ALS signed “Wm. Wordsworth,” four pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.25 x 9, April 12, 1830. Letter to Nathaniel Goddard in Boston, the father of Frederick William Goddard, for whom Wordsworth wrote 'Elegiac Stanzas' in 1820. In part: "I have been long in debt to your kindness…the ointment had cured my eyelids…I am afraid that I am too old & that my infirmity is of too long standing to be altogether removed; nevertheless it gives me pleasure to say that I have derived benefit, great benefit from the application; for I have never had a severe attack amounting to inability to use my eyes since I employed the preparation you were so kind as to send me…Be assured, by dear Sir, that I have rarely exerted any little practical talent that God may have given me with more satisfaction to myself than in paying that Tribute to your Son's memory of which you speak so feelingly. It will be ten years since on the 18th of August next since we parted on the summit of Mount Righi, and I have as lively a recollection of his appearance at this moment as it were yesterday. During the 4 days that I saw him he won much upon my affections, as upon those of my fellow travellers, my wife and my sister included, both by his amiable manners, his sensibility to the beauties of nature in that sublime region, and his aptness of taking his opportunities of acquiring information to the best account. I give this testimony from a conviction that it will be consolatory to his parents and friends, even at this late period, for losses of this kind never cease to be felt." In very good condition, with splitting to the intersecting folds, and seal-related paper loss to the integral address leaf.
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