‘My dear Sarah,—We arrived here on Friday at four o’clock, and were very glad to look upon the old lake again. Sir George’s passion are the Langdale Pikes, and he is sketching them from morning till night. He uses white chalk upon a blue paper, and strongly recommends it to you for catching the momentary lights in the sky. I believe you have hitherto confined yourself to terrestrial objects. We set out on Tuesday and breakfasted at Derby, and saw Kedleston and slept at Matlock old Bath, as we had done so often before. At Derby I called upon Lucy,1 and was shown up instantly by the maid into a large room looking to the garden and the river. She was sitting alone, and not a little surprised at the sight of me. She is very thin, and so much altered that I am not sure I should have known her at once elsewhere, but she is the same amiable, kind creature she ever was, and discovered at least half as much pleasure as she did once at Highbury, when she made one jump of it downstairs to meet her father. Her reception quite affected me. At Matlock we took a long walk till sunset, and returned an hour after the dinner hour, much, I believe, to the disappointment of the company, who had waited
1 Lucy Rogers, daughter of Daniel and niece of Samuel, married Mr. Bingham of Derby. |
| 'A MOB TO TEA' AT WORDSWORTH'S | 431 |
‘Abercromby was
there and I saw him for five minutes. At Sheffield I wished to call upon
Montgomery, but the rain prevented
me. We slept at Barnsley (the inns in these manufacturing towns are most
uncomfortable). Next day it cleared up and we had a sight of Gordale Scar,
sleeping at Settle. The next day we sat down, as I said, at Lowwood Inn, and
despatched a note to Wordsworth, who
came next morning to breakfast and spent the day with us. Next day (Sunday) we
returned the visit, and went to Rydal Church (a new and very pretty one built
by Lady Fleming), and dined with them; at
night came a mob to tea—young men with letters of introduction, ladies on
short visits to neighbours—and the rooms were crowded. Dora, the daughter, is much improved and not
now ill-looking. Miss Hutchinson much
softer and more agreeable. The dinner very good and all very neat. The place
still more beautiful than I remembered it to be, but they have notice to quit
and have bought a field to build in, a measure that disturbs Sir George mightily, but may never take place.
Sir G. is very amiable—perhaps a little too
talkative—for he talks for ever and [is] more helpless than Miss Fox! Sharp was here a week,
| 432 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES |
‘Wordsworth is to come to us next Monday, and will go with us to Lowther, I believe, but we have not yet offered ourselves. There has been no regatta here this summer, but a very gay one last week at Keswick. Quincey, the opium-eater, lives in the house where we first found Wordsworth and dines with him to-day. W. keeps a pony-chaise, and I fear is as much eaten up as Dan—and even more—for all bring letters to him. In Grasmere Churchyard is the inscription I sent you once—
‘Six months to six years added he remained Upon this sinful earth, by sin unstained. O blessed Lord, whose mercy then removed A child, whom every eye that looked on loved, |
| AT THE LAKES IN 1826 | 433 |
Support us, teach us calmly to resign What we possessed and now is wholly thine. |
‘Your letter is come, many thanks for it. Poor
Caroline, I hope she will soon be well. As for you
I don’t like your prudence, much as I may commend it, for it shows
how much you have suffered. My bile is almost gone, and here I sit by the
fireside, Sir George at the window
sketching the effects of a shower. We have had no right to complain
altogether, but I believe scenery has lost much of its power with me. Not
so with Sir George, who is always going to the window
and looking earnestly out as if he saw somebody he knew, though it is only
a cloud or a gleam of light on the water. I have had
the sphinx, too—at Ampthill in the flower garden below, two or three
times before breakfast. I watched it for twenty minutes at a time, and the
ladies saw it while I was at Oakley. So its flight must have been a long
one. Becky must have been a great comfort to you, but
don’t you keep Patty, now all are gone to the
sea? You don’t say she is gone. I wish Henry much
| 434 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES |
‘Keswick, September 15.—We came here on Thursday and drank tea with the Southeys in a company of sixteen people; among others, William Taylor of Norwich. Southey dined with us to-day and left us at six to entertain a party at home. What a bustle these poets live in! To-morrow we drink tea with him, and on Monday dine with him and Wordsworth, who comes here. Our mornings are taken up in laking, or, rather, mountaineering. The weather so far very fine. Pray direct to me on or before the 26th under cover to the Earl of Lonsdale, Lowther Castle, Penrith.’
