I here beg her pardon for this and similar transgressions during the whole course of our wedded life.

To my beloved sister the same apology is due.
When, from the visit just mentioned, we returned to Town-End, Grasmere, I proceeded with the poem.

It may be worth while to note as a caution to others who may cast their eyes on these memoranda, that the skin having been rubbed off my heel by my wearing too tight a shoe, though I desisted from walking, I found that the irritation of the wounded part was kept up by the act of composition, to a degree that made it necessary to give my constitution a holiday.

A rapid cure was the consequence.
Poetic excitement, when accompanied by protracted labour in composition, has throughout my life brought on more or less bodily derangement.
Nevertheless I am, at the close of my seventy-third year, in what may be called excellent health.

So that intellectual labour is not, necessarily, unfavourable to longevity.