ted me in this opinion. Thomson wrote
his blank verse before his ear was formed as it was when he wrote the
'Castle of Indolence,' and some of his short rhyme poems. It was,
therefore, rather hard in you to select him as an instance of
punctuation abused. I am glad that you concur in my view on the
_Punishment of Death_. An outcry, as I expected, has been raised against
me by weak-minded humanitarians. What do you think of one person having
opened a battery of nineteen fourteen-pounders upon me, _i.e._ nineteen
sonnets, in which he gives himself credit for having blown me and my
system to atoms? Another sonneteer has had a solitary shot at me from
Ireland.

Ever faithfully yours,
W. WORDSWORTH.[8]

[8] _Memoirs_, ii. pp. 386-7.

* * * * *

XX. MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.

459. _Epistle to Sir G. H. Beaumont, Bart_.[1.]

From the South-west Coast of Cumberland,--1811. This poem opened, when
first written, with a paragraph that has been transferred as an
introduction to the first series of my 'Scotch Memorials.' The journey,
of which the first part is here described, was from Grasmere to Bootle,
on the south-west coast of Cumberland, the whole along mountain-roads,
through a beautiful country, and we had fine weather. The verses end
with our breakfast at the Head of Yewdale, in a yeoman's house, which,
like all the other property in that sequestered vale, has passed, or is
passing, into the hands of Mr. James Marshall, of Monk Coniston, in Mr.
Knott's, the late owner's time, called Waterhead. Our hostess married a
Mr. Oldfield, a lieutenant in the navy; they lived together for some
time at Hackett, where she still resides as his widow. It was in front
of that house, on the mountain-side, near which stood the peasant who,
while we were passing at a distance, saluted us, waving a kerchief in
his hand, as described in the poem. The dog which we met soon after our
starting, had belonged to Mr. Rowlandson, who for forty years was curate
at Grasmere, in place of the rector, who lived to extreme old age, in a
state of insanity. Of this Mr. R. much might be said, both with
reference to his character, and the way in which he was regarded by his
parishioners. He was a man of a robust frame, had a firm voice and
authoritative manner, of strong natural talents, of which he was
himself conscious, for he has been heard to say (it grieves me to add
with