Raisley Calvert

Charles the elder claimed to be a descendant of Lord Baltimore, a Secretary of State for James I and the founder of the Maryland colony in the 17th century, which would make him and his children members of the noble Calvert family.

[17] After finishing school, William Calvert signed up as an ensign in the Duke of Norfolk's regiment, while Wordsworth studied at St. John's College, Cambridge and went on several trips to Continental Europe.

[19] William was generous with his inheritance; in 1793, he took Wordsworth—who at that time was struggling to make a living as a writer—on an all-expenses-paid tour of southern England, which was cut short after a month on the Isle of Wight when their carriage crashed in a ditch and splintered apart.

Wordsworth "immortalised" Calvert in Book XIV of The Prelude:A youth (he bore The name of Calvert—it shall live if words Of mine can give it life), in firm belief That by endowments not from me withheld Good might be furthered—in his last decay By a bequest sufficient for my needs Enabled me to pause for choice, and walk At large and unrestrainted, nor damped too soon By mortal cares.

Himself no Poet, yet Far less a common follower of the world, He deemed that my pursuits and labours lay Apart from all that leads to wealth, or even A necessary maintenance insures, Without some hazard to the finer sense; He cleared a passage for me, and the stream

This care was thine when sickness did condemn Thy youth to hopeless wasting, root and stem— That I, if frugal and severe, might stray Where'er I liked; and finally array My temples with the Muse's diadem.

Hence, if in freedom I have loved the truth; If there be aught of pure, or good, or great, In my past verse; or shall be, in the lays Of higher mood, which now I meditate;— It gladdens me, O worthy, short-lived, Youth!

[26]The Wordsworth and Calvert families remained close for decades, and Greta Bank became an epicentre for the literary community which produced the Lake Poets; Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived less than a mile away, and other regular visitors of note included Robert Southey, William Hazlitt, and Charles Lamb.