I am happy in being conscious I shall have one reader who will approach the conclusion of these few pages with regret.  You they must certainly interest, in reminding you of moments to which you can hardly look back without a pleasure not the less dear from a shade of melancholy.  You will meet with few images without recollecting the spot where we observed them together, consequently, whatever is feeble in my design, or spiritless in my colouring, will be amply supplied by your own memory.

With still greater propriety I might have inscribed to you a description of some of the features of your native mountains, through which we have wandered together, in the same manner, with so much pleasure.  But the sea-sunsets which give such splendour to the vale of Clwyd, Snowdon, the chair of Idris, the quiet village of Bethkelert, Menai and her druids, the Alpine steeps of the Conway, and the still more interesting windings of the wizard stream of the Dee remain yet untouched.  Apprehensive that my pencil may never be exercised on these subjects, I cannot let slip this opportunity of thus publicly assuring you with how much affection and esteem,

I am Dear Sir,

Your most obedient very humble Servant

W. WORDSWORTH.

ARGUMENT

’Happiness (if she had been to be found on Earth) amongst the Charms of Nature—­Pleasures of the pedestrian Traveller—­Author crosses France to the Alps—­Present state of the Grande Chartreuse—­Lake of Como—­Time, Sunset—­Same Scene, Twilight—­Same Scene, Morning, it’s Voluptuous Character; Old Man and Forest Cottage Music—­River Tusa—­Via Mala and Grison Gypsey.  Valley of Sckellenen-thal—­Lake of Uri, Stormy Sunset—­Chapel of William Tell—­force of Local Emotion—­Chamois Chaser—­View of the higher Alps—­Manner of Life of a Swiss Mountaineer interspersed with views of the higher Alps—­Golden Age of the Alps—­Life and Views continued—­Ranz des Vaches famous Swiss Air—­Abbey of Einsiedlen and it’s Pilgrims—­Valley of Chamouny—­Mont Blanc—­Slavery of Savoy—­Influence of Liberty on Cottage Happiness—­France—­Wish for the extirpation of Slavery—­Conclusion.’

DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES [A]

  Were there, below, a spot of holy ground,
  By Pain and her sad family unfound,
  Sure, Nature’s GOD that spot to man had giv’n,
  Where murmuring rivers join the song of ev’n;
  Where falls the purple morning far and wide 5
  In flakes of light upon the mountain-side;
  Where summer Suns in ocean sink to rest,
  Or moonlight Upland lifts her hoary breast;
  Where Silence, on her night of wing, o’er-broods
  Unfathom’d dells and undiscover’d woods; 10
  Where rocks and groves the power of waters shakes
  In cataracts, or sleeps in quiet lakes.