This and the following six stanzas were added in 1815.—Ed.
Writing to Walter Scott, from Coleorton, on Jan. 20, 1807, Wordsworth sent him this stanza of the poem, and asked
"Could you furnish me, by application to any of your Gaelic friends, a phrase in that language which could take its place in the following verse of eight syllables, and have the following meaning."
He adds,
"The above is part of a little poem which I have written on a Highland story told me by an eye-witness ..."
This is the nearest clue we have to the date of the composition of the poem.—Ed.