No More Learning

Possibly, however, some of the boys had free access to the latter, so
that Wordsworth could speak of it as "our garden;" or, Dame Tyson may
have rented it. See Note II. in the Appendix to this volume, p.
386. --Ed. ]


[Footnote M: Not wholly so. --Ed. ]


[Footnote N: See note on preceding page. --Ed. ]


[Footnote O: Compare the sonnet in vol. iv. :

'Beloved Vale! ' I said, 'when I shall con
. . .
By doubts and thousand petty fancies crost. '

There can be little doubt that it is to the "famous brook" of 'The
Prelude' that reference is made in the later sonnet, and still more
significantly in the earlier poem 'The Fountain', vol. ii. p. 91.
Compare the MS. variants of that poem, printed as footnotes, from Lord
Coleridge's copy of the Poems:

'Down to the vale with eager speed
Behold this streamlet run,
From subterranean bondage freed,
And glittering in the sun. '

with the lines in 'The Prelude':

'The famous brook, who, soon as he was boxed
Within our garden, found himself at once,
. . .
Stripped of his voice and left to dimple down, etc. '

This is doubtless the streamlet called Town Beck; and it is perhaps the
most interesting of all the spots alluded to by Wordsworth which can be
traced out in the Hawkshead district, I am indebted to Mr. Rawnsley for
the following note:

"From the village, nay, from the poet's very door when he lived at
Anne Tyson's, a good path leads on, past the vicarage, quite to its
upland place of birth. It has eaten its way deeply into the soil; in
one place there is a series of still pools, that overflow and fall
into others, with quiet sound; at other spots, it is bustling and
busy. Fine timber is found on either side of it, the roots of the
trees often laid bare by the passing current. In one or two places by
the side of this beck, and beneath the shadow of lofty oaks, may be
found boulder stones, grey and moss-covered.