within sight of it without knowing it for full twenty miles before this,
ever since coming down the Daer Water from Leadhills to Elvanfoot: they
there reached the meeting-place of that water with a small stream that
flows from Ericstane. These two united become the Clyde.
{41} NOTE 6.--'_I wished Joanna had been there to laugh_.'--PAGE 41.
Joanna Hutchinson, Mrs. Wordsworth's sister. Among the 'Poems on the
Naming of Places' is one addressed to her, in 1800, in which the
following well-known lines occur:--
"As it befel,
One summer morning we had walked abroad
At break of day, Joanna and myself.
--'Twas that delightful season when the broom,
Full-flowered, and visible on every steep,
Along the copses runs in veins of gold.
Our pathway led us on to Rotha's banks,
And when we came in front of that tall rock
That eastward looks, I there stopped short and stood
Tracing the lofty barrier with my eye
From base to summit; such delight I found
To note in shrub and tree, in stone and flower
That intermixture of delicious hues,
Along so vast a surface, all at once,
In one impression, by connecting force
Of their own beauty, imaged in the heart.
--When I had gazed perhaps two minutes' space,
Joanna, looking in my eyes, beheld
That ravishment of mine, and laughed aloud;
The Rock, like something starting from a sleep,
Took up the Lady's voice and laughed again;
That ancient woman seated on Helm Crag
Was ready with her cavern; Hammarscar,
And the tall Steep of Silverhaw, sent forth
A noise of laughter; southern Loughrigg heard,
And Fairfield answered with a mountain tone;
Helvellyn far into the clear blue sky
Carried the Lady's voice,--old Skiddaw blew
His speaking-trumpet;--back out of the clouds
Of Glaramara southward came the voice;
And Kirkstone tossed it from his misty head.'
In his comments made on his Poems late in life, Wordsworth said of this
one:--'The effect of her laugh is an extravagance; though the effect of
the reverberation of voices in some parts of the mountains is very
striking. There is, in the "Excursion," an allusion to the bleat of a
lamb thus re-echoed, and described without any exaggeration, as I heard
it, on the side of Stickle Tarn, from the precipice that stretches on to
Langdale Pikes.'
{68} NOTE 7.--'_With two bells hanging in the open air_.'--PAGE 68.
'When I wrote this account of the village of Luss, I fully believed I had
a perfect recollection of the two bells, as I have described them; but I
am half tempted to think they have been a creation of my own fancy,
though no image that I know I have actually seen is at this day more
vividly impressed upon my mind.'--_MS. note_, _Author_, 1806.
{70} NOTE 8.--'_Her countenance corresponded with the unkindness of
denying us a fire in a cold night_.'--PAGE 70.
The writer, inhospitably as she had been treated, was more fortunate than
a distinguished French traveller, who arrived at Luss at night, a few
years earlier. The hostess made signs to him that he should not speak,
hustled him into a stable, and said solemnly, 'The Justiciary Lords do me
the honour to lodge here when they are on this circuit. There is one of
them here at present. He is asleep, and nobody must disturb him.' And
forthwith she drove him out into the rain and darkness, saying, 'How can
I help it? Make no noise, his Lordship must not be disturbed. Every one
should pay respect to the law. God bless you. Farewell.' And on they
had to go fifteen miles to Tarbet.--St. Fond's _Travels_, vol. i. p. 233.
{80b} NOTE 9.--'_I could not help smiling when I saw him lying by the
roadside_.'--PAGE 80.
'The ferryman happened to mention that a fellow-countryman of his had
lately come from America--a wild sort of genius. This reminded us of our
friend whom we had met at Loch Lomond, and we found that it was the same
person. He was the brother of the Lady of Glengyle, who had made a
gentleman of him by new-clothing him from head to foot. "But," said the
ferryman, "when the clothes are worn out, and his sister is tired of
supplying him with pocket-money (which will probably be very soon), he
will be obliged to betake himself again to America." The Lady of
Glengyle has a house not far from the ferry-house, but she now lives
mostly at Callander for the sake of educating her son.'--_Author's MS._,
1806.
{100} NOTE 10.--'_In a word_, _the Trossachs beggar all description_.'
PAGE 100.
The world believes, and will continue to believe, that Scott was the
first 'Sassenach' who discovered the Trossachs, as it was his Poem which
gave them world-wide celebrity. It would probably be as impossible to
alter this impression, as it would be to substitute for Shakespeare's
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth the very different versions of the facts and
characters which historical research has brought to light. And yet it
would be interesting, to those who care for truth and fact, to inquire,
did time allow, what first brought the Trossachs into notice, and who
first did so. That they had, as I have said in the Preface, some fame
before Scott's Poem appeared, is clear, else a stranger like Wordsworth
would never have gone so far out of his way to search for them. Pending
a thorough examination of the question, it may be worth while here to
note the following facts. Miss Wordsworth refers in the text to some
work on the Trossachs, from which the words at the head of this note are
taken.
I was under the impression that the work referred to was the well-known
'Sketches descriptive of Picturesque Scenery on the Southern Confines of
Perthshire,' by the Rev. Patrick Graham, minister of Aberfoyle, but it is
satisfactory to find that Mr. Graham was not alone in his admiration of
Highland scenery in those early days. A neighbour of his, the Rev. James
Robertson, who was presented to the parish of Callander in 1768, wrote a
description of the Trossachs in Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account,
and from the fact of his using the very sentence quoted by Miss
Wordsworth, I have no doubt he was the author of the little pamphlet.
Miss Spence in her 'Caledonian Excursion,' 1811, says that the Honourable
Mrs. Murray told the minister of Callander that Scott ought to have
dedicated 'The Lady of the Lake' to her as the discoverer of the
Trossachs--'Pray, Madam,' said the good doctor, 'when did you write your
Tour?' 'In the year 1794.' {314} 'Then, Madam, it is no presumption in
me to consider that I was the person who in 1790 made the Trossachs first
known, for except to the natives and a few individuals in this
neighbourhood, this remarkable place had never been heard of.' Mr.
Robertson died in 1812. There were thus at least two notices of the
Trossachs published before Mr. Graham's Sketches: these were not
published till 1806. _The Lady of the Lake_ was first published in 1810.
{101} NOTE 11.--'Dutch myrtle.'--PAGE 101.
This seems to be the name by which Miss Wordsworth knew the plant which
Lowlanders generally call _bog myrtle_, Border men _gale_, or _sweet
gale_, and Highlanders _roid_ (pronounced as _roitch_). Botanists, I
believe, know it as _Myrica Gale_, a most fragrant plant or shrub,
growing generally in moist and mossy ground. Perhaps nothing more surely
brings back the feeling that you are in the very Highlands than the first
scent of this plant caught on the breeze.
{116} NOTE 12.--'_Bonnier than Loch Lomond_.'--PAGE 116.
As an illustration of local jealousy, I may mention that when Mr.
Jamieson, the editor of the fifth edition of Burt's Letters, was in the
Highlands in 1814, four years after the publication of Scott's Poem, and
eleven after the Wordsworths' visit, he met a savage-looking fellow on
the top of Ben Lomond, the image of 'Red Murdoch,' who told him that he
had been a guide to the mountain for more than forty years, but now 'a
Walter Scott' had spoiled his trade. 'I wish,' said he, 'I had him in a
ferry over Loch Lomond; I should be after sinking the boat, if I drowned
myself into the bargain, for ever since he wrote his "Lady of the Lake,"
as they call it, everybody goes to see that filthy hole, Loch Ketterine.
The devil confound his ladies and his lakes!'
{145} NOTE 13.--'_For poor Ann Tyson's sake_.'--PAGE 145.
The dame with whom Wordsworth lodged at Hawkshead. Of her he has spoken
with affectionate tenderness in the 'Prelude:'--
'The thoughts of gratitude shall fall like dew
Upon thy grave, good creature!'
Her garden, its brook, and dark pine tree, and the stone table under it,
were all dear to his memory, and the chamber in which he
'Had lain awake on summer nights to watch
The moon in splendour couched among the leaves
Of a tall ash that near our cottage stood.'
She lived to above fourscore; unmarried, and loving her young inmates as
her children, and beloved by them as a mother.
'Childless, yet by the strangers to her blood
Honoured with little less than filial love.'
_Wordsworth's Life_, vol. i. 39.
{196} NOTE 14.--'_The woman said it had been a palace_.'--PAGE 196.
A mistake. The old mansion here described was the building formerly used
as a prison-house of the Regality of Athole in which the Dukes, and
formerly the Earls, of Athole confined their criminals during the ages
when they, in common with all the other Scottish Barons, exercised the
right of heritable jurisdiction. This right was abolished after the '45,
and then this, like all other baronial prison-houses, fell into disuse
and decay. Nearly entire seventy years ago, it has now wholly
disappeared, having been used up, no doubt, as material for the
neighbouring buildings. There was, however, at Logierait, a Royal
Castle, from which the place itself and the large adjacent parish take
their name--Lag-an-raith, the hollow of the Castle,--while the
neighbouring small hamlet and railway station on the other side of the
Tummel are called Balla-na-luig--the town of the hollow. The Castle
stood on a high knoll overlooking the church and inn of Logierait,
commanding a view of the junction of the Tummel and the Tay immediately
underneath, and of the whole of southern Athole, as far as Dunkeld. This
knoll is now crowned by a high Celtic cross, memorial of the late Duke of
Athole. Immediately around it are seen lying here and there blocks of
solid masonry, the sole remnants of the Castle in which Robert II. is
said to have dwelt during his visits to Athole. Traces of the Castle
moat are still discernible.
{229} NOTE 15.--'_Rob Roy's grave was there_.'--PAGE 229.
Regarding this Wordsworth says, 'I have since been told that I was
misinformed as to the burial-place of Rob Roy; if so, I may plead in
excuse that I wrote on apparent good authority, namely, that of a
well-educated lady who lived at the head of the lake, within a mile or
less of the point indicated as containing the remains of one so famous in
that neighbourhood.'
The real burial-place of Rob Roy is the Kirkton of Balquhidder, at the
lower end of Loch Voil. The grave is covered by a rude grey slab, on
which a long claymore is roughly engraved. The Guide-book informs us
that the arms on his tombstone are a Scotch pine, the badge of Clan
Gregor, crossed by a sword, and supporting a crown, this last to denote
the relationship claimed by the Gregarach with the royal Stuarts. When I
last saw the tombstone, as far as I remember, I observed nothing but the
outline of the long sword.
{237} NOTE 16.--'_Thomas Wilkinson's_ "_Tour in Scotland_."'--PAGE 237.
Probably one of Wilkinson's poems, of which Wordsworth speaks
occasionally in his letters. 'The present Lord Lonsdale has a neighbour,
a Quaker, an amiable, inoffensive man, and a little of a poet too, who
has amused himself upon his own small estate upon the Emont, in twining
pathways along the banks of the river, making little cells and bowers
with inscriptions of his own writing.'--_Letter to Sir G. Beaumont_,
_Oct._ 17, 1805.
Wordsworth wrote the poem 'To a Spade of a Friend,' composed 'while we
were labouring together in his pleasure-grounds,' commencing--
'Spade with which Wilkinson hath tilled his land,
And shaped these pleasant walks by Emont's side,'
in memory of this friend.--See _Life_, vol. i. pp. 55, 323, 349.
DISTANCES FROM PLACE TO PLACE.
MILES MILES
Grasmere to Keswick 13 Suie (road 13
excellent)
Hesket Newmarket (road very 15 Killin 7
bad) (tolerable)
Carlisle (bad road) 14 Kenmore 15
(baddish)
Longtown (newly mended, not 8 Blair (bad) 23
good)
Annan (good) 14 Fascally 18
(wretchedly
bad)
Dumfries (good) 15 Dunkeld (bad) 12
Brownhill (pretty good) 12 Ambletree 10
(hilly--good)
Leadhills (tolerable) 19 Crieff (hilly-- 11
goodish)
Douglass Mill (very bad) 12 Loch Erne Head 20
(tolerable)
Lanark (baddish) 9 Callander (most 14
excellent)
Hamilton (tolerable) 15 Trossachs 16
Glasgow (tolerable) 11 Ferryman's 8
House (about 8)
Dumbarton (very good) 15 Callander to 27
Falkirk
(baddish)
Luss (excellent) 13 Edinburgh 24
(good)
Tarbet (not bad) 8 Roslin (good) 6
Arrochar (good) 2 Peebles (good) 16
Cairndow (middling) 12 Clovenford 16
(tolerable)
Inverary (very good) 10 Melrose 8
(tolerable)
Dalmally (tolerable) 16 Dryburgh (good) 4
Taynuilt (excellent) 13 Jedburgh 10
(roughish)
Portnacroish (tolerable) 15 Hawick (good) 12
Ballachulish (part most 12 Langholm (very 24
excellent) good)
King's House (bad) 12 Longtown (good) 12
Tyndrum (good) 18 Carlisle 8
Grasmere 36
FOOTNOTES.
{0a} See Essays of R. H. Hutton, Esq., vol. ii.
{0b} See Appendix, pp. 304, 307.
{0c} The following is the entry referred to:--
'October 4th, 1832.--I find that this tour was both begun and ended
on a Sunday. I am sorry that it should have been so, though I hope
and trust that our thoughts and feelings were not seldom as pious and
serious as if we had duly attended a place devoted to public worship.
My sentiments have undergone a great change since 1803 respecting the
absolute necessity of keeping the Sabbath by a regular attendance at
church.
'D. W.'
{9a} Criffel.
{9b} Annandale.
{11} See Appendix A.
{20} There is some mistake here. The Hopetoun title was not taken from
any place in the Leadhills, much less from the house shaped like an
H.--_Ed._
{27} Probably the Rev. John Aird, minister of the parish, 1801-1815.
{30} Ragweed.
{31a} Tinto.
{33} New Lanark, Robert Owen's mills.
{36a} Lady Mary Ross.
{36b} Corehouse.
{36c} See Appendix B.
{45} The house belonging to the Earls of Hopetoun at Leadhills, not that
which bears this name about twelve miles from Edinburgh.--Ed.
{53} Glasgow Green.
{56} No doubt Erskine House, the seat of Lord Blantyre.--_Ed._
{61} A huge isolated rock in Borrowdale, Cumberland, which bears that
name.--_Ed._
{63} The inscription on the pillar was written by Professor George
Stuart of Edinburgh, John Ramsay of Ochtertyre, and Dr. Samuel Johnson;
for Dr. Johnson's share in the work see Croker's Boswell, p. 392.--_Ed._
{67} Camstraddan House and bay.--_Ed._
{80a} This distinction between the foot and head is not very clear.
What is meant is this: They would have to travel the whole length of the
lake, from the west to the east end of it, before they came to the
Trossachs, the pass leading away from the east end of the lake.--_Ed._
{93} There is a mistake here. His bones were laid about fifteen or
twenty miles from thence, in Balquhidder kirkyard. But it was under the
belief that his 'grave is near the head of Loch Ketterine, in one of
those pinfold-like burial grounds, of neglected and desolate appearance,
which the traveller meets with in the Highlands of Scotland,' that the
well-known poem on 'Rob Roy's Grave' was composed. See Note 15 at the
end of volume.--_Ed._
{97} Goblins' Cave.
{113} To a Highland Girl. At Inversneyde upon Loch Lomond.
{124} I should rather think so!--_Ed._
{131} 'Capability' Brown.
{134} _Quaere_, Cladich.--_Ed._
{139a} Not very probable.
{139b} See Appendix C.
{142} The Pass of Awe.--_Ed._
{155} Lochnell House.
{160} Castle Stalker.
{161} George, seventh Marquis of Tweeddale, being in France in 1803, was
detained by Bonaparte, and died at Verdun, 9th August 1804.--_Ed._
{165} See Appendix D
{177} Buchal, the Shepherd of Etive.
{186} _Quaere_, Luib.
{187} The burial-place of Macnab of Macnab.
{190} In this interval her dear brother, Captain Wordsworth, had been
drowned, as stated in note to page 3, in the wreck of the 'Abergavenny,'
on February 5, 1805.
{210} See Appendix E.
{215} Monzie probably.
{216} Glen Ogle.
{218} Ardhullary.
{225a} This is none other than the well-known Scottish word
'_gey_,'--indifferently, tolerable, considerable.--_Ed._
{225b} See Appendix F.
{246} See Lockhart's _Life of Scott_ for an account of this visit, vol.
i. pp. 402-7. Mr. L. says, 'I have drawn up the account of this meeting
from my recollection, partly of Mr. W.'s conversation, partly from that
of his sister's charming "Diary," which he was so kind as to read to me
on the 16th May 1836.'--_Ed._
{254} See Appendix G.
{266} W. Laidlaw. See Scott's _Life_, vol. i.
{295} On the banks of the River Nid, near Knaresborough.
{314} If this is not a misprint, the Lady had antedated her tour by two
years, as she made it in 1796 and published it in 1799.