“. . . . . At my age there can be no expectation that
time will remove any bodily infirmity. The probability is, that I shall, ere
long, be totally unable to walk; and to look for any chance of good fortune
that would set me upon wheels, would be something like looking for a miracle. I
am thankful, therefore, that my disposition and sedentary habits will render
the confinement which appears to await me a less evil than it would be to most
other persons. The latter years of our earthly existence can be but few at the
| Ætat. 53. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 301 |
“There is enough in this neighbourhood to repay me for a short tarriance here, even with the discomforts which, especially in my case, are felt always in an absence from home. As yet I have only seen William Herbert’s garden, where there is a splendid display of exotics; the grounds at Plumpton, where the rocks very much resemble the scenery of Fontainbleau; the cave where Eugene Aram buried the body of Daniel Clarke; the hermitage carved in the rock at Knaresborough; and the dropping well, which, in my childhood, I longed to see, as one of the wonders of England. Knaresborough is very finely situated, and I should spend some of my mornings in exploring all the points of view about it if I were able to move about with ease. I wish you were here; the place itself is pleasanter than I had expected to find it. We are on a common, with a fine, dry, elastic air; so different from that of Keswick, that the difference is perceptible in breathing it, and a wide horizon, which in its evening skies affords something to compensate for the scenery we have left. The air would, I verily believe, give you new life, and among the variety of springs there is choice of all kinds for you. . . . .
“So much for Harrogate. Now for a word or two
concerning my own pursuits. You will or may, if you please, see a paper of mine upon the Moorish
History of Spain in the first number of the Foreign
| 302 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 53. |
“A lady here, whom we never saw, nor ever before heard of, sent her album for Wordsworth and myself to write in, with no other preliminaries than desiring the physician here, Dr. Jaques, to ask leave for her! When the book came, it proved to be full of pious effusions from all the most noted Calvinist preachers and missionaries. As some of these worthies had written in it texts in Hebrew, Chinese, and Arabic, I wrote in Greek, ‘If we say that we have no sin,’ &c., and I did not write in it these lines, which the tempting occasion suggested:—
“What? will-we, nill-we, are we thrust Among the Calvinistics— The covenanted sons of schism, Rebellion’s pugilistics. Needs most we then ourselves array Against these state tormentors; Hurrah for Church and King, we say, And down with the dissenters. |
“Think how it would have astonished the fair owner to have opened her album, and found these verses in it, signed by R. S. and W. W.
“It will be charity to write to me while I am here, where, for want of books, I spell the newspaper. God bless you!
