‘His bushy, wide and?[solid beard]’

This line or part-line or (possibly) fragment of prose is written very loosely at the top of the otherwise blank f. 4^v of Nbk 12. The final two words, hastily formed, are extremely difficult to make out. Forman (Huntington Nbks i 121) reads them as given here while admitting that neither he nor Rossetti can decipher the final word with any confidence. Mary Quinn in MYRS vi 21 considers ‘whi[te] ha[ir]’ a probable conjecture. Either reading is possible; both are subject to doubt. If solid beard is accurate, S. may be describing the beard on a sculptured male head, perhaps one that he saw in the Uffizi Gallery in autumn 1819: see The memory of the good is ever green (no. 248). MYRS vi notes that the present line is written with the same ink and pen point as I hear, ye hear/The sudden whirlwind (no. 221) which was probably composed in the period late spring to autumn 1819. The present line is therefore tentatively dated to the period October-December 1819. Text from Nbk 12 f. 4v. The comma has been supplied.