_2nd._--Went a part of the way home with Coleridge in the morning.
Gathered fir apples afterwards under the trees.
_3rd._--I went to the shoemaker's. William lay under the trees till my
return. Afterwards went to the secluded farm house in search of eggs,
and returned over the hill. A very mild, cloudy evening. The rose trees
in the hedges and the elders budding.
_4th._--Walked to Woodlands after dinner, a pleasant evening.
_5th._--Gathered fir-apples. A thick fog came on. Walked to the baker's
and the shoemaker's, and through the fields towards Woodlands. On our
return, found Tom Poole in the parlour. He drank tea with us.
_6th._--A pleasant morning, the sea white and bright, and full to the
brim. I walked to see Coleridge in the evening. William went with me to
the wood. Coleridge very ill. It was a mild, pleasant afternoon, but the
evening became very foggy; when I was near Woodlands, the fog overhead
became thin, and I saw the shapes of the Central Stars. Again it closed,
and the whole sky was the same.
_7th._--William and I drank tea at Coleridge's. A cloudy sky. Observed
nothing particularly interesting--the distant prospect obscured. One
only leaf upon the top of a tree--the sole remaining leaf--danced round
and round like a rag blown by the wind.[8]
[Footnote 8: Did this suggest the lines in _Christabel_?--
The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,
On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky. ED.]
_8th._--Walked in the Park in the morning. I sate under the fir trees.
Coleridge came after dinner, so we did not walk again. A foggy morning,
but a clear sunny day.
_9th._--A clear sunny morning, went to meet Mr. and Mrs. Coleridge. The
day very warm.
_10th._--Coleridge, Wm., and I walked in the evening to the top of the
hill. We all passed the morning in sauntering about the park and
gardens, the children playing about, the old man at the top of the hill
gathering furze; interesting groups of human creatures, the young
frisking and dancing in the sun, the elder quietly drinking in the life
and soul of the sun and air.
_11th._--A cold day. The children went down towards the sea. William and
I walked to the top of the hills above Holford. Met the blacksmith.
Pleasant to see the labourer on Sunday jump with the friskiness of a cow
upon a sunny day.
_12th._--Tom Poole returned with Coleridge to dinner, a brisk, cold,
sunny day; did not walk.
_13th._--Poole dined with us. William and I strolled into the wood.
Coleridge called us into the house.
* * * * * *
_15th._--I have neglected to set down the occurrences of this week, so I
do not recollect how we disposed of ourselves to-day.
_16th._--William, and Coleridge, and I walked in the Park a short time.
I wrote to ----. William very ill, better in the evening; and we called
round by Potsdam.
_17th._--I do not remember this day.
_18th._--The Coleridges left us. A cold, windy morning. Walked with
them half way. On our return, sheltered under the hollies, during a
hail-shower. The withered leaves danced with the hailstones. William
wrote a description of the storm.[9]
[Footnote 9: See "A whirl-blast from behind the hill" in the "Poetical
Works," vol. i. p. 238.--ED.]
_19th._--Wm. and Basil and I walked to the hill-tops, a very cold bleak
day. We were met on our return by a severe hailstorm. William wrote some
lines describing a stunted thorn.[10]
[Footnote 10: See _The Thorn_, "Poetical Works," vol. i. p. 239.--ED.]
_20th._--Coleridge dined with us. We went more than half way home with
him in the evening. A very cold evening, but clear. The spring seemingly
very little advanced. No green trees, only the hedges are budding, and
looking very lovely.
_21st._--We drank tea at Coleridge's. A quiet shower of snow was in the
air during more than half our walk. At our return the sky partially
shaded with clouds. The horned moon was set. Startled two night birds
from the great elm tree.
_22nd._--I spent the morning in starching and hanging out linen; walked
_through_ the wood in the evening, very cold.
_23rd._--Coleridge dined with us. He brought his ballad finished.[11] We
walked with him to the Miner's house. A beautiful evening, very starry,
the horned moon.
[Footnote 11: The ballad was finished by February 18, 1798. See _Early
Recollections_, etc., by Joseph Cottle, vol. i. p. 307 (1837).--ED.]
_24th._--Coleridge, the Chesters, and Ellen Cruikshank called. We
walked with them through the wood. Went in the evening into the Coombe
to get eggs; returned through the wood, and walked in the park. A duller
night than last night: a sort of white shade over the blue sky. The
stars dim. The spring continues to advance very slowly, no green trees,
the hedges leafless; nothing green but the brambles that still retain
their old leaves, the evergreens, and the palms, which indeed are not
absolutely green. Some brambles I observed to-day budding afresh, and
those have shed their old leaves. The crooked arm of the old oak tree
points upwards to the moon.
_25th._--Walked to Coleridge's after tea. Arrived at home at one
o'clock. The night cloudy but not dark.
_26th._--Went to meet Wedgwood at Coleridge's after dinner. Reached home
at half-past twelve, a fine moonlight night; half moon.
_27th._--Dined at Poole's. Arrived at home a little after twelve, a
partially cloudy, but light night, very cold.
_28th._--Hung out the linen.
_29th._--Coleridge dined with us.
_30th._--Walked I know not where.
_31st._--Walked.
_April 1st._--Walked by moonlight.
_2nd._--A very high wind. Coleridge came to avoid the smoke; stayed all
night. We walked in the wood, and sat under the trees. The half of the
wood perfectly still, while the wind was making a loud noise behind us.
The still trees only gently bowed their heads, as if listening to the
wind. The hollies in the thick wood unshaken by the blast; only, when it
came with a greater force, shaken by the rain drops falling from the
bare oaks above.
_3rd._--Walked to Crookham, with Coleridge and Wm., to make the appeal.
Left Wm. there, and parted with Coleridge at the top of the hill. A very
stormy afternoon....
_4th._--Walked to the sea-side in the afternoon. A great commotion in
the air, but the sea neither grand nor beautiful. A violent shower in
returning. Sheltered under some fir trees at Potsdam.
_5th._--Coleridge came to dinner. William and I walked in the wood in
the morning. I fetched eggs from the Coombe.
_6th._--Went a part of the way home with Coleridge. A pleasant warm
morning, but a showery day. Walked a short distance up the lesser
Coombe, with an intention of going to the source of the brook, but the
evening closing in, cold prevented us. The Spring still advancing very
slowly. The horse-chestnuts budding, and the hedgerows beginning to look
green, but nothing fully expanded.
_7th._--Walked before dinner up the Coombe, to the source of the brook,
and came home by the tops of the hills; a showery morning, at the
hill-tops; the view opened upon us very grand.
_8th._--Easter Sunday. Walked in the morning in the wood, and half way
to Stowey; found the air at first oppressively warm, afterwards very
pleasant.
_9th._--Walked to Stowey, a fine air in going, but very hot in
returning. The sloe in blossom, the hawthorns green, the larches in the
park changed from black to green in two or three days. Met Coleridge in
returning.
_10th._--I was hanging out linen in the evening. We walked to Holford. I
turned off to the baker's, and walked beyond Woodlands, expecting to
meet William, met him on the hill; a close warm evening ... in bloom.
_11th._--In the wood in the morning, walked to the top of the hill, then
I went down into the wood. A pleasant evening, a fine air, the grass in
the park becoming green, many trees green in the dell.
_12th._--Walked in the morning in the wood. In the evening up the
Coombe, fine walk. The Spring advances rapidly, multitudes of primroses,
dog-violets, periwinkles, stitchwort.
_13th._--Walked in the wood in the morning. In the evening went to
Stowey. I staid with Mr. Coleridge. Wm. went to Poole's. Supped with Mr.
Coleridge.
_14th._--Walked in the wood in the morning. The evening very stormy, so
we staid within doors. Mary Wollstonecraft's life, etc., came.
_15th._--Set forward after breakfast to Crookham, and returned to
dinner at three o'clock. A fine cloudy morning. Walked about the
squire's grounds. Quaint waterfalls about, about which Nature was very
successfully striving to make beautiful what art had deformed--ruins,
hermitages, etc. etc. In spite of all these things, the dell romantic
and beautiful, though everywhere planted with unnaturalised trees.
Happily we cannot shape the huge hills, or carve out the valleys
according to our fancy.
_16th._--New moon. William walked in the wood in the morning. I
neglected to follow him. We walked in the park in the evening....
_17th._--Walked in the wood in the morning. In the evening upon the
hill. Cowslips plentiful.
_18th._--Walked in the wood, a fine sunny morning, met Coleridge
returned from his brother's. He dined with us. We drank tea, and then
walked with him nearly to Stowey....
_19th._-- ...
_20th._--Walked in the evening up the hill dividing the Coombes. Came
home the Crookham way, by the thorn, and the "little muddy pond." Nine
o'clock at our return. William all the morning engaged in wearisome
composition. The moon crescent. _Peter Bell_ begun.
_21st_, _22nd_, _23rd_.-- ...
_24th._--Walked a considerable time in the wood. Sat under the trees, in
the evening walked on the top of the hill, found Coleridge on our return
and walked with him towards Stowey.
_25th._--Coleridge drank tea, walked with him to Stowey.
_26th._--William went to have his picture taken.[12] I walked with him.
Dined at home. Coleridge and he drank tea.
[Footnote 12: This was the earliest portrait of Wordsworth by W.
Shuter. It is now in the possession of Mrs. St. John, Ithaca,
U.S.A.--ED.]
_27th._--Coleridge breakfasted and drank tea, strolled in the wood in
the morning, went with him in the evening through the wood, afterwards
walked on the hills: the moon, a many-coloured sea and sky.
_28th, Saturday._--A very fine morning, warm weather all the week.
_May 6th, Sunday._--Expected the painter, and Coleridge. A rainy
morning--very pleasant in the evening. Met Coleridge as we were walking
out. Went with him to Stowey; heard the nightingale; saw a glow-worm.
_7th._--Walked in the wood in the morning. In the evening, to Stowey
with Coleridge who called.
_8th._--Coleridge dined, went in the afternoon to tea at Stowey. A
pleasant walk home.
_9th._-- ... Wrote to Coleridge.
_Wednesday, 16th May._--Coleridge, William, and myself set forward to
the Chedder rocks; slept at Bridgewater.
_22nd, Thursday._[13]--Walked to Chedder. Slept at Cross.
[Footnote 13: It is thus written in the MS., but the 22nd May 1798
was a _Tuesday_. If the entry refers to a _Thursday_, the day of the
month should have been written 24th. Dorothy Wordsworth was not exact
as to dates.--ED.]