XXII. I cannot tell how this may be But plain it is the Thorn is bound And this I know, full many a time, When all the stars shone clear and bright, 'O misery! oh misery! Oh woe is me! oh misery!"" 1798. HART-LEAP WELL.* Hart-Leap Well is a small spring of water, about five miles from Richmond in Yorkshire, and near the side of the road that leads from Richmond to Askrigg. Its name is derived from a remarkable Chase, the memory of which is preserved by the monuments spoken of in the second Part of the following Poem, which monuments do now exist as I have there described them. THE Knight had ridden down from Wensley Moor With the slow motion of a summer's cloud And now, as he approached a vassal's door,† 'Bring forth another horse!" he cried aloud. "The first eight stanzas were composed extempore one winter evening (1799-1800) in the cottage (at Grasmere), when after having tired and disgusted myself with labouring at an awkward passage in 'The Brothers,' I started with a sudden impulse to this, to get rid of the other, and finished it in a day or two. My Sister and I had passed the place a few weeks before in our wild journey from Sockburn, on the banks of the Tees, to Grasmere. A peasant whom we met near the spot told us the story, so far as concerned the name of the Well, and the Hart, and pointed out the stones."-W. W. (See Life, i. 155.) † He turned aside towards a vassal's door.-Edit. 1815. "Another horse!"-That shout the vassal heard Joy sparkled in the prancing courser's eyes; A rout this morning left Sir Walter's Hall, Sir Walter, restless as a veering wind, The Knight hallooed, he cheered and chid them on Where is the throng, the tumult of the race? The poor Hart toils along the mountain-side; * In 1815 the name of this dog was "Brach.” Nor will I mention by what death he died; Dismounting, then, he leaned against a thorn; Close to the thorn on which Sir Walter leaned, Upon his side the Hart was lying stretched : And now, too happy for repose or rest, Sir Walter walked all round, north, south, and west, And climbing up the hill-(it was at least T * And foaming like a mountain cataract.-Edit. 1815. + His nose half touched, &c.-Edit. 1815. Was never man in such a joyful case.-Edit. 1815. § place.-Edit. 1815. It was "nine roods" in 1815. The epithet in the Edition of 1815 is "verdant." This is one of the very few instances of an alteration to a more simple and familiar term. Sir Walter wiped his face, and cried, "Till now I'll build a pleasure-house upon this spot, A cunning artist will I have to frame A basin for that fountain in the dell! And they who do make mention of the same, And, gallant Stag!* to make thy praises known, And, in the summer-time when days are long, Till the foundations of the mountains fail Then home he went, and left the Hart, stone-dead, With breathless nostrils stretched above the spring. * "gallant brute" in the Edition of 1815. -Soon did the Knight perform what he had said; And far and wide the fame thereof did ring. Ere thrice the Moon into her port had steered, And near the fountain, flowers of stature tall And thither, when the summer days were long The Knight, Sir Walter, died in course of time, And I to this would add another tale. PART SECOND. THE moving accident is not my trade; * Sir Walter journeyed with his paramour.-Edit. 1815. |