The note is as follows:
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Moss Campion ('Silene acaulis'). This most beautiful plant is scarcein England, though it is found in great abundance upon the mountainsof Scotland. The first specimen I ever saw of it in its native bed wassingularly fine, the tuft or cushion being at least eight inchesdiameter, and the root proportionably thick. I have only met with itin two places among our mountains, in both of which I have sincesought for it in vain. Botanists will not, I hope, take it ill, if I caution them againstcarrying off inconsiderately rare and beautiful plants. This has oftenbeen done, particularly from Ingleborough and other mountains inYorkshire, till the species have totally disappeared, to the greatregret of lovers of nature living near the places where theygrew."--W. W. 1842. See also 'The Prelude', book xiv. 1. 419, p. 379.--Ed.] This poem underwent no change in successive editions. At a meeting of "The Wordsworth Society" held at Grasmere, in July 1881,it was proposed by one of the members, the Rev. H. D. Rawnsley, thenVicar of Wray, to erect some memorial at the parting-place of thebrothers. The brothers John and William Wordsworth parted at GrisedaleTarn, on the 29th September 1800. The originator of the idea wrote thusof it in June 1882: "A proposition, made by one of its members to the Wordsworth Societywhen it met in Grasmere in 1881, to mark the spot in the GrisedalePass of Wordsworth's parting from his brother John--and to carry out awish the poet seems to have hinted at in the last of his elegiacverses in memory of that parting--is now being put into effect. It hasbeen determined, after correspondence with Lord Coleridge, Dr.Cradock, Professor Knight, and Mr. Hills, to have inscribed--(on thenative rock, if possible)--the first four lines of Stanzas III. andVII. of these verses: 'Here did we stop; and here looked roundWhile each into himself descends,For that last thought of parting FriendsThat is not to be found....Brother and friend, if verse of mineHave power to make thy virtues known,Here let a monumental StoneStand--sacred as a Shrine.' The rock selected is a fine mass, facing the east, on the left of thetrack as one descends from Grisedale Tarn towards Patterdale, and isabout 100 yards from the tarn. No more suitable one can be found, andwe have the testimony of Mr. David Richardson of Newcastle, who haspractical knowledge of engineering, that it is the fittest, both fromshape and from slight incline of plane. It has been proposed to sink a panel in the face of the rock, that sothe inscription may be slightly protected, and to engrave the lettersupon the face of the panel thus obtained. But it is not quite certainyet that the grain of the rock--volcanic ash--will admit of thelettering. If this cannot be carried out, it has been determined tohave the letters engraved upon a slab of Langdale slate, and imbed itin the Grisedale Rock. It is believed that the simplicity of the design, the lonely isolationof this mountain memorial, will appeal at once ' ... to the few who pass this way,Traveller or Shepherd.' And we in our turn appeal to English tourists who may chance to seeit, to forego the wish of adding to it, or taking anything from it, byengraving their own names; and to let the Monumental Stone stand, asthe poet wished it might ' ... stand, SACRED as a Shrine.' We owe great thanks to Mrs. Sturge for first surveying the place, toascertain the possibility of finding a mountain rock sufficientlystriking in position; to Mr. Richardson, jun., for his etching of therock, upon which the inscription is to be made; to his father for thekind trouble he took in the measurement of the said rock; andparticularly to the seconder of the original proposal, and mycoadjutor in the task of final selection and superintending the work,Mr. W. H. Hills.
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