see me, and drink one half mutchkin along with me. He came on the
instant, and stayed with me about an hour and a half. But I was a
grieved as well as an astonished man, when I found that he refused all
participation in my beverage of rum punch. For a poet to refuse his
glass was to me a phenomenon; and I confess I doubted in my own mind,
and doubt to this day, if perfect sobriety and transcendent poetical
genius can exist together. In Scotland I am sure they cannot. With
regard to the English, I shall leave them to settle that among
themselves, as they have little that is worth drinking.

"Before we had been ten minutes together my heart was knit to Southey,
and every hour thereafter my esteem for him increased. I breakfasted
with him next morning, and remained with him all that day and the next;
and the weather being fine, we spent the time in rambling on the hills
and sailing on the lake; and all the time he manifested a delightful
flow of spirits, as well as a kind sincerity of manner, repeating
convivial poems and ballads, and always between hands breaking jokes on
his nephew, young Coleridge, in whom he seemed to take great delight. He
gave me, with the utmost readiness, a poem and ballad of his own, for a
work which I then projected. I objected to his going with Coleridge and
me, for fear of encroaching on his literary labours; and, as I had
previously resided a month at Keswick, I knew every scene almost in
Cumberland; but he said he was an early riser, and never suffered any
task to interfere with his social enjoyments and recreations; and along
with us he went both days.

"Southey certainly is as elegant a writer as any in the kingdom. But
those who would love Southey as well as admire him, must see him, as I
did, in the bosom, not only of one lovely family, but of three, all
attached to him as a father, and all elegantly maintained and educated,