The stilly murmur of the distant sea
Tells us of silence. ED.]
_24th._--Walked between half-past three and half-past five. The evening
cold and clear. The sea of a sober grey, streaked by the deeper grey
clouds. The half dead sound of the near sheep-bell, in the hollow of the
sloping coombe, exquisitely soothing.
_25th._--Went to Poole's after tea. The sky spread over with one
continuous cloud, whitened by the light of the moon, which, though her
dim shape was seen, did not throw forth so strong a light as to chequer
the earth with shadows. At once the clouds seemed to cleave asunder, and
left her in the centre of a black-blue vault. She sailed along, followed
by multitudes of stars, small, and bright, and sharp. Their brightness
seemed concentrated, (half-moon).
_26th._--Walked upon the hill-tops; followed the sheep tracks till we
overlooked the larger coombe. Sat in the sunshine. The distant
sheep-bells, the sound of the stream; the woodman winding along the
half-marked road with his laden pony; locks of wool still spangled with
the dewdrops; the blue-grey sea, shaded with immense masses of cloud,
not streaked; the sheep glittering in the sunshine. Returned through the
wood. The trees skirting the wood, being exposed more directly to the
action of the sea breeze, stripped of the net-work of their upper
boughs, which are stiff and erect, like black skeletons; the ground
strewed with the red berries of the holly. Set forward before two
o'clock. Returned a little after four.
_27th._--Walked from seven o'clock till half-past eight. Upon the whole
an uninteresting evening. Only once while we were in the wood the moon
burst through the invisible veil which enveloped her, the shadows of the
oaks blackened, and their lines became more strongly marked. The
withered leaves were coloured with a deeper yellow, a brighter gloss
spotted the hollies; again her form became dimmer; the sky flat,
unmarked by distances, a white thin cloud. The manufacturer's dog makes
a strange, uncouth howl, which it continues many minutes after there is
no noise near it but that of the brook. It howls at the murmur of the
village stream.
_28th._--Walked only to the mill.
_29th._--A very stormy day. William walked to the top of the hill to see
the sea. Nothing distinguishable but a heavy blackness. An immense bough
riven from one of the fir trees.
_30th._--William called me into the garden to observe a singular
appearance about the moon. A perfect rainbow, within the bow one star,
only of colours more vivid. The semi-circle soon became a complete
circle, and in the course of three or four minutes the whole faded away.
Walked to the blacksmith's and the baker's; an uninteresting evening.
_31st._--Set forward to Stowey at half-past five. A violent storm in
the wood; sheltered under the hollies. When we left home the moon
immensely large, the sky scattered over with clouds. These soon closed
in, contracting the dimensions of the moon without concealing her. The
sound of the pattering shower, and the gusts of wind, very grand. Left
the wood when nothing remained of the storm but the driving wind, and a
few scattering drops of rain. Presently all clear, Venus first showing
herself between the struggling clouds; afterwards Jupiter appeared. The
hawthorn hedges, black and pointed, glittering with millions of diamond
drops; the hollies shining with broader patches of light. The road to
the village of Holford glittered like another stream. On our return, the
wind high--a violent storm of hail and rain at the Castle of Comfort.
All the Heavens seemed in one perpetual motion when the rain ceased; the
moon appearing, now half veiled, and now retired behind heavy clouds,
the stars still moving, the roads very dirty.
_February 1st._--About two hours before dinner, set forward towards Mr.
Bartholemew's.[4] The wind blew so keen in our faces that we felt
ourselves inclined to seek the covert of the wood. There we had a warm
shelter, gathered a burthen of large rotten boughs blown down by the
wind of the preceding night. The sun shone clear, but all at once a
heavy blackness hung over the sea. The trees almost _roared_, and the
ground seemed in motion with the multitudes of dancing leaves, which
made a rustling sound, distinct from that of the trees. Still the asses
pastured in quietness under the hollies, undisturbed by these
forerunners of the storm. The wind beat furiously against us as we
returned. Full moon. She rose in uncommon majesty over the sea, slowly
ascending through the clouds. Sat with the window open an hour in the
moonlight.
[Footnote 4: Mr. Bartholemew rented Alfoxden, and sub-let the house to
Wordsworth.--ED.]
_2nd._--Walked through the wood, and on to the Downs before dinner; a
warm pleasant air. The sun shone, but was often obscured by straggling
clouds. The redbreasts made a ceaseless song in the woods. The wind rose
very high in the evening. The room smoked so that we were obliged to
quit it. Young lambs in a green pasture in the Coombe, thick legs, large
heads, black staring eyes.
_3rd._--A mild morning, the windows open at breakfast, the redbreasts
singing in the garden. Walked with Coleridge over the hills. The sea at
first obscured by vapour; that vapour afterwards slid in one mighty mass
along the sea-shore; the islands and one point of land clear beyond it.
The distant country (which was purple in the clear dull air), overhung
by straggling clouds that sailed over it, appeared like the darker
clouds, which are often seen at a great distance apparently motionless,
while the nearer ones pass quickly over them, driven by the lower winds.
I never saw such a union of earth, sky, and sea. The clouds beneath our
feet spread themselves to the water, and the clouds of the sky almost
joined them. Gathered sticks in the wood; a perfect stillness. The
redbreasts sang upon the leafless boughs. Of a great number of sheep in
the field, only one standing. Returned to dinner at five o'clock. The
moonlight still and warm as a summer's night at nine o'clock.
_4th._--Walked a great part of the way to Stowey with Coleridge. The
morning warm and sunny. The young lasses seen on the hill-tops, in the
villages and roads, in their summer holiday clothes--pink petticoats and
blue. Mothers with their children in arms, and the little ones that
could just walk, tottering by their side. Midges or small flies spinning
in the sunshine; the songs of the lark and redbreast; daisies upon the
turf; the hazels in blossom; honeysuckles budding. I saw one solitary
strawberry flower under a hedge. The furze gay with blossom. The moss
rubbed from the pailings by the sheep, that leave locks of wool, and the
red marks with which they are spotted, upon the wood.
_5th._--Walked to Stowey with Coleridge, returned by Woodlands; a very
warm day. In the continued singing of birds distinguished the notes of a
blackbird or thrush. The sea overshadowed by a thick dark mist, the land
in sunshine. The sheltered oaks and beeches still retaining their brown
leaves. Observed some trees putting out red shoots. Query: What trees
are they?
_6th._--Walked to Stowey over the hills, returned to tea, a cold and
clear evening, the roads in some parts frozen hard. The sea hid by mist
all the day.
_7th._--Turned towards Potsdam, but finding the way dirty, changed our
course. Cottage gardens the object of our walk. Went up the smaller
Coombe to Woodlands, to the blacksmith's, the baker's, and through the
village of Holford. Still misty over the sea. The air very delightful.
We saw nothing very new, or interesting.
_8th._--Went up the Park, and over the tops of the hills, till we came
to a new and very delicious pathway, which conducted us to the Coombe.
Sat a considerable time upon the heath. Its surface restless and
glittering with the motion of the scattered piles of withered grass, and
the waving of the spiders' threads. On our return the mist still hanging
over the sea, but the opposite coast clear, and the rocky cliffs
distinguishable. In the deep Coombe, as we stood upon the sunless hill,
we saw miles of grass, light and glittering, and the insects passing.
_9th._--William gathered sticks....
_10th._--Walked to Woodlands, and to the waterfall. The adder's-tongue
and the ferns green in the low damp dell. These plants now in perpetual
motion from the current of the air; in summer only moved by the
drippings of the rocks. A cloudy day.
_11th._--Walked with Coleridge near to Stowey. The day pleasant, but
cloudy.
_12th._--Walked alone to Stowey. Returned in the evening with Coleridge.
A mild, pleasant, cloudy day.
_13th._--Walked with Coleridge through the wood. A mild and pleasant
morning, the near prospect clear. The ridges of the hills fringed with
wood, showing the sea through them like the white sky, and still beyond
the dim horizon of the distant hills, hanging as it were in one
undetermined line between sea and sky.
_14th._--Gathered sticks with William in the wood, he being unwell and
not able to go further. The young birch trees of a bright red, through
which gleams a shade of purple. Sat down in a thick part of the wood.
The near trees still, even to their topmost boughs, but a perpetual
motion in those that skirt the wood. The breeze rose gently; its path
distinctly marked, till it came to the very spot where we were.
_15th._--Gathered sticks in the further wood. The dell green with moss
and brambles, and the tall and slender pillars of the unbranching oaks.
I crossed the water with letters; returned to Wm. and Basil. A shower
met us in the wood, and a ruffling breeze.
_16th._--Went for eggs into the Coombe, and to the baker's; a hail
shower; brought home large burthens of sticks, a starlight evening, the
sky closed in, and the ground white with snow before we went to bed.
_17th._--A deep snow upon the ground. Wm. and Coleridge walked to Mr.
Bartholemew's, and to Stowey. Wm. returned, and we walked through the
wood into the Coombe to fetch some eggs. The sun shone bright and clear.
A deep stillness in the thickest part of the wood, undisturbed except by
the occasional dropping of the snow from the holly boughs; no other
sound but that of the water, and the slender notes of a redbreast, which
sang at intervals on the outskirts of the southern side of the wood.
There the bright green moss was bare at the roots of the trees, and the
little birds were upon it. The whole appearance of the wood was
enchanting; and each tree, taken singly, was beautiful. The branches of
the hollies pendent with their white burden, but still showing their
bright red berries, and their glossy green leaves. The bare branches of
the oaks thickened by the snow.
_18th._--Walked after dinner beyond Woodlands.[5] A sharp and very cold
evening; first observed the crescent moon, a silvery line, a thready
bow, attended by Jupiter and Venus in their palest hues.
[Footnote 5: This house was afterwards John Kenyon's,--to whom
_Aurora Leigh_ is dedicated,--and was subsequently the residence
of the Rev. William Nichols, author of _The Quantocks and their
Associations_.--ED.]
_19th._--I walked to Stowey before dinner; Wm. unable to go all the way.
Returned alone; a fine sunny, clear, frosty day. The sea still, and
blue, and broad, and smooth.
_20th._--Walked after dinner towards Woodlands.
_21st._--Coleridge came in the morning, which prevented our walking. Wm.
went through the wood with him towards Stowey; a very stormy night.
_22nd._--Coleridge came in the morning to dinner. Wm. and I walked after
dinner to Woodlands; the moon and two planets; sharp and frosty. Met a
razor-grinder with a soldier's jacket on, a knapsack upon his back, and
a boy to drag his wheel. The sea very black, and making a loud noise as
we came through the wood, loud as if disturbed, and the wind was silent.
_23rd._--William walked with Coleridge in the morning. I did not go out.
_24th._--Went to the hill-top. Sat a considerable time overlooking the
country towards the sea. The air blew pleasantly round us. The landscape
mildly interesting. The Welsh hills capped by a huge range of tumultuous
white clouds. The sea, spotted with white, of a bluish grey in general,
and streaked with darker lines. The near shores clear; scattered farm
houses, half-concealed by green mossy orchards, fresh straw lying at the
doors; hay-stacks in the fields. Brown fallows, the springing wheat,
like a shade of green over the brown earth, and the choice meadow plots,
full of sheep and lambs, of a soft and vivid green; a few wreaths of
blue smoke, spreading along the ground; the oaks and beeches in the
hedges retaining their yellow leaves; the distant prospect on the land
side, islanded with sunshine; the sea, like a basin full to the margin;
the dark fresh-ploughed fields; the turnips of a lively rough green.
Returned through the wood.
_25th._--I lay down in the morning, though the whole day was very
pleasant, and the evening fine. We did not walk.
_26th._--Coleridge came in the morning, and Mr. and Mrs. Cruikshank[6];
walked with Coleridge nearly to Stowey after dinner. A very clear
afternoon. We lay sidelong upon the turf, and gazed on the landscape
till it melted into more than natural loveliness. The sea very uniform,
of a pale greyish blue, only one distant bay, bright and blue as a sky;
had there been a vessel sailing up it, a perfect image of delight.
Walked to the top of a high hill to see a fortification. Again sat down
to feed upon the prospect; a magnificent scene, _curiously_ spread out
for even minute inspection, though so extensive that the mind is afraid
to calculate its bounds. A winter prospect shows every cottage, every
farm, and the forms of distant trees, such as in summer have no
distinguishing mark. On our return, Jupiter and Venus before us. While
the twilight still overpowered the light of the moon, we were reminded
that she was shining bright above our heads, by our faint shadows going
before us. We had seen her on the tops of the hills, melting into the
blue sky. Poole called while we were absent.
[Footnote 6: Of Nether-Stowey, the agent of the Earl of Egmont.--ED.]
_27th._--I walked to Stowey in the evening. Wm. and Basil went with me
through the wood. The prospect bright, yet _mildly_ beautiful. The sea
big and white, swelled to the very shores, but round and high in the
middle. Coleridge returned with me, as far as the wood. A very bright
moonlight night. Venus almost like another moon. Lost to us at Alfoxden
long before she goes down the large white sea.
* * * * * *
_March 1st._--We rose early. A thick fog obscured the distant prospect
entirely, but the shapes of the nearer trees and the dome of the wood
dimly seen and dilated. It cleared away between ten and eleven. The
shapes of the mist, slowly moving along, exquisitely beautiful; passing
over the sheep they almost seemed to have more of life than those quiet
creatures. The unseen birds singing in the mist.[7]
[Footnote 7: Compare _The Recluse_, 1. 91--