[NN] It is so called to this day, and is thus described by Dr. Whitaker. "Rylstone Fell yet exhibits a monument of the old warfare between the Nortons and Cliffords. On a point of very high ground, commanding an immense prospect, and protected by two deep ravines, are the remains of a square tower, expressly said by Dodsworth to have been built by Richard Norton. The walls are of strong grout-work, about four feet thick. It seems to have been three stories high. Breaches have been industriously made in all the sides, almost to the ground, to render it untenable.
"But Norton Tower was probably a sort of pleasure-house in summer, as there are, adjoining to it, several large mounds, (two of them are pretty entire,) of which no other account can be given than that they were butts for large companies of archers.
"The place is savagely wild, and admirably adapted to the uses of a watch-tower."—W. W. 1815. (See note VII. [p. 201].)—Ed.
The remains of Norton Tower are not in the highest point of the Rylstone Fells, but on one of the western ridges: and there are now only four bare roofless rectangular walls. It was originally both a watch-tower and a hunting-tower. Looking towards Malham to the north and north-west, the view is exactly as described in the poem.—Ed.
[OO] This extract was first prefixed to canto seventh in the edition of 1837.—Ed.
[PP] "After the attainder of Richard Norton, his estates were forfeited to the crown, where they remained till the 2d or 3d of James; they were then granted to Francis Earl of Cumberland." From an accurate survey made at that time, several particulars have been extracted by Dr. W. It appears that the mansion-house was then in decay. "Immediately adjoining is a close, called the Vivery, so called undoubtedly from the French Vivier, or modern Latin Viverium; for there are near the house large remains of a pleasure-ground, such as were introduced in the earlier part of Elizabeth's time, with topiary works, fish-ponds, an island, etc. The whole township was ranged by an hundred and thirty red deer, the property of the Lord, which, together with the wood, had, after the attainder of Mr. Norton, been committed to Sir Stephen Tempest. The wood, it seems, had been abandoned to depredations, before which time it appears that the neighbourhood must have exhibited a forest-like and sylvan scene. In this survey, among the old tenants, is mentioned one Richard Kitchen, butler to Mr. Norton, who rose in rebellion with his master, and was executed at Ripon."—W. W. 1815.
[QQ] There are two small streams which rise near Rylstone. One, called Rylstone beck, flows westwards into the Aire. Another makes its way eastwards towards the Wharfe, joins Linton beck, and so enters Wharfe between Linton Church and Grassington Bridge. It is to the latter that Wordsworth refers, although the former is now called Rylstone beck.—Ed.
[RR] "At the extremity of the parish of Burnsal, the valley of Wharf forks off into two great branches, one of which retains the name of Wharfdale to the source of the river; the other is usually called Littondale, but more anciently and properly Amerdale. Dern-brook, which runs along an obscure valley from the N. W., is derived from a Teutonic word, signifying concealment."—Dr. Whitaker.—W. W. 1815.
The valley of Littondale, as is shown in Wordsworth's note, once bore the name of Amerdale. Though the name is not now given to the beck, it survives, singularly enough, in one pool in the stream, where it joins the Wharfe, which is still called "Amerdale Dub."—Ed.
[SS] From this valley of Litton a small lateral one runs up in a south-westerly direction at Arncliffe, making a "deep fork," and is called Dernbrook. Dern means seclusion, and two or three miles up this ghyll is a farm-house bearing the name of Dernbrook House. "The phrase 'By lurking Dernbrook's pathless side' is so appropriate," says the late incumbent of Arncliffe, the Ven. Archdeacon Boyd, in a letter to the editor, "that it would almost seem that Wordsworth had been there." Mr. Boyd adds, "In the illustrated edition of The White Doe, published by Longmans a few years ago, there is an illustration by Birket Foster of the Dernbrook House, the original of which I had the honour to supply. It is but a short distance—two or three miles—from Malham Tarn."—Ed.