Page:Kendal and Windermere Railway two letters re-printed from the Morning post - Wordsworth (1845).djvu/13

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therefore the best opportunities of observing them. In his poem "The Traveller," he describes the Swiss as loving their mountain homes, not by reason of the romantic beauty of the situation, but, in spite of the miserable character of the soil, and the stormy horrors of their mountain steeps—

"Turn we to survey
Where rougher climes a nobler race display,
Where the bleak Swiss their stormy mansion tread,
And force a churlish soil for scanty bread.
No produce here the barren hills afford,
But man and steel, the soldier and his sword:
No vernal blooms their torpid rocks array,
But winter lingering chills the lap of May;
But meteors glare and stormy glooms invest.
Yet still, even here, content can spread a charm,
Redress the clime, and all its rage disarm."

In the same Essay, (December 18th, 1844,) are many observations judiciously bearing upon the true character of this and similar projects.