visit of this man to Coleridge was, as I believe Coleridge has related,
the occasion of a spy being sent by Government to watch our proceedings;
which were, I can say with truth, such as the world at large would have
thought ludicrously harmless.

40. _Rural Architecture_. [XIII.]

These structures, as every one knows, are common among our hills, being
built by shepherds, as conspicuous marks, and occasionally by boys in
sport. It was written at Town-End, in 1801.

41. _Foot-note: Great How_ (l. 4).

Great How is a single and conspicuous hill, which rises towards the foot
of Thirlmere, on the western side of the beautiful dale of
Legberthwaite.

42. *_The Pet Lamb: a Pastoral_. [XIV.]

Town-End, 1800. Barbara Lewthwaite, now living at Ambleside (1843),
though much changed as to beauty, was one of two most lovely sisters.
Almost the first words my poor brother John said, when he visited us for
the first time at Grasmere, were, 'Were those two angels that I have
just seen?' and from his description I have no doubt they were those
two sisters. The mother died in childbed; and one of our neighbours, at
Grasmere, told me that the loveliest sight she had ever seen was that
mother as she lay in her coffin with her [dead] babe in her arm. I
mention this to notice what I cannot but think a salutary custom, once
universal in these vales: every attendant on a funeral made it a duty to
look at the corpse in the coffin before the lid was closed, which was
never done (nor I believe is now) till a minute or two before the corpse
was removed. Barbara Lewthwaite was not, in fact, the child whom I had
seen and overheard as engaged in the poem. I chose the name for reasons
implied in the above, and will here add a caution against the use of
names of living persons. Within a few months after the publication of
this poem, I was much surprised, and more hurt, to find it in a child's
school-book, which, having been compiled by Lindley Murray, had come
into use at Grasmere school, where Barbara was a pupil. And, alas, I had
the mortification of hearing that she was very vain of being thus
distinguished; and in after life she used to say that she remembered the
incident, and what I said to her upon the occasion.

43. *_Influence of Natural Objects, &c._ [XVI.]

Written in Germany, 1799.

44. *_The Longest Day_. [XVII.]

1817. Suggested by the sight of my daughter (Dora) playing in front of
Rydal Mount, and composed in a g