only one, such stone.  I should say the base was in the wall.  The stone itself leans outwards; so that, at the top, three of its square faces can be seen; and two, if not three, of these faces bear marks of being hammer-dressed.  The distance from the stone to the well is about 40 yards, and the height of the stone out of the ground about 3 or 4 feet.

“The ascent from the well is a gentle one, not ‘sheer’; nor does there appear to be any hollow by which the shepherd could ascend.  On the western side of the road there is a wide plain, with a slight fall in that direction.”

  “‘Hart-Leap Well’ is the tale for me; in matter as good as this
  (’Peter Bell’); in manner infinitely before it, in my poor judgment.”

Charles Lamb to Wordsworth, May 1819. (See ’The Letters of Charles Lamb’, edited by Alfred Ainger, vol. ii. p. 20.)—­Ed.

* * * * *

THE IDLE SHEPHERD-BOYS; OR, DUNGEON-GHYLL FORCE [A]

A PASTORAL

Composed 1800.—­Published 1800

[Written at Town-end, Grasmere.  I will only add a little monitory anecdote concerning this subject.  When Coleridge and Southey were walking together upon the Fells, Southey observed that, if I wished to be considered a faithful painter of rural manners, I ought not to have said that my shepherd-boys trimmed their rustic hats as described in the poem.  Just as the words had passed his lips two boys appeared with the very plant entwined round their hats.  I have often wondered that Southey, who rambled so much about the mountains, should have fallen into this mistake, and I record it as a warning for others who, with far less opportunity than my dear friend had of knowing what things are, and far less sagacity, give way to presumptuous criticism, from which he was free, though in this matter mistaken.  In describing a tarn under Helvellyn I say: 

  “There sometimes doth a leaping fish
  Send through the tarn a lonely cheer.”

This was branded by a critic of these days, in a review ascribed to Mrs. Barbauld, as unnatural and absurd.  I admire the genius of Mrs. Barbauld and am certain that, had her education been favourable to imaginative influences, no female of her day would have been more likely to sympathise with that image, and to acknowledge the truth of the sentiment.—­I.  F.]

Included among the “Poems referring to the Period of Childhood.”—­Ed.

  The valley rings with mirth and joy;
  Among the hills the echoes play
  A never never ending song,
  To welcome in the May. [1]
  The magpie chatters with delight; 5
  The mountain raven’s youngling brood
  Have left the mother and the nest;
  And they go rambling east and west
  In search of their own food;
  Or through the glittering vapours dart 10
  In very wantonness of heart.