7.

But now here's ... 1800.]

[Variant 28:

1815.

For them the quiet creatures ... 1800.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: Compare 'Othello', act I. scene iii. l. 135:

'Of moving accidents by flood and field.'

Ed.]

[Footnote B: Compare the sonnet (vol. iv.) beginning:

"Beloved Vale!" I said. "when I shall con ...

Ed.]

[Footnote C: Compare Tennyson, 'In Memoriam', v. II. 3, 4.

'For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within.'

Ed.]

This poem was suggested to Wordsworth in December 1799 during the
journey with his sister from Sockburn in Yorkshire to Grasmere. I owe
the following local note on 'Hart-Leap Well' to Mr. John R. Tutin of
Hull.

"June 20, 1881. Visited 'Hart-Leap Well,' the subject of Wordsworth's
poem. It is situated on the road side leading from Richmond to
Askrigg, at a distance of not more than three and a-half miles from
Richmond, and not five miles as stated in the prefatory note to the
poem. The 'three aspens at three corners of a square' are things of
the past; also the 'three stone pillars standing in a line, on the
hill above. In a straight line with the spring of water, and where the
pillars would have been, a wall has been built; so that it is very
probable the stone pillars were removed at the time of the building of
this wall. The scenery around answers exactly to the description

More doleful place did never eye survey;
It seemed as if the spring time came not here,
And Nature here were willing to decay.
...
Now, here is neither grass nor pleasant shade.

"It is barren moor for miles around. The water still falls into the
'cup of stone,' which appeared to be of very long standing. Within ten
yards of the well is a small tree, at the same side of the road as the
well, on the right hand coming from Richmond."

The Rev. Thomas Hutchinson of Kimbolton wrote to me on June 18, 1883:

"The tree is not a Thorn, but a Lime. It is evidently an old one, but
is now in full and beautiful leaf. It stands on the western side of
the road, and a few yards distant from it. The well is somewhat nearer
the road. This side of the road is open to the fell. On the other side
the road is bounded by a stone wall: another wall meeting this one at
right angles, exactly opposite the well. I ascended the hill on the
nor