they sailed about into remote parts of the lake, and, either from real or imagined injury done to the adjoining fields, they were got rid of at the request of the farmers and proprietors, but to the great regret of all who had become attached to them, from noticing their beauty and quiet habits' (I. F. note to An Evening Walk). A beautiful description of a pair of swans who settled on Grasmere lake at the same time as Wordsworth took up his own abode there is to be found in Book I of the Recluse: Home at Grasmere, just following the passage which is quoted on p. 37. In that passage a few differences of reading are noticeable from the version given here. For ll. 1-3 we read :

in 1. 12

Behold how with a grace
Of ceaseless motion, that might scarcely seem
Inferior to angelical, they prolong

Upwards and downwards'; in l. 15' Ten times and more'; and in 1. 21 :

Tempt the smooth water or the gleaming ice.

P. 38, 11. 2-9. or other places of defence. Derwent-water. The islands of the last-mentioned lake are neither edd. 4, 5. Wordsworth's increasing interest in matters ecclesiastical is illustrated by a comparison of this passage with its form in ed. 3 (1822), where we read simply :- or other places of defence, or of monastic edifices. Those of Derwent-water are neither'. (Cf. note to p. 5.)

1. 8. St. Herbert's Island: cf. Inscription for the spot where the Hermitage stood on St. Herbert's Island, Derwentwater (Wordsworth, Poems). On the floating island v. Dorothy Wordsworth's poem, Harmonious Powers with Nature work.

1. 19. The haunt of cormorants and sea-mew's clang. A misquotation (probably intentional) from Milton, Paradise Lost, xi. 831:

The haunt of Seales and Orcs, and Seamews clang.

11. 20-1. stern and wild character of the several scenes! The rest of this paragraph (It may be... natantes') is not found in edd. 1-3, but was added in ed. 4.

P. 39,1. 15. which Carver so beautifully describes. Jonathan Carver (1732-80) was a distinguished American traveller whose books had much vogue at the time of their composition. The passage referred to by Wordsworth does not describe Erie or Ontario, but Lake Superior, of which Carver writes :'After I first entered it from Goddard's River on the west bay,

I coasted near twelve hundred miles of the north and east shores of it, and observed that the greatest part of that extensive track was bounded by rocks and uneven ground. The water in general appeared to lie on a bed of rocks. When it was calm, and the sun shone bright, I could sit in my canoe, where the depth was upwards of six fathoms, and plainly see huge piles of stone at the bottom, of different shapes, some of which appeared as if they were hewn. The water at this time was as pure and transparent as air; and my canoe seemed as if it hung suspended in that element. It was impossible to look attentively through this limpid medium at the rocks below, without finding, before many minutes were elapsed, your head swim, and your eyes no longer able to behold the dazzling scene. (Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, 1778, pp. 132-3.)

1. 22. In the economy of Nature... P. 40, 1. 2 fall of rain desunt in edd. 1-3, first found in ed. 4.

P. 40, 1. 9. an unsightly tract of boggy ground edd. 3-5: a tract of ground that has an unsightly appearance edd. 1, 2.

11. 14-16. of miniature lakes, Loughrigg Tarn . . . is the most beautiful example. Cf. Epistle to Sir George Beaumont (1811), ll. 164–70 :

Thus gladdened from our own dear Vale we pass
And soon approach Diana's Looking-glass!

To Loughrigg-tarn, round, clear, and bright as heaven,
Such name Italian fancy would have given,

Ere on its banks the few grey cabins rose
That yet disturb not its concealed repose
More than the feeblest wind that idly blows.

Wordsworth appended the following note to his poem :-Loughrigg Tarn, alluded to in the foregoing Epistle, resembles, though much smaller in compass, the Lake Nemi, or Speculum Dianae as it is often called, not only in its clear waters and circular form, and the beauty immediately surrounding it, but also as being overlooked by the eminence of Langdale Pikes as Lake Nemi is by that of Monte Calvo. Since this Epistle was written Loughrigg Tarn has lost much of its beauty by the felling of many natural clumps of wood, relics of the old forest, particularly upon the farm called "The Oaks", from the abundance of that tree which grew there.' Later he dictated to Miss Fenwick the following note:"This beautiful pool and the surrounding scene are minutely described in my little book on the Lakes. Šir G. H. Beaumont,

in the earlier part of his life, was induced, by his love of nature and the art of painting, to take up his abode at Old Brathay, about three miles from this spot, so that he must have seen it under many aspects; and he was so much pleased with it that he purchased the Tarn with a view to build, near it, such a residence as is alluded to in this Epistle. Baronets and knights were not so common in that day as now, and Sir Michael le Fleming, not liking to have a rival in that kind of distinction so near him, claimed a sort of lordship over the territory, and showed dispositions little in unison with those of Sir G. Beaumont, who was eminently a lover of peace. The project of building was in consequence given up, Sir George retaining possession of the Tarn.'

The illustration here given of Loughrigg Tarn is from Green's Series of Sixty Small Prints (1814).

1. 34. At all events edd. 2-5: In the first place ed. 1. P. 41, l. 6. where the sun is not shining upon it edd. 2–5: desunt ed. 1.

11. 8-19. some defying conjecture... natural to such scenes ed. 3-5 desunt ed. 1. The sense also of some repulsive power strongly put forth-excited by the prospect of a body of pure water, unattended with groves and other cheerful images by which fresh water is usually accompanied, and unable to give any furtherance to the meagre vegetation around it—heighten the melancholy natural to such scenes ed. 2.

1. 19. Nor is . . . often edd. 2–5 : . . . is seldom ed. 1. 11. 26-7. not content with this scanty allowance of society edd. 2-5 not content with this ed. 1.

1. 33. There, sometimes does a leaping fish. From Fidelity, 11. 25-31; cf. note to p. 17.

P. 42, ll. 4–15. It will be observed. . . fresh water edd. 3–5, rewritten from a shorter form. Though the country is on one side bounded by the sea, which combines beautifully, from some elevated points of view, with the inland scenery; yet nowhere are found the grand estuaries which are common in Scotland and Wales: the lakes are such in the strict and usual sense of the word, being all of fresh water' ed. 1. In ed. 2, "Though. scenery', as ed. 1: yet the estuaries cannot pretend to vie with', &c. as ed. 1. The footnote to page was added in ed. 5.

...

11. 24-5. the rivers Derwent and Duddon. Wordsworth's early childhood was passed by the Derwent. Cf. for a poetical description of it, Prelude, i. 269-300. On the Duddon he