I have never seen anything so like a continental scene at the gathering at Hawkshead spout-house.
Lastly, there is a very aged thorn-tree in the churchyard--blown over but propped up--in which the forefathers of the hamlet used to sit as boys (in the thorn, that is, not the churchyard), and which has been worn smooth by many Hawkshead generations.

The tradition is, that _Wordsworth used to sit a deal in it when at school._" Ed.
* * * * * NOTE III .-- THE HAWKSHEAD MORNING WALK: SUMMER VACATION (See p.

197, 'The Prelude', book iv.ll.

323-38) If the farm-house where Wordsworth spent the evening before this memorable morning walk was either at Elterwater or High Arnside, and the homeward pathway led across the ridge of Ironkeld, either by the old mountain road (now almost disused), or over the pathless fells, there are two points from either of which the sea might be seen in the distance.

The one is from the heights looking down to the Duddon estuary, across the Coniston valley; the other is from a spot nearer Hawkshead, where Morecambe Bay is visible.