Robert Somervell

“ I protest I can find nothing, unless that engineers and contractors must live. Let them live; but in a more useful and honourable way than by keeping Old Bartholomew Fair under Helvellyn, and making a steam merry-go-round of the lake country.
There are roads to be mended, where the parish will not mend them, harbours of refuge needed, where our deck-loaded ships are in helpless danger: get your commissions and dividends where you know that work is needed; not where the best you can do is to persuade pleasure-seekers into giddier idleness. ”

“ If they can't enjoy the scenery that way,—they can't any way; and all that your railroad company can do for them is only to open taverns and skittle grounds round Grasmere, which will soon, then, be nothing but a pool of drainage, with a beach of broken gingerbeer bottles; and their minds will be no more improved by contemplating the scenery of such a lake than of Blackpool. ”

“ Were the Poet now living, how would he have lamented the probable intrusion of a railway with its scarifications, its intersections, 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. ”

“ And as the threatened further encroachment of a railway upon one of the loveliest districts in England menaces it with the beginning of such destruction, it is needful that all who know the value of fine natural scenery, and feel the importance of preserving it, should make some resistive effort.
It is not merely the substitution of one kind of road and one kind of tractive power for another that is to be dreaded,— but the change which such substitution always brings with it, and the precedent it furnishes for further and more disastrous innovation. ”

“ In twelve years a plantation will not have grown as many feet; everything is either dead or dying. Long lines of rotten hedges, mended with disused wire ropes from the nearest colliery, separate the fields, while here and there dead trees fling their black arms to the sky. It is not worth while to fell them, so there they stand giving evidence of the past existence of life in the district. ”

“ 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 otherwise, I plead guilty to the charge. ”

“ Even granting that a Keswick man will be able to go to Ambleside in a very short time, does that argument make the railway desirable? Wordsworth observed, in his letters to a daily paper in 1844, that 'the staple of this country is, in fact, its beauty and its character of seclusion and retirement.' Cannot England afford herself the luxury of one district where she can enjoy this peaceful beauty? Are her men and women become so weak that they cannot walk in England the distances which would seem so short in Switzerland? Every one knows that this is not the case. ”

“ The political economists often tell us that the 'laws' of their science are not commands or injunctions, but merely scientific statements of facts. It may, for example, be a law of so-called political economy that, if a mountain contain deposits of ore which, when reached by a railway, might be profitably worked, the construction of such railway would increase 'the material prosperity of individuals, and the material prosperity of the country.' And hence it might be hastily assumed that, if there be iron in the vale of Grasmere, the sooner we make a line to the place the better. ”

“ The blame must rest, not so much upon them, as upon the circumstances of their daily life, in places where God's light is darkened, and His work destroyed, by the hands of men; in homes which they fly, not to, but from, upon their holidays. One wonders, indeed, upon what extent of actual observation is founded that singular creed of the Daily News, expressed, as it is, with almost Athanasian fervour:—'We are bound to believe that every one appreciates mountain glories, that he would not be found among them if he did not like them.' Alas! ”

“ 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. ”

“ Lunacy, as is well known, is spreading out of all proportion to the increase of population, and in the event of the establishment of electoral districts Wakefield might hope for a second member. What might not then be expected from a town whose political history for the last forty years has been so bright, and has justified so well the hopes of those who extended the franchise? We can conceive of a millennium of universal happiness, when no man's house shall be without a buzzer, beer shall be the only available drink, and twenty persons shall sleep in the same round bed. ”

“ That is what some people call 'progress.' But if purity of mountain air is good to be enjoyed—if it be yet worth while to cherish the patriotism that springs from affection for a noble country—if we have any purer love than the love of gain, any joy in the works of God, any care for rest, or any thoughts of peace—call these things 'sentiment' if you will, but they are noble sentiment, that is worth preserving ”

“ Upon the supposition that there are no minerals in the district worth working, it is urged that the construction of a railroad, while it would scarcely damage the landscape, would make easy the access to places which must now be reached by a walk or a drive.
It would be idle to attempt to convince a man who can see nothing disfiguring or incongruous in the intrusion, upon a sequestered valley, of a railway with its staring accompaniments, that his opinion results from any lack of fineness in his perceptive powers. ”

“ And year by year, as the Divine ordinance is set at defiance, and the people are farther and farther separated from these holy influences, the 'materially prosperous' individuals, for whose welfare we are so solicitous, find themselves surrounded by an increasing crowd of lunatics, drunkards, and criminals. Surely it is idle to urge the development of 'material prosperity,' as in itself a sufficient argument for turning, if it were possible, this Lake Country into a mining region. ”

“ Of course, that nine hundred people should see the Library daily, instead of one, is only fair to the nine hundred, and if there is gold in the books, is it not public property? If there is copper or slate in Helvellyn, shall not the public burn or hammer it out—and they say they will, of course—in spite of us? What does it signifiy to them how we poor old quiet readers in this mountain library feel? True, we know well enough,—what the nine hundred excursionist scholars don't—that the library can't be read quite through in a quarter of an hour ”

“ It is a wicked fiction, got up by whosoever has got it up, simply to cheat shareholders. Every lead and copper vein in Cumberland has been known for centuries; the copper of Coniston does not pay; and there is none so rich in Helvellyn. And the main central volcanic rocks, through which the track lies, produce neither slate nor hæmatite, while there is enough of them at Llanberis and Dalton to roof and iron grate all England into one vast Bedlam, if it honestly perceives itself in need of that accommodation. ”

“ But if, recognizing the beneficent and helpful power of noble scenery, we desire to widen the sphere of its influence so that, of all who shall be found among mountains, it may be truly said that they love them, let us not think to accomplish our purpose by making railways through their solitudes, and turning their hamlets into towns. ”

“ But for those who are unable or unwilling to take a walk of 15 to 20 miles—is it really so,—that the cost of getting among the hills is 'far beyond their reach?' The return fare by steamer between Bowness and Ambleside is one shilling, and the 'bus from Waterhead to Grasmere a shilling or sixpence. I am within the truth in saying that hundreds of these excursionists might, for less money than they spend in paddling or being paddled about Bowness Bay, travel far into the heart of our hill country. ”

“ I have said I take no selfish interest in this resistance to the railroad—But I do take an unselfish one:—It is precisely because I passionately wish to improve the minds of the populace, and because I am spending my own mind, strength, and fortune, wholly on that object, that I don't want to let them see Helvellyn while they are drunk. I suppose few men now living have so earnestly felt—none certainly have so earnestly declared, that the beauty of Nature is the blessedest and most necessary of lessons for men ”

“ Any peculiar charm of the meres and hills they would necessarily miss, while they would carry along with them the noise, the turmoil, the unsightly cuttings which are necessary accompaniments and conditions of speedy travel elsewhere, but are surely uncalled for by the side of Grasmere. Of course, if the invalids get their railway the country people will be able to use it, and will journey from Ambleside to Keswick much quicker than they used to do. At the same time they will lose the healthy exercise or the beautiful drive. ”

“ There are some of those who come to us for a day out of Lancashire and Yorkshire, who do love and enjoy the place; and the sight of their quiet, gladdened faces is beautiful and touching to behold. For their sakes, quite as much as for the sake of those whose means permit them to make a longer stay, I plead that the place may be kept as it is. ”

“ Amidst the disgust which accompanies bad investments, the position that a given district is not of necessity the happier for the possession of a railroad no longer seems a patent absurdity. It must be admitted, indeed, that the prima facie argument is always on the side of railways. The villagers of the district, through which it is proposed to carry one, will dispose of their produce to greater advantage, by reason both of the increased facilities for sending it to market, and of the increase in the number of those who will consume it on the spot. ”

“ This useful herb will soon be a luxury in many parts of the West Riding.
It is sad to watch a district as it becomes a seat of manufacture. The little villages on the hill-sides soon encroach on one another, year by year demanding from the State fresh machinery to supply their social wants. The face of the land is changed. Refuse from the mill or colliery is plastered up into great unsightly masses. There is neither earth, nor air, nor water. ”

“ But in this case the railway is only a small part of the danger to be feared. The landowners in the interior of the Lake country are but human. They have their expenses, their embarrassments, their natural desires to increase their income or to lay up capital for their families; and if a railway is brought to their doors, it is certain that some of them will be induced to test the contents of the ground they own, in the hope that it may prove as rich in mineral wealth as the ground on the outskirts of the district has already proved. ”

“ Now, sir, I am not going to attempt myself, nor shall I ask you to attempt, to draw the line between the 'affluent' and the unaffluent classes; but the least affluent excursionists have legs; and such being the case, and supposing they are inclined to use them,—if they really love the fine scenery between Ambleside and Keswick, they have time in the nine or ten hours at their disposal to get into the heart of it. ”

“ Cheerfulness takes the place of seclusion; and the heart of the tourist leaps within him as he recognizes the signs which tell him he is not far from his kind. Even if there were no other reason for proposing to carry the railway beyond Windermere, the anxiety of innkeepers whom the successes of their better-placed rivals will not suffer to sleep would probably supply sufficient promoters. ”

“ An impression, or an opinion, may spring from sentiment without being sickly, and the sentiment which desires to keep a lovely corner of England free from noises which are hideous and sights which are certainly out of keeping with natural beauty is a healthy one enough. The projected railway may, for all that we know to the contrary, be a necessary undertaking. ”

“ If we are ever to raise men to communion with the powers of nature,—to develope in them the 'wise passiveness' of the 'heart that watches and receives' her lore—it will not be merely by giving them occasional and hurried glimpses of strange beauty, but by dignifying the labour, and adorning the surroundings [1] of their daily life.
But the question assumes, on both sides, a more serious aspect if it can be shewn that there are minerals worth working in the Lake District. On the one hand the arguments for making a railway will appear to many persons more cogent ”

“ To this deliberate service of Mammon, more than to any other cause, we owe the degradation of the arts of life, by division of labour and machinery, to merely mechanical toil; and their degeneracy,—for our vast machine power has been used not to supply our needs more easily and completely, but to encourage an extravagant and wasteful consumption of rubbish ”

“ The imputation of selfishness is always an easy and popular mode of attack, and so it is hardly surprising that the old cry should be raised, that our object is to keep the district 'select,' and to bar the way against the crowds of 'excursionists.' Such charges cannot be too warmly repudiated. ”

“ But living, as I do, at Windermere, I have taken some pains to study the bearing and temper of these crowds, and I do not scruple to say that the majority of the persons composing them are bored by our fine scenery, and have small care for anything in which the Lake District excels a suburban tea-garden. ”

“ The most obvious reasons for opposing such a wanton act of destruction will be found stated in the following pages; and, as I remarked above, they exceed, both in number and cogency, those suggested in the quotation from the Daily News.
If, indeed, we care to have any poets or painters, we must give them a little room to grow, or even to run wild in. We may rest assured we shall get no great art, either of pen or pencil, out of the back streets of our manufacturing towns; and even South Kensington may be powerless to help us, if we turn the whole country into slums. ”

“ Apart altogether from its special claims, it would be hard to find a more powerful plea than this, for the preservation of the Lake District. In summing the wealth of a country, the quality of its men will surely count for something; and even the 'laws of economy,' if only one understood them, might be found to have something to say against diminishing the production of the 'most useful, most loyal, and most convertible' of Her Majesty's subjects. ”