is equally unsurpassable. Miss Fenwick says (Taylor, Correspondence, p. 109) that all his affections were so powerful that, had his intellect been less strong, ‘they must have destroyed him long ago.’ Coleridge notices his strong tendency to hypochondria (Meteyard, Group of Englishmen, p. 164). Wordsworth's solidity gave him always a certain ‘alacrity in sinking;’ and it was chiefly during the period which followed his great intellectual crisis that he achieved his highest flights. In later years he was an excellent distributor of stamps, but, except in the opinion of one or two very zealous disciples, a very inferior poet.
Wordsworth, according to Haydon (Life, iii. 223), was exactly 5 feet 97⁄8 inches in height. He was of sturdy large-boned clumsily built figure, looking like one of his respectable dalesmen. Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, and De Quincey speak of his eyes as glowing at times with remarkable fire. De Quincey says that the ‘Richardson’ portrait of Nelson was an exact likeness; but the impression is scarcely confirmed by his portraits. They show a strong bony framework, a heavy mouth, and a prominent nose, and some are more suggestive of strength than of fire. After leaving Racedown he was entirely without the sense of smell (Southey, Life, i. 63).
Professor Knight gives a list of Wordsworth's portraits in ‘Works,’ ii. 402−31. Original portraits are:
- Half-length, by an unknown artist at Stowey in 1797, mentioned in Cottle's ‘Early Recollections’ (i. 317); bought in 1887 by Mr. George, the bookseller at Bristol.
- Drawing in black chalk by Robert Hancock [q. v.] in 1798; engraved in Cottle's ‘Recollections;’ now in National Portrait Gallery, London.
- Portrait by William Hazlitt in 1803; ridiculed by Southey in ‘Life and Correspondence’ (ii. 238).
- Oil painting by Richard Carruthers in 1817; belonged to the Rev. Thomas Hutchinson, Mrs. Wordsworth's nephew; engraved by Meyer, and reproduced in Tutin's ‘Wordsworth Birthday Book.’
- Pencil drawing by Edward Nash in 1818; bought at Southey's sale by Mrs. Joshua Stanger; engraved for Wordsworth's ‘Prose Works’ (see Southey, Life and Corresp. v. 50).
- A crayon drawing by B. R Haydon in 1818; given to Wordsworth, and afterwards by his sons to Mrs. Walter Field; engraved by Thomas Landseer in 1831.
- A portrait by Haydon: introduced into his ‘Christ's Entry into Jerusalem,’ exhibited in 1820, where Wordsworth appears as a reverent disciple; the picture is now in the Roman catholic cathedral at Cincinnati; a dark study for the head was bought by Mr. Stephen Pearce at Haydon's sale.
- A small half-length by Mr. William Boxall, 1831, belonging to Mr. Gordon Wordsworth, the poet's grandson; engraved for Reed's American edition of 1844, and elsewhere.
- Lithograph by William Wilkins; drawn for ‘Men of the Day’ about 1835; called by Wordsworth the ‘Stamp-Distributor.’
- Medallion in wax by W. W. Wyon, 1835.
- Portrait by Joseph Severn [q. v.] when at Rome in 1837; in possession of the poet's grandson, principal of the Elphinstone College, Bombay.
- Three-quarter length by Henry William Pickersgill [q. v.], painted for St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1832; copies were made by H. H. Pickersgill, the artist's son, for Mrs. Quillinan, and for the Master of Trinity.
- Portrait by H. V. Pickersgill, painted for Sir Robert Peel in 1840; engraved in the ‘Memoirs;’ a replica at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
- Miniature on ivory by Miss Margaret Gillies in 1841 for Mr. Moon, the publisher, for an engraving issued in 1841 and again in 1853; the original afterwards belonged to Sir Henry Doulton, and was engraved for a volume of ‘Selections’ compiled by the Wordsworth Society; Miss Gillies made three copies, introducing Mrs. Wordsworth, and a profile, engraved in the ‘New Spirit of the Age,’ by Richard Henry Horne [q. v.]
- Portrait representing Wordsworth ascending Helvellyn, by B. R. Haydon, 1842; Mrs. Browning wrote a sonnet upon this portrait, which has been engraved.
- An unfinished portrait by Haydon in 1846, belonging to Mr. Francis Bennoch, representing Wordsworth seated on Helvellyn.
- Portrait painted in 1844 by Henry Inman, an American artist, for Professor Reed of Philadelphia, now in America; a replica was given to Wordsworth.
- A miniature in watercolours by Thomas Carrick [q. v.]
Two sketches of Wordsworth's head by Samuel Laurence [q. v.] belonged to Mr. J. Dykes Campbell. A bust of Wordsworth by Chantrey 1821, is at Coleorton. Another bust was by Mr. Angus Fletcher, brother of Mrs. Fletcher of Lancrigg. The statue in the baptistery at Westminster Abbey is by Frederick Thrupp [q. v.], who used a plaster-cast taken from Wordsworth's face during life. A medallion in Grasmere church is by Thomas Woolner [q. v.]
Dove Cottage was bought by subscription in 1891, and is held by trustees for the public. The other houses occupied by Wordsworth are still in existence. For an account of various places associated with Wordsworth see Professor Knight's
