last in December he secured the
little cottage at Nether Stowey in the Quantock Hills (south of the
Bristol Channel, in Somerset), close to the house of his beloved friend,
Thomas Poole, where he lived until his departure for Germany in
September, 1798.

II. AT NETHER STOWEY

The Stowey period was the blossoming time of Coleridge's genius. All the
poems in this volume except the last four, and besides these "This
Lime-Tree Bower My Prison," "Frost at Midnight," and "Fears in
Solitude"--the bulk of his achievement in poetry--were either written or
begun in 1797 and 1798. It will be proper, then, to dwell a little on
his circumstances, his friends, and his ideas during these two years.

The means of livelihood for himself and his family when he went to
Stowey were a subscription of about L40 that Poole and some friends got
together for him, L20 that Cottle paid for the second edition of the
"Poems," the promise of L80 from the father of Charles Lloyd, who was to
live with him and study under his direction, and such money as he could
earn by reviews and magazine articles, which he estimated at L40 a year;
not a munificent provision for a household of three adults and a child.
But the theories of the simple life that had made Pantisocracy seem a
feasible project still inspired him with confidence. "Sixteen
shillings," he wrote to Poole, "would cover all the weekly expenses of
my wife, infant, and myself. This I say from my wife's own
calculations." Further, he will support himself by the labor of his
hands. "If you can instruct me to manage an acre and a half of land, and
to raise in it, with my own hands, all kinds of vegetables and grain,
enough for myself and my wife and sufficient to feed a pig or two with
the refuse, I hope that you will have served me _most_ effectually by
placing me out of the necessity of being served." This was in December,
just before he moved to Stowey. In February he wrote from his new home
to another friend: "From seven till half past eight I work in my garden;
from breakfast till twelve I read and compose, then read again, feed the
pigs, poultry, etc., till two o'clock; after dinner work again till tea;
from tea till supper, _review_. So jogs the day, and I am happy.... I
raise potatoes and all manner of vegetables, have an orchard, and shall
raise corn with the spade, enough for my family. We have two pigs, and
ducks and geese. A cow would not answer the keep: we have whatever milk
we