to a particular year, it is to be taken for granted that the reading in question was continued in all subsequent editions, till the text was finally adjusted in 1849-50.

Two illustrations will make this clear. The first is a case in which the text was only altered once, the second an instance in which it was altered six times. In the Evening Walk the following lines occur

The dog loud barking 'mid the glittering rocks,

Hunts, where his master points, the intercepted flocks.

And the footnote is as follows

1836.

That barking busy 'mid the glittering rocks,
Hunts, where he points, the intercepted flocks.

1793.

In the light of what has been said above, and by reference to the preceding bibliography, it will be seen from these two dates that the original text of 1793-given in the footnote

-was continued in editions 1820, 1827, and 1832 (it was omitted in the "extract" of 1815); that it was changed in the year 1836; and that this reading was retained in editions 1843, 1845, and 1849.

Again, in Simon Lee, the lines occur—

But what to them avails the land

Which he can till no longer?

And the following are the footnotes

From this it will be seen that the text adopted in the Lyrical Ballads of 1798 was retained in editions 1800, 1801, 1805, 1815, and 1820; that it was altered in each of the editions of 1827, 1832, 1836, 1843, in the MS. reading in Lord Coleridge's copy of the works, and in the edition of 1845; and that the version of 1845 was retained in the edition of 1849-50.

Further, when a verse, or stanza, or line, occurring in one or other of the earlier editions, was omitted from that of 1849, the footnote simply contains the extract along with the date of the year or years in which it occurs; and in such cases the date does not follow the reference number of the footnote, but is placed for obvious reasons at the end of the extract.

It may be added that slight changes of spelling which occur in the successive editions, and such alterations as ye for you, are not mentioned. When the change is one of transposition, however, although the text remains unaltered,

as is largely the case in Simon Lee, for example—the change is always indicated.

It will be further observed that, at the beginning of every poem, two dates are given; the first, on the left-hand side, being the date of composition; and the second, on the right-hand side, being the date of the first publication of the poem.

ST ANDREWS, January, 1882.

WILLIAM KNIGHT.

CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF THE POEMS.

COMPOSED.

1785.

1786.

1785 to 1797.

School Exercise at Hawkshead, .
Extract from a Poem on Leaving School,

1786 (probably). Sonnet, "Written in very early youth,"

1787-9.

FIRST PUBLISHED.

"Calm is all nature as a resting wheel."
An Evening Walk. An Epistle; in verse,
addressed to a young lady, from the lakes
of the North of England,

Remembrance of Collins, composed upon the
Thames, near Richmond,

1793

1789.

Lines, written while sailing in a Boat at
evening,

1798

1789.

1793

1791-2.

1795.

1795-6. 1795.

Descriptive Sketches in verse, taken during
a pedestrian tour among the Alps,
Guilt and Sorrow; or, Incidents upon Salis-
bury Plain,

One-third of this poem was published under the title of "The Female Vagrant," in Lines, left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree, which stands near the Lake of Esthwaite, on a desolate part of the shore, commanding a beautiful prospect,

The Birth of Love, translated from some French

stanzas by Francis Wrangham,

1797.

The Reverie of Poor Susan,

The Mad Mother; or, "Her eyes are wild,"

1798.

1798.

1798.

1798.

1798.

1798.

1798. 1798.

1798. 1798.

The Idiot Boy,

1798.

COMPOSED.

Simon Lee,

Lines written in Early Spring,
To my Sister, or "Lines, &c.,"
The Whirlblast,

Expostulation and Reply,

The Tables turned, an evening scene on the
same subject,.

The Complaint of a forsaken Indian Woman,
The Last of the Flock,

Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey, 1798
The Old Cumberland Beggar,

1798.

Animal Tranquillity and Decay; or, "Old Man
travelling,"

Influence of Natural Objects, In "The Friend," 1809
There was a Boy,

1800

Address to the Scholars of the Village School
of

Matthew; or, Lines written on a tablet in a

school,.

1800

1800

1807

1800

1800

1800

1800.

1800.

1800.

Song for the wandering Jew,

Rural Architecture,

Ellen Irwin; or, The Braes of Kirtle,
Andrew Jones,

The two Thieves,

A Character,

Inscription for the Spot where the Hermitage
stood on St Herbert's Island, Derwentwater,
Inscription for the House (an Out-house) on the
Island at Grasmere,

Lines, written with a slate-pencil upon a Stone,
the largest of a heap lying near a deserted
quarry, upon one of the islands at Rydal,

1800

1800

1800

1800

1800

1800

Sonnet, To Skiddaw, "Pelion and Ossa flourish

side by side,"

1802.

1807

1815

[Miss Wordsworth's Journal enables us to fix the dates of the composition of the poems of 1802 more accurately than those of any other year, and also to correct several of the dates given by the poet himself to Miss Fenwick in 1845.]

1802, March.

The Sailor's Mother, or The Singing Bird," 1807

To a Butterfly (first poem), "Stay near me," &c.,
The Emigrant Mother, or "Once in a lonely
hamlet,"

The Rainbow, or "My heart leaps up,"