[Footnote c:  Robert Jones, of Plas-yn-llan, near Ruthin, Denbighshire, to whom the ‘Descriptive Sketches’, which record the tour, were dedicated.—­Ed.]

[Footnote d:  See ‘Descriptive Sketches’, vol. i. p. 35.—­Ed.]

[Footnote e:  Compare Shakespeare, ‘Sonnets’, 16: 

  ‘Now stand you on the top of happy hours.’

Ed.]

[Footnote f:  In 1790, most of what could be shaken in the order of European, and especially of French society and government, was shaken and changed.  By the new constitution of 1790, to which the French king took an oath of fidelity, his power was reduced to a shadow, and two years later France became a Republic.

  “We crossed at the time,” wrote Wordsworth to his sister, “when the
  whole nation was mad with joy in consequence of the Revolution.”

Ed.]

[Footnote g: 

  “We went staff in hand, without knapsacks, and carrying each his
  needments tied up in a pocket handkerchief, with about twenty pounds
  a-piece in our pockets.”

W. W. (’Autobiographical Memoranda.)—­Ed.]

[Footnote h:  July 14, 1790.

  “We crossed from Dover and landed at Calais, on the eve of the day
  when the King was to swear fidelity to the new constitution:  an event
  which was solemnised with due pomp at Calais.”

W. W. (’Autobiographical Memoranda.’) See also the sonnet “dedicated to National Independence and Liberty,” vol. ii. p. 332. beginning,

      ’Jones! as from Calais southward you and I,
  and compare the human nature seeming born again’

of ‘The Prelude’, book vi.  I, 341, with “the pomp of a too-credulous day” and the “homeless sound of joy” of the sonnet.—­Ed.]

[Footnote i:  They went by Ardres, Peronne, Soissons, Chateau Thierry, Sezanne, Bar le Duc, Chatillon-sur-Seine, Nuits, to Chalons-sur-Saone; and thence sailed down to Lyons.  See Fenwick note to ‘Stray Pleasures’ (vol. iv.)

  “The town of Chalons, where my friend Jones and I halted a day, when
  we crossed France, so far on foot.  There we embarqued, and floated
  down to Lyons.”

Ed.]

[Footnote k:  Compare ‘Descriptive Sketches’, vol. i. p 40: 

  ’Or where her pathways straggle as they please
  By lonely farms and secret villages.’

Ed.]

[Footnote m: 

  “Her road elms rustling thin above my head.”

(See ‘Descriptive Sketches’, vol. i. pp. 39, 40, and compare the two passages in detail.)—­Ed.]

[Footnote n:  On the 29th July 1790.—­Ed.]

[Footnote o:  They were at Lyons on the 30th July.—­Ed.]

[Footnote p:  They reached the Chartreuse on the 4th of August, and spent two days there “contemplating, with increasing pleasure,” says Wordsworth, “its wonderful scenery.”—­Ed.]

[Footnote q:  The forest of St. Bruno, near the Chartreuse.—­Ed.]