Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy
In sceptred pall come sweeping by,
Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line,
Or the tale of Troy divine.
[HT] Grasmere churchyard was, in Wordsworth's time,
almost wholly free
From interruption of sepulchral stones.
Compare the Fenwick note to the Epistle to Sir George Beaumont (vol. iv. p. 258). Dr. Cradock wrote in 1878—"I cannot count more than two or three gravestones of earlier date than 1800. Most of the others are of a much more recent date."—ED.
[HU] Was he thinking of such a spectacle as the churchyard at Crosthwaite, Keswick, now presents?—ED.
[HV] "This person lived at Town-end, and was almost our next neighbour.... She was a most striking instance how far a woman may surpass in talent, in knowledge, and culture of mind, those with and among whom she lives, and yet fall below them in Christian virtues of the heart and spirit."—I.F.