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being the poet that Nature had given him the power to be. He had always too much personal and domestic discontent to paint the sorrows of mankind.

afford to suffer

With those whom he saw suffer.

He could not

I gave him the subject of his Three Graves, but he made it too shocking and painful, and not sufficiently softened by any healing views. Not being able to dwell on natural woes, he took to the supernatural, and hence his Ancient Mariner and Christabel, in which he shows great poetical power; but these have not the hold on the heart which Nature gives, and will never be popular poems, like those of Goldsmith or Burns.'"

In another part of his Memoirs, Mr Field wrote that Wordsworth attributed the want of success of the first edition of the Lyrical Ballads "to the unintelligibleness of The Ancient Mariner, and to the want of a Preface;" while S. T. C. attributed the failure of the second edition to "the paradoxicalness of the Preface !"

Wordsworth, reading over this, added the following pencil note on Field's remark:-"My observation on The Ancient Mariner applied only to the first edition, when the Preface had not appeared."

Field made a lengthy quotation from Coleridge's Biographia Literaria, vol. i. page 72, &c., of the edition of 1817, and Wordsworth wrote in pencil opposite to it:—

"In the foregoing there is frequent reference to what is called Mr Wordsworth's theory, and his preface. I will mention that I never cared a straw about the theory-and the preface was written at the request of Mr Coleridge, out of sheer good nature. I recollect the very spot, & deserted quarry in the Vale of Grasmere, where he pressed

the thing upon me; and but for that, it would never have been thought of. I should have written many things, like the Essay upon Epitaphs, out of kindness to him, in The Friend, but he always put me off by saying, 'You must wait till my principles are laid down, and then I shall be happy to have your contributions.' But the principles never were laid down, and the work fell to the ground.""

APPENDIX II.

REMINISCENCES BY MR ELLIS YARNALL,
PHILADELPHIA.

THE following reminiscences by Mr Ellis Yarnall, Philadelphia, were embodied many years ago in a letter to Professor Henry Reed of Philadelphia, and contain interesting details of a visit which Mr Yarnall paid to Rydal Mount in August 1849. They were sent to the Bishop of Lincoln in 1850, and printed—with a good many omissions in the Memoirs of that year. Mr Yarnall has kindly copied for me all the omitted passages of his original letter; and I now include some of these, while omitting a few of the passages printed in 1850.

"It was about noon on the 18th of August, 1849, that I set out with my friends, from their house near Bowness, to ride to Ambleside.

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It was half-past one when we reached Ambleside, where I left Mr and Mrs B., and walked on alone to Rydal Mount. I was full of eager expectations as I thought how soon I should, perhaps, be in the presence of Wordsworth-that after long years of waiting, of distant reverential admiration and love, I was, as I hoped, to be favoured with a personal

interview with the great poet-philosopher, to whom you and I, and so many others, feel that we are under the deepest obligation for the good which has come to us from his writings. At two o'clock I was at the wicket gate opening into Wordsworth's grounds. I walked along the gravel pathway, leading through shrubbery to the open space in front of the long two-story cottage, the Poet's dwelling.

In a few minutes I heard steps in the entry, the door was opened, and Wordsworth came out, it could be no other -a tall figure, a little bent with age, his hair thin and grey, and his face deeply wrinkled. .. The expression of his countenance was sad, mournful I might say; he seemed one on whom sorrow pressed heavily. He gave me his hand, and welcomed me cordially, though without smiling. 'Will you walk in, Sir, and join us at the table,' said he 'I am engaged to dine elsewhere.' 'But you can sit with us,' said he; so, leading the way, he conducted me to the dining-room. At the head of the table sat Mrs Wordsworth, and their three grand-children made up the party.

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It was a humble apartment, not ceiled, the rafters being visible; having a large old-fashioned chimney-place, with a high mantelpiece.

Wordsworth asked after Mr Ticknor of Boston, who had visited him a few months before, and for whom he expressed much regard. Some other questions led me to speak of the progress we were making in America in the extension of our territory, the settlements on the Pacific, &c.; all this involving the rapid spread of our English tongue. Wordsworth at this looked up, and I noticed a fixing of his eye as if on some remote object. He said that considering this extension of our language, it behoved those

who wrote to see to it, that what they put forth was on the side of virtue. This remark, although thrown out at the moment, was made in a serious thoughtful way; and I was much impressed by it. I could not but reflect that to him a deep sense of responsibility had ever been present: to purify and elevate has been the purpose of all his writings. Such may have been at that moment his own inward meditation, and he may have had in mind the coming generations who are to dwell upon his words.

Referring to the last French revolution, he said that Louis Philippe and Guizot had shown a sad want of courage -but for this the result might have been very different. Lamartine he spoke of very slightingly, a poor writer of verses not having the least claim to be considered a statesman.'

Queen Victoria was mentioned-her visit to Ireland, which had just been made the courage she had shown. That is a virtue,' said he, 'which she has to a remarkable. degree, which is very much to her credit.'

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Inman's portrait of him I alluded to as being very familiar to me, the copy which hung in the room calling it to mind, which led him to speak of the one painted by Pickersgill, for St John's College, Cambridge. 'I was a member of that College,' he said, and the fellows and students did me the honour to ask me to sit, and allowed me to choose the artist. I wrote to Mr Rogers on the subject, and he recommended Pickersgill, who came down soon afterwards, and the picture was painted here.' He believed he had sat twenty-three times. My impression is he was in doubt whether Inman's or Pickersgill's portrait was the better one.

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I think it was this mention of honours which had been

paid him, which seemed to bring to his mind the University degrees he had received. The Universities of Oxford and Durham had made him D.C.L., Cambridge would have done the same had he not declined.

Mrs Wordsworth smiled as he said this, though without looking up from her knitting, as if he was speaking too much of these honours. But to me there was a certain simplicity and naturalness in his manner that made what he was telling seem in no way a departure from true modesty.

Trinity College, Cambridge, was mentioned, which was founded by Henry VIII. Of that king he spoke in terms of the strongest abhorrence. I wish I could recall his exact words, they were extremely forcible. I think the concluding sentence was, 'I loathe his very memory.' I alluded to Holbein's portrait of Henry, which I had lately seen at Oxford, at the Bodleian Library. 'Yes, there he is,' he said, his hand grasping the dagger.' I recalled at once that this was the position of the hand resting on the dagger-hilt.

He spoke with great animation of the advantage of classical study, Greek especially. 'Where,' said he, 'would one look for a greater orator than Demosthenes; or finer dramatic poetry, next to Shakspeare, than that of Æschylus and Sophocles, not to speak of Euripides?' Herodotus he thought 'the most interesting and instructive book, next to the Bible, which had ever been written. Modern discoveries had only tended to confirm the general truth of his narrative. Thucydides he thought less of.

Continuing to speak of Cambridge, he considered the rule an unfortunate one which obliged those holding Fellowships to resign them at the end of seven years, unless they took orders. Many men, he said, began the study of law when this period was over, but finding their academic life had

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