[GG] Grasmere.—ED.
[GH] Compare Lamb's remarks in reference to Harrow Church in a letter to Wordsworth, August 14, 1814. See Letters of Charles Lamb, edited by Canon Ainger, vol. i. p. 272.—ED.
[GI] The details of this description apply in most particulars to the Church at Grasmere, although some are probably borrowed from Wordsworth's recollections of Hawkshead and of Bowness. The "naked rafters intricately crossed," the "admonitory texts" inscribed on the walls,
Each, in its ornamental scroll, enclosed,
the "oaken benches," the "heraldic shield" in the "altar-window," the "faded hatchment," the "marble monuments" and "sepulchral stones" with "emblems graven and foot-worn epitaphs,"—all are there. Grasmere Church was "for duration built," as Wordsworth puts it; and, however ill adapted to the wants of modern ceremonial, it is to be hoped that all that is most characteristic of the old edifice will be preserved; and that—while no building can retain its original form for ever—its renovation will not destroy what remains of that "rude and antique majesty," which Wordsworth tells us had, even in 1843, been partially impaired.—ED.
[GJ] Compare, in Hamlet, act v. scene i. l. 64—
Hamlet.—Has this fellow no feeling of his business? he sings at grave-making.
Horatio.—Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.
Hamlet.—'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.—ED.
[GK] An oak now grows in the field a little to the east of the churchyard wall, which cannot, however, be that to which Wordsworth refers. Possibly an oak grew at that time beside the wall above the Rothay. The wall is still "moss-grown."—ED.