John Brown (1715-1766). Praising him as “the first who led the way to a worthy admiration
of this country,” Wordsworth probably recalls Brown’s A Description of the Lake at Keswick (1767), a book mentioned by name later in the Guide. Brown’s “Now Sunk the Sun” first appeared in Richard Cumberland’s Odes (1776) and was reprinted in West’s Guide, editions 2–11, where Wordsworth may have encountered it (Wu, Wordsworth’s Reading, 1770–1799, 19). The poem also appeared in various contemporary anthologies, identified as a
“rhapsody” inspired by the Westmorland lakes.

Wordsworth alludes to the opening chapter of Samuel Johnson’s The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (1759): “The place which the wisdom or policy of antiquity had destined for the residence
of the Abyssinian princes was a spacious valley…surrounded on every side by mountains,
of which the summits overhang the middle part. The only passage by which it could
be entered was a cavern that passed under a rock.”

Paradise Lost, IV.606-07.

The poet is George Buchanan (1506–1582), the poem “Calendae Maiae.” De Selincourt
gives the Latin lines and supplies this translation from Peter Hume Brown’s 1890 Buchanan
biography:

During Wordsworth’s time this bon mot was widely attributed to Rousseau. See, for
instance, The Poetical Works of Anna Seward, II.101 (Edinburgh: Ballantyne, 1810).

The Lake District is in fact England’s wettest region. Precipitation varies within
its boundaries—Penrith, located in the Eden Valley, receives just 30-35 inches annually,
whereas Seathwaite in Borrowdale receives an average of 130-40—but the region overall
averages more than 80 inches. England as a whole averages around 33 inches per year,
so Wordsworth’s statement is essentially accurate.

Shakespeare, Measure for Measure III.i.9.

The bilberry is a low-growing shrub with edible berries, known in English by many
local names.