RECOLLECTIONS
OF A
TOUR MADE IN SCOTLAND
A.D. 1803
BY DOROTHY WORDSWORTH
Edited by J. C. Shairp
CONTENTS.
day
page
Preface
ix
First Week.
1.
Left Keswick—Grisdale—Mosedale—Hesket Newmarket—Caldbeck Falls
1
2.
Ross Castle—Carlisle—Hatfield—Longtown
2
3.
Solway Moss—Enter Scotland—Springfield—Gretna Green—Annan—Dumfries
3
4.
Burns’s Grave
5
Ellisland—Vale of Nith
7
Brownhill
8
Poem to Burns’s Sons
10
5.
Thornhill—Drumlanrig—River Nith
11
Turnpike House
12
Sportsman
13
Vale of Menock
14
Wanlockhead
15
Leadhills
18
Miners
19
Hopetoun mansion
20
Hostess
20
6.
Road to Crawfordjohn
22
Douglas Mill
28
Clyde—Lanerk
31
Boniton Linn
33
Second Week.
7.
Falls of the Clyde
35
Cartland Crags
40
Fall of Stonebyres—Trough of the Clyde
Hamilton
44
8.
Hamilton House
45
Baroncleuch—Bothwell Castle
48
Glasgow
52
9.
Bleaching ground (Glasgow Green)
53
Road to Dumbarton
55
10.
Rocks and Castle of Dumbarton
58
Vale of Leven
62
Smollett’s Monument
63
Loch Achray
64
Luss
67
11.
Islands of Loch Lomond
71
Road to Tarbet
75
The Cobbler
78
Tarbet
79
12.
Left Tarbet for the Trossachs
81
Rob Roy’s Caves
82
Inversneyde Ferryhouse and Waterfall
83
Singular building
84
Loch Ketterine
86
Glengyle
88
Mr. Macfarlane’s
89
13.
Breakfast at Glengyle
91
Lairds of Glengyle—Rob Roy
92
Burying ground
94
Ferryman’s Hut
95
Trossachs
96
Loch Achray
101
Return to Ferryman’s Hut
102
Third Week.
14.
Left Loch Ketterine
106
Garrison House—Highland Girls
107
Ferryhouse at Inversneyde
108
Poem to the Highland Girl
113
Return to Tarbet
115
15.
Coleridge resolves to go home
117
Arrochar—Loch Long
118
Parted with Coleridge
119
Glen Croe—The Cobbler
121
Glen Kinglas—Cairndow
123
16.
Road to Inverary
124
Inverary
126
17.
Vale of Arey
129
Loch Awe
134
Kilchurn Castle
138
Dalmally
139
18.
Loch Awe
141
Taynuilt
143
Bunawe—Loch Etive
144
Tinkers
149
19.
Road by Loch Etive downwards
152
Dunstaffnage Castle
153
Loch Crerar
Strath of Appin—Portnacroish
158
Islands of Loch Linnhe
159
Morven
160
Lord Tweeddale
161
Strath of Duror
163
Ballachulish
164
20.
Road to Glen Coe up Loch Leven
165
Blacksmith’s house
166
Glen Coe
172
Whisky hovel
174
King’s House
175
Fourth Week.
21.
Road to Inveroran
180
Inveroran—Public-house
182
Road to Tyndrum
183
Tyndrum
184
Loch Dochart
185
22.
Killin
186
Loch Tay
188
Kenmore
189
23.
Lord Breadalbane’s grounds
193
Vale of Tay—Aberfeldy—Falls of Moness
194
River Tummel—Vale of Tummel
196
Fascally—Blair
197
24.
Duke of Athol’s gardens
198
Falls of Bruar—Mountain-road to Loch Tummel
201
Loch Tummel
Rivers Tummel and Garry
204
Fascally
205
25.
Pass of Killicrankie—Sonnet
207
Fall of Tummel
208
Dunkeld
209
Fall of the Bran
210
26.
Duke of Athol’s gardens
211
Glen of the Bran—Rumbling Brig
212
Narrow Glen—Poem
213
Crieff
215
27.
Strath Erne
215
Lord Melville’s house—Loch Erne
216
Strath Eyer—Loch Lubnaig
217
Bruce the Traveller—Pass of Leny—Callander
218
Fifth Week.
28.
Road to the Trossachs—Loch Vennachar
219
Loch Achray—Trossachs—Road up Loch Ketterine
220
Poem: ‘Stepping Westward’
221
Boatman’s hut
222
29.
Road to Loch Lomond
223
Ferryhouse at Inversneyde
223
Walk up Loch Lomond
224
Glenfalloch
226
Glengyle
228
Rob Roy’s Grave—Poem
229
Boatman’s Hut
30.
Mountain-Road to Loch Voil
235
Poem, ‘The Solitary Reaper’
237
Strath Eyer
239
31.
Loch Lubnaig
240
Callander—Stirling—Falkirk
241
32.
Linlithgow—Road to Edinburgh
242
33.
Edinburgh
243
Roslin
245
34.
Roslin—Hawthornden
246
Road to Peebles
247
Sixth Week.
35.
Peebles—Neidpath Castle—Sonnet
248
Tweed
249
Clovenford
251
Poem on Yarrow
252
36.
Melrose—Melrose Abbey
255
37.
Dryburgh
257
Jedburgh—Old Woman
260
Poem
262
38.
Vale of Jed—Ferniehurst
265
39.
Jedburgh—The Assizes
267
Vale of Teviot
268
Hawick
270
40.
Vale of Teviot—Branxholm
270
Moss Paul
271
Langholm
272
41.
Road to Longtown
River Esk—Carlisle
273
42.
Arrival at home
274
APPENDIX
277
NOTES
309
ITINERARY
317
POEMS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE JOURNAL
1803.
page
To the Sons of Burns, after visiting the Grave of their Father
277
At the Grave of Burns, 1803
278
Thoughts suggested the day following, on the Banks of Nith, near the Poet’s Residence
281
To a Highland Girl
113
Address to Kilchurn Castle, upon Loch Awe
285
Sonnet in the Pass of Killicrankie
207
Glen Almain; or the Narrow Glen
213
The Solitary Reaper
237
Stepping Westward
221
Rob Roy’s Grave
229
Sonnet composed at Neidpath Castle
248
Yarrow Unvisited
252
The Matron of Jedborough and her Husband
262
Fly, some kind Spirit, fly to Grasmere Vale!
274
The Blind Highland Boy
286
1814.
The Brownie’s Cell
298
Cora Linn, in sight of Wallace’s Tower
283
Effusion, in the Pleasure-ground on the banks of the Bran, near Dunkeld
294
Yarrow Visited
301
1831.
Yarrow Re-visited
304
On
307
The Trossachs
308
PREFACE.
Those who have long known the poetry of Wordsworth will be no strangers to the existence of this Journal of his sister, which is now for the first time published entire. They will have by heart those few wonderful sentences from it which here and there stand at the head of the Poet’s ‘Memorials of a Tour in Scotland in 1803.’ Especially they will remember that ‘Extract from the Journal of my Companion’ which preludes the ‘Address to Kilchurn Castle upon Loch Awe,’ and they may sometimes have asked themselves whether the prose of the sister is not as truly poetic and as memorable as her brother’s verse. If they have read the Memoirs of the Poet published by his nephew the Bishop of Lincoln, they will have found there fuller extracts from the Journal, which quite maintain the impression made by the first brief sentences. All true Wordsworthians then will welcome, I believe, the present publication. They will find in it not only new and illustrative light on those Scottish poems which they have so long known, but a faithful commentary on the character of the poet, his mode of life, and the manner of his poetry. Those who from close study of Wordsworth’s poetry know both the poet and his sister, and what they were to each other, will need nothing more than the Journal itself. If it were likely to fall only into their hands, it might be left without one word of comment or illustration. But as it may reach some who have never read Wordsworth, and others who having read do not relish him, for the information of these something more must be said. The Journal now published does not borrow all its worth from its bearing on the great poet. It has merit and value of its own, which may commend it to some who have no heart for Wordsworth’s poetry. For the writer of it was in herself no common woman, and might have secured for herself an independent reputation, had she not chosen rather that other part, to forget and merge herself entirely in the work and reputation of her brother.