132 "THE PILLAR" $ " THE BROTHERS." 



tion. This grave-yard is one instance in point ; 

 the mountain, " The Pillar/' of which notice is 

 taken in the same poem, is another : the 

 younger of the two brothers is described as 

 having ascended this mountain, falling asleep 

 on its summit, and subject to the malady of 

 walking in his sleep, rising and losing his life 

 in his precipitous fall ; yet when the poem was 

 written, " The Pillar " mountain was considered 

 inaccessible ; we are assured, in a recent history 

 of Cumberland, that till 1826 it had never 

 been scaled. 



AMICUS. I thank you for the caution, and 

 shall repeat it to some friends of mine, who 

 occasionally trouble me, when reading the " Ex- 

 cursion," to point out to them the exact spots 

 the scenes of the incidents described. As to 

 the justness of the thing, I am hardly com- 

 petent to judge. I am a great -advocate for 

 truthfulness, even in poetry, and fancied that 

 truthfulness, even to a fault as some thought, 

 was one of the characteristics of Wordsworth's 

 poetry. 



PISCATOE. So it is in general ; from no writ- 

 ings, I believe, can you derive a more accurate 

 idea of the Lake Country than from his, though 



