"4th December 1843.

Mr. Gough requested of me permission to make a Selection* mainly of subjects relating to this county, as it was principally intended for circulation among his own scholars. He was then master of St. Bees School, as he is now of the Free School of Carlisle. I consented without reluctance, subject to your permission.

As there is not a word from The Excursion, nor The White Doe, nor Peter Bell, nor any of the Continental Poems, or the Sonnets, I hope the publication will not hurt our sale."

"December 1843.

I have written this morning to a lady † through whom Chambers applied to me for permission to make extracts from my poems for his 'sicky-paddy,' as Coleridge used to call that class of publication. I gave him leave."

"11th March 1844.

Within the last week I have had three letters, one from an eminent High Churchman, and most popular poet, the other from a Quaker, and the third from a Scottish Free Churchman, that prove together how widely the Poems interest different classes of men."

ous;

"20th April 1844.

. . . As to the ‘Biographical Notices,' § they are grossly erronein particular when it is asserted that I was one of the Pantisocratic Society, though it has been publicly declared by Mr. Southey that the project was given up years || before I was acquainted either with Mr. Coleridge, or any one belonging to the scheme. One-half, at least, of what is said of Coleridge, as to the facts of his life, is more or less erroneous; and, drolly enough, he marries me to one of my cousins! He also affirms that my parents were able to send me to college, though one died more than ten years before I went thither, and the other

From his poems.

It was Mrs. Fletcher.

|| Not one year really.

Chambers's Encyclopædia of English Literature.

§ In the Encyclopædia.

four: but these errors are trifles. The other, as to the Pantisocracy, is a piece of reprehensible negligence.-Ever faithfully yours, WM. WORDSWORTH."

"July 21, 1844.

To-day, as I rode up Ullswater side, while the vapours were curling with unconfirmed content' on the mountainsides, and the blue lake was streaked with silver light, I felt as if no country could be more beautiful than ours; and certainly there is one point in which our scenery has a striking advantage over that of the greatest parts of the Continent. Our forest trees are preserved from that horrible mutilation which prevails almost everywhere in Italy, and disfigures the Austrian and Bavarian lakes woefully."

I wished you and yours could have been with us last Tuesday when upwards of three hundred children, and nearly half as many adults, were entertained in the grounds and rooms of Rydal Mount. It went off delightfully with music, singing, dancing, etc., young and old, gentle and simple, mingling in everything."

No date.

.. Yesterday we had two sons of the poet Burns as visitors."

"27th Jan. 1845.

Mr. Robinson, who leaves us to-day, will report to you all I think about your proposal of printing my prose writings in a separate volume."

Speaking of Mr. Quillinan: "As to any literary work of his own, I am sure it would never sell, unless he condescended -which he will never do-to traffic in the trade of praise, with London authorlings, who write in newspapers, magazines, and reviews. . . ."

"10th April 1845.

Having long wished that an edition of my Poems should be published without the Prefaces and Supplements,

etc., I submit to you whether that would not be well; printing, however, the prose now attached to the volumes as a portion of the prose volume which you meditate. The Prefaces, etc., contain many important observations upon poetry; but they were written solely to gratify Coleridge; and for my own part, being quite against anything of the kind, and having always been of opinion that poetry should stand upon its own merits, I would not even attach to the Poems any explanation of the grounds of their arrangement.

...

I can't muster courage to face the fatigue and late dinners of London, and therefore don't think it likely I shall leave home."

"18th April 1845.

An invitation from the Lord Chamberlain to attend the Queen's ball on the 25th May left me without a choice as to visiting London. . .

I have another favour to ask, which is that you would mention my errand to Mr. Rogers, and perhaps he could put me in the way of being properly introduced, and instructed how to behave in a situation I am sorry to say altogether new to me."

Wordsworth went to Court in Rogers' suit, and must have been a curious spectacle, as the men were of a very different height and size.

On his return from London, he wrote:

"Rydal Mount, 12th May 1845. I was enchanted when I came into the Lake District, a little above Bowness, that beautiful romance of Nature. Every object -fields, woods, lakes, mountains, sunshine and shade-seen all the way in the utmost perfection of spring beauty."

"June 1845.

It does me,

I think I mentioned to you that I had an utter dislike to the print from Pickersgill prefixed to the Poems. and him also, great injustice. What would be the expense of

an engraving of Chantrey's bust? That I should like infinitely better."

"14th July.

We have had Mr. Bryant, the American poet, and a friend here."

"November 5th, 1845.

I have considered and reconsidered the title [to be given to the new volume of his Poems], and I cannot make up my mind to adhere to any but simply

The Poems
of

William Wordsworth.

I hope that you won't object to this, bold as it is.
There is a small poem, beginning-

If thou indeed desire thy light from Heaven,

which the printer has been directed to place before the Poems. I mean it to serve as a sort of Preface. All the prose prefaces, and, in fact, all the prose except a few brief notes (printed at the bottom of the pages), will be printed at the end of the volume; it being now my wish that the Poems should be left to speak for themselves, though I did not think it prudent to suppress any considerable portion of the prose."

"25th Nov. 1845.

Miss Martineau called here to-day. She is in excellent health and spirits, very busy with house-building and bookwriting, by which latter I hope you will profit. Remember me most kindly to Mr. Rogers and his sister, and to dear old Miss Lamb."

The drawing of Rydal Mount which appears in the 1845 double column edition of the Poems was done by Miss Fletcher; Chantrey's bust was engraved for the same edition by Mr. Finden. In writing to Mr. Moxon on the 17th November 1845, Wordsworth comments on the print, and adds :—

"The print of the house is faulty as to the porch, and this was probably in consequence of a defect in the drawing, which was not by a professional artist. The porch looks more like a substantial adjunct to the house than trellis-work (which it is), and open in front. Could this effect be given by the engraver? It would be a great improvement,-only a few flowers and plants hanging against and upon the trellis-work. The drawing was taken from a distance, by which all the lower windows are hidden. I should like one to be seen by taking away a few of the boughs which hide it, but perhaps that is impossible. . . .

"Rydal Mount, Dec. 20, 1845.

Yesterday I had a letter from a gentleman of St. Andrews, unknown to me, who says that he has already given eight copies among his relations and friends, and means to make presents of more in the same way.

On the 23d February 1846, he mentions the Queen's acknowledgment of a presentation copy of the Poems, and Her Majesty's expression of admiration of the verses on the fly-leaf, and her gift of the portraits of her children.

On October 12, of the same year, he refers to Miss Barrett (Elizabeth Barrett Browning).

"Miss Barrett, I am pleased to learn, is so far recovered as to have taken to herself a husband. He is a very able man. Doubtless they will speak more intelligibly to each other than they have yet done to the public."

Nov. 13, 1846.

I have not alluded to the Lord Rectorship of the Glasgow University. I am glad I was not elected (I knew nothing of having been nominated), as I should have much disliked being compelled to go to Glasgow, and above all things being compelled to make a public exhibition of myself, and to stumble through a speech, a work in which I have had no experience whatever."