348. To Thomas Poole Address: Mr T. Poole I N. Stowey I Bridgewater I Somerset. MS. British Mtaeum. Pub. with omis. Letters, i. 335. Postmark: 18 August 1800. Stamped: Keswick. My dear Poole Aug. 14. 1800 Your two letters I received exactly four days ago -- some days they must have been lying at Ambleside, before they were sent to ____________________ 1 Coleridge refers to Wordsworth's letter to Davy of 28 [29] July. See Letter 842. -617- Grasmere -- and some days at Grasmere before they moved to Keswick. I read them / & liked them -- and was writing them off in AGRICULTURAL LETTERS, with notes of my own, 1 when I received letters from Phillips so pressing that I was obliged to put the thing, I had engaged for, out of hand. -- I meant to have sent the Letters to Stuart with orders to have them first in his paper, & then republished in the form of a Pamphlet. -- A most important Question rises -- has there been any Scarcity? The Newspapers are now running down the Monopolists &c --. Is it not a burning Shame, that the Government have not taken absolute means to decide a question so important? It grieved me, that you had felt so much from my silence -- believe me, I have been harrassed with business, & shall remain so -- for the remainder of this year --. Our house is a delightful residence, something less than half a mile from the Lake of Keswick, & something more than a furlong from the town. It commands both that Lake, & the Lake Bassenthwaite -- Skiddaw is behind us -- to the left, the right, & in front, Mountains of all shapes & sizes -- the waterfall of Lodore is distinctly visible --. In gardens, etc we are uncommonly well off, & our Landlord who resides next door in this twofold House, is already much attached to us -- he is a quiet sensible man, with as large a Library as your's -- & perhaps rather larger -- well stored with Encyclopaedias, Dictionaries, & Histories &c -- all modern. -- The gentry of the Country, titled & untitled, have all called or are about to call on me -- & I shall have free access to the magnificent Library of Sir Gilfred Lawson, a weak but good natured Man --. I wish, you could come here in October, after your harvesting --& stand Godfather at the christening of my child. Sara expects to lie in in the first week of September. In October the country is in all it's blaze of Beauty. -- We are well -- & the Wordsworths are well -- / The two Volumes of the Lyrical Ballads will appear in about a fortnight or three weeks 2 --. Sara sends her best kind love to your Mother -- how much we rejoice in her health, I need not say. Love to Ward -- & to Chester, to whom I shall write as soon as I am at Leisure. -- I was standing on the very top of Skiddaw, by a little Shed of Slatestones on which I had scribbled with a bit of slate my name among the other names -- a lean expressive-faced Man came up the Hill, stood beside me, a little while, then running over the names, ____________________ 1 These articles, "Monopolists and Farmers", appeared in the Morning Post on 8, 4, 6, 8, and 9 Oct. 1800. Most of them are Poole's, but Coleridge wrote that of 8 Oct. and the introduction to the one of 6 Oct. See Essays on His Own Times, ii. 413-50. 2 Actually the second edition of Lyrical Ballads did not come out until Jan. 1801, though 1800 appears on the title-page. -618- exclaim[ed,] Coleridge! I lay my life, that is the Poet Coleridge. / -God bless you, & for God's sake never doubt that I am attached to you beyond all other men. -- S. T. Coleridge I will order the M. Posts to you that contain the Letters. --