[Variant 9: 

1827.

  On which the Traveller thus had died 1807.]

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FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  Tarn is a small Mere or Lake mostly high up in the mountains,—­W.  W.]

[Footnote B:  Compare the reference to Helvellyn, and its “deep coves, shaped by skeleton arms,” in the ‘Musings near Aquapendente’ (1837).  Wordsworth here describes Red Tarn, under Helvellyn, to the east; but Charles Gough was killed on the Kepplecove side of Swirell Edge, and not at Red Tarn.  Bishop Watson of Llandaff, writing to Hayley (see ‘Anecdotes of the Life of Bishop Watson’, p. 440), writes about Charles Gouche (evidently Gough).  He had been lodging at “the Cherry Inn,” near Wytheburn, sometime before his death.—­Ed.]

[Footnote C:  Compare ‘The Excursion’, book iv. ll. 1185-94.—­Ed.]

Thomas Wilkinson—­referred to in the notes to ‘The Solitary Reaper’, vol. ii. pp. 399, 400, and the verses ‘To the Spade of a Friend’, in vol. iv.—­alludes to this incident at some length in his poem, ’Emont Vale’.  Wilkinson attended the funeral of young Gough, and writes of the incident with feeling, but without inspiration.  Gough perished early in April, and his body was not found till July 22nd, 1805.  A reference to his fate will be found in Lockhart’s ‘Life of Scott’ (vol. ii. p. 274); also in a letter of Mr. Luff of Patterdale, to his wife, July 23rd, 1805.  Henry Crabb Robinson records (see his ‘Diary, Reminiscences’, etc., vol. ii. p. 25) a conversation with Wordsworth, in which he said of this poem, that “he purposely made the narrative as prosaic as possible, in order that no discredit might be thrown on the truth of the incident.”—­Ed.

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INCIDENT CHARACTERISTIC OF A FAVOURITE DOG [A]

Composed 1805.—­Published 1807

[This dog I knew well.  It belonged to Mrs. Wordsworth’s brother, Mr. Thomas Hutchinson, who then lived at Sockburn-on-the-Tees, a beautiful retired situation, where I used to visit him and his sisters before my marriage.  My sister and I spent many months there after my return from Germany in 1799—­I.  F.]

One of the “Poems of Sentiment and Reflection.”—­Ed.

  On his morning rounds the Master
  Goes to learn how all things fare;
  Searches pasture after pasture,
  Sheep and cattle eyes with care;
  And, for silence or for talk, 5
  He hath comrades in his walk;
  Four dogs, each pair of different breed,
  Distinguished two for scent, and two for speed.

  See a hare before him started! 
—­Off they fly in earnest chase; 10
  Every dog is eager-hearted,
  All the four are in the race: 
  And the hare whom they pursue,
  Knows from instinct [1] what to do;
  Her hope is near:  no turn she makes; 15
  But, like an arrow, to the river takes.