262. ’_O Friend!  I know not which Way_.’ [Sonnet XIII.]

This was written immediately after my return from France to London, when I could not but be struck, as here described, with the vanity and parade of our own country, especially in great towns and cities, as contrasted with the quiet, and I may say the desolation, that the Revolution had produced in France.  This must be borne in mind, or else the reader may think that in this and succeeding sonnets I have exaggerated the mischief engendered and fostered among us by undisturbed wealth.

[In pencil—­Query:  Sonnets relating to the expected Invasion, &c., p. 189, vol. iii. (1837) to p. 200; Ode, p. 201 to 203; Sonnets, part second, p. 204 to 215]. [After three blank pages.]

263. *_War in Spain_.

It would not be easy to conceive with what a depth of feeling I entered into the struggle carried on by the Spaniards for their deliverance from the usurped power of the French.  Many times have I gone from Allan Bank, in Grasmere Vale, where we were then residing, to the top of the Raise-Gap, as it is called, so late as two o’clock in the morning, to meet the carrier bringing the newspaper from Keswick.  Imperfect traces of the state of mind in which I then was may be found in my tract on the Convention of Cintra, as well as in these Sonnets.

264. *_Zaragossa_. [Sonnet XVI.]

In this sonnet I am under some obligations to one of an Italian author, to which I cannot refer.

265. *_Lines on the expected Invasion_, 1803. [Sonnet XXVI.]

To take their place among the political pieces.

266. Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke. [Sonnet XXVII.]

    ‘Danger which they fear, and honour which they understand not.’

Words in Lord Brooke’s Life of Sir Philip Sidney.

So in the ‘Thanksgiving Ode’ (vi. 10) on ’And discipline was passion’s dire excess’ is quoted, ‘Discipline the rule whereof is passion.’

267. The Oak of Guernica. [Part II.  Sonnet XXVI.]

The ancient oak of Guernica, says Laborde, in his account of Biscay, is a most venerable natural monument.  Ferdinand and Isabella, in the year 1476, after hearing mass in the church of Santa Maria de la Antigua, repaired to this tree, under which they swore to the Biscayans to maintain their fueros (privileges).  What other interest belongs to it in the minds of the people will appear from the following ’Supposed Address to the Same.’

268. Thanksgiving Ode. [Part II.  XLVI.]

Wholly unworthy of touching upon the momentous subject here treated would that Poet be, before whose eyes the present distresses under which this kingdom labours could interpose a veil sufficiently thick to hide, or even to obscure, the splendour of this great moral triumph.  If I have given way to exultation, unchecked by these distresses, it might be sufficient to protect me from a charge of insensibility, should I state