e sterling quality of his brother's poems, and to
foretell with perfect confidence their ultimate acceptance, at the time
when the critic wits who ruled the hour treated them with contempt. The
two brothers were congenial spirits, and William's poetry has many
affecting allusions to his brother John, whose intention it was, when his
last voyage was over, to settle in 'Grasmere's happy vale,' and to devote
the surplus of his fortune to his brother's use. On his last voyage he
sailed as captain of the 'Earl of Abergavenny' East-Indiaman, at the
opening of February 1805; and on the 5th of that month, the ill-fated
ship struck on the Shambles of the Bill of Portland, and the captain and
most of the crew went down with her. To the brother and sister this
became a permanent household sorrow. But in time they found comfort in
that thought with which the Poet closes a remarkable letter on his
brother's loss,--'So good must be better; so high must be destined to be
higher.'

Another lesser incident was a short tour to the Continent, in which, as
the brother and sister crossed Westminster Bridge, outside the Dover
coach, both witnessed that sunrise which remains fixed for ever in the
famous sonnet. Another incident, and more important, was Wordsworth's
marriage in October 1802, when he brought home his young wife, Mary
Hutchinson, his sister's long-time friend, to their cottage at Townend.
This is she whom he has sung in the lines--'She was a phantom of
delight;' of whom he said in plain prose, 'She has a sweetness all but
angelic, simplicity the most entire, womanly self-respect and purity of
heart speaking through all her looks, acts, and movements.' The advent
of Mrs. Wordsworth brought no change to Dorothy. She still continued to
fill to her brother and his wife the same place which she had filled when
her brother was alone, sharing in all the household duties and family
interests, and still accompanying him in his rambles when Mrs. Wordsworth
was detained at home. The year after the marriage, that is, in the
fourth year of the Grasmere residence, after the first son was born, the
brother and sister, accompanied by Coleridge, set out on that tour the
Journal of which is here published. Portions of it have already appeared
in the 'Memoirs' of Wordsworth, but it is now for the first time given in
full, just as it came from the pen of Miss Wordsworth seventy years ago.
As I shall have to speak of it again, I may now pass