ity, and wisdom were the gods of the hearth, to
whom was offered no vain oblation. Grant us more such women, Time!
Grant to men the power to reverence, to seek for such!

Our visit to Mr. Wordsworth was very pleasant. He also is seventy-six,
but his is a florid, fair old age. He walked with us to all his
haunts about the house. Its situation is beautiful, and the "Rydalian
Laurels" are magnificent. Still I saw abodes among the hills that
I should have preferred for Wordsworth, more wild and still, more
romantic; the fresh and lovely Rydal Mount seems merely the retirement
of a gentleman, rather than the haunt of a poet. He showed his
benignity of disposition in several little things, especially in
his attentions to a young boy we had with us. This boy had left the
Circus, exhibiting its feats of horsemanship in Ambleside "for that
day only," at his own desire to see Wordsworth, and I feared he would
be disappointed, as I know I should have been at his age, if, when
called to see a poet, I had found no Apollo, flaming with youthful
glory, laurel-crowned and lyre in hand, but, instead, a reverend old
man clothed in black, and walking with cautious step along the level
garden-path; however, he was not disappointed, but seemed in timid
reverence to recognize the spirit that had dictated "Laodamia" and
"Dion,"--and Wordsworth, in his turn, seemed to feel and prize a
congenial nature in this child.

Taking us into the house, he showed us the picture of his sister,
repeating with much expression some lines of hers, and those so famous
of his about her, beginning, "Five years," &c.; also his own picture,
by Inman, of whom he spoke with esteem.

Mr. Wordsworth is fond of the hollyhock, a partiality scarcely
deserved by the flower, but which marks the simplicity of his
tastes. He had made a long avenue of them of all colors, from the
crimson-brown to rose, straw-color, and white, and pleased himself
with having made proselytes to a liking for them among his neighbors.

I never have seen such magnificent fuchsias as at Ambleside, and there
was one to be seen in every cottage-yard. They are no longer here
under the shelter of the green-house, as with us, and as they used to
be in England. The plant, from its grace and finished elegance, being
a great favorite of mine, I should like to see it as frequently and of
as luxuriant a growth at home, and asked their mode of culture, which
I here mark down, for the benefit of all who ma