- Details
- Edition: October 25, 1844 October 25, 1844
ON THE PROJECTED KENDAL AND WINDERMERE
RAILWAY.
Is there 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 perish: how can they this blight endure ?
And must he too his old delights disown
Who scorns a false utilitarian lure
'Mid his paternal fields at random thrown ?
Baffle the threat, bright scene, from Orresthead
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 our strong
And constant voice, protest against the wrong !
Rydal Mount, October 12, 1844 WM. WORDSWORTH.
Let not the above be considered as merely a poetical effusion. The
degree and kind of attachment which many of the yeomanry feel to their small
inheritance 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.
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