RAILWAYS AND SCENERY.
Reprinted, by permission, from the 'Saturday Review' of
22nd January, 1876.
Whether a Bill for making a railway from Windermere to Ambleside, and thence through Rydal and Grasmere to Keswick, is or is not introduced in the coming Session, there is little doubt that some such application will be made in the course of a year or two. As regards scenery, it seems almost beyond the power of Railway Companies or hotel-keepers to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs for them. No matter how completely the characteristic qualities of a beautiful district may be destroyed, greater facilities of approach bring crowds of undiscerning travellers whose custom more than repays the loss of those who no longer care to look at a landscape which has been vulgarized past endurance. The change is not merely insufficient to outweigh in the minds of the new arrivals the fact that they can reach the scene of their holiday in a shorter time and with less inconvenience; it has for them positive attractions of its own. Monster hotels, with a table-d' hôte for every meal, and the opportunity of seeing everything in the society of a congenial crowd, are
