1832.

  ... this ... 1800.]

[Variant 26: 

1836.

  ... scented ... 1800.]

[Variant 27: 

1827.

  But now here’s ... 1800.]

[Variant 28: 

1815.

  For them the quiet creatures ... 1800.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  Compare ‘Othello’, act I. scene iii. l. 135: 

  ‘Of moving accidents by flood and field.’

Ed.]

[Footnote B:  Compare the sonnet (vol. iv.) beginning: 

  “Beloved Vale!” I said. “when I shall con ...

Ed.]

[Footnote C:  Compare Tennyson, ‘In Memoriam’, v.  II. 3, 4.

  ’For words, like Nature, half reveal
  And half conceal the Soul within.’

Ed.]

This poem was suggested to Wordsworth in December 1799 during the journey with his sister from Sockburn in Yorkshire to Grasmere.  I owe the following local note on ‘Hart-Leap Well’ to Mr. John R. Tutin of Hull.

“June 20, 1881.  Visited ‘Hart-Leap Well,’ the subject of Wordsworth’s poem.  It is situated on the road side leading from Richmond to Askrigg, at a distance of not more than three and a-half miles from Richmond, and not five miles as stated in the prefatory note to the poem.  The ‘three aspens at three corners of a square’ are things of the past; also the ’three stone pillars standing in a line, on the hill above.  In a straight line with the spring of water, and where the pillars would have been, a wall has been built; so that it is very probable the stone pillars were removed at the time of the building of this wall.  The scenery around answers exactly to the description

More doleful place did never eye survey; It seemed as if the spring time came not here, And Nature here were willing to decay. ...  Now, here is neither grass nor pleasant shade.

“It is barren moor for miles around.  The water still falls into the ‘cup of stone,’ which appeared to be of very long standing.  Within ten yards of the well is a small tree, at the same side of the road as the well, on the right hand coming from Richmond.”

The Rev. Thomas Hutchinson of Kimbolton wrote to me on June 18, 1883: 

“The tree is not a Thorn, but a Lime.  It is evidently an old one, but is now in full and beautiful leaf.  It stands on the western side of the road, and a few yards distant from it.  The well is somewhat nearer the road.  This side of the road is open to the fell.  On the other side the road is bounded by a stone wall:  another wall meeting this one at right angles, exactly opposite the well.  I ascended the hill on the north side of this wall for some distance, but could find no trace of any rough-hewn stone.  Descending on the other side, I found in the wall one, and