WORDSWORTH, DOROTHY (1771-1855).--Diarist, etc., was the only sister of
the poet, and his lifelong and sympathetic companion, and endowed in no
small degree with the same love of and insight into nature as is
evidenced by her _Journals_. Many of her brother's poems were suggested
by scenes and incidents recorded by her, of which that on Daffodils
beginning "I wandered lonely as a cloud" is a notable example.

WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM (1770-1850).--Poet, _s._ of John W., attorney and
agent to the 1st Lord Lonsdale, was _b._ at Cockermouth. His boyhood was
full of adventure among the hills, and he says of himself that he showed
"a stiff, moody, and violent temper." He lost his mother when he was 8,
and his _f._ in 1783 when he was 13. The latter, prematurely cut off,
left little for the support of his family of four sons and a _dau._,
Dorothy (afterwards the worthy companion of her illustrious brother),
except a claim for L5000 against Lord Lonsdale, which his lordship
contested, and which was not settled until his death. With the help,
however, of uncles, the family were well _ed._ and started in life.
William received his earlier education at Penrith and Hawkshead in
Lancashire; and in 1787 went to St. John's Coll., Camb., where he
graduated B.A. in 1791. In the preceding year, 1790, he had taken a
walking tour on the Continent, visiting France in the first flush of the
Revolution with which, at that stage, he was, like many of the best
younger minds of the time, in enthusiastic sympathy. So much was this the
case that he nearly involved himself with the Girondists to an extent
which might have cost him his life. His funds, however, gave out, and he
returned to England shortly before his friends fell under the guillotine.
His uncles were desirous that he should enter the Church, but to this he
was unconquerably averse; and indeed his marked indisposition to adopt
any regular employment led to their taking not unnatural offence. In 1793
his first publication--_Descriptive Sketches of a Pedestrian Tour in the
Alps_, and _The Evening Walk_--appeared, but attracted little attention.
The beginning of his friendship with Coleridge in 1795 tended to confirm
him in his resolution to devote himself to poetry; and a legacy of L900
from a friend put it in his power to do so by making him for a time
independent of other employment. He settled with his sister at Racedown,
Dorsetshire, and shortly afterwards removed to Alfoxden, in the