Tour on the Continent made in 1820 (and of a similar one written by Mrs. Wordsworth), as well as short records of subsequent visits to Scotland and to the Isle of Man, were printed in the same volume. None of these, however, were given in their entirety; nor is it desirable now to print them _in extenso_, except in the case of the _Recollections of a Tour made in Scotland_ in 1803. All the Journals contain numerous trivial details, which bear ample witness to the "plain living and high thinking" of the Wordsworth household--and, in this edition, samples of these details are given--but there is no need to record all the cases in which the sister wrote, "To-day I mended William's shirts," or "William gathered sticks," or "I went in search of eggs," etc. etc. In all cases, however, in which a sentence or paragraph, or several sentences and paragraphs, in the Journals are left out, the omission is indicated by means of asterisks. Nothing is omitted of any literary or biographical value. Some persons may think that too much has been recorded, others that everything should have been printed. As to this, posterity must judge. I think that many, in future years, will value these Journals, not only as a record of the relations existing between Wordsworth and his sister, his wife, her family and his friends, but also as an illustration of the remarkable literary brotherhood and sisterhood of the period. Coming now to details. I I do not know of any Journal written at Racedown, and I do not think that Dorothy kept one while she and her brother lived in Dorsetshire. In July 1797 they took up their residence at Alfoxden; but, so far as is known, it was not till the 20th of January 1798 that Dorothy began to write a Journal of her own and her brother's life at that place. It was continued uninterruptedly till Thursday, 22nd May 1798. It gives numerous details as to the visits of Coleridge to Alfoxden, and the Wordsworths' visits to him at Nether-Stowey, as well as of the circumstances under which several of their poems were composed. Many sentences in the Journal present a curious resemblance to words and phrases which occur in the poems; and there is no doubt that, as brother and sister made use of the same note-book--some of Wordsworth's own verses having been written by him in his sister's journal--the copartnery may have extended to more than the common use of the same MS. The archaic spellings which occur in this Journal are retained; but inaccuracies--such as Bartelmy for Bartholemew, Crewkshank for Cruikshank--are corrected. In the edition of 1889 the words were printed as written in MS.; but it is one thing to reproduce the _bona fide_ text of a journal, or the _ipsissima verba_ of a poet, and quite another to reproduce the incorrect spellings of his sister. II From the Journal of the days spent at Hamburg in 1798--when the Wordsworths were on their way to Goslar, and Coleridge to Ratzeburg--only a few extracts are given, dating from 14th September to 3rd October of that year. These explain themselves. III-VI Of the Grasmere Journals much more is given, and a great deal that was omitted from the first volume of the _Life of Wordsworth_ in 1889, is now printed. To many readers this will be by far the most interesting section of all Dorothy Wordsworth's writings. It not only contains exquisite descriptions of Grasmere and its district--a most felicitous record of the changes of the seasons and the progress of the...