[ 102 ]
" And Fairfied answer' d with a mountain tone
" Helvellyn far into the clear blue sky
" Carried the lady's voice,—old Skiddaw blew
" His speaking trumpet;—back out of the clouds
" Of Glaramara southward came the voice;
" And Kirkstone toss'd it from his misty head.
" Now whether, said I to our cordial friend,
" (Who in the hey-day of astonishment
" Smil'd in my face) this were in simple truth
" A work accomplish'd by the brotherhood
" Of ancient mountains, or my ear was touch'd
" With dreams and visionary impulses,
" Is not for me to tell; but sure I am
" That there was a loud uproar in the hills.
" And, while we both were listening, to my side
" The fair Joanna drew, as if she wish'd
" To shelter from some object of her fear."
Here, in the midst of these secluded scenes, formed by the involutions of the mountains, uncorrupted by the society of the world, lives one of the most independent, most moral, and most respectable characters existing—the estatesman, as he is called in the language of the country. His property usually amounts from 80l. to 200l. a year, of which his mansion forms the central point; where he passes an undisturbed inoffensive life, surrounded by his own paternal meads and native hills. Occupied in cultivating the former, and browzing the latter with his large flocks of three or four thousand sheep, he has no temptation
