Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/111

[ 99 ] the name of human dwellings. Far be it from me to wish a restraint upon the expenditure of an honest citizen's money in any way he may think proper, provided the application of it do not interfere with the rights or comforts of the society amongst which he is placed; but when he uses it to destroy the effect of those scenes of Nature (the common property of the public) which the general voice have pronounced to be beautiful, and thus diminishes the stock of public pleasure, and cuts off one fruitful spring of intellectual enjoyment from a whole people, I cannot but think that the legislature should consider it as a sort of popular trespass, deserving prohibition if not punishment; or at least should make the promoters of false taste, in such cases as these, the objects of severe taxation. Mr. Pocklington's erections on and near the lake of Keswick would, if my suggestion were adopted, make an ample return into the coffers of the Exchequer. The fall of Lodore on the southern side of the lake, consisting of a series of cascades down a rocky declivity six hundred feet high, shaded with trees, is rather beautiful than sublime, and picturesque than terrible, for the most part of the year; though when it is charged with the overflowings of the thousand streams which a storm pours occasionally from the mountains, one