Literary by-paths in old England . present, and have the honour to be Your obliged and very obedient servant, Byron. Although Keats and Reynolds were not blindto the weaknesses of Wordsworth, they had —which is more to their credit considering thegeneral critical attitude of their day towards theLake poet — a keen appreciation of the undyingqualities of his best work. In one of his earliestsonnets Keats gave worthy and unstinted homageto the poet Who on Helvellyns summit, wide awake,Catches his freshness from Archangels wing ; and when Haydon proposed to send a copy ofthe sonnet to Wordsworth
Literary by-paths in old England . present, and have the honour to be Your obliged and very obedient servant, Byron. Although Keats and Reynolds were not blindto the weaknesses of Wordsworth, they had —which is more to their credit considering thegeneral critical attitude of their day towards theLake poet — a keen appreciation of the undyingqualities of his best work. In one of his earliestsonnets Keats gave worthy and unstinted homageto the poet Who on Helvellyns summit, wide awake,Catches his freshness from Archangels wing ; and when Haydon proposed to send a copy ofthe sonnet to Wordsworth the idea put theyoung poet out of breath. You know, headded, with what reverence I would send mywell-wishes to him. As this homage was sharedby Reynolds, it is not surprising that he shouldhave sent a copy of his fourth book, The Naiad :a Tale, published in 1816, to Rydal Mount. 230 IN OLD ENGLAND Wordsworths reply, not before published, is ascharacteristic as the acknowledgment Byronmade of the Safie volume. In their several. Mrs. John Hamilton Reynolds ways, these two epistles are not unworthy addi-tions to the Letters to Young Authors which areso plentiful in English literary correspondence ;and it is noteworthy that Wordsworth as well as 231 LITERARY BY-PATHS Byron is at pains to prepare Reynolds for the inevitable depressing effect of criticism. Here is Wordsworths letter, dated from Rydal Mount,Nov. 28, 1816: My dear Sir, — A few days ago I receiveda parcel through the hands of Messrs. Longmancontaining your poem The Naiad, etc., and aletter, accompanying it, for both which marks ofyour attention you will accept my cordial thanks.,Your poem is composed with elegance and in astyle that accords with the subject, but myopinion on this point might have been of morevalue if I had seen the Scottish ballad on whichyour work is founded. You do me the honour ofasking me to find fault in order that you mayprofit by my remarks. 1 remember when I wasyoung in the practice of wri
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