The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth Volume I Part 18

[Footnote B: It may not be irrelevant to mention that our late poet, Robert Browning, besought me--both in conversation, and by letter--to restore this "discarded" picture, in editing 'Dion'.--Ed.]

[Footnote C: These lines are only applicable to the middle part of that lake.--W. W. 1793.]

[Footnote D: In the beginning of winter, these mountains, in the moonlight nights, are covered with immense quant.i.ties of woodc.o.c.ks; which, in the dark nights, retire into the woods.--W. W. 1793.]

[Footnote E: The word 'intake' is local, and signifies a mountain-inclosure.--W. W. 1793.]

[Footnote F: Gill is also, I believe, a term confined to this country.

Glen, gill, and dingle, have the same meaning.--W. W. 1793.

The spelling "Ghyll" is first used in the edition of 1820 in the text.

In the note to that edition it remains "gill". In 1827 the spelling in the note was "ghyll."--Ed.]

[Footnote G: Compare Dr. John Brown:

Not a pa.s.sing breeze Sigh'd to the grove, which in the midnight air Stood motionless, and in the peaceful floods Inverted hung.

and see note A to page 31.--Ed. [Footnote U of this poem]]

[Footnote H: This line was first inserted in the edition of 1845. In the following line, the edition of 1793 has

Save that, atop, the subtle ...

Subsequent editions previous to 1845 have

Save that aloft ...

Ed.]

[Footnote J: The reader, who has made the tour of this country, will recognize, in this description, the features which characterize the lower waterfall in the gardens of Rydale.--W. W. 1793.]

[Footnote K:

"Vivid rings of green."

Greenwood's Poem on Shooting.--W. W. 1793.

The t.i.tle is 'A Poem written during a Shooting Excursion on the Moors'.

It was published by Cruttwell at Bath in 1787, 4to, pp. 25. The quotation is from stanza xvi., l. 11.--Ed.]

[Footnote L:

"Down the rough slope the pondrous waggon rings."

BEATTIE.--W. W.

1793. See 'The Minstrel', stanza x.x.xix., l. 4.--Ed.]

[Footnote M:

"Dolcemente feroce."

Ta.s.sO. In this description of the c.o.c.k, I remembered a spirited one of the same animal in the 'L'Agriculture ou Les Georgiques Francoises', of M. Rossuet.--W. W. 1793.]

[Footnote N: I am unable to trace this quotation.--Ed.]

[Footnote P: From Thomson: see Scott's 'Critical Essays'.--W. W. 1793.

It is difficult to know to what Wordsworth here alludes, but compare 'The Seasons', "Summer," l. 1467.

and now a golden curve, Gives one bright glance, then total disappears.--Ed.]

[Footnote Q: See a description of an appearance of this kind in Clark's 'Survey of the Lakes', accompanied with vouchers of its veracity, that may amuse the reader.--W. W. 1793.

The pa.s.sage in Clark's folio volume, 'A Survey of the Lakes', etc., which suggested to Wordsworth the above lines in the 'Evening Walk', is to be found in chapter i. of the second book, p. 55. It gives a weird account of the appearance of hors.e.m.e.n being exercised in troops upon

"Southen-fell side, as seen on the 25th of June 1744 by William Lancaster of Blakehills, and a farm servant, David Strichet:

"These visionary hors.e.m.e.n seemed to come from the lowest part of Southen-fell, and became visible just at a place called Knott. They then moved in regular troops along the side of the fell, till they came opposite Blakehills, when they went over the mountain. Then they described a kind of curvilinear path upon the side of the fell, and both these first and last appearances were bounded by the top of the mountain.

"Frequently the last, or last but one, in a troop would leave his place, and gallop to the front, and then take the same pace with the rest--a regular swift walk. Thus changes happened to every troop (for many troops appeared) and oftener than once or twice, yet not at all times alike.... Nor was this phenomenon seen at Blakehill only, it was seen by every person at every cottage within the distance of a mile.

Neither was it confined to a momentary view, for from the time that Strichet first observed it, the appearance must have lasted at least two hours and a half, viz. from half past seven till the night coming on prevented further view."

This interesting optical illusion--which suggests the wonderful island in the Atlantic, seen from the isles of Aran near Galway, alluded to in the 'Chorographical description of West, or H-Ier-Connaught', of R.

O'Flaherty--was caused by the peculiar angle of the light from the setting sun, the reflection of the water of the Solway, and the refraction of the vapour and clouds above the Solway. These aerial and visionary hors.e.m.e.n were being exercised somewhere above the Kirkcudbright sh.o.r.e. It was not the first time the phenomenon had been seen within historic times, on the same fell-side, and at the same time of year. Canon Rawnsley writes to me,

"I have an idea that the fact that it took place at midsummer eve (June 27), the eve of the Feast of St. John, upon which occasion the shepherds hereabout used to light bonfires on the hills (no doubt a relic of the custom of the Beltane fires of old Norse days, perhaps of earlier sun-wors.h.i.+p festivals of British times), may have had something to do with the naming of the mountain Blencathara of which Southen-fell (or Shepherd's-fell, as the name implies) is part.

Blencathara, we are told, may mean the Hill of Demons, or the haunted hill. My suggestion is that the old sun-wors.h.i.+ppers, who met in midsummer eve on Castrigg at the Druid circle or Donn-ring, saw just the same phenomenon as Strichet and Lancaster saw upon Southen-fell, and hence the name. Nay, perhaps the Druid circle was built where it is, because it was well in view of the Demon Hill."

Ed.]

[Footnote R: This is a fact of which I have been an eye-witness.--W. W.

1793.]