most valuable copy of the 1836 edition of Wordsworth's poems which exists-it being full of annotations, corrections, and various readings, made by the poet's own hand-for some unpublished fragments of verse, and for much general information; to the Rev. Thomas Hutchinson, Kimbolton (Mrs Wordsworth's nephew), for MSS., letters, and poems both by Wordsworth and his sister; and to him, and to Miss Hutchinson, West Malvern, for many facts regarding the Wordsworth family; to the Rev. Mr Hill of Warwick, sonin-law of Southey, for some anecdotes of the poet; to Mr Aubrey de Vere, for information on many points, and for free permission to use his papers on Wordsworth; to Mr Henry Reed, Philadelphia, for copies of all of Wordsworth's letters to his father, the late Professor Reed, and for details of his father's relations to the poet; to Mr Ellis Yarnall of the same city, for his varied reminiscences of Wordsworth, and memoranda of his visits to the Lake District of England; and to Mr F. C. Yarnall (of Wynndown, Overbrook, Montgomery Co., Pennsylvania), for his valuable paper on Wordsworth's influence in America.

Mr Browning has kindly sent me the poet's letters to his wife, the late Mrs Barrett-Browning, and has given me. information in reference to Wordsworth's friend and correspondent, John Kenyon, the cousin to whom Mrs Browning dedicated Aurora Leigh. Mr Frederick Hutchins sent me sixteen letters from the poet and his wife and sister, addressed to Kenyon. The late Mrs Proctor, widow of Barry Cornwall," supplied me with many interesting facts in reference to Wordsworth, his sister, and Basil Montagu. To Mr Gladstone I am indebted for the letters of the poet written to him, and for permission to publish his own letters to Wordsworth, on the subject of copyright, and other matters. All the letters addressed to Wordsworth on the subject of copyright by his numerous correspondents—

such as Talfourd, Lord Mahon, Monkton Milnes, and Mr Gladstone, were sent to me for inspection by their present owner, Mr Nicholson; and, as the subject has more than a passing interest, extracts from them will be found in the third volume.

To Lady Monteagle, and to her sister Mrs Myers, I am specially obliged for access to the large collection of letters which Dorothy Wordsworth wrote in her girlhood to Miss Jane Pollard, afterwards Mrs Marshall; to Miss Field, sister of Mr Barron Field, for sending me the MSS. of her brother's Critical Memoirs of William Wordsworth, and permission to use the poet's own notes upon it. The late Sir Henry Taylor sent me letters about Wordsworth, and Lady Taylor has given me permission to print others from Wordsworth to him, and his own notes and observations on his friend. My thanks are also due to Mrs Alexander Carlyle for the use of her uncle's reminiscences of the poet, and for some addenda to those previously published by Mr Froude; to Miss Stuart, daughter of the editor of the London Courier, one of the poet's early friends, for the use of letters which Wordsworth addressed to her father; to Mr J. T. Brown, for many which he wrote to John Scott of The Champion newspaper; to Mr Sketchley, librarian of the Forster and Dyce collection at South Kensington, for Wordsworth's letters to Walter Savage Landor, and others; to Mr Maunde Thomson, and to Mr Garnett, of the British Museum, both for access to MSS. and for information; and to to Mr Scharf, the Director and Secretary of the National Portrait Gallery at South Kensington. The late Miss Gillies, the artist whose portraits of Wordsworth are referred to frequently, also supplied me with some anecdotes and letters, and information as to her cousin, who was a correspondent of Wordsworth's. Mrs Drummond of Fredley near Dorking, who, as Miss Kinnaird, was a great friend of

Dora Wordsworth, the poet's daughter, has shown me several letters, and given me many delightfully vivid accounts of her early intercourse with the family. Mr Richard Sharp, Wordsworth's early friend, was Mrs Drummond's guardian in youth.

To those who have allowed me to make extracts from their published works, my thanks are also specially due; to Mr Percival Graves for his generosity in reference to Wordsworth's letters to Sir W. Rowan Hamilton and his sister, to Mr Alaric Watts, to Mr Wiffen, to the representatives of Miss Caroline Fox, and to many others. The late Lady Richardson was equally kind with reference to her Autobiography of Mrs Fletcher.

I have already referred to the permission of the trustees of the Williams Library, to examine the extensive volumes of Henry Crabb Robinson's MSS. at Grafton Street. Much had been previously extracted by Dr Sadler, both from the Diary and the Reminiscences, but I found additional material of exceeding interest, and of real importance, bearing more especially upon the cloud which for a time darkened the old and bright relationship of Wordsworth to Coleridge; and I have to thank Dr Sadler more particularly, for his generosity in permitting me to examine those documents, after his own great labour on the same papers was ended. With the late Principal Shairp I often discussed the subject of this Life, in which he took the liveliest interest. He was one of the "best knowers" of Wordsworth (to use Charles Lamb's phrase) in this generation; and it is a satisfaction to myself that the plan we often talked of, of writing the Life, by giving facts and letting criticism alone, approved itself to him.

To many living writers and critics I have been greatly indebted; to Professor Dowden of Dublin, with whom, from first to last, I have had much correspondence bearing

!

on Wordsworth; to Mr Rawnsley of Crosthwaite Vicarage, Keswick, to whose knowledge, and divining tact, and endless enthusiasm, and appreciation tempered by judgment, I owe much; to the Hon. Roden Noel, for his papers and letters, and conversation; to Canon Ainger, for what he has suggested, and what he has found out for me in various ways, by his wide acquaintance with the literary period, and its prominent writers; to Professor Rowley of University College, Bristol, for facts relating to the Somersetshire period; to the Rev. W. L. Nichols of Woodlands, Bridgewater, for information about the Quantocks and Wordsworth's life at Alfoxden; to the Rev. W. Heard of Westminster, for suggestions bearing more bearing more especially upon the Prelude and Excursion; to Mr Herbert Rix, Secretary to the Royal Society, for his papers and local notes on the Duddon; and, above all, to Mr J. Dykes Campbell, for obligations indefinitely great, especially in the way of information and suggestion as to Coleridge, and Wordsworth's relation to him. In reference to many points about Coleridge, Mr Dykes Campbell is probably the chief living authority. He has been kind enough to revise the proof sheets of part of these three volumes. Had the first volume passed under his critical eye before it was printed off, it would have been more accurate than it is. In the same connection I must thank Mr Archibald Constable, Edinburgh.

I have to explain that owing to the way in which these volumes have been prepared, and sent to press, I have been compelled to insert at the close of the second of them what would have found a more appropriate place in the body of the third volume, or at its close. These appendices which have been placed where they are with a view to equalise the size of the three volumes-do not, however, belong to the connected story of Wordsworth's life, and may be examined after the third volume is read.

The portrait prefixed to the first volume is taken from the picture by Haydon, which gave rise to Mrs Browning's sonnet, beginning—

and ending

Wordsworth upon Helvellyn!

This is the poet and his poetry.

It was engraved by Lupton, but by him completely idealized. Lupton's engraving has been often reproduced, but while it is an impressive portrait, it is utterly unlike the original. The original is in the possession of Mr Cornelius Nicolson, Isle of Wight, who kindly sent it down to Edinburgh to be etched for this work. For information regarding it, I refer to the fifth appendix to the second volume. It was the original, and not Lupton's mezzotint, that suggested Mrs Browning's noble sonnet.

I may add that the quotation from Hazlitt (pp. 149-152) was taken from Barron Field's MS., and that the text differs in some particulars from the printed version of Hazlitt's remarks; also, that Miss Meteyard's conjecture (p. 187), as to Wordsworth and Coleridge having received a subsidy from the Wedgwoods, when they visited Germany in 1798, is probably quite erroneous. The transactions between them during that winter were, in all likelihood, merely banking ones; and there is no evidence to show that the Wedgwoods defrayed the cost of Coleridge's residence in Germany, over and above the annuity which they paid him regularly.

WILLIAM KNIGHT.