The Prose Works of William Wordsworth Part 71

237. *_Sonnet_ x.x.xVI.

'Oh, what a wreck,' &c.

The sad condition of poor Mrs. Southey put me upon writing this. It has afforded comfort to many persons whose friends have been similarly affected.

238. *_Sonnet_ x.x.xVII.

'Intent on gathering wool,' &c.

Suggested by a conversation with Miss F., who along with her sister had during their childhood found much delight in such gatherings for the purpose here alluded to.

239. _Sonnet_ XLII.

Wansfel.

The Hill that rises to the south-east above Ambleside.

240. _Sonnet_ XLIII.

----'a little rural town.'

Ambleside.

VIII. MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803.

241. *_Setting out_.

Mr. Coleridge, my sister, and myself started together from Town-End, to make a tour in Scotland, August [14th]. Poor Coleridge was at that time in bad spirits, and somewhat too much in love with his own dejection, and he departed from us, as is recorded in my sister's Journal, soon after we left Loch Lomond. The verses that stand foremost among these memorials were not actually written for the occasion, but transplanted from my Epistle to Sir G. Beaumont.

242. *_To the Sons of Burns after visiting the Grave of their Father_.

[iv.]

See, in connection with these verses, two other poems upon Burns, one composed actually at the time, and the other, though then felt, not put into words till several years afterwards [viz. 'At the Grave of Burns, 1803, Seven Years after his Death (II.);' and 'Thoughts suggested the Day following, on the Banks of Nith, near the Poet's Residence.' (III.) Another Note in I.F. MSS. is nearly the same as this: viz. To be printed among the Poems relating to my first Tour in Scotland: for ill.u.s.trations see my Sister's Journal. It may be proper to add that the second of these pieces, though _felt_ at the time, was not composed till many years after].

243. *_Ellen Irwin, or the Braes of Kirtle_. [v.]

It may be worth while to observe, that as there are Scotch poems on this subject, in the simple ballad strain, I thought it would be both presumptuous and superfluous to attempt treating it in the same way; and accordingly, I chose a construction of stanza quite new in our language; in fact, the same as that of Burgher's 'Leonora,' except that the first and third lines do not in my stanzas rhyme. At the outset, I threw out a cla.s.sical image, to prepare the reader for the style in which I meant to treat the story, and so to preclude all comparison. [Note.--The Kirtle is a river in the southern part of Scotland, on the banks of which the events here related took place.]

244. *_To a Highland Girl_. [VI.]

This delightful creature, and her demeanour, are particularly described in my sister's Journal. The sort of prophecy with which the verses conclude has, through G.o.d's goodness, been realised; and now, approaching the close of my seventy-third year, I have a most vivid remembrance of her, and the beautiful objects with which she was surrounded. She is alluded to in the poem of 'The Three Cottage Girls,'

among my continental memorials. In ill.u.s.tration of this cla.s.s of poems, I have scarcely anything to say beyond what is antic.i.p.ated in my sister's faithful and admirable Journal.

245. _Stepping Westward_. [VII.]

While my fellow-traveller and I were walking by the side of Loch Ketterine [Katrine] one fine evening after sunset, in our road to a Hut where, in the course of our Tour, we had been hospitably entertained some weeks before, we met, in one of the loneliest parts of that solitary region, two well-dressed women, one of whom said to us, by way of greeting, 'What, you are stepping westward?'

246. *_Address to Kilchurn Castle_. [X.]

The first three lines were thrown off at the moment I first caught sight of the ruin from a small eminence by the wayside; the rest was added many years after. [Note.--The tradition is that the Castle was built by a Lady during the absence of her Lord in Palestine.]

247. *_Rob Roys Grave_. [XI.]

I have since been told that I was misinformed as to the burial-place of Bob Roy; if so, I may plead in excuse that I wrote on apparently 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. [Note prefixed.--The history of Rob Roy is sufficiently known; his grave is near the head of Loch Ketterine, in one of those small pinfold-like burial-grounds, of neglected and desolate appearance, which the traveller meets with in the Highlands of Scotland.]

248. *_Sonnet composed at ---- Castle_, 1803. [XII.]

The castle here mentioned was Nidpath, near Peebles. The person alluded to was the then Duke of Queensberry. The fact was told me by Walter Scott.

249. _Yarrow Unvisited_. [XIII.]

See the various Poems the scene of which is laid upon the banks of the Yarrow; in particular the exquisite Ballad of Hamilton beginning

'Busk ye, busk ye, my bonnie, bonnie Bride, Busk ye, busk ye, my winsome Marrow.'

250. _The Matron of Jedborough [Jedburgh] and her Husband_. [XV.]

At Jedborough, my companion and I went into private lodgings for a few days; and the following Verses were called forth by the character and domestic situation of our Hostess.

251. *_Sonnet, 'Fly, some kind Harbinger.'_ [XVI.]

This was actually composed the last day of our tour, between Dalston and Grasmere.

252. *_The Blind Highland Boy_. [XVII.]

The story was told me by George Mackreth, for many years parish-clerk of Grasmere. He had been an eye-witness of the occurrence. The vessel in reality was a washing-tub, which the little fellow had met with on the sh.o.r.e of the loch. [Appended Note.--It is recorded in Dampier's _Voyages_ that a boy, son of the captain of a man-of-war, seated himself in a turtle-sh.e.l.l and floated in it from the sh.o.r.e to his father's ship, which lay at anchor at the distance of half a mile. In deference to the opinion of a friend, I have subst.i.tuted such a sh.e.l.l for the less elegant vessel in which my blind Voyager did actually intrust himself to the dangerous current of Loch Leven, as was related to me by an eye-witness.]