APPENDIX.

NOTE A.

(See p. 166.)

In a letter from Mrs Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont, dated 'Rydal Mount, Dec. 9th,' and probably belonging to the year 1828, the following occurs :

"I am to send you a corrected copy of Sonnet suggested by you." Then follows the sonnet, as printed below.

It will be observed that what was sent to Lady Beaumont differs throughout from the sonnet as printed in the text; and that, in the Fenwick note, Wordsworth says it describes "Lady Fitzgerald," and not Lady Beaumont. It is just possible that Mrs Wordsworth meant that it was suggested by Lady Beaumont's description of Lady Fitzgerald; but the difference between the two versions of the sonnet is noteworthy and if what Mrs Wordsworth sent to Coleorton was "corrected," we may infer that the poet preferred it to the printed copy in the edition of 1827.

:

Lady, what delicate graces may unite

In age-so often comfortless and bleak !
Though from thy unenfeebled eye-balls break
Those saintly emanations of delight,

A snow-drop let me name thee; pure, chaste, white,

Too

pure for flesh and blood; with smooth, blanch'd cheek,
And head that droops because the soul is meek,

And not that Time presses with weary weight.
Hope, Love, and Joy are with thee fresh as fair;
A Child of Winter prompting thoughts that climb
From desolation towards the genial prime :
Or, like the moon, conquering the misty air
And filling more and more with chrystal light,
As pensive evening deepens into night.

TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.