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CHAPTER XX.

TOUR IN SCOTLAND.

ON the 14th August, 1803, Wordsworth and his sister left Grasmere for Keswick, where they visited Mr. Coleridge, who accompanied them in the beginning of a short tour which they made in Scotland.

The following particulars were "furnished by Mr. Wordsworth, concerning this excursion and the poems suggested by it:

Memorials of a Tour in Scotland, 1803.1-"Mr. Coleridge, my sister, and myself, started together from Town-End, to make a tour in Scotland, August 14th.

"Coleridge was at that time in bad spirits, and somewhat too much in love with his own dejection, and he departed from us, as is recorded in my sister's journal, soon after we left Loch Lomond. The verses that stand foremost among these memorials were not actually written for the occasion, but transplanted from my Epistle to Sir G. Beaumont."

To the Sons of Burns.2- "See, in connection with these verses, two other poems upon Burns, one composed actually at the time, and the other, though then felt, not put into words till several years afterwards."

Ellen Irwin, or the Braes of Kirtle.3"It may be worth while to observe, that as there are Scotch poems on this subject, in the simple ballad strain, I thought it would be both presumptuous and super

1 MSS. I. F. See Poems, vol. iii. p. 1-39. 2 Vol. iii. p. 8.

3 Vol. iii. p. 10.

fluous to attempt treating it in the same way; and accordingly, I chose a construction of stanza quite new in our language; in fact, the same as that or the 'Bürger's Leonora,' except that the first and third lines do not in my stanzas rhyme. At the outset, I threw out a classical image, to prepare the reader for the style in which I meant to treat the story, and so to preclude all comparison.

The Highland Girl."This delightful creature, and her demeanour, are particularly described in my sister's journal. The sort of prophecy with which the verses conclude, has, through God's goodness, been realised; and now, approaching the close of my seventy-third year, I have a most vivid remembrance of her, and the beautiful objects with which she was surrounded. She is alluded to in the poem of 'The Three Cottage Girls,' among my continental memorials. In illustration of this class of poems, I have scarcely any thing to say but what is anticipated in my sister's faithful and admirable journal."

Address to Kilchurn Castle.2" The first three lines were thrown off at the moment I first caught sight of the ruin from a small eminence by the wayside; the rest was added many years after."

Rob Roy's Grave.3"I have since been told that I was misinformed as to the burial-place of Rob Roy ; if so, I may plead in excuse that I wrote on apparently good authority, namely, that of a well-educated lady, who lived at the head of the lake, within a mile, or less, of the point indicated as containing the remains of one so famous in that neighbourhood."

Sonnet composed at

Castle, 1803.4" The

castle here mentioned was Nidpath, near Peebles. The person alluded to was the then Duke of Queensbury. The fact was told me by Walter Scott."

Sonnet, "Fly some kind harbinger." — “This was actually composed the last day of our tour, between Dalston and Grasmere."

The Blind Highland Boy. "The story was told me by George Mackreth, for many years parish-clerk of Grasmere. He had been an eye-witness of the The vessel in reality was a washingtub, which the little fellow had met with on the shore of the loch."

occurrence.

The following extracts from the journal referred to by Mr. Wordsworth, will be interesting to the reader, as proceeding from the pen of his companion, and as supplying fresh illustration to the poems': —

Day

The Itinerary of the Travellers was as follows:-
:-

1 Left Keswick; Grisdale; Mosedale; Hesket; Newmarket; Caldbeck Falls.

2. Rose Castle; Carlisle; Hatfield; Longtown.

3. Solway Moss; enter Scot

land; Springfield; Gretna
Green; Solway Frith;
Annan; Dumfries.

Day

7. Falls of the Clyde; Cartland Rocks; Trough of the Clyde; Fall of Stonebyers; Hamilton.

8. Hamilton House; Baroncleugh; Bothwell Castle; Glasgow.

9. Bleaching-ground; Road to Dumbarton.

4. Burns's Grave; Vale of 10. Rock and Castle of Dum

Nith; Brown Hill; Poem

to Burns's Sons.

5. Thornhill; Drumlanrigg;

barton; Vale of Leven;

Smollett's Monument;
Loch Lomond; Luss.

Turnpike-house; Sports- 11. The Islands of Loch Lo

man; Wanloch - head;

mond; Road to Tarbet.

Lead Hills; Miners; Hope- 12. Left Tarbet for the Tros

toun Mansion; Hostess.

6. Road to Crawford John; Douglas Mill; Clyde; Lanark; Boniton Linn.

achs; Rob Roy's Caves; Inversneyd Ferry - house and Waterfall; Singular Building; Loch Katrine;

"William and I parted from Mary on Saturday afternoon, August 14. 1803, and William, Coleridge,

ing-ground; Rob Roy; 23. Lord Breadalbane's grounds;

20. Blacksmith's House; Glen- 29. Road to Loch Lomond ;

and I left Keswick on Monday morning, the 15th, at twenty minutes after eleven o'clock. The day was very hot. We walked up the hills and along all the rough road, which made our walking half the day's journey. Travelled under the foot of Carrock, a mountain entirely covered with stones on the lower part: above, it is very rocky, but sheep pasture there; we saw several, where there seemed no grass to tempt them, straggling here and there. Passed the foot of Grisdale and Mosedale, both pastoral valleys, narrow, and soon terminating in the mountains, green, with scattered trees and houses, and each a beautiful river."

"In the evening walked to Caldbeck Falls, a delicious spot in which to breathe out a summer's day: limestone rocks and caves, hanging trees, pools, and water-breaks."

"Tuesday, August 16th.-Passed Rose Castle, upon the Caldew, an ancient building of red stone, with sloping gardens, an ivied gateway, velvet lawns, old

34. Roslin; Hawthornden; Road 41. Road to Longtown; River

to Peebles.

35. Peebles; Nidpath Castle;

Esk; Carlisle.

42. Arrived at home.