HARTLEY COLERIDGE, the eldest son of Samncl Taylor Coleridge, was born at Clevedou, near Bristol, September 19th, 1796. Two sonnets of his father are commemorative of his birth ; and an exquisite poem of Wordsworth, ' To H. C. six years old,' describes the peculiarities of the child, " whose fancies from afar are brought" Hia infancy is also associated with two poems of his father,' Frost at Midnight,' and ' The Nightingale.' In 1800 S. T. Coleridge came to reside near the Lake district ; and here Hartley was reared ; having a brother, Derwent, four years younger than himself, and a sister, Sara, six years younger.
He was taken to Loudon in 1807; and the various sights which he saw " made an indelible impression on his mind, the effect being imme diately apparent. in the complexion of those extraordinary day-dreams in which he passed Lia visionary boyhood." In 1803 he was pLeced, as well as his brother Derwent, as day-scholars of the Rev. John Dawes, at Ambleside. As a school-boy his powers as a story-teller were unique; his imagination weaviug an enormous romance, whose recital lasted night after night for a space of years. During their school-days, the boys bad constant intercourse with Mr. Wordsworth and his family; and Hartley made the acquaintance of Professor Wilson, who was his friend through life. his friendships and con nections formed the best part of his education,—" by the living voice of Coleridge, Southey, and Wordsworth, Lloyd, Wilson, and De Quincoy." In 1814 Hartley left school ; and in 1815 went to Oxford, as a scholar of Merton College. Ills extraordinary powers as a con verser, and his numerous invitations to wine-parties, were injurious to him in two ways—he used great freedom of remark upon " all esta blishments," and he acquired habits over which he had little subse quent power of controL lie passed his examination for his degree in 1818, and soon afterwards obtained a fellowship at Oriel, with high dis tinction. An unhappy issue followed this honourable and independent position. "At the close of his probationary year, he was judged to have forfeited his Oriel fellowship, on the ground, mainly, of intem perance." The infirmity was heavily visited. We have no record that any friend stepped in to rescue one, so otherwise blameless, so sensi tive, so unfit fur any worldly struggle, from the permanent coulee quences of this early error. His brother, who records this painful epoch of hie life, with a manly and touching sincerity says, "As too often happens, the ruin of his fortunes served but to increase the weakness which had caused their overthrow." It is unnecessary for us to follow the biographer's explanation of some of the causes which led to this unhappy result—hie morbid consciousness of his own singu larity—his despondency at being unsuccessful in obtaining University prizes—his incapacity for tho government of the pupils whom he received while at college—his impatience of control, and a belief that ho was watched by those who looked with suspicion upon the most harmless manifestations of his peculiar temperament. His qualification for
future active exertion was irretrievably destroyed.
After leaving Oxford, Hartley Coleridge remained in London two years, occasionally writing in the 'Loudon Magazine,' in which some of his sonnets first appeared.- Against his will he was established at Ambleside to receive pupils. The scheme failed; and after a vain struggle of four or five years, the attempt to do what he was unfit for was abandoned. From that time to his death, in 1849, he chiefly lived in the Lake district—idle, according to ordinary notions, but a diligent reader, a deep thinker, and a writer of exquisite verses, and of prose of even a rarer order of merit. From 1820 to 1831 he con tributed to 'Blackwood's Magazine.' In 1832 and 1833 he resided with Mr. Bingley, a young printer and publisher at Leeds; for whom he produced a volume of Poems,' and those admirable biographies of the Worthies of Yorkshire and Lancashire,' which make us more than ever regret that one who wrote with such ease and vivacity, should have accomplished so little. In 1834 his father died, having, in a codicil to his will, expressed great solicitude to ensure for his sou that "tranquillity indispensable to any continued and successful exer tion of his literary talents," by providing for him, through the proper application of a bequest after the death of his mother, "the continued means of a home." Mrs. Coleridge died in 1845, and an annuity was then purchased on Hartley's life. Meanwhile, he lived with a humble family, first at Grasmere, and then at Rydal, watched over by the kind people with whom be was an inmate, and beloved by all the inhabitants of the district. His illustrious friend Wordsworth was his close neighbour; and the house of the poet was always open to the child-like man of whose wayward career be had been almost pro phetic. In 1839 Hartley wrote a life of Messinger, prefixed to an edition of his works published by Mr. Moxon ; and during the latter years of his life he wrote many short poems, which appear in the two volumes published by his brother, 'With a Memoir of his Life,' in 1851. Hartley Coleridge died in the cottage which be had long occupied on the bank of Rydal Water, on the 6th of January 1849; and was buried in Grasmere churchyard. His grave is by the side of that of Wordsworth.