Quantock
Hills, to be near Coleridge, who was then living at Nether Stowey in the
same neighbourhood. One result of the intimacy thus established was the
planning of a joint work, _Lyrical Ballads_, to which Coleridge
contributed _The Ancient Mariner_, and W., among other pieces, _Tintern
Abbey_. The first ed. of the work appeared in 1798. With the profits of
this he went, accompanied by his sister and Coleridge, to Germany, where
he lived chiefly at Goslar, and where he began the _Prelude_, a poem
descriptive of the development of his own mind. After over a year's
absence W. returned and settled with Dorothy at Grasmere. In 1800 the
second ed. of _Lyrical Ballads_, containing W.'s contributions alone,
with several additions, appeared. In the same year Lord Lonsdale _d._,
and his successor settled the claims already referred to with interest,
and the share of the brother and sister enabled them to live in the
frugal and simple manner which suited them. Two years later W.'s
circumstances enabled him to marry his cousin, Mary Hutchinson, to whom
he had been long attached. In 1804 he made a tour in Scotland, and began
his friendship with Scott. The year 1807 saw the publication of _Poems in
Two Volumes_, which contains much of his best work, including the "Ode to
Duty," "Intimations of Immortality," "Yarrow Unvisited," and the
"Solitary Reaper." In 1813 he migrated to Rydal Mount, his home for the
rest of his life; and in the same year he received, through the influence
of Lord Lonsdale, the appointment of Distributor of Stamps for
Westmoreland, with a salary of L400. The next year he made another
Scottish tour, when he wrote _Yarrow Visited_, and he also _pub._ _The
Excursion_, "being a portion of _The Recluse_, a Poem." W. had now come
to his own, and was regarded by the great majority of the lovers of
poetry as, notwithstanding certain limitations and flaws, a truly great
and original poet. The rest of his life has few events beyond the
publication of his remaining works (which, however, did not materially
advance his fame), and tokens of the growing honour in which he was held.
_The White Doe of Rylstone_ appeared in 1815, in which year also he made
a collection of his poems; _Peter Bell_ and _The Waggoner_ in 1819; _The
River Duddon_ and _Memorials of a Tour on the Continent_ in 1820;
_Ecclesiastical Sonnets_ 1822; and _Yarrow Revisited_ in 1835. In 1831
he paid his last visit to Scott; in 1838 he received the degree of