let in an extent of country partially, or, dispersing suddenly, reveal the whole region from centre to circumference."

In order to show what Wordsworth saw in Nature, and how he saw it, I must, of necessity, quote very largely from the Poems; and, in doing so, I shall depart from the poet's own arrangement of them, and follow an order partly chronological and partly topographic. It seems natural to begin with Cockermouth, his birthplace, and to pass thence to Hawkshead, where his wonderful school-time' was passed, and where his spirit received the most powerful influences of nature; going on to Grasmere, where he settled at the end of last century; and with that for our centre, radiating in different directions, to Langdale, Paterdale, and Keswick. A chronological edition of the poems is much needed. Were it accompanied with brief explanatory notes, embodying the whole of the I. F. MSS., and clearing up every local allusion, with fifty to a hundred illustrations of the places in the district, to which the poems refer, it would be a most valuable memorial of the Poet, and a real addition to the standard works in English Literature. It would be welcomed not so much by those who delight in making pilgrimages to the shrines of the illustrious, as by those and their number is increasing year by 1 Guide, section 4.

year-who have been helped to understand Nature and Human Life by this great teacher of the nineteenth century.

A different arrangement of certain of the poems is given in this volume. They are grouped together according to the districts to which they refer, and which they describe. This leads of necessity to a partial dismemberment of the poems, which would be altogether inadmissible in a collective edition of the poet's works. But a volume of Selections, limited to those which allude to localities in the Lake country, with the relevant portions of the I. F. MSS. appended to each extract, would be found to cast an unexpected flood of light upon the whole district, and the poet's work in connection with it. Although I attempt to do a little more than merely to select and rearrange, any value which this book may have will be in proportion to the ease with which the commentary is forgotten in the realisation of the poems themselves.

It remains for me to express my obligation, in the (sometimes difficult) task of identifying obscure places and tracing out obscure allusions, to Dr. Cradock, the Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford—who knows more of the district, in connection with Wordsworth, than any one I have met with,—and to Lady Richardson; also, through the medium of Dr. Cradock, to

the Cookson family-neighbours and friends of the poet, during a large portion of his life. The extent of my indebtedness to Dr. Cradock will be apparent in the volume itself. I only wish that he had undertaken the work, instead of myself.

My thanks are also due to Mr. William Wordsworth, the son of the poet, for permission to make use of those passages from The Prelude, and other copyright poems, which I have quoted,-permission which he has generously granted.

I append a Lecture on Wordsworth, delivered this spring at Cockermouth, to "The Cumberland Association for the Advancement of Literature and Science ;" and afterwards to "The Ladies' Association for the Promotion of the higher Education of Women,” in Cork.

In all quotations from the poems, I refer to the small pocket edition' of 1849, in six volumes, as being probably more widely used, if not more generally known, than the larger edition of 1857, or the Centenary one. The quotations from The Prelude are from the octavo edition of 1850. In alluding to the I. F. MSS. I quote from the version given in The Prose Works published in 1876, rather than from the extracts given in the Memoirs, or in the 1857 and Centenary edition of the Poems, since the editor assures us that they are given "completely and in

integrity." In any subsequent edition of the Prose Works, however, these notes will require careful revision.

ST. ANDREWS, October 1, 1878.

WILLIAM KNIGHT.

CHAPTER I.

COCKERMOUTH, ETC.

IT is to the autobiographical poem, The Prelude, that one naturally turns to find out how Wordsworth felt towards Cockermouth, the place of his birth; and how he interpreted the surrounding district.

In the first book, alluding to the Derwent, he says that

One, the fairest of all rivers, loved

To blend his murmurs with my nurse's song,
And from his alder shades and rocky falls,
And from his fords and shallows, sent a voice
That flowed along my dreams. For this, didst thou
O Derwent! winding among grassy holms
Where I was looking on, a babe in arms,
Make ceaseless music that composed my thoughts
To more than infant softness, giving me
Amid the fretful dwellings of mankind
A foretaste, a dim earnest, of the calm

That Nature breathes among the hills and groves?
When he had left the mountains and received
On his smooth breast the shadow of those towers
That yet survive, a shattered monument
Of feudal sway, the bright blue river passed
Along the margin of our terrace walk ;
A tempting playmate whom we dearly loved.
Oh, many a time have I, a five years' child,

B