What then wants the Child to temper, In her breast, unruly fire, To control the froward impulse 75 And restrain the vague desire? Easily a pious training And a stedfast outward power Would supplant the weeds and cherish, In their stead, each opening flower. 80 Thus the fearless Lamb-deliv’rer, Woman-grown, meek-hearted, sage, May become a blest example For her sex, of every age.[293] Watchful as a wheeling eagle, 85 Constant as a soaring lark, Should the country need a heroine, She might prove our Maid of Arc. Leave that thought; and here be uttered Prayer that Grace divine may raise 90 Her humane courageous spirit Up to heaven, thro’ peaceful ways.[294] [290] This Westmoreland Girl was Sarah Mackereth of Wyke Cottage, Grasmere. She married a man named Davis, and died in 1872 at Broughton in Furness. The swollen “flood” from which she rescued the lamb, was Wyke Gill beck, which descends from the centre of Silver Howe. The picturesque cottage, with round chimney,--a yew tree and Scotch fir behind it,--is on the western side of the road from Grasmere over to Langdale by Red Bank. The Mackereths have been a well-known Westmoreland family for some hundred years. They belong to the “gentry of the soil,” and have been parish clerks in Grasmere for generations. One of them was the tenant of the Swan Inn referred to in _The Waggoner_--the host who painted, with his own hand, the “famous swan,” used as a sign. (See vol. iii. p. 81.) The story of _The Blind Highland Boy_, which gave rise to the poem bearing that name, was told to Wordsworth by one of these Mackereths of Grasmere. (See the Fenwick note, vol. ii. p. 420.) In a letter to Professor Henry Reed (31st July 1845) Wordsworth said this poem might interest him “as exhibiting what sort of characters our mountains breed. It is truth to the letter.”--ED. [291] 1845. … its simple dam. MS. [292] 1845. … must lie in earth. MS. [293] Compare _Grace Darling_, p. 311 in this volume.--ED. [294] 1845. Leave that word--and here be offered Prayer that Grace divine would raise This humane courageous spirit Up to Heaven through peaceful ways. In a letter to Henry Reed, July 1845. AT FURNESS ABBEY Composed 1845.--Published 1845 One of the “Miscellaneous Sonnets.”--ED.