Note 281 — 1844
Reading edition
In the chancel of the church at Furness Abbey, ivy almost covers the north wall. In the Belfry and in the Chapter House, it is the same. The “tower,” referred to in the sonnet, is evidently the belfry tower to the west. It is still “grass-crowned.” The sonnet was doubtless composed on the spot, and if Wordsworth ascended to the top of the belfry tower, he might have seen the morning sunlight strike the small remaining fragment of the central tower. But it is more likely that he looked up from the nave, or choir, of the church to the belfry, when he spoke of the sun’s first smile gleaming from the top of the tall tower. “Flowers”—crowfoot, campanulas, etc.—still luxuriate on the mouldered walls. With the line,
Fall to prevent or beautify decay;
compare,
Nature softening and concealing, And busy with a hand of healing,
in the description of Bolton Abbey in The White Doe of Rylstone, canto i. I. 118. Compare also the Address from the Spirit of Cockermouth Castle, vol. vii. p. 347.—Ed.