Sunday, 7th.- "William had a bad night, and was working at his poem. We sate by the fire, and did not walk, but read 'The Pedlar,' thinking it done; but lo! . . . could find fault with no one part of it—it was uninteresting, and must be altered. Poor William !" Wednesday, 10th Feb.- -"We read the first part of the poem, and were delighted with it, but William afterwards got to some ugly place, and went to bed tired out." the window unclosed, and almost finished writing 'The Pedlar,’ but poor William wore himself out and me with labour. Went to bed at 12 o'clock." Saturday, 13th.- "It snowed a little. 'The Pedlar,' altering and re-fitting. of his Recluse aloud to me. Sunday, 14th Feb. Still at work at William read parts "William left me at work altering some passages of 'The Pedlar,' and went into the orchard." Sunday, Feb. 28. himself with 'The Pedlar."" Friday morning.— finished it." "William very ill; employed "I wrote "The Pedlar,' and These extracts-which will recall the laborious way in which he toiled over the poem Michael (see vol. ii. p. 233)—all refer to the close of the year 1801, and the beginning of the year 1802. It is impossible to find out, with exactness, what were the parts of The Excursion which were then so carefully written, and so fastidiously altered-since "The Pedlar" was the Wordsworth household name for the entire poem, until it was recast for publication, at Allan Bank. But after February 1802 he turned to other subjects of composition, chiefly lyrical, and laid aside "The Pedlar" for a time-his sister, at least, regarding it as "finished." What was completed, however, did not, probably, extend beyond the story of the Wanderer, and perhaps a part of that of the Solitary. The person, whose character gave rise to the Solitary, came to reside at Grasmere not long after the Wordsworths settled there; but as the VOL. V C What blows in the discourse of the Wanderer, upon the changes he had witnessed a rim te by the Introduction of machinery, is truly described from what I myself saw during my boyhood and early youth, and from what was often told me by persons of this humble calling. Happly, most happily, for these mountains, the mischief was diverted from the banks of their beauti streams, and transferred to open and flat combles abounding in coal, where the agency of steam was found much more effectual for carrying on those demoralising works Had it not been for this invention, long before the present time, every torrent and river in this district would have had its factory, large and populoes in proportion to the power of the water that could there be commanded Parliament has interfered to prevent the night-work which was once carried on in these mills as actively as during the day-time, and by necessity, still more perniciously; a sad disgrace to the proprietors and to the nation which coeld so long tolerate such unnatural proceedings. Reviewing, at this late period, 1843, what I put into the mouths of my interlocutors a few years after the commencement of the century, I grieve that so little progress has been made in diminishing the evils deplored, or promoting the benefits of education which the Wanderer anticipates. The results of Lord Ashley's labours to defer the time when children might legally be allowed to work in factories, and his endeavours to limit still further the hours of permitted labour, have fallen far short of his own humane wishes, and of those of every benevolent and right-minded man who has carefully attended to this subject; and in the present session of Parliament (1843) Sir James Graham's attempt to establish a course of religious education among the children employed in factories has been abandoned, in consequence of what might easily be foreseen, the vehement and turbulent opposition of the Dissenters; so that for many years to come it may be thought expedient to leave the religious instruction of children entirely in the hands of the several denominations of Christians in the Island, each body to work according to its own means and in its own way. Such is my own confidence, a confidence I share with many others of my most valued friends, in the superior advantages, both religious and social, which attend a course of instruction presided over and guided by the clergy of the Church of England, that I have no doubt, that if but once its members, lay and clerical, were duly sensible of those benefits, their Church would daily gain ground, and rapidly, upon every shape and fashion of Dissent; and in that case, a great majority in Parliament being sensible of these benefits, the Ministers of the country might be emboldened, were it necessary, to apply funds of the State to the support of education on church principles. Before I conclude, I cannot forbear noticing the strenuous efforts made at this time in Parliament by so many persons to extend manufacturing and commercial industry at the expense of agricultural, though we have recently had abundant proofs that the apprehensions expressed by the Wanderer were not groundless. I spake of mischief by the wise diffused, With gladness thinking that the more it spreads The Chartists are well aware of this possibility, and cling to it with an ardour and perseverance which nothing, but wiser and more brotherly dealing towards the many, on the part of the wealthy few, can moderate or remove. While, from the grassy mountain's open side The point here fixed upon in my imagination is half way up the northern side of Loughrigg Fell, from which the Pastor and his companions are supposed to look upwards to the sky and mountain-tops, and round the vale, with the lake lying immediately beneath them. But turned, not without welcome promise given In wandering with us. When I reported this promise of the Solitary, and long after, it was my wish, and I might say intention, that we should resume our wanderings and pass the Borders into his native country, where, as I hoped, he might witness, in the society of the Wanderer, some religious ceremony-a sacrament say, in the open fields, or a preaching among the mountainswhich, by recalling to his mind the days of his early childhood, when he had been present on such occasions in company with his parents and nearest kindred, might have dissolved his heart into tenderness, and so done more towards restoring the Christian faith in which he had been educated, and, with kar, ententeriness and even cheerfulness of mind, and all that the Wanderer and Pastor by their several effusions and addresses had been unable to effect. An issue ke this was in my intentions. But alas! mid the wreck of is and was, Things incomplete and purposes betrayed Make sadder transits e er heughts opte glass RYDAL MOCST, June 24, 1313 St. John Baptist Day.-L. FI Although the Fenwick note to The Excursion has been printed here in full, extracts from it will be introduced as footnotes, in explanation of certain passages of the poem. The Excursion was written at intervals between 1795 and 1814. The story of Margaret, in the first book, was begun at Racedown in 1795, and continued at Alfoxden in 1797-8. But only two short fragments of the poem-the former in book first and the latter in book fourth (as indicated in the Fenwick note)-were written before Wordsworth's arrival at Grasmere. There the poem was thought out, arranged, written down, altered, and re-arranged; the first part during his residence at Dove Cottage, the second and longer part at Allan Bank. The following extracts from Miss Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal show how laboriously her brother worked at this poem : Tuesday, Dec. 22, 1801.- . "Went to Rydal for letters. The road was covered with snow. We walked home almost without speaking. William composed a few lines of 'The Pedlar.' We talked about Lamb's tragedy." Wednesday, Dec. 23.— . . "Mary wrote out the Tales from Chaucer for Coleridge. William worked at 'The Ruined Cottage,' and made himself very ill.” Tuesday, Jan. 26, 1802.-— ... "We sate till we were both tired, for William wrote out part of his poem, and endeavoured to alter it, and so made himself ill. I copied out the rest for him.". . Monday, Feb. Ist. Pedlar,' and tired himself." Tuesday, 2nd Feb. Pedlar."" "William worked hard at The "William worked at • The Compare the sonnet Malham Cove in volume vi., to which these lines belong. ED. Thursday, 4th. Pedlar.'" Friday, 5th.. "William thought a little about 'The "Sate up late at The Pedlar.'" Sunday, 7th." William had a bad night, and was working at his poem. We sate by the fire, and did not walk, but read 'The Pedlar,' thinking it done; but lo! . . . could find fault with no one part of it—it was uninteresting, and must be altered. Poor William !" Wednesday, 10th Feb.- "We read the first part of the poem, and were delighted with it, but William afterwards got to some ugly place, and went to bed tired out." Thursday, 11th.— at The Pedlar.'" Friday, 12th. "William sadly tired, and working "I re-copied "The Pedlar'; but poor We sate a long time with William all the time at work. the window unclosed, and almost finished writing 'The Pedlar,' but poor William wore himself out and me with labour. to bed at 12 o'clock." Went Saturday, 13th.-"It snowed a little. Still at work at 'The Pedlar,' altering and re-fitting. of his Recluse aloud to me." Sunday, 14th Feb. William read parts "William left me at work altering some passages of 'The Pedlar,' and went into the These extracts-which will recall the laborious way in which he toiled over the poem Michael (see vol. ii. p. 233)—all refer to the close of the year 1801, and the beginning of the year 1802. It is impossible to find out, with exactness, what were the parts of The Excursion which were then so carefully written, and so fastidiously altered since "The Pedlar" was the Wordsworth household name for the entire poem, until it was recast for publication, at Allan Bank. But after February 1802 he turned to other subjects of composition, chiefly lyrical, and laid aside "The Pedlar" for a time-his sister, at least, regarding it as "finished." What was completed, however, did not, probably, extend beyond the story of the Wanderer, and perhaps a part of that of the Solitary. The person, whose character gave rise to the Solitary, came to reside at Grasmere not long after the Wordsworths settled there; but as the VOL. V C |