The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth Volume Iii Part 51

[Footnote m:

"Her road elms rustling thin above my head."

(See 'Descriptive Sketches', vol. i. pp. 39, 40, and compare the two pa.s.sages in detail.)--Ed.]

[Footnote n: On the 29th July 1790.--Ed.]

[Footnote o: They were at Lyons on the 30th July.--Ed.]

[Footnote p: They reached the Chartreuse on the 4th of August, and spent two days there "contemplating, with increasing pleasure," says Wordsworth, "its wonderful scenery."--Ed.]

[Footnote q: The forest of St. Bruno, near the Chartreuse.--Ed.]

[Footnote r: "Names of rivers at the Chartreuse."--W. W. 1793.

They are called in 'Descriptive Sketches', vol. i. p. 41, "the mystic streams of Life and Death."--Ed.]

[Footnote s: "Name of one of the vallies of the Chartreuse."--W. W.

1793.]

[Footnote t: "Alluding to crosses seen on the spiry rocks of the Chartreuse, which have every appearance of being inaccessible."--W. W.

1793.]

[Footnote u: It extended from July 13 to September 29. See the detailed Itinerary, vol. i. p. 332, and Wordsworth's letter to his sister, from Keswill, describing the trip.--Ed.]

[Footnote v: See the account of "Urseren's open vale serene," and the paragraph which follows it in 'Descriptive Sketches', vol. i. pp. 50, 51.--Ed.]

[Footnote w: See the account of these "abodes of peaceful man," in 'Descriptive Sketches', ll. 208-253.--Ed.]

[Footnote x: Probably the valley between Martigny and the Col de Balme.--Ed.]

[Footnote y: Wordsworth and Jones crossed from Martigny to Chamouni on the 11th of August. The "bare ridge," from which they first "beheld unveiled the summit of Mont Blanc," and were disenchanted, was doubtless the Col de Balme. The first view of the great mountain is not impressive as seen from that point, or indeed from any of the possible routes to Chamouni from the Rhone valley, until the village is almost reached. The best approach is from Sallanches by St. Gervais.--Ed.]

[Footnote z: Compare Coleridge's 'Hymn before sun-rise in the Vale of Chamouni', and Sh.e.l.ley's 'Mont Blanc', with Wordsworth's description of the Alps, here in 'The Prelude', in 'Descriptive Sketches', and in the 'Memorials of a Tour on the Continent'.--Ed.]

[Footnote Aa: August 17, 1790.--Ed.]

[Footnote Bb: This pa.s.sage beginning, "The brook and road," was first published, amongst the "Poems of the Imagination," in the edition of 1845, under the t.i.tle of 'The Simplon Pa.s.s' (see vol. ii. p. 69). It is doubtless to this walk down the Italian side of the Simplon route that Wordsworth refers in the letter to his sister from Keswill, in which he says,

"The impression of there hours of our walk among these Alps will never be effaced."

Ed.]

[Footnote Cc: The old hospice in the Simplon, which is beside a torrent below the level of the road, about 22 miles from Duomo d'Ossola.--Ed.]

[Footnote Dd:

"From Duomo d'Ossola we proceeded to the lake of Locarno, to visit the Boromean Islands, and thence to Como."

(W. W. to his sister.) The lake of Locarno is now called Lago Maggiore.--Ed.]

[Footnote Ee:

"The sh.o.r.es of the lake consist of steeps, covered with large sweeping woods of chestnut, spotted with villages."

(W. W. to his sister.)--Ed.]

[Footnote Ff:

"A small footpath is all the communication by land between one village and another on the side along which we pa.s.sed, for upwards of thirty miles. We entered on this path about noon, and, owing to the steepness of the banks, were soon unmolested by the sun, which illuminated the woods, rocks, and villages of the opposite sh.o.r.e."

(See letter of W. W. from Keswill.)--Ed.]

[Footnote Gg: See 'Descriptive Sketches', vol. i. pp. 42-46.--Ed.]

[Footnote Hh: They followed the lake of Como to its head, leaving Gravedona on the 20th August.--Ed.]

[Footnote Ii: August 21, 1790.--Ed.]

[Footnote Kk: They reached Cologne on the 28th September, having floated down the Rhine in a small boat; and from Cologne went to Calais, through Belgium.--Ed.]