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many small oak trees but we dare not hope that they are all to remain. The Ladies are come to Mr Gell's cottage. We saw them as we went & their light when we returned. When we came in we found a Magazine & Review & a letter from Coleridge with verses to Hartley & Sara H. We read the Review,7 &c. The moon was a perfect Roat a silver Roat when we were out in the evening. The Rirch Tree is all over green in small leaf more light & elegant than when it is full out. It bent to the breezes as if for the love of its own delightful motions. Sloe thorns & Hawthorns in the hedges.
Friday 7th May. William had slept uncommonly well so, feeling himself strong, he fell to work at the Leech gatherer?He wrote hard at it till dinner time, then he gave over tired to death?he had finished the poem.8 * 4 *
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[July.] On Thursday morning, 29th, we arrived in London.9 Wm left me at the Inn?I went to bed &c &c &c?After various troubles and disasters we left London on Saturday morning at Vz past 5 or 6, the 31st of July (I have forgot which). We mounted the Dover Coach at Charing Cross. It was a beautiful morning. The City, St. Paul's, with the River & a multitude of little Boats, made a most beautiful sight as we crossed Westminster Bridge. The houses were not overhung by their cloud of smoke & they were spread out endlessly, yet the sun shone so brightly with such a pure light that there was even something like the purity of one of nature's own grand spectacles.1 We rode on chearfully now with the Paris Diligence before us, now behind?we walked up the steep hills, beautiful prospects everywhere, till we even reached Dover.
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* * We arrived at Calais at 4 o'clock on Sunday morning the 31st of July.2 We stayed in the vessel till V2 past 7, then Wm went for Letters, at about Vi past 8 or 9. We found out Annette & C chez Madame Avril dans la Rue de la Tete d'or. We lodged opposite two Ladies in tolerably decent-sized rooms but badly furnished, & with large store of bad smells & dirt in the yard, & all about. The weather was very hot. We walked by the sea-shore almost every evening with Annette & Caroline or Wm & I alone. I had a bad cold & could not bathe at first but William did. It was a pretty sight to see as we walked upon the Sands when the tide was low perhaps a hundred people bathing about Vi of a mile distant from us, and we had delightful walks after the heat of the day was passed away?seeing far off in the west the Coast of England Jike a cloud crested with Dover Castle, which was but like the summit of the cloud?the Evening star & the glory of the sky. The Reflections in the water were more beautiful than the sky itself, purple waves brighter than precious stones for ever melting away upon the sands. * * *
$ S fc
[Sept. 24 and following.] Mary first met us in the avenue. She looked so fat and well that we were made very happy by the sight of her?then came Sara, & last of all Joanna.3 Tom was forking corn standing upon the corn cart. We
7. The Monthly Review for March 1802. the occasion for William's sonnet 'It is a beauteous 8. Later entries show, however, that William kept evening.' working on the manuscript until July 4. 3. The Wordsworths have come to Gallow Hill,
9. On the way to France to visit Annette Vallon Yorkshire, for the marriage of William and Mary. and Caroline (see the entry for March 22, 1802; The people mentioned are Mary's sisters and
p. 396). brothers (Sara, Joanna, Tom, Jack, and George 1. Cf. William's sonnet 'Composed upon West- Hutchinson). Out of consideration for Dorothy's minster Bridge' (p. 317). overwrought feelings, only Joanna, Jack, and Tom
2. The actual date was August 1. One of the walks attended the ceremony at Brampton Church. by the sea that Dorothy goes on to describe was
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THE GRASMERE JOURNALS / 401
dressed ourselves immediately & got tea?the garden looked gay with asters & sweet peas?I looked at everything with tranquillity & happiness but I was ill both on Saturday & Sunday & continued to be poorly most of the time of our stay. Jack & George came on Friday Evening 1st October. On Saturday 2nd we rode to Hackness, William Jack George & Sara single, I behind Tom. On Sunday 3rd Mary & Sara were busy packing. On Monday 4th October 1802, my Brother William was married to Mary Hutchinson. I slept a good deal of the night & rose fresh & well in the morning?at a little after 8 o'clock I saw them go down the avenue towards the Church. William had parted from me up stairs. I gave him the wedding ring?with how deep a blessing! I took it from my forefinger where I had worn it the whole of the night before?he slipped it again onto my finger and blessed me fervently. When they were absent my dear little Sara prepared the breakfast. I kept myself as quiet as I could, but when I saw the two men running up the walk, coming to tell us it was over, I could stand it no longer & threw myself on the bed where I lay in stillness, neither hearing or seeing any thing, till Sara came upstairs to me & said 'They are coming.' This forced me from the bed where I lay & I moved I knew not how straight forward, faster than my strength could carry me till I met my beloved William & fell upon his bosom. He & John Hutchinson led me to the house & there I stayed to welcome my dear Mary. As soon as we had breakfasted we departed.4 It rained when we set off. Poor Mary was much agitated when she parted from her Brothers & Sisters & her home. Nothing particular occurred till we reached Kirby. We had sunshine & showers, pleasant talk, love & chearfulness. * * * It rained very hard when we reached Windermere. We sate in the rain at Wilcock's to change horses, & arrived at Grasmere at about 6 o'clock on Wednesday Evening, the 6th of October 1802. Molly was overjoyed to see us,?for my part I cannot describe what I felt, & our dear Mary's feelings would I dare say not be easy to speak of. We went by candle light into the garden & were astonished at the growth of the Brooms, Portugal Laurels, &c &c &?The next day, Thursday, we unpacked the Boxes. On Friday 8th we baked Bread, & Mary & I walked, first upon the Hill side, & then in John's Grove, then in view of Rydale, the first walk that I had taken with my Sister.
* & $ 24th December 1802, Christmas Eve. William is now sitting by me at Vz past 10 o'clock. I have been beside him ever since tea running the heel of a stocking, repeating some of his sonnets to him, listening to his own repeating, reading some of Milton's & the Allegro & Penseroso. It is a quiet keen frost. Mary is in the parlour below attending to the baking of cakes & Jenny Fletcher's pies. Sara is in bed in the tooth ache, & so we are?beloved William is turning over the leaves of Charlotte Smith's sonnets, but he keeps his hand to his poor chest pushing aside his breastplate.5 Mary is well & I am well, & Molly is as blithe as last year at this time. Coleridge came this morning with Wedgwood.6 We all turned out of Wm's bedroom one by one to meet him? he looked well. We had to tell him of the Birth of his little Girl, born yesterday morning at 6 o'clock.7 W went with them to Wytheburn in the Chaise, & M & I met Wm on the Rays. It was not an unpleasant morning to the feelings?far
4. Dorothy accompanied William and Mary on the 6. Tom Wedgwood, whose father had founded the three- day journey back to their cottage at Gras-famous pottery works, was a friend and generous
