little money to spare. I remain, my dear Sir
George,

Your affectionate friend,
W. WORDSWORTH[36].

[36] _Memoirs_, vol. i, pp. 358-60.

OF POEMS, COLERIDGE, &c. &c.

_Letter to Sir George H. Beaumont, Bart_.

Grasmere, Sat., Nov. 16. 1811.

MY DEAR SIR GEORGE,

I have to thank you for two letters. Lady Beaumont also will accept my
acknowledgments for the interesting letter with which she favoured me.

* * * * *

I learn from Mrs. Coleridge, who has lately heard from C----, that
Alston, the painter, has arrived in London. Coleridge speaks of him as a
most interesting person. He has brought with him a few pictures from his
own pencil, among others, a Cupid and Psyche, which, in C.'s opinion,
has not, for colouring, been surpassed since Titian. C. is about to
deliver a Course of Lectures upon Poetry, at some Institution in the
city. He is well, and I learn that the 'Friend' has been a good deal
inquired after lately. For ourselves, we never hear from him.

I am glad that the inscriptions please you. It did always appear to me,
that inscriptions, particularly those in verse, or in a dead language,
were never supposed _necessarily_ to be the composition of those in
whose name they appeared. If a more striking, or more dramatic effect
could be produced, I have always thought, that in an epitaph or memorial
of any kind, a father, or husband, &c. might be introduced, speaking,
without any absolute deception being intended: that is, the reader is
understood to be at liberty to say to himself,--these verses, or this
Latin, may be the composition of some unknown person, and not that of
the father, widow, or friend, from whose hand or voice they profess to
proceed. If the composition be natural, affecting, or beautiful, it is
all that is required. This, at least, was my view of the subject, or I
should not have adopted that mode. However, in respect to your scruples,
which I feel are both delicate and reasonable, I have altered the
verses; and I have only to regret that the alteration is not more
happily done. But I never found anything more difficult. I wished to
preserve the expression _patrimonial grounds_, but I found this
impossible, on account of the awkwardness of the pronouns, he and his,
as applied to Reynolds, and to yourself. This, even where it does not
produce confusion, is always inelegant. I was, therefore, obliged to
drop