Page:A protest against the extension of railways in the Lake District - Somervell (1876).djvu/55

 taken cheaply into places where they may be heard. But there is nothing of exclusiveness in the opposition to the railway which Mr. Ruskin dislikes, because the Lakes are already of very easy access to all persons. A glance at the map in Bradshaw's topographical compilation shows that the Lake Country is cross-hatched with railroads. The traveller can go by train, rejoicing, to Windermere, to Coniston Water, to Derwentwater, and close to Ullswater. Surely he might walk or ride to Wastwater, and Thirlmere, and Grasmere. He will be all the better for it if he does, and if he cannot, he will lose little by losing all that he would see from the window of a train. Where no valid economical reason presents itself, the country can surely afford herself a breathing place, a quiet country where Nature has her own way, and where her voices can be heard without disturbing and alien sounds. It is not true economy, as Mr. Mill not only allowed but urgently insisted, but selfish waste, to destroy, without pressing cause, the beauty of mountains that breathe of freedom, and the purity of fertilizing streams. The desert places of the earth have played a great and worthy part in human history; the wilderness has been a resting-place for the greatest minds and the weariest. Surely England can afford to indulge herself in this little corner of not uncomfortable desert, this wilderness where the wayside inns offer better fare than wild honey.