e appended.

THIRD. In the present edition several suggested changes of text, which
were written by Wordsworth on the margin of a copy of his edition of
1836-7, which he kept beside him at Rydal Mount, are published. These
MS. notes seem to have been written by himself, or dictated to others,
at intervals between the years 1836 and 1850, and they are thus a record
of passing thoughts, or "moods of his own mind," during these years.
Some of these were afterwards introduced into the editions of 1842,
1846, and 1849; others were not made use of. The latter have now a value
of their own, as indicating certain new phases of thought and feeling,
in Wordsworth's later years. I owe my knowledge of them, and the
permission to use them, to the kindness of the late Chief Justice of
England, Lord Coleridge. The following is an extract from a letter from
him:

"FOX GHYLL, AMBLESIDE, '4th October 1881'.

"I have been long intending to write you as to the manuscript notes
and alterations in Wordsworth's poems, which you have had the
opportunity of seeing, and, so far as you thought fit, of using for
your edition. They came into my possession in this way. I saw them
advertised in a catalogue which was sent me, and at my request the
book was very courteously forwarded to me for my inspection. It
appeared to me of sufficient interest and value to induce me to buy
it; and I accordingly became the purchaser.

"It is a copy of the edition in six volumes, the publication of which
began in the year 1836; and of the volume containing the collected
sonnets, which was afterwards printed uniformly with that edition. It
appears to have been the copy which Wordsworth himself used for
correcting, altering, and adding to the poems contained in it. As you
have seen, in some of the poems the Alterations are very large,
amounting sometimes to a complete rewriting of considerable passages.
Many of these alterations have been printed in subsequent editions;
some have not; two or three small poems, as far as I know, have not
been hitherto published. Much of the writing is Wordsworth's own; but
perhaps the larger portion is the hand-writing of others, one or more,
not familiar to me as Wordsworth's is.

"How the volumes came to be sold I do not know.... Such as they are,
and whatever be their interest or value, you are, as far as I am
concerned, heartily welcome to them; and I shall be glad indeed if