No More Learning

Then, again, the prospect is not sufficiently extended from it. The
stream not near enough, or rather not of size enough, to be heard.
Blelham Tarn is not too far to have added to the watery sound, it is
true, but the wind we suppose to have been north-east, and the sound
of the Blelham Tarn would be much carried away from him.

The present stone wall is not near the summit, and is of comparatively
recent date. It is difficult to believe from the slope of the outcrop
of rock that a wall could ever have been at the summit.

But there are two other vantage grounds intermediate between those
extremes, both of which were probably in the mind and memory of the
poet as he described the scene, and

'The intermitting prospect of the copse.
And plain beneath,'

allowed him by the mist. One of these is the High Crag, about
three-quarters of a mile from the divergence or convergence of the two
highways, which Dr. Cradock has selected.

There can be no doubt that this is the crag 'par excellence' for a
wide and extended look-out over all the country between Outgate and
Ambleside. Close at its summit there remain aged thorn trees, but no
trace of a wall.

But High Crag can hardly be said to have risen at 'the meeting-point
of two highways,' unless we are to understand the epithet
'far-stretched' as applying to the south-western slopes or skirts of
the hill; and the two highways, the roads between Water Barngates on
the west, and the bridle road between Pullwyke and Outgate at their
Outgate junction, and this is rather too far a stretch.

It is quite true that if bridle paths can be described as highways,
there may be said to be a meeting-point of these close at the
north-eastern side of the crag.

But, remembering that the ponies came from Penrith, the driver was not
likely to have had any intimate knowledge of these bridle paths;
while, at the same time, on that misty day, I much question whether
the boys on the look-out at High Crag could have seen ponies creeping
along between walled roads at so great a distance as half a mile or
more.

And this would seem to have been the problem for them on that day.
I ought in fairness to say that it is not likely that the roads were
then (as to-day) walled up high on either side. To-day, even from the
summit of High Crag, only the head and ears of a pony could be seen as
it passed up the Water Barngates Road; but at the end of last century
many of the roads were only partially walled off from the moorlands
they passed over in the Lake Country.

Still, as I said, High Crag was a point of vantage that the poet, as a
lad, must have often climbed, in this part of the country, if he
wanted to indulge in the delights of panoramic scene.

There is a wall some hundred yards from the summit, on the
south-westerly flank of High Crag; near this--at a point close by, two
large holly trees--the boy might have sheltered himself against the
north-eastern wind, and have got a closer and better view of the road
between Barngates and Outgate, and Randy Pike and Outgate.

Here, too, he could possibly hear the sound of the stream in the
dingle or woody hollow immediately at his feet; but I am far from
content with this as being the spot the poet watched from.

There is again a fourth possible look-out place, to which you will
remember I directed your attention, nearer Randy Pike. The slope,
covered with larches, rises up from the Randy Pike Road to a
precipitous crag which faces north and east.

From this, a grand view of the country between Randy Pike and Pullwyke
is obtained, and if the bridle paths might--as is possible, but
unlikely--be called two highways, then this crag could be spoken of as
rising from the meeting place of the two highways. For the old
Hawkshead Road passed along to the east, within calling distance (say
ninety yards), and a bridle road from Pullwyke, now used chiefly by
the quarrymen, passed within eighty yards to the west; while it is
certain that the brook below, when swollen by winter rains, might be
loud enough to be heard from the copse. This crag is known as Coldwell
or Caudwell Crag, and is situated about half a mile east-south-east of
the High Crag.

It has this much in its favour, that a wall of considerable age crests
its summit, and one can whilst sitting down on a rock close behind it
be sheltered from the north and east, and yet obtain an extensive view
of the subadjacent country. IF it were certain that the ponies when
they got to Pullwyke did not go up towards Water Barngates, and so to
Hawkshead, then there is no crag in the district which would so
thoroughly answer to all the needs of the boys, and to all the points
of description the poet has placed on record.

But it is just this IF that makes me decide on the Pullwyke Crag--the
one first described--as being the actual spot to which, scout-like,
the schoolboys clomb, on that eventful 'eve of their dear holidays;'
while, at the same time, it is my firm conviction that Wordsworth--as
he painted the memories of that event--had also before his mind's eye
the scene as viewed from Coldwell and High Crag. "

Ed.





* * * * *





NOTE VI. --COLERIDGE'S LINES TO WORDSWORTH, ON HEARING 'THE PRELUDE'
RECITED BY HIM AT COLEORTON, IN 1806


The following is a copy of a version of these 'Lines', sent by Coleridge
to Sir George Beaumont, at Dunmow, Essex, in January, 1807.