HCR, Rydal Mount, to Henry Taylor, 24 December 1847.

f. 246r

Rydal Mount

24th Dec: 47

My dear Sir

      I was equally flatterd & surprised by receiving from Moxon a copy of the Eve of the Conquest with others which I have brought down

       But it is not for the compliment that I would thank you.  It is for the real pleasure the perusal has given me – It is long since any modern poetry has afforded me the like –

       I have read all with varied enjoyment And from the few whom I have heard speak of the Volume I can say that I have heard the same –

       Were I obliged to make a selection of those which I have the most enjoyed I should say the first & the last – The epic fragment And the deeply pathetic character Ernesto – You must have had a distinct object in your mind – Perhaps a friend – For the poems on Villiers & on Elliott shew that you have both the will & the power to muse on the excellencies of those you love and turn their images into poetry –

       [f. 246v] I love thoughtful poetry And had great pleasure therefore in following you in your local poems. – Lago Lugano especially – If I had been in search of something to object to it would have been in this poem that I should have found it. Tho’ I sympathise fully with the main thought the mournful reference to the present state of our country, yet I am not willing to consider the statutable liberty we enjoy and the liberty of circumstance which we may find any where as the letter & spirit

       But whatever verbal exception may be taken of this sort – the poem notwithstanding is full of wisdom as well as beauty.

       I write alone just now, but I have been desired by Mr & Mrs Wordsworth to present their very kindest regards to you & Mrs Taylor – Mrs W: has especially desired me to add that they are becoming anxious about Miss Fenwick – The news contained in your note to me is the last they have had – And when you wrote, her departure was still dependent on the state of her health.

      [f. 247r] You will expect from me some account of the state of our friends health & spirits. I have nothing clear & decisive to say – There is an evident indisposition or you may call it incapacity in Mr W. to withdraw his mind from the sad subject on which it broods.  He prefers solitude to company And sits without speaking a word by the hour together.  I have been very seldom able to make him give his mind even to the very exerting subject – the appointment of Dr Hampden And the now inevitable forthcoming proceedings in some Ecclesiastical court.

       Was it ignorance or did he wish to obtain for the Dean & Chapter of H: the cheap glory of being willing to incur the perils of martyrdom that induced Henry of Exeter to state that the refusal to elect according to the recommendation, subjected them to a praemunire –

        I am desired to present Mr & Mrs Wordsworth’s best regards to you & Mrs Taylor And I am myself

                   Your obliged

                                  &c &c &c        

                                             H. C. Robinson

To Henry Taylor Esqr

Text: Mss. Eng. Lett., c. 1. fols. 246-47, Bodleian Library,  Oxford.