ABSTRACT
The opening lines of this Book are in studied contrast to the opening lines of the previous one. ‘A pleasant sight it was’ (1) is more promising than, ‘It was a dreary morning’ (III, 1) and the ‘Heights of Kendal’ (2) are more exhilarating than the depressing ‘flat plains of Huntingdon’ (III: 2). Cambridge had been merely ‘A creek of the vast sea’ (III: 626), narrow and enclosed, whereas the wide prospect now over the ‘bed of Windermere’ (4) was liberating and spacious. The mind will be expanded, we feel, in the Lakes whereas it had not been in Cambridge. After all, the real ‘deep vacation’ (III: 542) was Residence at Cambridge and so Summer Vacation promises to continue Nature's ‘great school’ (III:586).
