A little way past this place—where the quarry now is the middle road to Grasmere ascends, that which goes past the 'Glow-worm rock,' and leads on to the Wishing - gate,' and the 'stately Fir-grove.' The Glow-worm or Primrose rock has been already referred to. It is easily identified, and is unmistakable. It was probably upon this same rock, and certainly on some one upon the right hand as you ascend the short slope, that Wordsworth saw the monument of ice, spoken of in the eleventh of the poems entitled Inscriptions:

I saw this rock, while vernal air
Blew softy o'er the russet heath,
Uphold a monument as fair
As church or abbey furnisheth.1

1 Poetical Works, vol. v. p. 67.

CHAPTER VII.

THIRLEMERE, KESWICK, BORROWDALE, ETC.

THE road from Rydal to Grasmere also suggests the poem of The Waggoner, the opening stanzas of which are perfect in their description of a June evening in the district :

'Tis spent-this burning day of June!

Soft darkness o'er its latest gleams is stealing;

The buzzing dor-hawk, round and round, is wheeling,— That solitary bird

Is all that can be heard

In silence deeper far than that of deepest noon!

Confiding Glow-worms, 'tis a night Propitious to your earth-born light! But where the scattered stars are seen In hazy straits the clouds between, Each, in his station twinkling not, Seems changed into a pallid spot.

The mountains against heaven's grave weight
Rise up, and grow to wondrous height;
The air, as in a lion's den,

Is close and hot ;-and now and then

Comes a tired and sultry breeze

With a haunting and a panting,

Like the stifling of disease;
But the dews allay the heat,

And the silence makes it sweet.1

The Waggoner ascends the middle road from Rydal (the reference to the "glow-worms" will show that he passes "the Primrose rock"), and goes down to Dove Cottage, in Grasmere, where

At the bottom of the brow,

Where once the DOVE and OLIVE-BOUGH
Offered a greeting of good ale

To all who entered Grasmere Vale ;
And called on him who must depart
To leave it with a jovial heart;

There, where the DOVE and OLIVE-BOUGH
Once hung, a Poet harbours now,

A simple water-drinking Bard.2

He goes on through Grasmere, past the Swan Inn.

He knows it to his cost, good Man!
Who does not know the famous SWAN !
Object uncouth! and yet our boast,
For it was painted by the Host;
His own conceit the figure planned,
'Twas coloured all by his own hand;
And that frail Child of thirsty clay,
Of whom I sing this rustic lay,
Could tell with self-dissatisfaction
Quaint stories of the bird's attraction!

1 Poetical Works, vol. ii. p. 68.

2 Ibid. p. 70.

And now the conqueror essays

The long ascent of Dunmail-raise.1

As he proceeds a storm gathers, and he barely sees the rocks at the summit of Helm Crag, where two figures appear to sit, as two are also traced on the Cobbler, near Arrochar, in Argyle :—

The Astrologer, sage Sidrophel,
Where at his desk and book he sits,
Puzzling aloft his curious wits;

He whose domain is held in common
With no one but the ANCIENT WOMAN,
Cowering beside her rifted cell,

As if intent on magic spell ;

Dread pair, that, spite of wind and weather,
Still sit upon Helm-crag together !2

At the crest of the ridge, he reaches the boundary between the shires of Westmoreland and Cumberland:

That pile of stones,

Heaped over brave King Dunmail's bones ;
He who had once supreme command,

Descending from the top of the Raise, he passes

Wytheburn's modest House of prayer
As lowly as the lowliest dwelling,5

1 Poetical Works, vol. ii. p. 71.

3 Ibid. p. 74.

2 Ibid. p. 73.

4 Ibid. p. 76.

5 Ibid.

and, about half a mile farther on, reaches "the Cherry Tree," then a public-house, and still standing on the eastern side of the road,-where

'Tis the village merry-night,

and the inhabitants of Wytheburn have met for a rustic dance. After two hours' delay they "coast the silent lake" of Thirlmere, and pass the "Rock of Names."

As this Rock is one of the most interesting memorials of Wordsworth and his friends, and is threatened with immersion under the waters of a reservoir, I must quote the verses in The Waggoner referring to it, which were omitted from the poem when first published, but in subsequent editions were inserted in a note. The rock was the trysting-place of the poets from Rydal and Keswick, where they often met; it being nearly half-way between the two places.

An upright mural block of stone,
Moist with pure water trickling down.

-A star, declining towards the west,

Upon the watery surface threw

Its image tremulously imprest,

That just marked out the object and withdrew :

ROCK OF NAMES!

Light is the strain, but not unjust
To Thee, and thy memorial-trust
That once seemed only to express
Love that was love in idleness;
Tokens as year hath followed year
How changed, alas, in character!
For they were graven on thy smooth breast
By hands of those my soul loved best ;