to concession: and deeming the Church Establishment not only a fundamental part of our constitution, but one of the greatest upholders and propagators of civilization in our own country, and, lastly, the most effectual and main support of religious Toleration, I cannot but look with jealousy upon measures which must reduce her relative influence, unless they be accompanied with arrangements more adequate than any yet adopted for the preservation and increase of that influence, to keep pace with the other powers in the community.

'I do not apologize for this long letter, the substance of which you may report to any one worthy of a reply, who, in your hearing, may animadvert upon my political conduct. I ought to have added, perhaps, a word on local politics, but I have not space; but what I should have said, may in a great measure be deduced from the above. ‘I am, my dear L

'Yours, &c. &c.,

'W. W.'

CHAPTER XXXIV.

TOUR IN SCOTLAND.

On the 18th July, 1814, Wordsworth, accompanied by his wife, and his wife's sister, Miss Sarah Hutchinson, left Rydal Mount, on a tour in Scotland. The only poems which appear to have been produced by this tour are the following:

The Brownie's Cell, suggested by a beautiful ruin on one of the islands of Loch Lomond.1

Cora Linn,2 in sight of Wallace's Tower.

Effusion on the banks of the Bran, near Dunkeld.3
Sonnet to Mr. Gillies:

'From the dark chambers of dejection freed.' 4

The travellers dined one day with Mr. Gillies at Edinburgh. Mr. G. is nephew of Lord Gillies, the Scotch Judge, and also of the historian of Greece, and cousin to Miss Margaret Gillies, who painted so many portraits with success in our house.' 5

Yarrow Visited.6

This visit was made in company with Dr. Anderson, the editor of British Poets, and the Ettrick Shepherd. The party had refreshment at the cottage of the Ettrick

1 Vol. iii. p. 40. 4 Vol. ii. p. 280.

2 Vol. iii. p. 44.
5 MSS. I. F.

3 Vol. iii. p. 46. 6 Vol. iii. p 50.

Shepherd's father, he being a shepherd, a fine old man more than eighty years of age.

The following records of this tour, in connection with these poems, are from Mr. Wordsworth's dictation.

SECOND TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1814.

In this tour my wife and her sister Sarah were my companions. The account of the Brownie's Cell, and the Brownies, was given me by a man we met with on the banks of Loch Lomond, a little above Tarbet, and in front of a huge mass of rock by the side of which, we were told, preachings were often held in the open air. The place is quite a solitude, and the surrounding scenery very striking. How much is it to be regretted that, instead of writing such poems as the "Holy Fair," and others in which the religious services of his country are treated with so much levity, and too often with indecency, Burns had not employed his genius in describing religion under the serious and affecting aspects it must so frequently take!'

Cora Linn. I had seen this celebrated water-fall twice before. But the feelings to which it had given birth were not expressed till they recurred in presence of the object on this occasion."

Effusion, near Dunkeld. -I am not aware that this condemnatory effusion was ever seen by the owner of the place. He might be disposed to pay little attention to it; but, were it to prove otherwise, I should be glad, for the whole exhibition is distressingly puerile.'

Yarrow Visited. As mentioned in my verses on the death of the Ettrick Shepherd, my first visit to Yarrow was in his company. We had lodged the night before at Traquhair, where Hogg had joined us, and also Dr. An

derson, the editor of the British Poets, who was on a visit at the manse. Dr. A. walked with us till we came in view of the vale of Yarrow, and being advanced in life he then turned back. The old man was passionately fond of poetry, though with not much of a discriminating judg ment, as the volumes he edited sufficiently show; but I was much pleased to meet with him and to acknowledge my obligation to his collection, which had been my brother John's companion in more than one voyage to India, and which he gave me before his departure from Grasmere never to return. Through these volumes I became first familiar with Chaucer; and so little money had I then to spare for books, that in all probability, but for this same work, I should have known little of Drayton, Daniel, and other distinguished poets of the Elizabethan age and their immediate successors, till a much later period of my life. I am glad to record this, not for any importance of its own, but as a tribute of gratitude to this simple-hearted old man, who I never again had the pleasure of meeting. I seldom read or think of this poem without regretting that my dear sister was not of the party, as she would have had so much delight in recalling the time when, travelling together in Scotland, we declined going in search of this celebrated stream, not altogether, I will frankly confess, for the reasons assigned in the poem on the occasion.'

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE EXCURSION.

In the summer of the year 1814, appeared The Excursion,' being a portion of The Recluse.'

The following details, derived from the author's conversation, will put the reader in possession of all requisite knowledge concerning the local and personal references in this poem, and respecting the occasions on which its several parts were composed. In perusing these illustrative notices he will bear in mind, that they were not committed to writing by the author, but were dictated by him orally to the friend who requested information on the points to which they advert, and were specially designed for the gratification of that friend, and of other intimate associates, especially his daughter, Mrs. Quillinan. — Hence, they are for the most part narrative, and scarcely any reference is made in them to the high aims with which 'The Excursion' was composed, and which, it is taken for granted, are already familiar to the reader. These notices 1 were dictated twenty-seven years after the poem was published; and in the 74th year of the author's age. The Excursion. Towards the close of the 1st book stand the lines that were first written, beginning "Nine tedious years," and ending "last human tenant of these ruined walls." These were composed in 1795, at Race

1 From MSS. I. F.