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Printed notepaper, City Library, Bristol. - Urges adoption of second proposal in Wordsworth Memorial Committee's Resolution; it would be a 'peculiar and condign tribute in the region which he has almost sanctified' to commemorate Wordsworth in a Lakeland mountain sculpture of the type suggested for Alexander by the ancient Greek sculptor-poet Dinocrates. Sir Francis Chantrey 'had a strong desire to become proprietor of a mountain' for this purpose'.

The Shiffolds, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking. - The Interludes [in Prose and Verse, by G O Trevelyan] arrived this morning, and they look forward to reading it; Bessie will write soon to his father to thank him for it. Robert has 'just read most of Horace [at the University of Athens], which seems just as good as it ever was', and he expects the whole work will be improved by 'the slight alterations and 'the unimaginable touch of Time" [a quote from Wordworth's Mutability]'.

They have had a 'pleasant visit at the [Augustus Moore?] Daniels, and found all well at home'. George Moore has been for a short visit; now [Donald] Tovey is here for a week and there is 'an immense deal of music'. Bessie likes Tovey's playing as much if not more as anyone's, and he is 'very interesting when he talks about music, in a way few musicians are'; he plays 'a great deal of Bach' on the Trevelyan's clavichord, and their piano 'has a beautiful tone'.

Aunt Meg [Price] will visit in October and they hope also [her son] Phil. The Grandmonts are coming for a few nights next Monday. Does not know whether they will like returning to Taormina 'while the earthquakes still continue'; supposes 'Taormina is untouched, as it usually escapes', but Messina suffered greatly. Hopes there will not be a bad earthquake near Vesuvius, which 'is in great activity just now'; everyone near Naples seems 'very much frightened'. Will not be sorry if 'Cook's railway gets demolished', as long as nothing worse happens.

Hopes his parents are well, as well as the 'Cambo household [Charles and Molly]'; G[eorge], J[anet] and M[ary] C[aroline] seemed well when they dined with them in London; Crompton [Llewelyn Davies] was there 'and seemed fairly cheerful, though looking rather tired and worn perhaps [after the death of his brother Theodore in July].

Harts, Almondsbury, Bristol. - Thanks Bob for sending her his poem ["A Dream"]. Her sister read it twice before she had a chance to see it. Asks if Bob has copies for sale, as she would like a few to send to friends; thinks it 'one of the best things' he has written, on a level with his 'letter to Goldie [Lowes Dickinson]'. Asks what his other friends think of it. His 'powers do not decay', though he 'often scratch[es] his head' and says he does not know what to do. The reconciliation of Lucifer and Christ seems original and interesting; must read "Par[adise] Regained" again. Wishes she could see Bob and talk to him. Finds Lady Bessborough and her family letters 'fascinating', as is everything that 'gets near Byron'; the letters are 'newly published by Lord Bessborough' ["Lady Bessborough and Her Family Circle"], and inspired her to [re-?] read and enjoy Byron. Has also read a new biography of [Edward] Trelawny [by Margaret Armstrong?]. 'That lot and the Wordsworth-Coleridge group never grow stale'. Heard 'scraps of a talk on Hazlitt' by ? on her 'very bad wireless' recently; wishes more of such talks were broadcast.

Seatoller. - Expects Bob is enjoying himself abroad. Is having a good time at Seatoller with [Maurice?] Amos, [Ralph] Wedgwood and [George] Moore; Vaughan Williams left a few days ago; he and Wedgwood 'bathe in Cambridge pool every morning'; Amos and Wedgwood work hard for their triposes, while Moore chiefly reads "Jane Eyre" and other novels, and George 'all sorts of jolly books', none for his tripos. They are all getting on well, even better than at Stye since there is not the 'slight distance between Moore and Wedgwood'. They go up the mountains in the afternoon; he and Moore, as 'the Wordsworthians of the party' went over to Grasmere and Rydal; describes Dove Cottage, de Quincey's extension to it, and S.T.C. [Samuel Taylor Coleridge]'s house. Declares that there were 'men in England then', also naming Scott, Shelley, Byron and Keats. George got his scholarship; does not seem fair that Wedgwood has not, while they give one to someone like Charlie Buxton 'of very ordinary ability' in their first year; thinks this is 'bolstering up classics'. It is however a sign that the college is doing 'their duty to history' that there is now an entrance scholarship for it. Is glad at a personal level that Buxton has a scholarship: he and George will have plenty of money to go abroad in the long vacation now. Elliott has not got a scholarship, but is spoken of as 'certain' next year. Had a nice letter from Bowen; German measles is active in [Grove] house. Asks Bob to write to him about the novel if he needs someone to discuss it with: he knows the plan and beginning, and will keep it secret. Wedgwood is a really good rock climber. Notes in postscript that he will be seeing Moore's brother [Thomas] in London again next week, so Bob should write there.

Cambo. - Thanks 'Uncle Bob' for sending his poems [this year's "From the Shiffolds"] likes them 'more each year. Lists those she likes best; for example, found the 'old one about the Trojan Captives grinding corn' very moving. Tries to write poetry herself, and will send her attempts when she has written more; had a piece published in "Country Life" a year ago. Is staying with Pauline; goes next week to Grasmere to see the Wordsworth material at Dove Cottage, since she is proposing to write a life of Wordsworth. Will return to Chichester after that. Sends love to her uncle and aunt..

Tallboys, Abinger Hammer. - Very glad to have Trevy's poems ["Aftermath"], and has read them with great pleasure; his appreciation and depiction of the 'quiet, intimate & tender beauty of English country' is very appealing, and she brackets him with Wordsworth in this respect. Also admires the way he writes about sleep and dreams, and his 'unquenchable youthfulness of... spirit'. Comments on various poems. [Goldsworthy] Lowes Dickinson [to whom a poem is addressed], 'must have been a great man'; wishes she had known him. The poem to B.B. [Bernard Berenson] is also lovely; does want Berenson to see it. Simon [her husband] is also looking forward to reading them. Invites him to visit with Bessie as soon as is possible, and if he can to get Lady Allen to bring them. This 'roaring lion of an East wind' is hard on the buds and blossoms; 'only the dandelions like it'.

Milnes's poetry belongs to the school of Tennyson; cannot help loving the style's 'quaint involutions of language into a wierd [sic] music, &... mystical suggestiveness of fancy and thought'. Names favourite verses. Restrictions of didactic element? She herself would create the perfect modern poet from 'Shelley's visionariness & Byron's intensity, admitting Wordsworth's magnanimity of simplicity, & Coleridge's [...". Thanks Kenyon for book; Mrs Hedley will be delighted to hear from him.

Central fragments and end missing.

13 Kutchery Road, Karachi (Pakistan) - Read Trevelyan's Homeric Hymn [in that year's "From The Shiffolds"] with great pleasure; praises his diction, not 'Wordsworth's language of the people but the language cultivated people should use'. Has to write an inaugural address for Wordsworth's centenary, organised by the British Council. Agreed to do this, even though he is 'shy of writing', because Wordsworth has never been a favourite of his and he wanted the chance to read up and clarify why to himself. Finds him 'too much of an Englishman'; every experience seems to be 'of equal value' to him, and there are 'long passages of bathos'. However, the "Solitary Reaper" is great, and as Suhrawardy grows older and nostalgic for 'England and her scenery', Wordsworth has become 'close & more acceptable'. Has not read Po-chui's life [translated by Arthur Waley]; the bookshops only have 'political controversial' literature; thanks Trevelyan for offering to send it. His life is 'routinal, dull & lazy' and he is depressed by the situation in India and Pakistan: it is all very different from what was dreamt of. Sends love to Bessie and regards to Mrs [Catherine] Abercrombie.

11 St James's Buildings, Rosoman Street, Clerkenwell. - Fears last letter did not reach Milnes; is ill and distressed but still working; wrote piece after Wordsworth's death but cannot get it accepted. Requests return of enclosed compositions. Made a mistake in supposing he could be an author; will Milnes assist him? Often ponders the fate of his subject Chatterton. Mr Taylor's money has gone on rent.

91 Adelaide Road NW - He does not expect Whewell to confer college patronage on Mr [Thomas Penyngton] Kirkman, but to say a good word if something arises. As to Whewell's statement that men who are hanged have the next world in this, he reminds him of the mechanics of hanging. Refers to Mr Wright, a remarkable Cambridge (town) man, and has met [Henry] Crabb Robinson who recalls that Wordsworth said Dyer's life of Robert Robinson one of the best biographies in the English language.

Herstmonceux - JCH is extremely pleased that WW is so pleased with his letter to Cavendish [A Letter to the Hon. R. Cavendish, on the recent Judgement of the Court of Appeal in Affirming the Doctrine of the Church, 1850]: 'The question as to the force of the judgement does seem to me so clear; yet so many persons, otherwise intelligent & clearheaded, are utterly in the dark about it'. The Bishop of London's conduct throughout this episode seems to have been weak. The Address WW sent him needs to be modified in the manner JCH recommended. It would otherwise 'do more harm than good, & wd be regarded as little more than an expression of latitudinarian philosophical indifference. Therefore, even though it were restricted to the laity, I wd strongly urge the desirableness of giving it a more definite Christian tone'. When WW sees Sir James [Sir James Graham], will he 'thank him in my name for his beautiful, but exaggerated mention of the Guesses [Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827]. I shall have to say something of him when I reprint the Vindication of Luther. We have been reading over the Arlutes in his first volume with exceeding interest and pleasure, and wonder that a man with such a mass of occupations, the burthen of our whole Colonial Empire, on his shoulders, shd have found time & powers of thought to become so familiar with so many of the great characters in the history of the church'. JCH had a letter from Mrs Twining (Mary Arnold) in response to some inquiries to Wordsworth prompted by WW's letter: 'The dear old poet was supposed to be dying on Sunday the 7th, his eightieth birthday; but had rallied somewhat since. His illness has revived his sister's love for him. Mrs Wordsworth hoped that he might be called away rather than restored, if his restoration were only to be a state like poor Southey's [Robert Southey]. Her love for him is truly heroic: I hope that, whatever may be the immediate issue, their separation will be but short. How much love & thankfulness from thousands of hearts that he has enlightened & purified, will rise with his departing spirit to heaven'.

Writes to tell Sidgwick that, on referring to the London Review, he finds that he had misinformed him about the authorship of the article on Tennyson, and states that it is by J.S. Mill. Mentions that he misses some criticisms 'which existed in the article [John] Sterling did write.' Suggests that this article may be found in Blackwood [it is in fact in the Quarterly Review of September 1842]. States that it is not in the 'Edinbro' [Edinburgh Review], 'but in the LXXXVIIth vol of the blue and yellow [ie the E. R.] there is a very good article by Spedding [on] the two vols. which appeared 1842.' Claims that he should recognise Sterling's 'fine Roman hand' if he saw it, but has no collection of Blackwoods of this kind. Reports that he 'ran down [Saint] Simeon Stylites with his usual vehemence, and rather scoffed at the Ode to Memory, comparing it, unfairly, and of course unfavorably, with Wordsworth's Platonic Ode'.

c/o A[ubrey] Waterfield Esq., La Fortezza, Aulla, Lunigiana, Italy. - Was very interested in Everett's two essays; what he says about Shakespeare [in "Six Cleopatras", "The Atlantic Monthly" (February 1905) 252-263] seems 'very just', and if he knew the other Cleopatras would probably agree with Everett's thoughts on them too. Ashamed to say he has never read the Dryden ["All for Love or, the World Well Lost"] though he has long meant to; the version by Delphine Gay [de Girardin] also sounds interesting. Finds it harder to agree totally with Everett's paper on Catullus and Horace ["Catullus vs Horace", "Harvard Studies in Classical Philology" 12 (1901): 7-17]; glad to hear Horace praised, as he is 'often now unjustly deprecated', but obviously thinks more of Catullus than Everett does. Though he admits the faults Everett finds, nothing in Horace appeals to him 'personally in the way that the Attys and the first Epithalium [sic: of Catullus] do'. Responds to a few of Everett's criticisms in detail, and says he would 'be prepared to defend Catullus as one of the very greatest poets in the world'. Everett's 'comparison of [Sophocles'] "Ajax" with "Othello" is 'a very just one'; agrees in some respects with what Everett says about the play, though feels the 'repulsive and sordid elements' may be needed to relieve Othello's characters, which is 'essentially noble and beautiful'. Thanks Everett for sending him Mr [William?] Bradford's poems; was much interested in them but disappointed; did not care for the lyrics and, though the sonnets read well, he found htem 'lacking in real poetical quality'; seems to him a difficult genre of poetry to succeed in, though Wordsworth's "Extinction of the Venetian Republic" and sonnet about Toussaint L'Ouverture show what may be done. Is writing a 'lyrical drama on Ariadne and Theseus ["The Bride of Dionysus"]... intended as a libretto for a musical friend [Donald Tovey]". The last act 'will be the most difficult, and should be the best'.

Herstmonceux, Hailsham - JCH has received a parcel from WW and Connop Thirlwall [WW, 'Additional Remarks on some parts of Mr Thirlwall's Two Letters on the Admission of Dissenters to Academical Degrees', 1834. CT had produced a pamphlet entitled 'A Letter to the Rev. Thomas Turton on the Admission of Dissenters to the University of Cambridge', 1834, as a response to the House of Lords rejecting a Bill to abolish tests and to Thomas Turton's, Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, defence of religious disqualification's in his 'Thoughts on the Admission of Persons, without regard to their Religious Opinions, to Certain Degrees in the Universities of England', 1834 ]: 'It used to be a source of great satisfaction to me to think that I had left you Thirlwall as a colleague. My grief however was overpowered by indignation on learning yesterday that the master had not only required him to give up his place in the tuition, but had also recommended his resigning his fellowship. Surely this is a most outrageous step. The high church party seem all gone stark-mad, and to have been all seized with a fanatical desire of martyrdom at all costs and risks. Else I should be utterly unable to comprehend how the master could be guilty of such a piece of insolence and folly. I conceive that, in making this recommendation, he was urging what he has no authority to enforce: and assuredly the pamphlet contains nothing to warrant such a proceeding. I long to hear what the fellows will do in consequence. It seems to me that, in addition to your private answers to Thirlwall's circular, there ought at least to be a general protest, if not a general address to him. Is it true that what the master has done has been prompted by Rose [Hugh James Rose]? I cannot believe it. If it had, he ought never to be admitted into any room in the college again'. However where CT attacked compulsory chapel service it was right that he should be made to resign: 'For it seems to me that the officers in any executive body are bound not to proclaim the defects of the system they are appointed to execute, unless in concert with their brother officers, and with a reasonable hope of correcting the defects they complain of'. JCH regrets as much as WW what CT says about chapel attendance: Still is not the fact of his speaking in such a way about the practice a strong argument against it? I think you strain the argument from antiquity, though of course I concur heartily with what you say about such an argument. In ancient times the practice of the colleges was in unison with that of all the rest of the country. Daily religious worship was then general'. Students on the whole see chapel going not as a religious duty but more as a muster-roll which is injurious. JCH gives his opinion on Christian Dissenters: 'I was very glad to see what you said in defence of 'prescribed exercises', and against the 'full consciousness of freedom'. It is so strange that a person who weighs his words, and knows their meaning, like Thirlwall, (unlike C. Wordsworth) and have been led by his abhorrence of 'compulsory religion', into arrant quakerism: that is to say, quakerism in the idea; for of course the quakers, out of their hatred of all forms, become the greatest formalists among mankind. It is strange that he should have overlooked the difference between 'compulsory religion', and religion into which one is led, and in which one is strengthened, by moral influences. Though force is destructive of religion, these influences, being cognate to it, are not. Alas one cannot have a fortnight in the care of a parish without finding that to talk about 'the full consciousness of freedom 'as necessary to religion is totally inapplicable to the present condition of mankind'. Theology may be installed into a man but not religion. 'It is [awful?] to think of the breaking up of that singularly happy delightful society which we enjoyed for so many years at Trinity. But how could one expect that it would be privileged to last for ever?' Who did not foresee that the Reform Bill 'was to shake every institution and to loosen every tie throughout the country!' How can WW say he stands completely outside the conflict? and should he?: 'You who have so much influence with both parties, who see through their delusions, who have so many qualifications for mediating between them?' In fact WW's pamphlet shows that he cannot abstain. Hopefully the forthcoming vacation will cool men's minds and induce the master to apologise to CT. 'Have you heard anything lately of William Wordsworth? He will be grieved to hear of these college quarrels'. John Sterling has been lately with JCH - 'whom I know not whether more to admire for his genius, or to love for his simplicity, his gentleness, his frankness, and his noble mind'. Sterling tells JCH of the 'very good effects produced by the abridgement of the service at Corpus. If something of the kind were done, it might give the service more the character of family prayer and I think a great deal of good might be done by having a sermon more short, and bore upon the condition of the congregation, somewhat of the manner of Arnold's [Matthew Arnold] admirable Rugby sermons. This would be much in associating religious feelings with the place'.

Wallington, Cambo, Northumberland. - Robert's account of the 'subsidiary hunt' curious; comments on 'what tenacity there is in certain families', with Macaulay's grand-nephew [Robert], Wordsworth's grand-nephew, and he supposes the great grandson of Erasmus Darwin 'chasing each other about the lakes', while this Sunday Lord Coleridge, the poet's great-grand-nephew is staying at Wallington. He is coming to try the 'great murder case' of the paymaster shot on the train between Stannington and Morpeth' [John Nisbet]. Was pleased by Mary's excellent account of Julian; Robert will be glad to see him 'well and bonny'; sends love to Elizabeth, whose interesting letter to Caroline he has just seen. Notes in a postscript that he has just finished the fifth of [Cicero's] Second "Verrines", a 'wonderful oration'.

The Shiffolds. - He and Bessie have just heard from Aunt Annie that his parents are both well. They are having 'very wet weather again, and the last of the snow has gone'. The Abercrombies leave on Friday; it has been a 'very pleasant visit', and it has been 'very good for Julian to be with the other children, in spite of occasional squabbles'. Robert now reads to him in bed for a while every evening; they 'get through a good deal, mostly poetry'. Julian 'listens to all with equal interest, but says he likes difficult poems best'; he certainly 'cannot understand all he hears', such as the Ancient Mariner. He likes Lucy Gray [by Wordsworth] and [Browning's] Pied Piper 'better still', as well as 'any poem about storms at sea, and people being drowned. His 'special poem', though, is Allingham's Up the airy mountain...[The Faeries], which 'is indeed a perfect bit of literature'. Julian almost knows it by heart now.

Bessie and Robert are now reading Great Expectations; it is a 'far better book than Our Mutual Friend, though the comic parts are hardly as good'. Bessie is very well. Robert saw Molly in London last week, who was 'cheerful, despite a cold'. George [her son, rather than her brother-in-law] 'seemed well, and had just had his first game of football at school'.

The Shiffolds, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking. - They are 'at last having delightful weather', and have heard the cuckoo most days this week. Julian is 'especially delighted by the cuckoo', and 'goes out early in the morning by himself to listen for it'. They discuss which poem is better - Logan's 'Hail, beauteous stranger...', 'if it is his and not [Michael] Bruce's, which seems uncertain', or Wordsworth's 'O blithe newcomer...'- and decide that 'on the whole' they prefer Wordsworth's, though like the other too; thinks it was a favourite of [John] Bright.

Took Julian out for a walk today, and 'he did a lot of climbing fir-trees, at which he is fairly good now. When he had got up as high as he could, he said he wished to write a poem, and dictated one to [Robert], not a very good one, but probably as good as most poems written twenty feet from the ground up a tree'.

Mrs Gibson leaves them next Wednesday; she has been with them three months, with her baby, and 'has been a very pleasant inmate'. Her husband will have to stay in America for now, but 'they seem to be treating him very hospitably'. Bessie and Julian are going to Aunt Annie's on the 14th, 'unless someone else at the Park comes out with the measles before then', which is unlikely. They are reading Guy Mannering aloud; Bessie 'has a prejudice against Scott, but has to admit that this is a good book'. She is however puzzled that 'Dirk Hatteraick is a Dutchman, and yet always talks German'; at first she believed 'Scott must have thought the Dutch talked German', but Robert told her 'Scott knew more about modern Europe than that'; still, it is odd. Sends love to his mother. They are 'so glad to hear that Booa is really better'.

Typewritten. Thanks her for sending him 'a copy of Clough's Remains'. Explains that he asked for it through [Godfrey?] Lushington because 'to no one, out of the range of his personal friendships, could Clough be an object of more intense individual interest than to' him [Henry]. Declares the great value he places on Clough's poems, and calls him 'the one true disciple of Wordsworth, with a far deeper interest than Wordsworth in the fundamental problems of human life, and a more subtle, more cultivated intellect.' Speaks of Clough's blending of irony and sympathy in his poetry, and his 'judicial fairness in balancing conflicting influences'. States that the volume sent to him will be very precious to him.

MS note by Nora Sidgwick: 'This letter did not reach us till the biography was printed off'.

The Shiffolds, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking. - They are having 'the most beautiful weather, and the woods are at their best', with bluebells and the rhododendrons and azaleas 'of which our neighbours' [at Leith Hill Place] woods are full'. Bessie has gone to town for two nights; she has not yet completely recovered from her cough, but otherwise seems fairly well. Julian writes [from school] generally 'quite cheerfully': he is 'in a higher class, which pleases him, and he does not mention any troubles with the other boys'.

Is going to London tomorrow to see about the publication of his translation of [Sophocles'] Ajax, and also of a new book of poems [The Death of Man and Other Poems]. Will come back with Bessie on Thursday. Will send back 'the Theocritus before too long. It is helpful, but does not give [him] much confidence'. He and Bessie are reading Harper's life of Wordsworth, which, 'though dully written', has much that is interesting 'particularly about Wordsworth's earlier life, and about his sister and Coleridge'. Coleridge's story is 'even more pitiable and tragic' than Robert had thought. Sends love to his mother.

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon; addressed to Robert c/o Miss Philips, The Park, Prestwich, Manchester. - Interested by Robert's liking for [Euripides'] "Iphigenia in Tauris"; there was a very nice account of the play and a recent performance at Ann Arbor in the American "Nation", also a good review of Harper's "Life" of Wordsworth. Has sent the paper to Charles, and recommends that Robert ask him for it. Both articles are a 'most pleasant illustration of the development of the best American culture'.

Printed notepaper: University, St Andrews, N.B.]. - Thanks Houghton for agreeing to Wordsworth Society's request to join Council. Has discovered several unpublished poems by Wordsworth; believes there is one called 'The Eagle and the Dove' in A. F. Rio's *La Petite Chouannerie..', published in 1842, to which Houghton, Mrs Norton, and Landor also contributed; can Houghton point him towards a copy?