Date
	September (or fall/winter 1827?).
	At the bottom of the page in MS III containing this poem, which is continued onto the next page, Margaret Ruskin wrote “Sept 1826” (see <link>facsimile</link>; E. T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn in the Library Edition incorrectly attribute the hand to John James Ruskin [Ruskin, Works, 2:257n]). The date appears to refer to this poem in particular, rather than to the entire group of poems to which it belongs, “poetry discriptive” (sic), which dates from a year later, fall/winter 1827 (see “Wales” [poem]). (For another case in which Ruskin’s parents dated a poem separately from the group to which it belongs, see <link>“The Needless Alarm,” date</link>.)
	W. G. Collingwood believed that “<nolink>Glen of Glenfarg</nolink>” was inspired by the Ruskins’ passing through Glenfarg, near Perth, Scotland, on the return from visiting John James’s sister, Jessie Richardson, and her family. Collingwood assumed they would have started in mid-May, as became usual in later years, so Ruskin must have composed the poem dated September 1826 “during the journey home” from this visit (Poems [4o, 1891], 1:xxiii; Poems [8o, 1891], 1:x). We now know, however, that John James was kept away from Herne Hill by unusually lengthy business travel until well after his May birthday, and the family holiday was consequently delayed (Ruskin Family Letters, 149, 150 n. 5). The journey may have been delayed owing also to the illness and death of Ruskin’s cousin, James Richardson (see <link>discussion</link>).
	It is possible that Margaret’s date refers to the poem’s connection with the 1826 journey, and not to the date of composition, which should be placed a year later with the other poems in “poetry discriptive.” Yet another possibility is that this MS III text represents a revision or copy of an earlier, September 1826 version, now lost. The existence of a prior version may be indicated by Ruskin having dropped a rhyme word in the MS III version (see <link>textual note</link>). In the absence of other unambiguous evidence, however, Margaret’s date must be accepted as the best available.