He, in disgust, turned from the neighbouring sea1 That hung between two callings. May no strife XIX BY A RETIRED MARINER * (A FRIEND OF THE AUTHOR) [Mrs. Wordsworth's Brother, Henry.+-I. F.] FROM early youth I ploughed the restless Main, 1 1835. The dwelling raised. Fantastic slave of spleen He sought by shunning thus the neighbouring sea, The habitation raised, a slave of spleen, The weary man turned from the neighbouring sea *This unpretending Sonnet is by a gentleman nearly connected with me, and I hope, as it falls so easily into its place, that both the writer and the reader will excuse its appearance here.-W. W. 1835. Mr. Henry Hutchinson, Mrs. Wordsworth's brother, was-the Bishop of Lincoln tells us-"a person of great originality and vigour of mind, a very enterprising sailor, and a writer of verses distinguished by no ordinary merit."-See the Memoirs of Wordsworth, vol. ii. p. 246.-ED. AT BALA-SALA, ISLE OF MAN A peaceful spot where Nature's gifts abound; Though poor to Sea I went, and poor I still remain. 365 XX AT BALA-SALA, ISLE OF MAN (SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN BY A FRIEND) [Supposed to be written by a friend (Mr. Cookson), who died there a few years after. *—I. F.] BROKEN in fortune, but in mind entire A grey-haired, pensive, thankful Refugee; A shade-but with some sparks of heavenly fire Once to these cells vouchsafed.1 And when I note The old Tower's brow yellowed as with the beams Of sunset ever there, albeit streams 2 5 ΙΟ 1 1835. with such sparks of holy fire As once were cherished here. MS. 2 1835. and know that streams MS. * Henry Crabb Robinson-the Wordsworths' companion in the tour, wrote in his Journal, 14th July: “At Ballasalla called on Mr. and Mrs. Cookson, esteemed friends of the W.'s, whom adversity had driven to this asylum."-ED. Rushen Abbey.-W. W. 1835. The "old Tower is that of Rushen Abbey, close to Bala-Sala, the latest dissolved monastery in the British Isles. Little of it survives; only the tower, refectory, and dormitory. The tower is still yellowed with lichen The following occurs in one of Mr. H. C. Robinson's letters on the Italian Tour of 1837:-"This reminds me that I was once privy to the stains. Of stormy weather-stains that semblance wrought, "Shine so, my aged brow, at all hours of the day!" XXI TYNWALD HILL [Mr. Robinson and I walked the greater part of the way from Castle-town to Piel, and stopped some time at Tynwald Hill. One of my companions was an elderly man who, in a muddy way (for he was tipsy), explained and answered, as far as he could, my enquiries about this place and the ceremonies held here. I found more agreeable company in some little children ; one of them, upon my request, recited the Lord's Prayer to me, and I helped her to a clearer understanding of it as well as I could; but I was not at all satisfied with my own part; hers was much better done, and I am persuaded that, like other children, she knew more about it than she was able to express, especially to a stranger.-I. F.] * ONCE on the top of Tynwald's formal mound 1 1835. Once on the top of Tynwald Hill (a Mound MS. MS. conception of a Sonnet with a distinctness which did not once occur on the longer Italian journey. This was when I accompanied him into the Isle of Man. We had been drinking tea with Mr. and Mrs. Cookson, and left them when the weather was dull. Very soon after leaving them we passed the Church Tower of Bala-Sala. The upper part of the tower had a sort of frieze of yellow lichens. Mr. W. pointed it out to me, and said, 'It's a perpetual sunshine.' I thought no more of it till I had read the beautiful sonnet, 'Broken in fortune, but in mind entire." " ED. *The ground at Tynwald Hill (as it is called) remains unchanged. Here, on a small plot of ground, the whole Manx people meet annually on 367 TYNWALD HILL * The laws to promulgate, enrobed and crowned; 1 1835. Would sit by solemn usage robed and crowned, MS. Sate 'mid the assembled people robed and crowned, MS. 5 10 Midsummer Day, July 5th, to appoint officers and enact new laws. The first historical notice of these meetings is in 1417. The name Tynwald is derived from the Scandinavian thing, 66 'court of justice," and wald, "fenced." The mound is only 12 feet high, rising by four circular platforms, each 3 feet higher than the one below it. The circumference at the base is 240 feet, and at the top 18 feet. It used once to be walled round, and had two gates. The approach now is by twenty-one steps cut in the turf. In his Diary, etc., Robinson wrote of Tynwald-"It brought to my mind a similar monument of simple manners at Sarnen in Switzerland."-ED. The summit of this mountain is well chosen by Cowley as the scene of the "Vision," in which the spectral angel discourses with him concerning the government of Oliver Cromwell. "I found myself," says he, "on the top of that famous hill in the Island Mona, which has the prospect of three great, and not long since most happy, kingdoms. As soon as ever I looked upon them, they called forth the sad representation of all the sins and all the miseries that had overwhelmed them these twenty years." It is not to be denied that the changes now in progress, and the passions, and the way in which they work, strikingly resemble those which led to the disasters the philosophic writer so feelingly bewails. God grant that the resemblance may not become still more striking as months and years advance !-W. W. 1835. The top of Snaefell (which Wordsworth names Snafell "), the highest mountain in the Isle of Man, whence England, Scotland, and Ireland are to be seen, as mentioned in the Sonnet, is not visible from Tynwald Hill.-ED. XXII "DESPOND WHO WILL—I HEARD A VOICE EXCLAIM" DESPOND who will-I heard a voice exclaim, Should fall; that She, whose virtue put to shame, Her sun is up the while,3 5 ΙΟ That orb whose beams round Saxon Alfred shone : Then laugh, ye innocent Vales! ye Streams, sweep on, Nor let one billow of our heaven-blest Isle 4 Toss in the fanning wind a humbler plume.” 1 1835. Clear voices from pure worlds of hope exclaim 2 1835. Before a season's calculating sense, 3 1835. 4 1835. MS. MS. |