The title given to this poem by Dorothy Wordsworth, in the letter to Lady Beaumont in which the different MS. readings occur, is "A Jewish Family, met with in a Dingle near the Rhine." During the Continental Tour of 1820,--in which Wordsworth was accompanied by his wife and sister and other friends,--they went up the Rhine (see the notes to the poems recording that Tour). An extract from Mrs. Wordsworth's Journal, referring to the road from St. Goar to Bingen, may illustrate this poem, written in 1828. "From St. Goar to Bingen, castles commanding innumerable small fortified villages. Nothing could exceed the delightful variety, and at first the postilions whisked us too fast through these scenes; and afterwards, the same variety so often repeated, we became quite exhausted, at least D. and I were; and, beautiful as the road continued to be, we could scarcely keep our eyes open; but, on my being roused from one of these slumbers, no eye wide-awake ever beheld such celestial pictures as gleamed before mine, like visions belonging to dreams. The castles seemed now almost _stationary_, a continued succession always in sight, rarely without two or three before us at once. There they rose from the craggy cliffs, out of the centre of the stately river, from a green island, or a craggy rock, etc., etc." In Dorothy Wordsworth's record of the same Tour, the following occurs:--"July 24.--We looked down into one of the vales tributary to the Rhine, which, in memory of the mountain recesses of Ullswater, I named Deep-dale, a green quiet place, spotted with villages and single houses, and enlivened by a sinuous brook." ... "A lovely dell runs behind one of these hills. At its opening, where it pours out its stream into the Rhine, we espied a one-arched Borrowdale bridge; and, behind the bridge, a village almost buried between the abruptly rising steeps."--ED. FOOTNOTES: [550] 1835. With memory left of shapes and things MS. written by Dorothy Wordsworth. [551] 1835. On ... MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth. [552] 1835. ... this sweet Boy, MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth. [553] 1835. In playfulness, ... MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth. [554] Compare _The Russian Fugitive_, ll. 1-4.--ED. [555] 1835. Fair Creatures, in this lone retreat By happy chance espied, Your soul-subduing looks ... MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth. [556] 1835. Upon you--not forlorn, MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth. INCIDENT AT BRUGÈS Composed 1828.--Published 1835