304

On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from Abbotsford, for 307
Naples

The Trossachs 308

PREFACE.

Those who have long known the poetry of Wordsworth will be no strangers
to the existence of this Journal of his sister, which is now for the
first time published entire. They will have by heart those few wonderful
sentences from it which here and there stand at the head of the Poet's
'Memorials of a Tour in Scotland in 1803.' Especially they will remember
that 'Extract from the Journal of my Companion' which preludes the
'Address to Kilchurn Castle upon Loch Awe,' and they may sometimes have
asked themselves whether the prose of the sister is not as truly poetic
and as memorable as her brother's verse. If they have read the Memoirs
of the Poet published by his nephew the Bishop of Lincoln, they will have
found there fuller extracts from the Journal, which quite maintain the
impression made by the first brief sentences. All true Wordsworthians
then will welcome, I believe, the present publication. They will find in
it not only new and illustrative light on those Scottish poems which they
have so long known, but a faithful commentary on the character of the
poet, his mode of life, and the manner of his poetry. Those who from
close study of Wordsworth's poetry know both the poet and his sister, and
what they were to each other, will need nothing more than the Journal
itself. If it were likely to fall only into their hands, it might be
left without one word of comment or illustration. But as it may reach
some who have never read Wordsworth, and others who having read do not
relish him, for the information of these something more must be said.
The Journal now published does not borrow all its worth from its bearing
on the great poet. It has merit and value of its own, which may commend
it to some who have no heart for Wordsworth's poetry. For the writer of
it was in herself no common woman, and might have secured for herself an
independent reputation, had she not chosen rather that other part, to
forget and merge herself entirely in the work and reputation of her
brother.

* * * * *

DOROTHY WORDSWORTH was the only sister of the poet, a year and a half
younger, having been born on Christmas Day 1771. The five children who
composed the family, four sons and one dau