“When you hear that my journey to the south must be
postponed till the fall of the leaf, I fear you will think me infirm of
purpose, and as little to be depended on as the wind and weather in this our
mutable climate. Its cause, however, lies rather in a good obstinate principle
of perseverance, than in any fickleness of temper. This history, of which the
hundredth sheet is now upon my desk, will confine me here so far into the
summer (beyond all previous or possible calculation), that if I went into the
south as soon as it is completed, I should be under the necessity of shortening
my stay there, and leaving part of my business undone. In order to return in
time for a long-standing engagement, which in the autumn will take me into the
Highlands. All things duly considered, it seemed best to put off my journey
| Ætat. 45. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 347 |
“Cuthbert, who is now four months old, is beginning to serve me as well as his sisters for a plaything. The country is in its full beauty at this time; perhaps in greater than I may ever again see it, for it is reported that the woods on Castelet are condemned to come down next year; this, if it be true, is the greatest loss that Keswick could possibly sustain, and in no place will the loss be more conspicuous than from the room wherein I am now writing. But this neighbourhood has suffered much from the axe since you were here.* The woods about Lodore are gone; so are those under Castle-Crag; so is the little knot of fir trees on the way to church, which were so placed as to make one of the features of the vale; and worst of all, so is that beautiful birch grove on the side of the lake between Barrow and Lodore. Not a single sucker is springing up in its place; and, indeed, it would require a full century before another grove could be reared which would equal it in beauty. It is lucky that they cannot level the mountains nor drain the lake; but they are doing what they can to lower it, and have succeeded so fir as to render all the old landing-places useless. If the effect of this should be to drain the marshy land at the head and foot of the lake, without leaving as much more swamp uncovered, it will do good rather than harm. The
* See the beginning of Colloquy X., On the Progress and Prospects of Society. |
| 348 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 45. |
“Two cases so extraordinary as to appear almost incredible occurred in the course of last month in this country. A child four years old wandered from its mother, who was cutting peat among the Ennerdale Mountains, and after four days was found alive. A man upon the Eskdale Fells was found after eighteen, still living, and able to wave his hand as a signal, by which he was discovered. He had fallen in a fit, and was incapable of moving when he recovered his senses; in both cases there was water close by, by which life was preserved. The child is doing well. Of the man I have heard nothing since the day after he was found, when Wordsworth was in Eskdale, and learnt the story; at that time there seemed to be no apprehension that his life was in danger.
“I think you will be pleased with Wordsworth’s ‘Waggoner,’ if it were only for the line of road* which it describes. The master of the waggon was my poor landlord Jackson; and the cause of his exchanging it for the one-horse-cart was just as is represented in the poem; nobody but Benjamin could manage it upon these hills, and Benjamin could not resist the temptations by the way-side. . . . .
