n090

Paradise Lost, IV.606-07.

n089

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:

When, still rejoicing in her birth,
Spring brightened all the new-made earth
And in that happy golden age
Men knew no lawless passions rage,
Thy train of joys embraced the year:
Soft breezes wooed the untilled field
Its blessings all unforced to yield.
Even in such mildest atmosphere
For ever bask those happy isles,
Those blessèd Plains, that never know
Life’s slow decay, or poisoned flow.
Thus ‘mid the still abodes of death
Should steal the soft air’s softest breath,
And gently stir the solemn wood
That glooms o’er Lethe’s dreamless flood.
And, haply when made pure of stain
By cleansing fire, the earth renewed
Shall know her ancient joys again,
Even such mild air shall o’er her brood.

n088

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).

n087

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.

n086

Shakespeare, Measure for Measure III.i.9.

n084

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

n081

The phrase comes from Virgil’s Georgics II.469 and suggests natural lakes of fresh water (as opposed to artificial reservoirs
or ponds). Other writers on landscape, including Gilpin, use this locution as well.

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