Rydal Mount, Ambleside, April 4. 1843.
DEAR SIR ROBERT,
Having since my first acquaintance with Horace borne in mind the charge which he tells us frequently thrilled his ear,
'Solve senescentem mature sanus equum, ne
Peccet ad extremum,'
I could not but be deterred from incurring responsibilities which I might not prove equal to at so late a period of life; but as my mind has been entirely set at ease by the very kind and most gratifying letter with which you have honoured me, and by a second communication from the Lord Chamberlain to the same effect, and in a like spirit, I have accepted, with unqualified pleasure, a distinction sanctioned by her Majesty, and which expresses, upon authority entitled to the highest respect, a sense of the national importance of poetic literature; and so favourable an opinion of the success with which it has been cultivated by one who, after this additional mark of your esteem, cannot refrain from again assuring you how deeply sensible he is of the many and great obligations he owes to your goodness, and who has the honour to be,
Dear Sir Robert,
Most faithfully,
Your humble servant,
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.
133. Laureateship: Walter Savage Landor and Quillinan: Godson.
LETTER TO SIR W.R. HAMILTON, DUBLIN.
[Undated: but 1843.]
MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM,
The sight of your handwriting was very welcome, and not the less so because your sister had led me to expect a letter from you.
The Laureateship was offered to me in the most flattering terms, by the Lord Chamberlain, of course with the approbation of the Queen; but I declined it on account of my advanced age. I then received a second letter from his Lordship, urging my acceptance of it, and assuring me that it was intended merely as an honorary distinction for the past, without the smallest reference to any service to be attached to it. From Sir R. Peel I had also a letter to the same effect, and the substance and manner of both were such that if I had still rejected the offer, I should have been little at peace with my own mind.