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| Alfoxton House. |
In early August 1797, a concerned resident wrote to the Home
Office to report his fears about the new tenants at Alfoxton (Alfoxden) House,
near the little village of Holford, Somerset. He believed that these incomers were
actually French spies (especially as there had recently been an attempted invasion at Fishguard in Wales).
The new tenants were actually William Wordsworth and his
sister Dorothy. A couple of years earlier, they had set up their first real
home together (a long-held dream) at Racedown Lodge, in Dorset. Then 1795,
Wordsworth met Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and a famous literary friendship
blossomed. The Wordsworths moved to Alfoxton House, not far from Coleridge’scottage at Nether Stowey. The two men, accompanied by Dorothy, went on long
walks together over hill and dale, discussing poetry and philosophy long into
the night.
The Home Office spent special agent James Walsh to
investigate. From his base at Nether Stowey, he discovered that one of the guests
at Alfoxton was ‘Citizen’ John Thelwall, a noted Radical and Jacobin
sympathiser he had been investigating for years.
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| William Wordsworth. |
Next, he turned his attention to Coleridge, who was said to
have his own printing press – perfect for publishing seditious literature.
Coleridge and Wordsworth often rested and chatted on their favourite seat by
the seashore at Kilve, discussing poetry and philosophy. The agent hid for
hours, listening to their conversation. He was alarmed; the spies seem to know
of his presence – they repeatedly talk about ‘Spy Nozy’. At last Walsh was
convinced that Spy Nozy was ‘the name of a man (Spinoza) who had made a book, and
lived a long time ago’. The Home Office had nothing to worry about.
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| Coleridge Cottage. |
Were the Romantic poets really in danger of being
imprisoned, maybe even executed? Coleridge, apprised of the tale from the pub
landlord, had a wonderful after-dinner story to entertain his guests.
Wordsworth treated the whole affair as a storm in a teacup, but the owner of
Alfoxton, angered by rumours of Jacobins, gave him notice to quit soon after.
Writer Thomas de Quincey later dismissed the ‘Spy Nozy’ story as a fable, and
insisted Coleridge had been duped.
But the Home Office files clearly show that
the story was true – and that for a time at least, someone in the Government
took the matter very seriously indeed…
Images:
Alfoxden
(Alfoxton) House, Somerset. Dorothy and
William lived here in 1797-8. © Sue Wilkes.
Coleridge’s
cottage at Nether Stowey. © Sue Wilkes.
Wordsworth.
Engraving by the Brothers Dalziel for Poets
of the Nineteenth Century, (Frederick Warne & Co., c.1870).
