Faddy were not received with the best grace in the world. It is true,
the old gentleman is too courteous to show any temper to a guest in
his own house; but no sooner was he gone, than the indignation of the
Squire found vent, at having his poetical cobwebs invaded by this
buzzing, bluebottle fly of traffic. In his warmth, he inveighed
against the whole race of manufacturers, who, I found, were sore
disturbers of his comfort. "Sir," said he, with emotion, "it makes my
heart bleed, to see all our fine streams dammed up, and bestrode by
cotton-mills; our valleys smoking with steam-engines, and the din of
the hammer and the loom scaring away all our rural delight. What's to
become of merry old England, when its manor-houses are all turned into
manufactories, and its sturdy peasantry into pin-makers and
stocking-weavers? I have looked in vain for merry Sherwood, and all
the greenwood haunts of Robin Hood; the whole country is covered with
manufacturing towns. I have stood on the ruins of Dudley Castle, and
looked round, with an aching heart, on what were once its feudal
domains of verdant and beautiful country. Sir, I beheld a mere _campus
phlegrae_; a region of fire; reeking with coal-pits, and furnaces, and
smelting-houses, vomiting forth flames and smoke.
Pages:
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319