Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, Vol. 1 (of 2)

[Footnote 5: This house was afterwards John Kenyon's,--to whom Aurora Leigh is dedicated,--and was subsequently the residence of the Rev. William Nichols, author of The Quantocks and their Associations.--ED.] 19th.--I walked to Stowey before dinner; Wm. unable to go all the way. Returned alone; a fine sunny, clear, frosty day. The sea still, and blue, and broad, and smooth. 20th.--Walked after dinner towards Woodlands. 21st.--Coleridge came in the morning, which prevented our walking. Wm. went through the wood with him towards Stowey; a very stormy night. 22nd.--Coleridge came in the morning to dinner. Wm. and I walked after dinner to Woodlands; the moon and two planets; sharp and frosty. Met a razor-grinder with a soldier's jacket on, a knapsack upon his back, and a boy to drag his wheel. The sea very black, and making a loud noise as we came through the wood, loud as if disturbed, and the wind was silent. 23rd.--William walked with Coleridge in the morning. I did not go out. 24th.--Went to the hill-top. Sat a considerable time overlooking the country towards the sea. The air blew pleasantly round us. The landscape mildly interesting. The Welsh hills capped by a huge range of tumultuous white clouds. The sea, spotted with white, of a bluish grey in general, and streaked with darker lines. The near shores clear; scattered farm houses, half-concealed by green mossy orchards, fresh straw lying at the doors; hay-stacks in the fields. Brown fallows, the springing wheat, like a shade of green over the brown earth, and the choice meadow plots, full of sheep and lambs, of a soft and vivid green; a few wreaths of blue smoke, spreading along the ground; the oaks and beeches in the hedges retaining their yellow leaves; the distant prospect on the land side, islanded with sunshine; the sea, like a basin full to the margin; the dark fresh-ploughed fields; the turnips of a lively rough green. Returned through the wood.