The character of this man was described to me, and the incident 
      upon which the verses turn was told me, by Mr. Pool of Nether 
      Stowey, with whom I became acquainted through our common friend, 
      S. T. Coleridge. During my residence at Alfoxden I used to see 
      much of him and had frequent occasions to admire the course of his 
      daily life, especially his conduct to his labourers and poor 
      neighbours: their virtues he carefully encouraged, and weighed 
      their faults in the scales of charity. If I seem in these verses 
      to have treated the weaknesses of the farmer, and his 
      transgression, too tenderly, it may in part be ascribed to my 
      having received the story from one so averse to all harsh 
      judgment. After his death, was found in his escritoir a lock of 
      grey hair carefully preserved, with a notice that it had been cut 
      from the head of his faithful shepherd, who had served him for a 
      length of years. I need scarcely add that he felt for all men as 
      his brothers. He was much beloved by distinguished persons--Mr. 
      Coleridge, Mr. Southey, Sir H. Davy, and many others; and in his 
      own neighbourhood was highly valued as a magistrate, a man of 
      business, and in every other social relation. The latter part of 
      the poem, perhaps, requires some apology as being too much of an 
      echo to the "Reverie of Poor Susan."
<BR><BR>
        With this picture, which was taken from real life, compare the 
      imaginative one of "The Reverie of Poor Susan"; and see (to make 
      up the deficiencies of this class) "The Excursion," 'passim'.