To all the nestling brood of thoughts Sustained by chaste affection! 1820. ] [Footnote 39: 1827. The wild wood's ... 1815. ] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote Q: Newark Castle, a "large, square, roofless, ancient castle, scene of Sir Walter Scott's _Lay of the Last Minstrel_, four miles west by north of Selkirk." (Wilson's _Gazetteer of Scotland_.)--ED.] [Footnote R: _i.e. Yarrow Unvisited._--ED.] LINES WRITTEN[40] ON A BLANK LEAF IN A COPY OF THE AUTHOR'S POEM "THE EXCURSION," UPON HEARING OF THE DEATH OF THE LATE VICAR OF KENDAL. Composed 1814.--Published 1815 One of the "Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces."--ED. To public notice, with reluctance strong, Did I deliver this unfinished Song; Yet for one happy issue;--and I look With self-congratulation on the Book Which pious, learned, MURFITT saw and read;-- 5 Upon my thoughts his saintly Spirit fed; He conned the new-born Lay with grateful heart-- Foreboding not how soon he must depart; Unweeting that to him the joy was given Which good men take with them from earth to heaven. 10 _The Annals of Kendal_--an octavo volume containing information on all subjects of historical or antiquarian interest connected with the town--contains no reference to Mr. Murfitt, except a copy of the inscription on his monument. He was instituted vicar of Kendal in 1806, and died on the 7th November 1814. The following is a copy of the inscription. To the Memory of The Reverend Matthew Murfitt, A.M. Vicar of Kendal And formerly Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge, Who died Nov. 7, 1814, aged 50 years. He was a pious, learned, and eloquent Divine, A sincere Friend, a kind husband And in every relation of Life A most worthy man. The monument is erected against the north wall of the Parish Church of Kendal. The phrase in the second line of the sonnet, "this unfinished Song," refers to _The Excursion_ being only part of a longer unfinished poem, _The Recluse_. (See the preface to the edition of 1814.)--ED. VARIANT: [Footnote 40: 1845. Written, November 13, 1814, ... 1815. ] 1815 In 1815 few poems were written, with the exception of the _Dedication to The White Doe of Rylstone_, one or two sonnets, and _Artegal and Elidure_. If we were to trust entirely to the Fenwick note to _Laodamia_, _Artegal and Elidure_ would require to be transferred, along with it and _Dion_, to 1814. When Wordsworth, in 1845, separated the _Ode_, beginning Imagination--ne'er before content