Address: To/ The xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx/ Croxall Parsonage/ near/ Lichfield
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
MS: University of Kentucky Library. AL; 3p. (c).
Unpublished.
Note on correspondent: Identified by the address – Holworthy was Vicar of St John
the Baptist, Croxall, 1809–1839 – and by the letter’s content.
Mr W[MS cut]<Wordsworth has this day>
ay delivered me your obliging note. When I received your little volume
(2)
(pp. 24–25). The presentation copy was no. 1329 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s
library.
some months ago, I was sorry that it contained nothing which informed me to whom I
might address my thanks, & express the pleasure which I derived from its perusal.
It is a great satisfaction that I am now enabled so to do. The poems evidently proceed
from a cultivated, amiable & well-directed mind; every reader must peruse them with
respect as well as gratification, & in the authors own immediate circle they must
have that interest which we attach to the faithful portrait of a friend.
It is seldom that I think of myself as a poet. “My way of life has fallen into the
sere, – the yellow leaf.”
– & the inclination for writing poetry has past away. But to be assured that I have
not failed in my hope of conveying worthy & ennobling feelings to congenial minds
would be sufficient recompense for having lived laborious days, even if the labour
had not been of a kind which brings with it its own reward.
Should I ever be in your part of the country, I will certainly endeavour to find you
at Croxall Parsonage. And if you ever visit our Land of Lakes, you will I trust give
me an opportunity of shaking you by the hand at Keswick.
Believe me my dear Sir yours with sincere respect [MS missing]