region, by a sacrifice of so much of its
quiet and beauty, as, from the intrusion of a railway, would be
inseparable. What can, in truth, be more absurd, than that either rich
or poor should be spared the trouble of travelling by the high roads
over so short a space, according to their respective means, if the
unavoidable consequence must be a great disturbance of the retirement,
and in many places a destruction of the beauty of the country, which the
parties are come in search of? Would not this be pretty much like the
child's cutting up his drum to learn where the sound came from?

Having, I trust, given sufficient reason for the belief that the
imperfectly educated classes are not likely to draw much good from rare
visits to the Lakes performed in this way, and surely on their own
account it is not desirable that the visits should be frequent, let us
glance at the mischief which such facilities would certainly produce.
The directors of railway companies are always ready to devise or
encourage entertainments for tempting the humbler classes to leave their
homes. Accordingly, for the profit of the shareholders and that of the
lower class of innkeepers, we should have wrestling matches, horse and
boat races without number, and pot-houses and beer-shops would keep pace
with these excitements and recreations, most of which might too easily
be had elsewhere. The injury which would thus be done to morals, both
among this influx of strangers and the lower class of inhabitants, is
obvious; and, supposing such extraordinary temptations not to be held
out, there cannot be a doubt that the Sabbath day in the towns of
Bowness and Ambleside, and other parts of the district, would be subject
to much additional desecration.

Whatever comes of the scheme which we have endeavoured to
discountenance, the charge against its opponents of being selfishly
regardless of the poor, ought to cease. The cry has been raised and kept
up by three classes of persons--they who wish to bring into discredit
all such as stand in the way of their gains or gambling speculations;
they who are dazzled by the application of physical science to the
useful arts, and indiscriminately applaud what they call the spirit of
the age as manifested in this way; and, lastly, those persons who are
ever ready to step forward in what appears to them to be the cause of
the poor, but not always with becoming attention to particulars. I am
well aware that upon the first cl