Fallen, and diffused into a shapeless heap, Or quietly self-buried in earth's mould, Is that embattled House, whose massy Keep Flung from yon cliff[459] a shadow large and cold. There dwelt the gay, the bountiful, the bold; 5 Till nightly lamentations, like the sweep Of winds--though[460] winds were silent--struck a deep And lasting terror through that ancient Hold. Its line of Warriors fled;--they shrunk when tried[461] By ghostly power:--but Time's unsparing hand 10 Hath plucked such foes, like weeds, from out the land; And now, if men with men in peace abide, All other strength the weakest may withstand, All worse assaults may safely be defied.[GD] VARIANTS: [Footnote 459: 1819. ... height ... MS. ] [Footnote 460: 1827. ... when ... MS. and 1819. ] [Footnote 461: 1819. There dwelt the rash, the bountiful, the bold, The fair, the gay; undaunted, unabased; Till supernatural visitation chased That line of warriors from their ancient hold. --Stranger they fled--their courage shrunk when tried MS. ] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote GD: Sonnet No. XXVII. having been first published in _The Waggoner_ and other poems (1819), was not reprinted in either of the editions of 1820. It was "taken from a tradition belonging to Rydal Hall," as is explained in the Fenwick note, p. 226.--ED. "Sonnets XXIV. to XXVII. appear to have been written in one spot,--some 'Nook--with woodbine hung and straggling weed.' If the poet has strictly retained in the sonnets the order in which the places lie upon the river-bank, this nook must be within a stone's throw of the pool mentioned in the preceding note, for the scenes of Sonnets XXIX. and XXXI. are close at hand. But, though there are plenty of such 'grottos' or 'arbours' here, some difficulty arises from the fact that the Old Hall and ruined keep cannot be seen from this part of the stream, nor, indeed, can they be seen from Ulpha itself, nor from any part of the high road. The height upon which the ruin stands is certainly a prominent feature in the landscape, but the ruin itself is completely hidden by a shoulder of the hill, neither can the hill by any stretch of the imagination be called a 'cliff.' The only point of view from which the castle appears to stand upon a 'cliff' is reached by a footpath near some copper works, about half way up Holehouse Ghyll. Here you see the ruin at the end (or rather _bend_) of the Ghyll high above your head, the sides of the ravine rising steeply to its walls. Holehouse Ghyll is thickly wooded, so that this may very possibly be the poet's 'dim retreat,' the chief objection being that the Ghyll lies below Ulpha Kirk, and that the order of the sonnets would thus be broken.