Of all the English poets Wordsworth had the tender local affections in the greatest strength; and in his case not only did they attach themselves to a small district with a marked peculiarity of character, but they were almost invariably associated with poor and simple human lives, themselves rooted by hereditary affection in the miniature highland region that occupies the north-west corner of England. London, to Wordsworth, was “a crowded solitude.”
Attachment to Foreign Places.
English love for Switzerland.
Indifference to France. Love of Italy.
No race in Europe has so strong a tendency as the English race to form attachments for places outside of the native land. This tendency has increased with the habit of travel and with the spoiling of England by modern industrial works. The second love of Englishmen is Switzerland if they are mountaineers, and Italy if they care for poetry and art. France they seldom appreciate unless they are architectural students, when they cannot overlook “the most architectural country in Europe.” It is probable that no Englishman ever loved France as Robert Browning loves Italy, or would venture to express such a sentiment if he felt it.
“Italy, my Italy!”
cries the poet with a passionate longing—
“Open my heart and you will see
Graved inside of it Italy,
Such lovers old are I and she,