Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas,
and note that Charles Lamb, who was familiar with The Excursion, quotes the above line ("Distant Correspondents") thus—
ED.
Aye me! while thee the seas and sounding shores.
[FH] The strolling Greek minstrels from Homer onwards, predecessors of the Troubadours.—ED.
[FI] The reference is doubtless to Pausanias, i. 37, 3. "Before you cross the Cephisus, there is the monument of Theodorus, who excelled all his contemporaries as an actor in tragedy; and near to the river, there are [two] statues, one of Mnesimache, another of her son, in the act of cutting off his hair [over the stream and presenting it] as a votive offering to the Cephisus." See Note D in the Appendix to this volume, p. [396].—ED.
[FJ] Compare King Henry VI., Part III. act ii. scene v. ll. 23-35—
To sit upon a hill, as I do now,
To carve out dials quaintly, point by point,
Thereby to see the minutes how they run.