Ed.]

[Footnote P: He stayed in London during the winter of 1792-3 and spring
of 1793, probably with his elder brother Richard (who was a solicitor
there), writing his remarkable letter on the French Revolution to the
Bishop of Landaff, and doubtless making arrangements for the publication
of the 'Evening Walk'. The 'Descriptive Sketches' were not written till
the summer of 1793 (compare the thirteenth book of 'The Prelude', p.
366); but in a letter dated "Forncett, February 16th, 1793," his sister
sends to a friend an interesting criticism of her brother's verses. The
'Evening Walk' must therefore have appeared in January 1793.--Ed.]

[Footnote Q: The movement for the abolition of slavery, led by Clarkson
and Wilberforce. Compare the sonnet 'To Thomas Clarkson, on the final
passing of the Bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, March' 1807,
in vol. iv.--Ed.]

[Footnote R: The red-cross flag, i. e. the British ensign.

"On the union of the crowns of England and Scotland, James I. issued a
proclamation that _all subjects of this isle and the kingdom of Great
Britain should bear in the main-top the red cross commonly called St.
George's Cross, and the white cross commonly called St. Andrew's
Cross, joined together according to the form made by our own heralds._
This was the first Union Jack."

'Encyclopaedia Britannica' (ninth edition), article "Flag."--Ed.]

[Footnote S: In the Isle of Wight. Wordsworth spent a month of the
summer of 1793 there, with William Calvert. (See the Advertisement to
'Guilt and Sorrow', vol. i. p. 77.)--Ed.]

[Footnote T: The goddess of Reason, enthroned in Paris, November 10th,
1793.--Ed.]

[Footnote U: Jeanne-Marie Phlipon--Madame Roland--was guillotined on the
8th of November 1793.

"Arrived at the foot of the scaffold, she asked for pen and paper _to
write the strange thoughts that were rising in her_: a remarkable
request; which was refused. Looking at the Statue of Liberty which
stands there, she says bitterly: _O Liberty, what things are done in
thy name!_ ... Like a white Grecian Statue, serenely complete," adds
Carlyle, "she shines in that black wreck of things,--long memorable."

'French Revolution', vol. iii. book v. chap. 2.

Madame Roland's apostrophe was

'O Liberte, que de crimes l'on commet en ton nom!'

Ed.]

[Footnote V: In the long vacation of 1790, with his friend Jones.--Ed.]

[Footnote W: Compare the sonnet, v