with great regret, being post-haste on his way to Edinburgh.  I went with him to Paterdale, on his road to Penrith, where he would take coach.  We had a deal of talk about you and Lady Beaumont:  he was in your debt a letter, as I found, and exceedingly sorry that he had not been able to get over to see you, having been engaged at Mr. Coke’s sheep-shearing, which had not left him time to cross from the Duke of Bedford’s to your place.  We had a very pleasant interview, though far too short.  He is a most interesting man, whose views are fixed upon worthy objects.

That Loughrigg Tarn, beautiful pool of water as it is, is a perpetual mortification to me when I think that you and Lady Beaumont were so near having a summer-nest there.  This is often talked over among us; and we always end the subject with a heigh ho! of regret.  But I must think of concluding.  My sister thanks Lady Beaumont for her last letter, and will write to her in a few days; but I must say to her myself how happy I was to hear that her sister had derived any consolation from Coleridge’s poems and mine.  I must also add how much pleasure it gives me that Lady Beaumont is so kindly, so affectionately disposed to my dear and good sister, and also to the other unknown parts of my family.  Could we but have Coleridge back among us again!  There is no happiness in this life but in intellect and virtue.  Those were very pretty verses which Lady Beaumont sent; and we were much obliged to her for them.

What shocking bad writing I have sent you; I don’t know [how] it is, but [it] seems as if I could not write any better.

Farewell.  Believe me, with the sincerest love and affection for you and Lady Beaumont,

            YOURS,
          WM. WORDSWORTH.[21]

[21] Memoirs, vol. i. pp. 267-70, with important additions from the original.  G.

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FAMILY NEWS, REYNOLDS, &c.

Letter to Sir George H. Beaumont, Bart.

     Grasmere, August 30. (?) 1804.  DEAR SIR GEORGE,

Wednesday last, Mrs. Coleridge, as she may, perhaps, herself have informed you or Lady Beaumont, received a letter from Coleridge.  I happened to be at Keswick when it arrived; and she has sent it over to us to-day.  I will transcribe the most material parts of it, first assuring you, to remove anxiety on your part, that the contents are, we think, upon the whole, promising.  He begins thus (date, June 5. 1804, Tuesday noon; Dr. Stoddart’s, Malta):—­’I landed, in more than usual health, in the harbour of Valetta, about four o’clock, Friday afternoon, April 18.  Since then I have been waiting, day after day, for the departure of Mr. Laing, tutor of the only child of Sir A. Ball, our civil governor.’

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