LIFE AT ELLERAY. 95 



ters in after years, we shall meet with allusions to this subject, 

 which he considered not unworthy of a special article in Blackicood. 

 Speaking of the beauty of the spectacle presented by the ring at 

 Carlisle, he thus amusingly parodied Wordsworth's lines on a 

 hedge-sparrow's nest, which, he says, by a slight alteration, " eggs 

 to men, and so forth, become a sensible enough exclamation in such 



a case . - 



" See, two strong men are struggling there,* 

 Few visions have I seen more fair, 

 Or many prospects of delight 

 More pleasing than that simple sight." 



These imperfect reminiscences of my father's out-door life at 

 Elleray may be appropriately closed by an extract from a clever 

 little work recently published.! The author, Mr. Waugh, in his 

 wanderings in "Westmoreland, encountered at Wastdale Head, in 

 the person of the innkeeper there, one of the most characteristic 

 specimens that could well be found of a genuine old Laker, WiUiam 

 Ritson. " I was most interested," says the writer, " in Ritson's anec- 

 dotes of famous men who visited Wastdale. He had wandered many 

 a day with Professor Wilson, Wordsworth, De Quincey, and others. 

 Ritson had been a famous wrestler in his youth, and had won many 

 a country belt in Cumberland. He once wrestled with Wilson, and 

 threw him twice out of three falls. But he owned the Professor 

 was ' a varra bad un to lick.' Wilson beat him at jumping. He 

 could jump twelve yards in three jumps, with a great stone in each 

 hand. Ritson could only manage eleven and three quarters. ' T' 

 first time 'at Professor Wilson cam to Wastd'le Head,' said Ritson, 

 ' he bed a tent set up in a field, an' he gat it weel stock't wi' bread 

 an' beef, an' cheese, an' rum, an' ale, an' sic like. Then he gedder't 

 up my granfadder, an' Thomas Tyson, an' Isaac Fletcher, an' 

 Joseph Stable, an' aad Robert Grave, an' some mair, an' there Avas 

 gay deed amang em. Then, nowt would sarra, bud he mun hev a 

 boat, an' they mun all hev a sail. Well, when they gat into t' 

 boat, he tell't un to be particklar careful, for he was liable to git 

 giddy in t' head, an' if yan ov his giddy fits sud chance to cum on, 

 he mud happen tummle into t' watter. Well that pleased 'em all 



* In the original — 



" See, five blue eggs are shining there." 

 t Rambles in the Lake Cau/ntry. By Edwin Waug'i. 12mo. London. Whittaker. 



