194 THE POET'S MARRIED HOME. 



and Olive-Bough."* There it is, with its little 

 orchard rising above it. There began his 

 married life ; there, probably, he passed some 

 of his happiest days, in " Plain living and 

 high thinking." Would that we had a faithful 

 account of this portion of his life ! How in- 

 teresting would it be and instructive, a model 

 kind of life, in its simplicity, frugality and 

 dignity, and I am sure I may add, in true en- 

 joyment. With a very limited income, li- 

 mited we have been told to a hundred a-year f 

 yet he exercised hospitality. Here he had for 

 his guests, men whose names will go down with 

 his to after times, Southey, Coleridge, Lamb, 

 Scott, not to mention others of hardly less 

 mark. Plain living indeed was theirs, and 

 high thinking. Wine or beer never appeared 



* " There, where the Dove and Olive Bough 

 Once hung, a poet harbours now, 

 A simple water-drinking bard." 



The Waggoner, Canto I. 



) The means of the poet at the outset of his marriage 

 life were so limited, owing in part to an unsettled 

 account, and unpaid debt due to the family from a noble 

 lord, whose agent Mr. Wordsworth's father had been, 

 and which was not paid till the late Lord Lonsdale came 

 to the title and property. See Memoirs, vol. i. p. 88. 



