but in good hobnailed shoes, often with a grey shepherd's plaid on his shoulders, and a broad straw hat or a simple cloth cap on his head. You might have taken him for a good honest old countryman, and it would only be by entering into conversation with him that you would discover the man of great mind."

He had two marked habits, which seem to have been the compliment of each other: the one was his prodigious habit of walking (De Quincy calculated that Wordsworth had walked over 200,000 miles ! ), and the other, that of lying in luxurious dreamy meditation on a sunny bank, or under the shade of trees. These were

the favourite conditions under which he generally composed-retaining the lines in his memory till he got some member of his family to act as his amanuensis and note them down.

Here we may state that Wordsworth had in all five children. These were John, born 18th June 1803; Dorothy, named for his sister, but generally known as Dora, born 16th August 1804, which was also the birthday of her mother; Thomas, born 16th June 1806; Catharine, born 6th September 1808; and William, born 12th May 1810. Of these, Thomas and Catharine died in early childhood; John became a clergyman; Dora married Mr. Quillinan; of these William, the last survivor, died three years ago.

In 1811 the Wordsworths had to leave Allan Bank, because the proprietor himself wished to occupy it, and they removed, temporarily, to the Parsonage of Grasmere, situated between the church and the lake. But, as he could not bear the constant sight of his children's graves, in the spring of 1813 they quitted the Parsonage, for a new home at Rydal Mount. This was his last residence; and here the poet, his wife, and his sister

continued to reside, till, after many years, each in turn was borne forth to be laid in the churchyard at Grasmere. Rydal Mount stands, looking towards the south, upon the sloping side of a steep rocky hill called NabScar, which rises immediately behind it. It is flanked by lofty fells; while the front commands a magnificent view down the level vale of Rothay, the head of woodfringed Windermere and Rydal Lake, bounded by a ridge of hills. Thus, surrounded by glorious scenerymountain, stream, wood, and lake-it was the very ideal of the poet's home. Wordsworth, skilled in landscape gardening, assisted by the faithful servant, James, with his own hand laid out and embellished' the garden, raised the fences, and planted the trees which surrounded his house. By the terraces, laurels and other evergreens flourished luxuriantly, and the house itself was mantled with roses, ivy, jessamine, and virginian creeper. Mrs. Hemans, in one of her letters, describes it as "a lovely cottage-like building, almost hidden by a profusion of roses and ivy."

A dining-room and breakfast-room in front, and a library behind, formed the chief public apartments. These contained a few pictures and busts; such as Burns, Scott, and Wordsworth himself; and there was the old cabinet with the Wordsworth genealogical legend carved upon it. The windows of the sitting-rooms commanded a direct and charming view of the valley, with the head of Windermere as its extremity. This lovely spot, as we recall it, clothed with the magic of evervarying atmospheric effects, steeped in the glories of sunset-hues, orange, bronze, purple, and amethyst; silvered by the full moon; or slumbering calmly in the starlight, and seen relieved against a dim background of the loftier distant peaks; seems to us more like a

vision of dreamland than a reality. And such, in truth, was Rydal Mount, with its fair gardens and commanding terraces, the beautiful abode of the poet for the last seven-and-thirty years of his life.

Wordsworth had scarcely got settled in this, his new abode, when, in March of the same year, through the influence of his good friend Lord Lonsdale, he received the appointment of Distributor of Stamps in the county of Westmoreland, which brought him in about £500 a-year; while the heavier parts of the duties were discharged by a clerk.

Monies, which had long been due to the family by the predecessors of the present friendly Lord of the Manor, were now paid. Thus, Wordsworth, relieved from money-anxiety, was enabled, during the following year, to complete and publish "The Excursion," which is the greatest of his long poems, and contains many fine imaginative passages bearing upon life, death, and immortality, presented in terse, idiomatic Saxon, and discoursing to us

"Of truth, of grandeur, beauty, love, and hope."

The chief character is "The Wanderer," a thoughtful, intelligent Scotch pedlar, who traverses the mountains with the poet, and discourses on the very deepest questions that can interest the human soul. Then there is a 66 Solitary," and the "Pastor," who, in the churchyard, recounts many histories of those who lie below. The narrative part of the poem is slight; a mere framework for pictures of mountain scenery and human life; but written with a view to cure despondency, strengthen faith, and so educe good out of evil and suffering, for the attainment of peace and joy.

Many of his shorter poems and sonnets are his finest

work; absolutely perfect, they are priceless gems of the first water. In July 1814, Wordsworth, along with his sister-in-law Sarah, make a second tour in Scotland, during which he visited Yarrow, along with Hogg the Ettrick Shepherd. His sister Dorothy was left at home in charge of the children, and, ever after, he regretted that she had not accompanied him to that classic stream from which she had anticipated so much pleasure.

About this time, his attention having been directed to the classic education of his eldest son, he re-read the Latin poets, and wrote 'Laodamia,' "Dion," and "Lycoris."

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In treating the story of "Laodamia," so full of tenderness and dignity, Wordsworth's aim, throughout, was to subordinate the sensuous to the spiritual; and— in language of exquisite purity, delicacy, and grace-he has shown us the balance of love and duty, reason and affection. Both in conception and execution, this noble poem is full of majesty and pathos

"Calm pleasures there abide-majestic pains!"

Walter Savage Landor pronounced "Laodamia" to be "a composition such as Sophocles might have exulted to own, and a part of which might have been heard, with shouts of rapture, in the regions he describes -the Elysian Fields."

In 1815, he wrote "Artegal and Elidure," a subject taken from the mythical period of British history, and artistically treated.

"The White Doe of Rylestone" was this year published, with a very sweet and touching dedication to his beloved wife, to whom, in every vicissitude of life, he always turned with reverent affection. It alludes to the loss of their children, and to that time when,

stricken dumb with sorrow, he could write nothing, and, amid life's woes, he tenderly tries to solace her heart.

In 1819, "Peter Bell," which had been written oneand-twenty years before, first appeared, and was received with an asinine bray of critical derision. But, strange to say, there was a greater demand for it than for any of his previous publications. Five hundred copies were printed in April, and another edition was called for in May.

"The Waggoner," and the "Sonnets" relating to the "River Duddon," appeared shortly after "Peter Bell."

In the summer of 1820, Wordsworth made a four months' tour on the Continent, with his wife, sister, and friends, his sister-in-law, Miss Sarah Hutchinson, taking care of the children at Rydal Mount in their absence. This tour produced a number of sonnets and memorial poems—

"Filling the soul with sentiments august,

The beautiful, the brave, the holy, and the just." While there is less of the ethereal breath of Spring, and of the exuberance of genius, with its inevitable swoop, in many of those later poems, we have instead, a calmer wisdom, with a more devoutly reverent and fuller recognition of the great truths of Christianity, in most of his later work. Something is admittedly wanting, for which, however, those who can appreciate it are not left without a valuable equivalent; and this progressive ripening and mellowing of Wisdom's fruitage is only what may reasonably be looked for in all such earnest and nobly consecrated lives.

Towards the end of the summer of 1824, Wordsworth, with his wife and daughter, made a short excursion in North Wales, and afterwards spent three weeks at Radnor.