42 



as being admirable productions of more than local interest ; and 

 the other papers are all good in their way. Dr. Dodgson's elaborate 

 paper on the Meteorology of Cockermoiith, leads me to a subject 

 on which I wish to speak with all caution and moderation. The 

 Lake District has recently been shaken to its centre by a project of 

 the Manchester Corporation to supply Manchester and its neigh- 

 bourhood with water from Thirlmere, and there is no doubt the 

 scheme will be carried into effect. I am not going to bring a 

 hornets' nest about my ears by raising any controversial question ; 

 I shall take no aesthetic view, nor dilate on the iniquity of reversing 

 a natural water-shed. But in a merely engineering point of view 

 the scheme is a grand one, and by way of encouragement to those 

 of you who are engaged in original observations of any kind, I 

 would point out that it is to the investigations of a very few private 

 individuals into the rain-fall of the Lake District, who proved an 

 average fall among the mountains ranging from 80 to 180 inches, 

 that the feasibility of the project on which the Manchester people 

 are about to expend something like ^4,000,000 sterling, mainly 

 depends. This shows in a striking manner that results almost 

 national in their importance may, and do continually, flow from the 

 steady and anxious inquiries of those who search into facts, and 

 into the laws of nature, with no other object than to arrive at the 



TRUTH. 



It has been suggested to me in connection with Professor 

 Knight's promised lecture on Wordsworth, that beyond a painted 

 window in All Saints' Church, the birth-place of the Lake Poet 

 has no monument to perpetuate his fame. It may indeed be said 

 of him, what can be said with equal truth of every great man, that 

 his works form the best and more durable monument ; still, I think 

 the suggestion is worthy of your consideration — that at Cocker- 

 mouth something more should be done in honour of Wordsworth's 

 memory. 



It only remains for me to congratulate you on the results 

 which have hitherto attended the Association, and to express a 

 hope that your labours- will bear good fruit in the future. I will 

 hazard the prediction that, at any rate, the Cockermouth meeting 

 will prove a success. 



