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came to the quarry, where the road ends-the very place which has been the boundary of some of the happiest of the walks of my youth. The sun did not shine when we were there, and it was mid-day; therefore, if it had shone, the light could not have been the same; yet so vividly did I call to mind those walks, that, when I was in the wood, I almost seemed to see the same rich light of evening upon the trees which I had seen in those happy hours. . Tuesday, November 13th.-A very wet morning; no hope of being able to return home. William read in a book lent him by Thomas Wilkinson. I read Castle Rackrent. The day cleared at one o'clock, and after dinner, at a little before three, we set forward. Before we reached Ullswater the sun shone, and only a few scattered clouds remained on the hills, except at the tops of the very highest; the lake perfectly calm. We had a delightful journey. The trees in Gowbarrow Park were very beautiful, the hawthorns leafless, their round heads covered with rich red berries, and adorned with arches of green brambles; and eglantine hung with glossy hips; many birches yet tricked out in full foliage of bright yellow; oaks brown or leafless ; the smooth branches of the ashes bare; most of the alders green as in spring. At the end of Gowbarrow Park a large troop of deer were moving slowly, or standing still, among the fern. I was grieved when our companions startled them with a whistle, disturbing a beautiful image of grave simplicity and thoughtful enjoyment, for I could have fancied that even they were partaking with me a sensation of the solemnity of the closing day. I think I have more pleasure in looking at deer than any other animals, perhaps chiefly from their living in a more natural state. The sun had been set some time, though we could only just perceive that the daylight was partly gone, and the lake was more brilliant than before. A delightful

evening; the Seven Stars close to the hill-tops in Patterdale; all the stars seemed brighter than usual. The steeps were reflected in Brotherswater, and above the lake appeared like enormous black perpendicular walls. The torrents of Kirkstone had been swollen by the rains, and filled the mountain pass with their roaring, which added greatly to the solemnity of our walk. The stars in succession took their stations on the mountain tops. Behind us, when we had climbed very high, we saw one light in the vale at a great distance, like a large star, a solitary one, in the gloomy region. All the cheerfulness of the scene was in the sky above us.

This excursion with his sister in the autumn of 1805, and the charm of the Ullswater district, actually led Wordsworth to think of leaving Grasmere, and settling down in Paterdale. Dove Cottage was, in many respects, an inconvenient house; and it became increasingly unsuitable as Wordsworth's family increased.

Dorothy Wordsworth wrote thus to Mrs Marshall on March 16th, 1805:—“ Our house is too small for us, and there is no other in the Vale: so we must move at some time, and the sooner it is done the better. We shall most likely go southward; but we do not talk of change, and we shall find it hard to resolve. . . . I can think of nothing."

During their mountain ramble near Ullswater, however, Wordsworth had been greatly attracted by a cottage, with a small estate attached to it, under the low summit of Place Fell. He found it was in the market, and at once offered £800 for it. Its owners would not take less than £1000. This Wordsworth could not give; but his friend Thomas Wilkinson of Anworth went to the Earl of Lonsdale to see what could be done with a view to secure the property. Lord Lonsdale, whose generosity in paying his predecessor's debts to the Wordsworth family has already been noticed, employed

Wilkinson to carry out the purchase; and, thinking it could be negotiated for £800, he paid that sum into Wordsworth's bank account. Wordsworth, however grateful for this new proof of Lord Lonsdale's generosity, would only consent to become owner of the property, after paying the £800, which he originally offered for it; but he accepted the £200, which was necessary to bring the amount up to the price which its proprietors still demanded. £400 of this

purchase money was supplied by Mrs Wordsworth.

I have not been able to find out much in reference to this Place Fell property; but I am informed by the firm of solicitors in Penrith, who negotiated the sale, that it was called "Broad How," that it was conveyed to Wordsworth by Mr Wade Smith and his wife, by deed dated 20th March 1807,* and that Wordsworth conveyed it to William Wilson of Paterdale, innkeeper, by deed dated the 14th June 1834. There was a dwelling of some kind upon it when it was in the possession of the Wordsworths; but probably only a cottage. There were nineteen acres of land. From a letter written by Dorothy Wordsworth to Mrs Marshall, in December 1825, it will be seen that they possessed this property then, and had some thoughts of selling it, to enable them to build a new house below Rydal Mount, if forced to leave it, as was at one time probable.

Allusion was made in a former chapter to the generosity of the Earl of Lonsdale, in paying his father's debts to the Wordsworth family. The following reference to this circumstance is taken from the official "Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry into Bankruptcy and Insolvency," in 1846, (p. 150):

"The first Lord L. was indebted to his steward about £10,000. The steward died, and the children applied for

*This date is curious.

payment. The peer's reply was, 'I will not pay a farthing; amut. do your worst.' He was, I understand (says Mr Montagu) much accustomed to consider his will as law. After various remonstrances, the children brought an action.

When the case came on for trial at Carlisle, lo! his lordship had retained every counsel on the circuit, and came down with a cloud of five-score witnesses. The judge ordered the cause to stand over. Lord L. survived this many years, but seems to have had no compunctious visitings, for he never paid one sixpence of the debt, which the sequel proved to be justly due. After his death, his successor, the present Earl, most generously, most nobly, and immediately, paid all that had been claimed, with interest and costs, the whole then amounting to £25,000."

This, as the sequel will show, was but the first of many acts of kindness on the part of the Lonsdale family towards the poet and his household.

The following letter from Wordsworth to his friend Richard Sharp was written in February 1805. It refers to the district of the Lakes in very characteristic fashion. Its strong language is more than pardonable; it is refreshing in its outspokenness and the honesty of its indignation :

"MY DEAR SIR, . . . We have no tidings of poor Coleridge. For heaven's sake, should you hear of him, write to me; and also do let me know whether we shall see you, as you said, this next June. Woe to poor Grasmere for ever and ever! A wretched creature, wretched in name and nature, of the name of Crump, goaded on by his still more wretched wife (for by-the-bye, the man, though a Liverpool attorney, is, I am told, a very good sort of fellow, but the wife as ambitious as Semiramis)—this same wretch has at last begun to put his long impending threats in execution; and when you next enter the sweet paradise

of Grasmere you will see staring you in the face, upon that beautiful ridge that elbows out into the vale, (behind the church, and towering far above its steeple), a temple of abomination, in which are to be enshrined Mr and Mrs Crump. Seriously, this is a great vexation to us, as this house will stare you in the face from every part of the Vale, and entirely destroy its character of simplicity and seclusion.

I now see no newspapers-not even a weekly one-so that I am in utter ignorance of what is going on in the world. My poem advances, quick or slow as the fit comes; but I wish sadly to have it finished, in order that, after a reasonable respite, I may fall to my principal work.

I purpose to make a tour somewhere next summer, if I can possibly muster the cash, but where I have not fixed. I incline much to Norway, but five or six weeks' sea voyage -as thither and back again it will be frightens me; else I could sail most conveniently from Stockton-upon-Tees, Mrs Wordsworth having a brother who is a timber merchant, and has vessels regularly passing to and fro. Could you

give me any information that would be of use in case of such a scheme taking effect?. . .-Believe me, my dear friend, yours with great respect, W. WORDSWORTH."

Whether roused to it by the urgency of Coleridge and of others, or by his own desire to finish an undertaking begun long ago, but continued at very irregular intervals, Wordsworth seems to have devoted the years 1804 and 1805 mainly to the completion of the poem on his own life. He wrote 2000 lines of it during the last ten weeks of 1804, and finished it in May 1805. The Ode to Duty, and the Elegiac Stanzas on his brother John, along with The Waggoner, and the Stanzas suggested by Sir George Beaumont's Picture of Peele Castle in a Storm, were the most important minor poems of these years. His relations to the