ould wish to know more. Particulars about him might still be collected,
I should think, in South Wales, his native country, and where in early
life he practised as a painter. I have often heard Sir George Beaumont
express a curiosity about his pictures, and a wish to see any specimen
of his pencil that might survive. If you are a rambler, perhaps you may,
at some time or other, be led into Carmarthenshire, and might bear in
mind what I have just said of this excellent author.

I had once a hope to have learned some unknown particulars of Thomson,
about Jedburgh, but I was disappointed. Had I succeeded, I meant to
publish a short life of him, prefixed to a volume containing 'The
Seasons,' 'The Castle of Indolence,' his minor pieces in rhyme, and a
few extracts from his plays, and his 'Liberty;' and I feel still
inclined to do something of the kind. These three writers, Thomson,
Collins, and Dyer, had more poetic imagination than any of their
contemporaries, unless we reckon Chatterton as of that age. I do not
name Pope, for he stands alone, as a man most highly gifted; but
unluckily he took the plain when the heights were within his reach.

Excuse this long letter, and believe me,

Sincerely yours,
WM. WORDSWORTH.[99]

[99] _Memoirs_, ii. 214-16.

62. _Verses and Counsels_.

LETTER TO PROFESSOR HAMILTON, OBSERVATORY, DUBLIN.

Rydal Mount, July 24. 1820.

MY DEAR SIR,

I have been very long in your debt. An inflammation in my eyes cut me
off from writing and reading, so that I deem it still prudent to employ
an Amanuensis; but I had a more decisive reason for putting off payment,
nothing less than the hope that I might discharge my debt in person: it
seems better, however, to consult you beforehand. I wish to make a Tour
in Ireland, and _perhaps_ along with my daughter, but I am ignorant of
so many points, as where to begin, whether it be safe at this _rioting_
period, what is best worth seeing, what mode of travelling will furnish
the greatest advantages at the least expense. Dublin of course--the
Wicklow mountains--Killarney Lakes--and I think the ruins not far from
Limerick would be among my objects, and return by the North; but I can
form no conjecture as to the time requisite for this, and whether it
would be best to take the steamboat from Liverpool to Cork, beginning
there, or to go from Whitehaven to Dublin. To start from Whitehaven by
steam t