KENDAL AND WINDERMERE 
 RAILWAY. 
 
 TWO LETTERS 
 
 SE-PRINTED FROM THE MORNING POST. 
 
 SEVISED, WITH ADDITIONS, 
 
 KENDAL: 
 
 PRINTED RY R. 3RAKTIIWAITE AND SON. 
 

SONNET 
 
 ON THE PROJECTED KENDAL AND WINDERMERE RAILWAY. 
 
 Is then no nook of English ground secure 
 From rash assault? Schemes of retirement sown 
 In youth, and mid the busy world kept pure 
 As when their earliest flowers of hope were blown. 
 
 Must perishhow can they this blight endure ? 
 
 And must he too the ruthless change bemoan 
 
 Who scorns a false utilitarian lure 
 
 Mid his paternal fields at random thrown ? 
 
 Baffle the threat, bright Scene, from Orrest-head 
 Given to the pausing traveller’s rapturous glance: 
 
 Plead for thy peace, thou beautiful romance 
 Of nature ; and, if human hearts be dead. 
 
 Speak, passing winds ; ye torrents, with your strong 
 And constant voice, protest against the wrong. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 Rtdal Mount, 
 
 October Ylth, 1844.. 
 
 The degree and kind of attachment which many of the yeomanry feel to their 
 small inheritances can scarcely be over-rated. Near the house of" one of them 
 stands a magnificent tree, which a neighbour of the owner advised him to fell for 
 profit’s sake. “ Fell it,” exclaimed the yeoman, “ I had rather fall on my 
 knees and worship it.” It happens, I believe, that the intended railway 
 ■would pass through this little property, and I hope that an apology for the 
 answer will not be thought necessary’by one who enters into the strength of 
 the feeling. 
 
 W. W. 
 
KENDAL AND WINDERMERE RAILWAY. 
 
 TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING POST. 
 
 Sir —Some little time ago you did me the favour of inserting 
 a sonnet expressive of the regret and indignation which, in com¬ 
 mon with others all over these Islands, I felt at the proposal of 
 a railway to extend from Kendal to Low Wood, near the head 
 of Windermere. The project was so offensive to a large ma¬ 
 jority of the proprietors through whose lands the line, after it 
 came in view of the Lake, was to pass, that, for this reason, and the 
 avowed one of the heavy expense without which the difficulties 
 in the way could not be overcome, it has been partially aban¬ 
 doned, and the terminus is now announced to be at a spot within 
 a mile of Bowness. But as no guarantee can be given that the 
 project will not hereafter be revived, and an attempt made to carry 
 the line forward through the vales of Ambleside and Grasmere, 
 and as in one main particular the case remains essentially the same, 
 allow me to address you upon certain points which merit more 
 consideration than the favourers of the scheme have yet given 
 them. The matter, though seemingly local, is really one in 
 which all persons of taste must be interested, and, therefore, I 
 hope to be excused if I venture to treat it at some length. 
 
 I shall barely touch upon the statistics of the question, leav¬ 
 ing these to the two adverse parties, who will lay their several 
 statements before the Board of Trade, which may possibly 
 be induced to refer the matter to the House of Commons ; 
 and, contemplating that possibility, I hope that the observa¬ 
 tions I have to make may not be altogether without influence 
 upon the public, and upon individuals whose duty it may 
 be to decide in their place whether the proposed measure 
 
6 
 
 shall be referred to a Committee of the House. Were the case 
 before us an ordinary one, I should reject such an attempt as 
 presumptuous and futile; but it is not only different from all 
 others, but, in truth, peculiar. 
 
 In this district the manufactures are trifling; mines it has 
 none, and its quarries are either wrought out or superseded; the 
 soil is light, and the cultivateable parts of the country are very 
 limited; so that it has little to send out, and little has it also to 
 receive. Summer Toukets, (and the very word precludes the 
 notion of a railway) it has in abundance; but the inhabitants 
 are so few and their intercourse with other places so infrequent, 
 that one daily coach, which could not be kept going but through 
 its connection with the Post-office, suffices for three-fourths of 
 the year along the line of country as far as Keswick. The 
 staple of the district is, in fact, its beauty and its character of 
 seclusion and retirement; and to these topics and to others 
 connected with them my remarks shall be confined. 
 
 The projectors have induced many to favour their schemes by 
 declaring that one of their main objects is to place the beauties of 
 the Lake district within easier reach of those who cannot afford 
 to pay for ordinary conveyances. Look at the facts. Railways 
 are completed, which, joined with others in rapid progress, will 
 bring travellers who prefer approaching by Uliswater to within 
 four miles of that lake. The Lancaster and Carlisle Railway 
 will approach the town of Kendal, about eight or nine miles from 
 eminences that command the whole vale of Windermere. The 
 Lakes are therefore at present of very easy access for all per. 
 sons ; but if they be not made still more so, the poor it is said, 
 will be wronged. Before this be admitted let the question be 
 fairly looked into, and its different bearings examined. No one 
 can assert that, if this intended mode of approach be not effect¬ 
 ed, anything will be taken away that is actually possessed. The 
 wrong, if any, must lie in the unwarrantable obstruction of an 
 attainable benefit. First, then, let us consider the probable 
 amount of that benefit. 
 
 Elaborate gardens, with topiary works, were in high request, 
 even among our remote ancestors, but the relish for choice and 
 
picturesque natural scenery (a poor and mean word which re¬ 
 quires an apology, but will be generally understood), is quite of 
 recent origin. Our earlier travellers—Ray, the naturalist, one 
 of the first men of his age—Bishop Burnet, and others who 
 had crossed the Alps, or lived some time in Switzerland, are si¬ 
 lent upon the sublimity and beauty of those regions; and Bur¬ 
 net even uses these words, speaking of the Grisons —“ When 
 they have made up estates elsewhere they are glad to leave Italy 
 and the best parts of Germany, and to come and live among 
 those mountains of which the very sight is enough to fill a man 
 with horror.” The accomplished Evelyn, giving an account of 
 his journey from Italy through the Alps, dilates upon the ter¬ 
 rible, the melancholy, and the uncomfortable; but, till he 
 comes to the fruitful country in the neighbourhood of Geneva, 
 not a syllable of delight or praise. In the Sacra Telluris Theo- 
 ria of the other Burnett there is a passage—omitted, however, 
 in his own English translation of the work—in which he gives 
 utterance to his sensations, when, from a particular spot he be¬ 
 held a tract of the Alps rising before him on the one hand, and 
 on the other the Mediterranean Sea spread beneath him. No¬ 
 thing can be worthier of the magnificent appearances he describes 
 than his language. In a noble strain also does the Poet Gray 
 address, in a Latin Ode, the Religio loci at the Grande Char- 
 truise. But before his time, with the exception of the passage 
 from Thomas Burnet just alluded to, there is not, I believe, a 
 single English traveller whose published writings would disprove 
 the assertion, that, where precipitous rocks and mountains are 
 mentioned at all, they are spoken of as objects of dislike and 
 fear, aud not of admiration. Even Gray himself, describing, 
 in his Journal, the steeps at the entrance of Borrowdale, express¬ 
 es his terror in the language of Dante:—“ Let us not speak of 
 them, but look and pass on.” In my youth, I lived some time 
 in the vale of Keswick, under the roof of a shrewd and sensi¬ 
 ble woman, who more than once exclaimed in my hearing, 
 “ Bless me! folk are always talking about prospects: when I 
 was young there was never sic a thing neamed.” In fact, our 
 ancestors, as every where appears, in choosing the site of their 
 
houses, looked only at shelter and convenience, especially of 
 water, and often would place a barn or any other out-house di¬ 
 rectly in front of their habitations, however beautiful the land¬ 
 scape which their windows might otherwise have commanded. 
 The first house that was built in the Lake district for the sake of 
 the beauty of the country was the work of a Mr. English, who 
 had travelled in Italy, and chose for his site, some eighty years 
 ago, the great island of Windermere; but it was sold before his 
 building was finished, and he showed how little he was capable 
 of appreciating the character of the situation by setting up a 
 length of high garden-wall, as exclusive as it was ugly, almost 
 close to the house. The nuisance was swept away when the 
 late Mr. Curwen became the owner of this favoured spot. Mr. 
 English was followed by Mr. Pocklington, a native of Not¬ 
 tinghamshire, who played strange pranks by his buildings and 
 plantations upon Vicar’s Island, in Derwentwater, which his 
 admiration, such as it was, of the country, and probably a wish 
 to be a leader in a new fashion, had tempted him to purchase. 
 But what has all this to do with the subject?—Why, to show 
 that a vivid perception of romantic scenery is neither inherent 
 in mankind, nor a necessary consequence of even a comprehen¬ 
 sive education. It is benignly ordained that green fields, clear 
 blue skies, running streams of pure water, rich groves and woods, 
 orchards, and all the ordinary varieties of rural nature, should 
 find aij easy way to the affections of all men, and more or less 
 so from early childhood till the senses are impaired by old age 
 and the sources of mere earthly enjoyment have in a great mea¬ 
 sure failed. But a taste beyond this, however desirable it may be 
 that every one should possess it, is not to be implanted at once; 
 it must be gradually developed both in nations and individuals. 
 Rocks and mountains, torrents and wide-spread waters, and all 
 those features of nature which go to the composition of such 
 scenes as this part of England is distinguished for, cannot, in 
 their finer relations to the human mind, be comprehended, or 
 even very imperfectly conceived, without processes of culture 
 or opportunities of observation in some degree habitual. In the 
 eye of thousands and tens of thousands, a rich meadow, with fat 
 
9 
 
 cattle grazing upon it, or the sight of what they would call a 
 heavy crop of corn, is worth all that the Alps and Pyrenees in 
 their utmost grandeur and beauty could show to them; and, not¬ 
 withstanding the grateful influence, as we have observed, of or¬ 
 dinary nature and the productions of the fields, it is noticeable 
 what trifling conventional prepossessions will, in common minds, 
 not only preclude pleasure from the sight of natural beauty, but 
 will even turn it into an object of disgust. “ If I had to do with 
 this garden,’ ’ said a respectable person, one of my neighbours, 
 “ I would sweep away all the black and dirty stuff from that wall.” 
 The wall was backed by a bank of earth, and was exquisitely dec¬ 
 orated with ivy, flowers, moss, and ferns, such as grow of them¬ 
 selves in like places; but the mere notion of fitnessassociated with 
 a trim garden-wall prevented, in this instance, all sense of the 
 spontaneous bounty and delicate care of nature. In the midst 
 of a small pleasure-ground, immediately below my house, rises 
 a detached rock, equally remarkable for the beauty of its form, 
 the ancient oaks that grow out of it, and the flowers and shrubs 
 which adorn it. “ What a nice place would this be,” said a 
 Manchester tradesman, pointing to the rock, “if that ugly 
 lump were but out of the way.” Men as little advanced in the 
 pleasure which such objects give to others are so far from being 
 rare, that they may be said fairly to represent a large majority of 
 mankind. This is a fact, and none but the deceiver and the wil¬ 
 lingly deceived can be offended by its being stated. But as a 
 more susceptible taste is undoubtedly a great acquisition, and has 
 been spreading amone us for some years, the question is, what 
 means are most likely to be beneficial in extending its operation ? 
 Surely that good is not to be obtained by transferring at once 
 uneducated persons in large bodies to particular spots, where the 
 combinations of natural objects are such as would afford the great¬ 
 est pleasure to those who have been in the habit of observing 
 and studying the peculiar character of such scenes, and how 
 they differ one from another. Instead of temptnnr artisans and 
 labourers, and the humbler classes of shopkeepers, to ramble to 
 a distance, let us rather look with lively sympathy upon persons 
 in that condition, when, upon a holiday, or on the Sunday, after 
 
10 
 
 having attended divine worship, they make little excursions 
 with their wives and children among neighbouring fields, whither 
 the whole of each family might stroll, or be conveyed at much 
 less cost than would be required to take a single individual of 
 the number to the shores of Windermere by the cheapest con- 
 veyance. It is in some such way as this only, that persons who 
 must labour daily with their hand's for bread in large towns, or 
 are subject to confinement through the week, can Be trained to 
 a profitable intercourse with nature where she is the most dis¬ 
 tinguished by the majesty and sublimity of her forms. 
 
 For further illustration of the subject, turn to what we know 
 of a man of extraordinary genius, who was bred to hard labour 
 in agricultural employments. Burns, the poet. When he had 
 become distinguished by the publication of a volume of verses, 
 and was enabled to travel by the profit his poems brought him, 
 he made a tour, in the course of which, as his companion. Dr. 
 Adair, tells us, he visited scenes inferior to none in Scotland in 
 beauty, sublimity, and romantic interest; and the Doctor hav. 
 ing noticed, with other companions, that he seemed little moved 
 upon one occasion by the sight of such a scene, says—“ I doubt 
 if he had much taste for the picturesque.” The personal tes¬ 
 timony, however, upon this point is conflicting; but when Dr. 
 Currie refers to certain local poems as decisive proofs that Burns’ 
 fellow-traveller was mistaken, the biographer is surely unfortu¬ 
 nate. How vague and tame are the poet’s expressions in those 
 few local poems, compared with his language when he is describ¬ 
 ing objects with which his position in life allowed him to be 
 familiar! It appears, both from what his works contain, and 
 from what is not to be found in them. that, sensitive as they 
 abundantly prove his mind to have been in its intercourse with 
 common rural images, and with the general powers of nature ex¬ 
 hibited in storm and in stillness, in light or darkness, and in the 
 various aspects of the seasons, he was little affected by the sight 
 of one spot in preference to another, unless where it derived an 
 interest from history, tradition, or local associations. He lived 
 many years in Nithsdale, where he was in daily sight of Skiddaiv, 
 yet he never crossed the Solway for a better acquaintance with 
 
11 
 
 that mountain; and I am persuaded that, if he had been induced 
 to ramble among our Labes, by that time sufficiently celebrated, 
 he would have seldom been more excited than by some ordinary 
 Scottish stream or hill with a tradition attached to it, or which 
 had been the scene of a favourite ballad or love song. If all 
 this be truly said of such a man, and the like cannot be denied 
 of the eminent individuals before named, who to great natural 
 talents added the accomplishments of scholarship or science, 
 then what ground is there for maintaining that the poor are 
 treated with disrespect, or wrong done to them or any class of 
 visitants, if we be reluctant to introduce a railway into this 
 country for the sake of lessening, by eight or nine miles only, 
 the fatigue or expense of their journey to Windermere ?—And 
 wherever any one among the labouring classes has made even an 
 approach to the sensibility which drew a lamentation from Bums 
 when he had uprooted a daisy with his plough, and caused him 
 to turn the “ weeder-clips aside" from the thistle, and spare 
 “ the symbol dear ” of his country, then surely such a one, 
 could he afford by any means to travel as far as Kendal, would 
 not grudge a two hours’ walk across the skirts of the beautiful 
 country that he was desirous of visiting. 
 
 The wide-spread waters of these regions are in their nature 
 peaceful; so are the steep mountains and the rocky glens; nor 
 can they be profitably enjoyed but by a mind disposed to peace. 
 Go to a pantomime, a farce, or a puppet-show, if you want noisy 
 pleasure—the crowd of spectators who partake your enjoy¬ 
 ment will, by their presence and acclamations, enhance it; but 
 may those who have given proof that they prefer other gratifica¬ 
 tions' continue to he safe from the molestation of cheap trains 
 pouring out their hundreds at a time along the margin of Win¬ 
 dermere; nor let any one be liable to the charge of being self¬ 
 ishly disregardful of the poor, and their innocent and salutary 
 enjoyments, if he does not congratulate himself upon the especi¬ 
 al benefit which would thus be conferred on such a concourse- 
 
 “ 0, Nature, a’ thy shows an’ forms, 
 
 To feeling pensive hearts hac charms! ” 
 
12 
 
 So exclaimed the Ayrshire ploughman, speaking of ordinary 
 rural nature under the varying influences of the seasons, and the 
 sentiment has found an echo in the bosoms of thousands in as 
 humble a condition as he himself was when he gave vent to it. 
 But then they were feeling, pensive hearts; men who would 
 be among the first to lament the facility with which they had 
 approached this region, by a sacrifice of so much of its quiet and 
 beauty, as, from the intrusion of a railway, would be inseparable. 
 What can, in truth, be more absurd, than that either rich or 
 poor should be spared the trouble of travelling by the high roads 
 over so short a space, according to their respective means, if the 
 unavoidable consequence must be a great, disturbance of the re¬ 
 tirement, and in many places a destruction of the beauty of the 
 country, which the parties are come in search of ? Would not 
 this be pretty much like the child’s cutting up his drum to leam 
 where the sound came from ? 
 
 Having, I trust, given sufficient reason for the belief that the 
 imperfectly educated classes are not likely to draw much aood 
 from rare visits to the Lakes performed in this way, and surely 
 on their own account it is not desirable that the visits she aid be 
 frequent, let us glance at the mischief which such facilities would 
 certainly produce. The directors of railway companies are al¬ 
 ways ready to devise or encourage entertainments for tempting 
 the humbler classes to leave their homes. Accordingly, for the 
 profit of the shareholders and that of the lower class of innkeep¬ 
 ers, we should have wrestling matches, horse and boat races 
 without number, and pot-houses and beer-shops would keep pace 
 with these excitements and recreations, most of which might 
 too easily be had elsewhere. The injury which would thus be 
 done to morals, both among this influx of strangers and the lower 
 class of inhabitants, is obvious ; and, supposing such extraordin¬ 
 ary temptations not to be held out, there cannot be a doubt that 
 the Sabbath day in the towns of Bowness and Ambleside, and 
 other parts of the district, would be subject to much additional 
 desecration. 
 
 Whatever comes of the scheme which we have endeavoured 
 to discountenance, the charge against its opponents of being 
 
13 
 
 selfishly regardless of the poor, ought to cease. The cry has 
 been raised and kept up by three classes of persons—they 
 who wish to bring into discredit all such as stand in the way 
 of their gains or gambling speculations; they who are dazzled 
 by the application of physical science to the useful arts, and 
 indiscriminately applaud what they call the spirit of the age 
 as manifested in this way; and, lastly, those persons who are 
 ever ready to step forward in what appears to them to be the 
 cause of the poor, but not always with becoming attention to 
 particulars. I am well aware that upon the first class what has 
 been said will be of no avail, but upon the two latter some im¬ 
 pression will, I trust, be made. 
 
 To conclude. The railway power, we know well, will not 
 admit of being materially counteracted by sentiment; and who 
 would wish it where large towns are connected, and the interests 
 of trade and agriculture are substantially promoted, by such 
 mode of intercommunication ? But be it remembered, that this 
 case is, as has been said before, a peculiar one, and that the 
 staple of the country is its beauty and its character of retire¬ 
 ment. Let then the beauty be undisfigured and the retirement 
 unviolated, unless there be reason for believing that rights and 
 interests of a higher kind and more apparent than those which 
 have been urged in behalf of the projected intrusion will com¬ 
 pensate the sacrifice. Thanking you for the judicious observa¬ 
 tions that have appeared in your paper upon the subject of rail¬ 
 ways, I remain. Sir, your obliged. 
 
 Wm. Wordsworth. 
 
 Rydal Mount, Dec. 9, 1844. 
 
 led in this letter of the indifference even of 
 ms of nature in mountainous districts, the 
 , in the Morning Post, entitled Table Talk 
 
 simple and gentle-hearted Goldsmith, whe 
 
 author of the interesting Ess 
 has justly added Goldsmith, 
 “ The simple and gentle-1 
 a the familiar 
 
 and meadows with their 
 to have dreamt of any such thina 
 traversed them on foot, and had 
 
15 
 
 No. II. 
 
 TO THE EDITOR 01' THE MORNING POST. 
 
 Sir —As you obligingly found space in your journal for obser¬ 
 vations of mine upon the intended Kendal and Windermere 
 Railway, I venture to send you some further remarks upon the 
 same subject. The scope of the main argument, it will be recol¬ 
 lected, was to prove that the perception of what has acquired the 
 name of picturesque and romantic scenery is so far from being 
 intuitive, that it can be produced only by a slow and gradual pro¬ 
 cess of culture; and to’ show, as a consequence, that the hum¬ 
 bler ranks of society are not, and cannot be, in a state- to gain 
 material benefit from a more speedy access than they now have 
 to this beautiful region. Some of our. opponents dissent from 
 this latter proposition, though the most judicious of them rea- 
 dily admit the former ; but then, overlooking not only positive 
 assertions, but reasons carefully given, they say, “As you allow 
 that a more comprehensive taste is desirable, you ought to side 
 with usand they illustrate their position, by reference to the 
 British Museum and National Picture Gallery. “ There,” they 
 add, “ thanks to the easy entrance now granted, numbers are 
 seen, indicating by their dress and appearance their humble con¬ 
 dition, who, when admitted for the first time, stare vacantly 
 around them, so that one is inclined to ask what brought them 
 hither? But an impression is made, something gained which 
 may induce them to repeat the visit until light breaks in upon 
 them, and they take an intelligent interest in what they behold.” 
 Persons who talk thus forget that, to produce such an improve¬ 
 ment, frequent access at small cost of time and labour is indis¬ 
 pensable. Manchester lies, perhaps, within eight hours’ rail- 
 
16 
 
 way distance of London; but surely no one would advise that 
 Manchester operatives should contract a habit of running to and 
 fro between that town and London, for the sake of forming an 
 intimacy with the British Museum and National Gallery ? No, 
 no; little would all but a very few gain from the opportunities 
 which, consistently with common sense, could be afforded them 
 for such expeditions. Nor would it fare better with them in 
 Tespect of trips to the lake district; an assertion, the truth of 
 which no one can doubt, who has learned by experience how 
 many men of the same or higher rank, living from their birth in 
 this very region, are indifferent to those objects around them in 
 which a cultivated taste takes so much pleasure. I should not 
 have detained the reader so long upon this point, had I not heard 
 (glad tidings for the directors and traffickers in shares!) that 
 among the affluent and benevolent manufacturers of Yorkshire 
 and Lancashire are some who already entertain the thought of 
 sending, at their own expense, large bodies of their workmen, 
 by railway, to the banks of Windermere. Surely those gentle¬ 
 men will think a little more before they put such a scheme into 
 practice. The rich man cannot benefit the poor, nor the super¬ 
 ior the inferior, by anything that degrades him. Packing off 
 men after this fashion, for holiday entertainment, is, in fact, treat¬ 
 ing them like children. They go at the will of their master, and 
 must return at the same, or they will be dealt with as trans¬ 
 gressors. 
 
 A poor man, speaking of his son, whose time of service in the 
 army was expired, once said to me, (the reader will be startled 
 at the expression, and I, indeed, was greatly shocked by it), “ I 
 am glad he has done with that mean way of life.” But I soon 
 gathered what was at the bottom of the feeling. The father 
 overlooked all the glory that attaches to the character of a Brit¬ 
 ish soldier, in the conciousness that his son’s will must have 
 been in so great a degree subject to that of others. The poor man 
 felt where the true dignity of his species lay, namely, in a just 
 ■proportion between actions governed by a man’s own inclinations 
 and those of other men; but, according to the father’s notion, 
 that proportion did not exist in the course of life from which his 
 
son had been released. Had the old man known from experi. 
 ence the degree of liberty allowed to the common soldier, and 
 the moral effect of the obedience required, he would have 
 thought differently, and had he been capableof extendinghis views, 
 he would have felt how much of the best and noblest part of our 
 civic spirit was owing to our military and naval institutions, and 
 that perhaps our very existence as a free people had by them been 
 maintained. This extreme instance hasbeen adduced to show how 
 deeply seated in the minds of Englishmen is their sense of per¬ 
 sonal independence. Master-manufacturers ought never to lose 
 sight of this truth. Let them consent to a Ten Hours’ Bill, with 
 little or, if possible, no diminution of wages, and the necessaries 
 of life being more easily procured, the mind will develope itself 
 accordingly, and each individual would be more at liberty to 
 make at his own cost excursions in any direction which might be 
 most inviting to him. There would then be no need for their 
 masters sending them in droves scores of miles from their homes 
 and families to the borders of Windermere, or anywhere else. 
 Consider also the state of the lake district; and look, in the 
 first place, at the little town of Bowness, in the event of such 
 railway inundations. What would become of it in this, not the 
 Retreat, but the Advance, of the Ten Thousand ? Leeds, I 
 am told, has sent as many at once to Scarborough. We should 
 have the whole of Lancashire, and no small part of Yorkshire, 
 pouring in upon us to meet the men of Durham, and the bor¬ 
 derers from Cumberland and Northumberland. Alas, alas, if 
 the lakes are to pay this penalty for their own attractions! 
 
 “—Vane could tell what ills from beauty spring, 
 
 1 And Sedley cursed the form that pleased a king.” 
 
 The fear of adding to the length of my last long letter pre¬ 
 vented me from entering into details upon private and personal 
 feelings among the residents, who have cause to lament the threat¬ 
 ened intrusion. These are not matters to be brought before a 
 Board of Trade, though I trust there will always be of that 
 board members who know well that as we do “ not live by bread 
 !’ alone,” so neither do we live by political economy alone. Of 
 
the present board I would gladly believe there is not one who, if 
 his duty allowed it, would not be influenced by considerations of 
 what may be felt by a gallant officer now serving on the coast of 
 South America, when he shall learn that the nuisance, though 
 not intended actually to enter his property, will send its 
 omnibuses, as fast they can drive, within a few yards of his 
 modest abode, which he built upon a small domain purchased 
 at a price greatly enhanced by the privacy and beauty of the situ¬ 
 ation. Professor Wilson (him I take the liberty to name), 
 though a native of Scotland, and familiar with the grandeur of 
 his own country, could not resist the temptation of settling long 
 ago among our mountains. The place which his public duties 
 have compelled him to quit as a residence, and may compel him 
 to part with, is probably dearer to him than any spot upon earth. 
 The reader should be informed with what respect he has been 
 treated. Engineer agents, to his astonishment, came and in¬ 
 truded with their measuring instruments, upon his garden. He 
 saw them; and who will not admire the patience that kept his 
 hands from their shoulders ? I must stop. 
 
 But with the fear before me of the line being carried, at a day 
 not distant, through the whole breadth of the district, I could 
 dwell, with much concern for other residents, upon the condition 
 which they would be in if that outrage should he committed; 
 nor ought it to be deemed impertinent were I to recommend this 
 point to the especial regard of Members of Parliament who may 
 have to decide upon the question. The two Houses of Legis¬ 
 lature have frequently shown themselves not unmindful of pri¬ 
 vate feeling in these matters. They have, in some cases, been 
 induced.to spare parks and pleasure grounds. But along the 
 great railway lines these are of rare occurrence. They are but 
 a part, and a small part; here it is far otherwise. Among the 
 ancient inheritances of the yeomen, surely worthy of high res¬ 
 pect, are interspersed through the entire district villas, most of 
 them with such small domains attached that the occupants would 
 be hardly less annoyed by a railway passing through their neigh¬ 
 bour’s ground than through their own. And it would be unpar¬ 
 donable not to advert to the effect of this measure on the interests 
 
cf the very poor in this locality. With the town of Bowness 1 
 
 ■ have no minute acquaintance; but of Ambleside, Grasmere, and 
 .the neighbourhood, I can testify from long experience, that they 
 'have been favoured by the residence of a gentry whose love of 
 retirement has been a blessing to these vales; for their families 
 have ministered, and still minister, to the temporal and spiritual 
 Necessities of the poor, and have personally superintended the 
 education of the children in a degree which does those benefactors 
 the highest honour, and which is, I trust, gratefully acknow¬ 
 ledged in the hearts of all whom they have relieved, employed, 
 ■and taught. Many of those friends of our poor would quit this 
 
 ■ country if the apprehended change were realised, and would be 
 .succeeded by strangers not linked to the neighbourhood, but 
 ■flitting to and fro between their fancy-villas and the homes 
 ■where their wealth was accumulated and accumulating by trade 
 and manufactures. It is obvious that persons, so unsettled, 
 whatever might be their good wishes and readiness to part with 
 money for charitable purposes, would ill supply the loss of 
 the inhabitants who had been driven away. 
 
 It will be felt by those who think with me upon this occasion 
 that I have been writing on behalf of a social condition which 
 no one who is competent to judge of it will he willing to sub¬ 
 vert, and that I have been endeavouring to support moral senti¬ 
 ments and intellectual pleasures of a high order against an 
 enmity which seems growing more and more formidable every 
 day; I mean “ Utilitarianism,” serving as a mask for cupidity 
 and gambling speculations. My business with this evil lies m 
 its reckless mode of action by Railways, now its favourite 
 instruments. Upon good authority I have been told that there 
 was lately an intention of driving one of these pests, as they 
 are likely too often to prove, through a part of the magnificent 
 ruins of Furness Abbey—an outrage which was prevented by 
 some one pointing out how easily a deviation might be made ; 
 ■and the hint produced its due effect upon the engineer. 
 
 Sacred as that relic of the devotion of our ancestors deserves 
 to be kept, there are temples of Nature, temples built by the 
 ■Almighty, which have a still higher claim to be left unviolated. 
 
20 
 
 Almost every reach of the winding vales in this district might 
 once have presented itself to a man of imagination and feeling 
 under that aspect, or, as the Vale of Grasmere appeared to the 
 Poet Gray more than seventy years ago. “ No flaring gentle- . 
 man’s-house” says he, "nor garden-walls break in upon the re- 
 pose of this little unsuspected paradise, but all is peace," &c., 
 &c. Were the Poet now living, how would he have lamented the 
 probable intrusion of a railway with its scarifications, its intersec¬ 
 tions, its noisy machinery, its smoke, and swarms of pleasure- 
 hunters, most of them thinking that they do not fly fast enough 
 through the country which they have come to see. Even abroad 
 highway may in some places greatly impair the characteristic 
 beauty of the country, as will be readily acknowledged by those 
 who remember what the Lake of Grasmere was before the new 
 road that runs along its eastern margin liad been constructed. 
 
 Numen aqua; viridi si margina clauderet undas 
 Herba— 
 
 As it once was, and fringed with wood, instead of the breast¬ 
 work of bare wall that now confines it. In the same manner lias 
 the beauty, and still more the sublimity of many Passes in the 
 Alps been injuriously affected. Will the reader excuse a quo¬ 
 tation from a MS. poem in which I attempted to describe the 
 impression made upon my mind by the descent towards Italy 
 along the Simplon before the new military road had taken place 
 of the old muleteer track with its primitive simplicities ? 
 
 Brook and road 
 
 Were fellow-travellers in this gloomy pass, 
 
 And with them did we journey several hours 
 At a slow step. The immeasurable height 
 Of woods decaying, nevor to be decayed, 
 
 The stationary blasts of waterfalls. 
 
 And in the narrow rent, at every turn. 
 
 Winds thwarting winds bewildered and forlorn, 
 
 The torrents shooting from the clear blue sky, 
 
 The rocks that muttered close upon our ears, 
 
 Black drizzling crags that spake by the way-side 
 
As if a voice were in them, the sick sight 
 And giddy prospect of the raving stream, 
 
 The unfettered clouds and region of the heavens, 
 Tumult and peace, the darkness and the light, 
 ■Were all like workings of one mind, the features 
 Of the same face, blossoms upon one tree. 
 Characters of the great Apocalypse, 
 
 The types and symbols of Eternity, 
 
 Of first, and last, and midst, and without end. 
 
 Thirty years afterwards I crossed the Alps by the same Pass: 
 mid what had become of the forms and powers to which I had 
 been indebted for those emotions ? Many of them remained of 
 course undestroyed and indestructible. But, though the road 
 and torrent continued to run parallel to each other, their fellow¬ 
 ship was put an end to. The stream had dwindled into com¬ 
 parative insignificance, so much had Art interfered with and 
 taken the lead of Nature; and although the utility of the new 
 work, as facilitating the intercourse of great nations, was readily 
 acquiesced in, and the workmanship, in some places, could not 
 ‘ but excite admiration, it was impossible to suppress regret for 
 . what had vanished for ever. The oratories heretofore not un- 
 . frequently met with, on a road still somewhat perilous, were 
 gone; the simple and rude bridges swept away; and instead of 
 travellers proceeding, with leisure to observe and feel, were pil¬ 
 grims of fashion hurried along in their carriages, not a few of 
 1 them perhaps discussing the merits of “ the last new Novel,” or 
 poring over their Guide-books, or fast asleep. Similar re- 
 . marks might be applied to the mountainous country of Wales; 
 but there too, the plea of utility, especially as expediting the 
 communication between England and Ireland, more than justifies 
 the labours of the Engineer. Not so would it be with the Lake 
 : District. A railroad is already planned along the sea coast, and 
 | another from Lancaster to Carlisle is in great forwardness: an 
 | intermediate one is therefore, to say the least of it, superfluous, 
 ft Once for all let me declare that it is not against Railways but 
 .{against the abuse of them that I am contending. 
 
22 
 
 How far I am from undervaluing the benefit to be expected 
 from railways in their legitimate application will appear from the 
 following lines published in 1837, and composed some year* 
 earlier. 
 
 STEAMBOATS AND RAILWAYS. 
 
 Motions and Means, on sea on land at war 
 With old poetic feeling, not for this 
 Shall ye, by poets even, be judged amiss 1 
 Nor shall your presence, howsoe’er it mar 
 The loveliness of nature, prove a bar 
 To the mind’s gaining that prophetic sense 
 Of future good, that point of vision, whence 
 May be discovered what in soul ye are. 
 
 In spite of all that Beauty must disown 
 In your harsh features, Nature doth embrace 
 Her lawful offspring in man’s Art j and Time, 
 
 Pleased with your triumphs o’er his brother Space, 
 
 Accepts from your bold hand the proffered crown 
 Of hope, and welcomes you with cheer sublime. 
 
 I have now done with the subject. The time of life at which 
 I have arrived may, I trust, if nothing else will, guard me from 
 the imputation of having written from any selfish interests, or 
 from fear of disturbance which a railway might cause to myself. 
 If gratitude for what repose and quiet in a district hitherto, for 
 the most part, not disfigured but beautified by human hands, 
 have done for me through the course of a long life, and hope that 
 others might hereafter be benefited in the same manner and in 
 the same country, be selfishness, then, indeed, but not other¬ 
 wise, I plead guilty to the charge. Nor have I opposed this 
 undertaking on account of the inhabitants of the district merely ,. 
 but, as hath been intimated, for the sake of every one, however 
 humble his condition, who coming hither shall bring with him an . 
 eye to perceive, and a heart to feel and worthily enjoy. And as 
 for holiday pastimes, if a scene is to be chosen suitable to them 
 for persons thronging from a distance, it may be found elsewhere ; 
 at less cost of every kind. But, in fact, we have too much bur- 1 
 
23 
 
 rying about in these islands; much for idle pleasure, and more 
 from over activity in the pursuit of wealth, without regard to 
 the good or happiness of others. 
 
 Proud were ye, Mountains, when, in times of old, 
 
 Your patriot sons, to stem invasive war. 
 
 Intrenched your brows'; ye gloried in each sear: 
 
 Now, for your shame, a Power, the Thirst of Gold, 
 
 That rules o’er Britain like a baneful star. 
 
 Wills that your peace, your beauty, shall be sold, 
 
 Through the beloved retreats your arms enfold! 
 
 Heard ye that Whistle ? As her long-linked Train 
 Swept onwards, did the vision cross your view ? 
 
 Yes, ye were startled;—and, in balance true, 
 
 Weighing the mischief with the promised gain, 
 
 Mountains, and Vales, and Floods, I call on you 
 To share the passion of a just disdain. 
 
 Wicliam Wordsworth* 
 
 1 ■