Note BZ — PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1814
Reading edition
The following is from Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal: Wednesday, 3rd September 1800.—"I went to a funeral at John Dawson's. About 10 men and 4 women.... The dead person 56 years of age, buried by the parish.... They set the corpse down at the door; and, while we stood within the threshold, the men, with their hats off, sang, with decent and solemn countenances, a verse of a funeral psalm. The corpse was then borne down the hill, and they sang till they had passed the Town-end. I was affected to tears while we stood in the house.... There were no near kindred, no children. When we got out of the dark house the sun was shining, and the prospect looked as divinely beautiful as I ever saw it. It seemed more sacred than I had ever seen it, and yet more allied to human life.... When we came to the bridge, they began to sing again, and stopped during four lines before they entered the churchyard." Compare this with such phrases in The Excursion as—
They shaped their course along the sloping side Of that small valley, singing as they moved; A sober company and few, the men —(p. 84.) Bare-headed, We heard the hymn they sang—a solemn sound Heard any where; but in a place like this —(p. 90.)—ED. 'Tis more than human!