Part 12
No, no! this last couplet was untrue; the anemones had not yet opened their delicate {228} shells, and the blackthorn buds were only dimmest seed-pearls of yellowish lustre. But as I gazed from the fence halfway up Latrigg and watched the Greta flashing, and the great plain fresh-enamelled with the first faint green of spring, a Jacob's ladder was let down from above Scafell and Glaramara, and all the angels that ever came on earth to fill men's hearts with April jollity came trooping downwards. They took on various forms. Some of them became tortoise-shell butterflies that lay in sunny content upon the moist woodland path. Others sailed out of blue air and became glorious peacock butterflies upon whose underwings in blue and black one clearly saw the head and face of human kind sketched in with lustrous powdery pencillings. Other angels ministered to the pink coral glumes of the sycamore; others, again, daintily untwisted the leafage of the wild rose in the hedge; others delighted to unfold the tufts upon the elder. But the angels that seemed to be busiest were those that made the vivid emerald of the 'dog's mercury' contrast with the faded red of the bracken in the woods, and where the purple birches showed against the flowering larches {229} added moment by moment a deeper, ruddier purple to the trees' beauty and a finer flash of green to the surrounding wood to set the purple off.
But all the gifts of the angels of that April morning seemed as nothing when compared with the joy of the sight of one single angel of the spring--he a lustrous-backed swallow who flashed from steel-purple into black and from black to steel-purple, and disappeared from sight behind the larches. I had known of his coming, for a swift-eyed shepherd had seen one of his kind in the valley as early as April 1, but April 13 to the 15th was marked in my calendar as swallowtide, and I had not expected sight of him till this week. Here he was, glossy with African sun, and full of silent message that summer was sure. The chiffchaff would be a-trill and the cuckoo would be calling for a mate within the week. Ah, swallow! swallow! flying north! How much of hope and happiness you bring. Then as I moved through the larchen grove, I heard the titmice whispering that they too were glad, they too felt reassured by sight of the swallow, and one walked on in a kind of consciousness that man and {230} swallow and budding larches were more akin than one had believed, until the joyousness of spring found the selfsame echo in such divers hearts, and that indeed the over-soul was one, the music and the melody one voice. Yes, Wordsworth sang truly when he wrote:
One impulse from a vernal wood May teach us more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can.
I met a child halfway up Latrigg braiding her hat with larch flower. Truly no rubies ever seemed so rich and rare as these which the simple village child had twisted in her hat; her sister had a handful of primroses she was taking to her father in the neighbouring cottage, for he was but slowly recovering from pneumonia, and the child knew by instinct that a breath from a primrose posy would do more for him than all the 'doctors' bottles' in the world.
'You have been up Skiddaw betimes,' I said.
'Ay, ay, sir; you see they've gone to "laate" Herdwicks to-day for lambing-time, and I went up to the Gale with the dogs.'
Herdwicks! Lambing! What did it all {231} mean? Only that those great brown slopes of Skiddaw which till this day have been vocal with flocks and alive with sheep, will by this eventide be as silent as the grave. For between April 10 and April 20 the shepherds know that the Herdwicks will become mothers of their springtide young, and so they will go forth to the fells and upland pastures, to bring their woolly charges down from the mountain heights to the safety and the food and care of the dale-farm enclosures. I overtook the shepherds at the 'Gale,' and went with them. Soon the dogs were seen scouring the fell-side, now disappearing from sight, now coming back to get a signal from their master. A wave of the hand to left or right was all that was needed, and away they went, and slowly and surely they seemed to be able to search out and bring into a close company the Herdwicks from all the heathery waste and grey-bleached mountain hollows.
Then began the home-bringing. Very tenderly and gently did the dogs urge the sheep, heavy with young, down the fell-side slopes. Now and again the shepherd cried, 'Hey, Jack!' and away the collies flew back towards him. 'Ga away by!' {232} and away again the collies flew in a great circle out beyond and behind the sheep. The sheep were a little hustled and came on too fast. Then the shepherd whistled and held up his hand, and the dogs sat like stones till he whistled and waved his hand again. So down from Lonscale and across the gulfy Whitbeck the sheep came. The dogs dashed off to where, through a great carpet of ever-lucent moss, the main fountains break from the hill. They slaked their thirst, then came back slowly to urge the flocks homeward and downward toward the Shepherd's Cross, and so over the Gale to the Lonscale Farm. We stopped at the Cross, and a tall, 'leish,' handsome man, with fair hair and the grey Viking eye, said in solemn undertone, 'Fadder and brudder cud hev been weal content to be wid us on sic a day as this, I'se thinking.' And the mist gathered in his eyes, and he said no more, but just went homeward with the sheep. Ah, yes, that Shepherd's Cross tells of men--father and son--who spent their whole lives in following the Herdwicks on the sides of Skiddaw and Lonscale Fell; wrought for their sheep, thought of them by day {233} and dreamed of them by night, and were as proud, as ever David was, of what they looked upon as the finest life a man need care to live, the mountain shepherd's round of love and toil.
I waved adieu, and up beyond the huts to 'Jenkin' I went. The red fern had been washed into faintest ochre, the heather had grown grey with winter storm, but everywhere beneath the blanched grass one felt new life and tenderest first flush of April green was astir; and as one looked down from 'Jenkin' into the circle of the deep blue hills and the Derwent's perfect mirror, one saw that though the larches were still brown there was an undertone of something, neither brown nor green, that flooded not only the larch woods but the great Latrigg pastures also, and betokened that the spring was even at their doors, and that the fells would soon rejoice with the emerald valley below. Gazing at the vale of Crosthwaite, where still all the trees seem winter white, one was astonished at the darkness of the hedgerows that divided the meadows, and one saw the new fallows shine and swim like purple enamel upon the green flood of the springtide grass. 'Jenkin' was reached, {234} but not until many swathes of lingering snow, black with the smoke of the blast furnaces of the coast and of Lancashire and Yorkshire mills, had been passed. Here at 'Jenkin top' we found two men hard at work 'graaving' peats for the Coronation bonfires on June 26.
'Well, how goes the peat-graving?' said I, and a ruddy-faced Norseman from a Threlkeld farm said, 'Aw, gaily weel, sir; but I'm thinking we mud hev nae mair kings upo' the throane, for this job will finish t' peat moss, and peats are hard to finnd within reach o' Skiddaw top. You see,' said he, 'it's lost its wire, and peat widout wire in it is nae use for makking a "low" wid.'
I saw that what he called 'wire' were the rootlets of the ancient undergrowth of years gone by, the matted texture of primeval springtides, and, stooping down, he broke a peat across and showed me the wire. 'You kna,' he continued, 'we shall just leave peats ligging here, and thoo mun send up scheul-lads to spreead them in a forthnet's time. Then they mud coom oop a week laater and shift 'em and turn them, and then a week laater they mud coom and foot 'em. {235} That is if thoo want 'em in fettle by Coronation-daay, for they are ter'ble watter-sick noo.'
'Foot them?' I said. 'What do you mean?' And the shepherd took a couple and leaned them one against another, and showed me how thus a draught of air passed between the peats and ensured their drying. 'Well, good-daay, good-daay. But we mud hev nae mair kings to be crooned,' said he; 'for peat moss ull nobbut howd oot for this un, I'm thinking.'
I bade farewell, and down to the valley I went, noting how doubly near and blue the hills and vales all seemed to grow, as one passed down beneath the veils of haze which had lent both greyness and distance to the view. Again I saw the swallow skim; again I watched the gorgeous butterflies, and, with a wand of palm-flower that had just lost its gold, and the rosy plumelets of the larch in my hand, I made the best of my way homeward, through air that throbbed and thrilled with the voice of thrush and blackbird, and felt the deep contrast between these silent flockless slopes of Skiddaw, and the ringing singing valley at his feet.
{236}
INDEX
NDX A
Adelaide, Queen, 46.
Ambleside, 18, 22, 44, 53.
_Angler, Complete_, 120.
April song, 81.
Arnold, Dr., 19, 50.
Aveling's town, King, 59.
B
Ballads, Lyrical, by Wordsworth, 125.
Barf, 169.
Bassenthwaite, 97, 102, 105, 107, 169.
Beltane fire, 147.
_Birthright, The Christian_, 162.
Black Hill, 197.
Blencathra, 113, 165, 192, 212, 214, 215.
Boon Beck, 30.
Bootle, 172.
Borderside, 131, 132, 140, 143, 144.
Borrodale, 52, 180, 183, 197, 213, 214.
Borrow Bridge, 143.
Bowness Church, 138.
Brandelhow, 197, 208, 210, 214, 215, 216.
Brankers, 49.
Brigham-cum-Mosser-cum-Lorton, 173.
_Brougham Castle, Feast of_, by Wordsworth, 191.
Broughton-in-Furness, 220.
Browne, William George, 98.
Browning, Robert, note, 5.
Brownrigg of Brownrigg, 202.
Brundholme, 157.
Butcher lad's reminiscences of Wordsworth, 8.
Burns, 141.
C
Caermote, 104, 106.
_Calling, The Gentleman's_, 162.
Carlisle, City arms of, 96.
Carlyle, 96, 141, 164.
Carnigill, 143.
Cartmell Fell, 121, 125, 147.
Castle Hill, 213, 214.
Castrigg Fell, 191.
Cat Bels, 212, 215.
Cat Ghyll, 181.
Causey Pike, 109.
_Cavalier, Memoirs of a_, 120.
Chartres Cathedral, 90.
Chestnut Hill, 110.
Christmas season in Grasmere, 71.
Clappersgate, 49.
"Clock, The Village," 30.
Cockermouth, 173, 218, 220, 221, 223, 224, 226.
Coleridge, Hartley, 12, 19, 23, 24, 25, 31, 36, 38, 43, 44, 50, 58, 138.
Colthouse, 141.
Coniston, 2; Fells, 125.
_Contentment, The Art of_, 162.
Cookson, Ann, 218.
Coronation peat-fires, 234.
Cornwall, 197.
Crackenthorpes, 218.
Cropper, James, of Ellergreen, 86.
Crosthwaite, 116, 131, 139, 147, 148, 233; valley, 110, 157; school, 120; church, 197.
Crozier, John, 192, 196, 200, 202, 205.
Curling, 112.
Cuthbert, St., 112.
D
Dalesmen, Characteristics of, 3; Truthfulness of, 5; Comeliness of, 45; Mourning etiquette of, 194; Love of hunting of, 195.
Davy, Dr., 136, 141.
Day, A Winter, on Derwentwater, 207.
Day with Roman and Norse, 94.
Defoe, 120.
De Quincey, 76.
Derwent, 65, 103, 219, 222, 233.
Derwent Hill, 67.
Derwentwater, 97, 109, 181, 217.
Devon, 197.
Druid's Circle, 191, 199.
Dungeon Ghyll, 39.
E
Egremont, Lord of, 224.
_Elizabeth, Spacious times of Great_, 155.
Elleray, 51.
Esk, 59.
Esthwaite Lake, 29.
_Excursion, The_, by Wordsworth, 127.
_Exploits, Nelson's_, 155.
F
Falcon Crag, 181, 182.
Fell Side, 147.
Fiddler's Farm, 17, 19.
Fire-worshippers, 147.
Fox, George, 172; his Journal, 166, 173.
Fox head, Price of, 193.
Foxhow, 17, 19.
Fox hunting, 193, 197.
Friar's Crag, 208.
Francis, St., 145, 216.
Frozen Fell, 152.
G
Gardener lad's reminiscences of Wordsworth, 10.
_Gaul, Amadis de_, 120.
George the Waller, 17; his wrestling match, 22.
Gimmer Crag, 102.
Glaramara, 109, 213, 228.
Glenderaterra, 157.
Goodwin, Harvey, Bishop of Carlisle, 88.
Gough, Benjamin, 121, 141.
Gough, Thomas, 145.
Gowder Crag, 178, 184.
Grasmere, 6, 35, 38, 70.
Grasmere actors, 70; stage managers, 72.
Grasmere Common, 31, 32 f.
Grasmoor, 109, 169, 172, 178, 207.
Graves, Perceval, 141; quotations from, 140, 143.
Greenhead Ghyll, 30.
Greta, 157, 179, 228.
Grisedale, 28, 33, 109, 178, 207, 216; Pass, 31.
_Guide to the Lakes_, 20, 21.
Gulls, With the black-headed, 59.
Gummershow, 125.
H
Hawell, Joseph, a Skiddaw Shepherd, 150.
Hawkshead, 223.
Helvellyn, 109, 113, 134, 207.
Herdhouse, 172.
Heversham, 133; Grammar School, 88.
High Crag, 140.
High Stile, 172.
Hindscarth, 109.
Hobcarton Crag, 169.
Hodge Hill, 147.
Honister, 213.
Hope Ghyll, 171.
Hounds, Training of, 197; Breed of, 201.
Hunt, Master of the, 191.
Hunting song, 199.
Hutchinson, Mary, 221.
I
Ireby, 99.
Irt, 59.
K
Keats, 187.
Kendal, 51, 53, 87, 118, 121, 122, 132; Grammar School, 88.
Ketel's Well, 183.
Kettle, Roman, 100.
Keswick, 52, 73, 100, 108, 112, 151, 156, 157, 166, 176, 183, 208; 224; Sea-gulls in, 64.
Kiln Hill, 201.
Kirkstone Pass, 119.
Krall of a Norse Chieftain, 99.
L
Lamb, Charles, 187.
_Lamb, The Pet_, 30.
Lancaster, James, 172.
_Landnama, Bok of Iceland_, 86.
Langdale, 52.
Latrigg, 100, 111, 112, 228.
Lewthwaite, Barbara, 29.
Lingholme, 209.
Lodore, 182 to 188, 213; after storm, 176.
Lonscale, 150, 152, 156, 164, 232.
Lonsdale, Lord, 225.
Lorton, 166; Yew, 173.
Loughrigg, 22, 27, 49, 74.
Loweswater, 170.
Lythe, 137.
Lythe Marsh, 145.
M
Macaulay, Zachary, 86.
_Man, The whole duty of_, 162.
Manchester, 123 to 131.
Mellbreak, 172.
Milton, 128, 141, 221.
Mite, 59.
Mona's Isle, 59.
Mons Angelorum, 215.
Mons Beata, 212, 214.
Mons Blencathrae, 214.
Mons Borgadalis, 214.
Morecambe Bay, 119.
Muncaster Fell, 59, 60.
N
Nab Cottage, 23 f., 39.
Naddle, 208.
Need fire, 147.
Nether Stowey, 224.
Nicholson, Cornelius, 133.
Nimrod, A North-Country, 189.
O
Orthwaite, 97.
P
Page-boy's reminiscences of Wordsworth, 44.
Patterdale, 167.
Patrick, James, of Kendal, 122.
Paris Exhibition, 90.
Pearson, Mrs., 118.
Pearson, William, of Borderside, 116; his admiration for Wordsworth, 125; his character, 128; letter to Wordsworth, 136; his tour on the Continent, 138 f.
Peat-fuel, 234.
Peel's horn, 101; his Norse ancestor, 107.
Peel, John, 196, 201.
Pelter Bridge, 41.
Penistone, 219.
Penrith, 52, 218, 220, 221, 223.
Play, At the Grasmere, 69; analysis of, 74 f.
_Poems_, by W. Wordsworth, 125.
Poole, 224.
Portinscale, 197.
_Prelude, The_, by Wordsworth, 121, 122.
Protestant Alliance, 136.
R
Rake, 97.
Ravenglass, 60, 68, 183; sand-dunes, 59.
Red Pike, 172.
Redbank, 27, 35, 48.
Reed's _English Literature_, 141.
Richardson, John, 200.
Robinson, 216.
_Robinson Crusoe_, 120.
Roman Camp, 105.
Roncesvalles, 120.
Rossetti, Christina, 92.
Ruskin, 2, 211.
Rydal chimneys, 19 f., 31.
Rydal Falls, 46.
Rydal Valley, 17.
S
Saddleback, 152.
St. John-in-the Vale, 200, 208.
Scafell, 102, 109, 228.
Scott, Sir Walter, 2, 141.
Sea-gulls, 60 f.
Seascale, 63.
Sedbergh Grammar School, 88.
Shakespeare, 85, 128, 141, 221.
Sheep, Skiddaw, 231.
Shepherd's Crag, 178.
Shepherd's Cross, 232.
_Shepherd Lord, Song of the_, by Wordsworth, 191.
Shoulthwaite, 193.
Silence, Mountain, 227.
Skiddaw, 94, 96, 98, 100, 101, 109, 113, 157, 168, 178, 188, 194, 227.
Smith, Thomas, 127, 134.
Solway, 101.
Somersby Wold, 1.
Southey, 50, 94, 107, 181; letter to his brother, 187.
Spedding, James, 96.
Spenser, 221.
Squirrels, 210.
Stanley, A Shepherd's likeness to Dean, 151.
Stockdale, 151.
Stott of Oldham, 61.
Strathclyde, 112.
Styhead Pass, 183, 197.
Superstitions of Westmoreland, 146.
Swallows, 229.
Swan, Inn, 36, 39.
T
Tarn-foot, 48.
Tebay, 143.
Tennyson, 96, 227.
Tewfit tarn, 208.
Theatre, Grasmere, 73.
Threlkeld, 190, 192, 203, 204.
Tilberthwaite's Yew-tree, 167.
Titmice, 213.
Tongue Ghyll beck, 31.
Town End, 20, 37.
U
Uldale, 99, 151, 152.
Ulf, the Norseman, 101.
Underbarrow, 120.
V
Viking chieftain's burial ground, 111.
Victoria Bay, 216.
W
Walla Crag, 188, 216.
Walla Lake, 215.
Walla Wood, 212.
Walls Castle, 60.
Walton, Isaac, 120.
Wanthwaite Crags, 201.
_Wars, Wellington's_, 155.
Watendlath, 179.
Waterton, 141.
Watson, James, of Kendal, 123.
Westmoreland, 16, 27, 69 f., 87, 93, 116, 146, 197.
Whinfell Hall, 171.
Whinlatter Pass, 113, 172.
Whitbeck, 232.
White Moss Tarn, 27.
White of Selborne, 141.
Whiteside, 172.
Wilson, of Elleray, Professor, 50 f.
Windermere, 119.
Winster, 121, 127, 145; Vale, 118, 119, 122; River, quotation from Pearson, 130.
Wordsworth, Dora, 58, 131.
Wordsworth, Dorothy, 7, 14, 35, 49, 58, 134, 136, 223.
Wordsworth, John, 218 f.
Wordsworth, Rev. John, 12.
Wordsworth, Mrs., 10, 23, 25, 34, 41, 44, 46, 49, 51.
Wordsworth, William, Reminiscences of peasantry about, 1 ff.
Wordsworth, William, junior, 37.
Wylie Ghyll, 152, 156.
Wythburn, 195.
Wythop, 102, 113, 169.
Y
Yews, The, 118, 122, 124, 131, 132.
Yew-tree, A famous, 166.
Yorkshire, 129. NDX