BRAITHVVAITE AND BUTTERMERE RAILWAY. [To TER EDITOR OF THE "
SPECTATOR "1 '&11,—We dwellers at the Lakes have been electrified to find that whilst men slept, the proprietors of certain slate quarries on Honister Pass have got a Railway Bill past private inquiry un- opposed, have complied with standing orders, and sent it on to the Select Committee of the House of Commons. This Bill is -to empower them to do irreparable mischief to the loveliest part of our English Lake scenery. It is proposed to run a railway for the slate waggons down into Borrowdale, thence to skirt the west side of Derwentwater, where it will be impossible, from the nature of the ground, to hide their line of rails—no trees or in- tervening rocks exist there—to pass under Cat-bells, thence to
-cross the Vale of Newlands, and to join the Keswick and Cockernionth Railway at Braithwaite.
This will mean that Borrowdale and Derwentwater will no longer be the quiet resting-ground for weary men. The slate -waggons will be joined at no distant time by passenger waggons, and the unwelcome, unappreciative navvy will make room at his side for the beer-drinking excursionist from Keswick to Honister, " all the way for 6d." Artists will be exiled, and the -exquisite terrace lawn of the grassy steep west of Derwent- water will be maddened with shrieks of engines shunting, or heavy trains of slate howling and roaring as they carry their loads to Braithwaite.
When will the State protect the manifest good of the health- seeking majority, against the private-pocket schemes of the ad- -venturous, money-seeking minority ? Is not England each year needing more and more its pleasure-grounds "to health and resting consecrate," to be preserved inviolably for its busy, bustling children, who seek rest and, alas ! too often find none ? Will you not, Sir, help us in this matter to swell the chorus of dissatisfaction, that for a few pence a load extra to the Com- pany who project this Buttermere and Braithwaite Railway, the thousands who come to Borrowdale should find the old haunts of peace and beauty possessed by slate-waggons, and their attendant nuisances ? If the slate is really necessary to the public, the public will pay the cartage, as heretofore. If the public will not pay the cartage, it looks as if they could get as good slate cheaper elsewhere. I can do little but urge publicity to be given to the case, and invite the strong co-operative opposition to the scheme that seems to be needed without delay.—I am, -Sir, &c.,
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