Compare the two letters on the Kendal and Windermere Railway, contributed by Wordsworth to The Morning Post in 1844, at Kendal, revised and reprinted in the same year. See The Prose Works of Wordsworth, vol. ii. pp. 383-405.—Ed.
[279] Orresthead is the height close to Windermere, to the north of the town.—Ed.
“PROUD WERE YE, MOUNTAINS, WHEN, IN TIMES OF OLD”
Composed 1844.—Published 1845[280]
One of the “Miscellaneous Sonnets.”—Ed.
Proud were ye, Mountains, when, in times of old,
Your patriot sons, to stem invasive war,
Intrenched your brows; ye gloried in each scar:
Now, for your shame, a Power, the Thirst of Gold,
That rules o’er Britain like a baneful star, 5