From France to Racedown: 1792–97

Abstract

Settled into his first-floor apartment in the house of M. Gellet-Duvivier in Orléans, Wordsworth eventually wrote to his brother Richard, giving him to understand that the delay in correspondence had been occasioned initially by problems en route, and then by his desire, once arrived in Orléans (on 6 December 1791) to be able to give a full account of his ‘arrangements’ (meaning how much money he was spending). The letter is dated 19 December. ‘I was detained at Brightelmstone from Tuesday till Saturday evening’, he explains. While in Brighton he wrote a letter to William Mathews in which he further explained the delay as caused by ‘adverse winds’. Richard was to understand that his somewhat feckless younger brother was living comfortably but unextravagantly, and that — despite news of the deepening revolutionary crisis in France — he was safe: ‘We are all perfectly quiet here and likely to continue so’ (EY 70).