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as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and
other inconsistencies.]
Dorothy Wordsworth.
DOROTHY WORDSWORTH
_THE STORY OF A SISTER'S LOVE._
BY
EDMUND LEE.
London:
JAMES CLARKE & CO., 13 & 14, FLEET STREET.
1886.
TO
MISS QUILLINAN,
A STRONG LINK
BETWEEN THE PAST AND PRESENT GENERATIONS
OF THE FAMILY OF WHICH
DOROTHY WORDSWORTH
WAS SUCH A DISTINGUISHED ORNAMENT,
THIS LITTLE WORK IS (BY PERMISSION)
GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED.
PREFACE.
This little book owes its origin to the fact that, with the exception of
Professor Shairp's Sketch contained in the preface to the "Tour in
Scotland," no biography or memoir of the subject of it has hitherto been
written. Seeing what an important part Miss Wordsworth occupied in
influencing the revival of English poetry at the close of the last
century, this has frequently been to me a matter of surprise. To the
best of my knowledge, she does not even occupy any place in the numerous
sketches of famous women which have from time to time appeared. At the
same time the references to her in the biographies of her brother and in
the reviews of his works are many.
My main object in the present work has been, so far as permissible, to
gather together into the form of a Memoir of her life various allusions
to Miss Wordsworth, together with such further particulars as might be
procurable, and with some reflections to which such a life gives rise.
My task has, therefore, been one of a compiler rather than an author.
I acknowledge my great indebtedness to all sources from whence
information has been obtained. In addition to the authorities after
mentioned, I desire especially to mention the kindness of Dr. Sadler for
his permission to reprint the letters of Miss Wordsworth to the late
Mr. Henry Crabb Robinson, published in his "Diary and Reminiscences";
and of Mr. F. W. H. Myers for the like permission to make use of some
letters which for the first time appeared in his "Wordsworth."
However far I have failed in my original design, and however imperfectly
I may have performed my self-appointed task of love, it cannot be
doubted that no name can more fittingly have a place in female biography
than that of Dorothy Wordsworth.
BRADFORD, 1886.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
Introductory 1
CHAPTER II.
Childhood and Early Life--Early Influence--Wordsworth
in France--Settlement at Racedown 6
CHAPTER III.
Raisley Calvert--Residence at Racedown--Coleridge--Removal
to Alfoxden 17
CHAPTER IV.
Alfoxden--Hazlitt--Charles and Mary Lamb--Cottle--Residence
in Germany 29
CHAPTER V.
The Lake District 44
CHAPTER VI.
Life at Grasmere 59
CHAPTER VII.
Some Memorial Nooks--Lancrigg Wood--Emma's Dell--William's
Peak--Point Rash Judgment--Rock of Names 71
CHAPTER VIII.
The Circle Widened--Mrs. Wordsworth 81
CHAPTER IX.
Tour in Scotland--Miss Wordsworth's Journal 93
CHAPTER X.
Life at Grasmere--Capt. Wordsworth 112
CHAPTER XI.
De Quincey--His Description of Miss Wordsworth--Removal
to Allan Bank 120
CHAPTER XII.
The Children of Blentarn Ghyll--Deaths of Wordsworth's
Children 131
CHAPTER XIII.
Removal to Rydal Mount--Dora Wordsworth 139
CHAPTER XIV.
Friends--Tour on Continent 146
CHAPTER XV.
Further Influence 155
CHAPTER XVI.
Illness and Last Years 169
CHAPTER XVII.
A Quiet Resting-place 186
CHAPTER XVIII.
Miss Wordsworth's Poems 194
CHAPTER XIX.
Journal of Tour at Ullswater 203
LIST OF AUTHORITIES.
_The Poetical Works of Wordsworth._
_Memoirs of Wordsworth_, by the late Bishop of Lincoln.
_Wordsworth's Prose Works._
_Miss Wordsworth's Tour in Scotland._ Edited by Principal Shairp.
_Wordsworth's Description of the Lakes._
_Tait's Edinburgh Magazine_, 1839 and 1840.
_Recollections of the Lakes_, by De Quincey.
_Life of De Quincey_, by H. A. Page.
_Memoirs of Hazlitt_, by W. Carew Hazlitt.
_Diary and Reminiscences of Henry Crabb Robinson._
_Wordsworth_, by F. W. H. Myers (_English Men of Letters_).
_Autobiography of Sir Henry Taylor._
_Memoir of Sara Coleridge._
_Autobiography of Mrs. Fletcher._
_Cottle's Early Recollections of Coleridge._
_Howitt's Homes and Haunts of the British Poets._
_Letters of Charles Lamb_, by T. N. Talfourd.
_The Lake Country_, by Mrs. E. Lynn Linton.
_The English Lake District as Interpreted in the Works of Wordsworth_,
by Professor Knight.
_Blackwood's Magazine._
_The Transactions of the Wordsworth Society._
"I knew a maid,
. . . . . . . . . .
Birds in the bower, and lambs in the green fields
Could they have known her, would have loved; methought
Her very presence such a sweetness breathed,
That flowers, and trees, and even the silent hills,
And everything she looked on, should have had
An intimation how she bore herself
Towards them, and to all creatures. God delights
In such a being; for, her common thoughts
Are piety, her life is gratitude."
THE PRELUDE.
DOROTHY WORDSWORTH.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
The influences which help to shape human destiny are many and varied. At
some period in the early history of two lives, beginning their course
separately, one of them, by coming into contact with the other, is
quickened into deeper vitality, and the germ of a great and unthought-of
future is formed. Lives touch each other, and from thenceforth, like
meeting waters, their onward course is destined, and flows through
deeper and broader channels.
Among the most commanding of human influences is that of _woman_. As
mother, or sister, or wife we find her, at every period of a man's
existence, occupying a prominent part as his guide, comforter, and
friend. Not unfrequently it happens that the influence of a sister is
the greatest, and that to which a career is due. Especially is this so
when the mother dies whilst the brother and sister are young. The
influence of the wife, all-powerful though it may be, is of a later
date, when character and conduct have to a great extent become formed,
and the tendency of genius settled. When the sister's companionship
gives place to that of the wife, a career may have become developed. In
this way the most dominant power may remain unrevealed; and the
blossoming and perfection of character may never be traced to their
original source.
Many pleasant stories of affection between brothers and sisters, and of
their inspiration of each other, have been told; and many more have
existed among those who have lived unhistoric lives, and whose annals
are recorded only among memories which linger round lonely hearths.
Lovely and pleasant in their saddened lives were Charles and Mary Lamb.
The way in which they were each devoted to the other, and in which they
were bound up in each other's well-being to the complete forgetfulness
of self, suggests a pleasing and pathetic picture of fraternal fidelity,
while it reveals a domestic history the most touching and tragic the
world has known.
We have a companion picture, but a more happy and pleasant one, in the
lives of William and Dorothy Wordsworth.
The culture and well-being of a nation depend largely upon the
character, purity, and progress of its literature. To no class of
writers has the world been more indebted than to its poets--those "rare
souls, whose thoughts enrich the blood of the world." It was well said
by one of these: "Poetry has been to me its own exceeding great reward.
It has soothed my afflictions; it has multiplied and refined my
enjoyments; it has endeared solitude; and it has given me the habit of
wishing to discover the good and the beautiful in all that meets and
surrounds me."
Among those who have permanently elevated and enriched our English
literature during the present century, none is entitled to a more
honoured place than is William Wordsworth, our greatest laureate; and
none of the influences which entered into his life, and served to build
up his great career, and to complete his great work, can fail to be of
interest. And of all the world's benefactors--of all who in any of the
primary departments, have achieved most signal distinction, has none
been more indebted to the aid of another, than was Wordsworth to the
devoted aid and the constraining and softening power of his sister.
In many respects there is a marked similarity between the lives of
Charles and Mary Lamb and those of William and Dorothy Wordsworth. The
burden of the story of each is that of a brother's and sister's love.
But there is also a great difference. While one is the tale of an elder
sister's affection, and of the brother's self-sacrifice for the tender
care of her during periods of nature's saddest affliction, the other
tells how a younger sister consecrated her life to her brother's
greatest good, relinquishing for herself everything outside him in such
a way that she became absorbed in his own existence. But as a
self-sacrificing love always brings its own reward, the poet's sister
attained hers. She is for all time identified and associated with her
brother, who, with a grateful love, has "crowned her for immortality."
As Mr. Paxton Hood remarks: "Not Laura with Petrarch, nor Beatrice with
Dante, nor the fair Geraldine with Surrey, are more really connected
than is Wordsworth with his sister Dorothy."