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28 CAMBRIDGE [1791of
August Southey took Coleridge to his mother's house in
Bath, and from there they started on a long walk through
Somersetshire, by Chilcompton, where Coleridge wrote his
Lines to a Beautiful Spring in a Village», and then by Wells to
Cheddar, where they were impressed by the high and fantastic
cliffs. 'A stream of water cold and clear', writes Southey,
'flows from under the rocks where we paused to drink and
pour libations to the Naiad.' At Cheddar they could only
get a single bed, and Coleridge proved 'a vile bedfellow'.
Thence they went to Huntspill, where George Burnett lived,
and on to Nether Stowey to visit 'a friend of Coleridge'. 1
It was a turning-point in Coleridge's life even more momentous
than the visit to Oxford, for this friend was Thomas
Poole, whom he can only have met before for a day or so at
Reading in December 1793, but with whom for several years
he was now destined to be in the closest relations. 2 Thomas
Poole was a well-to-do tanner, somewhat rough in his manners,
but a widely read and public-spirited man, the mainstay of
his neighbourhood in all local affairs, in spite of qualms
which his democratic sympathies aroused, even among his
own kindred. He was unmarried, and lived with his mother
hard by his tannery. He was much interested in hearing of
Pantisocracy, since he had himself looked upon America as
'the only asylum of peace and liberty', and had some idea
of migrating thither. 3 A month after the meeting, he wrote
to a friend, describing the scheme as it had been detailed to
him. Twelve men and twelve ladies, already familiar with
each other's dispositions, were to embark in April. They
calculated that the produce of the men's labour for two or
three hours a day, to be held in common, would suffice to
maintain the colony. Leisure hours would be spent, with
the aid of a good library, in study, discussion, and the education
of children, on a system which he would not attempt to
set out. The women would have the care of infants and other
occupations suited to their strength. The greatest attention
1
Southey (L.), i. 216; Bodl. MS. English Letters, C. 22, f. 124; Rem. 404; P. IV,
58. The 'Kirkhampton* of a MS. must be an error.
2
P. i. 73-84, but the writer did not know Southcy's evidence, which, as contemporary,
outweighs his statement in Rem. 404 that he and Coleridge saw Poole
for the first time in August 1794.
3 P. i. 77, 98.