[Footnote X: A “cottage latch”—probably the same as that in use in Dame Tyson’s time—is still on the door of the house where she lived at Hawkshead.—Ed.]
[Footnote Y: Probably on the western side of the Vale, above the village. There is but one “‘jutting’ eminence” on this side of the valley. It is an old moraine, now grass-covered; and, from this point, the view both of the village and of the vale is noteworthy. The jutting eminence, however, may have been a crag, amongst the Colthouse heights, to the north-east of Hawkshead.—Ed.]
[Footnote Z: Compare in the ‘Ode, Intimations of Immortality’:
’... those obstinate questionings
Of sense and outward things,
Fallings from us, vanishings,’ etc.
Ed.]
[Footnote a: Coleridge’s school days were spent at Christ’s Hospital in London. With the above line compare S. T. C.’s ‘Frost at Midnight’:
’I
was reared
In the great city, pent ‘mid cloisters
dim.’
Ed.]
[Footnote b: Compare ’Stanzas written in my Pocket Copy of Thomsons “Castle of Indolence,"’ vol. ii. p. 305.—Ed.]
* * * * *
BOOK THIRD
RESIDENCE AT CAMBRIDGE
It was a dreary morning when the wheels
Rolled over a wide plain o’erhung
with clouds,
And nothing cheered our way till first
we saw
The long-roofed chapel of King’s
College lift
Turrets and pinnacles in answering files,
5
Extended high above a dusky grove, [A]
Advancing, we espied upon
the road
A student clothed in gown and tasselled
cap,
Striding along as if o’ertasked
by Time,
Or covetous of exercise and air;
10
He passed—nor was I master
of my eyes
Till he was left an arrow’s flight
behind.
As near and nearer to the spot we drew,
It seemed to suck us in with an eddy’s
force.
Onward we drove beneath the Castle; caught,
15
While crossing Magdalene Bridge, a glimpse
of Cam;
And at the ‘Hoop’ alighted,
famous Inn. [B]
My spirit was up, my thoughts
were full of hope;
Some friends I had, acquaintances who
there
Seemed friends, poor simple school-boys,
now hung round 20
With honour and importance: in a
world
Of welcome faces up and down I roved;
Questions, directions, warnings and advice,
Flowed in upon me, from all sides; fresh
day
Of pride and pleasure! to myself I seemed
25
A man of business and expense, and went
From shop to shop about my own affairs,
To Tutor or to Tailor, as befel,
From street to street with loose and careless
mind.