Page:Poems by William Wordsworth (1815) Volume 2.djvu/55

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47

XXVIII.

HEART-LEAP WELL.



Hart-Leap Well is a small spring of water, about five miles from Richmond in Yorkshire, and near the side of the road which leads from Richmond to Askrigg. Its name is derived from a remarkable Chase, the memory of which is preserved by the monuments spoken of in the second Part of the following Poem, which monuments do now exist as I have there described them.



The Knight had ridden down from Wensley moor
With the slow motion of a summer's cloud;
He turned aside towards a Vassal's door,
And, "Bring another Horse!" he cried aloud.


"Another Horse!"—That shout the Vassal heard,
And saddled his best Steed, a comely gray;
Sir Walter mounted him; he was the third
Which he had mounted on that glorious day.