Page:A protest against the extension of railways in the Lake District - Somervell (1876).djvu/19

RAILWAYS IN THE LAKE DISTRICT.

---

'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 perish;—how 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.'

 

In these lines Wordsworth gave vent to the feelings of repugnance and regret with which he viewed the proposal, made now more than thirty years ago, to construct a line of railway from Kendal to a spot within a mile of the Head of Windermere. The sonnet was followed, a few weeks later, by two letters from the Poet, which appeared in the 'Morning Post.' These were afterwards revised and published, with some additions, in the form of a pamphlet.

Before the first of these letters was written, the site of the present Windermere Station had been fixed on as the terminus of the railway; and, although Wordsworth continued his opposition to the whole scheme, he wrote