[Day 2. From: Long Moor, Ennerdale To: St. Bees]

[Coleridge's letter carries straight on from 1 to 2 August but we have made the decision to subdivide the text of his letter in order to provide a day by day account of his walking tour of the Lakes.]

The old man went to the head of the Lake [Ennerdale Water] with me / the mountains at the head of this Lake [Ennerdale Water] & Wast-dale are the Monsters of the Country, bare bleak Heads, evermore doing deeds of Darkness, weather-plots, & storm-conspiracies in the Clouds-their names are Herd House, Bowness [Bowness Knott] , Wha Head, Great Gavel, the Steeple, the Pillar & Seat Allian { [Setallan] }.-I left Long Moor after Tea, & proceeded to Egremont, 5 miles-thro' a very pleasant Country, part of the way by the River Enna { [Ehen] }, with well wooded Banks, & nice green Fields, & pretty houses with Trees, and two huge Sail-cloth Manufactories -went to Girtskill, a mercer, for whom I had a Letter, but he was at Workington, so I walked on to St. Bees, 3 miles from Egremont-when I came there could not get a Bed-at last got an apology for one, at a miserable Pot-house; slept or rather dozed in my Clothes-

[Day 3. From: St. Bees To: Egremont]

[Coleridge's letter carries straight on from 2 to 3 August but we have made the decision to subdivide the text of his letter in order to provide a day by day account of his walking tour of the Lakes.]

Breakfasted there -and went to the School [St. Bees School] & Church ruins [St. Bees Priory] - had read in the history of Cumbd. ['History and Antiquities of Cumberland' by William Hutchinson, 2 volumes, 1794] that there was an 'excellent Library presented to the School by James Lowther,' which proved to be some 30 odd Volumes of commentaries on the Scripture utterly worthless-amp which with all my passion for ragged old Folios I should certainly make serviceable . . . for fire-lighting. Men who write Tours and County histories I have by woeful experience found out to be damned Liars, harsh words, but true!-It was a wet woeful oppressive morning-I was sore with my bad night-walked down to the Beach [St. Bees] , which is a very nice hard Sand for more than a mile / but the St. Bees Head which I had read much of as a noble Cliff, might be made a song of on the Flats of the Dutch Coast-but in England 'twill scarcely bear a looking-at. Returned to Egremont, a miserable walk-dined there, visited the Castle [Egremont Castle] , the Views from which are uncommonly interesting-I looked thro' an old wild Arch-slovenly black Houses, & gardens, as wild as a Dream, over the hills beyond them, which slip down in one place making a noticeable Gap-had a good Bed, slept well

[Day 4. From: Egremont To: Burnthwaite, Wasdale Head]

[Coleridge's letter carries straight on from 3 to 4 August but we have made the decision to subdivide the text of his letter in order to provide a day by day account of his walking tour of the Lakes.]

After Breakfast, had a pleasant walk to Calder Abbey-an elegant but not very interesting Ruin, joining to a very hansome Gentleman's House [Abbey House] built of red freestone, which has the comfortable warm look of Brick without it's meanness and multitude of puny squares. This place lies just within the Line of circumference of a Circle of woody Hills-the area, a pretty Plain half a mile perhaps in diameter-and completely cloathed & hid with wood, except one red hollow in these steep hills, & except behind the Abbey, where the Hills are far higher, & consist of green Fields almost (but not quite) to the Top. Just opposite to Calder Abbey, & on the Line of the Circumference, rises Ponsonby Hill, the Village of Calder Bridge, & it's interesting Mill, all in Wood, some hidden, some roofs just on a line with the Trees, some higher, but Ponsonby Hall far higher than the rest.- I regained the Road, and came to Bonewood, a single Alehouse on the top of the hill above the Village Gosforth-drank a pint of Beer (I forgot to tell you that the whole of my expences at St. Bees, a glass of Gin & Water, my Bed, & Breakfast amounted to 11d.)-from this Bonewood is a noble view of the Isle of Man on the one side, & on the other side all the bold dread tops of the Ennerdale & Wastdale Mountains / . Indeed the whole way from Egremont I had beautiful Sea Views, the low hills to my right dipping down into inverted Arches, or Angles, & the Sea [Irish Sea] , often with a Ship seen thro'-while on my left the the Steeple , & Sca' Fell facing each other, far above the other Fells, formed in their interspace a great Gap in the Heaven.-So I went on, turned eastward, up the Irt, the Sea [Irish Sea] behind & Wastdale Mountains before-& here I am [Nether Wasdale] -

Wed. Afternoon half past 3, Augt. 4th 1802-

Wastdale [Nether Wasdale] , a mile & half below the Foot of the Lake [Wast Water] , at an Alehouse without a Sign [The public house is now called The Screes Inn, Nether Wasdale], 20 strides from the Door, under the Shade of a huge Sycamore Tree, without my coat-but that I will now put on, in prudence-yes here I am / and have been for something more than an hour, & have enjoyed a good Dish of Tea (I carried my Tea & sugar with me) under this delightful Tree. In the House [The Screes Inn, Nether Wasdale] there are only a feeble Woman, and a 'Tallyeur' [A tailor] Lad upon the Table-all the rest of the Wastdale World is a haymaking, rejoicing and thanking God for this first downright summer Day that we have had since the beginning of May.-And now I must go & see the Lake [Wast Water] / for immediately at the Foot of the Lake [Wast Water] runs a low Ridge so that you can see nothing of the Water [Wast Water] till you are at it's very Edge.

Between the Lake [Wast Water] and the Mountains [Seatallan and Yewbarrow] on the left, a low ridge of hill [Wast Water [north-western shore] ] runs parallel with the Lake [Wast Water] , for more than half it's length; & just at the foot of the Lake [Wast Water] there is a Bank even & smooth & low like a grassy Bank in a Gentleman's Park. Along the hilly Ridge I walked thro' a Lane of green Hazels, with hay-fields & Hay-makers on my Right, beyond the River Irt, & on the other side of the River [River Irt] , Irton Fell with a deep perpendicular Ravine & a curious fretted Pillar of Clay crossier-shaped, standing up in it-next to Ireton Fells & in the same line as the Screes, & you can look at nothing but the Screes tho' there were 20 quaint Pillars close by you. The Lake [Wast Water] is wholly hidden 'till your very Feet touch it, as one may say / and to a Stranger the Burst would be almost overwhelming. The Lake [Wast Water] itself seen from it's Foot appears indeed of too regular shape; exactly like the sheet of Paper on which I am writing, except it is still narrower in respect of it's length. (In reality however the Lake [Wast Water] widens as it ascends, and at the head is very considerably broader than at the foot.) But yet, in spite of this it [Wast Water] is a marvellous sight / a sheet of water between 3 & 4 miles in length, the whole (or very nearly the whole) of it's right Bank formed by the Screes, or facing of bare Rock of enormous Height, two thirds of it's height downwards almost perpendicular; & then slanting off in Screes, or Shiver, consisting of fine red Streaks running in broad Stripes thro' a stone colour-slanting off from the Perpendicular, as steep as the meal newly ground from the Miller's spout.-So it is at the foot of the Lake [Wast Water] ; but higher up this streaky Shiver occupies two thirds of the whole height, like a pointed Decanter in shape, or an outspread Fan, or a long-waisted old maid with a fine prim Apron, or-no, other things that would only fill up the Paper.

When I first came the Lake [Wast Water] was a perfect Mirror; & what must have been the Glory of the reflections in it! This huge facing of Rock said to be half a mile in perpendicular height, with deep Ravin { [e] }s the whole winded { [wrinkled?] } & torrent-worn, except where the pink-striped Screes come in, as smooth as silk / all this reflected, turned into Pillars, dells, and a whole new-world of Images in the water! The head of the Lake [Wast Water] is crowned by three huge pyramidal mountains, Yew-barrow, Sca' Fell, & the great Gavel; Yewbarrow & Sca'Fell nearly opposite to each other, yet so that the Ness (or Ridge-line, like the line of a fine Nose,) of Sca' Fell runs in behind that of Yewbarrow, while the Ness of great Gavel is still farther back, between the two others, & of course, instead of running athwart the Vale [Wasdale] it directly faces you. [At this stage in his edition of Coleridge's 'Collected Letters', Griggs reproduces Coleridge's line drawing of the shape of Wast Water.] The Lake [Wast Water] & Vale [Wasdale] run nearly from East to west and this figure below will give you some idea of it.- [In a footnote to his edition of Coleridge's 'Collected Letters', Griggs inserts a note from Sara Hutchinson: 'But the Transcriber has not ingenuity enough to copy it, nor the full length Portrait of the Author-so they must be dispensed with-']

Melfell { [Middle Fell] } (lying South { [North] } of the Lake [Wast Water] ) consists of great mountain steps decreasing in size as they approach the Lake.

My Road led along under Melfell [Middle Fell] & by Yewbarrow-& now I came in sight of it's other side called Keppel Crag & then a huge enormous bason-like Cove called Green Crag { [Red Pike?] } / as I suppose, from there being no single Patch of Green to be seen on any one of it's perpendicular sides-so on to Kirk Fell, at the foot of which is Thomas Tyson's House [Burnthwaite, Wasdale Head] where W { [ordsworth] } & I slept Novr. will be 3 years-& there [Wasdale Head] I was welcomed kindly, had a good Bed, and left it after Breakfast.

[Day 5. From: Burnthwaite, Wasdale To: Taw House Farm, Eskdale]

[In his letter to Sara Hutchinson, Coleridge begins a new paragraph to denote the start of his account of Thursday, 5 August 1802. It was on this day that Coleridge undertook his famous descent of what we now call Broad Stand: a vertiginous ridge which joins Scafell and Scafell Pike. As Seamus Perry puts it in his selection of Coleridge's Notebooks: 'The descent requires some pluck [ . . . ] : walkers are warned off it now.']

Thursday Morning, Augt. 5th-went down the Vale [Wasdale] almost to the water head [Wast Water] , & ascended the low Reach between Sca' Fell and the Screes, and soon after I had gained it's height came in sight Burnmoor Water [now known as Burnmoor Tarn] , a large Tairn [At this stage in the text, Griggs includes a reproduction of Coleridge's small line drawing of Burnmoor Water.] nearly of that shape, it's Tail towards Sca' Fell, at its head a gap forming an inverted arch with Black Coomb & a peep of the Sea [Irish Sea] seen thro' it.--It [Burnmoor Water] lies directly at the Back of the Screes, & the stream that flows from it [Burnmoor Water>] down thro' the gap, is called the Mite-and runs thro' a Vale of it's own called Miterdale, parallel with the lower part of Wastdale and divided from it by the high Ridge called Ireton Fells. I ascended Sca' Fell by the side of a torrent, and climbed & rested, rested & climbed, 'till I gained the very summit of Sca' Fell-believed by the Shepherds here to be higher than either Helvellyn or Skiddaw-Even to Black Coomb-before me all the Mountains die away, running down westward to the Sea [Irish Sea] , apparently in eleven Ridges & three parallel Vales [Wasdale, Miterdale and Eskdale] with their three Rivers [Irt, Mite and Esk] seen from their very Sources to their falling into the Sea [Irish Sea] , where they form (excepting their Screw-like flexures) the Trident of the Irish Channel at Ravenglass--O my God! what enormous Mountains these are close by me, & yet below the Hill [Sca' Fell] I stand on / Great Gavel, Kirk Fell, Green Crag, & behind the Pillar, then the Steeple, then the Hay Cock-on the other side & behind me, Great End, Esk Carse { [Hause] }, Bow-fell & close to my back two huge Pyramids, nearly as high as Sca' Fell itself, & indeed parts & parts of Sca' Fell known far & near by these names, the hither one of Broad Crag, and the next to it but divided from it by a low Ridge Doe Crag, which is indeed of itself a great Mountain of stones from a pound to 20 Ton weight embedded in wooly Moss. {In the words of Molly Lefebure: 'In his notebook, he [Coleridge] entered a description of the view, getting his "lefts" and "rights" confused in his excitement, while the extreme unreliability of the Hutchinson map resulted in his wrong identification of several mountains.'}

And here I am so lounded-so fully lounded-that tho' the wind is strong, & the Clouds are hast'ning hither from the Sea [Irish Sea] -and the whole air seaward has a lurid Look-and we shall certainly have Thunder-yet here (but that I am hunger'd & provisionless) here I could lie warm, and wait methinks for tomorrow's Sun / and on a nice Stone Table am I now at this moment writing to you-between 2 and 3 o'Clock as I guess / surely the first Letter ever written from the Top of Sca' Fell! But O! what a look down just under my Feet! The frightfullest Cove [Scafell Crag] that might ever be seen / huge perpendicular Precipices, and one Sheep upon it's only Ledge, that surely must be crag! Tyson told me of this place, & called it Hollow Stones. Just by it & joining together, rise two huge Pillars of bare lead-colored stone- / I am no measurer / but their height & depth is terrible. I know how unfair it is to judge of these Things by a comparison of past Impressions with present-but I have no shadow of hesitation in saying that the Coves & Precipices of Helvellin are nothing to these! But { [from] } this sweet lounding Place I see directly thro' Borrowdale, the Castle Crag, the whole of Derwent Water, & but for the haziness of the Air I could see own House [Greta Hall, Keswick] -I see clear enough where it stands-

Here I will fold up this Letter-I have Wafers in my Inkhorn / & you shall call this letter when it passes before you the Sca' Fell Letter {In a footnote, Griggs indicates that: '"The Sca' Fell Letter" was posted to Sara Hutchinson at Gallow Hill, Yorkshire, from Ambleside on Sunday evening, 8 Aug [ . . . ] The transcript contains no conclusion or signature.}/-I must now drop down, how I may into Eskdale-that lies under to my right-the upper part of it [Eskdale] the wildest & savagest surely of all the Vales that were ever seen from the Top of an English Mountain / and the lower part the loveliest.-

[Coleridge's letter to Sara Hutchinson ends with the above comments; but he continues his account of his descent of Sca Fell in a second letter to Sara, written on 6 August 1802. In order to facilitate a GIS mapping of Coleridge's walking tour of the Lakes, there is a need to bring together these two sources and to treat the letter of 6 August 1802 as a natural continuation of that dated 5 August 1802.] There is one sort of gambling, to which I am much addicted; and that not of the least criminal kind for a man who has children & a concern. It is this. When I find it convenient to descend from a mountain, I am too confident & too indolent to look round about & wind about 'till I find a track or other symptom of safety; but I wander on, & where it is first possible to descend, there I go-relying upon fortune for how far down this possibility will continue. So it was yesterday afternoon [5 August 1802] . I passed down from Broadcrag, skirted the Precipices [Scafell Crag] , and found myself cut off from a most sublime Crag-summit [Scafell Pike] , that seemed to rival Sca' Fell Man in height, & to outdo it in fierceness. A Ridge of Hill [Mickledore Ridge] lay low down, & divided this Crag (called Doe-crag) & Broad-crag-even as the Hyphen divides the words broad & crag. I determined to go thither; the first place I came to, that was not direct Rock, I slipped down, & went on for a while with tolerable ease-but now I came (it was midway down) to a smooth perpendicular Rock about 7 feet high-this was nothing-I put my hands on the Ledge, & dropped down / in a few yards came just such another / I dropped that too / and yet another, seemed not higher-I would not stand for a trifle / so I dropped that too / but the stretching of the muscle { [s] } of my hands & arms, & the jolt of the Fall on my Feet, put my whole Limbs in a Tremble, and I paused, & looking down, saw that I had little else to encounter but a succession of these little Precipices-it was in truth a Path that in a very hard Rain is, no doubt, the channel of a most splendid Waterfall. [Here, Coleridge is describing his famous descent of Broad Stand] -

So I began to suspect that I ought not to go on / but then unfortunately tho' I could with ease drop down a smooth Rock 7 feet high, I could not climb it / so go on I must / and on I went / the next 3 drops were not half a Foot, at least not a foot more than my own height / but every Drop increased the Palsy of my Limbs-I shook all over, Heaven knows without the least influence of Fear / and now I had only two more to drop down / to return was impossible-but of these two the first was tremendous / it was twice my own height, & the Ledge at the bottom was { [so] } exceedingly narrow, that if I dropt down upon it I must of necessity have fallen backwards & of course killed myself. My Limbs were all in a tremble-I lay upon my Back to rest myself, & was beginning according to my Custom to laugh at myself for a Madman, when the sight of the Crags above me on each side, & the impestuous Clouds just over them, posting so luridly & so rapidly northward, overawed me / I lay in a state of almost prophetic Trance & Delight-& blessed God aloud, for the powers of Reason & of the Will, which remaining no Danger can overpower us! O God, I exclaimed aloud-how calm, how blessed am I now / I know not how to proceed, how to return / but if I am calm & fearless & confident / if this Reality were a Dream, if I were asleep, what agonies had I suffered! what screams!-When the Reason & the Will are away, what remain to us but Darkness & Dimness & a bewildering shame, and Pain that is utterly Lord over us, or fantastic Pleasure, that draws the Soul along swimming through the air in many shapes, even as a Flight of Starlings in a Wind.-

I arose, & looking down saw at the bottom a heap of Stones-which had fallen abroad-and rendered the narrow Ledge on which they had been piled, doubly dangerous / at the bottom of the third Rock that I dropt from, I met a dead Sheep quite rotten-This heap of Stones, I guessed, & have since found that I guessed aright, had been piled up by the Shepherd to enable him to climb up & free the poor creature whom he had observed to be crag-fast-but seeing nothing but rock over rock, he had desisted & gone for help-& in the mean time the poor creature had fallen down & killed itself.-As I was looking at these I glanced my eye to my left, & observed that the Rock was rent from top to bottom-I measured the breadth of the Rent, and found that there was no danger of my being wedged in / so I put my Knap-sack round to my side, & slipped down as between two walls, without any danger or difficulty-the next Drop brought me down on the Ridge called the How / I hunted out my Besom Stick, which I had flung before me when I first came to the Rocks-and wisely gave over all thoughts of ascending Doe-Crag-for now the Clouds were again coming in most tumultously-so I began to descend / when I felt an odd sensation across my whole Breast-not pain nor itching-& putting my hand on it I found it all bumpy-and on looking saw the whole of my Breast from my Neck { [to my navel] . Words in brackets inked out in MS}-& exactly all that my Kamell-hair Breast-shield covers, filled with great red heat-bumps, so thick that no hair could lie between them. They still remain / but are evidently less-& I have no doubt will wholly disappear in a few Days. It was however a startling proof to me of the violent exertions which I had made.

-I descended this low Hill which was all hollow beneath me-and was like the rough green Quilt of a Bed of waters-at length two streams burst out & took their way down, one on { [one] } side a high Ground upon this Ridge, the other on the other-I took that to my right (having on my left this high Ground, & the other Stream, & beyond that Doe-crag, on the other side of which is Esk Halse, where the head-spring of the Esk [River Esk] rises, & running down the Hill & in upon the Vale [Eskdale] looks and actually deceived me, as a great Turnpike Road-in which, as in many other respects the Head of Eskdale much resembles Langdale) & soon the channel sank all at once, at least 40 yards, & formed a magnificent Waterfall -and close under this a succession of Waterfalls [Here, Coleridge describes the series of waterfalls directly aboveCam Spout] 7 in number, the third of which is nearly as high as the first. When I had almost reached the bottom of the Hill, I stood so as to command the whole 8 Waterfalls, with the great triangle-Crag looking in above them, & on the one side of them the enormous & more than perpendicular Precipices & Bull's Brows [East Butress of Sca Fell] of Sca' Fell! And now the Thunder-Storm was coming on, again & again!-Just at the bottom of the Hill I saw on before me in the Vale [Upper Eskdale] , lying just under the River [River Esk] on the side of a Hill [It is possible that, here, Coleridge refers toCam Spout Crag] , one, two, three, four Objects I could not distinguish whether Peat-hovels, or hovel-shaped Stones-I thought in my mind, that 3 of them would turn out to be stones-but that the fourth was certainly a Hovel. I went on toward them, crossing & recrossing the Becks & the River [River Esk] & found that they were all huge Stones [Sampson's Stones] -the one nearest the Beck which I had determined to be really a Hovel, retained it's likeness when I was close beside / in size it it nearly equal to the famous Bowder stone [ to be found in Borrowdale] , but in every other respect greatly superior to it-it has a complete Roof, & that perfectly thatched with weeds, & Heath, & Mountain-Ash Bushes-

I now was obliged to ascend again, as the River [River Esk] ran greatly to the Left, & the Vale [Eskdale] was nothing more than the Channel of the River [River Esk] , all the rest of the interspace between the mountains was a tossing up & down of the Hills of all sizes-and the place at which I am now writing is called-Te-as, & spelt, Toes-as the Toes of Sca'Fell-. It is not possible that any name can be more descriptive of the Head of Eskdale-I ascended close under Sca' Fell, & came to a little village of Sheep-folds [Upper Eskdale] / there were 5 together / & the redding Stuff, & the Shears, & an old Pot, was in the Passage of the first of them. Here I found an imperfect Shelter from a Thunder-shower-accompanied with such Echoes! O God! what thoughts were mine! O how I wishes for Health & Strength that I might wander about for a Month together, in the stormiest month of the year, among these Places, so lonely & savage & full of sounds!

{Griggs notes that: 'This paragraph, which forms the conclusion of this letter in the Sara Hutchinson journal, has been transferred to keep the events of the tour in chronological order.'}After the Thunder-storm I shouted out all your names in the Sheep-fold-when Echo came upon Echo / and then Hartley & Derwent & then I laughed & shouted Joanna / It leaves all the Echoes I ever heard far behind, in number, distinctness & humanness of Voice-& then not to forget an old Friend I made them all say Dr. Dodd {'A reference to Dr. William Dodd, the forger.'} &c.

After the Storm I passed on & came to a great Peat-road, that wound down a hill, called Maddock How, & now came out upon the first cultivated Land which begins with a Bridge that goes over a Stream, a Waterfall of considerable height & beautifully wooded above you, & a great water-slope under you / the Gill down which it falls, is called Scale Gill-& the Fall Scale Gill Force. (The word Scale & Scales is common in this Country-& is said by . . . {'Name omitted in MS.'} to be derived from the Saxon Sceala; the wattling of Sheep-but judging from the places themselves, Scale Force & this Scale Gill Force-I think it as probable that it is derived from Scalle-which signifies a deafening Noise.) Well, I passed thro' some sweet pretty Fields, & came to a large Farm-house [Taw House Farm] where I am now writing / The place is called Toes or Teas-the master's name John Vicars Towers-they received me hospitably-I drank Tea here & they begged me to pass the Night-which I did & supped of some excellent Salmonlings, which Towers had brought from Ravenglass whither he had been, as holding under the Earl of Egremont, & obliged 'to ride the Fair'-a custom introduced during the times of Insecurity & piratical Incursion for the Protection of Ravenglass Fair. They were a fine Family-and a Girl who did not look more than 12 years old, but was nearly 15, was very beautiful-with hair like vine-tendrils-. She had been long ill-& was a sickly child- { ['] }Ah poor Bairn! (said the Mother) worse luck for her / she looks like a Quality Bairn, as you may say.' This man's Ancestors have been time out of mind in the Vale [Eskdale] / and here I found that the common Names, Towers & Tozers are the same- / er signifies 'upon'-as Mite-er-dale the Dale upon the River Mite / Donnerdale-a contraction of Duddon-er-dale the Dale upon the River Duddon-So Towers, pronounced in the Vale Te-ars-& Tozers is { [are] } those who live on Toes-i.e. upon the Knobby feet of the Mountain / Mr. Tears has mended my pen.-

[Day 6. From: Taw House Farm, Eskdale To: Ulpha]

[In his letter to Sara Hutchinson, dated 6 August 1802, there is no textual break between his account of 5 August and the morning of 6 August.]

This morning after breakfast I went out with him [John Vicars Towers] , & passed up the Vale [Upper Eskdale] again due East, along a higher Road [According to Molly Lefebure: 'This must mean the old peat-trod which runs from Gill Bank above Boot via Stony Tarn to Cam Spout and is gained by a zig-zag track from Taws.'] , over a heathy upland, crossed the upper part of Scale Gill, came out upon Maddock How, & then ascending turned directly Northward, into the Heart of the mountains; on my left the wild Crags under which flows the Scale Gill Beck, the most remarkable of them callled Cat Crag (a wild Cat being killed there) & on my right hand six great Crags, which appeared in the mist all in a file-and they were all, tho' of different sizes, yet the same shape all triangles-. Other Crags far above them, higher up the Vale [Eskdale] , appeared & disappeared as the mists passed & came / one with a waterfall, called Spout Crag-and another most tremendous one, called Earn Crag { [Heron Crag] }-I passed on, a little way, till I came close under a huge Crag, called Buck Crag-& immediately under this is Four-foot Stone [Alan Hankinson indicates that 'Buck Crag' no longer appears on modern maps and identifies the stone as 'lying on the path beneath High Scarth Crag'] -having on it the clear marks of four foot-steps. The Stone is in it's whole breadth just 36 inches, (I measured it exactly) but the part that contains the marks is raised above the other part, & is just 20 and a half Inches. The first foot-mark is an Ox's foot-nothing can be conceived more exact-this is 5 and thee quarter Inches wide-the second is a Boy's shoe in the Snow, 9 and a half Inches in length [In his letter, Coleridge gives the measurements as numerical fractions rather than words] / this too is the very Thing itself, the Heel, the bend the Foot, etc [check] -the third is the Foot-step to the very Life of a Mastiff Dog-and the fourth is Derwent's very own first little Shoe, 4 Inches in length & o! it is the sweetest Baby shoe that ever was seen.-The wie-foot in Borrowdale is contemptible; but this really does work upon my imagination very powerfully / & I will try to construct a Tale upon it / the place too is so very, very wild. I delighted the Shepherd by my admiration / & the four foot Stone is my own Christening, & Towers undertakes it shall hereafter go by that name for hitherto it has been nameless.-And so I returned & have found a Pedlar here of an interesting Physiognomy-& here I must leave off-for Dinner is ready-

[Coleridge's letter to Sarah Hutchinson ends at this point, as he prepares for dinner with the Towers on the afternoon of 6 August 1802. Yet Coleridge continued to document his 'circumcursion' of the Lake District: an account which was made available through the twentieth-century textual scholarship of Kathleen Coburn. The following details of Coleridge's walking tour of the region are taken from volume one of 'The Notebooks of Samuel Taylor Coleridge'.] Dined at Towers' [Taw House Farm] -& quitted him at half [again, Coleridge uses the fraction symbols] past one. Eskdale, more descriptively Eskerdales, for it is a dale by the reluctant Mercy of the mountains, and the Hills, their children / some but Babes, others striplings, who stand breast-high to their Fathers-it is mainly however two Dales, like Stanley's in St Johns / only that the intervening ridge of Hills, is higher than those of Leathes' water & lower than the Naddle Fell-The Esk [River Esk] runs down the left hand of the ridge (as you go down)-both vales are in their course of very unequal breadths, often little more than the River Channel in the one, and as much space as would serve for the bed of a good river in the other/-Now then the Hill-ridge intermits and the vales become one / but never sure were lovelyer human Dwellings than these nested in Trees at the foot of the Fells, & in among the intervening Hills / -After you have left Sca' Fell & his Progeny behind you, the Fells on each side are low, rough, & ragged with Bushwood, but low-

Inclosures made on the Screes partly for saving the Sheep from falling down, partly to reserve the Grass for the Hogs

After the junction & re-disjunction of the vales came to a Beck [This is probablyWhillan Beck] , with a Bridge [Beckfoot Bridge] which I crossed-a pretty Beck with well wooded Banks, chiefly Oak, Ash, Alder, & Birch, not without Thorns, Hazels, & Hollies / 2 or 3 houses very pleasantly situated on the Esk side of the Bridge, & on the other side a grand picture view of the Ridge & Top of Sca Fell seen thro' a [ at this point in his notebook, Coleridge provides a line drawing to illustrate a V-shaped gap] with a road at the bottom/.

This Beck (from Harter Fell) [Coleridge is wrong in guessing that Whillan Beck runs down from Harter Fell. As he goes on to indicate, Whillan Beck runs down into Eskdale from Burnmoor Tarn.] slants from the Bridge directly into the Esk, & in a few hundred yards after, the vale narrows, unites, & you walk by the side of the Esk, now as broad as the Greta / the front side of the last Hill a pretty regular farmhouse with a noble Back of Wood / situated just as the House by the Brig at Great How / only the Hill is not as quarter as high /

I walk however not a furlong, before the Esk slants away from me to the left again, but presents a beautiful reach / - Harter Fell is next to Lowfell, & that Beck which I crossed the Bridge over, is Whillah Beck [Whillan Beck] , comes from Burnmoor Tairn / on my right I have low Fells, Eskdale Moors, exceedingly rocky & woody, huge perpend. smooth stones, now hidden, & encircled by young wood, now starting out. The regular House is a shooting seat of Mr Stanley's - I come again to a view of the river over some Hayfields and an Islet in the River [River Esk] / the opposite fells Birker Fells. -

Remember the large Scotch Fir in Ennerdale -

Come to the Public House [King George IV] , with a beautiful low Hill of wood & Rock close behind, cross the Esk Bridge [Forge Bridge] , & pass at the end of Birker Moor, a piece of wooded Rock-grander, exactly like the other side of Grasmere, opposite Tail End front-windows, except that it rises & falls in full large obtuse Triangles, & not so much in small Nipple-work-at the end of this Eskdale becomes a broad spacious Vale, completely land-locked, tho' the Fells at the end are low-indeed only green cultivated Hills-the vale now seems to consist of very large Fields, with corn & potatoes & grass Land growing, all in one field, in broad stripes.-To the right hand Muncaster Fell, to the left Easterfield Common, over which I ascended by a Peat Road . It seems I have gone 2 miles round about & ought to have crossed over at Dalegarth Hall (from Stanley's Shooting Box)-sate & wrote this near the top of Easterfield Common (Fern, Heath, & Moss)- a pretty view of the Sea [Irish Sea] thro' a sink in Mulcaster [Muncaster] a small Dip in the shape of an inverted triangle-the Sea [Irish Sea] , & a triangle of Green Coast.

Descended on the other side of Easterfield Common, crossed a moss, and ascended another & came out upon [Devoke Water] / a good large Tairn with naked Banks, & a tiny Island [Watness Coy] covered with Sea fowl, two of which, & afterwards four, flew round about above me, wailing & { [?barking/baiting] }, then dipped down low, & made a dead dart along over my head, so that I could hear the clang of the wings, & altering its Notes to a noise of anger & menace / I stand in the ruins of the city of Barnscar / fill 5 pages; but nevertheless I found nothing, after most patient search, that I could distinguish from any part of the Fell-two heaps of Stones, on each of which some Boys had built up a Shelter in the Shape of a large Chimney, wanting the one side fronting the Lake [Devoke Water] -it is a flat-round hill-Albinus omnino nihil.-However the view is very fine-Sauce better than the fish-behind to my left a noble sea-view-to my right a break in the Fells, & a bold view of the huge Mountains at the head of Wastdale directly across the Lake [Devoke Water] & in front of me. Corney Fell, Stones' Head Fell, Black Comb, of a very wild, various, & angular outline, running in ridges, rising in triangles, sinking in inverting arches, or darting down in Nesses-mountain seen behind mountain, either the backward overtopping the hitherward,-or the nearer mountain dipping down in an inverted arch or triangle/-at the bottom of Devock [Devoke Water] , i.e. between the mountain view & the water, & forming its immediate is a small Hill [Birkby Fell] with a curious round large stoney Head/I shall ascend to my right, gain a still more extensive view of the Sea [Irish Sea] , & go round to it.

The angry clapper of the Bird's Bill, as it passed over my head.-

I was not in the City of Bardscar [Barnscar] , it is half a mile from the Foot of the Lake [Devoke Water] , toward Mulcaster [Muncaster] //but however it differs from what I did see/- Devock Lake [Devoke Water] is prettily shaped, & runs from South to North/at the Bottom, just under Wadness How, or Seat How by the Boat-House, standing/the Bank to my left is strait, but the other, the head [at this point in his notebook, Coleridge inserts one of his characteristic line-drawings] left & the whole of the left is pretty in bays, & the Island close on its left Bank is pretty with some Trees & Bushes on it/and if the whole of its right Bank, which is an ascent of 120 yards perhaps, were completely cloathed with wood, & the other Banks judiciously plante { [ed] }, it would cap 'em a/sea views/& fell views!-Saw the pith of a Sieve two feet long, with a small strip of the Green suffered to remain, & keep the pith firm/dipped in hot fat/-A Candle-stick/with a back formed of half a [hollow] cylinder of Iron, with holes in it, & a solid Cylinder of Iron with a bent hook at the End to put in to those Holes, so as to lengthen or shorten the stick as occasion/its whole length when the hook [is] in its last hole, is nearly a yard/one of these long sieves will burn an Hour-

Passed over a common, wild, & dreary, and descending a hill came down upon Ulpha Kirk, with a sweet view up the River [River Duddon] , with a [large] mirror over a rapid/Ulpha Kirkis a most romantic vale [Duddon Valley] , the mountains that embosom it, low & of a remarkably wild outline/and higher mountains looking in from behind. The view from the Bridge [Ulpha Bridge] , consisting of a reach of the River [River Duddon] , the Road & the Kirk [Ulpha Kirk] to the left at the end of the Reach. The Kirk [Ulpha Kirk] standing on the low rough Hill up which the Road climbs, the fields level and high, beyond that; & then the different flights of mountains in the back ground, with wild ridges from the right & the left, running like Arms & confining the middle view to these level fields on high ground is eminently picturesque-A little step (50 or 60 yards) beyond the Bridge [Ulpha Bridge] , you gain a compleatly different picture-the Houses & the Kirk [Ulpha Kirk] forming more important parts, & the view bounded at once by a high wooded rock, shaped as an obtuse-triangle/or segments of a circle forming an angle at their point of junction, now compleat in a Mirror & equally delightful as a view/

[Day 7. From: Ulpha To: Black Bull Hotel, Coniston]

[Coleridge's Notes continue in the same paragraph; but, at this stage of the text, his notes begin to refer to events of Saturday, 7 August 1802]

I pass along for a furlong or so upon the road, the river winding thro' the narrow vale [Dunnerdale] , & then turn off to my left athwart a Cove on Donnerdale Fell-a very rocky Fell, yew-trees on the Rocks/(each crag a lownding-place for sheep) the outer line running in the segment of a circle so as to form the cove athwart which I went-this outline most wildly saw-toothed/and sheep-tracks every where-O lovely lovely Vale!- [Dunnerdale]

Here it was seated on this Mount [Dunnerdale Fell] , on Saturday, August 7, that I resolved to write under the name of The Soother of Absence, the topographical poem which I had long mummel'd about in my mind, & the day before thought of under the name of the Bards of Helvellin or the Stone Hovels/-The public house at Ulpha a very nice one/& the Landlord, a very intelligent man { [?Danny/Dummy] } Bloomfield/-I climb over the Fell [Dunnerdale Fell] , taking to my left a little, wind around [under & between low] crags, & come to two Dubs in the shape of an 8, the hither one with 30 or 40 little Islets, [each] of a yard or so of breadth/& now suddenly burst upon me a blunt-angled triangle Hill, a Peak of great height & singularity, rocky, & hetherey, with patches of yellow Green Pasture intermixed/behind me, right over the Dubbs, a fine water view, of rivers & flat land, & the Sea [Irish Sea] /

-It must have been here that I lost my way, for I now went on till I found myself coming down upon Ulpha again, about a mile above the House & Kirk [Ulpha Kirk] which I had just quitted/however I was not sorry, to have another view of that lovely Place [Ulpha] , and it brought me in full sight of a fine water fall on the opposite Hill [Hesk Fell] on the other side of the Duddon [River Duddon] , seemingly a short mile above the Kirk [Ulpha Kirk] /I saw Houses to my right, & an [old] Man with his Daughter, a sweet Girl, burning Bracken-went up to him & talked with him & the lovely Girl in the [midst] of the huge Volumes of Smoke, & found I had gone two miles wrong-which yet I could scarcely believe/however he sent me to the Road, which which { [ran] } hard by, & winded down thro' Donnerdale Halse, a sloping vale between the Donnerdale Common & Donnerdale Fell/a most lovely narrow vale with several Houses, and [after I had passed the first house] on my Right the sound of a Beck, deep hidden & with a wooden bank between me & it, & its other bank a Hill with a ravin bisecting it, but all covered with fine wood, & completely hidden, ravin & all

- [ [A] ] nd now, being a short mile from Broughton Mills, this wood-covered Hill & sounding Beck to my right, there burst on me a lovely Prospect-about a quarter of mile on before me the woody Hill ran down [with] a very gentle descent in a long Ness, and the Hilly Ridge, directly in front of me, cultivated & inclosed to the top, ran down in a Ness far on behind the Ness of the woody Hill, & so as to form an inverted obtuse-angled triangle with the upper Half of the woody Nose, & thro' this the sea [Irish Sea] , & an Island in the distance/two or three Houses immediately upon the Sea Ness, & just where the Wood-ness reached the ground, a beautiful Road came in sight leading up the cultivated Hill, with houses & trees & hedges directly on to the little village [Broughton Mills] upon the Ness-As I proceed a few yards, the view is completely altered, and a round smooth rises up beyond the Sea-Ness, & bisects the distance/and on the other side of the round Hill is the high lands on the Coast

[ [A] ] nd now I descend, & cross the Wood-beck, which preserves its character to the last, running all under Alders, into a beck of a similar character from the Woods on Donnerdale Fell-& now come into a lovely vale, & a Bridge covered with Ivy, its wall 20 yards in length/the vale is completely land-locked by segments of circles folding in behind each other/before me a [strait] ridge slants across, the Hill on my right folds in a long Ellipse behind, while the Hill on my left in more of a segment of a circle folds in before it/so is it, with my back to the sea Irish Sea, & my face looking up the Stream that runs between alders & birch elms-the name of the Beck Little Beck [River Lickle] , that springs out of Coe Moss [Caw Moss] /-Turning round & looking sea-ward the Hill that is now to my left & makes an elliptical line to my back, curves in a circle-segment, while the Hill to my right folds round about it/./The place Broughton Mills/Corn Mills/-the Hill that { [I] } came upon when I lost my way Stickle Knot/-/

Mr. Thomas Robinson's Black Bull, Conistone- [Although Coleridge does not explicitly state where he stayed on the night of Saturday, 7 August, this note suggests that he took a room at the Black Bull, Coniston.]

Dined on Oatcake & Cheese, with a pint of Ale, & 2 glasses of Rum & water sweetened with preserved Gooseberries at the Ale house [Blacksmith's Arms, Broughton Mills] -Cassons'-the son, William Casson, got a pleurisy & abscess in his side by overheating himself & then starving himself in breaking up the Ice for the Mill-but being a Scholar, he gets his cloathes & a little money besides by teaching a lile lock of Bairns/his Father & Mother that keep the Public House Blacksmith's Arms, Broughton Mills, give him his meat.-The road [to Torvill or Torva] [Torver] turns off at the Inn [Blacksmith's Arms, Broughton Mills] /the views on your left hand exceedingly interesting/a few hundred yards from the one Inn [Blacksmith's Arms, Broughton Mills] one eminently picturesque-a Cottage among the Hill { [s] } with 9 main feautures of Sight having their point of unity in it/but all the way for a mile by our Left is a great bulging rocky Hill [The Knott] covered with wood, with two or three deep wooded Ravines in it, and the unseen ever-heard Brook [Appletree Worth Beck] winding at its feet-between the road & the brook inclosed fields, of steep descent, and near to the head of the woody Hill-bank a House & outhouses with 10 tall Firs at its Back/

The Roads upon [& between] the Hills from here a very interesting part of the Picture & [views to the right were of] open fields, steep ascending/Beyond the House with the Firs, [At this point in his Notebook, Coleridge inserts two small line-drawings to illustrate the contours of the landscape.] [ [T] ,] he Brook becomes visible sloping down a descent/and still I ascend, ferney Common to my right, to my left woods with fields & inclosures intermixed, & above the woods-and now nearly in the bottom you see a House with 2 outhouses, the House itself ivied all over its sea-ward Gavel/-and from this House the [line of the] Beck runs almost straight up to its Fountain head/and a beautiful Road serpentizes over the Hill just above its head, and for a small space down along its hither Bank/it rises or seems to rise between 2 round stony Hills, each of which the Mountain-ridges now rise over, now sink under, in a jagged saw-toothed outline/

I am sitting in the road, with the ivied House beneath me, and right opposite me, thro' an inverted arch in the Fells, a very singular pike looks in [In his Notebook, Coleridge draws the outline of the fell.] -N.B.-one effect of the magnitude of surrounding objects-it gives to shapes a narrowness of width, exceedingly favorable to boldness, an approximating to a sharp point, which being comparative loses its effect upon paper-because you can scarcely give the real shape, preserving its true relative dimensions, besides in a picture you only take a part of the view; but in nature the whole, perhaps 20 fold more than you draw, appears to you, each part modified by all the rest-

-at this ivied house another Beck comes from the Fells, close by my road/& joins the former/& now a ridge rises gradually like a fish, increasing [all the way] from the Tail up to the head, rises between my road & the source of the former Beck -& about a furlong higher up, a bridge crosses the latter Beck , & the road which I before observed serpentizing at the head of the main beck runs down in a sweet Curve upon the Bridge; & goes by the Beck side down to the Ivied House in a strait Line/all before me, as far as I can see, which indeed is not more than a quarter of a mile [Coleridge expresses the distance as a numerical fraction.] , a gentle ascent, ferney Common-Steep on my right, the wider view on my left a descending Fell with green stony bulging Hills on either side, which unite at its head in a shelving ridge, over behind which a higher ridge shelves in the same Direction/I now pass on, beyond the source of the hither Beck, to the top of the Hill, along which & up which my road had ever been winding, & see behind me to my right a grand Seaview & the flat lands upon the Sea, with 3 Hills, the largest of which looks like a Paradise in the wild, the fields so sweetly shaped & so green, the smaller is not unlike it, the hither one is bleak/I go on, descend a little & to my right a low cultivated Dell, with stony Fells above it; to my left a bleak Common, & stony Fells over which the Clouds are sweeping, and on my right far onward long ridges of fells, all running [abreast] with long arms sea-ward, & seen either by dips & gaps in the the hithermost ridges, or by the superior height of the furthermost-but all alike-grey & stoney-it is a day of sun & Clouds, with a thousand Shadows on the Hills-

[Day 8. From: Black Bull Hotel, Coniston To: Brathay Hall, Clappersgate]

[Coleridge's Notes continue in the same paragraph; but, at this stage of the text, his notes begin to refer to events of Sunday, 8 August 1802]

Coniston [It is unclear as to whether Coleridge is referring to the lake or the village at this point in his Notebook.] /Yewdale Crag is that noblest Ness, the main feature of the Head of the Lake [Coniston Water] /the next to it Yewdale Fells-

The water fall I saw is Levers' Water Force-and a Tarn to the south of it [Levers Water?] , behind two compleat Negro Breasts-a full Bosom/called Scrow & Bell [Foul Scrow] . The Tairn [Levers Water] behind Scrow/The Old Man is just above/next to that Seathwaite Fells-then Cockley Beck Fells-then Wrey Nose &c &c

Coniston Lake a fine mixture of the aweful & the pleasing Simple-of one-colored dark Rocks, & pastoral Hills below.

[It is difficult to organise Coleridge's Notebook by date at this stage of the text. His description of Coniston could refer to his topographical experiences of Saturday, 7 August; but, signficantly, he ends the following paragraph by indicating that he passes by 'Gateskarth, & go for Skelleth [Skelwith] ', which suggests that he is referring to his journey on foot from the village of Coniston to Brathay Hall at Clappersgate, near Ambleside. This journey took place on Sunday, 8 August, and Coleridge's precise route is uncertain. By this stage of his 'circumcursion', the topographical detail and accuracy of Coleridge's prose account becomes increasingly erratic and inconsistent. The possible reasons for this loss of precision need to be more explored in further detail; what is more, Coleridge's response to the environment needs to be contrasted with Wordsworth's comprehensive documentation and textual mapping of the Lake District landscape.]

Coniston [Coniston Water] is doubtless a worthy Compeer of the Stateliest/an equal coheir of Nature with Keswick, Wyndermere [Windermere] , & Ulswater [Ullswater] /Its distinguishing character I think it its perfect & easy comprehensibility. At its foot the Hills are low, but of a various outline/from the Foot to within a mile of the Head, the Hills on either side are of no great permanent Interest, tho' susceptible no doubt of a very high one from the accidents of Nature, that must be so frequent here, of broken Sunlights, Clouds, & Storm/The Head of the Lake [Coniston Water] is an admirable junction of awful & of pleasing Simplicity./its is beyond all lakes perfectly intelligible-Conceive a crescent of Hills, or rather a crescent hill, enfolding the first mile of water/this hill of various height & various outline, but no where high/above this hill at the head of the Lake [Coniston Water] , but somewhat to the Left of it (as you ascend the Lake [Coniston Water] ) high mountain { [s] } of a remarkable sternness & simplicity, one-colored, as seen at a distance, & dark-colored/its boldest parts are first, the Bell & the Scrow, two black Peaks, perfectly breast-shaped & lying abreast of each other, the whole Bosom of a Brobdignag Negress, & on one side of them the Lever's water-fall/2-the very bold Ness called Yewdale Crag, its ridge line rounded/and about 150 yards from Gateskarth's, the house close upon the Lake [Coniston Water] , at its very head, the simple, most unfantastic, Yewdale Crag seen thro' a Dip in the woody pastoral Crescent below, this Dip a very gentle curve, the under half of an ellipse [At this stage in his Notebook, Coleridge inserts a line-drawing to illustrate the contour of the landscape.] /The Houses, Gardens, fields, & woodland upon this crescent Hill are all in admirable keeping, various as heart can wish, yet all sweet Brothers & Sisters-so various that when together you see small likeness/so like that when separate, you might mistake one for the other-I pass by Gateskarth, & go for Skelleth [Skelwith] /-Add Coniston Hall as the first bold feature, with its four Round Chimneys, two cloathed so warmly cap a pie with ivy & down on the wall far below/

observe from Torva [Torver] thro' Coniston the force of imitation in the Gardens & sweet Porches, & every where clipped yews, in obelisks, & fine arches/about 2 miles from Coniston just where [ [the road joins] ] Hawkshead & Esthwaite with Priest-Pot [A floating island in Esthwaite.] and its floating Isle with Trees, then at the farther end (nearest Esthwaite) 15 yards long/-there there is on your left, belonging to one John Swainson, with a compleate colonnade of clipped yews-an old man with his wife-had small else to do-was a Tanner, but long given over/has children, his they are grown up & married off- { [?for] } some time before this I came upon the view of Wyndermere [Windermere] .

[Coleridge continues his account of his walking tour of the Lake District in a letter sent to Sara Hutchinson from Greta Hall, Keswick, dated 10 August 1802. The letter begins with a paragraph in which Coleridge describes the topographical scene from his Keswick home and a second paragraph in which he discusses the Wordsworths and, in particular, Annette Vallon. Half-way down the second paragraph, however, Coleridge returns to the details of what, earlier on in the letter, he refers to as his 'delightful & feeding Excursion, or rather Circumcursion'.] I slept at Bratha [Brathay Hall, Clappersgate] on Sunday night-amp; did not go on to Grasmere, tho' I had time enough, and was not over-fatigued; but tho' I have no objection to sleep in a lonely House, I did not like to sleep in theirlonely House [Dove Cottage, Town End, Grasmere]

[Day 9. From: Brathay Hall, Clappersgate To: Greta Hall, Keswick]

[Coleridge provides brief details of the final day of his walking tour in his letter of 10 August 1802 to Sara Hutchinson]

I called [Dove Cottage, Town End, Grasmere] the next day-went into the garden-pulled some Peas, & shelled & drest them, & eat them for dinner with one rasher of Bacon boiled-but I did not go up stairs, nor indeed any where but the Kitchen. Partly I was very wet & my boots very dirty-& Molly [Molly Fisher] had set the Pride of her Heart upon it's niceness-& still more-I had small desire to go up!

It was very kind of you, my Darlings! to send the 5£; (which I have now sent back) but it was not very wise. I could have easily procured 3 or 4£ from Mr Jackson / but I gave up the Residence at St Bees, because I began to reflect that in the present state of my finances I ought not to spend so much money. Thomas Ashburner's call was the occasion of my resolve not to go to St Bees; but my own after reflections were the cause.-In the course of my Tour (& I was absent 9 days) I gave away to Bairns, & foot-sore Wayfarers four shillings, & some odd pence; & I spent nine shillings-sum total, £0" 13s 0D-but to this must be added the wear & tear of my Boots, which are gone to be mended; & sixpence for a great knee-patch for my Pantaloons, which will not however be worn an hour the shorter time for the said large knee-patch. I have now no clothes but what are patched at the elbows, & knees, & in the seat-& I am determined to wear them out & out-& to have none till after Christmas- [Coleridge ends the letter with references to his sons, Hartley and Derwent, and children in general.]