ollowing day I offered to be his amanuensis; but I was not
patient enough, I fear, and he did not employ me a second time. He made
inquiries for St. Francis's biography, as if he would dub him his
Leib-heiliger (body-saint), as Goethe (saying that every one must have
one) declared St. Philip Neri to be his.

The painter monk at Camaldoli also interested him, but he heard my
account only in addition to a _very poor_ exhibition of professional
talent; but he would not allow the pictures to be so very poor, as
every nun ought to be beautiful when she takes the veil.

I recollect, too, the pleasure he expressed when I said to him, 'You are
now sitting in Dante's chair.' It faces the south transept of the
cathedral at Florence.

I have been often asked whether Mr. W. wrote anything on the journey,
and my answer has always been, 'Little or nothing.' Seeds were cast into
the earth, and they took root slowly. This reminds me that I once was
privy to the conception of a sonnet, with a distinctness which did not
once occur on the longer Italian journey. This was when I accompanied
him into the Isle of Man. We had been drinking tea with Mr. and Mrs.
Cookson, and left them when the weather was dull. Very soon after
leaving them we passed the church tower of Bala Sala. The upper part of
the tower had a sort of frieze of yellow lichens. Mr. W. pointed it out
to me, and said, 'It's a perpetual sunshine.' I thought no more of it,
till I read the beautiful sonnet,

'Broken in fortune, but in mind entire;'[245]

and then I exclaimed, I was present at the conception of this sonnet, at
least of the combination of thought out of which it arose.

I beg to subscribe myself, with sincere esteem,

Faithfully yours,
H.C. ROBINSON.[246]

[245] See _Memoirs_, ii. 246.

[246] _Ibid._ ii. 329-32.

* * * * *

(_d_) REMINISCENCES OF WORDSWORTH.

BY LADY RICHARDSON, AND MRS. DAVY, OF THE OAKS, AMBLESIDE.

(1.) LADY RICHARDSON.

Lancrigg, Easedale, August 26. 1841.

Wordsworth made some striking remarks on Goethe in a walk on the terrace
yesterday. He thinks that the German poet is greatly overrated, both in
this country and his own. He said, 'He does not seem to me to be a great
poet in either of the classes of poets. At the head of the first class I
would place Homer and Shakspeare, whose universal minds are able to
reach every variety of thought and feel