.
+
+    "We go for One to whom ye will be dear;
+    And she will prize this Bower, this Indian shed,
+    Our own contrivance, Building without peer!
+    --A gentle Maid, whose heart is lowly bred,
+    Whose pleasures are in wild fields gatherèd,
+    With joyousness, and with a thoughtful cheer,
+    Will come to you--to you herself will wed--
+    And love the blessed life that we lead here.
+
+    "Dear Spot! which we have watched with tender heed,
+    Bringing thee chosen plants and blossoms blown
+    Among the distant mountains, flower and weed,
+    Which thou hast taken to thee as thy own,
+    Making all kindness registered and known;
+    Thou for our sakes, though Nature's child indeed,
+    Fair in thyself and beautiful alone,
+    Hast taken gifts which thou dost little need.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "Help us to tell Her tales of years gone by,
+    And this sweet spring, the best beloved and best;
+    Joy will be flown in its mortality;
+    Something must stay to tell us of the rest.
+    Here, thronged with primroses, the steep rock's breast
+    Glittered at evening like a starry sky;
+    And in this bush our sparrow built her nest,
+    Of which I sang one song that will not die.
+
+    "Oh happy Garden! whose seclusion deep
+    Hath been so friendly to industrious hours;
+    And to soft slumbers, that did gently steep
+    Our spirits, carrying with them dreams of flowers,
+    And wild notes warbled among leafy bowers;
+    Two burning months let summer overleap,
+    And, coming back with Her who will be ours,
+    Into thy bosom we again shall creep."
+
+I cannot refrain from also quoting here the exquisite picture of Mrs.
+Wordsworth, written after the experience of two years of married life.
+
+    "She was a Phantom of delight
+    When first she gleamed upon my sight;
+    A lovely Apparition, sent
+    To be a moment's ornament:
+    Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair,
+    Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair;
+    But all things else about her drawn
+    From May-time and the cheerful Dawn;
+    A dancing Shape, an Image gay,
+    To haunt, to startle, and way-lay.
+
+    "I saw her upon nearer view,
+    A Spirit, yet a Woman too!
+    Her household motions light and free,
+    And steps of virgin-liberty;
+    A countenance in which did meet
+    Sweet records, promises as sweet;
+    A Creature not too bright or good
+    For human nature's daily food;
+    For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
+    Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.
+
+    "And now I see with eye serene
+    The very pulse of the machine;
+    A Being breathing thoughtful breath,
+    A traveller between life and death;
+    The reason firm, the temperate will,
+    Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
+    A perfect Woman, nobly planned,
+    To warn, to comfort, and command;
+    And yet a Spirit still, and bright
+    With something of angelic light."
+
+Without the exultant spirits or rare mental endowment of Miss
+Wordsworth, the poet's wife was eminently fitted for his companionship,
+one which lasted during the fifty following years. Mr. Lockhart speaks
+of her as having one of the most benignant tempers that ever diffused
+peace and cheerfulness through a home. Although not written till some
+years after, perhaps the present is the most fitting place in which to
+quote De Quincey's description of Mrs. Wordsworth:[2]
+
+"I saw sufficiently to be aware of two ladies just entering the room,
+through a doorway opening upon a little staircase. The foremost, a
+tallish young woman, with the most winning expression of benignity upon
+her features, advanced to me, presenting her hand with so frank an air,
+that all embarrassment must have fled in a moment before the native
+goodness of her manner. This was Mrs. Wordsworth, cousin of the poet,
+and, for the last five years or more, his wife. She was now mother of
+two children, a son and a daughter; and she furnished a remarkable proof
+how possible it is for a woman, neither handsome nor even comely,
+according to the rigour of criticism--nay, generally pronounced very
+plain--to exercise all the practical fascination of beauty, through the
+mere compensatory charms of sweetness all but angelic, of simplicity the
+most entire, womanly self-respect and purity of heart speaking through
+all her looks, acts, and movements. _Words_, I was going to have added;
+but her words were few. In reality, she talked so little, that Mr.
+Slave-Trade Clarkson used to allege against her, that she could only
+say, '_God bless you!_' Certainly, her intellect was not of an active
+order; but, in a quiescent, reposing, meditative way, she appeared
+always to have a genial enjoyment from her own thoughts; and it would
+have been strange, indeed, if she, who enjoyed such eminent advantages
+of training, from the daily society of her husband and his sister,
+failed to acquire some power of judging for herself, and putting forth
+some functions of activity. But, undoubtedly, that was not her element:
+to feel and to enjoy in a luxurious repose of mind--there was her
+_forte_ and her peculiar privilege; and how much better this was adapted
+to her husband's taste, how much more adapted to uphold the comfort of
+his daily life, than a blue-stocking loquacity, or even a legitimate
+talent for discussion, may be inferred from his verses, beginning--
+
+    'She was a Phantom of delight,
+    When first she gleamed upon my sight.'
+
+...I will add to this abstract of her _moral_ portrait, these few
+concluding traits of her appearance in a physical sense. Her figure was
+tolerably good. In complexion she was fair, and there was something
+peculiarly pleasing even in this accident of the skin, for it was
+accompanied by an animated expression of health, a blessing which, in
+fact, she possessed uninterruptedly. Her eyes, the reader may already
+know, were
+
+    'Like stars of Twilight fair,
+    Like Twilight, too, her dark brown hair,
+    But all things else about her drawn
+    From May-time and the cheerful Dawn.'
+
+Yet strange it is to tell that, in these eyes of vesper gentleness,
+there was a considerable obliquity of vision; and much beyond that
+slight obliquity which is often supposed to be an attractive foible in
+the countenance: this _ought_ to have been displeasing or repulsive;
+yet, in fact, it was not. Indeed all faults, had they been ten times
+more and greater, would have been neutralised by that supreme expression
+of her features, to the unity of which every lineament in the fixed
+parts, and every undulation in the moving parts of her countenance,
+concurred, viz., a sunny benignity--a radiant graciousness--such as in
+this world I never saw surpassed."
+
+It will be observed that De Quincey here speaks rather slightingly of
+Mrs. Wordsworth's intellect, almost in such a way as suggests a desire
+to "damn with faint praise." Notwithstanding the unique charm of his
+style and power of language, of which his extensive learning and reading
+had made him such a master, his pen, even when portraying his most
+cherished friends, seems to be slightly touched with an envious venom.
+That Mrs. Wordsworth's intellect was of no mean order there are in her
+life abundant traces. The dignified repose and simplicity of her manner,
+doubtless, formed a striking contrast to that of the impassioned and
+ardent Dorothy. But it could hardly be other than a lofty intellect that
+added two of the most exquisite and thoughtful lines to one of the
+poet's most charming of pieces. Who, having once read, does not remember
+the lines on the daffodils?--
+
+    "I wandered lonely as a cloud
+    That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
+    When all at once I saw a crowd,
+    A host, of golden daffodils;
+    Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
+    Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
+
+    "Continuous as the stars that shine
+    And twinkle on the milky way,
+    They stretched in never-ending line
+    Along the margin of a bay;
+    Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
+    Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
+
+    "The waves beside them danced; but they
+    Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
+    A poet could not but be gay,
+    In such a jocund company:
+    I gazed, and gazed, but little thought
+    What wealth the show to me had brought;
+
+    "For oft, when on my couch I lie
+    In vacant or in pensive mood,
+    _They flash upon that inward eye
+    Which is the bliss of solitude_;
+    And then my heart with pleasure fills,
+    And dances with the daffodils."
+
+The lines in italics, suggested by Mrs. Wordsworth, here form the kernel
+of truth, the central gem around which the lesser beauties are
+clustered.
+
+What a true "inmate of the heart" the poet's wife was, and continued to
+be, to him, we well know. Among other tributes to her soothing and
+sustaining aid might be mentioned the dedication to her of the "White
+Doe of Rylstone," and many other pieces. Happy is the man who, after
+twenty years of married companionship, can thus write of his wife:--
+
+    "Oh, DEARER far than light and life are dear,
+    Full oft our human foresight I deplore;
+    Trembling, through my unworthiness, with fear
+    That friends, by death disjoined, may meet no more!
+
+    "Misgivings, hard to vanquish or control,
+    Mix with the day, and cross the hour of rest;
+    While all the future, for thy purer soul,
+    With 'sober certainties' of love is blest,
+
+    "That sigh of thine, not meant for human ear,
+    Tells that these words thy humbleness offend;
+    Yet bear me up--else faltering in the rear
+    Of a steep march; support me to the end.
+
+    "Peace settles where the intellect is meek,
+    And Love is dutiful in thought and deed;
+    Through Thee Communion with that Love I seek:
+    The faith Heaven strengthens where _He_ moulds the Creed."
+
+And when many following years had passed over them, and they had
+together grown old, their love and devotion, which had increased with
+their years, retained that freshness and fervour of youth which enables
+aged hearts to rejoice in all things young and beautiful:--
+
+    "Morn into noon did pass, noon into eve,
+    And the old day was welcome as the young,
+    As welcome, and as beautiful--in sooth
+    More beautiful, as being a thing more holy:
+    Thanks to thy virtues, to the eternal youth
+    Of all thy goodness, never melancholy;
+    To thy large heart and humble mind, that cast
+    Into one vision, future, present, past."
+
+The marriage of the poet only introduced into the circle another kindred
+spirit, and did not to any extent deprive him of the society of his
+sister, who, as before, continued to reside with him, finding a genial
+companion in one who had long been a cherished friend. Shall we not then
+say that Wordsworth was in his companionships at this period happy in a
+degree to which most of his brother bards have been strangers? With
+these two high-souled and appreciative women to encircle him with their
+love and minister to him, to stimulate to lofty thought and high
+endeavour, what wonder that his life and work attained a fulness and
+completion seldom reached?
+
+_On Reading Miss Wordsworth's Recollections of a Journey in Scotland, in
+1803, with her Brother and Coleridge._
+
+    "I close the book, I shut my eyes,
+    I see the Three before me rise,--
+    Loving sister, famous brother,
+    Each one mirrored in the other;
+    Brooding William, artless Dora,
+    Who was to her very core a
+    Lover of dear Nature's face,
+    In its perfect loveliness,--
+    Lover of her glens and flowers,
+    Of her sunlit clouds and showers,
+    Of her hills and of her streams,
+    Of her moonlight--when she dreams;
+    Of her tears and of her smiles,
+    Of her quaint delicious wiles;
+    Telling what best pleasures lie
+    In the loving, unspoiled eye,
+    In the reverential heart,
+    That in great Nature sees God's art.
+
+    "And him--the man 'of large discourse,'
+    Of pregnant thought, of critic force,
+    That grey-eyed sage, who was not wise
+    In wisdom that in doing lies,
+    But who had 'thoughts that wander through
+    Eternity,'--the old and new.
+    Who, when he rises on our sight,
+    Spite of his failings, shines all bright,
+    With something of an angel-light.
+
+    "We close the book with thankful heart,
+    Father of Lights, to Thee, who art
+    Of every good and perfect gift
+    The Giver,--unto Thee we lift
+    Our souls in prayer, that all may see
+    Thy hand, Thy heart, in all they see."
+
+                      ANON. IN _The Spectator_.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[2] For the copious description here given of Mrs. Wordsworth, and that,
+on a subsequent page, of Miss Wordsworth, I am indebted to the
+contributions of De Quincey to "Tait's Edinburgh Magazine," which
+afterwards formed part of his collected works.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+TOUR IN SCOTLAND.
+
+
+It was in the months of August and September, in the year following that
+of his marriage, that Wordsworth and his sister made their memorable six
+week's tour in Scotland. The character of this tour, as well as the
+remarkable memorial of it given to the world after a lapse of seventy
+years, render it, in this place, deserving of more than a mere passing
+notice. Of the daily incidents of this journey, and the impressions and
+reflections caused by it, Miss Wordsworth kept a minute journal.
+Although not intended as a literary production, and written only for the
+perusal and information of friends, the style is not only pleasing but
+elegant; and it is a matter for congratulation that the family of the
+writer at length consented to its publication. This was done in 1874,
+under the able editorship of Principal Shairp, of St. Andrews, and the
+work rapidly passed through several editions. Not only is it of much
+value to those taking an interest in the lives of the poet and his
+sister; but, containing as it does descriptions at once graceful and
+graphic of the scenes through which they passed, it cannot fail to
+afford pleasure to the general reader. The Editor, in his preface, says
+of it, that he does not remember any other book "more capable of
+training heart and eye to look with profit on the face of Nature, as it
+manifests itself in our northern land."
+
+Mrs. Wordsworth was not of the party, being detained at home by maternal
+duties. For the first fortnight the Wordsworths were accompanied by
+Coleridge, who does not, however, on this occasion, seem to have been
+the desirable companion of old. Wordsworth has said of him that he was
+at the time "in bad spirits, and somewhat too much in love with his own
+dejection."
+
+The manner of their travelling was altogether in keeping with the humble
+character of their lives. The Irish car, and the ancient steed--which,
+from his various wayward freaks, and the difficulty with which he was on
+certain occasions managed by the poets, must have been somewhat of a
+screw--were not calculated to afford much luxury or ease. But the object
+of the tourists was not to make a fashionable holiday. The very love of
+Nature drew them to her wildest solitudes, and to woo her in her varied
+moods, as well when frowning and repellant as when smiling and inviting.
+As they were harvesting for future memories the deep experiences and
+lingering harmonies which are reaped and garnered by a loving
+companionship with Nature, it mattered little to them that these were
+frequently obtained at the cost of weariness and discomfort.
+
+It need not be repeated that for the in-gathering of Nature's most
+beneficent gifts the poet could not have had a more fitting companion
+than his sister. Not only did she idolise him from the depth of the warm
+and tender heart of young womanhood, but she was possessed of a mind
+singularly sympathetic with his own, and with a kindred enthusiasm as
+to the objects in view. Her splendid health, also, at this time, and
+strength of limb, made her such a comrade that this tour became to them
+an enduring joy, to be remembered for all life: She was
+
+          "Fleet and strong--
+    And down the rocks could leap along
+    Like rivulets in May."
+
+In giving a short account of this tour, it will be permissible to take
+the liberty of a reviewer of quoting a few extracts. What strikes a
+reader the most in Miss Wordsworth's record is her quickness of
+observation. Nothing seemed to escape her notice. It was not only the
+general aspect of Nature in both storm and sunshine, and the diversity
+of scenes, that spoke to them; but Miss Wordsworth's eye took in objects
+the most minute, she was alive to those subtle influences, which serve
+so much to impart an interest to any journey or circumstance it would
+not otherwise possess. She took with her her warm loving heart, so full,
+for all with whom she came into contact, of the milk of human
+kindness--grateful for little attentions given or favours bestowed, and
+touched by those traits of humanity which make the whole world kin.
+There is the constant loving remembrance of small events, to which
+association sometimes lends such a charm. It was a very simple thing for
+Miss Wordsworth, writing to her sister-in-law at Grasmere, at an inn by
+no means remarkable for comfort, to mention that she wrote on the same
+window-ledge on which her brother had written to her two years before;
+but it reveals a loving heart.
+
+On the second day of their journey we find the following entry in Miss
+Wordsworth's diary: "Passed Rose Castle upon the Caldew, an ancient
+building of red stone with sloping gardens, an ivied gateway, velvet
+lawns, old garden walls, trim flower-borders, with stately and luxuriant
+flowers. We walked up to the house and stood some minutes watching the
+swallows that flew about restlessly, and flung their shadows upon the
+sunbright walls of the old building; the shadows glanced and twinkled,
+interchanged and crossed each other, expanded and shrunk up, appeared
+and disappeared every instant; as I observed to William and Coleridge,
+seeming more like living things than the birds themselves."
+
+Going by way of Carlisle, the small party entered Scotland near Gretna,
+and proceeded by Dumfries and the Vale of Nith. At Dumfries, the grave
+and house of Burns had a melancholy interest for them, Miss Wordsworth
+stating that "there is no thought surviving in Burns's daily life that
+is not heart depressing."
+
+On leaving the Nith, Miss Wordsworth thus describes the scenery: "We now
+felt indeed that we were in Scotland; there was a natural peculiarity in
+this place. In the scenes of the Nith it had not been the same as
+England, but yet not simple, naked Scotland. The road led us down the
+hill, and now there was no room in the vale but for the river and the
+road; we had sometimes the stream to the right, sometimes to the left.
+The hills were pastoral, but we did not see many sheep; green smooth
+turf on the left, no ferns. On the right the heath plant grew in
+abundance, of the most exquisite colour; it covered a whole hill-side,
+or it was in streams and patches. We travelled along the vale, without
+appearing to ascend, for some miles; all the reaches were beautiful, in
+exquisite proportion, the hills seeming very high from being so near to
+us. It might have seemed a valley which Nature had kept to herself for
+pensive thoughts and tender feelings, but that we were reminded at every
+turn of the road of something beyond by the coal-carts which were
+travelling towards us. Though these carts broke in upon the tranquility
+of the glen, they added much to the picturesque effect of the different
+views, which indeed wanted nothing, though perfectly bare, houseless,
+and treeless.
+
+"After some time our road took us upwards towards the end of the valley.
+Now the steeps were heathy all around. Just as we began to climb the
+hill we saw three boys who came down the cleft of a brow on our left;
+one carried a fishing-rod, and the hats of all were braided with
+honeysuckles; they ran after one another as wanton as the wind. I cannot
+express what a character of beauty those few honeysuckles in the hats of
+the three boys gave to the place; what bower could they have come from?
+We walked up the hill, met two well-dressed travellers, the woman
+barefoot. Our little lads, before they had gone far, were joined by some
+half-dozen of their companions, all without shoes and stockings. They
+told us they lived at Wanlockhead, the village above, pointing to the
+top of the hill; they went to school and learned Latin, Virgil, and some
+of them Greek, Homer; but when Coleridge began to inquire further, off
+they ran, poor things! I suppose afraid of being examined."
+
+The following anecdote is related of Coleridge, when at the falls of
+Cora Linn: "We sat upon a bench, placed for the sake of one of the
+views, whence we looked down upon the waterfall, and over the open
+country, and saw a ruined tower, called Wallace's Tower, which stands at
+a very little distance from the fall, and is an interesting object. A
+lady and gentleman, more expeditious tourists than ourselves, came to
+the spot; they left us at the seat, and we found them again at another
+station above the Falls. Coleridge, who is always good natured enough to
+enter into conversation with anybody whom he meets in his way, began to
+talk with the gentleman, who observed that it was a _majestic_
+waterfall. Coleridge was delighted with the accuracy of the epithet,
+particularly as he had been settling in his own mind the precise meaning
+of the words grand, majestic, sublime, &c, and had discussed the subject
+at some length with William the day before. 'Yes, sir,' says Coleridge,
+'it _is_ a majestic waterfall.' 'Sublime and beautiful,' replied his
+friend. Poor Coleridge could make no answer, and, not very desirous to
+continue the conversation, came to us and related the story, laughing
+heartily."
+
+Of the falls of the Clyde, Miss Wordsworth observes: "We had been told
+that the Cartland Crags were better worth going to see than the falls of
+the Clyde. I do not think so; but I have seen rocky dells resembling
+these before, with clear water instead of that muddy stream, and never
+saw anything like the falls of the Clyde. It would be a delicious spot
+to have near one's house; one would linger out many a day in the cool
+shadow of the caverns, and the stream would soothe one by its murmuring;
+still, being an old friend, one would not love it the less for its
+homely face. Even we, as we passed along, could not help stopping for a
+long while to admire the beauty of the lazy foam, for ever in motion,
+and never moved away, in a still place of the water, covering the whole
+surface of it with streaks and lines and ever-varying circles."
+
+The Highlands were entered at Loch Lomond, of which Miss Wordsworth
+writes:--"On a splendid evening, with the light of the sun diffused over
+the whole islands, distant hills, and the broad expanse of the lake,
+with its creeks, bays, and little slips of water among the islands, it
+must be a glorious sight." ... "We had not climbed far before we were
+stopped by a sudden burst of prospect, so singular and beautiful, that
+it was like a flash of images from another world. We stood with our
+backs to the hill of the island, which we were ascending, and which shut
+out Ben Lomond entirely, and all the upper part of the lake, and we
+looked towards the foot of the lake, scattered over with islands without
+beginning and without end. The sun shone, and the distant hills were
+visible, some through sunny mists, others in gloom with patches of
+sunshine; the lake was lost under the low and distant hills, and the
+islands lost in the lake, which was all in motion with travelling fields
+of light, or dark shadows under rainy clouds. There are many hills, but
+no commanding eminence at a distance to confine the prospect, so that
+the land seemed endless as the water."
+
+In her description of their adventures at Loch Katrine and the
+Trossachs, Miss Wordsworth is very happy. Writing of the view from one
+point she says:--"We saw Benvenue opposite to us--a high mountain but
+clouds concealed its top; its side, rising directly from the lake, is
+covered with birch trees to a great height, and seamed with innumerable
+channels of torrents; but now there was no water in them, nothing to
+break in upon the stillness and repose of the scene; nor do I recollect
+hearing the sound of water from any side, the wind being fallen and the
+lake perfectly still; the place was all eye, and completely satisfied
+the sense and heart. Above and below us, to the right and to the left,
+were rocks, knolls, and hills, which, wherever anything could grow--and
+that was everywhere between the rocks--were covered with trees and
+heather; the trees did not in any place grow so thick as an ordinary
+wood; yet I think there was never a bare space of twenty yards, it was
+more like a natural forest, where the trees grow in groups or singly,
+not hiding the surface of the ground, which, instead of being green and
+mossy, was of the richest purple. The heather was indeed the most
+luxuriant I ever saw; it was so tall that a child of ten years old
+struggling through it would often have been buried head and shoulders,
+and the exquisite beauty of the colour, near or at a distance, seen
+under the trees, is not to be conceived. But if I were to go on
+describing for evermore, I should give but a faint, and very often a
+false idea of the different objects and the various combinations of them
+in this most intricate and delicious place; besides, I tired myself out
+with describing at Loch Lomond, so I will hasten to the end of my tale.
+This reminds me of a sentence in a little pamphlet written by the
+minister of Callander, descriptive of the environs of that place. After
+having taken up at least six closely-printed pages with the Trossachs,
+he concludes thus:--'In a word, the Trossachs beggar all description,' a
+conclusion in which everybody who has been there will agree with him. I
+believe the word 'Trossachs' signifies 'many hills'; it is a name given
+to all the eminences at the foot of Loch Ketterine, and about half a
+mile beyond."
+
+As an illustration of the expedients to which they were obliged to
+resort, and the scanty accommodation afforded to them, may be quoted the
+following:--"Our companion from the Trossachs, who, it appeared, was an
+Edinburgh drawing-master, going, during a vacation, on a pedestrian tour
+to John o'Groat's house, was to sleep in the barn with William and
+Coleridge, where the man said he had plenty of dry hay. I do not believe
+that the hay of the Highlands is often very dry; but this year it had a
+better chance than usual. Wet or dry, however, the next morning they
+said they had slept comfortably. When I went to bed the mistress,
+desiring me to 'go ben,' attended me with a candle, and assured me that
+the bed was dry, though not 'sic as I had been used to.' It was of
+chaff; there were two others in the room, a cupboard, and two chests, on
+one of which stood the milk in wooden vessels, covered over. I should
+have thought that milk so kept could not have been sweet; but the cheese
+and butter were good. The walls of the whole house were of stone
+unplastered. It consisted of three apartments--the cow-house at one end;
+the kitchen, or house, in the middle; and the spence at the other end.
+The rooms were divided, not up to the rigging, but only to the
+beginning of the roof, so that there was a free passage for light and
+smoke from one end of the house to the other.
+
+"I went to bed sometime before the family. The door was shut between us,
+and they had a bright fire, which I could not see; but the light it sent
+up among the varnished rafters and beams, which crossed each other in
+almost as intricate and fantastic a manner, as I have seen the
+under-boughs of a large beech-tree, withered by the depth of the shade
+above, produced the most beautiful effect that can be conceived. It was
+like what I should suppose an underground cave or temple to be, with a
+dripping or moist roof, and the moonlight entering in upon it by some
+means or other and yet the colours were more like melted gems. I lay
+looking up till the light of the fire faded away, and the man and his
+wife and child had crept into their bed at the other end of the room. I
+did not sleep much, but passed a comfortable night--for my bed, though
+hard, was warm and clean; the unusualness of my situation prevented me
+from sleeping. I could hear the waves beat against the shore of the
+lake; a little 'syke' close to the door made a much louder noise; and
+when I sat up in my bed I could see the lake through an open
+window-place at the bed's-head. Add to this, it rained all night. I was
+less occupied by remembrance of the Trossachs, beautiful as they were,
+than the vision of the Highland hut which I could not get out of my
+head. I thought of the Fairyland of Spenser, and what I had read in
+romance at other times, and then what a feast would it be for a London
+pantomime-maker, could he but transplant it to Drury Lane, with all its
+beautiful colours!"
+
+Extracts from this admirable and fascinating book might be multiplied;
+but I must resist the temptation. It is a book which must be read to be
+enjoyed. The tourists received impressions not only from the natural
+scenery, but also from the simple-minded and hospitable Highlanders,
+with whom they from time to time met. They were so delighted with two
+Highland girls, in their fresh, youthful beauty, whom they met at the
+ferry at Inversneyde, that Wordsworth made them the subject of a
+pleasant poem. Miss Wordsworth, after describing her pleasurable meeting
+with these girls, says:--"At this day the innocent merriment of the
+girls, with their kindness to us, and the beautiful figure and face of
+the elder, come to my mind whenever I think of the ferry-house and
+waterfall of Loch Lomond; and I never think of the two girls but the
+whole image of that romantic spot is before me--a living image, as it
+will be, to my dying day."
+
+The poem of her brother, which cannot be much more poetic than the
+graceful prose of the sister, is as follows:--
+
+    "Sweet Highland Girl, a very shower
+    Of beauty is thy earthly dower!
+    Twice seven consenting years have shed
+    Their utmost beauty on thy head:
+    And these grey rocks; that household lawn;
+    Those trees, a veil just half withdrawn;
+    This fall of water that doth make
+    A murmur near the silent Lake;
+    This little Bay, a quiet road
+    That holds in shelter thy abode;
+    In truth, together do ye seem
+    Like something fashioned in a dream;
+    Such Forms as from their covert peep
+    When earthly cares are laid asleep!
+    But, O fair Creature! in the light
+    Of common day, so heavenly bright,
+    I bless thee, Vision as thou art,
+    I bless thee with a human heart:
+    God shield thee to thy latest years!
+    Thee neither know I, nor thy peers;
+    And yet my eyes are filled with tears.
+
+    "With earnest feeling I shall pray
+    For thee when I am far away:
+    For never saw I mien or face,
+    In which more plainly I could trace
+    Benignity and home-bred sense
+    Ripening in perfect innocence.
+    Here, scattered like a random seed,
+    Remote from men, Thou dost not need
+    Th' embarrass'd look of shy distress,
+    And maidenly shamefacedness;
+    Thou wear'st upon thy forehead clear
+    The freedom of a Mountaineer;
+    A face with gladness overspread!
+    Soft smiles, by human kindness bred!
+    And seemliness complete, that sways
+    Thy courtesies, about thee plays;
+    With no restraint but such as springs
+    From quick and eager visitings
+    Of thoughts that lie beyond the reach
+    Of thy few words of English speech:
+    A bondage sweetly brook'd, a strife
+    That gives thy gestures grace and life!
+    So have I, not unmoved in mind,
+    Seen birds of tempest-loving kind--
+    Thus beating up against the wind.
+
+    "What hand but would a garland cull
+    For thee, who art so beautiful?
+    O, happy pleasure! here to dwell
+    Beside thee in some heathy dell;
+    Adopt your homely ways, and dress,
+    A Shepherd, thou a Shepherdess!
+    But I could frame a wish for thee
+    More like a grave reality:
+    Thou art to me but as a wave
+    Of the wild sea: and I would have
+    Some claim upon thee if I could,
+    Though but of common neighbourhood.
+    What joy to hear thee, and to see!
+    Thy elder Brother I would be,
+    Thy Father--anything to thee.
+
+    Now thanks to Heaven! that of its grace
+    Hath led me to this lonely place!
+    Joy have I had; and going hence
+    I bear away my recompence.
+    In spots like these it is we prize
+    Our Memory, feel that she hath eyes;
+    Then, why should I be loth to stir?
+    I feel this place was made for her;
+    To give new pleasure like the past,
+    Continued long as life shall last.
+    Nor am I loth, though pleased at heart,
+    Sweet Highland Girl, from thee to part;
+    For I, methinks, till I grow old,
+    As fair before me shall behold,
+    As I do now, the Cabin small,
+    The Lake, the Bay, the Waterfall,
+    And Thee, the Spirit of them all."
+
+In a somewhat primitive way, and having to contend with bad roads,
+accidents to their car, and sometimes hard lodging and scanty fare, they
+managed to traverse a great part of the country which has since become
+so familiar to tourists, taking on their way Inverary, Glen Coe, Loch
+Tay, the Pass of Killicrankie, Dunkeld, Callander, back by the Trossachs
+to Loch Lomond, and eventually to Edinburgh. Approaching Loch Lomond for
+the second time, Miss Wordsworth remarks that she felt it much more
+interesting to visit a place where they had been before than it could
+possibly be for the first time. By the lake they met two women, without
+hats but neatly dressed, who seemed to have been taking their Sunday
+evening's walk. One of them said, in a soft, friendly voice, "What! you
+are stepping westward?" She adds: "I cannot describe how affecting this
+simple expression was in that remote place, with the western sky in
+front, yet glowing with the departed sun." Wordsworth himself some time
+afterwards, in remembrance of the incident, wrote the following poem:--
+
+    "'_'What! you are stepping westward?_' '_Yea._'
+    --'Twould be a _wildish_ destiny,
+    If we, who thus together roam
+    In a strange Land, and far from home,
+    Were in this place the guests of Chance;
+    Yet who would stop or fear to advance,
+    Though home or shelter he had none,
+    With such a sky to lead him on?
+
+    "The dewy ground was dark and cold,
+    Behind all gloomy to behold,
+    And stepping westward seem'd to be
+    A kind of _heavenly_ destiny;
+    I liked the greeting; 'twas a sound
+    Of something without place or bound;
+    And seemed to give me spiritual right
+    To travel through that region bright.
+
+    "The voice was soft; and she who spake
+    Was walking by her native lake;
+    The salutation was to me
+    The very sound of courtesy;
+    Its power was felt, and while my eye
+    Was fix'd upon the glowing Sky,
+    The echo of the voice enwrought
+    A human sweetness, with the thought
+    Of travelling through the world that lay
+    Before me in my endless way."
+
+With Edinburgh Miss Wordsworth was delighted. She says; "It was
+impossible to think of anything that was little or mean, the goings on
+of trade, the strife of men, or every-day city business; the impression
+was one, and it was visionary; like the conceptions of our childhood of
+Bagdad or Balsora, when we have been reading the 'Arabian Nights'
+Entertainments.'"
+
+Not the least memorable part of their tour was a visit to Sir--then
+Mr.--Walter Scott, who was then unknown to fame as a novelist, but who,
+as Sheriff of Selkirk, and considered a very clever and amiable man, was
+universally respected. With him they visited Melrose and other places of
+interest. Miss Wordsworth writes: "Walked up to Ferniehurst--an old
+hall, in a secluded situation, now inhabited by farmers; the
+neighbouring ground had the wildness of a forest, being irregularly
+scattered over with fine old trees. The wind was tossing their branches,
+and sunshine dancing among the leaves, and I happened to exclaim, 'What
+a life there is in trees!' on which Mr. Scott observed that the words
+reminded him of a young lady who had been born and educated on an island
+of the Orcades, and came to spend a summer at Kelso, and in the
+neighbourhood of Edinburgh. She used to say that in the new world into
+which she was come nothing had disappointed her so much as trees and
+woods; she complained that they were lifeless, silent, and, compared
+with the grandeur of the ever-changing ocean, even insipid. At first I
+was surprised, but the next moment I felt that the impression was
+natural. Mr. Scott said that she was a very sensible young woman, and
+had read much. She talked with endless rapture and feeling of the power
+and greatness of the ocean; and, with the same passionate attachment,
+returned to her native island without any probability of quitting it
+again. The Valley of the Jed is very solitary immediately under
+Ferniehurst; we walked down the river, wading almost up to the knees in
+fern, which in many parts overspread the forest-ground. It made me think
+of our walks at Alfoxden, and of _our own_ park--though at Ferniehurst
+is no park at present--and the slim fawns that we used to startle from
+their couching-places, among the fern at the top of the hill."
+
+The journal contains many short passages which might be quoted to show
+its poetic character. The following are selected almost at random: "I
+can always walk over a moor with a light foot; I seem to be drawn more
+closely to Nature in such places than anywhere else; or, rather, I feel
+more strongly the power of Nature over me, and am better satisfied with
+myself, for being able to find enjoyment in what, unfortunately to many
+persons, is either dismal or insipid." "The opposite bank of the river
+is left in its natural wildness, and nothing was to be seen higher up
+but the deep dell, its steep banks being covered with fine trees, a
+beautiful relief or contrast to the garden, which is one of the most
+elaborate old things ever seen--a little hanging garden of Babylon."
+Again, she writes: "The greatest charm of a brook or river is in the
+liberty to pursue it through its windings; you can then take it in
+whatever mood you like--silent or noisy, sportive or quiet. The beauties
+of the brook or river must be sought, and the pleasure is in going in
+search of them; those of the lake or of the sea come to you of
+themselves." "The sky was grey and heavy--floating mists on the
+hillsides, which softened the objects, and where we lost sight of the
+lake it appeared so near to the sky that they almost touched one
+another, giving a visionary beauty to the prospect." From the reflection
+of the crimson clouds the water appeared of a deep red, like melted
+rubies, yet with a mixture of a grey or blackish hue; the gorgeous light
+of the sky, with the singular colour of the lake, made the scene
+exceedingly romantic; yet it was more melancholy than cheerful. With all
+the power of light from the clouds there was an overcasting of the gloom
+of evening--a twilight upon the hills."
+
+This tour was rich in its results, not only in the sister's journal but
+also in the poems of the brother, to which it gave birth. Alluding to
+these a contributor to _Blackwood_, so long ago as 1835, says:
+"Wordsworth in Scotland as in England and Switzerland, and Italy and the
+Tyrol, is still Wordsworth. Here, too, he reaps:--
+
+    'The harvests of a quiet eye
+    That broods and sleeps on his own heart.'"
+
+His thoughts, and feelings, and visions, and dreams, and fancies, and
+imaginations, are all his own, by some divine right which no other
+mortal shares along with him; and, true as they all are to nature, are
+all distinguished by some indefinable, but delightful charm peculiar to
+his own being, which assuredly is the most purely spiritual that ever
+was enshrined in human dust. Safe in his originality he fears not to
+travel the same ground that has been travelled by thousands--and
+beaten, and barren, and naked as it may seem to be--he is sure to detect
+some loveliest family of wild flowers that had lurked unseen in some
+unsuspected crevices--to soothe his ears with a transient murmur, the
+spirit of the wilderness awakens--the bee that had dropped on the moss
+as if benumbed by frost--the small moorland bird revivified by sunshine,
+sent from heaven for the poet's sake, goes twittering in circles in the
+air above his head, nor is afraid that its nest will be trodden by his
+harmless feet; and should a sudden summer shower affront the sunshine,
+it is that a rainbow may come and go for his delight, and leave its
+transitory splendours in some immortal song. On the great features of
+Nature--lochs and mountains, among which he has lived his days--he looks
+with a serene but sovereign eye, as if he held them all in fee, and they
+stood there to administer to the delight--we must not say the pride--of
+him, 'Sole king of rocky Cumberland;' and true it is that from the
+assemblage of their summits, in the sunset, impulses of deeper mood have
+come to him in solitude than ever visited the heart of any other
+poet.... The true Highland spirit is there; but another spirit, too,
+which Wordsworth carries with him wherever he goes in the sanctuary of
+his own genius, and which colours all it breathes on--lending lovelier
+light to the fair, and more awful gloom to the great, and ensouling what
+else were but cold death."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+LIFE AT GRASMERE. CAPTAIN WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+A visit paid by Coleridge to Grasmere, shortly after the Scottish tour,
+is thus alluded to in a letter written by him to his friend, Mr. Thomas
+Wedgewood, in January, 1804. He says:--"I left my home December 20th,
+1803, intending to stay a day and a half at Grasmere and then walk to
+Kendal, whither I had sent all my clothes and viatica, from thence to go
+to London, and to see whether or no I could arrange my pecuniary
+matters, so as, leaving Mrs. Coleridge all that was necessary to her
+comforts, to go myself to Madeira, having a persuasion strong as the
+life within me, that one winter spent in a really warm, genial climate,
+would completely restore me.... I stayed at Grasmere (Mr. Wordsworth's)
+a month; three-fourths of the time bedridden; and deeply do I feel the
+enthusiastic kindness of Wordsworth's wife and sister, who sat up by me,
+the one or the other, in order to awaken me at the first symptoms of
+distressful feeling; and even when they went to rest continued often and
+often to weep and watch for me even in their dreams."
+
+The death of her brother, Captain John Wordsworth, in the early part of
+1805, was a great sorrow to Miss Wordsworth, as well as to the other
+members of the family. Captain Wordsworth was a younger brother of the
+poet, and a great favourite with him and his sister. In consequence of
+their early orphaned condition, and subsequent separation, they had not
+enjoyed much of each other's society until the time of Wordsworth's
+residence at Grasmere. Previously to this, and since the two brothers
+had been at school together at Hawkshead, they had only occasionally
+seen each other.
+
+After the settlement of Wordsworth and his sister at Grasmere, this
+brother, who was in the service of the East India Company, had paid them
+a prolonged visit, extending over eight months. The fraternal ties were
+then renewed and strengthened, cemented as they became by mature
+sympathies. A kinship of thought and feeling, added to warm natural
+affections, bound together these three poetic souls in mutual love more
+than usually devoted. Captain Wordsworth recognised his brother's genius
+and greatness of soul, and felt assured that the time would arrive when
+they would be widely acknowledged. Writing of him to Miss Wordsworth,
+Coleridge says:--"Your brother John is one of you--a man who hath
+solitary usings of his own intellect, deep in feeling, with a subtle
+tact, and swift instinct of true beauty." Himself so thoroughly in
+harmony with his brother's pursuits, and an ardent lover of the
+beautiful in Nature, as well as in life, he became, as Wordsworth says,
+"a silent poet," and was known among those of his own craft as "The
+Philosopher." Captain Wordsworth had so identified himself in heart with
+his brother's pursuits, and had become so enamoured of the life led by
+him and their sister in this quiet and beautiful vale, "far from the
+madding crowd's ignoble strife," that he had formed the idea, if
+prospered during a few voyages, of settling at Grasmere, and adding his
+worldly store to theirs, in the hope of thus enabling Wordsworth to
+devote his attention to his muse, unfettered by anxious thoughts of a
+monetary character. With this loving object before him, he had made a
+voyage in the year 1801 without success. Again, in the spring of 1803,
+he sailed with the same hope in his heart, but only on this occasion
+also to return, without having in any degree been able to further its
+realisation.
+
+In the meantime, money which had been long withheld from the Wordsworths
+by the former Earl of Lonsdale, had been honourably paid by his
+successor. Although the main object which Captain Wordsworth had in view
+in his former expeditions thus no longer existed, he decided once more
+to brave the fortunes of the deep. Being, in the year 1804, appointed to
+the command of the East Indiaman, _Abergavenny_, bound for the East, he
+sailed from Portsmouth, in the early part of 1805, upon a voyage on
+which many hopes were built. We are informed that on this occasion the
+value of the cargo (including specie) was £270,000, and that there were
+on board 402 persons. Not only did Captain Wordsworth take with him the
+share which had come to him of the money paid by the Earl of Lonsdale,
+but also £1,200 belonging to his brother William and his sister. The
+bright hopes were, however, doomed to end in the saddest of disaster.
+Owing to the incompetence of a pilot, the ship struck off the Bill of
+Portland on the 5th February, 1805. Captain Wordsworth died, as he had
+lived, cheerfully doing his duty. Though he might have saved his own
+life, he bravely remained at his post to the last, and perished with
+most of the crew.
+
+Writing of the sad occurrence to Sir George Beaumont shortly after,
+Wordsworth says:--"My poor sister and my wife, who loved him almost as
+we did (for he was one of the most amiable of men) are in miserable
+affliction, which I do all in my power to alleviate; but, Heaven knows,
+I want consolation myself. I can say nothing higher of my ever-dear
+brother than that he was worthy of his sister, who is now weeping beside
+me, and of the friendship of Coleridge; meek, affectionate, silently
+enthusiastic, loving all quiet things, and a poet in everything but
+words." In a postscript he adds:--"I shall do all in my power to sustain
+my sister under her sorrow, which is, and long will be, bitter and
+poignant. We did not love him as a brother merely, but as a man of
+original mind, and an honour to all about him. Oh! dear friend, forgive
+me for talking thus. We have had no tidings from Coleridge. I tremble
+for the moment when he is to hear of my brother's death; it will
+distress him to the heart,--and his poor body cannot bear sorrow. He
+loved my brother, and he knows how we at Grasmere loved him."
+
+The friendship between the Wordsworths and Charles and Mary Lamb, formed
+during the Nether Stowey period, had continued, and they had been
+regular correspondents. Shortly after the sad death of her brother Miss
+Wordsworth had, in the fulness of her heart, written to Miss Lamb.
+Although the response to the communication is well known it should find
+a place here. Miss Lamb's reply shows how well qualified she was to
+sympathise in her friend's sufferings. She had, indeed, been taught in
+the same school. She says:--"I thank you, my kind friend, for your most
+comfortable letter; till I saw your own handwriting I could not persuade
+myself that I should do well to write to you, though I have often
+attempted it; but I always left off dissatisfied with what I had
+written, and feeling that I was doing an improper thing to intrude upon
+your sorrow. I wished to tell you that you would one day feel the kind
+of peaceful state of mind, and sweet memory of the dead, which you so
+happily describe as now almost begun; but I felt that it was improper
+and most grating to the feelings of the afflicted to say to them that
+the memory of their affliction would in time become a constant part, not
+only of their dream, but of their most wakeful sense of happiness. That
+you would see every object with and through your lost brother, and that
+that would at last become a real and everlasting source of comfort to
+you I felt, and well knew from my own experience in sorrow; but till you
+yourself began to feel this I didn't dare tell you so; but I send you
+some poor lines, which I wrote under this conviction of mind, and before
+I heard Coleridge was returning home. I will transcribe them now before
+I finish my letter, lest a false shame prevent me then, for I know they
+are much worse than they ought to be, written as they were with strong
+feeling and on such a subject; every line seems to me to be borrowed;
+but I had no better way of expressing my thoughts, and I never have the
+power of altering or amending anything I have once laid aside with
+dissatisfaction:--
+
+    "'Why is he wandering on the sea?
+    Coleridge should now with Wordsworth be.
+    By slow degrees he'd steal away
+    Their woe and gently bring a ray
+    (So happily he'd time relief)
+    Of comfort from their very grief.
+    He'd tell them that their brother dead,
+    When years have passed o'er their head,
+    Will be remembered with such holy,
+    True, and perfect melancholy,
+    That ever this lost brother John
+    Will be their heart's companion.
+    His voice they'll always hear,
+    His face they'll always see;
+    There's nought in life so sweet
+    As such a memory.'"
+
+Miss Wordsworth's reply to this letter has not been preserved. It came
+to the hands of Charles Lamb when his sister was undergoing one of her
+temporary but most sad confinements, in the asylum she periodically
+visited. On the 14th of June, 1805, Charles wrote for her to acknowledge
+the letter, one from which the following extract may be given:--"Your
+long, kind letter has not been thrown away (for it has given me great
+pleasure to find you are all resuming your old occupations and are
+better); but poor Mary, to whom it is addressed, cannot yet relish it.
+She has been attacked by one of her severe illnesses, and is at present
+_from home_. Last Monday week was the day she left me, and I hope I may
+calculate upon having her again in a month or little more. I am rather
+afraid late hours have, in this case, contributed to her indisposition.
+I have every reason to suppose that this illness, like all the former
+ones, will be but temporary; but I cannot always feel so. Meantime she
+is dead to me, and I miss a prop. All my strength is gone, and I am like
+a fool, bereft of her co-operation. I dare not think lest I should think
+wrong, so used am I to look up to her in the least as in the biggest
+perplexity. To say all that I know of her would be more than I think
+anybody could believe, or even understand; and when I hope to have her
+well again with me, it would be sinning against her feelings to go about
+to praise her, for I can conceal nothing that I do from her. She is
+older and wiser and better than I, and all my wretched imperfections I
+cover to myself by resolutely thinking on her goodness. She would share
+life and death, heaven and hell with me. She lives but for me; and I
+know I have been wasting and teasing her life for five years past
+incessantly with my cursed drinking and ways of going on. But even in
+this upbraiding of myself I am offending against her, for I know that
+she has clung to me for better for worse; and if the balance has been
+against her hitherto it was a noble trade."
+
+The following letter of Charles Lamb, addressed "to Mr. and Miss
+Wordsworth," on the 28th of September, 1805, enclosing his "Farewell to
+Tobacco" may also find a place here:--"I wish you may think this a
+handsome farewell to my 'Friendly Traitress.' Tobacco has been my
+evening comfort and my morning curse for nearly five years; and you
+know how difficult it is from refraining to pick one's lips even, when
+it has become a habit. This poem is the only one which I have finished
+since so long as when I wrote 'Hester Savory.' I have had it in my head
+to do this two years, but tobacco stood in its own light when it gave me
+headaches that prevented my singing its praises. Now you have got it,
+you have got all my store, for I have absolutely not another line. No
+more has Mary. We have nobody about us that cares for poetry; and who
+will rear grapes when he shall be the sole eater? Perhaps if you
+encourage us to show you what we may write, we may do something now and
+then before we absolutely forget the quantity of an English line for
+want of practice. The 'Tobacco' being a little in the way of Withers
+(whom Southey so much likes) perhaps you will somehow convey it to him
+with my kind remembrances. Then, everybody will have seen it that I wish
+to see it, I having sent it to Malta.
+
+  "I remain, dear W. and D.,
+
+          "Yours truly,
+
+                  "C. LAMB."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+DE QUINCEY.--HIS DESCRIPTION OF MISS WORDSWORTH.--ALLAN BANK.
+
+
+It was in the year 1807 that De Quincey was added to the number of the
+literary friends of the Wordsworths. He has given an interesting account
+of the way in which the acquaintanceship was first formed. He had,
+indeed, been for some years an ardent admirer of the poet, and had had
+some correspondence with him in 1803. The characteristic timidity of
+this wayward genius is illustrated by the fact, that although De Quincey
+had conceived an eager longing to form the personal acquaintance of
+Wordsworth, and had been favoured with a standing invitation to visit
+him, he allowed upwards of four years to pass without availing himself
+of the privilege of the meeting, "for which, beyond all things under
+heaven, he longed."
+
+He has recorded how he had on two occasions taken a long journey with no
+other object. On one of these occasions he had proceeded as far only as
+Coniston--a distance from Grasmere of eight miles--when, his courage
+failing him, he returned.
+
+The second time he actually so far kept up his courage as to traverse
+the distance between Coniston and the Vale of Grasmere, and came in
+sight of the "little white cottage gleaming among trees," which was the
+goal of his desire. After, however, he had caught "one hasty glimpse of
+this loveliest of landscapes," he "retreated like a guilty thing." This
+was in 1806. During the following year circumstances combined to bring
+about the much desired meeting.
+
+A short time after an introduction to Coleridge, in the summer of this
+year, De Quincey learnt that Coleridge, who was engaged to lecture in
+town, desired to send his family to Keswick, and he was glad to accept
+De Quincey's offer to escort them. As Grasmere lay in their route, and
+Mrs. Coleridge was a cherished friend of the Wordsworths, a call upon
+them was the most natural thing, as was also an invitation to spend the
+night, and resume their journey on the following day.
+
+Describing the cottage, De Quincey says: "A little semi-vestibule
+between two doors prefaces the entrance into what may be considered the
+principal room. It was an oblong square, not above eight and a-half feet
+high, sixteen feet long, and twelve feet broad; very prettily
+wainscotted from the floor to the ceiling with dark-polished oak,
+slightly embellished with carving. One window there was, a perfect and
+unpretending cottage window, with little diamond panes, embowered at
+almost every season of the year with roses, and, in the summer and
+autumn, with a profusion of jasmine, and other fragrant shrubs."
+
+After a description of Mrs. Wordsworth, as before alluded to, he follows
+with a most interesting account of the appearance of Miss Wordsworth:
+"Immediately behind her moved a lady shorter, slighter, and, perhaps,
+in all other respects, as different from her in personal
+characteristics, as could have been wished for the most effective
+contrast. Her face was of Egyptian brown; rarely in a woman of English
+birth had I seen a more determinate Gipsy tan. Her eyes were not soft,
+as Mrs. Wordsworth's, nor were they fierce or bold; but they were wild
+and startling, and hurried in their motion. Her manner was warm, and
+even ardent; her sensibility seemed constitutionally deep; and some
+subtle fire of impassioned intellect apparently burned within her,
+which, being alternately pushed forward into a conspicuous expression,
+by the irrepressible instincts of her temperament, and then immediately
+checked, in obedience to the decorum of her sex and age, and her
+maidenly condition, gave to her whole demeanour, and to her
+conversation, an air of embarrassment, and even of self-conflict, that
+was almost distressing to witness. Even her very utterance and
+enunciation often suffered in point of clearness and steadiness from the
+agitation of her excessive organic sensibility. At times the
+self-counteraction and self-baffling of her feelings caused her even to
+stammer, and so determinately to stammer, that a stranger who should
+have seen her, and quitted her in that state of feeling, would certainly
+have set her down for one plagued with that infirmity of speech as
+distressingly as Charles Lamb himself. This was Miss Wordsworth, the
+only sister of the poet--his 'Dorothy,' who naturally owed so much to
+the life-long intercourse with her great brother, in his most solitary
+and sequestered years; but, on the other hand, to whom he has
+acknowledged obligations of the profoundest nature; and, in particular,
+this mighty one, through which we also, the admirers and worshippers of
+this great poet, are become equally her debtors--that whereas the
+intellect of Wordsworth was, by its original tendency, too stern, too
+austere, too much enamoured of an ascetic harsh sublimity, she it
+was,--the lady who paced by his side continually through sylvan and
+mountain tracts--in Highland glens and in the dim recesses of German
+charcoal burners--that first _couched_ his eye to the sense of beauty,
+humanised him by the gentler charities, and engrafted with her delicate
+female touch those graces upon the ruder growths of his nature, which
+have since clothed the forest of his genius with a foliage corresponding
+in loveliness and beauty to the strength of its boughs and the massiness
+of its trunks. The greatest deductions from Miss Wordsworth's
+attractions, and from the exceeding interest which surrounded her in
+right of her character, of her history, and of the relation which she
+fulfilled towards her brother, were the glancing quickness of her
+motions, and other circumstances in her deportment (such as her stooping
+attitude when walking) which gave an ungraceful, and even unsexual,
+character to her appearance when out of doors. She did not cultivate the
+graces which preside over the person and its carriage. But, on the other
+hand, she was a person of very remarkable endowments, intellectually;
+and, in addition to the other great services which she rendered to her
+brother, this I may mention as greater than all the rest, and it was one
+which equally operated to the benefit of every casual companion in a
+walk--viz., the exceeding sympathy, always ready and always profound,
+by which she made all that one could tell her, all that one could
+describe, all that one could quote from a foreign author, reverberate,
+as it were, _à plusieurs reprises_, to one's own feelings, by the
+manifest impression it made upon _hers_. The pulses of light are not
+more quick or more inevitable in their flow and undulation than were the
+answering and echoing movements of her sympathising attention. Her
+knowledge of literature was irregular and thoroughly unsystematic. She
+was content to be ignorant of many things; but what she knew and had
+really mastered lay where it could not be disturbed--in the temple of
+her own most fervid heart."
+
+Proceeding to compare his impressions of the two ladies he adds:--"Miss
+Wordsworth had seen more of life, and even of good company; for she had
+lived, when quite a girl, under the protection of Dr. Cookson, a near
+relative, Canon of Windsor, and a personal favourite of the Royal
+family, especially of George III. Consequently she ought to have been
+the more polished of the two; and yet, from greater natural aptitudes
+for refinement of manner in her sister-in-law, and partly, perhaps, from
+her more quiet and subdued manner, Mrs. Wordsworth would have been
+pronounced very much the more lady-like person."
+
+De Quincey excuses the large latitude used in his descriptions on the
+ground of "the interest which attaches to any one so nearly connected
+with a great poet," and the repetition of them is, perhaps, to be
+justified only for the same reason.
+
+In further allusion to Miss Wordsworth he says:--"Miss Wordsworth was
+too ardent and fiery a creature to maintain the reserve essential to
+dignity; and dignity was the last thing one thought of in the presence
+of one so natural, so fervent in her feelings, and so embarrassed in
+their utterance--sometimes, also, in the attempt to check them. It must
+not, however, be supposed, that there was any silliness, or weakness of
+enthusiasm, about her. She was under the continual restraint of severe
+good sense, though liberated from that false shame which, in so many
+persons, accompanies all expressions of natural emotion; and she had too
+long enjoyed the ennobling conversation of her brother, and his
+admirable comments on the poets, which they read in common, to fail in
+any essential point of logic or propriety of thought. Accordingly, her
+letters, though the most careless and unelaborate--nay, the most hearty
+that can be imagined--are models of good sense and just feeling. In
+short, beyond any person I have known in this world, Miss Wordsworth was
+the creature of impulse; but, as a woman most thoroughly virtuous and
+well principled, as one who could not fail to be kept right by her own
+excellent heart, and as an intellectual creature from her cradle, with
+much of her illustrious brother's peculiarity of mind--finally as one
+who had been, in effect, educated and trained by that very brother--she
+won the sympathy and respectful regard of every man worthy to approach
+her."
+
+De Quincey subsequently relates how he was entertained for the night in
+the best bedroom of the poet's home, and on the following morning
+discovered Miss Wordsworth preparing the breakfast in the little
+sitting-room. He adds:--"On the third morning the whole family, except
+the two children, prepared for the expedition across the mountains. I
+had heard of no horses, and took it for granted that we were to walk;
+however, at the moment of starting, a cart--the common farmer's cart of
+the country--made its appearance; and the driver was a bonny young woman
+of the vale. Accordingly, we were carted along to the little town, or
+village, of Ambleside--three and a half miles distant. Our style of
+travelling occasioned no astonishment; on the contrary, we met a smiling
+salutation wherever we appeared--Miss Wordsworth being, as I observed,
+the person the most familiarly known of our party, and the one who took
+upon herself the whole expenses of the flying colloquies exchanged with
+stragglers on the road."
+
+Although the little home at Town End is so closely identified with
+Wordsworth as being his residence in his poetic prime he this year
+(1807) found it necessary, in consequence of his increasing family, to
+remove to a larger house. He went to Allan Bank, about a mile distant,
+and remained there four years. This residence is not nearly so closely
+connected with the memory of the Wordsworths as either Dove Cottage or
+Rydal Mount. The time was not, however, by any means an unproductive
+one, for here he composed the greater part of the "Excursion," the whole
+of which poem is said to have been transcribed by his faithful and
+industrious sister. It is interesting to know that the now historic
+cottage, which is possessed of such a charm as the first mountain home
+of Miss Wordsworth in this district, was afterwards for some years the
+residence of De Quincey himself. After his first visit, of which he has
+given such a graphic account, it appears that he paid another towards
+the end of 1808; and that he then enjoyed the hospitality of the
+Wordsworths until the February following, when, having assisted during a
+stay in London in the correction in its progress through the press of
+Wordsworth's pamphlet, "The Convention of Cintra," he formed the project
+of settling in Grasmere. Writing to him Miss Wordsworth says:--"Soon you
+must have rest, and we shall all be thankful. You have indeed been a
+treasure to us while you have been in London, having spared my brother
+so much anxiety and care. We are very grateful to you."
+
+Whatever service De Quincey rendered to Wordsworth in assisting in the
+publication of "The Convention of Cintra" was much more than repaid in
+the active kindness of Miss Wordsworth herself, who, was for some months
+engaged in preparing the cottage at Town End for its new resident. It
+was, indeed, no small service for her to undertake the multifarious and
+exhausting duties in connection with the furnishing and fitting up of a
+home; and shows not only her unflagging activity and energy, but also
+her sound sense and excellent judgment. As an instance of her thoughtful
+economy on the occasion may be mentioned her reason for choosing
+mahogany for book shelves instead of deal, for she says:--"Native woods
+are dear; and that in case De Quincey should leave the country and have
+a sale, no sort of wood sells so well at second-hand as mahogany." To
+Miss Wordsworth was also entrusted the duty of engaging a housekeeper
+for De Quincey.
+
+The frequent allusions in these pages to De Quincey, and his close
+association for some years with the Wordsworths, render it necessary
+that some further reference should be made to his subsequent connection
+with Grasmere. The following is a description given by him of his own
+life in 1812:--
+
+"And what am I doing among the mountains? Taking opium. Yes; but what
+else? Why, reader, in 1812, the year we are now arrived at, as well as
+for some years previous, I have been chiefly studying German
+metaphysics, as the writings of Kant, Fichte, Schelling, &c. And how,
+and in what manner do I live? In short, what class or description of men
+do I belong to? I am at this period,--viz., in 1812,--living in a
+cottage; and with a single female servant, who, amongst my neighbours,
+passes by the name of my 'housekeeper.' And, as a scholar and a man of
+learned education, I may presume to class myself as an unworthy member
+of that indefinite body called _gentlemen_. Partly on the ground I have
+assigned,--partly because, from having no visible calling or business,
+it is rightly judged that I must be living on my private fortune,--I am
+so classed by my neighbours; and by the courtesy of modern England, I am
+usually addressed on letters, &c., _Esquire_.... Am I married? Not yet.
+And I still take opium? On Saturday nights.... And how do I find my
+health after all this opium-eating? In short, how do I do? Why, pretty
+well, I thank you, reader. In fact, if I dared to say the simple truth
+(though, in order to satisfy the theories of some medical men, I ought
+to be ill), I was never better in my life than in the spring of 1812;
+and I hope, sincerely, that the quantity of claret, port, or 'London
+particular Madeira,' which, in all probability, you, good reader, have
+taken, and design to take, for every term of eight years during your
+natural life, may as little disorder your health as mine was disordered
+by all the opium I had taken (though in quantity such that I might well
+have bathed and swum in it) for the eight years between 1804 and 1812."
+
+In 1816 De Quincey married a young woman named Margaret Simpson, the
+daughter of a farmer living in a cottage under Nab Scar, not far from
+his own at Town End, who became devoted to his interests. He continued
+to reside partly at Grasmere until the year 1830, although his literary
+duties necessitated his being much at London and Edinburgh. It was in
+1821 that his now famous "Confessions of an Opium Eater" began to appear
+in the pages of the _London Magazine_. Afterwards his connection with
+Blackwood took him a good deal to Edinburgh. Although he and his wife
+did not like the idea of quitting altogether the peaceful vale where she
+had been reared, it became evident that it was undesirable to keep up
+two houses, leaving his wife and children so much alone at Grasmere. The
+following extract from a letter written by Miss Wordsworth to him in
+November of this year shows her warm interest in him and his family, and
+her readiness to give well-timed sympathy and aid. After alluding to a
+visit paid by her to Mrs. De Quincey, and the health of the children,
+she says:--"Mrs. De Quincey seemed, on the whole, in very good spirits;
+but, with something of sadness in her manner, she told me you were not
+likely very soon to be at home. She then said that you had, at present,
+some literary employments at Edinburgh, and had, besides, an offer (or
+something to this effect) of a permanent engagement, the nature of which
+she did not know, but that you hesitated about accepting it, as it might
+necessitate you to settle in Edinburgh. To this I replied, 'Why not
+settle there, for the time, at least, that this engagement lasts?
+Lodgings are cheap at Edinburgh, and provisions and coals not dear. Of
+this fact I had some weeks' experience four years ago.' I then added
+that it was my firm opinion that you could never regularly keep up your
+engagements at a distance from the press, and, said I, 'pray tell him so
+when you write.' She replied, 'do write yourself.' Now I could not
+refuse to give her pleasure by so doing, especially being assured that
+my letter would not be wholly worthless to you, having such agreeable
+news to send of your family."
+
+This excellent advice was soon afterwards acted upon, and Edinburgh
+became the scene of De Quincey's further life and labours. Here he died
+on the 8th of December, 1859, aged 74 years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE CHILDREN OF BLENTARN GHYLL.
+
+DEATH OF WORDSWORTH'S CHILDREN.
+
+
+A melancholy incident which occurred during her residence at Allan Bank
+may be mentioned, since Miss Wordsworth took such an active, sympathetic
+interest in the relief and succour of the sufferers. It is not, however,
+necessary to relate in detail the sad story, as this has been done by De
+Quincey and others.
+
+Nestling in the valley of Easedale still stands a humble farm-house
+called Blentarn Ghyll, which takes its name from a mountain ravine near
+by. Here, in the year 1808, lived an industrious farmer and his wife
+named George and Sarah Green, with their six children, the youngest a
+baby, and the eldest a girl of nine or ten. On the morning of a day long
+to be remembered George Green and his wife started off over the
+mountains--a distance of five or six miles--to Langdale, to attend a
+sale of furniture (on which occasions these scattered neighbours used to
+meet) intending to return the same evening. Notwithstanding that some of
+their friends endeavoured to dissuade them from returning by the
+mountains, they, in the afternoon, started on their return journey. And
+neither of them was ever seen in life again. A fall of snow came, in
+which they hopelessly lost their way, and, as De Quincey says, "they
+disappeared into the cloud of death." Meanwhile, the poor little
+children sat round the fire waiting in vain for their parents' return.
+The eldest, little Agnes Green, whose emotions were, during that and
+subsequent days, changed from those of a child of tender years to those
+of a mother, became heroic in her devotion to her tiny brothers and
+sisters. The lonely farmhouse, with its little inhabitants, was for some
+days surrounded by drifts of snow, which prevented their leaving it.
+Meantime, as day succeeded day, the brave Agnes cheered up the others as
+best she could, preparing their scanty meals, and making the elder ones
+say their prayers night and morning. It was not until the third day that
+she was able to force her way through the snow and tell the sad tale,
+inquiring with tearful face whether her father and mother had been seen.
+
+Such was the interest felt in the story of their loss, that all the
+able-bodied men of Grasmere formed themselves into a search band; but it
+was not until after the expiration of three days that the bodies of the
+faithful couple were found near Dungeon Ghyll, the husband being at the
+bottom of a rock, from which he had fallen, where his wife had crept
+round to him. They were only a few hundred yards from a farmhouse, to
+which, however, their cries for help had not reached, or had been
+mistaken. In the future of the helpless orphans Miss Wordsworth took an
+active interest, and raised a considerable sum of money for their
+benefit. The Royal Family were made acquainted with the sad history, and
+the Queen herself and her daughters became subscribers to the fund. The
+children were taken into different families in the neighbourhood, one of
+them going to live with the Wordsworths. The heroic little Agnes died
+many years ago, and is buried in Grasmere Churchyard beside her parents.
+Three of these children yet survive, the eldest of whom, now 85 years
+old, has given me some of the foregoing particulars. He still well
+remembers the circumstances of that fatal journey, and the vain waiting,
+during the hours of night, for the father and mother who never returned.
+Another survivor--the one who was at the time a little baby girl--is now
+blind, and, I believe, a great grandmother.
+
+Among other lasting friendships of the Wordsworths which we find
+existing about this period is that with Mr. Henry Crabb Robinson, whose
+"Diary and Reminiscences" afford some pleasant recollections of many of
+the _literati_ of his time among whom he had a very extensive
+acquaintance. In 1810 Miss Wordsworth had been paying a visit to Mr. and
+Mrs. Clarkson (of anti-slave trade celebrity) at Bury. Mr. Robinson met
+her there, and, being about to return to London when Miss Wordsworth was
+intending to pay a visit to Charles and Mary Lamb, he undertook to
+escort her thither. Upon her return home she wrote to him the following
+letter:--
+
+                                        "_Grasmere, November 6, 1810_.
+
+      "MY DEAR SIR,--I am very proud of the commission my brother has
+      given me, as it affords me an opportunity of expressing the
+      pleasure with which I think of you, and of our long journey side
+      by side in the pleasant sunshine, our splendid entrance into the
+      great city, and our rambles together in the crowded streets. I
+      assure you I am not ungrateful for even the least of your kind
+      attentions, and shall be happy in return to be your guide amongst
+      these mountains, where, if you bring a mind free from care, I can
+      promise you a rich store of noble enjoyments. My brother and
+      sister will be exceedingly happy to see you; and, if you tell him
+      stories from Spain of enthusiasm, patriotism, and detestation of
+      the usurper, my brother will be a ready listener; and in presence
+      of these grand works of nature you may feed each other's lofty
+      hopes. We are waiting with the utmost anxiety for the issue of
+      that battle which you arranged so nicely by Charles Lamb's
+      fireside. My brother goes to seek the newspapers whenever it is
+      possible to get a sight of one, and he is almost out of patience
+      that the tidings are delayed so long.
+
+             *       *       *       *       *
+
+      "Pray, as you are most likely to see _Charles_ at least from time
+      to time, tell me how they are going on. There is nobody in the
+      world out of our house for whom I am more deeply interested. You
+      will, I know, be happy that our little ones are all going on well.
+      The delicate little Catherine, the only one for whom we had any
+      serious alarm, gains ground daily. Yet it will be long before she
+      can be or have the appearance of being a stout child. There was
+      great joy in the house at my return, which each showed in a
+      different way. They are sweet wild creatures, and I think you
+      would love them all. John is thoughtful with his wildness; Dora
+      alive, active, and quick; Thomas, innocent and simple as a
+      new-born babe. John had no feeling but of bursting joy when he saw
+      me. Dorothy's first question was, 'Where is my doll?' We had
+      delightful weather when I first got home; but on the first morning
+      Dorothy roused me from my sleep with, 'It is time to get up, Aunt;
+      it is a blasty morning--it does blast so.' And the next morning,
+      not more encouraging, she said, 'It is a hailing morning--it hails
+      so hard.' You must know that our house stands on a hill, exposed
+      to all hails and blasts....
+
+                                        "D. WORDSWORTH."
+
+From the above letter it will be seen, as can be well understood, that
+Miss Wordsworth was a great favourite with the poet's children, of whom
+there were then born the four mentioned. To these children, and the
+interests and enjoyments of their young lives, she devoted herself with
+the unselfish devotion and zeal which so pervaded her life and animated
+her conduct.
+
+Sara Coleridge, the daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, between whose
+family and that of Wordsworth the most cordial relations always existed,
+in the record of her early life has a pleasant recollection of a visit
+paid by her to Allan Bank when she was six years old. She writes:--"That
+journey to Grasmere gleams before me as the shadow of a shade. Allan
+Bank is a large house on the hill overlooking Easedale on one side and
+Grasmere on the other. Dorothy, Mr. Wordsworth's only daughter, was at
+the time very picturesque in her appearance, with her long thick yellow
+locks, which were never cut, but curled with papers, a thing which seems
+much out of keeping with the poetic, simple household. I remember being
+asked by my father and Miss Wordsworth, the poet's sister, if I did not
+think her very pretty. 'No,' said I, bluntly, for which I met with a
+rebuff, which made me feel as if I was a culprit."
+
+Miss Coleridge also gives the following reminiscence:--"Miss Wordsworth,
+Mr. Wordsworth's sister, of most poetic eye and temper, took a great
+part with the children. She told us once a pretty story of a primrose, I
+think, which she espied by the wayside when she went to see me soon
+after my birth, though that was at Christmas, and how this same primrose
+was still blooming when she went back to Grasmere."
+
+The life of Miss Wordsworth had hitherto been, on the whole, one of
+serene and calm enjoyment. In the social circle bound so closely in
+mutual affection, and so richly endowed with the faculty of making
+herself happy--of truly living--the only cloud during many years of
+brightness had been the death of her brother John. It could not,
+however, but have been expected that the happy circle would become still
+more acquainted with the common lot of mortal life.
+
+During their residence at the parsonage at Grasmere, where they were
+living in 1812, the circle was broken by the loss of two of their
+children, then five in number. In the case of one, the interesting and
+delicate little Kate, then about four years old, the circumstances were
+peculiarly distressing. The way in which her very brief illness was
+caused has not been very clearly stated. De Quincey has attributed it to
+what he calls by the harsh name of the "criminal negligence" of one of
+the children of the George and Sarah Green before-mentioned, whom the
+Wordsworths had taken to live with them. He relates that while little
+Catherine was under the care of Sarah Green she was allowed to eat a
+number of raw carrots, in consequence of which she was very shortly,
+seized with strong convulsions. Although she partially recovered the
+immediate effect, her left side remained in a disabled condition.
+
+It was some months after this that little Kate, having gone to bed
+bright and happy at the hour of a June sunset, was discovered in a
+speechless condition about midnight, and died in convulsions after a few
+hours' suffering. While, as may be imagined, the grief of her parents at
+the loss was great, that of De Quincey (who was not at Grasmere at the
+time, and was informed of the event by Miss Wordsworth) was so poignant
+and extravagant as to become romantic. The dear child had got so near
+the heart of the little dreamy opium-eater--had, in fact, found so warm
+a corner there--that he seemed to be almost overwhelmed. The heart was
+empty, and the eyes that could no longer gaze upon the living form were
+filled with its image. He used to imagine that he saw her. So great was
+his grief that we are told he often spent the night upon her grave. This
+may appear very extravagant, as it doubtless is; but we cannot measure a
+man like De Quincey by any ordinary standard. Possessing as he did a
+gigantic and immortal genius, he was at the same time one of the most
+unimaginable and eccentric, unreal and dreamy of beings that ever owned
+a warm human heart. The Wordsworth children were especially dear to him,
+and particularly so little Catherine. And they returned his affection.
+Three weeks before her death he had seen her for the last time. In his
+letter to Miss Wordsworth he says:--"The children were speaking to me
+altogether, and I was saying one thing to one and another to another,
+and she, who could not speak loud enough to overpower the other voices,
+had got on a chair, and putting her hand upon my mouth, she said, with
+her sweet importunateness of action and voice, 'Kinsey, Kinsey, what a
+bring Katy from London?' I believe she said it twice; and I remember
+that her mother noticed the earnestness and intelligence of her manner,
+and looked at me and smiled. This was the last time that I heard her
+sweet voice distinctly, and I shall never hear one like it again."
+
+The death of Catherine was followed six months later by that of her
+brother Thomas, six and a half years old. This double affliction made
+the Wordsworths glad to remove from the neighbourhood of the churchyard,
+which so constantly reminded them of their loss. It was for this reason
+that, in 1813, they went to reside at Rydal Mount, which was thenceforth
+the home of Miss Wordsworth until her death--a period of more than forty
+years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+REMOVAL TO RYDAL MOUNT.--DORA WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+Since their settlement in Grasmere, the worldly circumstances of
+Wordsworth, as well as those of his sister, had considerably improved.
+We have seen upon what slender, combined means they began housekeeping,
+living in "noble poverty"--and were happy. Shortly afterwards the then
+Earl of Lonsdale honourably paid to the Wordsworths the large sum of
+money which, as has been before mentioned, had been withheld by his
+father. The share of each of them of this is said to have been about
+£1,800. In addition to this the poet's muse had begun to be more
+profitable to him. Though he had not then been awarded that high and
+foremost rank in the inspired choir which he has since attained, yet his
+power as a great poet was beginning to be acknowledged by more than the
+select number who had from the first recognised his genius.
+
+About this time he also had conferred upon him the appointment as
+distributor of stamps for Westmoreland. While the emoluments of this
+office formed a substantial addition to the poet's income, its duties
+were such that they could be chiefly performed by deputy.
+
+In obtaining for their new home the now classic RYDAL MOUNT, the good
+fortune of the Wordsworths did not fail them. The "modest mansion" is
+well known, and many descriptions of it have been given. For the beauty
+of its situation, and the amenities of its surroundings, it is almost
+unsurpassed. It has been somewhere stated that whilst most persons, who,
+having chosen their own residences, think them the first, they are all
+ready to give the second place to Rydal Mount. I have on two occasions
+since the poet's death had the good fortune to obtain admittance to the
+grounds, and, with feelings of reverence and emotion, paced the
+terrace-walks, worn by the footsteps of the great departed. We are on
+such occasions strikingly reminded of the words of Foster: "What a tale
+could be told by many a room were the walls endowed with memory and
+speech." The house stands in an elevated position, being on a plateau on
+the south side of Nab Scar. Striking off from the side of the house is a
+walk called the Upper Terrace. From this path the views are exceedingly
+lovely. Immediately in front is the Rothay Valley, backed by the
+richly-wooded heights of Loughrigg, with Windermere in the distance to
+the left, "a light thrown into the picture in the winter season, and in
+the summer a beautiful feature, changing with every hue of the sky."
+About halfway along the terrace we come to a rustic alcove, built of fir
+poles, and lined with cones. Here, we should think, the walk ends, for
+we are parallel with the boundary wall of the garden below; but opening
+a door, we find the road branches slightly to the right, and, opening
+into the far terrace, reveals a surprise view. Here we see beneath us
+Rydal Water, gemmed with its romantic islands, and beyond, the green
+heights of Loughrigg Terrace. Following the path, with its sloping banks
+of fern and flowers, for about fifty yards, we find it terminated by a
+little wicket-gate, which opens upon a field, whence the old, and now
+grass-green, road to Grasmere is reached. On the left side of the Upper
+Terrace is a dwarf wall, niched with ferns and mosses. Below this wall
+is another terrace--a level one--formed by the poet himself, chiefly for
+the sake of Miss Fenwick, who was a valued friend, and, in after years,
+an inmate at Rydal Mount. To her the poet dictated the MSS. notes upon
+his poems, referred to in the "Memoirs," and elsewhere, as the "MSS. I.
+F."
+
+In speaking of the nocturnal aspect of Rydal Mount, Wordsworth mentions
+"the beauty of the situation, its being backed and flanked by lofty
+fells, which bring the heavenly bodies to touch, as it were, the earth
+upon the mountain tops, while the prospect in front lies open to a
+length of level valley, the extended lake, and a terminating ridge of
+low hills."
+
+A poetical description of this chosen retreat, by Miss Jewsbury, and
+published in the _Literary Magnet_, for 1826, may be quoted here:--
+
+            "THE POET'S HOME."
+
+    "Low and white, yet scarcely seen,
+    Are its walls for mantling green;
+    Not a window lets in light,
+    But through flowers clustering bright;
+    Not a glance may wander there,
+    But it falls on something fair;
+    Garden choice, and fairy mound,
+    Only that no elves are found;
+    Winding walk, and sheltered nook,
+    For student grave and graver book:
+    Or a bird-like bower, perchance,
+    Fit for maiden and romance.
+    Then, far off, a glorious sheen
+    Of wide and sunlit waters seen;
+    Hills that in the distance lie,
+    Blue and yielding as the sky;
+    And nearer, closing round the nest,
+    The home of all the 'living crest,'
+    Other rocks and mountains stand,
+    Rugged, yet a guardian band,
+    Like those that did, in fable old,
+    Elysium from the world enfold.
+
+    ". . . . . . .  Companions meet
+    Thou shalt have in thy retreat:
+    One of long-tried love and truth;
+    Thine in age as thine in youth;
+    One, whose locks of partial grey,
+    Whisper somewhat of decay;
+    Yet whose bright and beaming eye
+    Tells of more that cannot die.
+
+    "Then a second form beyond,
+    Thine, too, by another bond,
+    Sportive, tender, graceful, wild--
+    Scarcely woman, more than child--
+    One who doth thy heart entwine,
+    Like the ever-clinging vine;
+    One to whom thou art a stay,
+    As the oak that, scarred and grey,
+    Standeth on, and standeth fast,
+    Strong and stately to the last.
+
+    "Poet's lot like this hath been;
+    Such, perchance, may I have seen;
+    Or in fancy's fairy land,
+    Or in truth, and near at hand:
+    If in fancy, then, forsooth,
+    Fancy had the force of truth;
+    If, again, a truth it were,
+    Then were truth as fancy fair;
+    But, which ever it might be,
+    ''Twas a Paradise to me.'"
+
+Of the "companions meet" referred to above it is evident that the
+first-named "of long-tried love and truth" is Miss Wordsworth; the
+second, Mrs. Wordsworth; and the third, Miss Dora Wordsworth, the poet's
+daughter, to whom some further reference should now be made.
+
+At the time of the removal to Rydal Mount, in the spring of 1813, the
+family, in addition to the parents and Miss Wordsworth, consisted of
+three children, of whom the second--Dorothy, or Dora, born in 1804--was
+of the interesting age of nine years. She was named after her aunt, Miss
+Wordsworth; for, although her father would have preferred to have called
+her Mary, the name Dorothy, as he stated to Lady Beaumont, had been so
+long devoted in his own thoughts to the first daughter he might have,
+he could not break his promise to himself. By way of further
+distinguishing her from her aunt, Mr. Crabb Robinson used to call her
+Dorina. To this surviving daughter, as she grew up to womanhood,
+Wordsworth was passionately attached. Inheriting as she did, in no
+slight degree, the family genius, he seemed to see reproduced in her a
+harmonious blending of the characteristics and mental lineaments of his
+wife and sister, the two beings in the world whom he had most devotedly
+loved.
+
+Wordsworth's later poems contain several allusions to Dora. In this
+place I will quote a stanza or two only, from one, entitled "The Triad,"
+written in celebration of Edith Southey, Dora Wordsworth, and Sara
+Coleridge:--
+
+      "Open, ye thickets! let her fly,
+      Swift as a Thracian Nymph o'er field and height!
+      For She, to all but those who love her, shy,
+      Would gladly vanish from a Stranger's sight;
+      Though where she is beloved and loves,
+      Light as the wheeling butterfly she moves;
+      Her happy spirit as a bird is free,
+      That rifles blossoms on a tree,
+      Turning them inside out with arch audacity.
+      Alas! how little can a moment show
+      Of an eye where feeling plays
+      In ten thousand dewy rays;
+      A face o'er which a thousand shadows go!
+    --She stops--is fastened to that rivulet's side;
+      And there (while, with sedater mien,
+      O'er timid waters that have scarcely left
+      Their birth-place in the rocky cleft,
+      She bends) at leisure may be seen
+      Features to old ideal grace allied,
+      Amid their smiles and dimples dignified--
+      Fit countenance for the soul of primal truth:
+      The bland composure of eternal youth!
+
+      "What more changeful than the sea?
+      But over his great tides
+      Fidelity presides;
+      And this light-hearted Maiden, constant is as he.
+      High is her aim as heaven above,
+      And wide as ether her good-will;
+      And, like the lowly reed, her love
+      Can drink its nurture from the scantiest rill:
+      Insight as keen as frosty star
+      Is to _her_ charity no bar,
+      Nor interrupts her frolic graces
+      When she is, far from these wild places,
+      Encircled by familiar faces."
+
+Writing of Dora Wordsworth, Miss Coleridge says:--"There is truth in the
+sketch of Dora--poetic truth, though such as none but a poetic father
+would have seen. She was unique in her sweetness and goodness. I mean
+that her character was most peculiar--a compound of vehemence of feeling
+and gentleness, sharpness and lovingness, which is not often seen."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+FRIENDS.--TOUR ON CONTINENT.
+
+
+Some reference more special than hitherto should be made to the more
+outer influences which entered into the life of Miss Wordsworth.
+Although so bound up in her brother, her life presented many sides, and
+her sympathies, as will have been seen, were by no means limited in
+their operation to the household circle. Her brother's friends were
+hers. Probably few have been more independent of outside friendships,
+and of society, than the family at Rydal; and at the same time few have
+been blessed with such genial and cultured associates.
+
+We have seen how close had, for many years, been the companionship with
+Coleridge, whom Lamb has called "an archangel a little
+damaged"--Coleridge, the incomprehensible, versatile genius, poet,
+philosopher, theologian, metaphysician, and critic--of whom it has
+recently been said that "even in the dilapidation of his powers, due
+chiefly, if you will, to his own unthrifty management of them, we might,
+making proper deductions, apply to him what Mark Antony says of the dead
+Cæsar:--
+
+    'He was the ruins of the noblest man
+    That ever lived in the tide of time.'"
+
+Then we have the sedate and scholarly Southey, the brother-in-law of
+Coleridge, and both of whom, up to 1810, when Coleridge left the
+district, resided at Greta Hall, near Keswick. Charles and Mary Lamb,
+also, although they could seldom be lured from their beloved London,
+were, as we have seen, among the earliest friends of the Wordsworths,
+and their home generally the abode of Miss Wordsworth during her
+occasional visits to the metropolis. Charles Lloyd, of Brathay--the
+dreamy Quaker, and bosom friend of Lamb--also became a neighbour, and an
+esteemed friend. Later, we have seen De Quincey, the intellectual opium
+eater, whose growth seems to have been almost entirely in the direction
+of brain (and of whom Southey said he wished he was not so very little,
+and did not always forget his great coat!) received into the charmed
+circle; Crabb Robinson, also, who, though not a writer himself, counted
+amongst his friends some of the most eminent literary men of the day.
+Professor Wilson, of Elleray, the physical and mental giant, who resided
+within, what was to the Wordsworths and himself, fair walking distance;
+afterwards Hartley Coleridge, loving and lovable, who inherited no small
+portion of the poetic genius of his more illustrious father; and Dr.
+Arnold, of Rugby fame, who settled almost within a stone's-throw of
+Rydal Mount, added to the _coterie_ of men of genius, among whom,
+Wordsworth, from time to time, if not at the same time, moved as a
+revered master, added to the interest of this warm centre of
+intellectual activity.
+
+Among many other sons of genius who should be ranked as friends of
+Wordsworth was Haydon, the painter. He painted Wordsworth on several
+occasions, and introduced him into his famous picture of "Christ's Entry
+into Jerusalem." Of this Hazlitt said it was the "most like his drooping
+weight of thought and expression." Of this picture Haydon, in his
+autobiography, says: "During the progress of the picture of Jerusalem, I
+resolved to put into it (1816), in a side group, Voltaire, as a sneerer,
+and Newton, as a believer. I now (1817) put Hazlitt's head into my
+picture, looking at Christ as an investigator. It had a good effect. I
+then put in Keats into the background, and resolved to introduce
+Wordsworth, bowing with reverence and awe.... The Centurion, the
+Samaritan Woman, Jairus and his daughter, St. Peter, St. John, Newton,
+Voltaire, the anxious mother of the penitent girl, and the girl blushing
+and hiding her face, many heads behind; in fact the leading groups were
+accomplished, when down came my health again, eyes and all." This
+painting, so enthusiastically received in England, was, unfortunately,
+sent to America, whence it has never returned. Haydon writes, under date
+September 23, 1831: "My 'Jerusalem' is purchased, and is going to
+America. Went to see it before it was embarked. It was melancholy to
+look, for the last time, at a work which had excited so great a
+sensation in England and Scotland. It was now leaving my native country
+for ever."
+
+In speaking of the friends of the Wordsworths, some allusion should be
+made to others, who, if they were less widely known, were not less
+warmly appreciative of their worth, or less closely identified with
+them. Sir George Beaumont, of Coleorton Hall, Leicestershire, was for
+many years a close friend and admirer; and from time to time we find
+Miss Wordsworth visiting there.
+
+Among the ladies who, in after years, became closely intimate with the
+inmates of Rydal Mount were Mrs. Fletcher, herself a lady of some
+literary distinction, and her daughter Mary, afterwards Lady Richardson.
+For the sake chiefly of the society of the Arnolds and Wordsworths, Mrs.
+Fletcher--who speaks of a tea-party at Rydal Mount as "perhaps the
+highest point in man's civilised life, in all its bearings"--became the
+purchaser of the little mountain farm of Lancrigg before-mentioned, so
+nearly identified with Miss Wordsworth's Easedale rambles, and which she
+converted into the charming retreat it is at the present time. Miss
+Fenwick also, to whom the world owes the valuable notes upon the poems,
+dictated to her, at her urgent request, by the poet, after having, for
+very love of the Wordsworths, resided for some time in the
+neighbourhood, became, and was for many years, a resident at the Mount.
+From the recently-published autobiography of Sir Henry Taylor, we learn
+that this amiable lady, many years before she became an inmate at Rydal
+Mount, had stated she would be content to be a servant in that house,
+that she might hear the poet's wisdom. Of the life of Miss Fenwick
+herself, Sir Henry says, it was "a life of love and beneficence, as
+nearly divine as any life upon earth that I have known, or heard of, or
+been capable of conceiving."
+
+From the time of taking up her abode at Rydal Mount, the outward life
+of Miss Wordsworth was passed without much change. After the trials
+which had preceded, life in this ideal home appears to have been for
+many years unbroken by any sorrow. It is needless to say that Miss
+Wordsworth's close interest in her brother and his career, and in all
+the incidents of his life, never waned. A letter of Miss Wordsworth,
+which has recently been given to the world, written when "The White Doe
+of Rylstone" was about to be published (in 1815), shows that he and his
+work were still the first objects of her thought and affection. She
+writes: "My brother was very much pleased with your frankness in telling
+us that you did not perfectly like his poem. He wishes to know what your
+feelings were--whether the tale itself did not interest you, or whether
+you could not enter into the conception of Emily's character, or take
+delight in that visionary union which is supposed to have existed
+between her and the doe. Do not fear to give him pain. He is far too
+much accustomed to be abused to receive pain from it (at least, so far
+as he himself is concerned). My reason for asking you these questions
+is, that some of your friends, who are equally admirers of the 'White
+Doe,' and of my brother's published poems, think that _this_ poem will
+sell on account of the story; that is, that the story will bear up those
+points which are above the level of the public taste; whereas the two
+last volumes--except by a few solitary individuals, who are passionately
+devoted to my brother's works--are abused by wholesale.
+
+"Now, as his sole object in publishing this poem at present would be for
+the sake of the money, he would not publish it if he did not think,
+from the several judgments of his friends, that it would be likely to
+have a sale. He has no pleasure in publishing--he even detests it; and
+if it were not that he is not over wealthy he would leave all his works
+to be published after his death. William himself is sure that the 'White
+Doe' will not sell or be admired, except by a very few at first, and
+only yields to Mary's entreaties and mine. We are determined, however,
+if we are deceived this time to let him have his own way in future."
+
+The year 1820 was signalised by a lengthened tour on the Continent,
+including France, the Rhine, Italy, and Switzerland, in which Miss
+Wordsworth accompanied her brother and Mrs. Wordsworth, and their
+kinspeople--Mr. and Mrs. Monkhouse. Mr. Crabb Robinson was also of the
+party, and his diary contains some pleasant reminiscences of the tour.
+It is interesting to note such an entry as the following: "On the 5th
+September the Wordsworths went back to the Lake of Como, in order to
+gratify Miss Wordsworth, who _wished to see every spot which her brother
+saw in his first journey_--a journey made when he was young." "The women
+wear black caps, fitting the head closely, with prodigious black gauze
+wings. Miss Wordsworth calls it the 'butterfly cap.'"
+
+The "Memorials of a Tour on the Continent," published by Wordsworth, in
+1822, did not constitute the only literary result of the tour. Mrs. and
+Miss Wordsworth kept a journal of events and impressions, which it is to
+be greatly regretted has not been published, notwithstanding the
+expressed desire of the poet to the contrary. As a charming memorial of
+this interesting journey, it could not fail to prove of great interest.
+
+Shortly after the publication of these poems we find the following
+letter written by Miss Wordsworth to Mr. Crabb Robinson:--
+
+                                             "_3rd March, 1822._
+
+      "My brother will, I hope, write to Charles Lamb in the course of a
+      few days. He has long talked of doing it; but you know how the
+      mastery of his own thoughts (when engaged in composition, as he
+      has lately been) often prevents him from fulfilling his best
+      intentions; and since the weakness of his eyes has returned, he
+      has been obliged to fill up all spaces of leisure by going into
+      the open air for refreshment and relief to his eyes. We are very
+      thankful that the inflammation, chiefly in the lids, is now much
+      abated. It concerns us very much to hear so indifferent an account
+      of Lamb and his sister; the death of their brother no doubt has
+      afflicted them much more than the death of any brother, with whom
+      there had, in near neighbourhood, been so little personal or
+      family communication, would afflict any other minds. We deeply
+      lamented their loss, and wished to write to them as soon as we
+      heard of it; but it not being the particular duty of any one of
+      us, and a painful task, we put it off, for which we are now sorry,
+      and very much blame ourselves. They are too good and too confiding
+      to take it unkindly, and that thought makes us feel it more....
+      With respect to the tour poems, I am afraid you will think my
+      brother's notes not sufficiently copious; prefaces he has none,
+      except to the poem on Goddard's death. Your suggestion as to the
+      bridge at Lucerne set his mind to work; and if a happy mood comes
+      on he is determined even yet, though the work is printed, to add a
+      poem on that subject. You can have no idea with what earnest
+      pleasure he seized the idea, yet before he began to write at all,
+      when he was pondering over his recollections, and asking me for
+      hints and thoughts, I mentioned that very subject, and he then
+      thought he could make nothing of it. You certainly have the gift
+      of setting him on fire. When I named (before your letter was read
+      to him) your scheme for next autumn his countenance flushed with
+      pleasure, and he exclaimed: 'I'll go with him.' Presently,
+      however, the conversation took a sober turn, and he concluded that
+      the journey would be impossible; 'and then,' said he, 'if you or
+      Mary, or both, were not with me, I should not half enjoy it; and
+      that is impossible.' ... We have had a long and interesting letter
+      from Mrs. Clarkson. Notwithstanding bad times, she writes in
+      cheerful spirits, and talks of coming into the North this summer,
+      and we really hope it will not end in talk, as Mr. Clarkson joins
+      with her; and, if he once determines, a trifle will not stop him.
+      Pray read a paper in the _London Magazine_ by Hartley Coleridge on
+      the uses of the 'Heathen Mythology in Poetry.' It has pleased us
+      very much. The style is wonderful for so young a man--so little of
+      effort and no affectation....
+
+                                        "DOROTHY WORDSWORTH."
+
+The following extract from a letter written by Mr. Robinson, in June,
+1825, shortly after Lamb's retirement from the East India Office, will
+be of interest. He writes: "I have not seen the Lambs so often as I used
+to do, owing to a variety of circumstances. Nor can I give you the
+report you naturally looked for of his conduct at so great a change in
+his life.... The expression of his delight has been child-like (in the
+good sense of that word). You have read the 'Superannuated Man.' I do
+not doubt, I do not fear, that he will be unable to sustain 'the weight
+of chance desires.' Could he--but I fear he cannot--occupy himself in
+some great work requiring continued and persevering attention and
+labour, the benefit would be equally his and the world's. Mary Lamb has
+remained so well, that one might almost advise, or rather permit, a
+journey to them. But Lamb has no desire to travel. If he had, few things
+would give me so much pleasure as to accompany him. I should be proud of
+taking care of him. But he has a passion for solitude, he says, and
+hitherto he finds that his retirement from business has not brought
+leisure."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+FURTHER INFLUENCE.
+
+
+Before alluding to the affliction which for many years darkened the
+later life of Miss Wordsworth, and gathering together some of the
+remaining threads of her history, it is fitting that something further
+should be said in relation to her sustained influence upon her brother
+and her devotion to him, although it is with a feeling of how impossible
+it is adequately to do this, or that the fruit of her dominant presence
+should ever be fully known.
+
+Those who know Wordsworth, and who, recognising his commanding place in
+literature, have had their sympathies enlarged, their eyes opened to
+discern in Nature and Providence their boundless sources of satisfaction
+and delight--whose hearts have been expanded by his high and holy
+teaching--will be ready to recognise all the spiritual aids by which he
+was himself inspired. It would be unjust to others, who held high sway
+over his heart, to say that everything was due to his sister. At the
+same time it is manifest that she bore no insignificant part, and during
+his early life the largely predominant part in that work, and thus was
+to a great extent instrumental in introducing the new evangel of song
+by which the century's literature has been uplifted. The elevating
+presence of such a woman, in the delightful and close relationship of
+sister, was to a man of Wordsworth's character, itself an inspiration.
+If it be good to learn to look on Nature with a reverential eye, seeing
+therein the Creation of God brought near, then to this poet, as Nature's
+high priest and interpreter is due the gratitude of generations.
+
+As the close companion and stimulator of this great poet during the
+years of preparation and discipline, who "first couched his eye to the
+sense of beauty," we owe it indirectly to Miss Wordsworth that Nature
+has become to us so much more than she was to our forefathers, has been
+revealed in a clearer and brighter light; that she speaks to us in a new
+language, calling us away from the lower cares of life, and uplifting us
+to a higher soul-inbreathing and restoring atmosphere of repose; thus
+begetting a dignity of soul and making us capable of higher good, of
+nobler endeavour, of capacities for enjoyment before unknown--keener,
+more satisfying, and enduring.
+
+Probably few natures are capable of receiving the more subtle
+impressions of beauty in such a way as was that of Wordsworth, and fewer
+still meet with the responsive soul able to touch them to the finest
+issues. His boyhood's mind had been impregnated with thought, and his
+young heart bounded with delight amid the beauties of earth. His sister
+came, and together they seemed to possess the earth. His powers of
+perception were intensified and rarified. The solitudes of Nature became
+their home, their hearts grew still amidst its loveliness: the solemn
+night breathed a benediction. They loved
+
+    "The silence that is in the starry sky,
+    The sleep that is among the lonely hills."
+
+Shall we not say that, viewed in this way, the earth becomes almost as
+an ante-chamber of Heaven, subduing, and awe-inspiring, leading us to
+
+                    "Move along its shades,
+    In gentleness of heart; with gentle hand
+    Touch--for there is a spirit in the woods."
+
+"What a life there is in trees," said Miss Wordsworth; and her own life
+was one not only helping to reveal the living speech of the mute world,
+not only finding life where it is by the duller eye unseen, and by the
+dull sense unfelt, but helping to show what a noble thing all life may
+be made.
+
+It must not be supposed that in what may seem to have been a complete
+abandonment to the worship of her brother and of Nature Miss Wordsworth
+had no heart for others, no room for human sympathy. She was, on the
+contrary, during their early years at Grasmere especially, widely known
+and beloved; her ready ear was always open to the tale of sorrow, and
+her helping hand ready to aid. It was after the commencement of her long
+and tedious illness that Wordsworth said of her he did not believe her
+tenderness of heart was ever exceeded by any of God's creatures, that
+her loving kindness had no bounds. The following lines written by Mrs.
+Fletcher, when 82 years of age, after reading Miss Wordsworth's
+Grasmere journal, are very appropriate:--
+
+    "If in thine inmost soul there chance to dwell
+    Aught of the poetry of human life,
+    Take thou this book, and with a humble heart
+    Follow these pilgrims in their joyous walk;
+    And mark their high commission--not to domes
+    Of pomp baronial, or gay fashion's haunts,
+    Where worldlings gather; but to rural homes,
+    To cottages and hearths, where kindness dwelt,
+    They bent their way; and not a gentle breeze
+    Inhaled in all their wanderings, not a flower,
+    Blooming by hedge-wayside, or mountain rill,
+    But lent its inspiration, scent, and sound,
+    Deepening the inward music of their hearts.
+    _She_ touched the chord, and he gave forth its tone;
+    Without her he had idly gazed and dreamed,
+    In fancy's region of celestial things;
+    But she--by sympathy disclosed the might,
+    That slumbered in his soul, and drew it thence,
+    In richest numbers of subduing power,
+    To soften, harmonise, and soothe mankind;
+    Nor less to elevate, and point the way
+    To truth Divine--not with polemic skill,
+    He sought from Nature and the human heart,
+    That sacred wisdom from the fount of God."
+
+It has been well said that with a masculine power of mind Miss
+Wordsworth "had every womanly virtue, and presented with those splendid
+gifts such a rare combination, that even the enthusiastic strains in
+which her brother sang her praises borrowed no aid from his poetic
+imagination. It was she who in childhood moderated the sternness of his
+moody temper, and she carried on the work which she had begun. His chief
+delight had been in scenes which were distinguished by terror and
+grandeur, and she taught him the beauty of the simplest products and
+mildest graces of Nature; while she was softening _his_ mind she was
+elevating _herself_; and out of this interchange of gifts grew an
+absolute harmony of thought and feeling." What was originally harsh in
+Wordsworth was toned by the womanly sweetness of his sister, and his
+spirit softened by her habitual delicacy of thought and act. Not only
+so, but with a devotion (I will not say self-sacrifice, for it was none)
+as rare as it is noble, she simply dedicated to him her life and
+service, living in and for him. She read for him, saw for him, and heard
+for him; found subjects for his reflection, and was always at hand--his
+willing scribe. Rejecting for herself all thoughts of love and marriage,
+she gave to him and his her mature life as willingly and cheerfully as
+when he was alone and unfriended, she had done her bright girlhood. With
+a mental capacity and literary skill, which would have enabled her to
+carve out for herself an independent reputation and position of no mean
+order, she preferred to sink herself, and her future, in that of her
+brother, with whom she has thus become, for all time, so indelibly
+associated. And he was grateful, and returned her devotedness with a
+love, tender, and almost reverential. One other allusion to her in his
+poems should be given. It may be thought that his praise of her is
+exaggerated; but none so well as he himself knew the extent of his
+obligation to her--and he was not one to bestow praise for the sake only
+of poetic effect. Writing in the "Prelude," he says:--
+
+    "Child of my parents! Sister of my soul!
+    Thanks in sincerest verse have been elsewhere
+    Poured out for all the early tenderness
+    Which I from thee imbibed: and 'tis most true
+    That later seasons owed to thee no less;
+    For, spite of thy sweet influence, and the touch
+    Of kindred hands that opened out the springs
+    Of genial thought in childhood, and in spite
+    Of all that, unassisted, I had marked
+    In life, or Nature, of those charms minute,
+    That win their way into the heart by stealth;
+    Still, to the very going out of youth,
+    I too exclusively esteemed _that_ love,
+    And sought _that_ beauty, which, as Milton sings,
+    Hath terror in it. But thou didst soften down
+    This over-sternness; but for thee, dear Friend!
+    My soul, too reckless of mild grace, had stood
+    In her original self too confident,
+    Retained too long a countenance severe;
+    A rock with torrents roaring, with the clouds
+    Familiar, and a favourite of the stars:
+    But thou didst plant its crevices with flowers,
+    Hang it with shrubs that twinkle in the breeze,
+    And teach the little birds to build their nests
+    And warble in its chambers. At a time
+    When Nature, destined to remain so long
+    Foremost in my affections, had fallen back
+    Into a second place, pleased to become
+    A handmaid to a nobler than herself,
+    When every day brought with it some new sense
+    Of exquisite regard for common things;
+    And all the earth was budding with these gifts
+    Of more refined humanity; thy breath,
+    Dear Sister! was a kind of gentler spring,
+    That went before my steps."
+
+It has, by some, been stated, in the way of objection, that Wordsworth
+was not a Christian poet, that he looked too exclusively to Nature as
+his inspirer and guide, and sought from her the consolation which
+Christianity alone can afford. His friend and admirer, Professor Wilson,
+states that all his poetry, published previously to the "Excursion," is
+but the "Religion of the Woods"; and that though in that poem there is a
+high religion brought forward, it is not the religion of Christianity.
+But it must be admitted that although a large proportion of the poetry
+of Wordsworth does not contain any specific Christian teaching, yet it
+breathes the spirit of devotion and of Christian charity. Some of the
+earlier poems, especially the lines composed at Tintern Abbey, have been
+referred to as evidence, that at the shrine of Nature alone Wordsworth,
+in his earlier, and presumably wiser, years worshipped. As this subject
+has been more than once exhaustively dealt with, it is not now necessary
+to do more than mention it. It should be remembered, that the same pen
+which wrote what have been styled the pantheistic poems, also wrote the
+Ecclesiastical Sonnets, the Ninth Evening Voluntary, and the
+Thanksgiving Odes. What is much more needed by the heart of mankind than
+specific Christian doctrine, is the high and holy teaching with which
+the works of Wordsworth abound. His work was most conscientious, ever
+done under the "eye that hath kept watch o'er man's mortality." If
+lessons of endurance and fortitude under the ills and privations of
+life, and faith in the future, are needed, we have them taught us in
+such poems as that containing the story of the poor leech gatherer; if
+storms of passion and suffering are to be allayed, we are reminded of
+"the sure relief of prayer," and the advice given to the Solitary to aid
+in the restoration of a lost trust and hope:
+
+                            "One adequate support
+      For the calamities of mortal life
+      Exists--one only: an assured belief
+      That the procession of our fate, however
+      Sad or disturbed, is ordered by a Being
+      Of infinite benevolence and power;
+      Whose everlasting purposes embrace
+      All accidents, converting them to good.
+    --The darts of anguish _fix_ not where the seat
+      Of suffering hath been thoroughly fortified
+      By acquiescence in the Will supreme
+      For time and for eternity; by faith,
+      Faith absolute in God, including hope,
+      And the defence that lies in boundless love
+      Of His perfections; that habitual dread
+      Of aught unworthily conceived, endured
+      Impatiently, ill done, or left undone,
+      To the dishonour of His holy name.
+      Soul of our Souls, and safeguard of the world!
+      Sustain, thou only canst, the sick of heart;
+      Restore their languid spirits, and recall
+      Their lost affections unto Thee and Thine!"
+
+If Wordsworth and his sister in their early life seem to have too
+exclusively glorified Nature, it cannot with any shadow of reason be
+said that they were at any period devoid of that faith and trust in the
+Creator through which we receive Nature's most beneficent lessons. It
+is, indeed, noticeable that during their Scottish tour no difference
+seems to have been made in the days of the week--that their Sundays were
+spent in travel. Such a thing is certainly to be regretted, which in
+after years probably no one would have been more ready than they to
+acknowledge. Thus the last entry in that journal--one made after an
+interval of many years--we find as follows: October 4th, 1832.--"I find
+that this tour was both begun and ended on a Sunday. I am sorry that it
+should have been so, though I hope and trust that our thoughts and
+feelings were not seldom as pious and serious as if we had duly attended
+a place devoted to public worship. My sentiments have undergone a great
+change since 1803 respecting the absolute necessity of keeping the
+Sabbath by a regular attendance at church.--D. W." It cannot be doubted
+that the feeling which dictated those words marks a distinct advance. I
+doubt not that Miss Wordsworth was able to worship the Creator as
+devoutly on the green slope of a sun-crowned mountain or in the solemn
+woods, murmuring their eternal mysterious secrets, as in the public
+assembly of saints. And such would be in accord with the glow of
+youthful life with which she bounded to greet Nature's subtle
+influences. But a longer experience brought its inevitable sobering
+tendencies, accompanied by the longing for a closer approach towards the
+Infinite which is felt by all searching and great souls. Wordsworth
+could truly say, in view of his work, that it was a consolation to him
+to feel that he had never written a line which he could wish to blot. To
+this happy and rare result his sister contributed. Remembering the
+exalted character of that work, there is no other conclusion than that
+she had no mean part in a work, the issues of which were beneficial not
+only for time--adding to the sweet influences and graces of life--but
+will be far-reaching as eternity.
+
+In illustration of Miss Wordsworth's own literary style, I take the
+liberty to insert in later chapters a few poems which have been deemed
+worthy to have a place with those of her brother, as well as a journal
+of a tour on Ullswater. What most in her journals arrests the attention
+is her unusual quickness and minuteness of observation, combined with a
+graceful and poetic diction. With her ardent love of Nature, nothing
+seems to have escaped her notice; and all the varying shades of beauty
+in earth and sky, which, to the observant eye and loving heart, invest
+with such a glory this old world, were duly appreciated. Describing a
+birch tree, she says: "As we went along we were stopped at once, at a
+distance of, perhaps, fifty yards from our favourite birch tree. It was
+yielding to a gust of wind, with all its tender twigs; the sun shone
+upon it, and it glanced in the wind like a flying sunshiny shower. It
+was a tree in shape, with stem and branches; but it was like a spirit of
+water." Noticing a number of daffodils near Ullswater, she writes: "When
+we were in the woods below Gowbarrow Park we saw a few daffodils close
+to the water side. As we went along there were more and yet more; and at
+last, under the boughs of the trees, we saw there was a long belt of
+them along the shore. I never saw daffodils so beautiful. They grew
+among the mossy stones about them. Some rested their heads on these
+stones as on a pillow; the rest tossed, and reeled, and danced, and
+seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind, they looked so gay and
+glancing." These daffodils suggested to her brother one of the most
+beautiful of his short poems, that which has been previously quoted,
+commencing
+
+    "I wandered lonely as a cloud."
+
+Of this description of Miss Wordsworth Mr. Lockhart says: "Few poets
+ever lived who could have written a description so simple and original,
+so vivid and picturesque. Her words are scenes, and something more."
+
+Miss Wordsworth was for many years a great correspondent, and it is to
+be regretted that more of her letters have not been given to the world.
+From those quoted in this volume it will be seen that they exhibit the
+same fluent, graceful, and animated style which characterised all her
+productions.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                        "I have seen
+    That reverent form bowed down with age and pain,
+    And rankling malady. Yet not for this
+    Ceased she to praise her Maker, or withdraw
+    Her trust in Him, her faith, and humble hope;
+    So meekly had she learnt to bear her cross--
+    For she had studied patience in the school
+    Of Christ; much comfort she had thence derived,
+    And was a follower of the NAZARENE."
+
+                                             LAMB.
+
+    "So fails, so languishes, grows dim and dies.
+    All that the world is proud of."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+ILLNESS AND LAST YEARS.
+
+
+Reference must now be made, however reluctantly, to the sad illness with
+which Miss Wordsworth was more or less afflicted for over twenty years.
+At this distance of time particulars as to the commencement and progress
+of this affliction are not easily procurable. It appears, however, to
+have been about the year 1826 that her splendid physical energies began
+to show signs of decay. In October of that year Mr. Crabb Robinson,
+after mentioning a visit to Southey at Keswick, wrote in his diary:
+"Miss D. Wordsworth's illness prevented me going to Rydal Mount." From
+this illness it is, however, evident she successfully rallied. I am
+indebted to _Notes and Queries_ for the following extract from a letter
+by Miss Dora Wordsworth, dated 1st February, 1827: "Aunt Wordsworth has
+not yet walked herself to death, which I often tell her she will do,
+though she still continues the same tremendous pedestrian." Here we have
+the key to the cause of her subsequent prostration. From her ardent and
+impassioned nature her career had been what may be termed singularly
+intense. De Quincey, who knew her well, speaks of there being clearly
+observable in her "a self-consuming style of thought." Both as regards
+her mental and physical nature, she appears to have run a race with
+time. As her brother's companion, she had indeed been so exclusively and
+passionately devoted to him as to identify herself not only with his
+mental pursuits, but also, probably more than wisely, with his long
+pedestrian and mountain rambles. If it were not that the great work of
+her life was so signally achieved, and her satisfaction therein
+abundant, we should be inclined to regret that she thus drew an
+over-draft on the fountains of her life. It could not be expected that
+her frailer frame could sustain, without any mischievous effects, the
+physical fatigues and labours of her more robust brother; for with him
+she was ever ready to explore the mountain force, to climb the rocky
+heights, or walk over moor and fell apparently almost regardless of
+distance. Within due limits, no doubt all this is as healthful as it is
+delightful. But Nature's powers are limited; and Nature in Miss
+Wordsworth eventually gave way. And her spirits suffered in sympathy
+with her physical nature.
+
+As an illustration of Miss Wordsworth's home rambles and adventures, I
+may here mention a reminiscence which is given by Mr. Justice Coleridge,
+of an excursion made with Wordsworth into Easedale. The poet, pointing
+to a precipitous and rocky mountain above the tarn, told of an incident
+which befell him and his sister on one occasion on their coming over the
+mountains from Langdale. From some cause they had become a little
+parted, when a heavy fog came on and Miss Wordsworth became bewildered.
+After wandering about for some time she sat down and waited. When the
+fog cleared away and she could see the valley before her, she found
+that she had stopped very providentially, as she was standing almost on
+the verge of the precipice.
+
+It is not, however, to be supposed that Miss Wordsworth accompanied her
+brother over the 200,000 miles which De Quincey calculated the poet must
+have walked, nor is it stated by what means the figures are arrived at!
+A twenty or thirty miles walk was not an uncommon thing. As an instance,
+I find it stated that one summer afternoon, as the Keswick coach was
+approaching Grasmere, it met Wordsworth, and stopped. A lady, who was
+going on a visit to the poet, put out her head to speak to him,
+whereupon he said to her: "How d'ye do? Mrs. Wordsworth will be
+delighted to see you. I shall be back in the evening. I'm only going to
+tea with Southey," who, it will be remembered, lived at a distance of
+about fifteen miles, and the road by no means a good one.
+
+It is stated by Principal Shairp, in the introduction to the "Tour in
+Scotland," that in the year 1829 Miss Wordsworth "was seized with a
+severe illness, which so prostrated her, body and mind, that she never
+recovered from it." This can, however, hardly be the fact, as is
+evidenced by the following letter to Mr. Crabb Robinson, which certainly
+shows no indication of mental prostration, and contains no allusion to a
+physical one:--
+
+
+                                        "_FRIDAY, December 1st, 1831._
+
+      "Had a rumour of your arrival in England reached us before your
+      letter of yesterday's post you would ere this have received a
+      welcome from me, in the name of each member of this family; and,
+      further, would have been reminded of your promise to come to Rydal
+      as soon as possible after again setting foot on English ground.
+      When Dora heard of your return, and of my intention to write, she
+      exclaimed after a charge that I would recall to your mind your
+      written promise: 'He must come and spend Christmas with us. I wish
+      he would!' Thus you see, notwithstanding your petty jarrings, Dora
+      was always, and now is, a loving friend of yours. I am sure I need
+      not add that if you can come at the time mentioned, so much the
+      more agreeable to us all, for it is fast approaching; but that
+      _whenever_ it suits you (for you may have Christmas engagements
+      with your own family) to travel so far northward, we shall be
+      rejoiced to see you; and whatever other visitors we may chance to
+      have, we shall always be able to find a corner for you. We are
+      thankful that you are returned with health unimpaired--I may say,
+      indeed, amended--for you were not perfectly well when you left
+      England. You do not mention rheumatic pains, so I trust they have
+      entirely left you. As to your being grown older--if you mean
+      _feebler_ in mind--my brother says, 'No such thing; your judgment
+      has only attained autumnal ripeness.' Indeed, my dear friend, I
+      wonder not at your alarms, or those of any good man, whatever may
+      have been his politics from youth to middle age, and onward to the
+      decline of life. But I will not enter upon this sad and perplexing
+      subject. I find it much more easy to look with patience on the
+      approach of pestilence, or any affliction which it may please God
+      to cast upon us without the intervention of man, than on the
+      dreadful results of sudden and rash changes, whether arising from
+      ambition, or ignorance, or brute force. I am, however, getting
+      into the subject without intending it, so will conclude with a
+      prayer that God may enlighten the heads and hearts of our men of
+      power, whether Whigs or Tories, and that the madness of the
+      deluded people may settle. This last effect can only be produced,
+      I fear, by exactly and severely executing the law, seeking out and
+      punishing the guilty, and letting all persons see that we do not
+      _willingly_ oppress the poor. One possible blessing seems already
+      to be coming upon us through the alarm of the cholera. Every rich
+      man is now obliged to look into the bye-lanes and corners
+      inhabited by the poor, and many crying abuses are (even in our
+      little town of Ambleside) about to be remedied.
+
+      "But to return to pleasant Rydal Mount, still cheerful and
+      peaceful--if it were not for the newspapers we should know nothing
+      of the turbulence of our great towns and cities; yet my poor
+      brother is often heart-sick and almost desponding--and no wonder,
+      for, until this point at which we are arrived, he has been a true
+      prophet as to the course of events, dating from the 'Great Days of
+      July' and the appearance of 'the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing
+      but the Bill.' It remains for us to hope that now Parliament may
+      meet in a different temper from that in which they parted, and
+      that the late dreadful events may make each man seek only to
+      promote the peace and prosperity of the country. You will see that
+      my brother looks older. He is certainly thinner, and has lost some
+      of his teeth; but his bodily activity is not at all diminished,
+      and if it were not for public affairs, his spirits would be as
+      cheerful as ever. He and Dora visited Sir Walter Scott just before
+      his departure, and made a little tour in the Western Highlands;
+      and such was his leaning to old pedestrian habits, that he often
+      walked from fifteen to twenty miles in a day, following or keeping
+      by the side of the little carriage, of which his daughter was the
+      charioteer. They both very much enjoyed the tour, and my brother
+      actually brought home a set of poems, the product of that
+      journey...."
+
+It was not, however, long after the date of this letter, which shows
+that Miss Wordsworth was still in possession of her vigorous and clear
+intellect, that she was seized with a more severe illness. Her growing
+weakness was, in the year 1832, accompanied by an alarming attack of
+brain fever, from the effects of which she never altogether recovered.
+Mr. Myers states that the illness "kept her for many months in a state
+of great prostration, and left her, when the physical symptoms abated,
+with her intellect painfully impaired, and her bright nature permanently
+overclouded."
+
+In June, 1833, Mr. Crabb Robinson again writes in his diary: "Strolled
+up to Rydal Mount, where I met with a cordial reception from my kind
+friends; but Miss Wordsworth I did not see. I spent a few hours very
+delightfully, and enjoyed the improved walk in Mr. Wordsworth's garden,
+from which the views are admirable, and had most agreeable conversation,
+with no other drawback than Miss Wordsworth's absence from the state of
+her health."
+
+Wordsworth himself felt very keenly the affliction of his sister.
+Writing to his brother, the Rev. Dr. Wordsworth, on April 1, 1832, he
+says: "Our dear sister makes no progress towards recovery of strength.
+She is very feeble, never quits her room, and passes most of the day in,
+or upon, the bed. She does not suffer much pain, and is very cheerful,
+and nothing troubles her but public affairs and the sense of requiring
+so much attention. Whatever may be the close of this illness, it will be
+a profound consolation to you, my dear brother, and to us all, that it
+is borne with perfect resignation; and that her thoughts are such as the
+good and pious would wish. She reads much, both religious and
+miscellaneous works." On June 25 of the same year, writing to Professor
+Hamilton, after referring to Coleridge, he says: "He and my beloved
+sister are the two beings to whom my intellect is most indebted, and
+they are now proceeding, as it were, _pari passu_, along the path of
+sickness, I will not say towards the grave; but I trust towards a
+blessed immortality."
+
+It does not, however, appear that all hope was abandoned of Miss
+Wordsworth's recovery until the year 1836. In a note of his life
+dictated by the poet, after referring to the deaths of his two young
+children in 1812, he says: "We lived with no further sorrow till 1836,
+when my sister became a confirmed invalid."
+
+The outward life of Miss Wordsworth was now at an end. Her condition
+became such that those who loved her so dearly could only hope to
+relieve her pain and cheer her lonely hours. The buoyancy of spirit and
+activity of limb which had so distinguished her young and mature life
+ceased--had gradually given way to a decay of her physical energies,
+which was accompanied at times, and especially during her later years by
+a consequent natural depression of spirit, or loss of mental elasticity.
+As years passed, what may be called the symptoms of mental decay became
+intensified. I am, however, inclined to think that by some writers too
+much prominence has been given to the deterioration of her intellect.
+Principal Shairp says: "It is sad to think that when the world at last
+knew him (Wordsworth) for what he was, the great original poet of the
+century, she who had helped to make him so was almost past rejoicing in
+it." Mr. Howitt, writing while Miss Wordsworth was still living, said:
+"The mind of that beloved sister has for many years gone, as it were,
+before her, and she lives on in a second infancy, gratefully cherished
+in the poet's home."
+
+The condition into which Miss Wordsworth had declined is not, however,
+an unusual one when a severe and protracted illness lays hold upon one
+advancing in years. The "nervous depression" or "nervous irritation"
+which clouded her later years, apart from the prostration of the body,
+was most manifest in the lapse of memory, which is frequently the case
+with those who have not, indeed, suffered the affliction of Miss
+Wordsworth. Her physical frame having succumbed to the overtaxing of her
+energies, as an almost natural consequence her mind lost its youthful
+buoyancy and brightness, and suffered in sympathy. An aged inhabitant of
+the district, who knew her from youth to age, a little time ago informed
+me that she could not be called low-spirited, but that she became "a
+bit dull," adding that she always knew people, and was able to converse
+with them.
+
+Meanwhile, in the poet's home and circle, the inevitable flight of time
+was bringing about other changes which tended to sadden the age of its
+inhabitants. Intimate friends were departing. Coleridge, the friend of
+his youth, who had, as before mentioned, left the district, and been
+resident in London, died in 1834, to be followed to the grave only a
+month later by the friend of both, the genial-hearted Charles Lamb. In
+1835, also, to add to the sorrow caused by the confirmed affliction of
+Miss Wordsworth, the beloved sister of Mrs. Wordsworth, Miss Sarah
+Hutchinson, who had for many years alternately resided with them and her
+brother at Brinsop Court, Hereford, was added to the number of the loved
+and lost.
+
+The year 1841 was brightened by the marriage of Miss Dora Wordsworth,
+the only surviving daughter of the poet. The event was not, however, to
+him one of unalloyed happiness. This daughter, having, for now some
+years, grown up to bright and happy womanhood, was his cherished
+companion, and in her his heart seemed to be bound up. She occupied in
+his later poems, to some extent, the same position that his sister did
+in his earlier. Mr. Edward Quillinan, who became the poet's son in-law,
+was a gentleman of much literary culture and attainment. He was the
+author of several poems, reviews, and other works, and had the
+reputation of being the most accomplished Portuguese scholar in this
+country. He was an officer in the Dragoon Guards, and had married for
+his first wife a daughter of Sir Egerton Brydges, Bart. Long an admirer
+of Wordsworth, he had become personally acquainted with him while his
+regiment was stationed in Penrith in 1820. Quitting the service in 1821
+he settled at the village of Rydal, chiefly for the sake of the poet's
+society. Here he had in the following year the misfortune to lose his
+wife. Notwithstanding the close friendship which existed between them,
+Wordsworth did not like the idea of losing the companionship of his
+daughter. Sir Henry Taylor, in reference to this, says: "His love for
+his only daughter was passionately jealous, and the marriage which was
+indispensable to her peace and happiness was intolerable to his
+feelings. The emotions--I may say the throes and agonies of emotion--he
+underwent were such as an old man could not have endured without
+suffering in health, had he not been a very strong old man. But he was
+like nobody else--old or young. He would pass the night, or most part of
+it, in struggles and storms, to the moment of coming down to breakfast;
+and then, if strangers were present, be as easy and delightful in
+conversation as if nothing was the matter. But if his own health did not
+suffer, his daughter's did, and this consequence of his resistance,
+mainly aided, I believe, by the temperate but persistent pressure
+exercised by Miss Fenwick, brought him at length, though far too
+tardily, to consent to the marriage."
+
+The marriage took place in Bath, in May, 1841; and afterwards Mr. and
+Mrs. Wordsworth and Miss Fenwick made a short tour to Alfoxden and other
+places so closely associated with the early life of Wordsworth and his
+sister. Writing to Sir H. Taylor, Miss Fenwick says:--"We had two
+perfect days for our visit to Wells, Alfoxden, &c. They were worthy of a
+page or two in the poet's life. Forty-two years, perhaps, never passed
+over any human head with more gain and less loss than over his. There he
+was again, after that long period, in the full vigour of his intellect,
+and with all the fervent feelings which have accompanied him through
+life; his bodily strength little impaired, he, grey-headed, with an old
+wife and not a young daughter. The thought of what his sister, who had
+been his companion here, was then, and now is, seemed the only painful
+feeling that moved in his mind. He was delighted to see again those
+scenes (and they were beautiful in their kind) where he had been so
+happy--where he had felt and thought so much. He pointed out the spots
+where he had written so many of his early poems, and told us how they
+had been suggested."
+
+It was on the death of Southey, in 1843, that Wordsworth, then in his
+seventy-fourth year, was offered, and, after some hesitation, on account
+of his age, accepted the appointment of Poet Laureate--an office which
+has not been filled by a worthier man or greater poet.
+
+But other trials were in store for his advancing years. The health of
+his daughter had for some years been delicate, and continued to be so
+after her marriage. In 1845 Mr. and Mrs. Quillinan sought the more
+genial clime of Spain and Portugal, where they remained until the summer
+of the following year. Of this tour Mrs. Quillinan published a journal,
+of which it has been said that it showed she "inherited no trivial
+measure of her aunt's tastes and talents." It was hoped that by this
+means her health had been restored; but the hope proved to be
+short-lived. She gradually faded, and, to the great grief of all who
+knew her, died in 1847. The effect on the poet was most saddening. Sir
+Henry Taylor, referring to his cultivation of the muse in later years,
+says: "At his daughter's death, a silence, _as_ of death, fell upon him;
+and though during the interval between her death and his own his genius
+was not at all times incapable of its old animation, I believe it never
+broke again into song."
+
+To return to Miss Wordsworth. Mr. Crabb Robinson, in a reminiscence of
+the year 1835, writes: "Already her health had broken down. In her youth
+and middle age she had stood in somewhat the same relation to her
+brother William as poor Mary Lamb to her brother Charles. In her long
+illness she was fond of repeating the favourite small poems of her
+brother, as well as a few of her own. And this she did in so sweet a
+tone as to be quite pathetic. The temporary obscurations of a noble mind
+can never obliterate the recollections of its inherent and essential
+worth."
+
+In December, 1843, Mr. Quillinan, writing to Mrs. Clarkson, refers to
+the pleasure with which they at Rydal had read Miss Martineau's "Life in
+a Sick Room," and adds: "When I said all the Rydalites, I should have
+excepted poor, dear Miss Wordsworth, who could not bear sustained
+attention to any book, but who would be quite capable of appreciating a
+little at a time." In a still later letter--one from Mr. Robinson to
+Miss Fenwick, in 1849--referring to a visit paid to his friends at
+Rydal, he says: "Poor Miss Wordsworth I found sunk still further in
+insensibility. By the bye, Mrs. Wordsworth says that almost the only
+enjoyment Wordsworth seems to feel is in his attendance on her, and that
+her death would be to him a sad calamity." Lady Richardson has given the
+following pathetic reminiscence: "There is," she says, "always something
+very touching in his way of speaking of his sister. The tones of his
+voice become very gentle and solemn, and he ceases to have that flow of
+expression, which is so remarkable in him in all other subjects. It is
+as if the sadness connected with her present condition was too much for
+him to dwell upon in connection with the past, although habit and the
+omnipotence of circumstances have made its daily presence less
+oppressive to his spirits. He said that his sister spoke constantly of
+their early days, but more of the years they spent together in other
+parts of England than those at Grasmere."
+
+To Miss Wordsworth the "sorrow's crown of sorrow" came with the death in
+April, 1850, of the brother for whom she had lived and for whom she had
+done so much. Having attained his eightieth year, he caught a cold,
+which resulted in a bronchial attack. After lying for a few weeks in a
+state of exhaustion, the great soul passed to its everlasting rest, to
+swell the song of the eternal world.
+
+Although cared for and dearly beloved by the survivors, the death of her
+brother seemed to snap the strong tie by which she was bound to life. In
+consequence of being herself confined to her room, she was not able to
+witness the progress and end of her brother's illness. To the very last
+they had been so completely devoted to each other that when his death
+was communicated to her she was at first unable to realise it. When the
+truth at length dawned upon her, she gave utterance to the pathetic
+exclamation, that there was nothing left worth living for.
+
+Miss Wordsworth, however, survived her brother by nearly five years. It
+is a satisfaction to know that even her latest years were not without
+gleams of brightness. Although, compared with her early mental vigour,
+there was visible a melancholy wreck of mind, it was chiefly the result
+of an uncertain and vanishing memory. She had, indeed, to the very last
+perfectly lucid intervals during which she was remarkably clear and
+quite herself. As a not uncommon result of loss of memory in aged
+people, she forgot near events, and was what might be termed somewhat
+childish. She could remember quite well what took place in her girlhood,
+while if asked what she had been doing or talking about an hour
+previously she would have no recollection of it.
+
+During her latest years Miss Wordsworth was unable to read much, but
+would frequently amuse herself by reciting poetry and other scraps,
+which, learnt in previous years, she remembered wonderfully well. A
+casual observer, who might see the placid old lady, of fourscore years,
+wheeled on the terrace at Rydal Mount, her unwrinkled though somewhat
+pensive face framed by a full-bordered cap, would have no suggestion of
+the often vacant mind.
+
+Although sometimes considerably depressed in spirits, her tedious
+affliction was, on the whole, borne with exemplary Christian fortitude.
+It has been said that "her loving-kindness in health had known no
+bounds, and the sympathy she had ever felt for the sorrows of others was
+now rivalled by the patience with which she bore her own."
+
+When the end at length came it was calm and tolerably painless. Taking
+cold early in the year 1855, her condition was aggravated by an attack
+of bronchitis, and her spirit left the worn-out frame on the 25th of
+January, in her eighty-third year.
+
+Her remains were deposited in the peaceful churchyard of Grasmere, by
+the murmuring waters of a mountain stream, the same sacred spot of earth
+which contained those of her beloved brother, overshadowed by the same
+yew trees.
+
+It was from her own choice--a choice decided and happy--that Miss
+Wordsworth was never married. De Quincey (who seems, by the way, to have
+had a pretty universal knowledge) informs us that she had several offers
+of marriage, and amongst them, to his knowledge, one from Hazlitt, all
+of which she decisively rejected. Although he speaks so confidently, it
+is probable that, with regard to Hazlitt, he was mistaken. With the
+exception of a visit to Nether Stowey, and a short stay in the Lake
+district some few years later, it does not appear that Hazlitt was
+brought into contact with the Wordsworths, or that the relations between
+them were at all familiar; and Hazlitt's grandson and biographer does
+not attach much importance to the statement. Miss Wordsworth had a far
+higher vocation. Her sacrifice, if it can be so called, to her brother
+was complete; but her lot was not, therefore, less happy. Doubtless the
+duties of marriage and maternity, had the poet's prophecy concerning her
+been fulfilled, would have filled her life, in its maturity and decline,
+with cares and interests which would have contributed to the keeping of
+her mind in a condition of more continuous mental vigour and equipoise.
+But the one great object of her life had been accomplished. She had
+lived to know all slander and rancour, the effect of all spiteful
+reviews, lived down; and--if not able fully to appreciate and rejoice in
+the fact--to see her brother, whom she had helped so much to perfect,
+universally acknowledged as a master of English song, occupying a
+foremost niche in the Temple of Fame--the greatest poet since Milton.
+
+And, although her old age was somewhat overclouded, it cannot be
+considered altogether sad; and it is not with thoughts of sadness that
+our reflections on such a beneficent career as hers should be closed.
+
+If the latter portion of her life was overshadowed with gloom and
+sickness; if the brightness of the morning and the serenity of noonday
+too early gave place to a long twilight upon which the shadows fell
+heavily, her bright and lucid intervals give abundant hope that gleams
+of gladness revisited the mind which, for so long, had been a "mansion
+for all lovely forms" treasured and garnered in her early years.
+
+It is more befitting that we should turn away our thoughts from the
+intervening period of age and decay; and that Dorothy Wordsworth should
+live in our minds as she was in her eager-spirited and ardent youth,
+when in company with her beloved companion, she bounded over the
+familiar hills and roamed by the mountain streams, or by the household
+fire scanned the classic page--a youth of beauty, and buoyancy, and joy,
+because so full of love and goodness, of generous sympathy and unselfish
+devotion--a youth which she has since renewed, unclouded by any shade,
+in the same old society, and with the familiar love re-linked--_in
+Paradiso_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A QUIET RESTING-PLACE.
+
+
+A few words only are desirable to be added in reference to the surviving
+inmate of the home of which Miss Wordsworth was so long a cherished
+member. The poet's aged widow survived her husband and sister-in-law for
+some years. She was not solitary in her widowhood, but tenderly loved by
+devoted friends. Miss Joanna Baillie, writing to Mrs. Fletcher in the
+June succeeding the death of Wordsworth, says: "Many thanks to you for
+sending to us a copy of these lines" (the lines upon the companionship
+of Wordsworth and his sister, before mentioned), "and for letting us
+know how his excellent wife, Mrs. Wordsworth, bears up under her severe
+affliction. She was a mate worthy of him or any man, and his sister too,
+such a devoted noble being as scarcely any other man ever possessed."
+
+Mrs. Fletcher's diary, under date, Sunday, the 7th May, 1854, contains
+the following entry: "Yesterday, Mrs. Davy brought Mrs. Wordsworth to
+dinner. It is always a pleasure to see the placid old age of dear Mrs.
+Wordsworth. Hers has been a life of duty, and it is now an old age of
+repose, while her affections are kept in constant exercise by the tender
+interest she takes in her grand-children."
+
+During the last three years of her life Mrs. Wordsworth was blind; and
+it is deeply pathetic to read how, in her last days, when her sightless
+eyes could no longer peruse the sacred page, she loved to feel with her
+trembling fingers a cross which she kept in her room, and which seemed
+to remind her of the Christian's hope. Her life of calm devotion and
+disinterested love, succeeded by an old age of resignation and peace,
+was brought to a serene close on the 17th of January, 1859.
+
+Among the quiet resting-places of the dead, few, if any, are of deeper
+interest than the peaceful churchyard of Grasmere. Under the shadow of
+the everlasting hills "girded with joy," and by the banks of the
+murmuring stream singing in its onward course of hopes beyond the grave,
+it is a spot which affection would choose for its most tenderly loved.
+As "the Churchyard among the mountains," many of the annals of which are
+recorded in that grand philosophic poem, "The Excursion," it could not
+fail to draw thither the footsteps of the thoughtful. But there is one
+corner on approaching which we seem to feel more solemnised, to breathe
+more gently--where the footstep falls lighter and lingers longer. To us
+it is as sacred a nook as the shadowy corner of the famous Abbey where
+are laid England's greatest sons. The group of graves gathered there are
+not glorified by the "religious light" of storied windows, but they are
+warmed by summer suns, and covered with a garment of purity by winter
+snows, and over-shadowed by aged yews, which gently shower around them
+their peaceful and slumberous undersong.
+
+In the south-east corner of this quiet God's Acre is to be found this
+cluster of graves, surrounded by an iron palisade, to each of which a
+history of more than common interest is attached. Behind the principal
+group are three short graves, two of which, being the first formed of
+the group, attract attention. These are the graves of little Catherine
+and Thomas Wordsworth, the children of the poet, whose early and sudden
+deaths have been mentioned. The stone indicating the resting-place of
+the "loving, and tractable, though wild," Catherine bears the
+inscription, "Suffer little children to come unto Me." That of her
+brother contains a few memorial lines recording at once his age and
+loving disposition:--
+
+    "Six months to six years added he remained
+    Upon this sinful earth, by sin unstained:
+    O blessed Lord! Whose mercy then removed
+    A Child whom every eye that looked on loved;
+    Support us, teach us calmly to resign
+    What we possessed, and now is wholly Thine!"
+
+The next green mound, in point of date, is that which covers the remains
+of the first Mrs. Quillinan, who died on the 25th May, 1822, at the
+early age of twenty-seven years, six months after the birth of her
+second daughter. She was a daughter of the late Sir Egerton Brydges,
+Bart., of Denton Court, near Dover. There is in Grasmere Church a
+monument to her designed by Sir F. Chantrey.
+
+Miss Sarah Hutchinson, the younger sister of Mrs. Wordsworth, who has
+been before mentioned, comes next in this remarkable group. Spending,
+as she did, much of her time with the Wordsworths at Grasmere and Rydal
+Mount, she was devoted to all the members of the family. Being herself
+of poetic mould, the poet's home was most congenial to her. It was she,
+who, during a sickness, the year before her death, wrote the following
+lines to the Redbreast:--
+
+    "Stay, cheerful little Robin! stay,
+      And at my casement sing,
+    Though it should prove a farewell lay
+      And this our parting spring.
+
+    "Though I, alas! may ne'er enjoy
+      The promise in thy song;
+    A charm, _that_ thought can not destroy,
+      Doth to thy strain belong.
+
+    "Methinks that in my dying hour
+      Thy song would still be dear,
+    And with a more than earthly power
+      My passing Spirit cheer.
+
+    "Then, little Bird, this boon confer,
+      Come, and my requiem sing,
+    Nor fail to be the harbinger
+      Of everlasting Spring."
+
+She died as before-mentioned in 1835. Her memorial stone states that she
+was the beloved sister and faithful friend of mourners, who had caused
+the stone to be erected, with the earnest wish that their remains might
+be laid by her side, and a humble hope that through Christ they might
+together be made partakers of the same blessed resurrection. Twelve
+years afterwards the sod was again cut, to receive, not yet the aged
+poet or his wife, but their idolised daughter Dora, the devoted wife of
+Mr. Quillinan, who, in her forty-third year, after a brief period of
+wedded happiness, died on the 9th July, 1847. Upon the stone at the head
+of her grave is chiselled a lamb bearing a cross, and the consolatory
+words: "Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out."
+
+The poet himself was the next to be added to the group, and the slab,
+with the simple inscription "WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, 1850," has been gazed
+upon by as many moistened eyes as the elaborate tombs of any of
+England's greatest heroes.
+
+Mr. Edward Quillinan, who died in July, 1851, rests near the two beloved
+companions of his life.
+
+The subject of this brief memoir--the most perfect sister the world hath
+known--after her sunny youth, her strong maturity, and her afflicted
+age, now sleeps in peace on the right side of the poet, to whom her
+self-denying life was devoted, her resting-place, to all who have heard
+her name being sufficiently indicated by the words
+
+  "DOROTHY WORDSWORTH,
+           1855."
+
+In a few years more the poet's grave received to its shelter the tried
+and honoured partner of his long life, and the words were added: "Mary
+Wordsworth, 1859."
+
+From this time there is a break of many years, when the enclosure
+received another member of the younger generation. Miss Rotha
+Quillinan, named after the murmuring river, by the banks of which her
+life was spent, died on the 1st February, 1876. She was the younger
+daughter of Mr. Quillinan, and, apart from the subsequent relationship,
+had been an object of especial interest to the poet as his god-daughter.
+He wrote the following lines in her album:--
+
+    "Rotha, my Spiritual Child! this head was grey
+    When at the sacred font for thee I stood:
+    Pledged till thou reach the verge of womanhood,
+    And shalt become thy own sufficient stay;
+    Too late, I feel, sweet Orphan! was the day
+    For stedfast hope the contract to fulfil;
+    Yet shall my blessing hover o'er thee still,
+    Embodied in the music of this Lay,
+    Breathed forth beside the peaceful mountain Stream,
+    Whose murmur soothed thy languid Mother's ear
+    After her throes, this Stream of name more dear
+    Since thou dost bear it--a memorial theme
+    For others; for thy future self, a spell
+    To summon fancies out of Time's dark cell."
+
+Her surviving sister still resides in the charming retreat at the foot
+of Loughrigg Fell, overlooking the vale of Ambleside, which had so long
+been the home of both.
+
+The latest addition to the group was made so lately as the year 1883,
+when Mr. William Wordsworth, the last surviving son of the poet, was
+added to the number.
+
+There is, however, one more grave, which, though not within the
+enclosure, lies close behind it, and claims our notice. Hartley
+Coleridge, the eldest son of his more distinguished father, was for many
+years a familiar figure in the neighbourhood where he now rests. As a
+child, quiet, intelligent, and promising; as a youth, encouraging the
+hope that he was gifted with a genius which would lead to a career of no
+ordinary character; as a collegian, fulfilling the bright hopes of his
+friends, and attaining signal distinction;--his subsequent history
+affords one more instance of the fact that the greatest genius may by
+one failing be crippled, and the brightest promise be never followed by
+its full fruition. But this is not the place to recount his story. His
+published poems show that he inherited no small portion of his father's
+poetic ability. In his subsequently rather aimless life, he endeared
+himself not a little to the sympathetic inhabitants of the vale by his
+gentle, warm-hearted, and loving disposition. He was passionately fond
+of children, and would hardly pass through the village without taking a
+little one into his arms. For his father's sake, as well as his own, he
+was a favourite with the Wordsworths. It was by Mrs. Wordsworth, the
+friend of his infancy, that in his fifty-third year his relatives were
+summoned to his dying bed; and by Wordsworth himself (a year before his
+own death) his last resting-place was chosen. "Let him lie by us," said
+the aged poet, "he would have wished it;" adding to the sexton, "keep
+the ground for us--we are old people, and it cannot be for long."
+
+The following sonnet may be given as a specimen of Hartley Coleridge's
+poetry, the closing line not inaptly expressing the prayerful attitude
+with which he approached the eternal future.
+
+                  "SHE LOVED MUCH.
+
+    "She sat and wept beside His feet. The weight
+    Of sin oppressed her heart; for all the blame,
+    And the poor malice of the worldly shame,
+    To her was past, extinct, and out of date;
+    Only the _sin_ remained--the leprous state.
+    She would be melted by the heat of love,
+    By fires far fiercer than are blown to prove
+    And purge the silver ore adulterate.
+    She sat and wept, and with her untressed hair
+    Still wiped the feet she was so blest to touch;
+    And He wiped off the soiling of despair
+    From her sweet soul, because she loved so much.
+    I am a sinner, full of doubts and fears,
+    Make me a humble thing of love and tears."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+POEMS.
+
+
+Miss Wordsworth did not write much poetry. The few pieces she has left
+behind, though not of the highest order, are sufficient to show that had
+she devoted herself to it, she might have attained distinction. She was
+so devoted to her brother that she did not attempt for herself an
+independent position. She preferred to find subjects for the more
+skilful pen of her brother, and to act as his amanuensis. The poems that
+she did write, and which have been published with those of her brother,
+are worthy of a place here. The first of these, written in 1805, is--
+
+           "THE COTTAGER TO HER INFANT.
+
+(_Suggested to Miss Wordsworth when watching one of the Poet's
+Children._)
+
+    "The days are cold, the nights are long,
+    The north wind sings a doleful song;
+    Then hush again upon my breast;
+    All merry things are now at rest,
+        Save thee, my pretty Love!
+
+    "The kitten sleeps upon the hearth,
+    The crickets long have ceased their mirth;
+    There's nothing stirring in the house
+    Save one _wee_, hungry, nibbling mouse,
+        Then why so busy thou?
+
+    "Nay! start not at that sparkling light;
+    'Tis but the moon that shines so bright
+    On the window pane, bedropped with rain:
+    Then, little Darling! sleep again,
+        And wake when it is day."
+
+The following (written in 1806) has been described by Charles Lamb as
+masterly:--
+
+    "ADDRESS TO A CHILD (DURING A BOISTEROUS WINTER EVENING).
+
+    "What way does the Wind come? What way does he go?
+    He rides over the water, and over the snow;
+    Through wood and through vale; and o'er rocky height
+    Which the goat cannot climb, takes his sounding flight;
+    He tosses about in every bare tree,
+    As, if you look up, you plainly may see;
+    But how he will come, and whither he goes,
+    There's never a scholar in England knows.
+    He will suddenly stop in a cunning nook,
+    And ring a sharp 'larum;--but, if you should look,
+    There's nothing to see but a cushion of snow
+    Round as a pillow, and whiter than milk,
+    And softer than if it were covered with silk.
+    Sometimes he'll hide in the cave of a rock,
+    Then whistle as shrill as the buzzard cock;
+    --Yet seek him,--and what shall you find in the place?
+    Nothing but silence and empty space;
+    Save, in a corner, a heap of dry leaves,
+    That he's left, for a bed, to beggars or thieves!
+    As soon as 'tis daylight to-morrow, with me,
+    You shall go to the orchard, and then you will see
+    That he has been there, and made such a rout,
+    And cracked the branches, and strewn them about;
+    Heaven grant that he spare but that one upright twig
+    That looked up at the sky so proud and big
+    All last summer, as well you know,
+    Studded with apples, a beautiful show!
+    Hark! over the roof he makes a pause,
+    And growls as if he would fix his claws
+    Right in the slates, and with a huge rattle,
+    Drive them down, like men in a battle:
+    --But let him range round; he does us no harm,
+    We build up the fire, we're snug and warm;
+    Untouched by his breath, see the candle shines bright,
+    And burns with a clear and steady light;
+    Books have we to read,--but that half-stifled knell,
+    Alas! 'tis the sound of the eight o'clock bell.
+    --Come now, we'll to bed! and when we are there,
+    He may work his own will, and what shall we care?
+    He may knock at the door,--we'll not let him in;
+    May drive at the windows,--we'll laugh at his din;
+    Let him seek his own home, wherever it be;
+    Here's a _cozie_ warm house for Edward and me."
+
+The next (also a child's poem), written in 1807, was composed on the eve
+of the return of Mrs. Wordsworth, after a month's absence in London.
+Miss Wordsworth and the children were then staying at Coleorton:--
+
+            "THE MOTHER'S RETURN.
+
+    "A month, sweet little-ones, is past
+    Since your dear Mother went away,--
+    And she to-morrow will return;
+    To-morrow is the happy day.
+
+    "O blessed tidings! thought of joy!
+    The eldest heard with steady glee;
+    Silent he stood; then laughed amain,--
+    And shouted, 'Mother, come to me!'
+
+    "Louder and louder did he shout,
+    With witless hope to bring her near;
+    'Nay, patience! patience, little boy!
+    Your tender mother cannot hear.'
+
+    "I told of hills, and far-off towns,
+    And long, long vales to travel through,--
+    He listens, puzzled, sore perplexed,
+    But he submits; what can he do?
+
+    "No strife disturbs his sister's breast;
+    She wars not with the mystery
+    Of time and distance, night and day;
+    The bonds of our humanity.
+
+    "Her joy is like an instinct--joy
+    Of kitten, bird, or summer fly;
+    She dances, runs without an aim;
+    She chatters in her ecstacy.
+
+    "Her brother now takes up the note,
+    And echoes back his sister's glee;
+    They hug the infant in my arms,
+    As if to force his sympathy.
+
+    "Then, settling into fond discourse,
+    We rested in the garden bower;
+    While sweetly shone the evening sun,
+    In his departing hour.
+
+    "We told o'er all that we had done,--
+    Our rambles by the swift brook's side,
+    Far as the willow-skirted pool,
+    Where two fair swans together glide.
+
+    "We talked of change, of winter gone,
+    Of green leaves on the hawthorn spray,
+    Of birds that build their nests and sing,
+    And all 'since Mother went away!'
+
+    "To her these tales they will repeat,
+    To her our new-born tribes will show,
+    The goslings green, the ass's colt,
+    The lambs that in the meadow go.
+
+    "--But see, the evening star comes forth!
+    To bed the children must depart;
+    A moment's heaviness they feel,
+    A sadness at the heart:
+
+    "'Tis gone--and in a merry fit
+    They run upstairs in gamesome race;
+    I, too, infected by their mood,
+    I could have joined the wanton chase.
+
+    "Five minutes past--and, O the change!
+    Asleep upon their beds they lie;
+    Their busy limbs in perfect rest,
+    And closed the sparkling eye."
+
+The following poem was written at Rydal Mount in 1832. Wordsworth has
+said he believed it arose out of a casual expression of one of Mr.
+Swinburne's children:--
+
+LOVING AND LIKING: IRREGULAR VERSES, ADDRESSED TO A CHILD.
+
+    "There's more in words than I can teach;
+    Yet listen, Child!--I would not preach;
+    But only give some plain directions
+    To guide your speech and your affections.
+    Say not you _love_ a roasted fowl,
+    But you may love a screaming owl,
+    And, if you can, the unwieldy toad
+    That crawls from his secure abode
+    Within the mossy garden wall
+    When evening dews begin to fall.
+    Oh mark the beauty of his eye:
+    What wonders in that circle lie!
+    So clear, so bright, our fathers said
+    He wears a jewel in his head!
+
+    "And when upon some showery day,
+    Into a path or public way
+    A frog leaps out from bordering grass,
+    Startling the timid as they pass,
+    Do you observe him, and endeavour
+    To take the intruder into favour;
+    Learning from him to find a reason
+    For a light heart in a dull season.
+    And you may love him in the pool,
+    That is for him a happy school,
+    In which he swims as taught by nature,
+    Fit pattern for a human creature,
+    Glancing amid the water bright,
+    And sending upward sparkling light.
+
+    "Nor blush if o'er your heart be stealing
+    A love for things that have no feeling:
+    The spring's first rose by you espied
+    May fill your breast with joyful pride;
+    And you may love the strawberry-flower,
+    And love the strawberry in its bower;
+    But when the fruit, so often praised
+    For beauty, to your lip is raised,
+    Say not you _love_ the delicate treat,
+    But _like_ it, enjoy it, and thankfully eat.
+
+    "Long may you love your pensioner mouse,
+    Though one of a tribe that torment the house:
+    Nor dislike for her cruel sport the cat,
+    Deadly foe both of mouse and rat;
+    Remember she follows the law of her kind,
+    And Instinct is neither wayward nor blind.
+    Then think of her beautiful gliding form,
+    Her tread that would scarcely crush a worm,
+    And her soothing song by the winter fire,
+    Soft as the dying throb of the lyre.
+
+    "I would not circumscribe your love:
+    It may soar with the eagle and brood with the dove,
+    May pierce the earth with the patient mole,
+    Or track the hedgehog to his hole.
+    Loving and liking are the solace of life,
+    Rock the cradle of joy, smooth the death-bed of strife.
+
+    "You love your father and your mother,
+    Your grown-up and your baby brother;
+    You love your sister, and your friends,
+    And countless blessings which God sends:
+    And while these right affections play,
+    You _live_ each moment of your day;
+    They lead you on to full content,
+    And likings fresh and innocent,
+    That store the mind, the memory feed,
+    And prompt to many a gentle deed:
+    But _likings_ come, and pass away;
+    'Tis _love_ that remains till our latest day:
+    Our heavenward guide is holy love,
+    And will be our bliss with saints above."
+
+The poem suggested by an island on Derwent-water, which is said to have
+been composed so late as the year 1842, shows that, if the date be
+correct, which is somewhat doubtful, Miss Wordsworth was at that time in
+full possession of her faculties. These lines, we are informed, she used
+to take pleasure in repeating during her last illness.
+
+             "FLOATING ISLAND.
+
+    "Harmonious Powers with Nature work
+    On sky, earth, river, lake, and sea;
+    Sunshine and cloud, whirlwind and breeze,
+    All in one duteous task agree.
+
+    "Once did I see a slip of earth
+    (By throbbing waves long undermined)
+    Loosed from its hold; how, no one knew,
+    But all might see it float, obedient to the wind;
+
+    "Might see it, from the mossy shore
+    Dissevered, float upon the Lake,
+    Float with its crest of trees adorned
+    On which the warbling birds their pastime take.
+
+    "Food, shelter, safety, there they find;
+    There berries ripen, flowerets bloom;
+    There insects live their lives, and die;
+    A peopled world it is; in size a tiny room.
+
+    "And thus through many seasons' space
+    This little Island may survive;
+    But Nature, though we mark her not,
+    Will take away, may cease to give.
+
+    "Perchance when you are wandering forth
+    Upon some vacant sunny day,
+    Without an object, hope, or fear,
+    Thither your eyes may turn--the Isle is passed away;
+
+    "Buried beneath the glittering Lake,
+    Its place no longer to be found;
+    Yet the lost fragments shall remain
+    To fertilize some other ground."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+JOURNAL OF A TOUR AT ULLSWATER
+
+_A.D. 1805._
+
+
+On the 7th of November, on a damp and gloomy morning, we left Grasmere
+Vale, intending to pass a few days on the banks of Ullswater. A mild and
+dry autumn had been unusually favourable to the preservation and beauty
+of foliage; and, far advanced as the season was, the trees on the larger
+island of Rydal Mere retained a splendour which did not need the
+heightening of sunshine. We noticed as we passed that the line of the
+grey rocky shore of that island, shaggy with variegated bushes and
+shrubs, and spotted and striped with purplish brown heath,
+indistinguishably blending with its image reflected in the still water,
+produced a curious resemblance, both in form and colour, to a
+richly-coated caterpillar, as it might appear through a magnifying glass
+of extraordinary power. The mists gathered as we went along: but when we
+reached the top of Kirkstone, we were glad we had not been discouraged
+by the apprehension of bad weather. Though not able to see a hundred
+yards before us, we were more than contented. At such a time, and in
+such a place, every scattered stone the size of one's head becomes a
+companion.
+
+Near the top of the Pass is the remnant of an old wall, which
+(magnified, though obscured, by the vapour) might have been taken for a
+fragment of some monument of ancient grandeur--yet that same pile of
+stones we had never before even observed. This situation, it must be
+allowed, is not favourable to gaiety; but a pleasing hurry of spirits
+accompanies the surprise occasioned by objects transformed, dilated or
+distorted, as they are when seen through such a medium. Many of the
+fragments of rock on the top and slopes of Kirkstone, and of similar
+places, are fantastic enough in themselves; but the full effect of such
+impressions can only be had in a state of weather when they are not
+likely to be sought for. It was not till we had descended considerably
+that the fields of Hartshop were seen, like a lake tinged by the
+reflection of sunny clouds. I mistook them for Brother's water, but soon
+after we saw that lake gleaming faintly with a steely brightness,--then
+as we continued to descend, appeared the brown oaks, and the birches of
+lively yellow, and the cottages, and the lowly Hall of Hartshop, with
+its long roof and ancient chimneys. During great part of our way to
+Patterdale we had rain, or rather drizzling vapour; for there was never
+a drop upon our hair or clothes larger than the smallest pearl upon a
+lady's ring.
+
+The following morning incessant rain till eleven o'clock, when the sky
+began to clear, and we walked along the eastern shore of Ullswater
+towards the farm of Blowick. The wind blew strong, and drove the clouds
+forwards on the side of the mountain above our heads:--two
+storm-stiffened, black yew-trees fixed our notice, seen through, or
+under the edge of, the flying mists, four or five goats were bounding
+among the rocks;--the sheep moved about more quietly, or cowered beneath
+their sheltering places. This is the only part of the country where
+goats are now found;[3] but this morning, before we had seen these, I
+was reminded of that picturesque animal by two rams of mountain breed,
+both with Ammonian horns, and with beards majestic as that which Michael
+Angelo has given to his study of Moses.--But to return; when our path
+had brought us to that part of the naked common which overlooks the
+woods and bush-besprinkled fields of Blowick, the lake, clouds, and
+mists were all in motion to the sound of sweeping winds;--the church and
+cottages of Patterdale scarcely visible, or seen only by fits between
+the shifting vapours. To the northward the scene was less
+visionary;--Place Fell steady and bold;--the whole lake driving onward
+like a great river--waves dancing round the small islands. The house at
+Blowick was the boundary of our walk; and we returned, lamenting to see
+a decaying and uncomfortable dwelling in a place where sublimity and
+beauty seemed to contend with each other. But these regrets were
+dispelled by a glance on the woods that clothe the opposite steeps of
+the lake. How exquisite was the mixture of sober and splendid hues! The
+general colouring of the trees was brown--rather that of ripe
+hazel-nuts; but towards the water there were yet bays of green, and in
+the higher parts of the wood was abundance of yellow foliage, which,
+gleaming through a vapoury lustre, reminded us of masses of clouds, as
+you see them gathered together in the west, and touched with the golden
+light of the setting sun. After dinner we walked up the vale; I had
+never had an idea of its extent and width in passing along the public
+road on the other side. We followed the path that leads from house to
+house; two or three times it took us through some of those copses or
+groves that cover the little hillocks in the middle of the vale, making
+an intricate and pleasant intermixture of lawn and wood. Our fancies
+could not resist the temptation, and we fixed upon a spot for a cottage,
+which we began to build, and finished as easily as castles are raised in
+the air. Visited the same spot in the evening. I shall say nothing of
+the moonlight aspect of the situation which had charmed us so much in
+the afternoon; but I wish you had been with us when, in returning to our
+friend's house, we espied his lady's large white dog lying in the
+moonshine upon a round knoll under the old yew tree in the garden, a
+romantic image--and the elegant creature, as fair as a spirit! The
+torrents murmured softly: the mountains down which they were falling did
+not, to my _sight_, furnish a background for this Ossianic picture; but
+I had a consciousness of the depth of the seclusion, and that mountains
+were embracing us on all sides; "I saw not, but I _felt_ that they were
+there."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Friday, November 9._--Rain, as yesterday, till ten o'clock, when we
+took a boat to row down the lake. The day improved; clouds and sunny
+gleams on the mountains. In the large bay under Place Fell three
+fishermen were dragging a net--picturesque group beneath the high and
+large crags. A raven was seen aloft; not hovering like the kite, for
+that is not the habit of the bird, but passing on with a straightforward
+perseverance, and timing the motion of its wings to its own croaking.
+The waters were agitated, and the iron tone of the raven's voice, which
+strikes upon the ear at all times as the more dolorous from its
+regularity, was in fine keeping with the wild scene before our eyes.
+This carnivorous bird is a great enemy to the lambs of these solitudes.
+The fishermen drew their net ashore, and hundreds of fish were leaping
+in their prison. They were all of the kind called skellies, a sort of
+fresh water herring, shoals of which may sometimes be seen dimpling or
+rippling the surface of the lake in calm weather. This species is not
+found, I believe, in any other of these lakes; nor, as far as I know, is
+the chevin, that _spiritless_ fish (though I am loth to call it so, for
+it was a prime favourite with Izaac Walton), which must frequent
+Ullswater, as I have seen a large shoal passing into the lake from the
+river Eamont. Here are no pike, and the char are smaller than those of
+the other lakes, and of inferior quality; but the grey trout attains a
+very large size, sometimes weighing above twenty pounds. This lordly
+creature seems to know that "retiredness is a piece of majesty," for it
+is scarcely ever caught, or even seen, except when it quits the depths
+of the lake in the spawning season, and runs up into the streams, where
+it is too often destroyed in disregard of the law of the land and of
+nature.
+
+Quitted the boat in the bay of Sandwyke, and pursued our way towards
+Martindale, along a pleasant path--at first through a coppice bordering
+the lake, then through green fields--and came to the village (if village
+it may be called, for the houses are few, and separated from each
+other), a scattered spot, shut out from the view of the lake. Crossed
+the one-arched bridge, below the chapel, with its bare ring of mossy
+wall and single yew tree. At the last house in the dale we were greeted
+by the master, who was sitting at his door, with a flock of sheep
+collected round him, for the purpose of smearing them with tar
+(according to the custom of the season) for protection against the
+winter's cold. He invited us to enter and view a room, built by Mr.
+Hasell, for the accommodation of his friends at the annual chase of red
+deer in his forests, at the head of these dales. The room is fitted up
+in the sportsman's style, with a cupboard for bottles and glasses,
+strong chairs, and a dining-table; and ornamented with the horns of the
+stags caught at these hunts for a succession of years--the length of the
+last race each had run being recorded under his spreading antlers. The
+good woman treated us with oaten cake, new and crisp; and after this
+welcome refreshment and rest, we proceeded on our return to Patterdale
+by a short cut over the mountains. On leaving the fields of Sandwyke,
+while ascending up a gentle slope along the valley of Martindale, we had
+occasion to observe that in thinly-peopled glens of this character the
+general want of wood gives a peculiar interest to the scattered cottages
+embowered in sycamore. Towards its head this valley splits into two
+parts; and in one of these (that to the left) there is no house nor any
+building to be seen but a cattle-shed on the side of a hill, which is
+sprinkled over with trees, evidently the remains of an extensive forest.
+Near the entrance of the other division stands the house where we were
+entertained, and beyond the enclosures of that farm there are no other.
+A few old trees remain--relics of the forest; a little stream hastens,
+though with serpentine windings, through the uncultivated hollow where
+many cattle were pasturing. The cattle of this country are generally
+white, or light-coloured; but these were dark brown or black, which
+heightened the resemblance this scene bears to many parts of the
+Highlands of Scotland.
+
+While we paused to rest on the hill-side, though well contented with the
+quiet every-day sounds--the lowing of cattle, bleating of sheep, and the
+very gentle murmuring of the valley stream--we could not but think what
+a grand effect the music of the bugle-horn would have among these
+mountains. It is still heard once every year at the chase I have spoken
+of--a day of festivity for the inhabitants of this district, except the
+poor deer, the most ancient of them all. Our ascent even to the top was
+very easy. When it was accomplished we had exceedingly fine views, some
+of the lofty fells being resplendent with sunshine, and others partly
+shrouded by clouds. Ullswater, bordered by black steeps, was of dazzling
+brightness; the plain beyond Penrith smooth and bright, or rather
+gleamy, as the sea or sea-sands. Looked down into Boardale, which, like
+Skybarrow, has been named from the wild swine that formerly abounded
+here; but it has now no sylvan covert, being smooth and bare, a long,
+narrow, deep, cradle-shaped glen lying so sheltered, that one would be
+pleased to see it planted by human hand, there being a sufficiency of
+soil; and the trees would be sheltered, almost like shrubs in a
+green-house. After having walked some way along the top of the hill,
+came in view of Glenridding, and the mountains at the head of
+Grisedale.--Before we began to descend, we turned aside to a small ruin,
+called at this day the chapel, where it is said the inhabitants of
+Martindale and Patterdale were accustomed to assemble for worship. There
+are now no traces from which you could infer for what use the building
+had been erected; the loose stones, and the few that yet continued piled
+up, resemble those which lie elsewhere on the mountain; but the shape of
+the building having been oblong, its remains differ from those of the
+common sheep-fold; and it has stood east and west. Scarcely did the
+Druids, when they fled to these fastnesses, perform their rights in any
+situation more exposed to disturbance from the elements. One cannot pass
+by without being reminded that the rustic psalmody must have had the
+accompaniment of many a wildly-whistling blast; and what dismal storms
+must have often drowned the voice of the preacher!
+
+As we descend, Patterdale opens upon the eye in grand simplicity,
+screened by mountains, and proceeding from two heads--Deepdale and
+Hartshop--where lies the little lake of Brothers Water, named in old
+maps Broader Water, and probably rightly so; for Bassenthwaite Mere at
+this side is familiarly called Broad Water; but the change in the
+appelation of this small lake or pool (if it be a corruption) may have
+been assisted by some melancholy incident, similar to what happened
+about twenty years ago, when two brothers were drowned there, having
+gone out to take their holiday-pleasure upon the ice on a New Year's
+Day.
+
+A rough and precipitous peat-track brought us down to our friends house.
+Another fine moonlight night; but a thick fog rising from the
+neighbouring river enveloped the rocky and wood-crested knoll on which
+our fancy cottage had been erected; and, under the damp cast upon my
+feelings, I consoled myself with moralising on the folly of hasty
+decisions in matters of importance, and the necessity of having at least
+one's knowledge of a place before you realise airy suggestions in solid
+stone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Saturday, November 10._--At the breakfast-table, tidings reached us of
+the death of Lord Nelson, and of the victory of Trafalgar. Sequestered
+as we were from the sympathy of a crowd, we were shocked to hear that
+the bells had been ringing joyously at Penrith, to celebrate the
+triumph. In the rebellion of the year 1745, people fled with their
+valuables from the open country of Patterdale, as a place of refuge,
+secure from the incursions of strangers. At that time news such as we
+had heard might have been long in penetrating so far into the recesses
+of the mountains; but now, as you know, the approach is easy, and the
+communication in summer time almost hourly; nor is this strange, for
+travellers after pleasure are become not less active, and more numerous
+than those who formerly left their homes for the purposes of gain. The
+priest on the banks of the remotest stream of Lapland will talk
+familiarly of Bonaparte's last conquests, and discuss the progress of
+the French Revolution, having acquired much of his information from
+adventurers impelled by curiosity alone.
+
+The morning was clear and cheerful, after a night of sharp frost. At ten
+o'clock we took our way on foot towards Pooley Bridge, on the same side
+of the lake we had coasted in a boat the day before. Looked backwards to
+the south from our favourite station above Blowick. The dazzling
+sunbeams striking upon the church and village, while the earth was
+steaming with exhalations, not traceable in other quarters, rendered
+their forms even more indistinct than the partial and flitting veil of
+unillumined vapour had done two days before. The grass on which we trod,
+and the trees in every thicket, were dripping with melted hoar frost. We
+observed the lemon-coloured leaves of the birches, as the breeze turned
+them to the sun, sparkle, or rather _flash_, like diamonds, and the
+leafless purple twigs were tipped with globes of shining crystal.
+
+The day continued delightful and unclouded to the end. I will not
+describe the country which we slowly travelled through, nor relate our
+adventures; and will only add that on the afternoon of the 13th we
+returned along the banks of Ullswater by the usual road. The lake lay in
+deep repose, after the agitations of a wet and stormy morning. The trees
+in Gowbarrow Park were in that state when what is gained by the
+disclosure of their bark and branches compensates, almost, for the loss
+of foliage, exhibiting the variety which characterises the point of time
+between autumn and winter. The hawthorns were leafless; their round
+heads covered with rich green berries, and adorned with arches of green
+brambles, and eglantines hung with glossy hips; and the grey trunks of
+some of the ancient oaks, which, in the summer season, might have been
+regarded only for their venerable majesty, now attracted notice by a
+pretty embellishment of green mosses and fern, intermixed with russet
+leaves, retained by those slender outstarting twigs, which the veteran
+tree would not have tolerated in his strength. The smooth silver
+branches of the ashes were bare; most of the alders as green as the
+Devonshire cottage-myrtle that weathers the snows of Christmas.--Will
+you accept it as some apology for my having dwelt so long on the
+woodland ornaments of these scenes, that artists speak of the trees on
+the banks of Ullswater, and especially along the bays of Stybarrow
+crags, as having a peculiar character of picturesque intricacy in their
+stems and branches, which their rocky stations and the mountain winds
+have combined to give them? At the end of Gowbarrow Park a large herd of
+deer were either moving slowly or standing still among the fern. I was
+sorry when a chance companion, who had joined us by the way, startled
+them with a whistle, disturbing an image of grave simplicity and
+thoughtful enjoyment; for I could have fancied that those natives of
+this wild and beautiful region were partaking with us a sensation of the
+solemnity of the closing day.
+
+The sun had been set some time, and we could perceive that the light was
+fading away from the coves of Helvellyn; but the lake under the luminous
+sky was more brilliant than before.
+
+After tea at Patterdale set out again;--a fine evening; the seven stars
+close to the mountain top; all the stars seemed brighter than usual. The
+steeps were reflected in Brothers Water, and, above the lake, appeared
+like enormous black, perpendicular walls. The Kirkstone torrents had
+been swollen by the rains, and now filled the mountain pass with their
+roaring, which added greatly to the solemnity of our walk. Behind us,
+when we had climbed to a great height, we saw one light, very distinct,
+in the vale, like a large red star--a solitary one in the gloomy region.
+The cheerfulness of the scene was in the sky above us.
+
+Reached home a little before midnight.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] They have since disappeared.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+            LONDON:
+  W. SPEAIGHT AND SONS, PRINTERS,
+         FETTER LANE.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dorothy Wordsworth, by Edmund Lee
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41506 ***