I wish you could tell me who he is; I feel a morbid curiosity about him.' He went on to describe the old man in the grey coat, as minutely as he could, dwelling on every characteristic of that singular-looking old person; but Samuel Barlow could not identify the description with any one in Grasmere.

Yet a man of that age, seen walking on the hill-side at eight in the morning, could hardly have come from far afield..