What I Remember, Volume 2 | Page 5

Gold. But I did not hear anything which seemed
to me to justify his great reputation. Really the most striking part of the
performance, and that which I thought seemed to move the people most,
was Oastler's mounting the pulpit and giving out the verses of a hymn,
one by one, which the congregation sang after him." So says my diary.
Him I remember well, though Stephens not at all. I remember, too, the
pleasure with which I listened to his really fine delivery of the lines; his
pronunciation of the words was not incorrect, and when he spoke, as I
heard him on sundry subsequent occasions, his language, though
emphasised rather, as it seemed, than marred by a certain roughness of
Lancashire accent, was not that of an uncultivated man. Yes! Oastler,
the King of Lancashire as the people liked to call him, was certainly a
man of power, and an advocate whom few platform orators would have
cared to meet as an adversary.
When my mother's notes for her projected novel were completed, we
thought that before turning our faces southwards, we would pay a
flying visit to the lake district, which was new ground to both of us. I
remember well my intense delight at my first introduction to mountains
worthy of the name. But I mean to mention here two only of my
reminiscences of that first visit to lake-land.

The first of these concerns an excursion on Windermere with Captain
Hamilton, the author of Cyril Thornton, which had at that time made its
mark. He had recently received a new boat, which had been built for
him in Norway. He expected great performances from her, and as there
was a nice fresh wind idly curling the surface of the lake, he invited us
to come out with him and try her, and in a minute or two we were
speeding merrily before the breeze towards the opposite shore. But
about the middle of the lake we found the water a good deal rougher,
and the wind began to increase notably. Hamilton held the tiller, and
not liking to make fast the haulyard of the sail, gave me the rope to
hold, with instructions to hold on till further orders. He was a perfect
master of the business in hand, and so was the new boat a perfect
mistress of her business, but this did not prevent us from getting
thoroughly ducked. My attention was sufficiently occupied in obeying
my orders, and keeping my eye on him in expectation of fresh ones.
The wind meanwhile increased from minute to minute, and I could not
help perceiving that Hamilton, despite his cheery laughter, was
becoming a little anxious. We got back, however, to the shore we had
left after a good buffeting, and in the condition of drowned rats. My
mother was helped out of the boat, and while she was making her way
up the bank, and I was helping him to make the boat secure, I said,
"Well! the new boat has done bravely!" "Between you and me, my dear
fellow," said he, as he laid his hand on my shoulder with a grip, that I
think must have left his thumb-mark on the skin, "if the boat had not
behaved better than any boat of her class that I ever saw, there would
have been a considerable probability of our being dined on by the
fishes, instead of dining together, as I hope we are going to do! I have
been blaming myself for taking your mother out; but the truth is that on
these lakes it is really impossible to tell for half an hour what the next
half hour may bring forth."
The one other incident of our visit to lake-land which I will record, was
our visit to Wordsworth.
For my part I managed to incur his displeasure while yet on the
threshold of his house. We were entering it together, when observing a
very fine bay-tree by the door-side, I unfortunately expressed surprise

at its luxuriance in such a position. "Why should you be surprised?" he
asked, suddenly turning upon me with much displeasure in his manner.
Not a little disconcerted, I hesitatingly answered that I had imagined
the bay-tree required more and greater warmth of sunshine than it could
find there. "Pooh!" said he, much offended at the slight cast on his
beloved locality, "what has sunshine got to do with it?"
I had not the readiness to reply, that in truth the world had abundance
of testimony that the bay could flourish in those latitudes! But I think,
had I done so it might have made my peace--for the remainder of that
evening's experiences led me to imagine that the great poet was not
insensible to incense from very small