benefit to their country; it is not easy to see what his life could have done comparable to it. The loss of such men as Lord Nelson is, indeed, great and real; but surely not for the reason which makes most people grieve-a supposition that no other such man is in the country. The old ballad has taught us how to feel on these occasions:

I trust I have within my realm
Five hundred good as he.

But this is the evil, that nowhere is merit so much under the power of what (to avoid a more serious expression) one may call that of fortune, as in military and naval service; and it is five hundred to one that such men will not have attained situations where they can show themselves, so that the country may know in whom to trust. Lord Nelson had attained that situation; and, therefore, I think (and not for the other reason), ought we chiefly to lament that he is taken from us.

Mr Pitt is also gone! by tens of thousands looked upon in like manner as a great loss. For my own part, as probably you know, I have never been able to regard his political life with complacency. I believe him, however, to have been as disinterested a man, and as true a lover of his country, as it was possible for so ambitious a man to be. His first wish (though probably unknown to himself) was that his country should prosper under his administration; his next that it should prosper. Could the order of these wishes have been reversed, Mr Pitt would have avoided many of the grievous mistakes into which, I think, he fell.

I know, my dear Sir George, you will give me credit for speaking without arrogance; and I am aware it is not unlikely you may differ greatly from me in these points. But I like, in some things, to differ with a friend, and that he should know I differ from him; it seems to make a more healthy friendship, to act as a relief to those notions and

feelings which we have in common, and to give them a grace and spirit which they could not otherwise possess.

There were some parts in the long letter which I wrote about laying out grounds, in which the expression must have been left imperfect. I like splendid mansions in their proper places, and have no objection to large or even obtrusive houses in themselves. My dislike is to that system of gardening which, because a house happens to be large or splendid, and stands at the head of a large domain, establishes it therefore as a principle that the house ought to dye all the surrounding country with a strength of colouring, and to an extent proportionate to its own importance. This system, I think, is founded in false taste, false feeling, and its effects disgusting in the highest degree. The reason you mention as having induced you to build was worthy of you, and gave me the highest pleasure. But I hope God will grant you and Lady Beaumont life to enjoy yourselves the fruit of your exertions for many years.

We have lately had much anxiety about Coleridge. What can have become of him? It must be upwards of three months since he landed at Trieste. Has he returned to Malta, think you, or what can have befallen him? He has never since been heard of.

I have thoughts of sending the verses to a newspaper."

Passing over several letters from Wordsworth and his sister, referring chiefly to Coleridge, Dorothy wrote thus to Lady Beaumont, on the 9th July 1806, about their going south to Coleorton :

-

"GRASMERE, July 9th, Monday. MY DEAR FRIEND,-. . . In the first place, then, we seem to have no other spot to turn to, for there is not a house in this neighbourhood; and our continuing here

during another winter would be attended with so many serious inconveniences, especially to my brother, who has no quiet corner in which to pursue his studies, no room but that where we all sit . . . that we feel that nothing short of absolute impossibility should prevent us from moving. Ever since my brother's return from London, we have thought about our removal to Coleorton as the only scheme in our power; but I abstained from speaking of it to you, thinking that at our meeting all things might be better explained. The solitude would be no evil to us with such a treasure of books, and even the dirty roads a trifling one, the house being so large that it would not be irksome or unhealthful to be confined there in rainy weather. There is but one circumstance which casts a damp upon our prospects... the being in your house and you not there; so near you, as it were, and not enjoying your society. On this account, if any house should become vacant in this neighbourhood before the beginning of winter, of course it would be desirable to take it, and defer our journey till the end of next summer, when you will be there also-for I hope there will be no further delay in the finishing of your building...."

In another letter, two months later, she said that as soon as they received the invitation to Coleorton, they "determined to seek no further for a house in this neighbourhood, except in the case of Coleridge's wintering at Keswick, should he determine so to do; if, within three or four miles of Keswick (which is very improbable), a suitable house should be vacant, my brother will take it, for the sake of being near to Coleridge."

On the 21st August Wordsworth wrote to Sir George, congratulating him upon Coleridge's arrival and recovery from illness, and referred again, at some length, to the Place

Fell property (see p. 32). worthy :

His allusion to this is note

"My uneasiness did not arise so much from being thus betrayed into an obligation to Lord Lowther, as from the specific circumstances attending that obligation. It is my opinion that a man of letters (and indeed all public men of every pursuit) ought to be severely frugal. If I ought to be frugal of my own money, much more ought I to be so of another person's, particularly of a generous-minded person. Now the object here was not worth an additional £200 of my own money, and therefore much less of Lord Lowther's. Had indeed the object been very important, such as putting me in possession of a place where I had long lived, and with which I had connected many interesting feelings, I might not have thought that any sense of honour or independence, however nice, ought to call upon me to shrink from such an act of kindness and munificence. But this was not the case here; the spot had little to recommend it to me but its own beauty, and Providence has dealt so kindly with this country that this is little distinction.

Applethwaite, I hope, will remain in my family for inany generations. With my will it should never be parted with,* unless the character of the place be entirely changed, as I am sorry to say there is some reason to apprehend; a cottonmill being, I am told, already planted, or to be planted, in the glen. I shall see the place to-morrow.

The matter of your advice about building I have long laid to my heart; and it has (as is common in these cases) just answered the purpose of quickening the temptation to be dabbling. The temptation I like, and I should content myself with the pleasure it gives me through my whole life (I have at least built five hundred houses, in five hundred different places, with garden, grounds, &c.), but I have no

* It still belongs to the Wordsworths.

But

house to cover me, and know not where to get one. seriously, I do not mean to entangle myself with rashness. This is what everybody has said, and means nothing. What then shall I say? My object is not to build a new house, only to add two rooms to an old one, and this on the supposition that we do not go southward with Coleridge.

. . I told Wilkinson frankly, yet in as gentle a manner as I could, that I should not have accepted Lord L's offer if I had been consulted, and upon what principle I should have refused. This he took very well, and seemed quite happy that he had not consulted me. The spot I reexamined last Sunday, and a most beautiful one it is. How happy should I be to show it to you and Lady Beaumont ! I don't know any place where more recommendation lies in so little room.

... I like your idea of republishing your ancestor's poems, and promise myself great pleasure in reading them. If I could be of any service in editing the book, nothing would give me more satisfaction, either in the way of prefixing a life, carrying the work through the press, or anything else.

As soon as we have seen Coleridge we shall be able to say something positive about our journey to Coleorton."

During the same autumn, and before they left Grasmere, Wordsworth wrote thus to Sir George:

". . . I like your ancestor's verses the more, the more I see of them; they are manly, dignified, and extremely harmonious. I do not remember in any author of that age such a series of well-tuned couplets.

What shall I say of Coleridge? or what can I say? My dear friend, this is certain, that he is destined to be unhappy. I would not distress you and Lady Beaumont with this, but it is not to be kept from you, and ought not, loving him and us as you do. I believe I have spoken to