ABSTRACT
By the time I had reached the lakes, which I had proposed to visit in my way, I could think of nothing but the minstrels and the minstrelsy of chivalry and romance. All modern poetry appeared to me to be a composition of affectation, learning, and sentimental refinement, and a hundred other things, with which in fact poetry had nothing to do. – I was not a little delighted, therefore, arriving at the beautiful village of Ambleside, to learn that a brotherhood of modern bards had established themselves there, whose opinions of poetry exactly coincided with mine, and who regulated their practice accordingly. I did not enquire very particularly into the tenets of this sect, being certain that as simplicity and nature were their object, they must be right, by whatever means they attained them. I had very fortunately, on the evening of my arrival the means of judging of their success; and the impression which their impassioned enunciation of their unrivalled strains made upon me is indelible.
