Hamilton also submitted to Wordsworth an original poem, entitled
"It Haunts me Yet." The reply of Wordsworth is worth repeating:--

"With a safe conscience I can assure you that, in my judgment, your
verses are animated with the poetic spirit, as they are evidently the
product of strong feeling. The sixth and seventh stanzas affected me
much, even to the dimming of my eyes and faltering of my voice while
I was reading them aloud. Having said this, I have said enough. Now
for the per contra. You will not, I am sure, be hurt when I tell you
that the workmanship (what else could be expected from so young a
writer?) is not what it ought to be. . .

"My household desire to be remembered to you in no formal way.
Seldom have I parted--never, I was going to say--with one whom after
so short an acquaintance I lost sight of with more regret. I trust
we shall meet again."

The further affectionate intercourse between Hamilton and Wordsworth
is fully set forth, and to Hamilton's latest years a recollection of
his "Rydal hours" was carefully treasured and frequently referred
to. Wordsworth visited Hamilton at the observatory, where a
beautiful shady path in the garden is to the present day spoken of as
"Wordsworth's Walk."

It was the practice of Hamilton to produce a sonnet on almost every
occasion which admitted of poetical treatment, and it was his delight
to communicate his verses to his friends all round. When Whewell was
producing his "Bridgewater Treatises," he writes to Hamilton in
1833:--