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

Sunday, 27th.--Very warm.... I wrote out Ruth in the afternoon. In the morning, I read Mr. Knight's Landscape.[26] After tea we rowed down to Loughrigg Fell, visited the white foxglove, gathered wild strawberries, and walked up to view Rydale. We lay a long time looking at the lake; the shores all dim with the scorching sun. The ferns were turning yellow, that is, here and there one was quite turned. We walked round by Benson's wood home. The lake was now most still, and reflected the beautiful yellow and blue and purple and grey colours of the sky. We heard a strange sound in the Bainriggs wood, as we were floating on the water; it seemed in the wood, but it must have been above it, for presently we saw a raven very high above us. It called out, and the dome of the sky seemed to echo the sound. It called again and again as it flew onwards, and the mountains gave back the sound, seeming as if from their centre; a musical bell-like answering to the bird's hoarse voice. We heard both the call of the bird, and the echo, after we could see him no longer....[27] [Footnote 26: The Landscape: a Didactic Poem in three Books. By Richard Payne Knight. 1794.--ED.] [Footnote 27: Compare The Excursion, book iv. II. 1185-1195.--ED.] Monday.--Received a letter from Coleridge enclosing one from Mr. Davy about the Lyrical Ballads. Intensely hot.... William went into the wood, and altered his poems.... Thursday.--All the morning I was busy copying poems. Gathered peas, and in the afternoon Coleridge came. He brought the 2nd volume of Anthology. The men went to bathe, and we afterwards sailed down to Loughrigg. Read poems on the water, and let the boat take its own course. We walked a long time upon Loughrigg. I returned in the grey twilight. The moon just setting as we reached home.