45 
THE POETICAL ASSOCIATIONS OF THE 
LAKE DISTRICT. 
(Illustrated by the Lantern). 
By Mr. C. W. MIDGLEY. March 2ith, 1908. 
“ When ye see God’s signet set on English ground, 
Why go galivanting all the nations round ? ” 
[■; So wrote Charles Kingsley and so say I. Higher mere 
stupendous mountains capped with snow we may view in 
Switzerland or Norway. Larger and possibly more varied 
lakes are there also ; but where on earth’s surface will you 
find more to delight the eye, to charm and captivate than 
in the few square miles designated the English Lake District. 
Not only great in mountains and lakes is this district of our 
choice, but it is great in its literary associations. One has 
only to mention Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, Christopher 
Worth, Matthew Arnold, Mrs. Hemans, John Ruskin, with 
a host of lesser lights, to prove this statement. 
Wordsworth is pre-eminently the poetic interpreter of 
nature. Nature has her moods as we have, good and evil, 
grave and gay, desolate and happy, gentle and terrible, while 
we respond to her varying humour according to our own. 
Hence it is that the poet interprets her differently according 
to their own character. The grand and gloomy, the Titanic 
and the diabolic, find their expression in Byron, but the 
tranquil and tender chiefly in Wordsworth. The heart of 
Wordsworth beat in sympathy with the sea when he sings 
“ Listen, the mighty being is awake 
And doth with his eternal motion make 
A sound like thunder everlastingly.” 
