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William Wordsworth

Page 45

by Hunter Davies


  Liverpool, Robert Banks Jenkinson, second Earl of, 218

  Lloyd, Charles, 91, 117, 225, 241, 247, 258

  ‘candle’ story about William, 282

  Lloyd, Priscilla, 112

  engaged to Christopher Wordsworth, 117

  marriage and death, 258

  Lockhart, John Gibson, 283

  Lomond, Loch, 157, 158, 182, 328

  London: 1791 stay in, 48–9

  ambivalent attitude to, 60–61

  as 1793–5

  base, 63, 64–5, 74

  brief 1802 visit en route to France, 139, 140, 147, 171

  1806 visit, 177–80

  frequent later visits, 178, 187, 192, 198, 220–1, 250, 285, 286–7, 301, 326–7, 332

  visionary experience in, 187

  London Magazine, 281

  Longmans, 102, 179, 201, 319

  publish new Lyrical Ballads, 123, 128

  publish Excursion, 241

  William’s dissatisfaction with, 297

  Lonsdale, James Lowther, first Earl of, 6, 7, 8, 71

  debts owed to Wordsworth family, 22, 26, 49–50, 145

  death, 140

  Lonsdale, James Hugh William Lowther, seventh Earl of, 228

  Lonsdale, William Lowther, first Earl of second creation, 195, 237

  pays off family debts, 140, 182, 216

  as benefactor to William, 182–3, 197, 217–18, 220, 233, 282, 292, 294

  William’s obsequious letters to, 183, 217

  and 1818 election, 232, 233, 235, 236

  Excursion dedicated to, 237

  helps Southey, 268

  helps William’s son John, 292, 301

  Losh, James, 96

  Loughrigg Holme, 332

  Louis XVI, 54, 64

  Lovell, Robert, 81

  Lovell, Mrs Lovell, 264

  Lowther family, 7–8, 37

  legal action against, 22, 30, 48, 49–50, 51, 145

  William’s hatred of, 50, 217

  settlement of action, 151, 182, 216

  William’s changed attitude to, and anxiety to serve, 217, 228, 232–6, 281, 282

  and 1818 election, 232–6

  Lowther, Colonel Henry, in 1818 election, 233, 234–6

  Lowther, Sir James—see Lonsdale, James Lowther, first Earl of

  Lowther, Sir John, 7

  Lowther, William, Lord (later second Earl of Lonsdale), in 1818 election, 233, 234–6

  Malta, Coleridge in, 165, 170, 184

  Marat, Jean Paul, 54

  Marie Antoinette, 64

  Marshall (formerly Pollard, q.v.), Jane, Dorothy’s letters to, 114, 133, 145

  Martineau, Harriet, 334

  on William’s friendship with Miss Fenwick, 316

  her own move to Lakes and friendship with William, 317—19, 326

  on William’s delight in children, 321

  Matthews, William, 83, 87

  Melrose, 160

  Menai Bridge, 286

  Mingay, Mr (Hawkshead dancing master), 23

  Mont Blanc, 47

  Montagu, Basil, 74–5, 154

  promise to pay William annuity, 75

  defaults, 87, 95, 152

  provides London home for Coleridge, 200–201

  repeats William’s criticisms to Coleridge, 205, 206, 207

  pays off debt to William, 216

  given lock of his hair, 325

  Montagu, Mrs Basil, 335

  Montagu, Basil jr, 75, 86, 87, 246

  Monthly Literary, Byron’s attack on 1807 Poems, 189–90

  Monthly Review, 124

  on first published verse, 62

  on White Doe, 240

  on ‘Peter Bell’, 276

  Moore, Thomas, 277, 287

  Moorman, Mary, 21

  Moresby (Cumberland), John Wordsworth’s living at, 307

  Morning Post, 107, 178

  Coleridge’s work for, 121, 184

  teasing notice of William’s wedding, 148–9

  Moxon, Edward, 319, 322, 340

  Mull, Isle of, 289

  Murray, John, 297

  Myers, John (cousin), 28

  Nab Cottage (Rydal Water), 224, 333, 349

  Nab Scar, 114

  Napoleon, 141, 164, 184, 269, 270

  Nelson, Horatio, Southey’s Life of, 263, 312

  Nether Stowey, 88, 89, 95, 348

  Newbiggen Hall (Cumberland), 9

  Newcastle Journal, 305

  Newton, Sir Isaac, 32

  Orleans, 140

  1791–2 visit to, 51–4

  liaison with Annette in, 53–4

  Owen, Robert, 231

  Oxenholme, 337

  Oxford: son John at New College, 291–2

  honorary degree for William, 312

  Paine, Tom, 64

  Pantisocracy, 77–8, 81–2, 84, 89

  Paris, 52, 54–5, 56

  supposed secret 1793 visit to, 63

  Southey meets Annette and Caroline in, 269

  Caroline’s wedding in, 271

  meeting between William, Mary and Annette in, 272

  last meeting with Caroline in, 307

  Patterdale, 167, 181, 182, 304

  Peel, Sir Robert, 302, 310, 313

  Peel Castle, 179

  Penrith, 7, 11–12, 26, 39, 41, 72

  Cookson home in, 9, 11, 12, 13, 347

  William’s life with grandparents in, 11, 12–14, 21

  dame school, 12, 142

  Dorothy’s return to, 24–5, 28, 40

  Hutchinson home in, 143

  Penrith Beacon, 12, 347

  Pickersgill, Henry William, portrait of William, 312, 348

  Pinney brothers, 75, 86

  Pitt, William, 7, 31, 80

  Pocklington, Colonel, 111

  Pollard (later Marshall, q.v.), Jane, Dorothy’s letters to, 41, 49, 66, 67–8

  Poole, Thomas, 89, 95, 141

  on Coleridge and Southey, 81

  help for Coleridge, 91

  disapproves of his journalism, 122

  William’s letters to, 199, 247

  Potter, Beatrix, 21

  Pye, Henry James, 220

  Quarterly Review, 262

  Quillinan, Edward, 304, 318, 328, 336, 341

  unfavourable first meeting with William, 284

  later friendship, 284, 286, 308

  correspondence with family, 293, 294

  marriage to Dora, 308–10, 316

  row with William, 309, 316

  financial insecurity, 330

  wanderings, 330–1

  and Dora’s death, 332, 333

  help in biography of William, 341

  Quillinan, Rotha, 284

  Racedown Lodge (Dorset), 348

  William and Dorothy’s first home together, 75, 85–8, 89

  visitors, 87, 88, 145, 320

  first meeting of Coleridge with William and Dorothy, 88

  Radnor, William Pleydell-Bouverie, third Earl of, 268

  Ratzeburg, 99

  Rawnsley, Canon H. D., 321, 322, 333

  Ray, Martha, 75

  Recollections of the Lake Poets (De Quincey), 202–3, 204, 210, 225, 226, 265

  Reed, Henry Hope, 336, 341

  William’s letters to, 321, 323, 327, 334

  Reform Act (1832), 306, 323, 324

  Reminiscences of Wordsworth among the Peasantry of Westmorland (Rawnsley), 321–2

  Reynolds, John Hamilton, 274, 275

  Rights of Man, The (Paine), 64

  Robespierre, Maximilien Marie Isidore, 54, 55

  Robinson, Henry Crabb, 207, 224, 238, 276, 279, 287, 322, 337, 341

  close friendship with William, 221–2, 334

  in Lake Poets circle, 262, 264

  told of Annette, 269

  at William’s meeting with Annette and Caroline, 272

  fury at Hazlitt’s criticism of William, 277

  Dorothy’s letter to, 301

  Italian tour with William, 307, 320, 328, 355

  William’s letters to, 312, 31
6

  Christmases at Rydal, 334

  and biography of William, 342

  Robinson, Mary, 155, 156

  Rogers, Samuel, 326

  William’s letters to, 238, 239, 297

  negotiates between William and Murray, 297

  Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 43

  Rydal Mount, 349

  move to, 214–16

  furnishing of, 215–16, 219

  as tourist attraction, 280, 295, 326

  visitors and neighbours, 283–5, 315–19, 324, 326, 334, 336–7

  settled life at, 294–6, 336

  Dora’s field, 295

  illness at, 302

  Dora’s honeymoon at, 310

  seventy-fourth birthday party at, 321

  only royal visitor to, 326

  shower bath for Dora’s use, 331

  Dora’s death at, 332

  Christmasses at, 334

  William’s death at, 338

  Rydal Water, 112, 114, 182, 296

  Salisbury Plain, 69

  Sandwich, John Montagu, fourth Earl of, 74

  Sandys, Edwin, Archbishop of York, 18

  Scafell Pike, Coleridge’s ascent of, as first recorded climb, 120

  Scotland: 1803 tour, 154–62

  1831 tour, 289, 304

  Scott, Sir Walter, 170, 173, 180, 181, 195, 264, 289, 293, 315

  shows William the Border country, 160–1

  visits Lakes, 161, 167, 283

  popularity of, 178, 239, 279, 287

  concern over William’s new school of poetry, 188

  donation to Green appeal, 188

  refuses Laureateship, 220

  his poetry deprecated by William, 238–9

  bust displayed by William, 281

  at Hampton Court, 286–7

  bankruptcy, 298, 304

  last meeting with William, 304

  death, 304

  Scrambler, Mr (Grasmere doctor), 210, 255

  Sedbergh School, son John at, 254, 257, 291

  Selincourt, Ernest de, 21, 133

  Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 74

  Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 138, 262

  visits Southey, 266–7

  skit on ‘Peter Bell’, 275

  acknowledges William as ‘great poet’, 277

  death, 325

  Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 92

  Shrewsbury, 105

  Silver Howe, 114, 194

  Simplon Pass, 47

  Skiddaw, 6, 122, 152

  Waterloo celebration on, 265–6

  Smith, Adam, 77

  Smith, Charlotte, 151

  Smith, Sydney, 125, 319

  Sockbridge (Cumberland), Wordsworth family estate, 7, 8

  Sockburn on Tees, 107, 144

  Southey, Mrs (mother of Robert), 80, 82

  Southey, Cuthbert, 264

  Southey (formerly Fricker), Edith, 81, 83, 88, 262, 264, 265, 310

  marriage, 84

  mental decline and death, 311

  Southey, Herbert, 263–4

  Southey, Isabel, 310, 311

  Southey, Kate, 311, 312, 315

  Southey, Robert, 101, 117, 119, 156, 163, 179, 198, 225, 238, 239, 279, 315

  and Pantisocracy, 78, 79, 80–82, 84, 267

  early life and radicalism, 79–80, 267–8

  friendship with Coleridge, 79, 80–84

  differences with him, 82, 83, 84

  lectures, 82–3

  meets William, 83

  marriage to Edith Fricker, 84

  William’s unfavourable impression of, 87

  occasional contacts with Coleridge, 88

  Dorothy’s poor opinion of, 93

  reviews Lyrical Ballads unfavourably, 102, 123, 261

  renewed friendship with Coleridge, 122

  move to Lakes, 122, 124, 262

  at Greta Hall, 167–8, 261, 263, 266, 295

  revised opinion of Lyrical Ballads, 124

  as one of Lake Poets, 129, 188, 189, 220, 243

  William more favourable to, 161

  revulsion against France under Napoleon, 164, 173, 268

  on Lakes tour with Scott, 167

  comforts William on brother John’s death, 170

  bitter comment on William’s social success, 178

  on choice of name for second Wordsworth son, 180

  on reviewers, 191

  William’s letter to, on Tom Wordsworth’s death, 211–12

  as Poet Laureate, 219–20, 261, 278, 312

  visits Owen’s factory, 231

  hurt by attacks on Excursion, 242–3

  closer relations with William, 261, 265, 269

  reputation as poet, 262, 274

  other literary activities, 262–3

  his household, 263–4

  his ‘three wives’, 264–5

  De Quincey’s description of, 265

  celebration of Waterloo, 265–6

  visitors and correspondence, 266–7

  row with Byron, 267

  high-Toryism, 267, 268

  embarrassed by publication of early republican play, 267–8

  meets Annette and Caroline, 269

  ‘Peter Bell’ dedicated to, 276

  Hazlitt’s praise of, 278

  bust displayed by William, 281

  declines baronetcy, 310

  mental decline and death of wife, 311

  re-marriage, 311

  his own mental decline and death, 311–12

  on William’s dormant sense of smell, 320

  grave, 349

  Spedding family, 69, 70

  Spedding, John, 37

  Spedding Mary, 37

  Stafford, Marchioness of, 178

  Stair, ninth Earl of, 19

  Stephen, J. K., 343

  Stuart, Daniel, 234, 271

  as Morning Post editor, 121, 149, 196

  and teasing paragraph on William’s marriage, 149

  William’s letter to, 218

  Swinburne, Algernon, 336

  Taylor, Henry, 288

  Taylor, William (Hawkshead headmaster), 30

  Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 326

  William’s praise of, 327

  rise to fame, 342

  on William’s ‘thick-ankled’ element, 343

  Thackeray, William Makepeace, 343

  at Cambridge, 32, 34

  Thalaba (Southey), 128

  Thelwall, John, 94, 95

  ‘Three Bears, The’ (Southey), 312

  Times, The, 262, 275

  Tintern Abbey, 69, 83, 106, 109

  Trevelyan, G. M., 29

  Tyler, Miss (Southey’s aunt), 79, 84

  Tyler, Wat, Southey’s dramatic poem about, 81, 267–8

  Tyson, Ann, 16

  William boarded with while at school, 17, 19, 21

  as mother figure, 17–18

  identification of her cottage, 21, 348

  fits William out for Cambridge, 29

  William’s summer vacations with, 35–6

  shuts up shop, 45

  Tyson, Hugh, 16, 17, 19, 21

  Ullswater, 20, 112, 114, 134, 157, 181

  purchase of property on, 182–3

  Vallon, Annette, 132, 137

  William’s affair with, 53–9, 61, 65, 67, 137, 174

  birth of Caroline, 54

  William’s plan to marry, 55, 58

  her letters, 55–7, 140, 141, 250

  secrecy over, 55, 204, 250, 269, 342

  William’s uncles told of, 62–3, 68

  William’s disentanglement from, 139–42

  later contact with, 26–70

  visited by Southey, 269

  marriage of Caroline, 271

  first meeting with Mary, 272

  death, 340

  Vallon (later Baudouin), Caroline, 56, 57, 63, 142

  birth, 54

  christening, 141

  William’s sonnet to, 141, 273

  reveals story to Southey, 269

  engagement and marriage, 269–71

  William’
s annual payments to, 271

  his final settlement on, 272, 340

  children, 272

  meeting with William, 272

  last meeting with him, 307

  death, 341

  descendants, 341

  Vallon, Paul, 141

  Victoria, Queen, William presented to, 326–7

  Wadsworth (Yorks), 7

  Walsh, G. (Home Office secret agent), 94–5

  Walter, John, 263

  Waterloo, Battle of (1815), 265, 270

  Watson, Richard, Bishop of Llandaff, 32

  William’s invective adressed to, 64–5

  William’s changed attitude to, 222

  Wedgwood, Josiah, 95, 96, 98

  Wedgwood, Tom, 95, 96, 98

  Weekly Entertainer, William’s only signed letter to newspaper in, 86

  Weeks, Shadrach, 82

  West, Thomas, 37

  Westminster School, 79

  Westmorland, 1818 election in, 232–6

  Westmorland Gazette, 234

  De Quincey as editor of, 236–7

  Whitehaven, 8, 9, 69, 70

  Paul Jones raid on, 11

  Whitwick (Leics), John Wordsworth’s curacy at, 292, 300–301

  Wight, Isle of, 56, 88

  Wilberforce, Barbara, 283

  Wilberforce, William, 31–2, 66, 127

  impressed by Dorothy’s class for poor children, 41

  at Rydal Mount, 283

  Wilkinson, Rev. Joseph, 289

  William Wordsworth and Annette Vallon (Legouis), 271

  Williams, Helen Maria, 51–2

  Wilson, John: fan letter to William, 128, 201

  move to Lakes, 201

  godfather to Willy, 205

  leaves Lakes, 224, 226

  helped by William despite offending him, 283

  Windermere, 20, 35, 37, 38, 111, 136, 323

  Windsor, 66, 179

  Windy Browe (Calvert farm), 69, 70–71, 349

  Wordsworth, Ann (mother), 6, 9, 11

  character, 10

  illness and death, 13, 14

  Wordsworth, Catherine (daughter), 254

  birth, 195

  De Quincey’s devotion to, 204

  death, 210–11, 212; ‘Surprised by joy’ written in memory of, 212, 213

  Wordsworth, Charles (nephew), 281

  Wordsworth, Christopher (brother), 6, 23, 93, 180, 259

  character, 10, 25, 66, 285

  at Cambridge, 34, 66, 83, 117, 280

  engagement, 117

  allowance to Dorothy, 145

  successful Church career, 179, 258

  marriage, 258

  closer relationship with William, 258

  William’s letter to, 306

  death, 332

  Wordsworth, Christopher (nephew), 281

  as biographer, 55, 143, 197, 313, 320, 341, 342

  Wordsworth (later Quillinan), Dora (daughter), 251, 286, 327, 336

  birth, 166

  as William’s favourite, 181, 254, 256, 284, 292, 308

  on walk to Patterdale and Ullswater, 181–2

  character, 254–6, 292–3

  education, 255

  ill health, 257, 293, 302, 331, 332

  on Napoleon’s escape from Elba, 270

 

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