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Chapter 9BooksI. ‘Cato’s Letters’ and Beattie’s ‘Minstrel’However great the influence of Dorothy was upon him, as we have clearly noted, it cannothave been in the direction of furnishing the poet with a philosophy, an aesthetic. And yetduring this crucial period of his life he was furnished with both: so the problem of the critic isto cast about in search of the source whence Wordsworth drew his inspiration and hisimagination. 1I think Racedown is the place dearest to my recollections upon the whole surface of the island;it was the first home I had…lovely meadows above the tops of combs, and the scenery onPilsden, Lewisden, and Blackdown-hill, and the view of the sea from Lambert’s Castle. 2Far from leaving London at a time when his soul was at its ‘last and lowest ebb’, and arrivingat Racedown ‘Depressed and bewildered’ (Prelude: 1850 XI. 307; 321), Wordsworth carefullyplanned his departure from London with the help of Basil Montagu, to whom he had been introducedby Godwin. Montagu had introduced him, in turn, to Azariah and John Pinney, sons of John Pinney(snr), a wealthy Bristol merchant. The Pinney family owned Racedown Lodge, an isolated property inDorset that was mainly used by the two sons as a ‘hunting lodge’. Wordsworth and Montagu hatcheda plan that Wordsworth might be re-united with Dorothy and retire there to engage in study whileDorothy earned a small income looking after Montagu’s son Basil (jnr). Through the generosity of thePinney sons (but unknown to their father), Wordsworth was offered the house rent-free. In September1795 he spent a few weeks in Bristol as a guest of his unwitting ‘patron’, before he and Dorothy werereunited, and then set out with the young Basil for Racedown Lodge.It is clear from remarks made by both William and Dorothy, that the plan to retire toRacedown was intended to provide Wordsworth with an opportunity for study. In fact, it seems that‘books’ were their consolation for the noted lack of ‘society’, and certain fears about ‘solitude’, thatthey both voiced in letters written shortly after their arrival. Writing to William Matthews,Wordsworth related, ‘We are now at Racedown and both as happy as people can be who live in perfectsolitude. We do not see a soul’ (EY 154). The comments are echoed in a later letter to FrancisWrangham: ‘Racedown...it is an excellent house and the country far from unpleasant but as to societywe must manufacture it ourselves’ (159). Dorothy, describing their domestic situation to her dearfriend Jane Marshall (née Pollard), writes: ‘We are now surrounded by winter prospects without doors,and within have only winter occupations, books, solitude and the fire side, yet I may safely say we arenever dull’ (161). In an earlier letter to Jane about her intended plans she had also reflected on howwell the move would suit William, ‘I have great satisfaction in thinking that William will have suchopportunities for studying...living in the unsettled way in which he hitherto lived in London is1 Arthur Beatty, William Wordsworth, his Doctrine and Art in their Historical Relations, p.36.2 Dorothy Wordsworth, (EY 281)179