rance, of a stall in a Cathedral. This inscription
is not engraven, as the former and the two following are, in the
grounds.--I. F.]

Classed by Wordsworth among his "Inscriptions."--ED.

Oft is the medal faithful to its trust
When temples, columns, towers, are laid in dust;
And 'tis a common ordinance of fate
That things obscure and small outlive the great:
Hence, when yon mansion and the flowery trim 5
Of this fair garden, and its alleys dim,
And all its stately trees, are passed away,
This little Niche, unconscious of decay,
Perchance may still survive. And be it known
That it was scooped within[1] the living stone,-- 10
Not by the sluggish and ungrateful pains
Of labourer plodding for his daily gains,
But by an industry that wrought in love;
With help from female hands, that proudly strove[2]
To aid the work, what time these walks and bowers 15
Were shaped to cheer dark winter's lonely hours.[3]

This niche is still to be seen, although not quite "unconscious of
decay." The growth of yew-trees, over and around it, has darkened the
seat; and constant damp has decayed the soft stone. The niche having
been scooped out by Mrs. Wordsworth and Dorothy, as well as by
Wordsworth, suggests the cutting of the inscriptions on the Rock of
Names in 1800, in which they all took part. (See vol. iii. pp. 61, 62.)
On his return to Grasmere from Coleorton, Wordsworth wrote thus to Sir
George Beaumont, in an undated letter, about this inscription:--"What
follows I composed yesterday morning, thinking there might be no
impropriety in placing it so as to be visible only to a person sitting
within the niche, which is hollowed out of the sandstone in the
winter-garden. I am told that this is, in the present form of the
niche, impossible; but I shall be most ready, when I come to Coleorton,
to scoop out a place for it, if Lady Beaumont think it worth while."
Then follows the--

INSCRIPTION.

Oft is the medal faithful to its trust.

On Nov. 16, 1811, writing again to Sir George on this subject of the
"Inscriptions," and evidently referring to this one on the "Niche," he
says, "As to the 'Female,' and 'Male,' I know not how to get rid of it;
for that circumstance gives the recess an appropriate interest.... On
this account, the lines had better be suppressed, for it is not
improbable that the altering of