THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, VOL. 8 (Completed)

"FORTH A JUTTING RIDGE, AROUND WHOSE BASE"

Composed 1845.--Published 1845

One of the "Poems upon the Naming of Places."--ED.

Forth from a jutting ridge, around whose base

Winds our deep Vale, two heath-clad Rocks ascend[284][285]

In fellowship, the loftiest of the pair

Rising to no ambitious height; yet both,

O'er lake[286] and stream, mountain and flowery mead,

Unfolding prospects fair as human eyes[287]

Ever beheld. Up-led with mutual help,

To one or other brow of those twin Peaks

Were two adventurous Sisters wont to climb,

And took no note of the hour while thence they gazed,

The blooming heath their couch, gazed, side by side,

In speechless admiration. I, a witness

And frequent sharer of their calm[288] delight

With thankful heart, to either Eminence

Gave the baptismal name each Sister bore.

Now are they parted,[289] far as Death's cold hand

Hath power to part the Spirits of those who love

As they did love. Ye kindred Pinnacles--

That, while the generations of mankind

Follow each other to their hiding-place

In time's abyss, are privileged to endure

Beautiful in yourselves, and richly graced

With like command of beauty--grant your aid

For MARY'S humble, SARAH'S silent, claim,

That their pure joy in nature may survive

From age to age in blended memory.

[284] 1845.

Winds our sequestered vale, two rocks ascend

MS.

[285] These two rocks rise to the left of the lower high-road from Grasmere to Rydal, after it leaves the former lake and turns eastwardstowards the latter. They are still "heath-clad," and covered with the coppice of the old Bane Riggs Wood, so named because the shortest road from Ambleside to Grasmere used to pass through it; "bain" or"bane" signifying, in the Westmoreland dialect, a short cut. Dr.Cradock wrote of them thus:--"They are now difficult of approach,being enclosed in a wood, with dense undergrowth, and surrounded by a high, well-built wall. They can be well seen from the lower road,from a spot close to the three-mile stone from Ambleside. They are some fifty or sixty feet above the road, about twenty yards apart, and separated by a slight depression of, say, ten feet. The view from the easterly one is now much preferable, as it is less encumbered with shrubs; and for that reason also is more heath-clad. The twin rocks are also well seen, though at a farther distance, from the hill inWhite Moss Common between the roads, which Dr. Arnold used to call 'OldCorruption,' and 'Bit-by-bit Reform.' Doubtless the rocks were far more easily approached fifty years ago, when walls, if any, were low and ill-built. It is probable, however, that even then they were enclosed and protected; for heath will not grow on the Grasmere hills, on places much frequented by sheep." The best view of these "heath-clad" rocks from the lower carriage road is at a spot two or three yards to the west of a large rock on the road-side near the milestone. The view of them from the Loughrigg Terrace walks is also interesting. The two sisters were Mary and Sarah Hutchinson (Mrs. Wordsworth and her Sister); and, in the Rydal household, the rocks were respectively named"Mary-Point," and "Sarah-Point."--ED.

[286] 1845.

O'er wood ...

MS.

[287] 1845.

... eye

MS.

[288] 1845.

... that deep ...

MS.

[289] 1845.

Gone to a common home, their duty done,

In this dear vale the Sisters lived, but long

Have they been parted ...

C.

True to a common love, their early choice

In this dear Vale, the sisters lived, but long

Have they been parted-- ...

C.