In the mean time, the lake district, besides its adaptation for the growth of timber and for pasture, is, by its varied surface, rocks, and waters, admirably suited for the summer residences of persons engaged in business in towns; and as soon as railroads are completed between London and the large manufacturing towns of the north, including Lancaster and Carlisle, an event which must inevitably take place before ten years have elapsed, we hope to see the hills thickly studded with villas and cottages from their bases to their summits. This seems to us the second step in the progress of the application of the lake scenery to the purposes of human use and enjoyment, as covering it with pasturage and wood was the first, and as the establishment of water-mills will be the third. We are aware how much this prospective view will shock a number of the present residents on the lakes; but we cannot sympathise with exclusiveness, even in natural scenery. Nature made the lakes and the surrounding rocks and mountains in all their rudeness, as she made the crab and the sloe: from these man has produced the golden pippin and the green-gage plum; and why should not the same spirit of improvement be directed towards those parts of Cumberland and Westmoreland which, relatively to man, are as wild as the crab or the sloe ? All objects and things ought to be judged of with reference to the whole of human nature, and not with reference only to some particular part of it.
