Of  this  visit  Spedding  wrote  to  Thompson :

Alfred  left  us  about  a  week  since,  homeward  bound,  but
meaning  to  touch  at  Brookfield's  on  his  way.  The  weather  has
been  much  finer  since  he  went ;  certainly,  while  he  was  here,  our
northern  sun  did  not  display  himself  to  advantage.  Nevertheless
I  think  he  took  in  more  pleasure  and  inspiration  than  any  one
would  have  supposed  wh(5  did  not  know  his  almost  personal
dislike  of  the  present,  whatever  it  may  be.  Hartley  Coleridge  is
mightily  taken  with  him ;  and  after  the  fourth  bottom  of  gin,
deliberately  thanked  Heaven  (under  me,  I  believe,  or  me  under
Heaven,  I  forget  which)  for  having  brought  them  acquainted.
1836]         LETTERS   FROM    SPEDDING   AND   FITZGERALD.  1 55

Said  Hartley  was  busy  with  an  article  on  "  Macbeth,"  to  appear
(the  vegetable  spirits  permitting)  in  the  next  Blackwood.  He
confessed  to  a  creed  touching  Destiny  which  was  new  to  me ;
denying  Free- Will  (if  I  understood  him  right)  in  toto ;  but  at
the  same  time  maintaining  that  man  is  solely  and  entirely
answerable  for  whatever  evil  he  does,  not  merely  that  he  is
to  suffer  for  it  but  that  he  is  answerable  for  it,  which  I  do  not.
I  could  not  get  Alfred  to  Rydal  Mount,  he  would  and  would
not^  (sulky  one),  although  Wordsworth  was  hospitably  minded
towards  him ;  and  would  have  been  more  so,  had  the  state  of  his
household  permitted,  which  I  am  sorry  to  say  is  full  of  sickness.
...Alfred  despises  the  Citation  and  Exam,  of  W.  Shakespeare'.
From  Edward  Fitzgerald.
[After  the  visit  at  the  Speddings\  Mirehouse.)

London,  July  and,  1835.
