Not one is left now of the eminent persons who rendered that cluster of valleys so eminent as it has been.  Dr. Arnold went first, in the vigor of his years.  Southey died at Keswick, and Hartley Coleridge on the margin of Rydal Lake; and the Quillinans under the shadow of Loughrigg; and Professor Wilson disappeared from Elleray; and the aged Mrs. Fletcher from Lancrigg; and the three venerable Wordsworths from Rydal Mount.

The survivor of all the rest had a heart and a memory for the solemn last of every thing.  She was the one to inquire of about the last eagle in the district, the last pair of ravens in any crest of rocks, the last old dalesman in any improved spot, the last round of the last peddler among hills where the broad white road has succeeded the green bridal-path.  She knew the district during the period between its first recognition, through Gray’s “Letters,” to its complete publicity in the age of railways.  She saw, perhaps, the best of it.  But she contributed to modernize and improve it, though the idea of doing so probably never occurred to her.  There were great people before to give away Christmas bounties, and spoil their neighbors, as the established alms-giving of the rich does spoil the laboring class, which ought to be above that kind of aid.  Mrs. Wordsworth did infinitely more good in her own way, and without being aware of it.  An example of comfortable thrift was a greater boon to the people round than money, clothes, meat, or fuel.  The oldest residents have long borne witness that the homes of the neighbors have assumed a new character of order and comfort, and wholesome economy, since the poet’s family lived at Rydal Mount.  It used to be a pleasant sight when Wordsworth was seen in the middle of a hedge, cutting switches for half a dozen children, who were pulling at his cloak, or gathering about his heels; and it will long be pleasant to family friends to hear how the young wives of half a century learned to make home comfortable by the example of the good housewife at the Mount, who never was above letting her thrift be known.

Finally, she who had noted so many last survivors was herself the last of a company more venerable than eagles, or ravens, or old-world yeomen, or antique customs.  She would not, in any case, be the first forgotten.  As it is, her honored name will live for generations in the traditions of the valleys round.  If she was studied as the poet’s wife, she came out so well from that investigation that she was contemplated for herself; and the image so received is her true monument.  It will be better preserved in her old-fashioned neighborhood than many monuments which make a greater show.