The Life of William Roscoe
Chapter VI. 1796-1799
William Roscoe to Daniel Daulby, [January? 1797]
“From the midst of all the delights that London affords, I
condescend to salute the lonely inhabitants of the solitary hills and cheerless
wilds of Westmoreland. Here, every thing ![]()
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is life and
gaiety; the rattling of wheels, the winding of horns, and the ringing of bells,
performing a continual chorus; whilst with you, the chirping of a robin
red-breast, or the lowing of a cow, is all that gratifies your ears. At this
hour you are, perhaps, complaining of the clear and nipping air, or incommoded
with the beams of the noonday sun; whilst here an impenetrable vapour screens
us from his rays, and forms a soft and sociable atmosphere, breathed from the
lungs of a million of people, who would not exchange this happiness for any
other the world could give.
“But to tell you the truth, my dear Dan, I begin to be shockingly tired of my
abode. Except Fuseli’s pictures
from Milton, which are certainly much
beyond even my expectations, I have seen little which has pleased me in the way
of art.”
Daniel Daulby (d. 1797)
Liverpool art collector who retired to Rydal Mount, Westmoreland in 1796; he was the
brother-in-law of William Roscoe.
Henry Fuseli (1741-1825)
Anglo-Swiss painter who settled in England in 1764 and became the friend of William
Blake.
John Milton (1608-1674)
English poet and controversialist; author of
Comus (1634),
Lycidas (1638),
Areopagitica (1644),
Paradise Lost (1667), and other works.
