If this supposition is correct, some light is cast both on the “Inscription of the Pathway.” and on the date assigned by Wordsworth himself to the poem.  There is a certain fitness, however, in this poem being placed—­as it now is—­in sequence to the ‘Elegiac Verses’ in memory of John Wordsworth, beginning, “The Sheep-boy whistled loud,” and near the fourth poem ‘To the Daisy’, beginning, “Sweet Flower! belike one day to have.”

The “Fir-grove” still exists.  It is between Wishing Gate and White Moss Common, and almost exactly opposite the former.  Standing at the gate and looking eastwards, the grove is to the left, not forty yards distant.  Some of the firs (Scotch ones) still survive, and several beech trees, not “a single beech-tree,” as in the poem.  From this, one might infer that the present colony had sprung up since the beginning of the century, and that the special tree, in which was the thrush’s nest, had perished; but Dr. Cradock wrote to me that “Wordsworth pointed out the tree to Miss Cookson a few days before Dora Wordsworth’s death.  The tree is near the upper wall and tells its own tale.”  The Fir-grove—­“John’s Grove”—­can easily be entered by a gate about a hundred yards beyond the Wishing-gate, as one goes toward Rydal.  The view from it, the “visionary scene,”

’the spectacle
Of clouded splendour, ... this dream-like sight
Of solemn loveliness,’

is now much interfered with by the new larch plantations immediately below the firs.  It must have been very different in Wordsworth’s time, and is constantly referred to in his sister’s Journal as a favourite retreat, resorted to

’when cloudless suns
Shone hot, or wind blew troublesome and strong.’

In the absence of contrary testimony, it might be supposed that “the track” which the brother had “worn,”

‘By pacing here, unwearied and alone,’

faced Silver-How and the Grasmere Island, and that the single beech tree was nearer the lower than the upper wall.  But Miss Cookson’s testimony is explicit.  Only a few fir trees survive at this part of the grove, which is now open and desolate, not as it was in those earlier days, when

                                  ’the trees
  Had been so thickly planted, and had thriven
  With such perplexed and intricate array,
  That vainly did I seek, beneath their stems
  A length of open space ...’

Dr. Cradock remarks,

“As to there being more than one beech, Wordsworth would not have
hesitated to sacrifice servile exactness to poetical effect.”  He had a
fancy for “one”—­

    ’Fair as a star when only one
    Is shining in the sky;’

  “‘One’ abode, no more;” Grasmere’s “one green island;” “one green
  field.”

Since the above note was printed, new light has been cast on the “Inscription of the Pathway,” for which see volume viii. of this edition.—­Ed.