With a tumultuous waste of huge hill tops Though not of want: the little fields, made green Bowfell, Great End, Shelter Crags, and Pike o' Blisco to the west straight before them, the Langdale Pikes to the north on the right, with Wrynose, Wetherlam, and the Coniston Mountains to the south-west. -ED. + The head of little Langdale, with Blea Tarn in the centre, as seen from the top of Lingmoor, the only point, except the summit of Blake Rigg, from which it appears "urn-like."-ED. The "small opening, where a heath-clad ridge supplied a boundary," is that which leads down into Little Langdale by Fell Foot and Busk. -ED. § The "nook" is not now "treeless," but the fir-wood on the western side of the Vale adds to its "quiet," and deepens the sense of seclusion. -ED. || Blea Tarn. “The scene in which this small piece of water lies, suggested to the Author the following description (given in his poem of The Excursion), supposing the spectator to look down upon it, not from the road, but from one of its elevated sides." (Wordsworth's Description of the Scenery of the District of the Lakes.)-Ed. The solitary cottage, called Blea Tarn house, which is passed on the left of the road under Side Pike.-ED. By husbandry of many thrifty years, Paid cheerful tribute to the moorland house. Ah! what a sweet Recess, thought I, is here! In silence musing by my Comrade's side,1 Or several voices in one solemn sound, Shall in the grave thy love be known, In death thy faithfulness?"—"God rest his soul!"s * The following is from Miss Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal. Wednesday, 3d September 1880.-"I went to a funeral at John Dawson's. About ten men and four women: the dead person buried by the parish: they set the corpse down at the door, and while we stood within the threshold, the men with their hats off sang, with decent and solemn countenances, a verse of a funeral psalm. The corpse was then borne down the hill, and they sang till they had passed the Town-end. I was affected to tears while we stood in the house. There were no near kindred, no children. When we got out of the dark house, the sun was shining and the prospect looked divinely beautiful. It seemed more sacred than I had ever seen it, and When we came to the bridge, yet more allied to human life. they began to sing again, and stopped during four lines before they Compare this with such phrases in The entered the church-yard." Excursion as "They shaped their course along the sloping side Bare-headed." -(p. 82.) We heard the hymn they sang,- -a solemn sound Heard any where; but in a place like this "Tis more than human." -(p. 89.)-ED. Said the old man,1 abruptly breaking silence,"He is departed, and finds peace at last!" This scarcely spoken, and those holy strains * They shaped their course along the sloping side Some steps when they had thus advanced, the dirge So, to a steep and difficult descent Trusting ourselves, we wound from crag to crag, + Descending from the top of Lingmoor to Blea Tarn.-ED. Of that off-sloping outlet,* disappeared, An object that enticed my steps aside! Whereon a full-grown man might rest, nor dread Or penthouse, which most quaintly had been framed Whose simple skill had thronged the grassy floor With work of frame less solid, a proud show 1814. 1814. The upper part of Little Langdale, descending to Fell Foot.-ED. + A spot exactly similar to this can easily be found, about two hundred yards above the house, in the narrow gorge of Blea Tarn Ghyll, below a waterfall, where a moss-grown wall" still approaches the rock on the other side of the stream, and where a "pent-house" might easily be made by children.-ED. 66 |