Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries
William Wordsworth to Samuel Rogers, [19 April 1828]
[Postmark, 19 April, 1828.]
‘My dear R.,—To-night I set off for Cambridge,
passing by Coleorton, where I shall stay a couple of days with the Rector. My son accompanies me; being about to undertake a Curacy in a
Parish adjoining that of Coleorton, near Grace Dieu, the birth-place of
Beaumont the dramatist. At Cambridge
I purpose to stay till the 10th or 11th of May, and then for a short, very
short, visit to London, where I shall be sadly disappointed if I do not meet
you. My main object is to look out for some situation, mercantile if it could
be found, for my younger son. If you can serve me, pray do.
‘I have troubled you with this note to beg you would
send any further sheets of your poem, up to the 8th or so of next month, to me at Trinity Lodge,
Cambridge. Farewell. My wife and
daughter are, I trust, already at
Cambridge. My sister begs her kindest
regards. Miss
10 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES | |
Hutchinson is here, who has also been
much gratified by your poem, and begs to be remembered to you.
‘Ever faithfully yours,
Francis Beaumont (1585-1616)
English playwright, often in collaboration with John Fletcher; author of
The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1607).
Sara Hutchinson (1775-1835)
The daughter of John Hutchinson of Penrith (d. 1785) and sister of Mary Hutchinson
Wordsworth.
Francis Mereweather (1784-1864)
After study at Christ Church, Oxford and St John's College, Cambridge he was rector of
Coleorton (1816) and Vicar of Whitwick (1818); he married Frances Elizabeth Way, daughter
of the poet Gregory Lewis Way. John Wordsworth was his curate.
Dora Quillinan [née Wordsworth] (1804-1847)
The daughter of William Wordsworth who in 1841 married the poet Edward Quillinan despite
her father's concerns about his debts.
Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855)
The sister of William Wordsworth who transcribed his poems and kept his house; her
journals and letters were belatedly published after her death.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
With Coleridge, author of
Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth
survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.
William Wordsworth (1810-1883)
The second son of William Wordsworth; of St. Ann's Hill, Carlisle, he was a justice of
the peace.
Samuel Rogers (1763-1855)
Italy, a Poem. 2 vols (London: John Murray, 1823-1828). In 1828 the poem was revised and expanded into two parts; in 1830 it was elaborately
illustrated with engravings after paintings by J. M. W. Turner and Thomas Stothard.