Homer can be understood without a visit to the Troad, or the Ægean; but the power of Wordsworth cannot be fully known by one who is a stranger to Westmoreland. The wish to be able definitely to associate his poems with the places which suggested them, and which they interpret, is natural to every one who has ever felt the spell of his genius. It is indispensable to all who would know the peculiar charm of a Region which he characterised as a national property,' and of which he, beyond all other men, may be said to have effected the literary conveyance' to posterity. 6 These poems are the best, and, in one sense, the only needed, 'guide' to the whole of that classic ground. It is ground which they have made classic. They have done more for the north of England than the novels and metrical romances of Sir Walter Scott have done for Scotland: and Scott's are the only works which, in this connection, can be even remotely compared with Wordsworth's. There is, however, another and a most interesting scientific work, in reference to Scotland, with which the poetic interpretation of the English Lakes may be contrasted. It is Professor Geikie's book on The Scenery and Geology of Scotland, in which he endeavours to interpret the present physical character of the country, by explaining the forces that have been moulding it for cen |