gree with the fact. All that relates to Margaret,
and the ruined cottage, &c., was taken from observations made in the
south-west of England, and certainly it would require more than
seven-leagued boots to stretch in one morning from a common in
Somersetshire, or Dorsetshire, to the heights of Furness Fells, and the
deep valleys they embosom. For this dealing with space, I need make, I
trust, no apology; but my friends may be amused by the truth.

In the poem, I suppose that the Pedlar and I ascended from a plain
country up the vale of Langdale, and struck off a good way above the
chapel to the western side of the Vale. We ascended the hill, and thence
looked down upon the circular recess in which lies Blea Tarn, chosen by
the 'Solitary' for his retreat. After we quit his cottage, passing over
a low ridge, we descend into another Vale, that of Little Langdale,
towards the head of which stands embowered, or partly shaded by yews and
other trees, something between a cottage and a mansion, or gentleman's
house, such as they once were in this country. This I convert into the
parsonage, and at the same time, and as by the waving of a magic wand, I
turn the comparatively confined Vale of Langdale, its tarn, and the rude
chapel which once adorned the valley, into the stately and comparatively
spacious Vale of Grasmere and its ancient parish church; and upon the
side of Loughrigg Fell, at the foot of the Lake, and looking down upon
it and the whole Vale and its accompanying mountains, the 'Pastor' is
supposed by me to stand, when at sunset he addresses his companions in
words which I hope my readers may remember,[14] or I should not have
taken the trouble of giving so much in detail the materials on which my
mind actually worked.

[14] Excursion; book the last, near the conclusion.

Now for a few particulars of _fact_, respecting the persons whose
stories are told or characters described by the different speakers. To
Margaret I have already alluded. I will add here that the lines
beginning,

'She was a woman of a steady mind,'

and,

'Live on earth a life of happiness,'

faithfully delineate, as far as they go, the character possessed in
common by many women whom it has been my happiness to know in humble
life; and that several of the most touching things which she is
represented as saying and doing are taken from actual observation of the
distresses and trials under which different persons were suffering,
some