Crabbe Robinson, to a letter written by Mrs Clarkson to him in 1842, Robinson adds, "The poet expressly told me that the verses were on his wife." Wordsworth and Coleridge are at church in Pickering, and hear the flower-sermon, which is given in the tale. Lucy is there, adorned with roses, purchased from a gardener, as not hoping for domestic happiness. Wordsworth is astonished at her beauty, on Coleridge pointing it out. She faints at the close of the service, and dies three weeks after, when Wordsworth finds how much he misses her. The tale has much less merit, and less justification, than Auerbach's novel on Spinoza, in which Van den Ende's daughter is introduced. ' . : WORDSWORTH and his sister spent about nine months* of the summer and autumn of 1799 at Sockburn, with the Hutchinsons. It will be seen from Dorothy's letter to Mr Poole (July 4) that they were in doubt where they should settle. Coleridge had not written to them during the ten weeks that had elapsed since they left him at Göttingen, and they wished to settle near him, if possible; but Wordsworth also wished his home to be not far from a good library. This made them think of the Quantock country, from its proximity to Bristol, rather than of Cumberland or Westmoreland; as, in these days, neither at Kendal nor Keswick was there any public library. Since Mrs Wordsworth came from Sockburn, and the Poet and his sister spent so much of the year 1799 in that solitary farm-house, some description of the place may be given. t Sockburn-on-Tees is seven miles south south-east of Darlington. It is thus described in the Delineations of England, historical, topographical, and descriptive † :—“ Sockborne, a small parish, comprehending only the manor of the same, is accurately described by Leland as of a mile cumpace, of exceeding pleasant ground, almost made an isle as Tese ryver windeth about it.'" In Hutchinson's Durham,‡ it is said, “A farm-house stands on or near the place where Sockburn-house formerly was, and the Grey Stone mentioned as the monument of Comin's victory over his dreadful enemy * Compare the Fenwick note to the lines on A Favourite Dog, vol. iii., p. 39. + Vol. v., p. 42. ‡ Vol. iii., p. 149. is shown to the traveller in a field adjoining the Church.” This Grey Stone is referred to by Lewis in his Topographical Dictionary of England.* In a letter from Dorothy Wordsworth to Miss Pollard, dated only, "Sockburn, April," but evidently written some time before this visit, and possibly when her brother was living in France, she says she is on a visit to the Hutchinsons, six miles from Darlington. "They are settled at Sockburn, six miles from Darlington, perfectly to their satisfaction. They are perfectly independent, and have not a wish ungratified. . . . The house was built by their uncle, who left them the furniture and £1800. excellent house, not at all like a farm-house. grazing estate, and most delightfully pleasant, washed nearly round by the Tees (a noble river), stocked with sheep and lambs." [She speaks in this letter of having been at Newcastle]. It is an It is a The There is also some account of Sockburn in Mackenzie and Ross's History of the County Palatine of Durham. whole township consists of one large farm. In the parish church there is an altar tomb with the inscription, "Here lies the body of Sarah Hutchinson, daughter of Thomas Hutchinson of Whitton, who died July 18th, 1786, in the 76th year of her age.' The History states that a headstone commemorates some of the family of Hutchinson of Penrith and Stockton. The old house of the Conyers, which was the ancient hall of Sockburn, has entirely vanished. The little church, standing lonely on its level green, has survived the halls of its ancient patrons. Deep traces of foundations of gardens and orchards a little to the south point out the site of the mansion, and one old decaying Spanish chestnut * Vol. iv., p. 102. seems alone to connect the deserted spot with some recollection of its ancient owners. The only approach to the church and manor is by a narrow carriage-road from the north, and the solitude of the place seems enhanced by the uninviting notice on a sign-post, "No road but to Sockburn." In answer to inquiries as to the relation of the family of the Hutchinsons to Sockburn, a nephew of Mrs Wordsworth's, the Rev. Thomas Hutchinson of Kimbolton, Leominster, writes, "The family of Hutchinson is descended from a follower of Harold Harfager, and was settled on the banks of the Tees before the Conquest. My father was a son of John and Mary Hutchinson, who left the neighbourhood of Stockton-on-Tees, and settled in business in Penrith, his wife being a Penrith lady. The mother died in 1783, and the father two years afterwards. On this sad event, my father was adopted, at twelve years of age, by his great uncle and aunt, both unmarried, who occupied the farm at Sockburn. This lady died in 1786, aged seventy-six, and her brother three years later, when my father was only sixteen years old, too young to undertake the management of the farm. But as the stock, &c., on the farm was left to him by his great uncle, his grandfather, Henry Hutchinson of Whitton, came to Sockburn, and remained there till the landlord would accept the young man as a tenant. My father remained at Sockburn till 1800, when he left, in consequence of a disagreement with the landlord, and removed to Gallow Hill, in the parish of Brompton, near Scarborough, an estate belonging to Sir George Cayley. The Sockburn estate belonged at that time, and still belongs, to the family of Blacketts, of Northumberland. I cannot give you any particulars of Gallow Hill-my father did not often refer to it. I believe his heart clung to Sockburn to the last day of his life." The following letter from Dorothy Wordsworth to J 4 Thomas Poole, Nether Stowey, casts some light on the movements and plans of the family : "SOCKBURN, 4th July [1799]. "MY DEAR MR POOLE,-Ever since our arrival in England it has been William's intention to write to you, yet his delaying disposition has so got the better of him, that though we have been two months on English ground, you have heard nothing of us from ourselves. Knowing how much you are interested in our welfare, I can no longer refrain from taking up the pen to inform you where we are, and that we are in good health. with the enjoyment of any tolerable advantages, much more expensive than we expected, which determined us to come home with the first tolerable weather of the spring. We left Coleridge and Mr Chester at Göttingen ten weeks ago,* as you probably have heard, and proceeded with as little delay as possible, travelling in a German diligence to Hamburgh, whence we went down the Elbe in a boat to Cuxhaven, where we were not detained longer than we wished for our necessary refreshment, and we had an excellent passage to England of two days and nights. We proceeded immediately from Yarmouth into the north, where we are now staying with some of our early friends at a pleasant farm on the banks of the Tees. We are very anxious to hear from Coleridge, he promised to write us from Göttingen, and though we have written twice, we have heard nothing of him. We hope that, having delayed writing to us longer than he intended, he now delays because he is on the point of returning to England. When we were at Göttingen he received a letter from Mrs Coleridge, by which we had the pleasure of hearing that she and We found living in Germany, |