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like a flint. A soldier used a cheese paring for a flint;
and a blacksmith at Cartmel avered that he struck sparks
from a cheese while cutting it up with an axe. A tract of
dry heather burned without intermission for three weeks,
having been kindled by sparks from a cheese which had rolled
from a cart on the road above, and bounded from crag to
crag. These things are like the barbarism of two centuries
ago. It is the railroad that must mend them. In a generation
or two, the dale farms may yield wool that Yorkshire and
Lancashire, and perhaps other countries, may compete for.
The cheese may find a market, and the butter may be in
request. And at the same time, the residents may find their
health improved by the greater wholesomeness of their food;
and, before that, their minds will have become stirred and
enlarged by intercourse with strangers who have, from
circumstances, more vivacity of faculty and a wider
knowledge. The best, as well as the last and greatest change
in the Lake District is that which is arising from the
introduction of the railroad.
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