“Mr. Wynn has killed two birds with one shot. Seeing how perfectly satisfied every body here was with his medallion of me, he asked for an introduction to Wordsworth, which I was about to have offered him. Off he set in good spirits to Rydal, and not finding Wordsworth there, was advised to follow him to Lowther. To Lowther he went, and came back from thence delighted with his own success, and with the civilities of Lord and Lady Lonsdale, who desired that they might have both medallions. Nothing, I think, can be better than Wordsworth’s, and he is equally pleased with mine.
“He tells me of some unpublished poems of Cowper, which he is in hopes of obtaining for me. . . . .
“To-morrow will be just twelve months since we set out on our miserable journey to York! One whole year! At our time of life there cannot be many more to look on to at most. If her illusions are like dreams to her, the reality is like a dream to me, but one from which there is no awaking.
“Yet, Grosvenor, I need not say that in doing all
| 274 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 60. |
“I very much regret that you could not come here this summer. That ‘more convenient season,’ for which you have so long waited, may now be put off till the Greek Kalends; and, for aught I can see, any movement of mine to the south may be as distant. Here I shall remain, as long as it is best for these members of my family that I should remain here, and that is likely to be as long as our present circumstances continue.
“Happily, while my faculties last, I shall never be in
want of employment. At present I have rather more than is agreeable; but when
the pressure is over, it will never be renewed. Just now two presses are
calling upon me, a third longing for me, and a fourth at which I cast a longing
eye myself. The two which, like the daughter of the horse-leech, cry Give,
give, are employed upon Cowper and the
Admirals. The third is
asking for the new edition of Wesley; and the quantity of a good Quarterly Article must be written before that can
be satisfied. Two, or, at the most, three chapters would give me my
heart’s desire
| Ætat. 60. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 275 |
“By the by, you are likely to possess Henderson’s life; and if so, I wish you would write me a letter about him, for he gave such a lift to Cowper by reciting John Gilpin, that a page or two to his honour might, with great propriety, be introduced.
“I shall finish my first volume in the course of a few days; the life will go far into the second. As much as possible, I have woven the materials into the narration, and made Cowper tell his own story; but still the work is a web.
“Will you believe that I had forgotten your direction, and that it took me five minutes to recollect it! Saville Row was running in my head; I danced for joy when I shouted Εύρήκα.
“Sharpe recommended John Gilpin to Henderson. The last communication I ever had with him, was a note confirmatory of this.”
