'when cloudless suns
'Shone hot, or wind blew troublesome and strong.'
In the absence of contrary testimony, it might be supposed that "the track" which the brother had "worn,"
'By pacing here, unwearied and alone,'
faced Silver-How and the Grasmere Island, and that the single beech tree was nearer the lower than the upper wall. But Miss Cookson's testimony is explicit. Only a few fir trees survive at this part of the grove, which is now open and desolate, not as it was in those earlier days, when
'the trees
Had been so thickly planted, and had thriven
With such perplexed and intricate array,
That vainly did I seek, beneath their stems
A length of open space ...'
Dr. Cradock remarks,
"As to there being more than one beech, Wordsworth would not have hesitated to sacrifice servile exactness to poetical effect." He had a fancy for "one":
'Fair as a star when only one
Is shining in the sky;'"'One' abode, no more;" Grasmere's "one green island;" "one green field."
'Fair as a star when only one
Is shining in the sky;'
Since the above note was printed, new light has been cast on the "Inscription of the Pathway," for which see volume viii. of this edition.—Ed.