In the _Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence_ of Henry Crabb Robinson, there is an entry, dated January 2, 1820:--"Went to Lamb's, where I found Mr. and Mrs. Wordsworth.... Not much was said about his (W.'s) new volume of Poems. He himself spoke of _The Brownie's Cell_ as his favourite" (vol. ii. p. 162). In the following year Mr. Crabb Robinson himself visited Scotland, and wrote thus on the 16th September:--"Being on the western side of Loch Lomond, opposite the Mill at Inversnaid, some women kindled a fire, the smoke of which was to be a signal for a ferryboat. No ferryman came; and a feeble old man offering himself as a boatman, I intrusted myself to him. I asked the women who he was. They said, 'That's old Andrew.' According to their account he lived a hermit's life in a lone island on the lake; the poor peasantry giving him meal, and what he wanted, and he picking up pence. On my asking him whether he would take me across the lake, he said, 'I wull, if you'll gi'e me saxpence.' So I consented. But before I was half over I repented of my rashness, for I feared the oars would fall out of his hands. A breath of wind would have rendered half the voyage too much for him. There was some cunning mixed up with the fellow's seeming imbecility, for when his strength was failing he rested, and entered into talk, manifestly to amuse me. He said he could see things before they happened. He saw the Radicals before they came, etc. He had picked up a few words of Spanish and German, which he uttered ridiculously, and laughed. But when I put troublesome questions he affected not to understand me; and was quite astonished, as well as delighted, when I gave him two sixpences instead of the one he had bargained for. The simple-minded women, who affected to look down on him, seemed, however, to stand in awe of him, and no wonder. On my telling Wordsworth this history, he exclaimed, 'That's my "Brownie!"' His _Brownie's Cell_ is by no means one of my favourite poems. My sight of old Andrew showed me the stuff out of which a poetical mind can weave such a web" (vol. ii. pp. 212, 213). Compare the sequel to this poem, _The Brownie_, in the "Yarrow Revisited and other Poems," of the Tour made in Scotland in the autumn of 1831.--ED. VARIANTS: [Footnote 13: 1820. individual, a sketch of whose character is given in the Poem, MS. ] [Footnote 14: 1837. To barren heath, and quaking fen, 1820. To {swampy} heath, and quaking fen, MS. {sandy } ] [Footnote 15: 1820. Dark moor and ... MS. ] [Footnote 16: Italics were first used in 1827.] [Footnote 17: 1820. When on ... MS. ] [Footnote 18: 1820. Distempered Power ... MS. ] [Footnote 19: 1820.