Hopkins described his visit to Inversnaid in a letter to a friend: ‘I hurried from Glasgow one day to Loch Lomond. The day was dark and partly hid the lake, yet did not altogether disfigure it but gave a pensive or solemn beauty which left a deep impression on me. I landed at Inversnaid for a few hours’. This is the manuscript of the poem he wrote during, or soon after, the visit. An enraptured evocation of wild nature, and a plea to preserve it, Inversnaid seems especially relevant today.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, ‘Inversnaid’, read by Dr John Filling, St John’s College
This Treasure isn’t currently on display in the Weston Library.