cident could have happened, and that is the bridge near Sterne
Mill. This bridge is so designated from the Sterne family, a branch of
whom in the last century resided close by. The author of 'Tristram
Shandy' spent his boyhood here; and Lucy Gray, had she safely crossed
the plank, would immediately have passed Wood Hall, where the boy
Laurence had lived, and, pursuing her way to Halifax, would have gone
through the meadows in which stood Heath School, where young Sterne
had been educated. The mill-weir at Sterne Mill Bridge was, I believe,
the scene of Lucy Gray's death."

Sterne Mill Bridge, however, crosses the river Calder, while Wordsworth
tells us that the girl lost her life by falling "into the lock of a
canal." The Calder runs parallel with the canal near Sterne Mill Bridge.
See J.R. Tutin's 'Wordsworth in Yorkshire'.--Ed.

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1800.

Oft had I heard ...

Only in the second issue of 1800.]

[Variant 2:

1800 (2nd issue).

She dwelt on a wild Moor 1800.

She lived on a wide Moor MS.]

[Variant 3:

1800.

... bright ... C.]

[Variant 4:

1800.

He snapped ... MS.]

[Variant 5:

1827.

And now they homeward turn'd, and cry'd 1800.

And, turning homeward, now they cried 1815.]

[Variant 6:

1800.

The Mother turning homeward cried,
"We never more shall meet,"
When in the driven snow she spied MS.]

[Variant 7:

1840.

Then downward ... 1800.

Half breathless ... 1827.]

[Variant 8:

1800.

... and never lost
Till ... MS.]

[Variant 9:

1827.

The ... 1800.]

[Variant 10:

1800.

... was ... 1802.

The text of 1815 returns to that of 1800.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: Compare Gray's ode, 'On a Distant Prospect of Eton
College', II. 38-9:

'Still as they run they look behind,
They hear a voice in every wind.'

Ed.]

* * * * *

RUTH

Composed 1799.--Published 1800

[Written in Germany, 1799. Suggested by an account I had of a wanderer
in Somersetshire.--I.F.]

Classed among the "Poems founded on the Affections" in the editions of
1815 and 1820. In 1827 it was transferred to the "Poems of the
Imagination."--Ed.

When Ruth was left h