d. I mention this to apologise for the
abruptness with which the poem begins.--W. W. 1800.]

[Footnote B: In Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal the following
entry occurs:

"Friday, 6th August (1800).--In the morning I copied 'The Brothers'."

Ed.]

[Footnote C: This description of the Calenture is sketched from an
imperfect recollection of an admirable one in prose, by Mr. Gilbert,
Author of 'The Hurricane'.--W. W. 1800.

Compare another reference to 'The Hurricane; a Theosophical and Western
Eclogue' etc., by William Gilbert, in one of the notes to 'The
Excursion', book iii. l. 931.--Ed.]

[Footnote D: The impressive circumstance here described, actually took
place some years ago in this country, upon an eminence called Kidstow
Pike, one of the highest of the mountains that surround Hawes-water. The
summit of the pike was stricken by lightning; and every trace of one of
the fountains disappeared, while the other continued to flow as
before.--W. W. 1800.]

[Footnote E: There is not any thing more worthy of remark in the manners
of the inhabitants of these mountains, than the tranquillity, I might
say indifference, with which they think and talk upon the subject of
death. Some of the country church-yards, as here described, do not
contain a single tomb-stone, and most of them have a very small
number.--W. W. 1800.]

[Footnote F: The name in the original MS. was "Wilfred Evans."--Ed.]

[Footnote G: The great Gavel, so called I imagine, from its resemblance
to the Gable end of a house, is one of the highest of the Cumberland
mountains. It stands at the head of the several vales of Ennerdale,
Wastdale, and Borrowdale.

The Leeza is a River which flows into the Lake of Ennerdale: on issuing
from the Lake, it changes its name, and is called the End, Eyne, or
Enna. It falls into the sea a little below Egremont--W. W. 1800.]

[Footnote H: See Coleridge's criticism of these lines in a note to
chapter xviii. of 'Biographia Literaria' (vol. ii. p. 83 of the edition
of 1817).--Ed.]

This poem illustrates the way in which Wordsworth's imagination worked
upon a minimum of fact, idealizing a simple story, and adding

'the gleam,
The light that never was, on sea or land,
The consecration, and the Poet's dream.'

It is the only poem of his referring to Ennerdale; but perhaps the chief
association with that dale, to those who visit it after becoming
acquainted