-basins, or "pots of the
Linn," which bear witness to the restless impetuosity of so many
Northern torrents. But, if here Wharf is lost to the eye, it amply
repays another sense by its deep and solemn roar, like "the Voice of the
angry Spirit of the Waters," heard far above and beneath, amidst the
silence of the surrounding woods.

'The terminating object of the landscape is the remains of Barden Tower,
interesting from their form and situation, and still more so from the
recollections which they excite.'

325. *_The White Doe of Rylstone_.

The earlier half of this poem was composed at Stockton-upon-Tees, when
Mary and I were on a visit to her eldest brother, Mr. Hutchinson, at the
close of the year 1807. The country is flat, and the weather was rough.
I was accustomed every day to walk to and fro under the shelter of a row
of stacks, in a field at a small distance from the town, and there
poured forth my verses aloud, as freely as they would come. Mary reminds
me that her brother stood upon the punctilio of not sitting down to
dinner till I joined the party; and it frequently happened that I did
not make my appearance till too late, so that she was made
uncomfortable. I here beg her pardon for this and similar transgressions
during the whole course of our wedded life. To my beloved sister the
same apology is due.

When, from the visit just mentioned, we returned to Town-End, Grasmere,
I proceeded with the poem. It may be worth while to note as a caution to
others who may cast their eyes on these memoranda, that the skin having
been rubbed off my heel by my wearing too tight a shoe, though I
desisted from walking, I found that the irritation of the wounded part
was kept up by the act of composition, to a degree that made it
necessary to give my constitution a holiday. A rapid cure was the
consequence.

Poetic excitement, when accompanied by protracted labour in composition,
has throughout my life brought on more or less bodily derangement.
Nevertheless I am, at the close of my seventy-third year, in what may be
called excellent health. So that intellectual labour is not,
necessarily, unfavourable to longevity. But perhaps I ought here to add,
that mine has been generally carried on out of doors.

Let me here say a few words of this Poem, by way of criticism. The
subject being taken from feudal times has led to its being compared to
some of Walter Scott's poems that belong to the same age and state of
society.