26 A CONTINENTAL TOUR. 



solitude. Whatever else it did, this loneliness was con- 

 ducive to impressions deep and enduring. Over the scene 

 which arrested him, he could linger without any impatient 

 yoke-fellow pulling him away; and in moments of ravish- 

 ment he could weep or shout forth his rapture without fear 

 of derision. 



It was essentially a poet's pilgrimage. For the caveat 

 against quarrelling there was no need ; and we question 

 if, before starting, he had read the rest of Lord Bacon's 

 rules. His purpose and his plan are best described in the 

 following paragraphs : — 



" Before setting out, I had determined to remain so 

 totally unfettered, that I would not even prepare myself 

 for the journey, by renewing or completing my very imper- 

 fect reading acquaintance with the chief parts that I was 

 about to visit. I was going, in sober certainty, to view 

 the real scenes, the ideal images of which had been the 

 objects of my love — until within these few years my hope- 

 less love — ever since I had known what it was that I really 

 wished or wanted ; and I was determined to come to the 

 contemplation of them free from all other bias on my mind 

 than Would be given to it by the delightful but somewhat 

 misty and indistinct associations which had come to it, as 

 it were of themselves, in my veiy earliest youth, and had 

 ever since been congregating and engendering together, 

 till at length they had formed a sort of colony there — a 



