lage of Threlkeld
and its neighbourhood, his principal retreat, that, in the course of his
shepherd-life, he had acquired great astronomical knowledge. I cannot
conclude this note without adding a word upon the subject of those
numerous and noble feudal Edifices, spoken of in the Poem, the ruins of
some of which are, at this day, so great an ornament to that interesting
country. The Cliffords had always been distinguished for an honourable
pride in these Castles; and we have seen that after the wars of York and
Lancaster they were rebuilt; in the civil wars of Charles the First they
were again laid waste, and again restored almost to their former
magnificence by the celebrated Mary Anne Clifford, Countess of Pembroke,
&c. &c. Not more than twenty-five years after this was done, when the
estates of Clifford had passed into the family of Tufton, three of these
castles, namely, Brough, Brougham, and Pendragon, were demolished, and
the timber and other materials sold by Thomas Earl of Thanet. We will
hope that, when this order was issued, the Earl had not consulted the
text of Isaiah, 58th chap. 12th verse, to which the inscription placed
over the gate of Pendragon Castle, by the Countess of Pembroke (I
believe his grandmother), at the time she repaired that structure,
refers the reader:--'_And they that shall be of thee shall build the old
waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations;
and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of
paths to dwell in_.' The Earl of Thanet, the present possessor of the
estates, with a due respect for the memory of his ancestors, and a
proper sense of the value and beauty of these remains of antiquity, has
(I am told) given orders that they shall be preserved from all
depredations.

150. *_Ibid._

See the note attached. This poem was composed at Coleorton, while I was
walking to and fro along the path that led from Sir George Beaumont's
farm-house, where we resided, to the Hall, which was building at that
time.

151. _Sir John Beaumont_.

'Earth helped him with the cry of blood' (l. 27).

This line is from 'The Battle of Bosworth Field,' by Sir John Beaumont
(brother to the dramatist), whose poems are written with much spirit,
elegance, and harmony; and have deservedly been reprinted in Chalmers'
_Collection of English Poets_.

152. _The undying Fish of Bowscale Tarn_ (l. 122).

It is believed by the people of the country that t