[Footnote FY: With this compare _The Prelude_, book i. line 463 (vol.
iii. p. 146)--
Till all was tranquil as a dreamless sleep.
]
[Footnote FZ: The "semicirque of turf-clad ground," where the
conversations recorded in books iii. and iv. had been carried on.--ED.]
[Footnote GA: Towards Little Langdale.--ED.]
[Footnote GB: See Matthew Arnold's address as President of the Wordsworth
Society, in its _Transactions_ for the year 1883.--ED.]
[Footnote GC: The sledge used for bringing down peats or bracken from the
uplands. The "sledge" has not yet entirely given way to the "wheel," many
of the Westmoreland peasants still using it, when bringing down their
winter stores of fuel and bedding, as they do in Norway.--ED.]
[Footnote GD: The vale of Little Langdale.--ED.]
[Footnote GE: "After we quit his cottage, passing over a low ridge, we
descend into another vale, that of Little Langdale, towards the head
of which stands embowered, or partly shaded by yews and other trees,
something between a cottage and a mansion, or gentleman's house, such
as they once were in this country. This I convert into the parsonage,
and at the same time, and as by the waving of a magic wand, I turn the
comparatively confined vale of Langdale, its tarn, and the rude chapel
which once adorned the valley, into the stately and comparatively
spacious vale of Grasmere and its ancient parish church."--I. F.
The Fenwick note is not quite clear as to the relation of Hackett to
Blea Tarn Cottage. Dr. Cradock thinks that "Wordsworth meant that his
description of the cottage was borrowed from Hackett (which he frequently
visited), so far at least as the solitary clock, and the cottage stairs,
and the dark and low apartments were concerned."--ED.]
[Footnote GF: See the note on the previous page.--ED.]
[Footnote GG: Grasmere.--ED.]
[Footnote GH: Compare Lamb's remarks in reference to Harrow Church in a
letter to Wordsworth, August 14, 1814. See _Letters of Charles Lamb_,
edited by Canon Ainger, vol. i. p. 272.--ED.]
[Footnote GI: The details of this description apply in most particulars
to the Church at Grasmere, although some are probably borrowed from
Wordsworth's recollections of Hawkshead and of Bowness. The "naked
rafters intricately crossed," the "admonitory texts" inscribed on the
walls,
Each, in its ornamental scroll, enclosed,
the "oaken benches," the "heraldic shield" in the "altar-window," the
"faded hatchment," the "marble monuments" and "sepulchral stones" with
"emblems graven and foot-worn epitaphs,"--all are there. Grasmere Church
was "for duration built," as Wordsworth puts it; and, however ill adapted
to the wants of modern ceremonial, it is to be hoped that all that is
most characteristic of the old edifice will be preserved; and that--while
no building can retain its original form for ever--its renovation will
not destroy what remains of that "rude and antique majesty," which
Wordsworth tells us had, even in 1843, been partially impaired.--ED.]
[Footnote GJ: Compare, in _Hamlet_, act v. scene i. l. 64--
Hamlet.--Has this fellow no feeling of his business? he sings at grave-making.
Horatio.--Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.
Hamlet.--'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.--ED.]
[Footnote GK: An oak now grows in the field a little to the east of the
churchyard wall, which cannot, however, be that to which Wordsworth
refers. Possibly an oak grew at that time beside the wall above the
Rothay. The wall is still "moss-grown."--ED.]
[Footnote GL: See the footnote on the previous page.--ED.]
[Footnote GM: Compare _Paradise Lost_, book i. l. 157--
To be weak is miserable,
Doing or suffering. ED.
]
[Footnote GN: Compare Wordsworth's _Description of the Scenery of the
Lakes_, section 2. "To begin with the COTTAGES. They are scattered over
the vallies, and under the hill sides, and on the rocks; and, even to
this day, in the more retired dales, without any intrusion of more
assuming buildings;
Clustered like stars some few, but single most,
And lurking dimly in their shy retreats,
Or glancing on each other cheerful looks,
Like separated stars with clouds between.
The dwelling-houses, and contiguous outhouses, are, in many instances,
of the colour of the native rock, out of which they have been built....
These humble dwellings remind the contemplative spectator of a production
of nature, and may (using a strong expression) rather be said to have
grown than to have been erected;--to have risen, by an instinct of their
own, out of the native rock--so little is there in them of formality,
such is their wildness and beauty! Among the numerous recesses and
projections in the walls and in the different stages of their roofs, are
seen bold and harmonious effects of contrasted sunshine and shadow....
These dwellings, mostly built, as has been said, of rough unhewn stone,
are roofed with slates ... rough and uneven in their surfaces, so that
both the coverings and sides of the houses have furnished places of rest
for the seeds of lichens, mosses, ferns, and flowers. Hence buildings,
which, in their very form call to mind the processes of nature, do thus,
clothed with this vegetable garb, appear to be received into the bosom of
the living principle of things, as it acts and exists among the woods and
fields."
Compare also Gray's description of the Vale of Grasmere in his
Journal:--"Not a single red tile, nor flaring gentleman's house, or
garden-wall, breaks in upon the repose of this little unsuspected
paradise; but all is peace, rusticity, and happy poverty, in its neatest
and most becoming attire."--ED.]
[Footnote GO: "To illustrate the relation which in my mind this Pastor
bore to the Wanderer, and the resemblances between them, or rather the
points of community in their nature, I likened one to an oak, and the
other to a sycamore; and having here referred to this comparison, I
need only add, I had no one individual in my mind, wishing rather to
embody this idea than to break in upon the simplicity of it by traits of
individual character, or of any peculiarity of opinion."--I. F.
The sycamore is the favourite tree at the Mountain Farms of Cumberland
and Westmoreland, as it affords the best shelter from rain, and the most
thorough protection from the heat of the sun, during sheep-shearing. A
special feature of the valley as you go down Langdale from Blea Tarn,
is the abundance of sycamore; some of the farm-houses are literally
_embowered_ by it.--ED.]
[Footnote GP: The group of meditative talkers are supposed to be seated
on the moss-grown wall to the east of the Churchyard, facing Silver
How.--ED.]
[Footnote GQ: Possibly at Dale End, Grasmere.--ED.]
[Footnote GR: Probably the Wyke, Sarah Mackereth's Cottage.--ED.]
[Footnote GS: See Wordsworth's note, p. 388.--ED.]
[Footnote GT: Silver How is the only "dark mountain" visible to the west
from the moss-grown seat in the Grasmere Churchyard; but here again the
realism of the narrative gives way, and not Silver How but Lingmoor is
described, with Hackett Cottage at its south-eastern foot. The Fenwick
note is here explicit. "First for the one picture given by the Wanderer
of the living. In this nothing is introduced but what was taken from
nature and real life. The cottage was called Hackett, and stands, as
described, on the southern extremity of the ridge which separates the
two Langdales. The pair who inhabited it were called Jonathan and Betty
Yewdale." Later on, in book vi. p. 250, Wordsworth describes the blue
roofs of Hawkshead village as ornamenting
a distant reach
_Of this far-winding vale_.
Unless, therefore, he is speaking in the vague, Hackett and not Grasmere
is the place described. The Fenwick note to the _Epistle to Sir George
Beaumont_, however, decides the question (see vol. iv. p. 256). "The
house (Hackett) and its inmates are referred to in the fifth book of _The
Excursion_, in the passage beginning--
You behold,
High on the breast of yon dark mountain, dark." ED.
]
[Footnote GU: Compare the Sonnet (of 1815) referring to Allan Bank,
beginning--
Even as a dragon's eye that feels the stress
Of a bedimming sleep, or as a lamp
Suddenly glaring through sepulchral damp,
So burns yon Taper 'mid a black recess
Of mountains, silent, dreary, motionless, etc. ED.
]
[Footnote GV: Compare the Sonnet (of 1815) beginning--
The fairest, brightest, hues of ether fade,
and more especially the Fenwick note, prefixed to that sonnet.--ED.]
[Footnote GW: This feminine complexion of the Cumbrian peasants who work
in the higher mines, is probably in part due to the continual mists and
moisture of the heights. It has been observed especially amongst the
workers in the high slate quarries at Walna Scar.--ED.]
[Footnote GX: In a note to the edition of 1814, Wordsworth added to the
above quotation _Southey's Retrospect_. See p. 388 of this volume.]
[Footnote GY: In 1814 Wordsworth added to this line a prefatory note to
his _Essay upon Epitaphs_, and the _Essay_ itself, for which see _The
Prose Works_.]
[Footnote GZ: On the 1st of August 1849, during the last year of the
poet's life, he transcribed the five lines beginning--