VARIANTS:
[726] 1836.
[727] 1836.
[728] 1836.
[729] 1836.
[730] 1836.
[731] 1827.
[732] 1836.
[733] 1836.
[734] 1836.
[735] 1827.
[736] 1836.
[737] 1832.
[738] 1827.
[739] 1827.
[740] 1827.
[741] 1836.
[742] 1827.
[743] 1836.
[744] 1836.
[745] 1827.
[746] 1827.
[747] 1836.
[748] 1827.
[749] 1814.
[750] 1836.
[751] 1827.
[752] 1836.
[753] 1827.
[754] 1845.
[755] 1836.
[756] 1836.
[757] 1820.
[758] 1836.
[759] 1836.
[760] 1827.
[761] 1836.
[762] 1845.
[764] 1836.
[765] 1836.
[766] 1836.
[767] 1836.
[768] 1827.
[769] 1836.
[770] 1836.
[771] 1836.
[772] 1836.
[773] 1836.
[774] 1836.
[775] 1827.
[776] 1827.
[777] 1814.
[778] 1836.
[779] 1836.
[780] 1827.
[781] Italics were first used in 1836.
[782] 1827.
[783] 1827.
[784] 1827.
[785] 1836.
[786] 1827.
[787] 1827.
[788] 1836.
[789] 1827.
[790] 1836.
[791] 1836.
[792] 1827.
[793] 1827.
[794] 1827.
[795] 1827.
[796] 1827.
[797] 1827.
[798] 1827.
[799] 1827.
[800] 1827.
[801] 1827.
[802] 1827.
[803] 1827.
[804] 1836.
[805] 1827.
[806] 1827.
[807] 1827.
[808] 1827.
[809] 1836.
[810] 1827.
[811] 1827.
[812] 1827.
FOOTNOTES:
[JR] "What follows in the discourse of the Wanderer, upon the changes he had witnessed in rural life by the introduction of machinery, is truly described from what I myself saw during my boyhood and early youth, and from what was often told me by persons of this humble calling. Happily, most happily, for these mountains, the mischief was diverted from the banks of their beautiful streams, and transferred to open and flat counties abounding in coal, where the agency of steam was found much more effectual for carrying on those demoralising works. Had it not been for this invention, long before the present time, every torrent and river in this district would have had its factory, large and populous in proportion to the power of the water that could there be commanded. Parliament has interfered to prevent the night-work which was carried on in these mills as actively as during the day-time, and by necessity, still more perniciously; a sad disgrace to the proprietors and to the nation which could so long tolerate such unnatural proceedings."—I. F.
[JS] In 1788, and again in 1794, Wordsworth visited Westmoreland and Cumberland as a pedestrian. Compare the sixth book of The Prelude, entitled "Cambridge and the Alps" (vol. iii. p. 228).—ED.
[JT] Thorpe; Anglo-Saxon Thorp, a homestead, or hamlet; allied to turba, a crowd (as of houses). Vill; a little village or farm. Lat. villa, dimin. of vicus.—ED.
[JU] Evidently a reminiscence of Penrith, a "straggling burgh, of ancient charter proud," with its castle on "the brow of a green hill," and with Brougham Castle close at hand, on "bank of rugged stream." See The Prelude (vol. iii. p. 229), and compare Gray's Journal.—ED.
[JW] Mr. Rawnsley has suggested that this may refer to the introduction of canal boats into England. It is more likely, I think, that Wordsworth had in his mind's eye
referred to in pp. 332-33, a reminiscence perhaps of what he had often seen in the Bristol Channel.—ED.
[JX] See last note. The phrase "on the lofty side of some bare hill," occasions some difficulty; and, taken in connection with the previous clause, "air has lent her breezes," suggests the idea of a windmill, seen in its slow movement, far off on a bare hill-side. But I rather think it is the progress of the "sails of traffic" on the waters of an inland tidal channel that is still referred to; the masts and sails of the vessels being seen moving onwards, while the water itself is hidden, and the spectacle is therefore by the rustic eye, "with wonder kenned from far." I would be disposed to think that there was a misprint here, and that we should read "from the lofty side" instead of "on," did the latter reading not occur in the edition of 1814, as well as in 1836, and all the subsequent editions.—ED.
[JY] Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield.—ED.
[KA] The curfew-bell, introduced into England by William of Normandy, in 1068.—ED.
[KB] Compare Mrs. Browning's Cry of the Children, stanza vii.—ED.
[KC] The foundation of Thebes was ascribed to the mythical Manes. The ground on which it stood was large enough to contain a city equal in extent with ancient Rome, or modern Paris; ... an immense area was covered with Temples, and their avenues of Sphinxes. (Cf. Diodorus, i. 40, 50. Strabo, xvii. pp. 805, 815 fol., and Smith's Dictionary of Ancient Geography.) Tyre, in Phœnicia, was built partly on an island and partly on the mainland. The island city "must have arisen in the period between Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander the Great."... "The western side of the island is now submerged, to the extent of more than a mile; and that this was once occupied by the city is shewn by the bases of columns which may still be discerned. Benjamin of Tudela mentions that, in the end of the twelfth century, towns, markets, streets, and halls might be observed at the bottom of the sea." (Smith's Dict. of Ancient Geography.) Palmyra, or Tadmor,—the city of palms,—was enlarged, if not built, by Solomon in the tenth century B.C. It is situated in a well-watered oasis, in the great Syrian desert. It was an independent city under the first Roman Emperors, and is called a colonia on the coins of Caracalla. In 273 A.D. it had dwindled into an insignificant town. The ruins are inferior to those of Baalbec, but have a grandeur of their own. They are chiefly of the Corinthian order; although the most magnificent of them—the Temple of the Sun—is Ionic.—ED.
[KD] I am indebted to the Rev. H. G. Woods, President of Trinity College, Oxford, for the following note on the tomb of Archimedes:—
"The tomb now shown at Syracuse as that of Archimedes corresponds pretty well in point of situation with Cicero's description ('Tusculan Disputations,' v. 23). It is a little distance to the west of the wall of Achradina, on the left of the road which mounts the slope of Epipolæ. I unfortunately cannot remember whether there were any traces of the sphere and cylinder inscribed on it, which Cicero mentions as there when he excavated it; but my impression at the time was, that its identity rested simply on a Ciceronic tradition, and that it was hardly more genuine than Virgil's tomb at Naples. The tomb itself resembled a number of other tombs near—among them, the reputed tomb of Timoleon, which is close by (Cicero speaks of the number of tombs in that spot). But, whatever the value of the identifying tradition, there can be no doubt that Wordsworth, in these lines, has thoroughly reproduced the local colour of the surroundings. As one mounts the road I mentioned, past the tomb of Archimedes, and gets the view over Achradina—once so populous, and now a waste area covered with grey rocks and grass, save where, here and there, it is converted by irrigation into fertile gardens and fields—one has strongly brought before him how completely Syracuse has 'vanished.' The modern city is entirely confined within the limits of Ortygia, and the general impression that one gets of Achradina is that it is the graveyard of the old city. I remember that this feeling came over me very strongly at the time, but it was certainly not suggested by Wordsworth's lines, which I did not remember."—ED.