time, called Waterhead.  Our hostess married a Mr. Oldfield, a lieutenant in the navy; they lived together for some time at Hackett, where she still resides as his widow.  It was in front of that house, on the mountain-side, near which stood the peasant who, while we were passing at a distance, saluted us, waving a kerchief in his hand, as described in the poem.  The dog which we met soon after our starting, had belonged to Mr. Rowlandson, who for forty years was curate at Grasmere, in place of the rector, who lived to extreme old age, in a state of insanity.  Of this Mr. R. much might be said, both with reference to his character, and the way in which he was regarded by his parishioners.  He was a man of a robust frame, had a firm voice and authoritative manner, of strong natural talents, of which he was himself conscious, for he has been heard to say (it grieves me to add with an oath), ’If I had been brought up at college by ——­ I should have been a Bishop.’  Two vices used to struggle in him for mastery, avarice and the love of strong drink.  But avarice, as is common in like cases, always got the better of its opponent, for though he was often intoxicated it was never, I believe, at his own expense.  As has been said of one in a more exalted station, he could take any given quantity.  I have heard a story of him which is worth the telling.  One Summer’s morning our Grasmere curate, after a night’s carouse in the Vale of Langdale, on his return home having reached a point near which the whole Vale of Grasmere might be seen with the Lake immediately below him, he stept aside and sat down upon the turf.  After looking for some time at the landscape, then in the perfection of its morning beauty, he exclaimed, ’Good God! that I should have led so long such a life in such a place!’ This no doubt was deeply felt by him at the time, but I am not authorised to say that any noticeable amendment followed.  Penuriousness strengthened upon him as his body grew feebler with age.  He had purchased property and kept some land in his own hands, but he could not find in his heart to lay out the necessary hire for labourers at the proper season, and consequently he has often been seen in half dotage working his hay in the month of November by moonlight—­a melancholy sight, which I myself have witnessed.  Notwithstanding all that has been said, this man, on account of his talents and superior education, was looked up to by his parishioners, who, without a single exception, lived at that time (and most of them upon their own small inheritances) in a state of republican equality, a condition favourable to the growth of kindly feelings among them, and, in a striking degree, exclusive to temptations to gross vice and scandalous behaviour.  As a pastor, their curate did little or nothing for them; but what could more strikingly set forth the efficacy of the Church of England, through its Ordinances and Liturgy, than that, in spite of the unworthiness of the minister, his church was regularly attended;