e, September
1802.

214. *_Sonnets_ XXXIII.-V. 'Waters.'

Waters (as Mr. Westall informs us in the letter-press prefixed to his
admirable views [of the Caves, &c. of Yorkshire]) are invariably found
to flow through these caverns.

* * * * *

PART III

215. *_Sonnet_ IV. 'Fame tells of Groves,' &c.

Wallachia is the country alluded to.

216. *_Sonnet_ VII. 'Where lively ground,' &c.

This parsonage was the residence of my friend Jones, and is particularly
described in another note.

217. *_Sonnet_ IX. 'A stream to mingle,' &c.

In this Vale of Meditation ['Glen Mywr'] my friend Jones resided, having
been allowed by his Diocesan to fix himself there without resigning his
living in Oxfordshire. He was with my wife and daughter and me when we
visited these celebrated ladies, who had retired, as one may say, into
notice in this vale. Their cottage lay directly in the road between
London and Dublin, and they were, of course, visited by their Irish
friends as well as innumerable strangers. They took much delight in
passing jokes on our friend Jones's plumpness, ruddy cheeks, and smiling
countenance, as little suited to a hermit living in the Vale of
Meditation. We all thought there was ample room for retort on his part,
so curious was the appearance of these ladies, so elaborately
sentimental about themselves and their _caro Albergo_, as they named it
in an inscription on a tree that stood opposite, the endearing epithet
being preceded by the word _Ecco_! calling upon the saunterer to look
about him. So oddly was one of these ladies attired that we took her, at
a little distance, for a Roman Catholic priest, with a crucifix and
relics hung at his neck. They were without caps; their hair bushy and
white as snow, which contributed to the mistake.

218. _Sonnet_ XI. In the Woods of Rydal.

This Sonnet, as Poetry, explains itself, yet the scene of the incident
having been a wild wood, it may be doubted, as a point of natural
history, whether the bird was aware that his attentions were bestowed
upon a human, or even a living creature. But a Redbreast will perch upon
the foot of a gardener at work, and alight on the handle of the spade
when his hand is half upon it. This I have seen. And under my own roof I
have witnessed affecting instances of the creature's friendly visits to
the chambers of sick persons, as described in the verses to the
Redbreast [No. 83]. One of the