No other single relation, however, can compare in importance, for
Coleridge's poetic development, with that which sprang up in the summer
of 1797 between him and William Wordsworth. Just when they first met is
not recorded. We have seen that Coleridge was acquainted with
Wordsworth's younger brother in his college days, and discussed with him
Wordsworth's first published poems. In January, 1797, he told Cottle
that he wished to submit his "Visions of the Maid of Arc" to Wordsworth
for criticism. The earliest definite record of their personal
acquaintance is a letter Coleridge wrote to Cottle while on a visit to
Wordsworth at Racedown (just over the Somerset border in Dorsetshire)
early in June. About the beginning of July he is again at Racedown; and
when he returns he brings Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy with him for
a visit. On the 7th Lamb arrived for his long-planned reunion with
Coleridge. The second week of July, 1797, was thus a rich and
long-remembered time for all of them, despite the fact that Mrs.
Coleridge "accidentally emptied a skillet of boiling milk" on her
husband's foot, which confined him "during the whole time of Charles
Lamb's stay." The others took long walks in the neighborhood, amid such
scenery as is described in "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison," a poem
that admirably voices the happiness, of those days of spiritual
fellowship. The Wordsworths did not return to Racedown. "By a
combination of curious circumstances a gentleman's seat, with a park and
woods, elegantly and completely furnished,... in the most beautiful and
romantic situation by the seaside, four miles from Stowey--this we have
got for Wordsworth at the _rent of twenty-three pounds a year, taxes
included_!" Coleridge triumphantly announced to Southey; and in this
house, the Manor of Alfoxden, the Wordsworths remained for a year, in
daily companionship with Coleridge and surrounded by scenes of natural
beauty that have left a lasting mark on the work of both poets.