From sire to son, in this obscure retreat

The Knight arrived, with spear and shield, and borne
Upon a Charger gorgeously bedecked
With broidered housings.1

And the lofty Steed

His sole companion, and his faithful friend,
Whom he, in gratitude, let loose to range
In fertile pastures-was beheld with eyes
Of admiration and delightful awe,
By those untravelled Dalesmen.
Yet free from touch of envious discontent,
They saw a mansion at his bidding rise,
Like a bright star, amid the lowly band

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*

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With less pride,

Of their rude homesteads. Here the Warrior dwelt ;
And, in that mansion, children of his own,

Or kindred, gathered round him. As a tree

That falls and disappears, the house is gone ; †

And, through improvidence or want of love

For ancient worth and honourable things,

The spear and shield are vanished, which the Knight
Hung in his rustic hall. One ivied arch

Myself have seen, a gateway,† last remains

Of that foundation in domestic care

Raised by his hands.

And now no trace is left

Of the mild-hearted Champion, save this stone,
Faithless memorial! and his family name
Borne by yon clustering cottages, that sprang
From out the ruins of his stately lodge:

These, and the name and title at full length,

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960

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970

The Knight arrived, with pomp of spear and shield,
And borne upon a Charger covered o'er
With gilded housings.

1814.

*See Spenser's Faërie Queene, part 1, canto viii. stanza 2.-ED. "The pillars of the gateway in front of the mansion remained when we first took up our abode at Grasmere. Two or three cottages still remain which are called Nott Houses, from the name of the gentleman (I have called him a knight) concerning whom these traditions survive. He was the ancestor of the Knott family, formerly considerable proprietors in the district."--I. F.

Sir Alfred Erthing, with appropriate words
Accompanied, still extant, in a wreath
Or posy, girding round the several fronts
Of three clear-sounding and harmonious bells,
That in the steeple hang, his pious gift."*

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980

"So fails, so languishes, grows dim, and dies," The grey-haired Wanderer pensively exclaimed, "All that this world is proud of. From their spheres The stars of human glory are cast down; Perish the roses and the flowers of kings,† Princes, and emperors, and the crowns and palms Of all the mighty, withered and consumed! Nor is power given to lowliest innocence Long to protect her own. The man himself Departs; and soon is spent the line of those

985

* It is clear from the Fenwick note (see p. 13) that the title, "Sir Alfred Irthing," was Wordsworth's invention. I am indebted to the Rector of Grasmere the Rev. Henry M. Fletcher-for the following information as to the bells of the church, and to the "Nott house":

"Three bells hang in the tower. That they are 'clear-sounding_and harmonious' I think may be said of them without poetical license. They have not on them the name and title of their donor. Two of them have coats of arms. My son believes that the quarterings show that they were the gifts of the Flemings of Rydal Hall, patrons, for some hundred years, of the living. The third, and smallest, reports of itself that it was recast at the expense of Mrs. Dorothy Knott, in the year 1808, and that Thomas Mears of London did the work. This last inscription is partly in Latin. The two older bells have on them the inscriptions respectively of Soli Deo' and Gloria in altissimis Deo.'

"Looking over the old book of Church Warden's accounts, I observe that, in the year 1732, there is an item

'Towards casting the bells, and other charges, £40, 3s. 9d.,'

and in the following year, 1733, again

'Towards casting the bells, and other charges, £49, os. 3d.' This, at a time when the whole of the general charge yearly ranged from £2 to £5. It was a re-casting, I presume.

"The Nott house' still exists, and is the residence of our chief 'statesman,' James Fleming. It is known as 'Knott's Houses.' In the dialect of this county, when purely used, there is no possessive 's. Mr. Fletcher's letters being always, e.g., spoken of at the post-office here as 'Mr. Fletcher letters.' 'Nott house, therefore, meant a house belonging to Mrs. Dorothy Knott, or her husband's forefathers. A little group of houses has formed round it; but the old Farm House, I make little doubt, is the one for which you ask.

See also Charles Lamb's remarks in his third letter to Wordsworth about The Excursion, written in 1814.

† See Wordsworth's note, p. 389.-ED.

Who, in the bodily image, in the mind,
In heart or soul, in station or pursuit,
Did most resemble him. Degrees and ranks,
Fraternities and orders-heaping high
New wealth upon the burthen of the old,
And placing trust in privilege confirmed
And re-confirmed-are scoffed at with a smile
Of greedy foretaste, from the secret stand
Of Desolation, aimed: to slow decline
These yield, and these to sudden overthrow:
Their virtue, service, happiness, and state
Expire; and nature's pleasant robe of green,
Humanity's appointed shroud, enwraps

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995

1000

Their monuments and their memory. The vast Frame
Of social nature changes evermore
Her organs and her members with decay
Restless, and restless generation, powers
And functions dying and produced at need,-
And by this law the mighty whole subsists:
With an ascent and progress in the main;
Yet, oh! how disproportioned to the hopes
And expectations of self-flattering minds!

1005

"The courteous Knight, whose bones are here interred,

Lived in an age conspicuous as our own

For strife and ferment in the minds of men ;
Whence alteration in the forms of things,
Various and vast. A memorable age!
Which did to him assign a pensive lot—
To linger 'mid the last of those bright clouds
That, on the steady breeze of honour, sailed
In long procession calm and beautiful.

He who had seen his own bright order fade,
And its devotion gradually decline,
(While war, relinquishing the lance and shield,
Her temper changed, and bowed to other laws)
Had also witnessed, in his morn of life,

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1015

1020

That violent commotion, which o'erthrew,
In town and city and sequestered glen,
Altar, and cross, and church of solemn roof,
And old religious house-pile after pile;
And shook their 1 tenants out into the fields,
Like wild beasts without home!

1025

Their hour was come;

But why no softening thought of gratitude,
No just remembrance, scruple, or wise doubt?
Benevolence is mild; nor borrows help,

1030

Save at worst need, from bold impetuous force,
Fitliest allied to anger and revenge.

But Human-kind rejoices in the might
Of mutability; and airy hopes,

Dancing around her, hinder and disturb
Those meditations of the soul that 2 feed

1035

The retrospective virtues. Festive songs

Break from the maddened nations at the sight
Of sudden overthrow; and cold neglect

Is the sure consequence of slow decay.

1040

'Even," said the Wanderer, "as that courteous Knight,

Bound by his vow to labour for redress

Of all who suffer wrong, and to enact
By sword and lance the law of gentleness,
(If I may venture of myself to speak,
Trusting that not incongruously I blend

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Low things with lofty) I too shall be doomed

To outlive the kindly use and fair esteem

Of the poor calling which my youth embraced
With no unworthy prospect. But enough;

-Thoughts crowd upon me—and 'twere seemlier now
To stop, and yield our gracious Teacher thanks

For the pathetic records which his voice

1050

Hath here delivered; words of heartfelt truth,
Tending to patience when affliction strikes ;
To hope and love; to confident repose
In God; and reverence for the dust of Man."

1055

Book Eighth

THE PARSONAGE

ARGUMENT

Pastor's apology and apprehensions1 that he might have detained his Auditors too long, with the Pastor's invitation to his house2-Solitary disinclined to comply-rallies the Wanderer —and playfully3 draws a comparison between his itinerant profession and that of the Knight-errant-which leads to Wanderer's giving an account of changes in the Country from the manufacturing spirit-Favourable effects-The other side of the picture, and chiefly as it has affected the humbler classes-Wanderer asserts the hollowness of all national grandeur if unsupported by moral worth1_Physical science unable to support itself—Lamentations over an excess of manufacturing industry among the humbler Classes of Society-Picture of a Child employed in a Cotton-millIgnorance and degradation of Children among the agricultural Population reviewed-Conversation broken off by a renewed Invitation from the Pastor-Path leading to his House-Its appearance described-His Daughter-His Wife -His Son (a Boy) enters with his Companion — Their happy appearance-The Wanderer how affected by the sight of them.