98 
half a century ago (in 1839), that Gough’s body had been dis- 
covered accidentally by shepherds on the edge of Red Tarn. 
But it was easy to ask the informant R of Windermere for 
particulars, and his answer was as follows :—‘ Dear Sir,—The 
place where Gough was supposed to be killed was Striding Edge. 
He was found by John Grisedale of Patterdale, who is dead, and 
his grandson is dead, and none of the family are living.” The 
letter went on to tell me of one old man still living in Patterdale 
who made a mark where the body was found and sowed the spot 
with grass seeds. 
It looked as if the Wizard of the North had been more accurate 
than ever, when he described the place :— 
‘* Dark green was that spot, ’mid the brown mountain-heather, 
Where the Pilgrim of Nature lay stretched in decay.” 
And when one remembered how in the autumn of the same year 
in which Gough had died, Walter Scott and Humphrey Davy had 
left their white pony at the stake by the Red Tarn; gazed at the 
ill-fated Striding Edge and that to this day “huge nameless rock” 
from which the traveller fell to his death, and then had “climbed 
the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn,” one was quite sure that 
the writers of the poems “Helvellyn” and ‘Fidelity’ had made up 
their minds as to the whereabouts of the accident and the scene of 
the lonely watching of the faithful dog. 
What a day was that! Scott we know was in one of his raciest 
moods, overflowing with mirth and anecdote, though doubtless 
not a little disconcerted by that untimely salutation from the jovial 
host of the Swan, that Miss Martineau has chronicled: “Why, 
sir, ye’ve coomed seun for ya glass to-day.” An untimely speech, 
which told the water-drinking bard that the Swan Inn had been 
making up any deficiencies in the Dove Cottage hospitality. One 
can imagine how the matter if touched on at all, was made subject 
ef banter as they went up Grisedale. But there would fall upon 
the company silence and a cloud, as they rode round Grisedale 
Tarn; for it was here where Wordsworth had parted from his 
beloved brother John, who perished by the shipwreck of the Za7/ 
