d
naturally assign the majority of the Coleorton poems to the year 1808.
But it is clear that, while the sonnet _To Lady Beaumont_ may have been
written in 1806, the "Inscription" _For a Seat in the Groves of
Coleorton_, beginning--

Beneath yon eastern ridge, the craggy bound,

was written, not in 1808 (as stated by Wordsworth himself), but in 1811;
and that the other "Inscription" designed for a Niche in the
Winter-garden at Coleorton, belongs (I think) to the same year; a year
in which he also wrote the sonnet on Sir George Beaumont's picture of
Bredon Hill and Cloud Hill, beginning--

Praised be the Art whose subtle power could stay.

When the dates are so difficult to determine, there is a natural fitness
in bringing all the poems referring to Coleorton together, so far as
this can be done without seriously interfering with chronological order.
The two "Inscriptions" intended for the Coleorton grounds, which were
written at Grasmere in 1811, are therefore printed along with the poems
of 1807; the precise date of each being given--so far as it can be
ascertained--underneath its title.

Several political sonnets, and others, were written in 1807; also the
_Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle_, and the first and larger part of
_The White Doe of Rylstone_, with a few minor fragments. But, for
reasons stated in the notes to _The White Doe of Rylstone_ (see p.
191), I have assigned that poem to the year 1808. The _Song at the Feast
of Brougham Castle_ forms as natural a preface to _The White Doe_, as
_The Force of Prayer, a Tradition of Bolton Abbey_, is its natural
appendix. The latter was written, however, before _The White Doe of
Rylstone_ was finished.

It would be easier to fix the date of some of the poems written between
the years 1806 and 1808, if we knew the exact month in which the two
volumes of 1807 were published; but this, I fear, it is impossible to
discover now.

On November 10th, 1806, Wordsworth wrote to Sir George Beaumont from
Coleorton, "In a day or two I mean to send a sheet or two of my intended
volume to the press" (evidently referring to the "Poems" of 1807). On
the following day--11th November 1806--Dorothy Wordsworth wrote to Lady
Beaumont, "William has written two other poems, which you will see when
they are printed. He composes frequently in the grove.... We have not
yet received a sheet from the printer." On the 15th November 1806 she
again wrote to Lady Beaumont (from