Page:The letters of William Blake (1906).djvu/134

On the Turret^[1] its spiral does softly descend,
Through the village then winds, at my cot it does end.

You stand in the village and look up to Heaven;
The precious stones glitter on flights^[2] seventy-seven;
And my brother is there, and my Friend and Thine,
Descend and ascend with the Bread and the Wine.

The Bread of sweet thought and the Wine of delight
Feed the village of Felpham by day and by night;
And at his own door the bless'd hermit^[3] does stand,
Dispensing, unceasing, to all the wide land.

W. Blake.

Receive my and my husband's love and affection, and believe me to be yours affectionately,

Catherine Blake.

12.

To John Flaxman.

Felpham,

21st September 1800, Sunday morning.

Dear Sculptor of Eternity,—We are safe arrived at our cottage,^[4] which is more beautiful than I thought it, and more convenient. It is a perfect

1. The turret of Hayley's house.
2. All editions have hitherto read flighty which makes nonsense of this line. The plural of the MS. makes the sense quite clear: since it is natural to suppose the use of a symbolical number in the construction of a heavenly ladder.
3. Hayley, often called the Hermit of Eartham, or the Hermit of the Turret, by himself and his friends.
4. See Plate.