ground which serve to contrast their methods sharply and to illustrate in
a striking way the precise character of Scott's romanticism. "Helvellyn"
and "Fidelity" were written independently and celebrate the same
incident. In 1805 a young man lost his way on the Cumberland mountains
and perished of exposure. Three months afterwards his body was found,
his faithful dog still watching beside it. Scott was a lover of
dogs--loved them warmly, individually; so to speak, personally; and all
dogs instinctively loved Scott.[18]

Wordsworth had a sort of tepid, theoretical benevolence towards the
animal creation in general. Yet as between the two poets, the advantage
in depth of feeling is, as usual, with Wordsworth. Both render, with
perhaps equal power, though in characteristically different ways, the
impression of the austere and desolate grandeur of the mountain scenery.
But the thought to which Wordsworth leads up is the mysterious divineness
of instinct

". . . that strength of feeling, great
Above all human estimate:"--

while Scott conducts his story to the reflection that Nature has given
the dead man a more stately funeral than the Church could have given, a
comparison seemingly dragged in for the sake of a stanzaful of his
favourite Gothic imagery.

"When a Prince to the fate of the Peasant has yielded,
The tapestry waves dark round the dim-lighted hall;
With 'scutcheons of silver the coffin is shielded,
And pages stand mute by the canopied pall:
Through the courts at deep midnight the torches are gleaming,