end—­an infirmity that has characterised men of all ages, classes, and employments, since Nimrod became a mighty hunter before the Lord, [In pencil is the following by Mr. Quillinan—­In a letter to Southey about the rhythm of this Ode Wordsworth, comparing the first paragraph of the ‘Aeneid’ with that of the ‘Jerusalem Liberated,’ says, that ’the measure of the latter has the pace of a set of recruits shuffling to vulgar music upon a parade, and receiving from the adjutant or drill-sergeant the command to halt at every twenty steps.’  Mr. W. had no ear for instrumental music; or he would not have applied this vulgar sarcasm to military march-music.  Besides, awkward recruits are never drilled to music at all.  The Band on parade plays to perfectly-drilled troops.  Ne sutor ultra crepidam.]

270. Spenser. [Part II.  Sonnet XLIII.]

    ‘Assoiled from all encumbrance of our time.’ 
    ‘From all this world’s encumbrance did himself assoil.’

* * * * *

XI.  MEMORIALS OF A TOUR ON THE CONTINENT, 1820.

271. *_Introductory Remarks_.

I set out in company with my wife and sister, and Mr. and Mrs. Monkhouse, then just married, and Miss Horrocks.  These two ladies, sisters, we left at Berne, while Mr. Monkhouse took the opportunity of making an excursion with us among the Alps, as far as Milan.  Mr. H. C. Robinson joined us at Lucerne, and when this ramble was completed we rejoined at Geneva the two ladies we had left at Berne, and proceeded to Paris, where Mr. Monkhouse and H. C. R. left us, and where we spent five weeks, of which there is not a record in these poems.

272. The Fishwomen of Calais, [I.]

If in this Sonnet [I. of ‘Memorials of a Tour on the Continent,’ 1820] I should seem to have borne a little hard upon the personal appearance of the worthy Poissardes of Calais, let me take shelter under the authority of my lamented friend, the late Sir George Beaumont.  He, a most accurate observer, used to say of them, that their features and countenances seemed to have conformed to those of the creatures they dealt in; at all events the resemblance was striking.

273. *_Incident at Bruges_. [IV.]

This occurred at Bruges in the year 1828.  Mr. Coleridge, my daughter, and I, made a tour together in Flanders, upon the Rhine, and returned by Holland.  Dora and I, while taking a walk along a retired part of the town, heard the voice as here described, and were afterwards informed that it was a convent, in which were many English.  We were both much touched, I might say affected, and Dora moved as appears in the verses.

274. Between Namur and Liege. [VI.]