_Rydal Mount, Feb. 1840_.'

In addition to these Sonnets the beautiful memory of Miss FENWICK has
been reillumined in the 'Memoir and Letters of Sara Coleridge' (2 vols.
1873); _e.g._ 'I take great delight in Miss Fenwick, and in her
conversation. Well should I like to have her constantly in the
drawing-room, to come down to and from my little study up-stairs--her
mind is such a noble compound of heart and intelligence, of spiritual
feeling and moral strength, and the most perfect feminineness. She is
intellectual, but--what is a great excellence--never talks for effect,
never _keeps possession of the floor_, as clever women are so apt to do.
She converses for the interchange of thought and feeling, no matter
_how_, so she gets at your mind, and lets you into hers. A more generous
and a tenderer heart I never knew. I differ from her on many points of
religious faith, but on the whole prefer her views to those of most
others who differ from her' (ii. 5). Again: 'Miss FENWICK is to me an
angel upon earth. Her being near me now has seemed a special providence.
God bless her, and spare her to us and her many friends. She is a noble
creature, all tenderness and strength. When I first became acquainted
with her, I saw at once that her heart was of the very finest, richest
quality, and her wisdom and insight are, as ever must be in such a case,
exactly correspondent' (ibid. p. 397). Such words from one so
penetrative, so indeceivable, so great in the fullest sense as was the
daughter of _the_ COLERIDGE, makes every one long to have the same
service done for Miss FENWICK as has been done for SARA COLERIDGE and
Miss HARE, and within these weeks for Mrs. FLETCHER. Her Diaries and
Correspondence would be inestimable to lovers of WORDSWORTH; for few or
none got so near to him or entered so magnetically into his thinking.
The headings and numberings of the successive Notes--lesser and
larger--will guide to the respective Poems and places. The numberings