1824: Recievd a packet from London with the Magazine & some copies of MSS that come very slowly & a letter very friendly worded but I have found that saying & doing Is a wide difference too far very often to be neighbours much less friends recievd a letter too from Van Dyk lookd into Wordsworth...

1824: Took a walk in the fields the oaks are beginning to turn reddish brown & the winds have stripped some nearly bare the underwood's last leaves are in their gayest yellows thus autumn seems to put on bridal colours for a shroud the little harvest-bell is still in bloom trembling to the cold...

1824: Read in Bishop Percy's poems the Reliques of Ancient Poetry take them up as often as I may I am always delighted there is so much of the essence & simplicity of true poetry that makes me regret I did not see them sooner as they woud have formed my taste & laid the foundations of my...

1824: Recievd a letter & prospectus from a School-master of Surfleet wishing me to become a correspondent to a periodical publication calld 'The Scientific Receptacle' what a crabbed name for poesy to enlist with its professes to be a kinsman to The Leeds Correspondant & the Boston Enquirer the...

1824: Took a walk with John Billings to Swordy Well to gather some 'old man's beard' which hangs about the hedges in full bloom its downy clusters of artificial-like flowers appear at first as if the hedge was litterd with bunches of white cotton went into Hilly Wood & found a beautiful species...

1824: Set some box edging round a border which I have made for my collection of ferns read some passages in Blair's Grave a beautiful poem & one of the best things after the manner of Shakespear its beginning is very characteristic of the subject there are crowds of beautiful passages about it...

1824: Took a walk to Lolham Brigs to hunt for a species of fern that usd to grow on some willow tree heads in Lolham lane when I was a boy but coud find none got some of the yellow water-lily from the pits which the floods had washed up to set in an old water-tub in the garden & to try some on...

1824: Took a walk got some branches of the spindle tree with its pink-colord berrys that shine beautifully in the pale sun found for the first time 'the herb true love' or 'one berry' in Oxey Wood brought a root home to set in my garden - lookd into the 2 Vols of Sermons from Lord Radstock the...

1824: Recievd a present of 2 Volumes of Sermons On the Doctrines & Practice of Christianity from Lord Radstock he is one of my best friends & not of much kin with the world. The chrysanthemums are just opening their beautiful double flowers I have 6 sorts this year the claret-coloured the buff...

1824: Read some poems of Wordsworth his 'Lucy Gray' or Solitude 'The Pet Lamb' 'We are Seven' the Oak & broom 'the Eglantine & the Fountain' Two April Mornings are some of my greatest favourites When I first began to read poetry I dislikd Wordworth because I heard he was dislikd & I was...

1824: Wrote a letter to Mrs Gilchrist read some passages in Shakespear turnd over a few leaves of Knox's Essays- read Bacon's essay on the idea of a compleat garden divided into every month of the year in which the flowers bloom what beautiful Essays these are I take them up like Shakespear &...

1824: I have been much stuck with some passages in the Poems of Aaron Hill with many happy expressions & original images I have inserted a few of them in Appendix he seems to struggle to free his ideas from the turnpike hackney-isms of sounding rhymes & tinkling periods then in fashion for most...

1824: Recievd a letter from Allan Cunningham - looked into Pope I know not how it is but I cannot take him up often or read him long together the uninterrupted flow of the verses wearys the ear there are some fine passages in the 'Essay on Man' the Pastorals are nicknamed so for daffodils...

1824: Old Shepherd Newman dyed this morning an old tenant of the fields & the last of the old shepherds the fields are now left desolate & his old haunts look like houses disinhabited the fading woods seem mourning in the autumn wind how often hath he seen the blue skye the green fields & woods...

1824: Recievd a letter from Lord Radstock - finished another chapter of my life read some passages in Blair's Sermons lookd into Maddox on the culture of flowers & the Flora Domestica* which with a few improvements & additions would be one of the most entertaining books ever written if I live I...

1824: Continued to read Hazlitt I like his Lectures on the Poets better than those of the comic writers & on Shakespear his View of the English Stage is not so good as either they might have remained in their first places without any loss to the world viz the Newspapers for which they were...

1824: Recievd a letter from Hessey & wrote one took a walk in the fields gatherd a bunch of wild flowers that lingerd in shelterd places as loath to dye - the ragwort still shines in its yellow clusters & the little heath-bell or harvest-bell quakes to the wind under the quick banks & warm furze...

1824: Workd in the garden at making a shed for my Auriculas the Michaelmas daisey is in full flower both the lilac-blue & the white thick-set with its little clustering stars of flowers I love them for their visits in such a melancholy season as the end of autumn - the Horse chestnut tree is...

1824: Lookd over a New vol of provincial poems by a neighbouring poet Bantons - Excursions of Fancy & poor fancies I find them there is not a new thought in them 4 years ago a poet was not to be heard of within a century of Helpstone & now there is a swarm Roses Early Muse Wilkinsons Percy both...

1824: Lookd again into Don Juan like it better & feel a wish that the great poet had livd to finish it tho he appears to have lost his intended plan on setting out & to have continued it with any purpose that came uppermost - Don Juan's visit to England reads tiresome & one wishes at the end...

1824: Recievd a letter from Mrs Gilchrist - read some passages in my Shakspear took a walk the hedges look beautiful with their hips & glossy sloes lookd into the poems of Coleridge, Lamb & Lloyd. Coleridge's monody on Chatterton is beautiful but his sonnets are not happy ones they seem to be a...

1824: Wrote 2 more pages of my life find it not so easy as I at first imagind as I am anxious to give an undisguisd narrative of facts good & bad in the last sketch which I wrote for Taylor I had little vanitys about me to gloss over failings which I shall now take care to lay bare for readers...

1824: Read in Elton's Poems some passages in The Brothers are very good & appear to be the utterance of feeling the small poems are middling 'Rob Roy' & 'A Father's Reverie' are two of the best - there is a pleasant sound lingers on the ear whilst reading these lines: - the bare trees with...

1824: Wrote a letter to Lord Radstock - Read some passages in the Poems of Tannahill some of his Songs are beautiful particularly 'Loudon's bonny woods & braes' 'We'll meet beside the dusky glen' & 'Jessey'. His poems are poor & appear as if they were written by another. The epithet 'virgin...

1824: Feel rather worse lookd over the Magazine for amusement, for Magazines are the best things in Literature to pass away a melancholy hour their variety & the freshness of their subjects whether good or bad never fail of amusement to reccomend them Blackwood's has had a hard hit on Taylor...

1824: Began to learn a poor lame boy the common rules of arithmetic & find him very apt & willing to learn. Began an enquiry into the life of Bloomfield with the intention of writing one & a criticism on his genius & Writings. A fellow of the name of Weston pretended to know a great deal about...

1824: I have been dipping into The Miseries of Human Life. Here & there the petty troubles are whimsical enough & the thing a novel one which is sufficient to ensure success now & I understand it ran through a many editions & that the Authors made £1,500 by it clear profit so much for fashion...

1824: A wet day have finished the life of Savage in Johnson's Lives of the Poets it is a very interesting piece of biography but the criticisms are dictated by friendship that too often forgets judgment ought to be one of the company to leave this & turn to the life of Gray what a contrast it...

1824: Observed today that the Swallows are all gone. When they went I know not. Saw them at the beginning of the week, a white one was seen this season by Mr Clark in the fields while out shooting. Patty has been to Stamford & brought me a letter from Ned Drury who came from Lincoln to the...

1824: Very ill today & very unhappy my 3 Childern are all unwell had a dismal dream of being in hell. This is the third time I have had such a dream. As I am more & more convinced that I cannot recover, I will make a memorandum of my temporary concerns, for next to the Spiritual, they ought to...

1824: Got a parcel from London Elton's Brothers & Allen's Grammar gifts of the authors & Erskine's Internal Evidences of Religion the gift of Lord Radstock one of my best friends a very sensible book. This passage stuck me I first opened 'To walk without God in the world is to walk in sin & sin...

1824: Recieved the London Magazine by my friend Henderson who brought it from town with him. A very dull no. The worst of magazines is waste-paper repetition for humbug is editor of them all in the June no. De Quincey had a paper on 'False Distinctions' which contended quite right enough that...

1824: One can scarcely trust fame or credit in these days of misrepresentation and deception. This morning a PlayBill was thrown into my house with this pompous Blunder on the face of it.THEATRE MARKET DEEPING On Thursday Evening Oct. 7 1824 'Will be published thepopular new comedy (never acted...

1824: I have again reflected over my new will & I believe the expression of 'and their respective legal representatives' is wrong so I shall alter it as soon as it is returned - I had several memorandum which I intended to have inserted in the will but I was told it would cost too much in...

1824: Began to read again 'The Garden of Florence' by Reynolds it is a beautiful simple tale with few conseits it begins prettily, 'In the fair city of Florence there did dwell...' & ends sweetly 'The lovely nightingale & watching star, At evening ever their companions are' there is a many...

1824: Read the poems of Conder over a second time like some of them very much there is a great many & unpretentious beautys among them the Imitations of the Psalms are good the Ode to the Nightingale is good but the expression Sir Nightingale is bad & spoils it The principal poem is like many...

1824: Had a new will made as the old one was not right proving nothing that I wishd & everything contrary this I don't like I leave C. Mossop E, T. Artis & J. A. Hessey executors & all monies arising from book profits &c. in their trust with that in the Funds & whatever may be put out to...

1824: Looked over 'The Human Heart' the title has little connection with the contents it displays the art of book making in half-filld pages & fine paper 'The Murderer's Death-bed' is very poor - the worst thing in the Newgate Calendar is as interesting 'Thou shalt do no Evil, etc' is a new...

1824: Took a walk in the fields saw an old wood stile taken away from a favourite spot which it had occupied all my life the posts were overgrown with Ivy & it seemd so akin to nature & the spot where it stood as tho it had taken it on lease for an undisturbd existance it hurt me to see it was...

1824: Wrote another chapter of my Life read a little in Grays Letters great favourites of mine they're the best letters I have seen & I consider Burns very inferior to all the collections I have met with tho they have gaind great praise they appear to me when I read them as the letters of a man...

1824: Read in Milton his account of his blindness is very pathetic & I am always affected to tears when I read it. The opening & end of Paradise Lost I consider sublime & just as the beginning & finish of an Epic poem shoud be. I never could read Paradise regaind through tho I have heard it...

1824: Took a Walk in the fields heard the harvest cricket & shrew-mouse uttering their little chickering songs among the crackling stubbles. The latter makes a little ear-piercing noise not unlike a feeble imitation of the skylark & I verily believe this is the noise said to be made by the...

1824: Read some of the Odes of Collins think them superior to Grays there is little pomp about them & much luscious sweetness. I cannot describe the pleasure I feel in reading them, neither can I possess discrimination enough in Criticism to distinguish the different merits of either. Both are...

1824: Tryd to walk out & coud not have read nothing this week my mind almost overweights me with its upbraidings & miseries my childern very ill night & morning with a fever makes me disconsolate & yet how happy must be the death of a child it bears its suffering with an innocent patience that...

1824: A wet day did nothing but nurse my illness coud not have walkd out had it been fine very disturbd in conscience about the troubles of being forced to endure life & dye by inches & the anguish of leaving my children & the dark porch of eternity whence none returns to tell the tale of his...

1824: Very ill & did nothing but ponder over a future existence & often brought up the lines to my memory said to be utterd by an unfortunate nobleman when on the brink of it ready to take the plunge: In doubt I lived in doubt I dye / Nor shrink the dark abyss to try / But undismayed I meet -...

1824: The Statute & a very wet day for it the lasses do not lift up their gowns to show taper ankles & white stockings but on the contrary drop them to hide dirty ones. Wrote a poem on the 'Statute' last year lookd it over & think it a good one Taylor is of another opinion & thinks it not but it...

1824: A very wet day: an occurrence has happend in the village tho not very remarkable yet very singular for I have not heard of a former one in my day 'tis a gipsies' wedding Israel Smith & Lettyce Smith. What odd names these people have they are more frequently from the Bible than the...

1824: I wish I had kept a Journal sooner not of facts only but opinions of books when one rises fresh from the reading & thoughts that may rise at the moment for such a collection woud be an entertaining medley of the past out of which tho there might be a many weeds one might cull a few flowers...

1824: Bought the John Bull Magazine out of curiosity to see if I was among the black sheep It grows in dullness that's one comfort to those that it nicknames 'Hunt bugs. I have seen a boy grope in a sink for the hopes of finding a lost halfpenny but I have been worse employed than that boy for I...