Derwentwater’s floating island has long been a curiosity, varying in size during its
different appearances. Early writers on the Lakes offered various ingenious speculations
on the science behind it. Wordsworth wrote about a “floating island” in the Prelude (1850, III.336–39), and Dorothy wrote a poem called “Floating Island” that appeared
in William’s volume of 1842.

Latin: a mystery or freak of nature.

Wordsworth quotes from Walter Savage Landor’s Idyllia Heroica Decem, Librum Phaleuciorum Unum (Heroic Idylls), first published in Pisa in 1820. Owen and Smyser report that Landor had recently
published an essay defending Wordsworth from his critics, so it appears that Wordsworth
was returning a favor by praising Landor’s work from the 1823 Guide forward. The passage, as loosely translated by John Talbot, reads: “You really ought
to visit the fields of Tivoli, and the lake of Albunea, with its leafy floating islands.”
The lake of Albunea is the Lago Albano.

Kirkstone Pass, which connects Ambleside to Patterdale, is the Lake District’s highest
paved road, topping out at 1,489 feet (454 meters). The route is the subject of “Ode:
The Pass of Kirkstone,” which appears later in the Guide.

The yew tree survives, and it now stands nearby the Old Church Country Hotel (near
Watermillock). The site Wordsworth mentions should not be confused with Old St. Martin’s
Church, Martindale, which still stands and boasts its own ancient yew.

The “new” chapel mentioned by Wordsworth has since been replaced by a building constructed
in 1881 (All Saints Church, Watermillock). However, the tower at the building’s west
end dates from the 1550s. Bishop Owen Oglethorpe, who consecrated the fifteenth-century
building, was the lone clergyman willing to crown Elizabeth I in 1559 because of her
public Protestantism. He came to regret that decision. Queen Elizabeth imprisoned
him months later, and he died a religious martyr. Photo: Bob Jenkins, Wikimedia Commons.

Also known as Saint Bede (c. 673–735), the monk often called “the Father of English
History.” His mention of Dacre (“Dacore”) appears in his Ecclesiastical History of England, chapter 32. At that time, Bede reports, the stream had a monastery beside it.