; still, it
being an idea of considerable size in our minds, we had inevitably drawn
its ideal physical proportions on a somewhat corresponding scale. It
certainly did look very small; and I said, in my American scorn, that I
could carry it away easily in a porringer; for it is nothing more than a
grassy-bordered pool among the surrounding hills, which ascend directly
from its margin; so that one might fancy it not a permanent body of
water, but a rather extensive accumulation of recent rain. Moreover, it
was rippled with a breeze, and so, as I remember it, though the sun
shone, it looked dull and sulky, like a child out of humor. Now the best
thing these small ponds can do is to keep perfectly calm and smooth, and
not to attempt to show off any airs of their own, but content themselves
with serving as a mirror for whatever of beautiful or picturesque there
may be in the scenery around them. The hills about Rydal water are not
very lofty, but are sufficiently so as objects of every-day
view,--objects to live with,--and they are craggier than those we have
hitherto seen, and bare of wood, which indeed would hardly grow on some
of their precipitous sides.

On the roadside, as we reach the foot of the lake, stands a spruce and
rather large house of modern aspect, but with several gables, and much
overgrown with ivy,--a very pretty and comfortable house, built,
adorned, and cared for with commendable taste. We inquired whose it was,
and the coachman said it was "Mr. Wordsworth's," and that Mrs.
Wordsworth was still residing there. So we were much delighted to have
seen his abode; and as we were to stay the night at Grasmere, about two
miles farther on, we determined to come back and inspect it as
particularly as should be allowable. Accordingly, after taking rooms at
Brown's Hotel, we drove back in our return car, and, reaching the head
of Rydal water, alighted to walk through this familiar scene of so many
years of Wordsworth's life. We ought to have seen De Quincey's former
residence, and Hartley Coleridge's cottage, I believe, on our way, but
were not aware of it at the time. Near the lake there is a stone quarry,
and a cavern of some extent, artificially formed, probably, by taking
out the stone. Above the shore of the lake, not a great way from
Wordsworth's residence, there is a flight of steps hewn in a rock, and
ascending to a seat, where a good view of the lake may be attained; and
as Wordsworth has doubtless sat th