FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: As Wordsworth gives the date of this poem as 1798, the
above line implies that his poetical work began at least in 1784, when
he was fourteen years of age. The note to 'An Evening Walk' dictated to
Miss Fenwick (see p. 5) implies the same.--Ed.]

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SUB-FOOTNOTE ON THE VARIANT

[Sub-Footnote i: This change was made by S. T. C.--Ed.]

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THE OLD CUMBERLAND BEGGAR [A]

Composed 1798.--Published 1800.

The class of Beggars to which the old man here described
belongs, will probably soon be extinct. It consisted of poor,
and, mostly, old and infirm persons, who confined themselves to
a stated round in their neighbourhood, and had certain fixed
days, on which, at different houses, they regularly received
charity; sometimes in money, but mostly in provisions.-W. W.
1800.

[Observed, and with great benefit to my own heart, when I was a child.
Written at Racedown and Alfoxden in my twenty-third year. [B] The
Political Economists were about that time beginning their war upon
mendicity in all its forms, and by implication, if not directly, on
alms-giving also. This heartless process has been carried as far as it
can go by the AMENDED Poor Law Bill, tho' the inhumanity that prevails
in this measure is somewhat disguised by the profession that one of
its objects is to throw the poor upon the voluntary donations of their
neighbours; that is, if rightly interpreted, to force them into a
condition between relief in the Union Poor House and alms robbed of
their Christian grace and spirit, as being _forced_ rather from the
benevolent than given by them; while the avaricious and selfish, and
all, in fact, but the humane and charitable, are at liberty to keep
all they possess from their distressed brethren.--I. F.]

Included among the "Poems referring to the Period of Old Age."--Ed.

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THE POEM

I saw an aged Beggar in my walk;
And he was seated, by the highway side,
On a low structure of rude masonry
Built at the foot of a huge hill, that they
Who lead their horses down the steep rough road 5
May thence remount at ease. The aged Man
Had placed his staff across the broad smooth stone
That overlays the pile; and, from a bag
All white with flour, the dole of village dames,
He dre