CHAPTER X. LAST DAYS AT ALFOXDEN; VISIT TO THE WYE, ETC. DURING the early spring of 1798, Wordsworth saw that he must quit Alfoxden at no distant date. The original agreement or lease of the house, by Mrs St Albyn-now in possession of Mrs Sandford at Chester *--is signed by Thomas Poole of Nether Stowey, as witness; and it was largely owing to Poole's kindness and tact that the Wordsworths were able to obtain entry into Alfoxden at all. The owner of the property was a minor, and the trustees-by whom it had been leased to Wordsworth-became alarmed about their tenant, and his many radical friends. In one of the notes which Wordsworth added to the Memoir of himself, compiled by the late Baron Field,† he wrote the following, opposite a statement of Hazlitt's to the effect that Alfoxden was in the possession of a friend, who gave him the free use of it": "A mistake. I rented the house, and had no personal knowledge of the trustees of its owner, then a minor." The local Conservatives imagined that there was a party danger -if there was no national risk-in the gatherings and conferences of men so little understood as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It was very possibly the long and late wanderings of the poets, and their habit of muttering their half-formed verses aloud-singing them into rhythmic shape--that awakened suspicion. But what * Mrs Sandford has also a letter of Poole's to Mrs St Albyn, assuring her of Wordsworth's "respectability," in view of a further lease. + It is still in MS. ever the reason, the Wordsworths were not only unpopular in the neighbourhood, they were suspected; and a Sir Philip Hale of Cannington gave information to the Government that very suspicious persons were now in this Quantock country. Accordingly, a Spy was sent down to watch them all--Wordsworth, Coleridge, Poole, &c.* The story of this Spy has been deemed apocryphal by many persons; but the following letter from Southey to his brother gives General Peachey's account of the affair : "KESWICK, August 22, 1805. "My Dear Tom,-. . . General Peachy spoke of the relationship with us; he said of me and Wordsworth that, however we might have got into good company, he might depend upon it we were still Jacobins at heart, and that he believed he had been instrumental in having us looked after in Somersetshire. This refers to a spy who was sent down to Stowey to look after Coleridge and Wordsworth. The fellow, after trying to tempt the country people to tell lies, could collect nothing more than that the gentlemen used to walk a good deal upon the coast, and that they were what they call 'poets.' He got drunk at the inn, and told his whole errand and history, but we did not till now know who was the main mover.' In writing to Thelwall from Stowey, Coleridge did his best to dissuade him from carrying out a wish he entertained. to come to settle there. He did this on the ground that Thelwall's coming would add a new burden to Poole. As Poole had brought much odium on himself amongst "the aristocrats,” by first bringing Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and then William Wordsworth, the advent of so pronounced a radical as Thelwall would make the cup run over! I * Compare, A Group of Englishmen, by Eliza Meteyard, p. 78. + See The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, vol. ii., p. 343. think it was Thelwall's visit to Stowey on the 18th July 1797 (referred to at p. 117) that first awakened suspicion on the part of Mrs St Albyn; but Coleridge's expression that Wordsworth was "caballed against" is far too strong. He was merely suspected. In a poem of Thelwall's, called Lines written at Bridgewater in Somersetshire, on the 29th of July 1797, during a long Excursion, in quest of a peaceful Retreat, he expresses a wish to settle near "My Samuel," and "Alfoxden's musing tenant, and the maid Of ardent eye, who with fraternal love Sweetens his solitude. With those should join Neither "Samuel," however, nor the "musing tenant," nor "the maid," nor the "Arcadian" would hear of it. It is curious to think of the local excitement to which, in days of disturbance, a very mild conspirator may give rise! The following letter from Wordsworth to James Losh, a friend at Carlisle, explains his relation to Alfoxden, and his project of spending the next winter in Germany. It will be seen that while Wordsworth remarks to Losh, "we are obliged to quit this place at midsummer," he says nothing about being refused a renewal of the lease. Any request for it—and it probably was made by Poole-would certainly come from others; and Wordsworth writes the following, on the margin of Baron Field's MS., about the 'caballing long and loud' against himself as 'occasioning his removal.' A mistake. Not the occasion of my removal. The facts mentioned by Coleridge Annoyances I had none. of a spy, &c., came not to my knowledge till I had left the neighbourhood. I was not refused a continuance. applied for one.” I never * See The Fairy of the Lake, etc., by J. Thelwall (1802), p. 130. "MY DEAR LOSH,*-I have wished much to hear from you. I suppose that your marriage has not yet taken place, or I should certainly have been apprised of it. I have had some fears about your health, but I have constantly banished them as soon as they came into my mind. Perhaps you have heard of the unexampled liberality of the Wedgewoods towards Coleridge; they have settled an annuity of £150 upon him, for life. We are obliged to quit this place at midsummer. I have already spoken to you of its enchanting beauty. Do contrive to come and see us before we go away. Coleridge is now writing by me at the same table. I need not say how ardently he joins with me in this wish, and how deeply interested he is in anything relating to you. We have a delightful scheme in agitation, which is rendered still more delightful by a probability which I cannot exclude from my mind that you may be induced to join in the party. We have come to a resolution-Coleridge, Mrs Coleridge, my sister, and myself-of going into Germany, where we purpose to pass the two ensuing years in order to acquire the German language, and to furnish ourselves with a tolerable stock of information in natural science. Our plan is to settle if possible in a village near a University, in a pleasant, and, if we can, a mountainous country. It will be desirable that the place should be as near as may be to Hamburgh, on account of the expense of travelling. What do you say to this? I know that Cecilia Baldwin has great activity and spirit; may I venture to whisper a wish to her that she would consent to join this little colony? I have not forgotten your apprehensions from sea-sickness; there may be many other obstacles which I cannot divine. I cannot, however, suppress wishes which I have so ardently felt. Where is * From the Add. MSS. Brit. Museum, No. 18204, f. 193 :- William Wordsworth, Alfoxden, March 11, 1798, to James Losh, Esq., Woodside, near Carlisle, Cumberland.” Tweddel? Will you have the goodness to write to him, and to request that he would inform you what places he has seen in Germany, which he thinks eligible residences for persons with such views, either for accidental or permanent advantages; also, if he could give any information respecting the prices of board, lodging, house rents, provisions, &c., upon which we should be justified in proceeding, it would be highly useful. "I have not yet seen any numbers of the Economist, though I requested Cottle to transmit them to me. I have been tolerably industrious within the last few weeks. I have written 706 lines of a poem which I hope to make of considerable utility. Its title will be, The Recluse, or Views of Nature, Man, and Society. Let me hear from you immediately. My sister begs her kind remembrances. I am, dear Losh, your affectionate friend, "ALFOXDEN, NEAR STOWEY-Bridgewater, SOMERSETSHIRE, March 11.” * W. WORDSWORTH." A visit which William Hazlitt paid to Alfoxden in the spring of 1798 was recorded by him subsequently in The Liberal.† It is difficult to know when Hazlitt is to be regarded as a literal reporter, and when he is introducing something of De Quincey's style of narrative. There may be some subjective colour in this, as in others of his picturesque delineations but it is very vivid, and at times felicitous; and, although it did not altogether please the subject delineated! I only wish that Wordsworth had more frequently been photographed in the same way. * It will be seen from this letter that, during these Alfoxden days, Wordsworth had begun the composition of what he expected would be his magnum opus, viz., "The Recluse." + See Vol. ii., p. 371. |