Old Helvellyn’s brow
Where once together, in his day of strength,
We stood rejoicing.
Sir Humphry Davy was with us at the time. We had ascended from Patterdale, and I could not but admire the vigour with which Scott scrambled along that horn of the mountain called “Striding Edge.” Our progress was necessarily slow, and was beguiled by Scott’s telling many stories and amusing anecdotes, as was his custom. Sir H. Davy would have probably been better pleased if other topics had occasionally been interspersed, and some discussion entered upon: at all events he did not remain with us long at the top of the mountain, but left us to find our way down its steep side together into the Vale of Grasmere, where, at my cottage, Mrs. Scott was to meet us at dinner.
With faint smile
…
He said, “When I am there, although ’tis fair,
’Twill be another Yarrow.”
See among these notes the one on Yarrow Revisited.
A few short steps (painful they were) apart