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_,