UNIVERSITY CALIFORNIA CHAPTER XXXI. TOUR ON THE CONTINENT, 1820. IN the autumn of 1820, Wordsworth, with his wife and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Monkhouse, and Miss Horrocks (a sister of Mrs. Monkhouse), left England together for a tour on the Continent. They started from Dover on the 11th of July, went by Brussels to Cologne, up the Rhine to Switzerland, were joined by Henry Crabb Robinson at Lucerne, crossed over to the Italian lakes and Milan, came back to Switzerland, and through France to Paris, where they spent a month. Returning to London in November, they stayed some time in town, and went north by Cambridge and Coleorton, arriving at Rydal Mount on Christmas Eve. Dorothy Wordsworth wrote a Journal of this Tour, taking notes at the time, and extending them on her return to Westmoreland. Mrs. Wordsworth kept another (briefer) record of the same journey; Mr. Crabb Robinson also wrote a diary of it. Wordsworth memorialised the tour in a series of poems, very few of which were written at the time; and when he wrote them afterwards at Rydal Mount, it is evident that he had frequent recourse to the two family Journals, particularly to his sister's. Writing to Mrs. Clarkson from Coblenz, July 22d, Dorothy said: "Journals we shall have in abundance; for all, except my brother and Mr. Monkhouse, keep a Journal. Mine is nothing but notes, unintelligible to any one but myself. I look forward, however, to many a pleasant hour's employment at Rydal Mount in filling up the chasms." VOL. III. Α |