William Wordsworth, His Life, Works, and Influence (Volume 1) Paperback - 1201

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III CAMBRIDGE AND THE NORTH In the autobiographical notes dictated to his nephew, Wordsworth devotes only eight or nine sentences to his career at the University of Cambridge. They are remarkable as much for the important matters of which they make no mention as for the trivialities they record. In the month of October, 1787, I was sent to St. John's College, Cambridge, of which my uncle, Dr. Cookson, had been a fellow. The master, Dr. Chevallier, died very soon after, and, according to the custom of that time, his body, after being placed in the coffin, was removed to the hall of the College, and the pall, spread over the coffin, was stuck over by copies of verses, English or Latin, the composition of the students of St. John's. My uncle seemed mortified when upon inqu1ry he learnt that none of these verses were from my pen, ' because, ' said he, ' it would have been a fair opportunity for distinguishing yourself.' I did not, however, regret that I had been silent on this occasion, as I felt no interest in the deceased person, with whom I had had no intercourse, and whom I had never seen but during his walks in the college grounds. When at school, I, with the other boys of the same standing, was put upon reading the first six books of Euclid, with the exception of the fifth; and also in algebra I learnt simple and quadratic equations; and this was for me unlucky, because I had a full twelve-months' start of the freshmen of my year, and accordingly got into rather an idle way, reading nothing but classic authors according to my fancy, and Italian poetry. Mv Italian master was named Isola, and had been well1787-1791] TONE OF THE UNIVERSITY 55 The register at Cambridge shows that Wordsworth matriculated on December 17, 1787. and graduated as a Bachelor of ...