rhaps that his
animal spirits were somewhat higher--precisely the same man that you
knew him in later life; the same lively, entertaining conversation, full
of anecdote, and averse from disquisition; the same unaffected modesty
about himself; the same cheerful and benevolent and hopeful views of man
and the world. He partly read and partly recited, sometimes in an
enthusiastic style of chant, the first four cantos of the "Lay of the
Last Minstrel;" and the novelty of the manners, the clear picturesque
descriptions, and the easy glowing energy of much of the verse, greatly
delighted me."' (pp. 160-1).

27. _The Grove: Captain John Wordsworth_.

John Wordsworth left Grasmere on Michaelmas-day, 1800, walking over by
Grisedale Tarn to Paterdale, whence he would proceed to Penrith; he took
leave of his brother William, near the Tarn, where Ullswater first comes
in view; and he went to sea again, in the Abergavenny East-Indiaman, in
the spring of 1801.

After his departure from Grasmere, the Poet discovered a track which had
been worn by his brother's steps 'pacing there unwearied and alone,'
during the winter weather, in a sheltering fir-grove above the cottage,
and henceforth _that_ fir-grove was known to the Poet's household by the
name of 'John's Grove,' or 'Brother's Grove.' Of this Wordsworth writes:

'_When to the attractions of the busy world_,' 1805.--'The grove still
exists, but the plantation has been walled in, and is not so accessible
as when my brother John wore the path in the manner described. The grove
was a favourite haunt with us all while we lived at Town-End.'[50]

28. _Spenser and Milton_.

Captain Wordsworth returned from the voyage on which he sailed in 1801;
and in November 1802, he writes for directions what books to buy to
carry with him on a voyage of sixteen months....

[50] _Memoirs_, i. 282.

'Tell John' says Wordsworth, 'when he buys Spenser, to purchase an
edition which has his "State of Ireland" in it. This is in prose. This
edition may be scarce, but one surely can be found.

'Milton's Sonnets (transcribe all this for John, as said by me to him) I
think manly and dignified compositions, distinguished by simplicity and
unity of object and aim, and undisfigured by false or vicious ornaments.
They are in several places incorrect, and sometimes uncouth in language,
and, perhaps, in some, inharmonious; yet, upon the whole, I think the
music exceedingly well suited to its end, th