in this remote and fleeting fashion. For to the Priest of Nature it
was fitting that all things else should be harmonious, indeed, but
accessory; that joy should not be so keen, nor sorrow no desolating,
nor love itself so wildly strong, as to prevent him from going out
upon the mountains with a heart at peace, and receiving "in a wise
passiveness" the voices of earth and heaven.




CHAPTER VI.


SIR GEORGE BEAUMONT--DEATH OF JOHN WORDSWORTH.

The year 1803 saw the beginning of a friendship which formed a
valuable element in Wordsworth's life. Sir George Beaumont, of
Coleorton Hall, Leicestershire, a descendant of the dramatist, and
representative of a family long distinguished for talent and culture,
was staying with Coleridge at Greta Hall, Keswick, when, hearing of
Coleridge's affection for Wordsworth, he was struck with the wish to
bring Wordsworth also to Keswick, and bought and presented to him a
beautiful piece of land at Applethwaite, under Skiddaw, in the hope
that he might be induced to settle there. Coleridge was soon
afterwards obliged to leave England in search of health, and the plan
fell through. A characteristic letter of Wordsworth's records his
feelings on the occasion. "Dear Sir George," he writes, "if any
person were to be informed of the particulars of your kindness to me,
if it were described to him in all its delicacy and nobleness, and
he should afterwards be told that I suffered eight weeks to elapse