(4) That his legs were very ill-shapen and “were pointedly condemned by all female connoisseurs in legs.” And that his shoulders were drooping and narrow.
(5) “The mouth, and the whole circumjacencies of the mouth, composed the strongest feature in Wordsworth’s face.” In fact, they reminded De Quincey of Milton.
(6) That he aged very rapidly—when thirty-nine he was taken to be over sixty.
(7) That his brother John, a sea captain, had lost his ship while drunk.
(8) That Wordsworth cannot have been amiable as a child.
(9) That the only time Wordsworth was drunk was as an undergraduate at Cambridge on visiting the rooms once occupied by Milton.
(10) That he had not the temperament ever to be an attractive wooer, and that it was “perplexing” that he had ever married.
(11) That he had had astonishing good luck in financial matters.
(12) That the Wordsworth menage was excessively plain and severe in simplicity.
(13) That Wordsworth and Southey did not really like each other.