77 



from end to end, to put key into house-door at night-time, or 

 during absence from home, is an unheard-of thing 1 



It was but the other day that Mr. Maurice wrote that he had 

 had a lasting impression of the honesty of our Lakeland folk made 

 upon him, when, years ago, he first stepped from the train at 

 Windermere, he asked where he should deposit his luggage while 

 he proceeded up Orrest Head to bide the starting of the coach, 

 and was told "he could just leave it anywhere, in- or out-side the 

 station. For," said the station-master, "it 'ill be safe; we are none 

 of your Liverpool nor Lotidonfolk up here.'" 



But Wordsworth, as Coleridge tells us in his "apologetic letter," 

 had the homes of these dalesmen in his mind when he protested 

 against the railway's invasion of them. And no one who has 

 heard how, three years ago, the little village of Rosthwaite in 

 Borrowdale was made pandemonium by the navvies engaged to 

 construct a little slate tramway high up on the Honister Pass, can 

 fail to see that a grave consideration is owed to the dwellers and 

 inheritors of the dales when any scheme is projected that will 

 bring so alien and unwelcome an element into their midst as a 

 swarm of navvies. 



" It uU be a bad day for Borridale if they come hereabout," 

 said a Rosthwaite farmer to me when I was collecting evidence 

 against the Braithwaite and Buttermere Railway, "It ull be bad 

 for t' young lasses, an' bad for t' holiday folk, an' bad for t' chicks, 

 an' we shell hev to clap on locks o' round " ! 



Now for the conclusion of the whole matter : If the Honister 

 Pass steam-dragon has been baffled, other objectionable threats of 

 invasion of Northern England's recreation- and thinking-grounds 

 are being made. Other projects are already astir. Our only 

 chance of keeping Lakeland inviolate is to be on the watch with a 

 powerful national, one might dare to say international, committee 

 — for the Americans are as indignant as we are at the attempt on 

 Borrowdale — and the Scotch Lakes and hills are in equal jeopardy 

 — with a backing of Members of Parliament to help us at West- 

 minster, and a considerable sum of money behind us for expenses 

 if need be. This can, it is thought, best be done by forming a 



