ABSTRACT
Wordsworth, White Doe of Rylstone (1815); review by John Scott, Champion, June 25, 1815, pp. 205–206. The quotation about Wordsworth’s diction (p. 206, column 1) is from the review of Poems, in Two Volumes (1807) by Francis Jeffrey in the Edinburgh Review. On page 206, column 2, Scott relates political reform to the literary innovations of the age. The term “Mail Coach Copy” refers to copies of a new publication sent express by mail coach (at greater cost) rather than by ship or by regular commercial wagon. A limited number of copies of sought-after new works, like Walter Scott’s novels or Byron’s poems, would be sent by mail coach between Edinburgh and London, for example, and sold as advance copies at premium prices. John Scott ends this review by proclaiming Wordsworth “the greatest poetical genius of the age.”
