508. To William Wordsworth MS. Dove Cottage. Pub. E. L. G. i. 266. Saturday -- [ 28 July 1803] 1 My dearest William You would be as much astonished at Hazlitt's coming, as I at his going. -- Sir G. & Lady B. 2 who are half-mad to see you -- (Lady B. told me, that the night before last as she was reading your Poem on Cape RASH JUDGEMENT, had you entered the room, she believes she should have fallen at your feet) Sir G. & his wife both say, that the Picture 3 gives them an idea of you as a profound strong-minded Philosopher, not as a Poet -- I answered (& I believe, truly --) that so it must needs do, if it were a good Portrait -- for that you were a great Poet by inspirations, & in the Moments of revelation, but that you were a thinking feeling Philosopher habitually -- that your Poetry was your Philosophy under the action of strong winds of Feeling -- a sea rolling high. -- What the Devil to do about a Horse! -- I cannot hear of one/ Keswick is not the Place/ & Mr Moore has sent me a Letter which makes it scarcely possible for me to buy the Jaunting Car under 15£. He expresses the utmost sorrow, that his finances relatively even to mine would make it unjust & pusillanimous in him to give way to his habitual Feelings, which would impel him to insist on my accepting it -- that he had repeatedly refused 15£ -- but that I might deduct from that what I chose --. Dearest dearest dearest Friends -- I will have 3 dearests, that there may be one for each -(and Godson John 4 shall have one for himself) I begin to find that a Horse & Jaunting Car is an anxiety -- & almost to wish that we ____________________ 1 This letter must have been written on 23 July 1803, for on 17 July Nathaniel M. Moore, whose letter Coleridge mentions, wrote from Devonshire as follows: 'I had the Pleasure of receiving your Letter this Morning and now rejoice very sincerely in what I once felt as a great Disappointment, my not being able to sell the Jaunting Car. It is much at your Service. I wish I was able to do as my Heart would dictate. Is it worth £15 -- that I often refused -deduct from it what you please -- . . . A Sale between you and me is very repugnant to my Feelings.' The jaunting car was purchased for the Scotch tour, which began on 15 Aug. 2 Sir George Beaumont ( 1753-1827), artist and art patron, and his wife lodged with Jackson at Greta Hall in the summer of 1803 and soon became Coleridge's friends. Through Coleridge they came to know Wordsworth. 3 Hazlitt, who was in the Lake Country at this time, executed portraits of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Hartley Coleridge. P. P. Howe notes that the Wordsworth portrait was destroyed and that the whereabouts of the other two is unknown. The Life of William Hazlitt, 1947, p. 395. 4 ' Godson John' Wordsworth was born 18 June 1803, and baptized 15 July 1803, Coleridge and Richard and Dorothy Wordsworth were the god-parents. -957- had adopted our first thought, & walked: with one pony & side saddle for our Sister Gift-of-God. -- I was on horse just now with Sir O. & Lady B. -- when Lord Lowther came riding up to us -- so of course all dismounted -- & he is now with his Jockey Phiz in with Sir G. -- But I looked at him -- & gave him a downright & heart-deep kind feeling for behaving honestly to all you ----- Lady Beamont -- I can describe her to you in few words -- She is a miniature of Madame Guion / A deep Enthusiast, sensitive, Trembles & cannot keep the Tears in her eye -- Such ones do love the marvellous too well Not to believe it. You may wind her up With any Music! -- 1 but music it must be, of some sort or other. -- I have not as yet received any thing from Fletcher but the Side Portrait, which I shall prize deeply. -- I am quoad health in excellent Trim for our Journey -- foot or horse --. The children are all well -- & Sara is an engaging meek Baby. -- Yesterday evening we had a Cram -- Mrs Wilkinson, General & Mrs Peché, 2 and two Andersons, Mrs Dauber & Miss Hodgins -- Mrs Wilkinson swears, that your Portrait is 20 years too old for you -- & mine equally too old, & too lank 3 / -- Every single person without one exception cries out! -- What a likeness! -but the face is too long! you have a round face! -- Hazlitt knows this; but he will not alter it. Why? -- because the Likeness with him is a secondary Consideration -- he wants it to be a fine Picture -- Hartley knew your's instantly -- & Derwent too / but Hartley said -- it is very like; but Wordsworth is far handsomer. -- Our Mary says -- it is very leek; but it is not canny enough -- tho' Mr Wordsworth is not a canny man, to be sure. -- She thinks Mr Cook's face, I believe, the ideal of Beauty -- but you & I, dear William, pass for an ugly Pair with the lower order / which I foretel, Dorothy will not admit. -- The two defects of it as a likeness are that the eyes are TOO OPEN & FULL -- & there is a heaviness given to the forehead, from parting the Hair so greasily & pomatumish -- there should have been a few straggling hairs left. -- Hazlitt's paints are come from London / -- God love you all W. D. M + dearest John. -- [No signature on MS.] ____________________ 1 Osorio, ii. i. 32-36. Poem, ii. 536. 2 Coleridge refers to General John Peché, an East Indian officer. See Southey, Life and Corres. ii. 245. 3 In 1805 Wordsworth wrote to Beaumont: 'We think, as far as mere likeness goes, Hazlitt's is better [than Northcote's portrait of Coleridge]; but the expression in Hazlitt's is quite dolorous and funereal.' Early Letters, 497. Southey said that Hazlitt'made a very fine picture of Coleridge for Sir George Beaumont, which is said to be in Titian's manner'. Life and Cortes. ii. 288. -958-