CHAPTER XIII.

REMOVAL TO RYDAL MOUNT.--DORA WORDSWORTH.

Since their settlement in Grasmere, the worldly circumstances of Wordsworth, as well as those of his sister, had considerably improved. We have seen upon what slender, combined means they began housekeeping, living in "noble poverty"--and were happy. Shortly afterwards the then Earl of Lonsdale honourably paid to the Wordsworths the large sum of money which, as has been before mentioned, had been withheld by his father. The share of each of them of this is said to have been about £1,800. In addition to this the poet's muse had begun to be more profitable to him. Though he had not then been awarded that high and foremost rank in the inspired choir which he has since attained, yet his power as a great poet was beginning to be acknowledged by more than the select number who had from the first recognised his genius.

About this time he also had conferred upon him the appointment as distributor of stamps for Westmoreland. While the emoluments of this office formed a substantial addition to the poet's income, its duties were such that they could be chiefly performed by deputy.

In obtaining for their new home the now classic RYDAL MOUNT, the good fortune of the Wordsworths did not fail them. The "modest mansion" is well known, and many descriptions of it have been given. For the beauty of its situation, and the amenities of its surroundings, it is almost unsurpassed. It has been somewhere stated that whilst most persons, who, having chosen their own residences, think them the first, they are all ready to give the second place to Rydal Mount. I have on two occasions since the poet's death had the good fortune to obtain admittance to the grounds, and, with feelings of reverence and emotion, paced the terrace-walks, worn by the footsteps of the great departed. We are on such occasions strikingly reminded of the words of Foster: "What a tale could be told by many a room were the walls endowed with memory and speech." The house stands in an elevated position, being on a plateau on the south side of Nab Scar. Striking off from the side of the house is a walk called the Upper Terrace. From this path the views are exceedingly lovely. Immediately in front is the Rothay Valley, backed by the richly-wooded heights of Loughrigg, with Windermere in the distance to the left, "a light thrown into the picture in the winter season, and in the summer a beautiful feature, changing with every hue of the sky." About halfway along the terrace we come to a rustic alcove, built of fir poles, and lined with cones. Here, we should think, the walk ends, for we are parallel with the boundary wall of the garden below; but opening a door, we find the road branches slightly to the right, and, opening into the far terrace, reveals a surprise view. Here we see beneath us Rydal Water, gemmed with its romantic islands, and beyond, the green heights of Loughrigg Terrace. Following the path, with its sloping banks of fern and flowers, for about fifty yards, we find it terminated by a little wicket-gate, which opens upon a field, whence the old, and now grass-green, road to Grasmere is reached. On the left side of the Upper Terrace is a dwarf wall, niched with ferns and mosses. Below this wall is another terrace--a level one--formed by the poet himself, chiefly for the sake of Miss Fenwick, who was a valued friend, and, in after years, an inmate at Rydal Mount. To her the poet dictated the MSS. notes upon his poems, referred to in the "Memoirs," and elsewhere, as the "MSS. I. F."

In speaking of the nocturnal aspect of Rydal Mount, Wordsworth mentions "the beauty of the situation, its being backed and flanked by lofty fells, which bring the heavenly bodies to touch, as it were, the earth upon the mountain tops, while the prospect in front lies open to a length of level valley, the extended lake, and a terminating ridge of low hills."

A poetical description of this chosen retreat, by Miss Jewsbury, and published in the _Literary Magnet_, for 1826, may be quoted here:--

"THE POET'S HOME."

"Low and white, yet scarcely seen, Are its walls for mantling green; Not a window lets in light, But through flowers clustering bright; Not a glance may wander there, But it falls on something fair; Garden choice, and fairy mound, Only that no elves are found; Winding walk, and sheltered nook, For student grave and graver book: Or a bird-like bower, perchance, Fit for maiden and romance. Then, far off, a glorious sheen Of wide and sunlit waters seen; Hills that in the distance lie, Blue and yielding as the sky; And nearer, closing round the nest, The home of all the 'living crest,' Other rocks and mountains stand, Rugged, yet a guardian band, Like those that did, in fable old, Elysium from the world enfold.

". . . . . . . Companions meet Thou shalt have in thy retreat: One of long-tried love and truth; Thine in age as thine in youth; One, whose locks of partial grey, Whisper somewhat of decay; Yet whose bright and beaming eye Tells of more that cannot die.

"Then a second form beyond, Thine, too, by another bond, Sportive, tender, graceful, wild-- Scarcely woman, more than child-- One who doth thy heart entwine, Like the ever-clinging vine; One to whom thou art a stay, As the oak that, scarred and grey, Standeth on, and standeth fast, Strong and stately to the last.

"Poet's lot like this hath been; Such, perchance, may I have seen; Or in fancy's fairy land, Or in truth, and near at hand: If in fancy, then, forsooth, Fancy had the force of truth; If, again, a truth it were, Then were truth as fancy fair; But, which ever it might be, ''Twas a Paradise to me.'"

Of the "companions meet" referred to above it is evident that the first-named "of long-tried love and truth" is Miss Wordsworth; the second, Mrs. Wordsworth; and the third, Miss Dora Wordsworth, the poet's daughter, to whom some further reference should now be made.

At the time of the removal to Rydal Mount, in the spring of 1813, the family, in addition to the parents and Miss Wordsworth, consisted of three children, of whom the second--Dorothy, or Dora, born in 1804--was of the interesting age of nine years. She was named after her aunt, Miss Wordsworth; for, although her father would have preferred to have called her Mary, the name Dorothy, as he stated to Lady Beaumont, had been so long devoted in his own thoughts to the first daughter he might have, he could not break his promise to himself. By way of further distinguishing her from her aunt, Mr. Crabb Robinson used to call her Dorina. To this surviving daughter, as she grew up to womanhood, Wordsworth was passionately attached. Inheriting as she did, in no slight degree, the family genius, he seemed to see reproduced in her a harmonious blending of the characteristics and mental lineaments of his wife and sister, the two beings in the world whom he had most devotedly loved.

Wordsworth's later poems contain several allusions to Dora. In this place I will quote a stanza or two only, from one, entitled "The Triad," written in celebration of Edith Southey, Dora Wordsworth, and Sara Coleridge:--

"Open, ye thickets! let her fly, Swift as a Thracian Nymph o'er field and height! For She, to all but those who love her, shy, Would gladly vanish from a Stranger's sight; Though where she is beloved and loves, Light as the wheeling butterfly she moves; Her happy spirit as a bird is free, That rifles blossoms on a tree, Turning them inside out with arch audacity. Alas! how little can a moment show Of an eye where feeling plays In ten thousand dewy rays; A face o'er which a thousand shadows go! --She stops--is fastened to that rivulet's side; And there (while, with sedater mien, O'er timid waters that have scarcely left Their birth-place in the rocky cleft, She bends) at leisure may be seen Features to old ideal grace allied, Amid their smiles and dimples dignified-- Fit countenance for the soul of primal truth: The bland composure of eternal youth!

"What more changeful than the sea? But over his great tides Fidelity presides; And this light-hearted Maiden, constant is as he. High is her aim as heaven above, And wide as ether her good-will; And, like the lowly reed, her love Can drink its nurture from the scantiest rill: Insight as keen as frosty star Is to _her_ charity no bar, Nor interrupts her frolic graces When she is, far from these wild places, Encircled by familiar faces."

Writing of Dora Wordsworth, Miss Coleridge says:--"There is truth in the sketch of Dora--poetic truth, though such as none but a poetic father would have seen. She was unique in her sweetness and goodness. I mean that her character was most peculiar--a compound of vehemence of feeling and gentleness, sharpness and lovingness, which is not often seen."