Henry Crabb Robinson, 30 Russell Square, to Revd Dr Christopher Wordsworth, [Lambeth Palace], 22 April 1851. 

30 Russell Square

22d April 51.

My dear Sir

  The business object of this letter is to supply an omission in my last – not a material one Viz: to remind you, that you have a few letters addressed to me by your nephew, the poet, which I will thank you at your leisure to send me – You can leave them any day at the Athenaeum – They will one day I hope be possessed, And if possessed they will be treasured by my great nephew – A very promising boy tho’ of so fragile a frame that he cannot go to a school – Mr W: was pleased with an anecdote of him from which I augur favorably. When he was quite a child, I used to read the Lyrical ballads &c not to him, but at him – That is, I read to his mother in his presence – when he would generally listen – but when he took no notice – I took none. One day, I read ‘The blind highland boy” – Henry came up & stood with open eyes & mouth as usual, but ran to his play when I had done – So I thought nothing had stuck. However next morning when on coming to breakfast I insisted on a kiss, which he refused And a sort of fight arose – He crawled under the table and I groped after him – When on the point of seizing him, he screamed out in a [f. 212v] tone of affected terror & anger at the top of his voice – Leyh gah! Leyh gah!  An evidence of quickness of apprehension and felicity of application with an unconsciousness, which Mr W acknowledged – He is very precocious in his attainments And I have great apprehensions concerning him – If he live he will have my books & papers And every memorial of Mr Wordsworth –

  I have just finished the first Volume of the Memoirs – I get on but slowly – For two reasons I am so much interested, that I linger, being afraid of getting to an end – And then I cannot help referring to the poems quoted –

  Like every one author who expects to superintend a second edition I dare say you carefully collected whatever little note may be sent you tho’ a mere press erratum – I have nothing material to remark And therefore I shall not scruple to note what is insignificant – Yet you will be glad to avail yourself of this hint – Viz: to state how the admirable letter to Mr Fox p. 166 came to be published – This was published by Sir Henry Bunbury Bart in a work the title of which I do not now recollect but which I can easily find for you – In the [f. 213r] Preface, he states why he ventured to publish the letter of a living person without his leave – It was, That so admirable a letter should not be withheld, And yet if Mr W: had from a mistaken delicacy & modesty refused his consent when asked he must have withheld it – Sir Henry sent Mr W. a copy – Before it reached him, he wrote to me very angrily on the subject, but could not at last deny that this was a very rare case of exception – When you state this fact in a second edition, you will have an opportunity of saying what may be very useful on the use and abuse of letters – Mr W: took the same view which I did of the conduct of the Messrs Wilberforce in this particular And both he & W: were dissatisfaction not dissatisfied with the discretion I exercised in communicating to Talfourd, Lamb’s Letters for the “Final Memorials” which were entrusted to me –

p. 118  Mr W: remarked to me that Pantheism had been imputed to him on account of the Tintern Abbey Lines – Poor Blake the splendid insane genius, whose poems Mr W: highly appreciated declares (in a Ms note pencil note to one of Ws Vols: which I possess) him to have been an Atheist but accompanied by expressions of high admiration [f. 213v] You have not alluded to the attack on Mr Ws religious character in the Quarterly And you have done right – There was something very ungenerous in that article And I know that Mr W: considerd that in a different way he had been as ill treated in the Quarterly as ^in^ the Edinburg –

128 – Mr W. had nearly lost his French when we travelled in Italy – It was on journey in 1820 that Mrs W: half reproaching him for his ignorance He said somewhat angrily – “My dear I know French as well as I ought – I should be a shamed to know it better” –

131. The opinion W. here expresses of the inferior merit of the pathetic is one of the many instances of a correspondence in opinion between him & the Schlegel school of criticism – I used to say both of him & Coleridge that they were by nature Germans only by mistake dropped in England – A notion he always protested against

134 – I recollect very early, indeed, hearing Mrs Barbauld strongly express her love of Goldsmiths Deserted Village over Crabbe’s Village – Crabbes Matter of Fact style was <-> unpleasant to her – tho’ she acknowledged his powers –

163 I shall endeavour to ascertain the fact whether or not Mrs B: did write this criticism If I find she did not, I am sure you will have [f. 214r] pleasure in stating the fact in the second edition

192 I suppose there is some adequate reason for withholding the name. Otherwise, the – leaves an unpleasant impression as if Mr W. corresponded with some one, he or his friends were ashamed of acknowledging

p. 204 – On the 12th of May 1842 Mr W. said to me, If after my death any one should be curious to know how I felt towards my wife they should read in succession as exhibiting the several phases of my affection, these poems –

First; On the Naming of Places

To M. H.

“Our walk was far among the antient trees”

In connection with

Let other bards of Angels sing

In Connection with

She was a phantom of delight

    And finally, the two Sonnets in the last Volume

On a Picture

212 It might be said in a few words, who Hatfield was It is afterwards, said, but I forgot to make the page That the general impression among the country people was That Hatfield was ill used A curious fact [f. 214v] shewing the influence of external appearance Hatfield had the dress if not the manners of a Gentleman And won the affections of the landlords daughter the beautiful Mary of Buttermere – Soon after the marriage, he was arrested as a highwayman and hanged! – The simple folk could not comprehend how anyone could justly be hanged who was not a brute in his manners –

268 “Born for the Universe [he] narrowed his mind[”] The he destroys the metre – It must be left out.

269 – It should be said in a note. † 

275 When Ludwig Tieck was in England I repeated to him this Sonnet And that on Twilight on which he exclaimed “Das ist ein Englischer Göthe”

280  The reference below Vol III p. 163 must be a mistake

There is more to be said on the wisdom of silence than I feel competent to say as it ought to be said – But this is precisely a topic on which you would be well pleased that others should [f. 215r] say what you would not –

p. 358 I heard Mr W. say. That he wrote that Sonnet extempore – In as little time as it took to write it – It was one of the most popular from the first – It is not legitimate And is one of those which do not <–> become more a favorite the more frequently it is read –

334 – I am glad you have retai copied the Table of Contents on this & other occasions – I regretted when Mr W. rejected the Heading

“Moods of my own Mind”   It conciliated

  I am ashamed of sending such insignificant notes And scarcely any to be made use of

  I am Dear Sir

  faithfully your’s

  H. C. Robinson

Revd Dr Wordsworth

† “afterwards Sir Humphrey”

Text: MS. 2144, Wordsworth Papers, fols. 212-14, Lambeth Palace Library.