"When very many are skating together, the sounds and the noises give an impulse to the icy trees, and the woods all round the lake _tinkle_." 'The Friend', vol. ii. p. 325 (edition 1818).--Ed.] [Footnote h: The two preceding paragraphs were published in 'The Friend', December 28, 1809, under the title of the 'Growth of Genius from the Influences of Natural Objects on the Imagination, in Boyhood and Early Youth', and were afterwards inserted in all the collective editions of Wordsworth's poems, from 1815 onwards. For the changes of the text in these editions, see vol. ii. pp. 66-69.--Ed.] [Footnote i: The becks amongst the Furness Fells, in Yewdale, and elsewhere.--Ed.] [Footnote j: Possibly from the top of some of the rounded moraine hills on the western side of the Hawkshead Valley.--Ed.] [Footnote k: The pupils in the Hawkshead school, in Wordsworth's time, boarded in the houses of village dames. Wordsworth lived with one Anne Tyson, for whom he ever afterwards cherished the warmest regard, and whose simple character he has immortalised. (See especially in the fourth book of 'The Prelude', p. 187, etc.) Wordsworth lived in her cottage at Hawkshead during nine eventful years. It still remains externally unaltered, and little, if at all, changed in the interior. It may be reached through a picturesque archway, near the principal inn of the village (The Lion); and is on the right of a small open yard, which is entered through this archway. To the left, a lane leads westwards to the open country. It is a humble dwelling of two storeys. The floor of the basement flat-paved with the blue flags of Coniston slate--is not likely to have been changed since Wordsworth's time. The present door with its "latch" (see book ii. l. 339), is probably the same as that referred to in the poem, as in use in 1776, and onwards. For further details see notes to book iv.--Ed.] [Footnote l: Compare Pope's 'Rape of the Lock', canto iii. l. 54: 'Gained but one trump, and one plebeian card.' Ed.] [Footnote m: Compare Walton's 'Compleat Angler', part i. 4: 'I was for that time lifted above earth, And possess'd joys not promised in my birth.' Ed.] [Footnote n: The notes to this edition are explanatory rather than critical; but as this image has been objected to--as inaccurate, and out of all analogy with Wordsworth's use and wont--it may be mentioned that the noise of the breaking up of the ice, after a severe winter in these lakes, when it cracks and splits in all directions, is exactly as here described. It is not of course, in any sense peculiar to the English lakes; but there are probably few districts where the peculiar noise referred to can be heard so easily or frequently. Compare Coleridge's account of the Lake of Ratzeburg in winter, in 'The Friend', vol. ii. p. 323 (edition of 1818), and his reference to "the thunders and 'howlings' of the breaking ice."--Ed.]