They arrived at Dover on the 7th, and at London on the 9th, where they met Rogers, Lamb, and Talfourd, amongst other noted persons and friends. Wordsworth walked on to visit Coleridge, from Hampstead Heath, on the 18th, and then went down to Cambridge, to congratulate his brother, Dr. Wordsworth, on his appointment to the Mastership of Trinity College. They returned to Rydal Mount on Christmas Eve, visiting Sir George and Lady Beaumont, at Coleorton, by the way. Sir George was then about to build a church on his estate, and this fact led to conversation on Church History, and eventually to the production of the “Ecclesiastical Sonnets.” In the third part of the first of these Sonnets occurs the following line:-- “I saw the figure of a lovely maid.” And the note attached to it, by the poet, is so interesting, that I must transcribe it:-- “When I came to this part of the series, I had the dream described in this sonnet. The _figure was that of my daughter_, and the whole passed exactly as here represented. The sonnet was composed on the middle road leading from Grasmere to Ambleside; it was began as I left the last house in the vale, and finished, word for word, as it now stands, before I came in view of Rydal. I wish I could say the same of the five or six hundred I have written; most of them were frequently retouched, in the course of composition, and not a few laboriously.” Here is the sonnet in question:-- “I saw the figure of a lovely maid, Seated, alone, beneath a darksome tree, Whose fondly-overhanging canopy Set off her brightness with a pleasing shade. No spirit was she; that my heart betrayed, For she was one I loved exceedingly; But while I gazed in tender reverie (Or was it sleep that with my fancy played?), The bright corporeal presence--form and face-- Remaining still distinct, grew thin and rare, Like sunny mists; at length the golden hair, Shape, limbs, and heavenly features, keeping pace, Each with the other, in a lingering race Of dissolution, melted into air.”