Chapter 1

This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler.

RECOLLECTIONS OF A TOUR MADE IN SCOTLAND A.D. 1803

* * * * *

BY DOROTHY WORDSWORTH

* * * * *

Edited by J. C. Shairp

CONTENTS.

DAY PAGE

PREFACE ix

First Week.

1. Left Keswick--Grisdale--Mosedale--Hesket 1 Newmarket--Caldbeck Falls

2. Ross Castle--Carlisle--Hatfield--Longtown 2

3. Solway Moss--Enter Scotland--Springfield--Gretna 3 Green--Annan--Dumfries

4. Burns's Grave 5

Ellisland--Vale of Nith 7

Brownhill 8

Poem to Burns's Sons 10

5. Thornhill--Drumlanrig--River Nith 11

Turnpike House 12

Sportsman 13

Vale of Menock 14

Wanlockhead 15

Leadhills 18

Miners 19

Hopetoun mansion 20

Hostess 20

6. Road to Crawfordjohn 22

Douglas Mill 28

Clyde--Lanerk 31

Boniton Linn 33

Second Week.

7. Falls of the Clyde 35

Cartland Crags 40

Fall of Stonebyres--Trough of the Clyde 43

Hamilton 44

8. Hamilton House 45

Baroncleuch--Bothwell Castle 48

Glasgow 52

9. Bleaching ground (Glasgow Green) 53

Road to Dumbarton 55

10. Rocks and Castle of Dumbarton 58

Vale of Leven 62

Smollett's Monument 63

Loch Achray 64

Luss 67

11. Islands of Loch Lomond 71

Road to Tarbet 75

The Cobbler 78

Tarbet 79

12. Left Tarbet for the Trossachs 81

Rob Roy's Caves 82

Inversneyde Ferryhouse and Waterfall 83

Singular building 84

Loch Ketterine 86

Glengyle 88

Mr. Macfarlane's 89

13. Breakfast at Glengyle 91

Lairds of Glengyle--Rob Roy 92

Burying ground 94

Ferryman's Hut 95

Trossachs 96

Loch Achray 101

Return to Ferryman's Hut 102

Third Week.

14. Left Loch Ketterine 106

Garrison House--Highland Girls 107

Ferryhouse at Inversneyde 108

Poem to the Highland Girl 113

Return to Tarbet 115

15. Coleridge resolves to go home 117

Arrochar--Loch Long 118

Parted with Coleridge 119

Glen Croe--The Cobbler 121

Glen Kinglas--Cairndow 123

16. Road to Inverary 124

Inverary 126

17. Vale of Arey 129

Loch Awe 134

Kilchurn Castle 138

Dalmally 139

18. Loch Awe 141

Taynuilt 143

Bunawe--Loch Etive 144

Tinkers 149

19. Road by Loch Etive downwards 152

Dunstaffnage Castle 153

Loch Crerar 156

Strath of Appin--Portnacroish 158

Islands of Loch Linnhe 159

Morven 160

Lord Tweeddale 161

Strath of Duror 163

Ballachulish 164

20. Road to Glen Coe up Loch Leven 165

Blacksmith's house 166

Glen Coe 172

Whisky hovel 174

King's House 175

Fourth Week.

21. Road to Inveroran 180

Inveroran--Public-house 182

Road to Tyndrum 183

Tyndrum 184

Loch Dochart 185

22. Killin 186

Loch Tay 188

Kenmore 189

23. Lord Breadalbane's grounds 193

Vale of Tay--Aberfeldy--Falls of Moness 194

River Tummel--Vale of Tummel 196

Fascally--Blair 197

24. Duke of Athol's gardens 198

Falls of Bruar--Mountain-road to Loch Tummel 201

Loch Tummel 203

Rivers Tummel and Garry 204

Fascally 205

25. Pass of Killicrankie--Sonnet 207

Fall of Tummel 208

Dunkeld 209

Fall of the Bran 210

26. Duke of Athol's gardens 211

Glen of the Bran--Rumbling Brig 212

Narrow Glen--Poem 213

Crieff 215

27. Strath Erne 215

Lord Melville's house--Loch Erne 216

Strath Eyer--Loch Lubnaig 217

Bruce the Traveller--Pass of Leny--Callander 218

Fifth Week.

28. Road to the Trossachs--Loch Vennachar 219

Loch Achray--Trossachs--Road up Loch Ketterine 220

Poem: 'Stepping Westward' 221

Boatman's hut 222

29. Road to Loch Lomond 223

Ferryhouse at Inversneyde 223

Walk up Loch Lomond 224

Glenfalloch 226

Glengyle 228

Rob Roy's Grave--Poem 229

Boatman's Hut 233

30. Mountain-Road to Loch Voil 235

Poem, 'The Solitary Reaper' 237

Strath Eyer 239

31. Loch Lubnaig 240

Callander--Stirling--Falkirk 241

32. Linlithgow--Road to Edinburgh 242

33. Edinburgh 243

Roslin 245

34. Roslin--Hawthornden 246

Road to Peebles 247

Sixth Week.

35. Peebles--Neidpath Castle--Sonnet 248

Tweed 249

Clovenford 251

Poem on Yarrow 252

36. Melrose--Melrose Abbey 255

37. Dryburgh 257

Jedburgh--Old Woman 260

Poem 262

38. Vale of Jed--Ferniehurst 265

39. Jedburgh--The Assizes 267

Vale of Teviot 268

Hawick 270

40. Vale of Teviot--Branxholm 270

Moss Paul 271

Langholm 272

41. Road to Longtown 272

River Esk--Carlisle 273

42. Arrival at home 274

APPENDIX 277

NOTES 309

ITINERARY 317

POEMS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE JOURNAL

1803.

PAGE

To the Sons of Burns, after visiting the Grave of their 277 Father

At the Grave of Burns, 1803 278

Thoughts suggested the day following, on the Banks of 281 Nith, near the Poet's Residence

To a Highland Girl 113

Address to Kilchurn Castle, upon Loch Awe 285

Sonnet in the Pass of Killicrankie 207

Glen Almain; or the Narrow Glen 213

The Solitary Reaper 237

Stepping Westward 221

Rob Roy's Grave 229

Sonnet composed at Neidpath Castle 248

Yarrow Unvisited 252

The Matron of Jedborough and her Husband 262

Fly, some kind Spirit, fly to Grasmere Vale! 274

The Blind Highland Boy 286

1814.

The Brownie's Cell 298

Cora Linn, in sight of Wallace's Tower 283

Effusion, in the Pleasure-ground on the banks of the Bran, 294 near Dunkeld

Yarrow Visited 301

1831.

Yarrow Re-visited 304

On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from Abbotsford, for 307 Naples

The Trossachs 308

PREFACE.

Those who have long known the poetry of Wordsworth will be no strangers to the existence of this Journal of his sister, which is now for the first time published entire. They will have by heart those few wonderful sentences from it which here and there stand at the head of the Poet's 'Memorials of a Tour in Scotland in 1803.' Especially they will remember that 'Extract from the Journal of my Companion' which preludes the 'Address to Kilchurn Castle upon Loch Awe,' and they may sometimes have asked themselves whether the prose of the sister is not as truly poetic and as memorable as her brother's verse. If they have read the Memoirs of the Poet published by his nephew the Bishop of Lincoln, they will have found there fuller extracts from the Journal, which quite maintain the impression made by the first brief sentences. All true Wordsworthians then will welcome, I believe, the present publication. They will find in it not only new and illustrative light on those Scottish poems which they have so long known, but a faithful commentary on the character of the poet, his mode of life, and the manner of his poetry. Those who from close study of Wordsworth's poetry know both the poet and his sister, and what they were to each other, will need nothing more than the Journal itself. If it were likely to fall only into their hands, it might be left without one word of comment or illustration. But as it may reach some who have never read Wordsworth, and others who having read do not relish him, for the information of these something more must be said. The Journal now published does not borrow all its worth from its bearing on the great poet. It has merit and value of its own, which may commend it to some who have no heart for Wordsworth's poetry. For the writer of it was in herself no common woman, and might have secured for herself an independent reputation, had she not chosen rather that other part, to forget and merge herself entirely in the work and reputation of her brother.

* * * * *

DOROTHY WORDSWORTH was the only sister of the poet, a year and a half younger, having been born on Christmas Day 1771. The five children who composed the family, four sons and one daughter, lost their mother in 1778, when William was eight, and Dorothy six years old. The father died five years afterwards, at the close of 1783, and the family home at Cockermouth was broken up and the children scattered. Before his father's death, William, in his ninth year, had gone with his elder brother to school at Hawkshead, by the lake of Esthwaite, and after the father died Dorothy was brought up by a cousin on her mother's side, Miss Threlkeld, afterwards Mrs. Rawson, who lived in Halifax. During the eight years which Wordsworth spent at school, or, at any rate, from the time of his father's death, he and his sister seem seldom, if ever, to have met.

The first college vacation in the summer of 1788 brought him back to his old school in the vale of Esthwaite, and either this or the next of his undergraduate summers restored him to the society of his sister at Penrith. This meeting is thus described in the 'Prelude:'--

'In summer, making quest for works of art, Or scenes renowned for beauty, I explored That streamlet whose blue current works its way Between romantic Dovedale's spiry rocks; Pried into Yorkshire dales, or hidden tracts Of my own native region, and was blest Between these sundry wanderings with a joy Above all joys, that seemed another morn Risen on mid-noon; blest with the presence, Friend! Of that sole sister, her who hath been long Dear to thee also, thy true friend and mine, Now, after separation desolate Restored to me--such absence that she seemed A gift then first bestowed.'

They then together wandered by the banks of Emont, among the woods of Lowther, and 'climbing the Border Beacon looked wistfully towards the dim regions of Scotland.' Then and there too Wordsworth first met that young kinswoman who was his wife to be.

During the following summers the Poet was busy with walking tours in Switzerland and North Italy, his residence in France, his absorption in the French Revolution, which kept him some years longer apart from his sister. During those years Miss Wordsworth lived much with her uncle Dr. Cookson, who was a canon of Windsor and a favourite with the Court, and there met with people of more learning and refinement, but not of greater worth, than those she had left in her northern home.

In the beginning of 1794 Wordsworth, returned from his wanderings, came to visit his sister at Halifax, his head still in a whirl with revolutionary fervours. He was wandering about among his friends with no certain dwelling-place, no fixed plan of life, his practical purposes and his opinions, political, philosophical, and religious, all alike at sea. But whatever else might remain unsettled, the bread-and-butter question, as Coleridge calls it, could not. The thought of orders, for which his friends intended him, had been abandoned; law he abominated; writing for the newspaper press seemed the only resource. In this seething state of mind he sought once more his sister's calming society, and the two travelled together on foot from Kendal to Grasmere, from Grasmere to Keswick, 'through the most delightful country that was ever seen.'

Towards the close of this year (1794) Wordsworth would probably have gone to London to take up the trade of a writer for the newspapers. From this however he was held back for a time by the duty of nursing his friend Raisley Calvert, who lay dying at Penrith. Early in 1795 the young man died, leaving to his friend, the young Poet, a legacy of 900 pounds. The world did not then hold Wordsworth for a poet, and had received with coldness his first attempt, 'Descriptive Sketches and an Evening Walk,' published two years before. But the dying youth had seen further than the world, and felt convinced that his friend, if he had leisure given him to put forth his powers, would do something which would make the world his debtor. With this view he bequeathed him the small sum above named. And seldom has such a bequest borne ampler fruit. 'Upon the interest of the 900 pounds, 400 pounds being laid out in annuity, with 200 pounds deducted from the principal, and 100 pounds a legacy to my sister, and 100 pounds more which "The Lyrical Ballads" have brought me, my sister and I have contrived to live seven years, nearly eight.' So wrote Wordsworth in 1805 to his friend Sir George Beaumont. Thus at this juncture of the Poet's fate, when to onlookers he must have seemed both outwardly and inwardly well-nigh bankrupt, Raisley Calvert's bequest came to supply his material needs, and to his inward needs his sister became the best earthly minister. For his mind was ill at ease. The high hopes awakened in him by the French Revolution had been dashed, and his spirit, darkened and depressed, was on the verge of despair. He might have become such a man as he has pictured in the character of 'The Solitary.' But a good Providence brought his sister to his side and saved him. She discerned his real need and divined the remedy. By her cheerful society, fine tact, and vivid love for nature she turned him, depressed and bewildered, alike from the abstract speculations and the contemporary politics in which he had got immersed, and directed his thoughts towards truth of poetry, and the face of nature, and the healing that for him lay in these.

'Then it was That the beloved sister in whose sight Those days were passed-- Maintained for me a saving intercourse With my true self; for though bedimmed and changed Much, as it seemed, I was no further changed Than as a clouded or a waning moon: She whispered still that brightness would return, She, in the midst of all, preserved me still A Poet, made me seek beneath that name, And that alone, my office upon earth.

By intercourse with her and wanderings together in delightful places of his native country, he was gradually led back

'To those sweet counsels between head and heart Whence genuine knowledge grew.'

The brother and sister, having thus cast in their lots together, settled at Racedown Lodge in Dorsetshire in the autumn of 1795. They had there a pleasant house, with a good garden, and around them charming walks and a delightful country looking out on the distant sea. The place was very retired, with little or no society, and the post only once a week. But of employment there was no lack. The brother now settled steadily to poetic work; the sister engaged in household duties and reading, and then when work was over, there were endless walks and wanderings. Long years afterwards Miss Wordsworth spoke of Racedown as the place she looked back to with most affection. 'It was,' she said, 'the first home I had.'

The poems which Wordsworth there composed were not among his best,--'The Borderers,' 'Guilt or Sorrow,' and others. He was yet only groping to find his true subjects and his own proper manner. But there was one piece there composed which will stand comparison with any tale he ever wrote. It was 'The Ruined Cottage,' which, under the title of the 'Story of Margaret,' he afterwards incorporated in the first Book of 'The Excursion.' It was when they had been nearly two years at Racedown that they received a guest who was destined to exercise more influence on the self-contained Wordsworth than any other man ever did. This was S. T. Coleridge. One can imagine how he would talk, interrupted only by their mutually reading aloud their respective Tragedies, both of which are now well-nigh forgotten, and by Wordsworth reading his 'Ruined Cottage,' which is not forgotten. Miss Wordsworth describes S. T. C., as he then was, in words that are well known. And he describes her thus, in words less known,--'She is a woman indeed, in mind I mean, and in heart; for her person is such that if you expected to see a pretty woman, you would think her ordinary; if you expected to see an ordinary woman, you would think her pretty, but her manners are simple, ardent, impressive. In every motion her innocent soul out-beams so brightly, that who saw her would say, "Guilt was a thing impossible with her." Her information various, her eye watchful in minutest observation of nature, and her taste a perfect electrometer.'