and is constantly referred to in his sister's Journal as a favourite
retreat, resorted to

'when cloudless suns
Shone hot, or wind blew troublesome and strong.'

In the absence of contrary testimony, it might be supposed that "the
track" which the brother had "worn,"

'By pacing here, unwearied and alone,'

faced Silver-How and the Grasmere Island, and that the single beech tree
was nearer the lower than the upper wall. But Miss Cookson's testimony
is explicit. Only a few fir trees survive at this part of the grove,
which is now open and desolate, not as it was in those earlier days,
when

'the trees
Had been so thickly planted, and had thriven
With such perplexed and intricate array,
That vainly did I seek, beneath their stems
A length of open space ...'

Dr. Cradock remarks,

"As to there being more than one beech, Wordsworth would not have
hesitated to sacrifice servile exactness to poetical effect." He had a
fancy for "one"--

'Fair as a star when only one