* * * We had a lovely ride and ferrying over Windermere
to Colthouse meeting on First-day. * * *
I am almost well, and able to enter into these beauties.
Will you be satisfied with seven sketches, such as they
are, for this day?
I thought, as we passed Doves' Nest, and read in the
guide-book F. Hemans's description of her dwelling
there for twelve months, and how many sad hearts,
beside hers, had come thither for a refuge from sorrow,
what cause we had to be thankful for (so far) another
lot; and yet, dear L., with all I see around me, my
heart is very often with you, and turns
From glassy lakes, and mountains grand,
And green reposeful isles,
To that one corner of the land
Beyond the rest that smiles.
Beyond the rest it smiles for me,
Thither my thoughts will roam--
The home beloved of infancy,
My childhood's precious home!
And yet somehow it is not with a reproachful smile that
it looks on me, nor with a regretful heart that I think
upon it. It is delightful to think of dear father and
mother's coming to Birmingham so soon, and of meeting
R. this day fortnight.
To her Mother.
GRASMERE, 3d of 9th Month, 1851.