[Frontispiece: WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, AETAT 77.] Lake Country Sketches By the Rev. H. D. Rawnsley Honorary Canon of Carlisle Author of "Literary Associations of the English Lakes." Glasgow James MacLehose and Sons Publishers to the University 1903 GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. TO A TRUE LOVER OF NATURE AND THE ENGLISH LAKES EDITH MY WIFE "From Nature and her overflowing soul, I had received so much, that all my thoughts Were steeped in feeling; I was only then Contented, when with bliss ineffable I felt the sentiment of Being spread O'er all that moves and all that seemeth still; O'er all that, lost beyond the reach of thought And human knowledge, to the human eye Invisible, yet liveth to the heart; O'er all that leaps and runs, and shouts and sings, Or beats the gladsome air; o'er all that glides Beneath the wave, yea, in the wave itself, And mighty depth of waters. Wonder not If high the transport, great the joy I felt, Communing in this sort through earth and heaven With every form of creature, as it looked Towards the Uncreated with a countenance Of adoration, with an eye of love." CONTENTS REMINISCENCES OF WORDSWORTH AMONG THE PEASANTRY OF WESTMORELAND WITH THE BLACK-HEADED GULLS IN CUMBERLAND AT THE GRASMERE PLAY JAMES CROPPER OF ELLERGREEN A DAY WITH ROMAN AND NORSE ARCTIC SPLENDOURS AT THE ENGLISH LAKES WILLIAM PEARSON OF BORDERSIDE JOSEPH HAWELL, A SKIDDAW SHEPHERD A FAMOUS YEW TREE LODORE AFTER STORM A NORTH COUNTRY NIMROD A WINTER DAY ON DERWENTWATER WORDSWORTH AT COCKERMOUTH MOUNTAIN SILENCE AND VALLEY SONG LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, AETAT 77, FROM CRAYON DRAWING BY MR. LEONARD C. WYON, Frontispiece DOROTHY WORDSWORTH JAMES CROPPER OF ELLERGREEN ARCTIC SPLENDOURS AT THE LAKES JOSEPH HAWELL THE LORTON YEW LODORE AFTER STORM A NORTH COUNTRY NIMROD A WINTER'S DAY ON DERWENTWATER FROM MONS BEATA, BRANDELHOW NOTE The Publishers have to thank Professor Knight and Mr. David Douglas for permission to reproduce the first illustration; Mr. Gordon Wordsworth for the second; Mr. J. Henry Hogg, Kendal, for the third; Mr. G. P. Abraham, Keswick, for the fourth and eighth; Mr. Mayson, Keswick, for the fifth and seventh; Mr. Rupert Potter for the sixth; Mr. A. Pettitt, Keswick, for the ninth and tenth illustrations. {1} REMINISCENCES OF WORDSWORTH AMONG THE PEASANTRY OF WESTMORELAND. Having grown up in the neighbourhood of Alfred Tennyson's old home in Lincolnshire, I had been struck with the swiftness with which, As year by year the labourer tills His wonted glebe, or lops the glades,