Now! Then! John Tutin of Hull visits Hart-leap Well, the subject of Wordsworth’s anti-hunting poem

20 June 1881: John Tutin of Hull visits Hart-leap Well, the subject of Wordsworth’s anti-hunting poem

William Wordsworth. 1882. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. 2. Ed. William Knight. Edinburgh: William Paterson. Get it:

Excerpt

It is situate on the road side leading from Richmond to Askrigg, at a distance of not more than three and a-half miles from Richmond, and not five miles as stated in the prefatory note to the poem. The “three aspens at three corners of a square” are things of the past; also the “three stone pillars standing in a line,” on the hill above. In a straight line with the spring of water, and where the pillars would have been, a wall has been built; so that it is very probable the stone pillars were removed at the time of the building of this wall. The scenery around answers exactly to the description

More doleful place did never eye survey;
It seemed as if the spring time came not here,
And Nature here were willing to decay.
Now, here is neither grass nor pleasant shade.

It is barren moor for miles around. The water still falls into the “cup of stone,” which appeared to be of very long standing. Within ten yards of the well is a small tree, at the same side of the road as the well, on the right hand coming from Richmond.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Original

This poem was suggested to Wordsworth, during the journey with his sister, from Sockburn in Yorkshire to Grasmere, in December 1799. I owe the following local note on Hart Leap Well to Mr John R. Tutin of Hull. “June 20, 1881, visited ‘Hart Leap Well,’ the subject of Wordsworth’s poem. It is situate on the road side leading from Richmond to Askrigg, at a distance of not more than three and a-half miles from Richmond, and not five miles as stated in the prefatory note to the poem. The ‘three aspens at three corners of a square’ are things of the past; also the ‘three stone pillars standing in a line,’ on the hill above. In a straight line with the spring of water, and where the pillars would have been, a wall has been built; so that it is very probable the stone pillars were removed at the time of the building of this wall. The scenery around answers exactly to the description

“More doleful place did never eye survey;
It seemed as if the spring time came not here,
And Nature here were willing to decay.”

“Now, here is neither grass nor pleasant shade.”

It is barren moor for miles around. The water still falls into the ‘cup of stone,’ which appeared to be of very long standing. Within ten yards of the well is a small tree, at the same side of the road as the well, on the right hand coming from Richmond.”-ED.

256 words.