VII.  MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS.

PART I.

183. *_Commencement of writing of Sonnets_.

In the cottage of Town-End, one afternoon in 1801, my sister read to me the sonnets of Milton.  I had long been well acquainted with them, but I was particularly struck on that occasion with the dignified simplicity and majestic harmony that runs through most of them—­in character so totally different from the Italian, and still more so from Shakespeare’s fine sonnets.  I took fire, if I may be allowed to say so, and produced three sonnets the same afternoon—­the first I ever wrote, except an irregular one at school.  Of these three, the only one I distinctly remember is ‘I grieved for Buonaparte,’ &c.  One was never written down; the third, which was I believe preserved, I cannot particularise.

184. Admonition.

    ‘Well mays’t thou halt,’ &c. [II.]

Intended more particularly for the perusal of those who have happened to be enamoured of some beautiful place of retreat in the Country of the Lakes.

185. *_Sonnet_ IV.

    ‘Beaumont! it was thy wish,’ &c.

This was presented to me by Sir George Beaumont, with a view to the erection of a house upon it, for the sake of being near to Coleridge, then living, and likely to remain, at Greta Hall, near Keswick.  The severe necessities that prevented this arose from his domestic situation.  This little property, with a considerable addition that still leaves it very small, lies beautifully upon the banks of a rill that gurgles down the side of Skiddaw; and the orchard and other parts of the grounds command a magnificent prospect of Derwent Water, the Mountains of Borrowdale and Newlands.  Not many years ago I gave the place to my daughter. [In pencil on opposite page in Mrs. Quillinan’s handwriting—­Many years ago, sir, for it was given when she was a frail feeble monthling.]

186. *_Sonnet_ VI.

    ‘There is a little unpretending rill.’

This rill trickles down the hill-side into Windermere near Lowood.  My sister and I, on our first visit together to this part of the country, walked from Kendal, and we rested to refresh ourselves by the side of the Lake where the streamlet falls into it.  This sonnet was written some years after in recollection of that happy ramble, that most happy day and hour.

187. *_Sonnet_ VIII.

    ‘The fairest, brightest hues,’ &c.

Suggested at Hackett, which is the craggy ridge that rises between the two Langdales, and looks towards Windermere.  The cottage of Hackett was often visited by us; and at the time when this sonnet was written, and long after, was occupied by the husband and wife described in ’The Excursion,’ where it is mentioned that she was in the habit of walking in the front of the dwelling with a light to guide her husband home at night.  The same cottage is alluded to in the Epistle to Sir G. Beaumont as that from which the female peasant hailed us on our morning journey.  The musician mentioned in the sonnet was the Rev. P. Tilbrook of Peterhouse, who remodelled the Ivy Cottage at Rydal after he had purchased it.