WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 1850
   MARY WORDSWORTH 1859.

The grave of Hartley Coleridge, his great friend, who was buried in 1849, was also there.  There are few who do not know his wonderful poem, “The Ancient Mariner,” said to have been based on an old manuscript story of a sailor preserved in the Bristol Library.  Strange to say, not far from his grave was that of Sir John Richardson, a physician and arctic explorer, who brought home the relics of Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated and final voyage to the Arctic regions to discover the North-West Passage.  This brought to our minds all the details of that sorrowful story which had been repeatedly told to us in our early childhood, and was, to our youthful minds, quite as weird as that of “The Ancient Mariner.”

[Illustration:  GRASMERE CHURCH.]

Sir John Franklin was born in 1786.  Intended by his parents for the Church, but bent on going to sea, he joined the Royal Navy when he was fourteen years of age, and served as a midshipman on the Bellerophon at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, afterwards taking part in Captain Flinders’ voyage of discovery along the coast of Australia.  His first voyage to the Arctic Regions was in 1818, and after a long and eventful career he was created Governor of Van Diemen’s Land in 1837, whither criminals convicted of grave offences involving transportation for life were sent from England, where he did much for the improvement and well-being of the colony.

On May 19th, 1845, he left England with the two ships Erebus and Terror, having on board 28 officers and 111 men—­in all 134 souls—­on a voyage to the Arctic Regions in the hope of discovering the North-West Passage.  They reached Stromness, in the Orkneys, on July 1st, and were afterwards seen and spoken to in the North Sea by the whaler Prince of Wales, belonging to Hull.  After that all was blank.

Lady Franklin did not expect to receive any early news from her husband, but when two years passed away without her hearing from him, she became anxious, and offered a large reward for any tidings of him.  In 1848 old explorers went out to search for him, but without result.  Still believing he was alive, she sent out other expeditions, and one was even dispatched from America.  All England was roused, and the sympathy of the entire nation was extended to Lady Franklin.

Nine long years passed away, but still no news, until intelligence arrived that an Eskimo had been found wearing on his head a gold cap-band which he said he had picked up where “the dead white men were.”  Lady Franklin then made a final effort, and on July 1st, 1857, Captain McClintock sailed from England in the Fox.  In course of time the matter was cleared up.  It was proved that the whole of the expedition had perished, Sir John Franklin having died on June 11th, 1847.  Many relics were found and brought back to England.

[Illustration:  DOVE COTTAGE.]