But in the popular mind (writes the “Yorkshire Post” special correspondent), Canon Rawnsley will be chiefly remembered for his interesting dissertations and sketches on the literary associations established by the Lake Poets. He knew them all and no man better. He knew the paths of Wordsworth’s wanderings almost as though he had been by his side, and could recall at will not only the poet’s lines, but the very scenes and images that had moved the poet’s descriptive powers, and ample philosophic reflections. Southey, too, was an open book to him, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Wilson and de Quincey. This rich store of knowledge gave to his own writings a wonderful intimacy and freshness.

(Hull Daily Mail, 1920, 29 May, p. 1.)