I do not say any thing of
the expense; that the trustees and their constituents
may settle as they please. But the destruction
of silvan beauty is great, when the breadth of
the road is more than proportioned to the vale
through which it runs, and lowers of course the
consequence of any objects of wood or water, or
broken and varied ground, which might otherwise
attract notice, and give pleasure. A bubbling runnel
by the side of one of those modern Appian or
Flaminian highways, is but like a kennel,---the
little hill is diminished to a hillock,---the romantic
hillock to a molehill, almost too small for sight.
Such an enormity, however, had destroyed the
quiet loneliness of Duntarkin, and intruded its
breadth of dust and gravel, and its associations of pochays
and mail-coaches, upon one of the most sequestered
spots in the Middle Ward of Clydesdale.
The house was old and dilapidated, and looked sorry
for itself, as if sensible of a derogation; but the
sign was strong and new, and brightly painted, displaying
a heraldic shield three shuttles in a field
diapr
, a web partly unfolded for crest, and two
stout giants for supporters, each one holding a
weaver's beam proper.
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