‘Calvert, it must not be unheard by them Who may respect my name, that I to thee Owed many years of early liberty. This care was thine, when sickness did condemn Thy youth to hopeless wasting, root and stem; That I, if frugal and severe, might stray Where’er I liked; and finally array My temples with the Muse’s diadem.’ After leaving College he made extensive tours on foot, in Scotland and on the Continent with a youthful friend. In 1793 he for the first time ventured into print. Two small volumes appeared in that year: “Descriptive Sketches, in verse, taken during a Pedestrian Tour among the Alps;” and “An Evening Walk, an Epistle in Verse, addressed to a young Lady from the Lakes in the North of England.” In these poems we find no traces of the poetical theory which he subsequently adopted. But they are characterised by the same, almost exclusive, preference for lakes, cataracts and mountains, the elementary beauty of external nature, human passions and incidents, and they contain many passages of glaring imagination powerfully expressed. In 1796 he took up his abode with his sister at Allfaxden, at the foot of the Quantock Hills, in Somersetshire. This was an important era in the development of his intellect and imagination. During his residence at Allfaxden he was in constant and unreserved communication with Coleridge. Totally dissimilar as the two men were in character, they had many sympathies. Upon both, the classical tastes and ecclesiastical opinions inculcated at English schools and colleges, had, without their being aware of it, made a deep and indelible impression. Both had been animated by the vague but ardent longings after an undefined liberty, and perfection of human nature, then prevalent. They were isolated from general sympathy without knowing it; from the revolutionary party by their literary tastes and strong attachment to traditional English morals; from the Church and State party by their freedom from sectarian narrowness. The resolute independence of thought of the young poets is worthy of all admiration; their frank and cordial communication of all their thoughts, equally so. A pleasing though brief sketch of them at that time has been given by Hazlitt, in an essay, entitled, ‘My first Acquaintance with Poets;’ a more petulant and shallow account, which yet contains some valuable information, by Cottle.