96 
described the marvellous making of his own mind in ‘The 
Prelude.’” 
So the thing was agreed-upon, and the inscription to be 
engraved was written; and not\without much writing in and 
writing out did it take final shape as follows :— 
“Beneath this spot were found in 180s the remains of Charles 
Gough, killed by a fall from the rocks, His dog was still guarding 
the skeleton. 
“Walter Scott describes the event in the poem— 
‘I climbed the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn.’ ° 
“Wordsworth records it in his lines on ‘Fidelity,’ which 
conclude as follows :— 
‘The dog which still was hovering nigh, 
Repeating the same timid cry, 
This dog had been through three months space 
A dweller in that savage place. 
How nourished there through such long time, 
He knows who gave that love sublime, 
And gave that strength of feeling great 
Above all human estimate.’ 
“In memory of that love, and strength of feeling, this stone is 
erected.” 
The Stone-cutter set to work, and had barely finished the 
lettering of the first line, when a correspondent put into my hands 
an extract from a letter of one of the guide-writers of the Lake 
District :—“ You are perhaps aware that Charles Gough was not 
after all found on Striding Edge, but on Swirrel Edge, on the 
slope overlooking Keppelcove Tarn. I had the information from 
one R at Windermere, who got it from a man at Grasmere 
whose informant was the finder of the body, and I think there can 
be no mistake.” 
One had more faith in Wordsworth’ and Sir Walter’s accuracy 
of description than to be much put out by this bit of hearsay. 
