Volume 5 — APPENDIX

NOTE A

(See p. 2)

The grave of James Patrick,—the pedlar whose character and habits gave rise to "The Wanderer" of The Excursion,—may still be seen in the church-yard within the town of Kendal. The following extract from the Papers, Letters, and Journals of William Pearson, edited by his widow, and printed in London, in 1863, for private circulation, refers to Patrick. "He" (i.e. William Pearson) "sometimes went to Kendal on Sundays, in order to worship with Unitarians, in the old Presbyterian meeting-house. This quiet secluded building, though situated in the heart of the town, is overshadowed by trees, beneath which rest many worthies of departed times: one of whom, James Patrick, was the prototype of 'The Wanderer' of The Excursion. A plain mural slab, outside the east wall of the chapel—which was his spiritual home—bears the following inscription:—

NEAR THIS PLACE ARE BURIED JOHN PATRICK OF BARNARD CASTLE, WHO DIED MAY 10TH, 1753, AGED 51 YEARS; MARGARET, THE DAUGHTER OF JAMES AND MARY PATRICK, WHO DIED NOVEMBER 26TH, 1767, IN HER INFANCY; JAMES PATRICK OF KENDAL, WHO DIED MARCH 2D, 1787, AGED 71 YEARS.

"When staying in Kendal, with his friend Mr. Thomas Cookson, Mr. Wordsworth himself was an occasional worshipper, along with the family, at this chapel; and thus became acquainted with the minister, the Reverend John Harrison, and with one of his congregation, the well-known blind mathematician and botanist, Mr. John Gough, with the delineation of whose remarkable powers and character the poet has enriched his Excursion; and in turn, has, by the touch of his genius, imparted to them a lustre that will not fade, whilst English Literature shall endure." (p. 13).

NOTE B

(See p. 115)

The following is an extract from Dr. Daniel G. Brinton's work, the Myths of the New World.

"As in oriental legends, the origin of man from the earth was veiled under the story that he was the progeny of some mountain by the embrace of Mithras or Jupiter, so the Indians often pointed to some height or some cavern as the spot whence the first of men issued, adult and armed, from the womb of the All-mother Earth. The oldest name of the Alleghany Mountains is Paemotinck, or Pemolnick, an Algonkin word, the meaning of which is said to be "The origin of the Indians."

"The Witchitas, who dwelt on the Red River among the mountains named after them, have a tradition that their progenitors issued from the rocks about their homes, and many other tribes, the Tahkalis, Navajos, Coryoteras, and the Hailians, for instance, set up this claim to be autochthones....

"All those tribes, the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, Chicasaws, and Natchez, who, according to tradition, were in remote times banded into one common confederacy under the headship of the last-mentioned, unanimously located their earliest ancestry near an artificial eminence in the valley of the Big Black River, in the Natchez country, whence they pretended to have emerged....

"A parallel to this southern legend occurs among the Six Nations of the north. They with one consent, if we may credit the account of Cusic, looked to a mountain near the falls of the Oswego River, in the State of New York, as the locality where the forefathers first saw the light of day, and that they had some such legend the name Oneida, people of the Stone, would seem to testify....

"An ancient legend of the Aztecs derived their nation from a place called Chicomoztoc, the Seven Caverns, located north of Mexico. Antiquaries have indulged in all sorts of speculations as to what this means.... Caverns and hollow trees were in fact the homes and temples of our first parents, and from them they went forth to conquer and adorn the world; and from the inorganic constituents of the soil acted on by Light, treated by Divine Force, vivified by the Spirit, did in reality the first of men proceed.

"This cavern, which thus dimly lingered in the memories of nations, occasionally expanded to a nether world, imagined to underlie this of ours, and still inhabited by beings of our kind, who have never been lucky enough to discover its exit. The Mandans and Minnetarees, on the Missouri River, supposed this exit was near a certain hill in their territory...."—Myths of the New World, pp. 224-8.

Mr. Edward B. Tylor, Oxford, suggests that the legend referred to may be that described in Falkner's account of the Moluches.

"They believe that their good deities made the world, and that they first created the Indians in their caves, gave them the lance, the bow and arrows, and the stone-bowls, to fight and hunt with, and then turned them out to shift for themselves. They imagine that the deities of the Spaniards did the same by them.... They have formed a belief that some of them after death return to their divine caverns," etc. (Falkner's Description of Patagonia and the adjoining parts of South America, etc., chap. v. pp. 114-5, by Thomas Falkner, Hereford, 1774.)

See also Edward B. Tylor's Early History of Mankind, p. 313.—ED.

NOTE C

(See p. 140)

For the following letters in reference to the "Muccawiss," I am indebted to Mr. Henry Reed,—son of the late Professor Reed of Philadelphia,—whose assistance in all matters relating to Wordsworth in America has been invaluable.

"NO. 400 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA, "September 26th, 1883.

"MY DEAR MR. KNIGHT—Dr. Brinton tells me that Muccawiss is the Algonquin for whip-poor-will, and he will ascertain for me the precise spelling, and, if possible, the book from which W. W. probably got his information.—Yours sincerely, HENRY REED."

"115 SOUTH SEVENTH STREET, "September 27th, 1883.

"DEAR SIR—I have failed to find the exact word used by Wordsworth—muccawiss. The nearest to it is 'moshkaois,' which signifies 'bittern,' a water-fowl of the diver class, to which the name has reference, it being a derivative from a verb meaning to rise to the surface of the water. The word is no doubt of Algonkin origin, and I would suggest that you write to the Algonkin scholar, par excellence, of our country, Colonel J. Hammond Trumbull, Hartford, Conn., who is both able and willing to solve all the enigmas of that difficult tongue.—Very truly yours, D. G. BRINTON."

"Henry Reed, Esq."

"NO. 400 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA, "October 2nd, 1883.

"MY DEAR MR. KNIGHT—I enclose a letter from Colonel Trumbull, which I think you will find satisfactory.—Yours very sincerely, HENRY REED."

"HARTFORD, CONN., September 29th, 1883.

"HENRY REED, Esq., Philadelphia.

"DEAR SIR—Wordsworth's 'Muccawis' was, certainly, a Whip-poor-will, and he must have taken the Indian name, directly or at second-hand, from Carver's Travels. Among the birds 'found in the interior parts of North America,' Carver (chap. 18) describes 'the Whipper-will, or, as it is termed by the Indians, the Muckawis.... As soon as night comes on, these birds will place themselves on the fences, stumps, or stones that lie near some house, and repeat their melancholy notes without any variation till midnight,' etc. So Wordsworth's

"I have an impression—which I have not just now leisure to verify—that Carver's description of this and some other American birds was reprinted in the Gentleman's Magazine. Two or three English editions of the Travels had been printed before The Excursion was written.

"I find no other authority for this 'Indian' name. The Chippeway name for the Whip-poor-will is (as given by Tanner or Dr. E. James) Wâwonaissa. Nuttall states, the Delaware name was Wecoâlis: Zeisberger wrote it Wecoolis.—Yours sincerely, J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL."

"P.S.—Carver did not name 'the merry mocking-bird'—which Wordsworth makes the companion of the 'Muccawis'; but Campbell had heard of 'the merry mock-bird's song,' and copied a description of it from Ashe's Travels in America, in a note to Gertrude of Wyoming (1809), pt. i. st. 3."

Since receiving these letters I have ascertained that Wordsworth had in his library at Rydal Mount—whether he had it at Allan Bank I cannot say—a copy of one of the English editions of Carver's Travels.

Compare Wanderings in South America, etc., by Charles Waterton—a work which was also in Wordsworth's library at Rydal. I quote from a recent edition (1879). See pp. 99, 111, 199, and 488:—

"When in thy hammock, should the thought of thy little crosses and disappointments, in thy ups and downs through life, break in upon thee, and throw thee into a pensive mood, the owl will bear thee company. She will tell thee that hard has been her fate too; and at intervals 'Whip-poor-will' and 'Willy-come-go' will take up the tale of sorrow. Ovid has told thee how the owl once boasted the human form, and lost it for a very small offence; and were the poet alive now, he would inform thee, that 'Whip-poor-will' and 'Willy-come-go' are the shades of these poor African and Indian slaves, who died worn out and broken-hearted. They wail and cry, 'Whip-poor-will' and 'Willy-come-go' all night long; and often, when the moon shines, you see them sitting on the green turf, near the houses of those whose ancestors tore them from the bosom of their helpless families, which all probably perished through grief and want, after their support was gone." (p. 99).

"The Caprimulgus wheels in busy flight around the canoe, while 'Whip-poor-will' sits on the broken stump near the water's edge, complaining as the shades of night set in" (p. 111).

The following is from Ornithological Biography, or an Account of the Habits of the Birds of America, vol. i. p. 422, by John James Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831.

"Whip-poor-will, Caprimulgus vociferus, a species of Night-jar. Immediately after the arrival of these birds their notes are heard in the dusk and through the evening, in every part of the thickets, and along the skirts of the woods. They are clear and loud, and to me are more interesting than those of the Nightingale.... The Whip-poor-will continues its lively song for several hours after sunset, and then remains silent until the first dawn of day, when its notes echo through every vale, and along the declivities of the mountains, until the beams of the rising sun scatter the darkness that overhung the face of Nature. Hundreds are often heard at the same time in different parts of the wood, each trying to outdo the others.... The cry consists of three distinct notes, the first and last of which are emphatical and sonorous, the intermediate one less so. These three notes are preceded by a low cluck, which seems preparatory to the others. A fancied resemblance which its notes have to the syllables whip-poor-will has given rise to the common name of the bird."

NOTE D

(See p. 173)

A translation of the passage from Pausanias is quoted in the text. I append extracts from some letters I have received on the subject. The first are from Mr. Heard, Fettes College, Edinburgh.

October 5th.

"I cannot find a reference to Cephisus; but I send you a passage in point from Homer, Iliad, 23, 140. I rather suspect Wordsworth had this passage in mind, for no commentator I have quotes a parallel; in which case he has either forgotten Spercheius as the river, or substituted, on purpose, the better known Attic river.

"Achilles offers to the dead Patroclus the locks which his father had vowed to Spercheius, if ever he returned to his native land:

October 13th.

"I have discovered the reference to the Cephisus. It is from Pausanias, 1, 37, 3. I transcribe the passage: you will notice the reference to the Spercheius of the Iliad.

"πρὶν δὲ διαβαεναι τὸν Καεφισόν, Θεοδώρου μνῆμά ἐστι τραγῳσίαν ὑποκριναμένου τῶν καθ᾿ αὑτὸν ἄριστα. ἀγάλματα δὲ ἐπὶ τῷ ποταμῷ Μνησιμάχης, τὸ δὲ ἐτερον ἀνάθημα κειρομένου οἰ τὴν κόμην τοῦ παιδὸς ἐπὶ τῷ Καϕισῷ. καθεστάναι δὲ ἐκ παλαιοῦ καὶ τοῖς πᾶσι τοῦτο ῞Ἑλλαεσι τῇ Ὁμήρου τις ἂν τεκμαίροιτο ποιήσει, ἃς τὸν Παελέα εὄξασθαί ϕησι τῷ Σπερχειῷ κερεῖν ἀνασωθέντος ἐκ Τροίας Αχιλλέως τὴν κόμην.

"There can be little doubt that Wordsworth had this passage in mind. The Cephisus is the Attic one; this is a statue, which Pausanias saw on the banks of the river, of the son of Mnesimache cutting his locks over the stream."

Professor Campbell writes:—"The Homeric passage is Iliad, 23, 140-151, where Achilles cuts off for Patroclus the lock of hair, which his father Peleus had vowed to the river Spercheius in case of his son's safe return. This is referred to by Plato,—Rep. 3, 391 B,—who regards it as an act of impiety to have given that, which was sacred to the river, to a dead body.

"Unless the passage in Pausanias is singularly apposite, I should think that this passage must have been in Wordsworth's mind, and that by a perfectly legitimate use of poetic freedom, in speaking of the later Greek civilisation, he had put the Attic in place of the Phthiotic river."

Since receiving Mr. Heard's letter, I have found that Wordsworth possessed a copy of Thomas Taylor's translation of Pausanias's Description of Greece, published in 1794, a copy of that work having been sold at the Rydal Mount sale in 1859. Bishop Wordsworth of St. Andrews has also directed my attention to the following note to Pope's translation of the Iliad, a copy of which his uncle possessed. Book xxiii. 175.

"It was the custom of the ancients not only to offer their own hair, but likewise to consecrate that of their children to the river-gods of their country. This is what Pausanias shews in his Attics; Before you pass the Cephisa, says he, you find the tomb of Theodorus, who was the most excellent actor of his time for tragedy; and, on the banks you see two statues, one of Mnesimachus, and the other of his son, who cut off his hair in honour of the rivers; for that this was in all ages the custom of the Greeks, may be inferred from Homer's poetry, where Peleus promises by a solemn vow to consecrate to the river Sperchius the hair of his son, if he returns safe from the Trojan war. This custom was likewise in Egypt, where Philostratus tells us that Memnon consecrated his hair to the Nile. This practice of Achilles was imitated by Alexander at the funeral of Hephæstion."

It is likely that Wordsworth had read this note to the annotated edition (1763) of Pope's Homer; but it is also probable that he was familiar with the passage in Pausanias.

NOTE E

(See p. 303)

Many particulars regarding John Gough may be found in Cornelius Nicholson's Annals of Kendal, pp. 355-368 (Whitaker and Coy., 1861). He was born in 1757 and died in 1825. "Before the completion of his third year, he was attacked with small-pox, which deprived him of his sight. The whole globe of the left eye was destroyed: the damage done to the other was not so extensive: for, though the greater part of the cornea was rendered opaque, there was a minute pellucid speck to the right of the pupil, which permitted a ray of light to fall upon the verge of the retina, and thus he was enabled to distinguish between day and night: but he had no perception of the form or colour of objects around him; so that, for all useful purposes, vision was completely lost." But his marvellous sense of touch, as described by Wordsworth, was in no degree exaggerated. In his eighth summer, he began the study of botany; and pursued it systematically in his thirteenth year. "His method of examining plants must be briefly told. Systems of classification were but little valued, except so far as they aided him in recognising individual form. The plant to be examined was held by the root or base in one hand, while the fingers of the other travelled slowly upwards, over the stem, branches, and leaves, till they reached the flower. If the species had been already met with, this procedure was sufficient for its recognition; if it proved to be a novelty, its class was first determined by the insertion of the tip of his tongue within the flower: thus he discovered the number and arrangement of the stamens and pistils. When the flower was small he requested his reader to ascertain these points with a lens. The class and order being determined, the genus was next worked out, word by word of the description, so far at least as the state of the specimen would allow. But his perceptive power over form was most conspicuous in the analysis of species. It was truly wonderful to witness the rapidity with which his fingers ran among the leaves, taking cognizance of their divisions, shape, serratures, and of the presence or absence of hairs. The finest down was detected, by a stem or leaf being drawn gently across the border of his lower lip; so fine, indeed, that a young eye often required a lens to verify the truth of the perception. Another peculiarity is worthy of notice. Repeated perusal of descriptions had enabled him to prefigure in his mind's eye, the form without the presence of specimens; so that, when a species for the first time came within his touch, he at once named it from memory.... It was, probably, on one of these occasions, that Mr. Wordsworth, while describing the little cushion-like plant, with white roots and purple flowers, growing near Grisedale Tarn, caught the first glimpse of that conception which was afterwards expanded into the beautiful picture given of Mr. Gough in The Excursion."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in his Essay on The Soul and its Organs of Sense, refers to him as "not only an excellent mathematician, but an infallible botanist and zoologist. He has frequently, at first feel, corrected the mistakes of the most experienced sportsmen, with regard to the birds or vermin which they had killed, when it chanced to be a variety or rare species, so completely resembling the common one, that it required great steadiness of observation to detect the difference, even after it had been pointed out." "Good heavens!" added Coleridge, "why his face sees all over!"

Gough died in the 69th year of his age; and he was buried, not (as Wordsworth puts it in The Excursion) at Grasmere, but in the churchyard of Kendal. What is more remarkable is that he lived for ten years after The Excursion was printed; and Wordsworth must have written the passage in the Seventh Book referring to Gough in anticipation of his death, probably 13 years before he died.

Mr. John Watson of Kendal tells me that he has had put into his hands a MS. autobiography of Gough. Mr. Watson has himself written an interesting sketch of the blind botanist.

See the passage in The Excursion, book vii. l. 492, etc., referring to Gough.—ED.

END OF VOL. V

Printed by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh