“Peter Bell” appeared in 1819. It was composed twenty years before, as already related; and sold better than any of Wordsworth’s previous poems, notwithstanding the abuse of the critics. Five hundred copies were exhausted before one month, between April and May of this one year (1819). “The Waggoner” was published at the same time, but was not so successful, perhaps on account of its mere local interest. The “Sonnets on the River Duddon” appeared about the same time, and were dedicated to the Rev. Dr. Wordsworth, the poet’s brother, who was at that time Rector of Lambeth. “The river Duddon has its main source[J] in the mountain range near the “Three Shire Stones,” as they were called, where the three counties, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Lancashire meet. It flows to the south through Seathwaite, by Broughton, to the Duddon Sands, and into the Irish Sea.”--Wordsworth’s first acquaintance with this stream commenced in his boyhood, during the time that he was so passionately fond of angling: upon one of his fishing excursions he joined an old weather-beaten man, and went far away from home, seduced by the dear delight of his art. On their return, the embryo poet was so wearied, that the old man had to carry him on his back. He says that his earliest recollections of this stream were full of distress and disappointment; but in later times he visited it with so many beloved persons, that its waters flowed through him in streams of music--in anthems of affectionate song. In 1820 Wordsworth made another tour to the Continent, in company with his wife and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Monkhonse, then just married, and Miss Herricks. They left these two ladies at Berne, while Mr. Monkhouse went with the poet and his retinue, on an excursion amongst the Alps, as far as Milan. They were joined at Lucerne by Mr. H. C. Robinson; and the two ladies, whom they had left at Berne, rejoined them at Geneva, when the whole party went to Paris, where they remained five weeks. In 1822 Wordsworth published a volume of Sonnets, and other Poems, as the result of this tour, entitled, “Memorials of a Tour on the Continent.” In two letters to Lord Lonsdale--one dated from Lucerne, August 19th, 1820, and the other from Paris, dated October 7, 1820,--the poet has given a general outline of this tour and its incidents.[K] I ought to add that Wordsworth visited Waterloo, amongst other places of interest, at this time. The party returned by way of Boulogne, November 2nd, and had a narrow escape of shipwreck,--the vessel striking upon a sand-bank, and being then driven with violence on a rocky road in the harbour, where she was battered about until the ebbing of the tide set her at liberty--at least from the violence of the sea; “and, blessed be God,” says Wordsworth, in his Journal, “for our preservation!”