Though I can make but little use of my eyes in writing or reading, I have lately been reading Cowper’s ‘Task’ aloud; and in so doing was tempted to look over the parallelisms, for which Mr. Southey was in his edition indebted to you.  Knowing how comprehensive your acquaintance with poetry is, I was rather surprised that you did not notice the identity of the thought, and accompanying illustrations of it, in a passage of Shenstone’s Ode upon Rural Elegance, compared with one in ‘The Task,’ where Cowper speaks of the inextinguishable love of the country as manifested by the inhabitants of cities in their culture of plants and flowers, where the want of air, cleanliness, and light, is so unfavourable to their growth and beauty.  The germ of the main thought is to be found in Horace,

’Nempe inter varias nutritur sylva columnas,
Laudaturque domus longos quae prospicit agros;
Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret.’

Lib. i.  Epist. x. v. 22.

Pray write to me soon.  Ever, my dear friend,

Faithfully your obliged,
WM. WORDSWORTH.[179]

121. On a Tour.

LETTER TO JOHN PEACE, ESQ.

12 North Parade, Bath, April 19. 1841.

MY DEAR MR. PEACE,

Here I am and have been since last Wednesday evening.  I came down the Wye, and passed through Bristol, but arriving there at the moment the railway train was about to set off, and being in the company of four ladies (Miss Fenwick, and Mrs. Wordsworth, and my daughter and niece), I had not a moment to spare, so could not call on you, my good friend, which I truly regretted.  Pray spare an hour or two to come here, and then we can fix a day, when, along with my daughter, I can visit Bristol, see you, Mr. Cottle, and Mr. Wade.

* * * * *

All unite in kindest regards. 
Ever yours,
WM. WORDSWORTH.[180]

122. Marriage of Dora.

TO THE SAME.

Bath, May 11. 1841. 
MY DEAR MR. PEACE,

This morning my dear daughter was married in St. James’s in this place.

Tomorrow we leave Bath for Wells, and thence to the old haunts of Mr.
Coleridge, and myself, and dear sister, about Alfoxden.

Adieu,
W. W.[181]

[179] Extract of letter to John Peace, Esq., January 19, 1841:  Memoirs, ii. 376.

[180] Memoirs, ii, 377.

[181] Ibid. ii. 378.

123. Letters to his Brother.

TO THE REV.  DR. WORDSWORTH, MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

MY DEAR BROTHER,

Your affectionate and generous kindness to your, I trust, deserving niece has quite overpowered me and her mother, to whom I could not forbear communicating the contents of your letter.

[The above relates to an act of kindness which the late Master of Trinity had the happiness of performing, on the occasion of Dora Wordsworth’s marriage.