"Anne Tyson of Colthouse, widow, died May 25th buried 28th, in Churchyard, aged 83."
Her removal to Colthouse is confirmed, in a curious way, by a reminiscence of William Wordsworth's (the poet's son), who told me that if asked where the dame's house was, he would have pointed to a spot on the eastern side of the valley, and out of the village altogether; his father having taken him from Rydal Mount to Hawkshead when a mere boy, and pointed out that spot. Doubtless Wordsworth took his son to the cottage at Colthouse, where Anne Tyson died, as the earlier abode in Hawkshead village is well known, and its site is indisputable.—Ed.
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[Footnote I:] Compare [book i.] ll. 499-506, p. 148.—Ed.
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[Footnote K:] There is no trace and no tradition at Hawkshead of the "stone table under the dark pine," For a curious parallel to this
'sunny seat
Round the stone table under the dark pine,'
I am indebted to Dr. Cradock. He points out that in the prologue to [Volume 2 link: [Peter Bell]], vol. ii p.9, we have the lines,
'To the stone-table in my garden,
Loved haunt of many a summer hour,'
Ed.
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[Footnote L:] There can be little doubt as to the identity of "the famous brook" "within our garden" boxed, which gives the name of Flag Street to one of the alleys of Hawkshead.
"Persons have visited the cottage," wrote Dr. Cradock, "without discovering it; and yet it is not forty yards distant, and is still exactly as described. On the opposite side of the lane leading to the cottage, and a few steps above it, is a narrow passage through some new stone buildings. On emerging from this, you meet a small garden, the farther side of which is bounded by the brook, confined on both sides by larger flags, and also covered by flags of the same Coniston formation, through the interstices of which you may see and hear the stream running freely. The upper flags are now used as a footpath, and lead by another passage back into the village. No doubt the garden has been reduced in size, by the use of that part of it fronting the lane for building purposes. The stream, before it enters the area of buildings and gardens, is open by the lane side, and seemingly comes from the hills to the westwards. The large flags are extremely hard and durable, and it is probably that the very flags which paved the channel in Wordsworth's time may still be doing the same duty."
The house adjoining this garden was not Dame Tyson's but a Mr. Watson's. Possibly, however, some of the boys had free access to the latter, so that Wordsworth could speak of it as "our garden;" or, Dame Tyson may have rented it. See [Note II.] in the [a]return]
[Footnote M:] Not wholly so.—Ed.
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[Footnote N:] See [note] on preceding page.—Ed.
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[Footnote O:] Compare the sonnet in vol. iv.:
'Beloved Vale!' I said, 'when I shall con
...
By doubts and thousand petty fancies crost.'
There can be little doubt that it is to the "famous brook" of The Prelude that reference is made in the later sonnet, and still more significantly in the earlier poem [Volume 2 link:[The Fountain]], vol. ii. p. 91. Compare the MS. variants of that poem, printed as footnotes, from Lord Coleridge's copy of the Poems: