This excellent suggestion has not yet been carried out--Ed.] [Footnote Y: The Vale of Esthwaite .-- Ed.] [Footnote Z: He went to Hawkshead School in 1778 .-- Ed.] [Footnote a: About mid October the autumn crocus in the garden "snaps" in that district .-- Ed.] [Footnote b: Possibly in the Claife and Colthouse heights to the east of Esthwaite Water; but more probably the round-headed grassy hills that lead up and on to the moor between Hawkshead and Coniston, where the turf is always green and smooth .-- Ed.] [Footnote c: Yewdale: see next note.

"Cultured Vale" exactly describes the little oat-growing valley of Yewdale .-- Ed.] [Footnote d: As there are no "naked crags" with "half-inch fissures in the slippery rocks" in the "cultured vale" of Esthwaite, the locality referred to is probably the Hohne Fells above Yewdale, to the north of Coniston, and only a few miles from Hawkshead, where a crag, now named Raven's Crag, divides Tilberthwaite from Yewdale.

In his 'Epistle to Sir George Beaumont', Wordsworth speaks of Yewdale as a plain 'spread Under a rock too steep for man to tread, Where sheltered from the north and bleak north-west Aloft the Raven hangs a visible nest, Fearless of all assaults that would her brood molest.' Ed.] [Footnote e: Dr.Cradock suggested the reading "rocky cove." Rocky cave is tautological, and Wordsworth would hardly apply the epithet to an ordinary boat-house .-- Ed.] [Footnote f: The "craggy steep till then the horizon's bound," is probably the ridge of Ironkeld, reaching from high Arnside to the Tom Heights above Tarn Hows; while the "huge peak, black and huge, as if with voluntary power instinct," may he either the summit of Wetherlam, or of Pike o'Blisco.

Mr.Rawnsley, however, is of opinion that if Wordsworth rowed off from the west bank of Fasthwaite, he might see beyond the craggy ridge of Loughrigg the mass of Nab-Scar, and Rydal Head would rise up "black and huge." If he rowed from the east side, then Pike o'Stickle, or Harrison Stickle, might rise above Ironkeld, over Borwick Ground .-- Ed.] [Footnote g: Compare S.T.

Coleridge.
"When very many are skating together, the sounds and the noises give an impulse to the icy trees, and the woods all round the lake _tinkle_." 'The Friend', vol.ii.p.