WORDSWORTH AND THE LAKE DISTRICT.*

IT was a happy thought which led Professor Knight to employ the leisure of his summer or autumn holidays in gleaning what may still be gathered about the places with which Wordsworth's poems are associated, before the generation which knew the poet himself and his ways has entirely disappeared. An important beginning bad, indeed, been made by Wordsworth himself, in the notes which during his later years he dictated to Miss Fenwick, and which all careful students of his poetry have so highly prized. Still, those notes were but a beginning, and served rather to whet the desire for fuller illustration than to satisfy it. It was known that among the elder and more intelligent dwellers in the Lake Country there still lingered many interesting recollections of the poet's habits and haunts, which might be any day lost, unless their possessors were careful to commit them to writing. Among those who were depositaries of this kind of lore, none, it was known, was more faithful, accurate, and sympathetic than Dr. Cradock, the Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford. This gentleman has generously placed his local knowledge, suggestions, and interpretations at the disposal of Professor Knight, who, in his preface, acknowledges his obligations for these. Some may, perhaps, say,—What use of cumbering imaginative poems with heaps of prosaic detail and local circumstance ? better far to leave them as they are,—a pure, imaginative essence, defecated of all grosser matter. This abstract view of imagination, which would dissociate it altogether from fact and experience, is one which, though entertained by some persons deserving of respect, we cannot at all admit. Neither the ideal nor the actual, as long as they stand apart, are half so living and true as when they meet and combine. To see the very spot where some great thought or beautiful imagination was born, to gaze on the features of the landscape which have entered into that thought, given it shape and framework, and lent it colouring, is no mere idle and gossiping curiosity, but is to have caught a fresh glance into the very working of the poet's mind. This localising of the ideal gives body and solidity to imagi- native creations, which might otherwise be unsubstantial ; and at the same time it idealises the actual—that is, gives to the dull clods of earth a kind of spiritual existence. What would we not give to know for certain "the bank" which Shakespeare knew, "whereon the wild thyme grows?" The places named by Scott in his works, his localisings of romance, have wrought so powerfully on the imaginations of men that, as the late Sir W. Stirling Maxwell said at the Scott Centenary, the mere mention by him in his poems or novels of some obscure local name on any property has become like a new charter to it, and actually doubled its market value. If this is so with other poets, then much more with Wordsworth, who in his poems, whether descriptive, lyrical, or meditative, has accurately conveyed the features of more landscapes, and noted faithfully more manifold ongoing,s of nature, as he had seen them, than all the other poets of his time put together. Many have noted "the marvel- lous sympathy there is between Wordsworth's poetry and the spirit that is in the Westmoreland mountains,"—his quite perfect "power of rendering their mute being into his solemn melodies." If this be true—if, as has been said, "those dumb, old solitudes had, after slumbering since the beginning of time, at last waked to consciousness in him, and uttered their inmost heart through his voice," the book before us is the best and most practieal com- ment on such a statement. Wordsworth's allusions to Nature, instead of being abstract and vague, become at once concrete and real, when seen through the light of Professor Knight's localising interpretations. In no other poet is the description of literal fact and local detail so blended with the finest spiritual- ising power. A few passages there may be in which he has overdone matter-of-fact detail,—has failed to illuminate it from within, as in the well-known lines in "The Thorn," as these originally stood, describing the "little muddy pond,"— " I've measured it from side to side,

'Tis three feet long and two feet wide."

Lines like these, though they cannot be defended artistically, yet coming in, as they sometimes do, in the midst of the most imagina- tive rendering of nature, seem part of that plainness and un-

The English Lae Distrfct,as Interpreted in the Poems of Wordsworth. By William Knight, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of St. Andrew's. Edin- burgh: David Douglas. 1878.

hesitating veracity which were part of the greatness of the man. Such passages, however, of over-detail might be counted on one's fingers. In almost all his poems Wordsworth has carried out the principle he so well understood, as he announced it in a conver- sation with Mr. Aubrey de Vere, which Professor Knight has quoted in his preface :-

"Nature does not permit an inventory to be made of her charms. He (alluding to some ultra-realistic poet) should have left his pencil and note-book at home ; fixed his eye, as he walked, with a reverent attention on all that surrounded him, and taken all into a heart that could understand and enjoy. Afterwards, he would have '• ,vered that while much of what he had admired was preserver' ..atn, much was also most wisely obliterated. That which rem w, the picture surviving in his mind, would have presented th weal and essential truth of the scene, and done so, in a large -rt, by discarding much which, though in itself striking, was characteristic. In every scene, many of the most brilliant cle+-• . are but accidental."

So, it would seem, in poetic -eproduction, as in so many other things, the great secret s in "wise remembrance," and also in not less "wisp .Lon."

In exer g his self-imposed and evidently congenial task, Profess _ Knight has set to work in a systematic and orderly way, which will not fail to commend itself to students of Words- worth. He begins with the beginning,—that is, with Cockermouth, the place of the poet's birth and childhood. Thence he passes to Hawkshead by Esthwaite Lake, the place of that wonderful school-time, so unlike any modern schoolboy's, which was the seed-time of his genius. These two periods, especially the latter, are illustrated mainly from "The Prelude." That poem, which more than any other, reveals, to use Mr. Knight's happy expres- sion, "what Wordsworth saw in Nature, and how he saw it," both sheds light on the places it describes, and receives it from them. And even those who have most appreciated the wonderful and imaginative insight of "The Prelude," will find that it derives new meaning and interest from the commentary which Professor Knight has been able here to add to it. Our author next follows the poet in his migration to Grasmere, during the closing days of last century. There, in the Town End of Grasmere, or Dove Cottage, he dwelt, first, with his sister, then with his wife and his sister, during the years between 1800 and 1808, which have been called his poetic prime. For it was then that he produced the largest number of the poems which the world has recognised as most original and characteristic. Almost all the poems of this period are full of local allusion, and in the case of many of them the very spots described can be clearly ascertained. Among these is the delightful series on the naming of places, of which Professor Knight says that "while the third, fourth, sixth, and seventh are easily identified, I think it possible that the poet did not wish the other three to be known with absolute accuracy." The very moor and pool by which the poet met the leech-gatherer on that immortal morning, the several spots described in "Michael," that greatest of all pastorals, are here pointed out. Much of "The Excursion," though the poem was not composed till after Words- worth had left the Town End, is identified with Grasmere. For though the poet in that poem foreshortened distances, and blended features from several vales, yet the church and "the churchyard among the mountains" are taken from those of Gras- mere, and many of the tenants of the graves, whom he describes belonged to the families of neighbouring "Statesmen." Several of those humble sleepers Professor Knight has identified. Might it not be possible to identify still more ? We remember, many years since, in conversation with a member of the family of Goldrill-side, hearing many details of the lives of several of these, among others of the young peasant, Oswald, whom Words- worth described as standing among his peers, as the mountain-ash, decked with autumnal berries, stands among the trees of the wood ; and also of that avaricious, unrelenting dame, still "in the vale remembered with deep awe." Remembrances, too, there were of Wordsworth's habits during his Town-End time ; how, sometimes, in the summer days, when he had tarried all day within doors, whether detained by the sultry heat or by work, he would wander forth towards evening, bare-headed, and his sister following him, to attend or watch, while he went upward and lingered in some lonely place, such as the heights above Greenheadgbyll, till the stars had faded before the coming dawn. At some such season as these, we have dreamt, it must have been that the thoughts which went to make the ode on immortality must first have come to him.

From Grasmere we are next conducted, over the mountain pass between Fairfield and Helvellyn, to Paterdale ; thence, round the bead of Ullswater, by Airey Force and the place of the daffodils ; and back, over Kirkstone Pass, to Ambleside. In this journey the author points out, as he passes, each spot which has found local habitation in any of Wordsworth's poems. Of special interest are the poems which cluster round Helvellyn, and chief perhaps among these the "Elegiac Verses in Memory of My Brother," not so much for their intrinsic excellence, as from the affecting nature of the last parting which they commemorate, and from the powerful effect that event had on Wordsworth's mind ever afterwards,—

" A deep distress has humanised my soul."

Of this poem, and the exact spot it refers to, Dr. Cradock thus writes :—

"The parting-place of the brothers William and John, at the foot of Grisedale Tarn, is marked with unusual precision in the poet's note on these verses. It is exactly where the Helvellyn path diverges from the old pack-horse track to Paterdale, and is passed by hundreds oF tourists. I have have found the moss-campion,—the 'meek flower," of which Wordsworth says in the poem,—

' Cleaving to the ground it lies, With multitude of purple eyes, Spangling a cushion green like moss,'

—in times past within a few yards of the spot, but I do not think it can now bo seen within two hundred yards of it. It goes out of flower before the main influx of tourists, and may thus escape entire destruc- tion. The time of its flowering shows that Wordsworth's visit must have been in the spring or very early summer (of 1805), and therefore while his grief was fresh. His burst of grief on seeing the buzzard rise from the crags of Doli-wagan is most true to nature. It is marvellous with what perverse ingenuity recent sorrow assimilates every object to itself. The far-fetched connection between the bird's flight and the shipwreck might possibly have occurred to any one under the circum- stances. But the comfort which Wordsworth found in the little flower is all his own. In order to understand it, it is necessary to understand him."

To this Professor Knight adds :— "The buzzard may still be seen wheeling over tl3o crags of Deli- wagen Pike. I saw it rise from the rock' in May this year, just as described in the poem ; and the moss-campion still grows not far from the coolest of springs. With Wordsworth's note before me, I shall not particularise the spot, as the plant is doubtless less abundant than it used to be. Is it too much to expect of tourists and travellers that they should learn to admire the loveliest things in Nature without snatching them from their birthplace and destroying them ? Can they not rejoice in the presence of Beauty, and let the memory of what they have seen remain a possession and a joy for over, without adding the second- ary gratification of plucking it, and carrying it a few miles to wither in their hands or in those of others ? It is surely a sacrilege to uproot such memorials as the silene acaulis of Girisedale Tarn, or the daffodils and the Christmas roses at Dove Cottage."

To this appeal we heartily say amen ! Will the education, of which we boast so much, never get so far as to teach our popula- tion another spirit towards the sanctities of man and of nature ? Or before education has done this, must these be irrevocably destroyed by our present barbarism ?

When we have returned to Ambleside, it is to Langdale, of course, our steps are next conducted, and therein to Blea Tarn and its surroundings, which contain the abode of the "Solitary," and the scenery of so large a portion of "The Excursion." "No one," says Professor Knight, "who knows The Excursion ' well can visit the locality without being struck by the singularly minute fidelity of 'Words- worth's allusions to place—his descriptive accuracy—while be does not attempt to take a verbal photograph of the scene. In addition, all that is said of the scenery is introduced casually, and serves as the mere setting and framework for a moral discourse of the loftiest order." Almost equal to Wordsworth's own minute fidelity is the closely observant eye with which our author has followed the Poet's and "the Wanderer's" footsteps, and traced out each small nook and natural feature around Blea Tarn, that has found a place in the great meditative poem. We must, how- ever, demur to even the shadow of a doubt, which Professor Knight almost seems to throw, on the Langdale Pikes being the veritable "two huge peaks, that from some other vale peer into this." It seems that these are not visible from the window of "the Solitary's" cottage, at which he is said "alone to sit and watch" them. "Side Pike and Pike o' Blisco alone can be seen thence." We protest against the intrusion of these obscure plebeians into. the place of the two aristocratic Langdale Pikes, with their noble foreheads. They alone, of all the hills within reach, are entitled to the majestic lines in which the poet describes "those lusty twins "—" those lofty brethren,",who " bear their part "so grandly "in the wild concert." If they cannot literally be seen from the window of the cottage, is it not allowable in the poet, who so generally made facts subserve, not obstruct, imaginative effect, either to lift the Langdale brethren high enough to enable them to peer over into Blea Tarn, or to low er the opposite ridge, or to cut a gap through it, so as to let them in. The Langdale Pikes so dominate that whole region, that they have a supreme right to be present in any description of it. There is a spot to the west of Blea Tarn, a "covert nook," a "hollow dell," a "deep hollow," in which some of the finest thoughts of "Despondency Corrected" are discoursed, and to that spot Professor Knight is at pains to lead us. After extracting those sublime passages, he thus well concludes the chapter on "The Excursion."

"It will be seen and felt by all who visit the place—having first read and understood the poem—how its solitude, its repose, with the strength of bills all round it, its silence broken only by the voice of waters, or of sheep on the hill-side, or of ravens far up in the corries of Blake Rigg. made the neighbourhood of Blea Tarn perhaps the fittest place in Westmoreland for these discourses of the Wanderer. Cer- tain it is that some of the profoundest thoughts of philosophy, expressed in noblest numbers, thoughts which would have interested Heraclitus and delighted Plato, which would have been hailed by Spinosa, and awakened a response in the soul of Immanuel Kant, are for ever asso- ciated with this retreat of the Solitary at Blea Tarn."

We wish we had space to linger over the remaining chapters of this interesting and instructive book. But there is the less need to do this, that Rydal Mount, though it must ever be dear to all lovers of Wordsworth, was not the birth-place of many of his finest creations. In the chapter which leads us to Thirlmere and Borrowdale, we can only notice one touching memorial of Words- worth and his friends, destined, we fear, too speedily to disappear.

This is the Rock of Names, "an upright mural block of atone," beside the way from Rydal to Keswick, at which, as their trysting- place, the poets often met, and on which they carved the letters,—

" W. W.-31. H.—D. W.—S. T. C.—J. W.—S. H.,"

being the initials of William Wordsworth, Mary Hutchinson, Dorothy Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Words- worth, and Sarah Hutchinson. Wordsworth, in "The Waggoner,' addressing this rock, says :—

"These names were graven on thy smooth breast By hands of those my soul loved best ; Meek women, men as true and brave As ever went to a peaceful grave.

Long as for us a genial feeling Survives", or one in need of healing, The power, dear Rock, around thee cast, Thy monumental power, shall last, For me and mine. 0 thought of pain, That would impair it, or profane ! And fail not, Thou, loved Rock ! to keep Thy charge when we are laid asleep."

Therare now all laid asleep, and an Act of Parliament will, pro- bably before another Session is over, have buried their memorial-

stone fathom-deep under the waters of a reservoir, into which Thirlmere is to be converted,—that Manchester may not merely

have a supply of water, which, it seems, could be got from other sources as well, but that she may make money by the transaction. To all his local illustration, Professor Knight appends an essay or lecture on Wordsworth, in which, after all that has been written on the subject, the lover of Wordsworth's poetry will still find "something that is worth his heed." But on this we cannot now pause. In conclusion, we can only say Professor Knight has made all students of Wordsworth his debtors for the work he has done so well. When his book reaches a second edition, we hope that he will add to it one more chapter at least on the names of places in the Lake conntry,—not described at length, but noticed scatteredly, here and there, throughout the poems, such as Blencathara, Bowscale Tarn, Glaramara, Glen- ridding Screes, and low Glencoign, and many more.

Professor Knight seems to believe that the number of those who really appreciate Wordsworth is "multiplying with the spread of culture, and almost in proportion to the complexity of our civilisation." We should be glad to think that it is so, but we cannot conceal our misgivings that the streams of poetic ten- dency among us seem to be setting in quite other directions. However this may be, of one thing we are quite sure, that for as many as really learn to study and to love Wordsworth's poems, they perform, and will not cease to perform, those high functions which the poet himself foresaw to be their destiny, in his well- known letter to Lady Beaumont, in 1807. It is a thing to rejoice in, whenever any young man has taken to Wordsworth, for then we know for certain that with that love, once leavening him, neither any baseness, nor impurity, nor worldly-mindedness, nor cynicism, nor unbelievingness can long dwell. How many

have there been, we trust we may say how many are there, who could say of Wordsworth's voice what he said of the stock- dove's !—

" He sang of love with quiet blending, Slow to begin, and never ending ; Of serious faith, and inward glee; That is the song, the song for me !" •