THE TROSSACHS.
[Compare with this Sonnet the poem composed about thirty years earlier on nearly the same spot of ground, ‘What! you are stepping westward?’ (See p. 221.) This earlier poem, one of the most truly ethereal and ideal Wordsworth ever wrote, is filled with the overflowing spirit of life and hope. In every line of it we feel the exulting pulse of the
‘traveller through the world that lay
Before him on his endless way.’
The later one is stilled down to perfect autumnal quiet. There is in it the chastened pensiveness of one to whom all things now
‘do take a sober colouring from an eye
That hath kept watch o’er man’s mortality.’
But the sadness has at the heart of it peaceful hope. This is Wordsworth’s own comment:—‘As recorded in my sister’s Journal, I had first seen the Trossachs in her and Coleridge’s company. The sentiment that runs through this sonnet was natural to the season in which I again visited this beautiful spot; but this and some other sonnets that follow were coloured by the remembrance of my recent visit to Sir Walter Scott, and the melancholy errand on which he was going.’]
There’s not a nook within this solemn Pass,
But were an apt confessional for One
Taught by his summer spent, his autumn gone,
That Life is but a tale of morning grass
Withered at eve. From scenes of art which chase
That thought away, turn, and with watchful eyes
Feed it ’mid Nature’s old felicities,
Rocks, rivers, and smooth lakes more clear than glass
Untouched, unbreathed upon. Thrice happy quest,
If from a golden perch of aspen spray
(October’s workmanship to rival May)
The pensive warbler of the ruddy breast
That moral sweeten by a heaven-taught lay,
Lulling the year, with all its cares, to rest!
NOTES.
[2] Note 1.—‘Hatfield was condemned.’—Page 2.
James Hatfield, indicted for having, in the Lake district, under the assumed name of Hon. Alexander Augustus Hope, brother of the Earl of Hopetoun, forged certain bills of exchange. He was condemned to death at Carlisle on August 16, 1803. His atrocious treatment of a beautiful girl, known in the district as ‘Mary of Buttermere,’ had drawn more than usual attention to the criminal.
[5] Note 2.—‘In Captain Wordsworth’s ship.’—Pages xxx, 3.
The ‘Brother John’ here alluded to was a sailor. He was about two years and eight months younger than the poet, who found in him quite a congenial spirit. He perished, with nearly all his crew, in the ‘Earl of Abergavenny,’ East-Indiaman, which he commanded, and which, owing to the incompetency of a pilot, was in his last outward voyage wrecked on the Shambles of the Bill of Portland on the night of Friday, February 5, 1805. His brother William speaks of him in verse, as ‘a silent poet,’ and in prose describes him as ‘meek, affectionate, silently enthusiastic, loving all quiet things, and a poet in everything but words.’ Allusions to this sailor-brother occur in several of the poems, as in those lines beginning ‘When to the attractions of the busy world,’ to be found among the ‘Poems on the Naming of Places,’ also in the ‘Elegiac Stanzas suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a Storm,’ and in other poems.
[3] Note 3.—‘There is no stone to mark the spot.’—Page 5.
‘The body of Burns was not allowed to remain long in this place. To suit the plan of a rather showy mausoleum, his remains were removed into a more commodious spot of the same kirkyard on the 5th July 1815. The coffin was partly dissolved away; but the dark
curling locks of the poet were as glossy, and seemed as fresh, as on the day of his death.’—Life of Burns, by Allan Cunningham.
[19] Note 4.—‘They had a large library.’—Page 19.
The following account of this library is taken from Dr. John Brown’s delightful tract, The Enterkin. The author will excuse wholesale appropriation to illustrate a journal which, I believe, will be dear to him, and to all who feel as he does:—
‘The miners at Leadhills are a reading, a hard-reading people; and to any one looking into the catalogue of their “Reading Society,” selected by the men themselves for their own uses and tastes, this will be manifest. We have no small gratification in holding their diploma of honorary membership—signed by the preses and clerk, and having the official seal, significant of the craft of the place—of this, we venture to say, one of the oldest and best village-libraries in the kingdom, having been founded in 1741, when the worthy miners of that day, headed by James Wells and clerked by William Wright, did, on the 23d November, “condescend upon certain articles and laws”—as grave and thorough as if they were the constitution of a commonwealth, and as sturdily independent as if no Earl were their superior and master. “It is hereby declared that no right is hereby given, nor shall at any time be given, to the said Earl of Hopetoun, or his aforesaids, or to any person or persons whatever, of disposing of any books or other effects whatever belonging to the Society, nor of taking any concern with the Society’s affairs,” etc. As an indication of the wild region and the distances travelled, one of the rules is, “that every member not residing in Leadhills shall be provided with a bag sufficient to keep out the rain.” Here is the stiff, covenanting dignity cropping out—“Every member shall (at the annual meeting) deliver what he hath to say to the preses; and if two or more members attempt to speak at a time, the preses shall determine who shall speak first;” and “members guilty of indecency, or unruly, obstinate behaviour” are to be punished “by fine, suspension, or exclusion, according to the nature of the transgression.” The Westminster Divines could not have made a tighter job.’
[31b] Note 5.—‘The first view of the Clyde.’—Page 31.
This was not their first view of the Clyde. They had been travelling within sight of it without knowing it for full twenty miles
before this, ever since coming down the Daer Water from Leadhills to Elvanfoot: they there reached the meeting-place of that water with a small stream that flows from Ericstane. These two united become the Clyde.
[41] Note 6.—‘I wished Joanna had been there to laugh.’—Page 41.
Joanna Hutchinson, Mrs. Wordsworth’s sister. Among the ‘Poems on the Naming of Places’ is one addressed to her, in 1800, in which the following well-known lines occur:—
“As it befel,
One summer morning we had walked abroad
At break of day, Joanna and myself.
—’Twas that delightful season when the broom,
Full-flowered, and visible on every steep,
Along the copses runs in veins of gold.
Our pathway led us on to Rotha’s banks,
And when we came in front of that tall rock
That eastward looks, I there stopped short and stood
Tracing the lofty barrier with my eye
From base to summit; such delight I found
To note in shrub and tree, in stone and flower
That intermixture of delicious hues,
Along so vast a surface, all at once,
In one impression, by connecting force
Of their own beauty, imaged in the heart.
—When I had gazed perhaps two minutes’ space,
Joanna, looking in my eyes, beheld
That ravishment of mine, and laughed aloud;
The Rock, like something starting from a sleep,
Took up the Lady’s voice and laughed again;
That ancient woman seated on Helm Crag
Was ready with her cavern; Hammarscar,
And the tall Steep of Silverhaw, sent forth
A noise of laughter; southern Loughrigg heard,
And Fairfield answered with a mountain tone;
Helvellyn far into the clear blue sky
Carried the Lady’s voice,—old Skiddaw blew
His speaking-trumpet;—back out of the clouds
Of Glaramara southward came the voice;
And Kirkstone tossed it from his misty head.’
In his comments made on his Poems late in life, Wordsworth said of this one:—‘The effect of her laugh is an extravagance; though the effect of the reverberation of voices in some parts of the mountains is very striking. There is, in the “Excursion,” an allusion to the bleat of a lamb thus re-echoed, and described without any exaggeration, as I heard it, on the side of Stickle Tarn, from the precipice that stretches on to Langdale Pikes.’
[68] Note 7.—‘With two bells hanging in the open air.’—Page 68.
‘When I wrote this account of the village of Luss, I fully believed I had a perfect recollection of the two bells, as I have described them; but I am half tempted to think they have been a creation of my own fancy, though no image that I know I have actually seen is at this day more vividly impressed upon my mind.’—MS. note, Author, 1806.
[70] Note 8.—‘Her countenance corresponded with the unkindness of denying us a fire in a cold night.’—Page 70.
The writer, inhospitably as she had been treated, was more fortunate than a distinguished French traveller, who arrived at Luss at night, a few years earlier. The hostess made signs to him that he should not speak, hustled him into a stable, and said solemnly, ‘The Justiciary Lords do me the honour to lodge here when they are on this circuit. There is one of them here at present. He is asleep, and nobody must disturb him.’ And forthwith she drove him out into the rain and darkness, saying, ‘How can I help it? Make no noise, his Lordship must not be disturbed. Every one should pay respect to the law. God bless you. Farewell.’ And on they had to go fifteen miles to Tarbet.—St. Fond’s Travels, vol. i. p. 233.
[80b] Note 9.—‘I could not help smiling when I saw him lying by the roadside.’—Page 80.
‘The ferryman happened to mention that a fellow-countryman of his had lately come from America—a wild sort of genius. This
reminded us of our friend whom we had met at Loch Lomond, and we found that it was the same person. He was the brother of the Lady of Glengyle, who had made a gentleman of him by new-clothing him from head to foot. “But,” said the ferryman, “when the clothes are worn out, and his sister is tired of supplying him with pocket-money (which will probably be very soon), he will be obliged to betake himself again to America.” The Lady of Glengyle has a house not far from the ferry-house, but she now lives mostly at Callander for the sake of educating her son.’—Author’s MS., 1806.
[100] Note 10.—‘In a word, the Trossachs beggar all description.’ Page 100.
The world believes, and will continue to believe, that Scott was the first ‘Sassenach’ who discovered the Trossachs, as it was his Poem which gave them world-wide celebrity. It would probably be as impossible to alter this impression, as it would be to substitute for Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Lady Macbeth the very different versions of the facts and characters which historical research has brought to light. And yet it would be interesting, to those who care for truth and fact, to inquire, did time allow, what first brought the Trossachs into notice, and who first did so. That they had, as I have said in the Preface, some fame before Scott’s Poem appeared, is clear, else a stranger like Wordsworth would never have gone so far out of his way to search for them. Pending a thorough examination of the question, it may be worth while here to note the following facts. Miss Wordsworth refers in the text to some work on the Trossachs, from which the words at the head of this note are taken.
I was under the impression that the work referred to was the well-known ‘Sketches descriptive of Picturesque Scenery on the Southern Confines of Perthshire,’ by the Rev. Patrick Graham, minister of Aberfoyle, but it is satisfactory to find that Mr. Graham was not alone in his admiration of Highland scenery in those early days. A neighbour of his, the Rev. James Robertson, who was presented to the parish of Callander in 1768, wrote a description of the Trossachs in Sir John Sinclair’s Statistical Account, and from the fact of his using the very sentence quoted by Miss Wordsworth, I have no doubt he was the author of the
little pamphlet. Miss Spence in her ‘Caledonian Excursion,’ 1811, says that the Honourable Mrs. Murray told the minister of Callander that Scott ought to have dedicated ‘The Lady of the Lake’ to her as the discoverer of the Trossachs—‘Pray, Madam,’ said the good doctor, ‘when did you write your Tour?’ ‘In the year 1794.’ [314] ‘Then, Madam, it is no presumption in me to consider that I was the person who in 1790 made the Trossachs first known, for except to the natives and a few individuals in this neighbourhood, this remarkable place had never been heard of.’ Mr. Robertson died in 1812. There were thus at least two notices of the Trossachs published before Mr. Graham’s Sketches: these were not published till 1806. The Lady of the Lake was first published in 1810.
[101] Note 11.—‘Dutch myrtle.’—Page 101.
This seems to be the name by which Miss Wordsworth knew the plant which Lowlanders generally call bog myrtle, Border men gale, or sweet gale, and Highlanders roid (pronounced as roitch). Botanists, I believe, know it as Myrica Gale, a most fragrant plant or shrub, growing generally in moist and mossy ground. Perhaps nothing more surely brings back the feeling that you are in the very Highlands than the first scent of this plant caught on the breeze.
[116] Note 12.—‘Bonnier than Loch Lomond.’—Page 116.
As an illustration of local jealousy, I may mention that when Mr. Jamieson, the editor of the fifth edition of Burt’s Letters, was in the Highlands in 1814, four years after the publication of Scott’s Poem, and eleven after the Wordsworths’ visit, he met a savage-looking fellow on the top of Ben Lomond, the image of ‘Red Murdoch,’ who told him that he had been a guide to the mountain for more than forty years, but now ‘a Walter Scott’ had spoiled his trade. ‘I wish,’ said he, ‘I had him in a ferry over Loch Lomond; I should be after sinking the boat, if I drowned myself into the bargain, for ever since he wrote his “Lady of the Lake,” as they call it, everybody goes to see that filthy hole, Loch Ketterine. The devil confound his ladies and his lakes!’
Note 13.—‘For poor Ann Tyson’s sake.’—Page 145.
The dame with whom Wordsworth lodged at Hawkshead. Of her he has spoken with affectionate tenderness in the ‘Prelude:’—
‘The thoughts of gratitude shall fall like dew
Upon thy grave, good creature!’
Her garden, its brook, and dark pine tree, and the stone table under it, were all dear to his memory, and the chamber in which he
‘Had lain awake on summer nights to watch
The moon in splendour couched among the leaves
Of a tall ash that near our cottage stood.’
She lived to above fourscore; unmarried, and loving her young inmates as her children, and beloved by them as a mother.
‘Childless, yet by the strangers to her blood
Honoured with little less than filial love.’Wordsworth’s Life, vol. i. 39.
[196] Note 14.—‘The woman said it had been a palace.’—Page 196.
A mistake. The old mansion here described was the building formerly used as a prison-house of the Regality of Athole in which the Dukes, and formerly the Earls, of Athole confined their criminals during the ages when they, in common with all the other Scottish Barons, exercised the right of heritable jurisdiction. This right was abolished after the ’45, and then this, like all other baronial prison-houses, fell into disuse and decay. Nearly entire seventy years ago, it has now wholly disappeared, having been used up, no doubt, as material for the neighbouring buildings. There was, however, at Logierait, a Royal Castle, from which the place itself and the large adjacent parish take their name—Lag-an-raith, the hollow of the Castle,—while the neighbouring small hamlet and railway station on the other side of the Tummel are called Balla-na-luig—the town of the hollow. The Castle stood on a high knoll overlooking the church and inn of Logierait, commanding a view of the junction of the Tummel and the Tay immediately underneath, and of the whole of southern Athole, as far as Dunkeld. This knoll is now crowned by a high Celtic cross, memorial of the late Duke of Athole.
Immediately around it are seen lying here and there blocks of solid masonry, the sole remnants of the Castle in which Robert II. is said to have dwelt during his visits to Athole. Traces of the Castle moat are still discernible.
[229] Note 15.—‘Rob Roy’s grave was there.’—Page 229.
Regarding this Wordsworth says, ‘I have since been told that I was misinformed as to the burial-place of Rob Roy; if so, I may plead in excuse that I wrote on apparent good authority, namely, that of a well-educated lady who lived at the head of the lake, within a mile or less of the point indicated as containing the remains of one so famous in that neighbourhood.’
The real burial-place of Rob Roy is the Kirkton of Balquhidder, at the lower end of Loch Voil. The grave is covered by a rude grey slab, on which a long claymore is roughly engraved. The Guide-book informs us that the arms on his tombstone are a Scotch pine, the badge of Clan Gregor, crossed by a sword, and supporting a crown, this last to denote the relationship claimed by the Gregarach with the royal Stuarts. When I last saw the tombstone, as far as I remember, I observed nothing but the outline of the long sword.
[237] Note 16.—‘Thomas Wilkinson’s “Tour in Scotland.”’—Page 237.
Probably one of Wilkinson’s poems, of which Wordsworth speaks occasionally in his letters. ‘The present Lord Lonsdale has a neighbour, a Quaker, an amiable, inoffensive man, and a little of a poet too, who has amused himself upon his own small estate upon the Emont, in twining pathways along the banks of the river, making little cells and bowers with inscriptions of his own writing.’—Letter to Sir G. Beaumont, Oct. 17, 1805.
Wordsworth wrote the poem ‘To a Spade of a Friend,’ composed ‘while we were labouring together in his pleasure-grounds,’ commencing—
‘Spade with which Wilkinson hath tilled his land,
And shaped these pleasant walks by Emont’s side,’
in memory of this friend.—See Life, vol. i. pp. 55, 323, 349.
DISTANCES FROM PLACE TO PLACE.
| miles | miles | ||
| Grasmere to Keswick | 13 | Suie (road excellent) | 13 |
| Hesket Newmarket (road very bad) | 15 | Killin (tolerable) | 7 |
| Carlisle (bad road) | 14 | Kenmore (baddish) | 15 |
| Longtown (newly mended, not good) | 8 | Blair (bad) | 23 |
| Annan (good) | 14 | Fascally (wretchedly bad) | 18 |
| Dumfries (good) | 15 | Dunkeld (bad) | 12 |
| Brownhill (pretty good) | 12 | Ambletree (hilly—good) | 10 |
| Leadhills (tolerable) | 19 | Crieff (hilly—goodish) | 11 |
| Douglass Mill (very bad) | 12 | Loch Erne Head (tolerable) | 20 |
| Lanark (baddish) | 9 | Callander (most excellent) | 14 |
| Hamilton (tolerable) | 15 | Trossachs | 16 |
| Glasgow (tolerable) | 11 | Ferryman’s House (about 8) | 8 |
| Dumbarton (very good) | 15 | Callander to Falkirk (baddish) | 27 |
| Luss (excellent) | 13 | Edinburgh (good) | 24 |
| Tarbet (not bad) | 8 | Roslin (good) | 6 |
| Arrochar (good) | 2 | Peebles (good) | 16 |
| Cairndow (middling) | 12 | Clovenford (tolerable) | 16 |
| Inverary (very good) | 10 | Melrose (tolerable) | 8 |
| Dalmally (tolerable) | 16 | Dryburgh (good) | 4 |
| Taynuilt (excellent) | 13 | Jedburgh (roughish) | 10 |
| Portnacroish (tolerable) | 15 | Hawick (good) | 12 |
| Ballachulish (part most excellent) | 12 | Langholm (very good) | 24 |
| King’s House (bad) | 12 | Longtown (good) | 12 |
| Tyndrum (good) | 18 | Carlisle | 8 |
| Grasmere | 36 |