late Duke of Argyll, the distinguished author of _The Reign of
Law_--which Dean Howson's son and the Duke's grandson allow me to print.
The Rev. J.S. Howson, afterward Dean of Chester, married a sister of the
John Cropper who married Susan Arnold, and was thus a few years later
brought into connection with the Arnolds and Fox How. The Duke and
Duchess had set out to visit both the Lakes and the Lakes
"celebrities," advised, evidently, as to their tour, by the Duke's old
tutor, who was already familiar with the valleys and some of their
inmates. Their visit to Fox How is only briefly mentioned, but of
Wordsworth and Rydal Mount the Duke gives a long account. The picture,
first, of drooping health and spirits, and then of the flaming out of
the old poetic fire, will, I think, interest any true Wordsworthian.

On Saturday [writes the Duke] we reached Ambleside and soon after
drove to Rydal Mount. We found the Poet seated at his fireside,
and a little languid in manner. He became less so as he talked.
... He talked incessantly, but not generally interestingly.... I
looked at him often and asked myself if that was the man who had
stamped the impress of his own mind so decidedly on a great part
of the literature of his age! He took us to see a waterfall near
his house, and talked and chattered, but said nothing remarkable
or even thoughtful. Yet I could see that all this was only that
we were on the surface, and did not indicate any decay of mental
powers. [Still] we went away with no other impression than the
vaguest of having seen the man, whose writings we knew so well--
and with no feeling that we had seen anything of the mind which
spoke through them.

On the following day, Sunday, the Duke with a friend walked over to
Rydal, but found no one at the Mount but an invalid lady, very old, and