YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1940

THE
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
OF
'WESTIKEOB.I.AND, AND THE
ADJOINING PARTS OF CUMBERLAND, LANCASHIRE.
AND YORKSHIRE,
In the former part of the Eighteenth Century ;
DESCRIBED IN

% Ittvie^ t)t %sXUk&,

BY A LITERARY ANTIQUARIAN.
 «  —
TO WHICH IS ADDED W
UNES FROM A POEM ENTITLED "WESTMERIA."

KENDAL :^
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY HUDSON AND NICHOLSON.
SOLD ALSO BY
.^' J. Richardson, 91, Roi/al Exchange, London.
1827.

PREFACE.

THE Letters which comprise this Pamphlet were
originally printed in the Kendal Chronicle, in the
year 1812, and are now presented to the Public
verbatim frojn that copy, with a few additional
notes which, it is hoped, zaill be found not uninter
esting. The discriminating Reader, whilst he looks
for the spontaneous flow of periodical essays, and
the inelaborate touch to which they are necessarily
subject, will doubtless discover the impress of a
giant's hand, and feel a more than ordinary inter
est in their perusal. jk
]<lo apology need be offered for re-printing a series
of Letters so replete with historical researdh, inter
est, and information, nor is any wordy commenda
tion necessary to push it into sale.

MANNERS OF WESTMORLAND,
Sfc. Sfc.
LETTER 1.
INTRODUCTION.
The manners of Westmorland underwent a re
markable revolution iu.the eighteenth century;;
during which period they insensibly lost the sin-
gul'aHtids that characterised preceding ages, .ar^d
were rapidly adjusted to the standard of national
fashion. The in^ux of wealth, arising from the'
extension of commerce, contributed not a little
towards this change in the character of the people,
by affording ihe means of purchasing articles of
convenience and elegance which were unknown
-to their forefathers. But no circurastan^ pro
moted the revolution in question more effOTtually
than the opening of turnpike roads between the
years 1750 and 1760, which introduced the cus
toms of the capital into this remote, and then se
questered, corner of the kingdom. Before this
improvement of the public roads was adopted in
the North, the intercourse with the southern coun
ties was difficult, and not so frequent as at present.
The manufacturers made their wills, and settled
their worldly affairs, before taking a' long journey;
and many of them travelled on foot to London
and other places, to sell their goods, which v/ere

O AVFAnEL.
COftveyed on the backs of pack-horses. Post-
chaises were introduced in the year ] 754; carriers*^
waggons were established in 17574 and li>e first
stage-coach was seen in the country in 176.^ ; it
was drawn by six horees, aad went by the name of
the Flying Machine.
The spirit of innoyation> and subsequent depar
ture from ancient habits, made their first appear
ance in Kendal ; from which centre of provincial
trade and fashion, the sentiiments, the taste, and
the elegancies of the metropolis spread gradually
to the more remete comers lOf the country. But
the nature and extent of the change will be best
ntiderstood from a contrast of imedern mannDeiPs
and those peculiarities kjf former limes w^brditra-
-dition has preserved. .. •
I The author does not intend to cdlJeiiitihis Iristn-
Iftcal materials fi^m the reigns ^of ouriH^nTysand
•'EliafaSbetb, when rape, robba'y> and murttesiweite
the vjtefe of it'be gentlemon of>tiie:<Noi)th/andw-bett
.tO;die Mie a malefactor was'deemed a rteisfofta-nfe
¦rathiei- ih-da a disgra<sei On thecdntrai-yicfike «!«-
'sigH of the writfer is to confine his 4nqawBS» to th©
foriiMr part of the eighteenth century; and 4© dei-
scribi^the system of mantiers which iprei^iWled i ft
¦ WesimOrland atout the time of the unien <rf'«be
two iirittsh kinifd©ms. .V^

'O"

LETTER il.
APPAEfiL.

One hundi-ed years ago, the 'peoiple' wore verif
little cloth of any kind that was notiiDmespon:;
and the fleeces of their owO'fiodk5,:wi)iqhwe4'-e spum

A-P-pailE'L. 7
at home, fui'Hfshfed chie rest ^of tJieir aippaird. The
fematesicff everijr fVimily krait part of Phe yarn into
stodiiags, astid'tlfe remainder Otit was manufactured
by atnerghtKMM-ing'-weaverinito-a kind of duffel for
the <;lotihing of iJhie men, and a sort of russet for
the use of the woman. The latter kind of cloth as
weMas holiday stoobings were occasionally made
of |worSted>.t4ie'<vool:for wfeich was combed by th-e
fire-si<ie ibif the owner: for-at^l'he period Tve are
speaking of, the 'landed .proprie'lo'rs had a portion
of ebeir raw materials wrought up into -domestic
ntensiils and other conveniences, on their own
premises. T4iese -operations -were -performed -by
itinerant mechanics, conisistiHg 'of woo^com'bers,
dish^nrners, rope-makers, and tailors, who tra
velled from village to village, or from house to
house, in search of employment. All these wan
dering a-rtistsdisaiijpeared long ago, except tbe^^
tailor, who stiill adheres to ancient customs, and
may be seen working for daily wages in the fanii-
hodses of the country. Another and principal
article of finery was also the produce of their
.fields ; for almost every estate raised a quantity of
¦ flax; which was reserved for holiday shirts, and
the more conspicuous parts of female attire'.
At a time when the leading members of the
community contented themselves with what their
lands afforded, and did not purchase the more ele
gant productions of skilful workmen, we may rea
sonably suppose that those who depended upon
manual (labour fomid an advantage in fliccepting a
portion of their earnings in kind, rather than in
¦tooney ; domestic servants accordingly received
'shirts and shifts, coats, gowns, anfl aprons, in lieij
of part X)'f their wt^ges. It is difficult, to conceive
.at preseat in what manner peraons of this .descfqi-

8 APPAREL.
tion were clothed ; for;no longer ago than 1,750,
the annual wages of a man servant did not exceed
£!}, and a female was glad to receive .£2 ilOs. as
the reward of a year's servitude ; but economy can
work wonders, and the men of former days culti
vated this virtue with surprising constancy.*;:
A comparison of ancient manners with those of
more recent date, might almost persiuade the;pre-
sent generation that every action -of our ancestors
had parsimony for its object. When ostentation
was a vice, and frugality did not bear the name of
meanness, the richer yeomen wore shoes,, at least
* The following note, which is annexed- to Dr. BurhV;
.pedigree , of the Thornbiirgh family, appears to be wprthy
of being extracted, as it may not only prove ami^sing, but
may afford a lesson of instruction to the females of the pre
sent day, as giving an instance of the attention of a lady of
quality of the sixteenth century, to the management of her
liiOusehold. At that time the ornamental part of education
.did not entirely exclude the useful ; and even jn. the last
generation, a thorough knowledge ot the culinary art was
considered equally necessary to adapt a young lady to the
important offices of a wife and a mother, as a partial know
ledge of philosophy and music are in modern estimation.
It shows that in the days of our rude forefathers, economy,
as the learned Antiquarian has justly observed in this let
ter, was not accounted a meanness, neither did the gentry
consider it a degradation personally to regulate their do
mestic concerns. The residence of the family of Thorn-
burgh, at Selside Hall, has been traced as far back as the
reign of Edward III., but how long it was established there
prior to that period has not been ascertained. They left
their family mansion there many years ago, but the estates
yet remain in possession of the descendants by the female
line. The last male heir died in the year 1774.
Dame Thomasin Thornburgh, the lady to whom Dr.
Burn here refers, was the relict of Sir William Thornburgh,
knight, and daughter of Sir Robert Bellihgham, of Burne.s-
head, (Burneside,) knight. She died about the year 1582,
and a fiiir mural monument of white marble was erected to

APPAREL. 9
on Sundays and holidays ; but labourers and small
land-holders were not ashamed to appear at church
in clogs. The wooden soles of this serviceable ar
ticle of dress would have proved very injurious to
the wearer's stockings, had not the provident dis
position of the age obviated the inconvenience by
a simple expedient. Every careful housewife took
care to smear the heels of her family's new stock
ings with melted pitch, and dipped them imme
diately in the ashes of turf; the glutinous mixture
incorporated vrith the woollen, and altogether
formed a compound both hard and flexible, which
her memory in the parish church of Kendal, which bears
the oldest date of any extant in the church, though there
is every reason to believe that the church was erected long
before the Reformation; but, it is conjectured, that all
the old monuments bearing Roman Catholic insignia were
destroyed in the first frenzy of ecclesiastical revolution.
'' During her widowhood she kept a book of accounts of her re
ceipts, expences, and disbursements ; from whence it appears
that wool sold for 10s. a stone, an immense price, compared with
the prices of other things. The accountof her servants' wages for
one year is as follows : — Anno Domini 1579. The hoUe yeare waigs
of Dame Thomasyne Lady Thornburgh of all her servants at Sel-
' satt : s. d.
Imprimis, Edward Bowman - - - 40 0
Item, Andrews Rogersone - - - - - 26 8
Item, Henrie Gylpine - - -- - - 300
Item, Michael, the miller - - - 26 8
Item, Peter Langhome  21 0
Item, Thomas Sowelby e - . - - - - 14 0
Item, John Bowman tijepleugh boy - - 10 0
Item, George Bownessie ... - - 12 0
Item, Thomas Thompson ..... 21 0
THE MAYDES.
Imprimis, Agnes Waterfurthej ... 80
Item, Elizabeth Becke  8 0,
Item, Genett Bowman - - - 10 0
Item, Agnes Warrener ..... 10 0
Item, Genett Pepper ... 80
Item, JMargaret Baxter - - -.80
Item, Margaret Hodgesone - 10 0
Item, Mrs. Isabel - - - - 26 a

10 , HOUSES.
was well adapted to resist the united friction of
wood and leather. The utility of clogs preserved
them from neglect, and they have survived there-
vol ution of fashion, being commonly worn on work
days by children in the towns, and labourers in the
country. As for shirts made of hemp, they have so long
been in disrepute, that very few know the plant
when they see it ; and the culture of flax is not
only disregarded, but a grfeat majority of the wo
men in the parish of Kendal are unacquainted With
the method of spinning this useful article. It is
almost superfluous to add, that the yarn hose and
coarse druggets of former times have been s«p-
f)lanted by the manufactures of the West of Eng-
and, Yorkshire, Manchester, and Nottingham 5
so great indeed is the aversion to a home-spun
dr^ss at present, that the poor buy a kind of second*
hand finery from dealers in old clothes. The taste
for elegance appears to run into a culpable excess
in this instance, being in all probability injurious
to the community in two respects. The trade may
be censured as an encouragement to a spirit of
pilfering in the capital, by extending the market
ior stolen goods ; and it has a probable tendency
to disseminate maladies in the country, for few
substances receive contagion sooner, and preserve
it longer, than cotton and woollen stuffs.

LETTER III.
HOUSES.
The houses of the seventeenth century were ill-
cotitrivedj and in many respects hardly consistent

HOUSES. 1 1
with modern notions of decency. They stood, al
most without exception* under the side of hills, in
low and moist situations, near brooks or natural
springs, the owners being apparently unwilling to
purchase a more eligible aspect at the expence of
digging a well. The buildings were inconvenientr-
ly low ; so much so, that a man exceeding the
middle stature could not pass under the lintel or
beam without stooping ; they were for the most part
tj?atched, and the timber of the roof did not rest
upon the walls, bu,t upon upright posts, that were
fixed in the ground, and formed the skeleton of a
house, which the mason completed. The ground
floor frequently laid below the court, contrary to
the modern plan, of building ; which inconvenience
made il necessary to form the entrance by a de-
.scent of one or two steps. The ground floor was
commonly divided into three apartments ; the but
tery, where they kept the provisions, and frequent
ly the beer for want of a cellar, and a raised cham
ber, where the master and mistress slept ; the in
termediate space formed the common hall or kit
chen, in which the business of the family was tran
sacted. This place was either coarsely paved with
pebbles, or had a floor of loam; it was not fur
nished with a fire-grate, but the fuel and ashes
were laid in a heap upon the hearth. The chimr
ney was three or four yards in diameter, and con
tinued open in the front to the height of a man ;
in its capacious funnel were seen various joints of
beef, mutton, and pork, hanging to dry in the
smoke, above the heads of the family as they sat
round the fire. Over the middle of the hearth' ap
peared a long sooty chain descending from a beam
above, and euding in a crook, which was strong
enough to bear the heaviest kettles then in use.

12 houses'.
Many chimneys of the preceding description still
remain in the kitchens of farm-houses where turf
is burned ; and they prove very unfriendly to per
sonal cleanliness, for a black unctuous liquor,
composed of soot and water, trickles down the sides
of these smoky caverns in wet weather, and sticks
to every thing which it touches. This offensive
fluid is called hallen-drop ; and the reader may
conceive the injury which the clothes of the pea
santry would suffer from the nuisance at the time
when it infested every dwelling. Country men
are still in the habit of sitting by the fire with their
heads covered ; perhaps the custom derives its
origin from a precaution, which was formerly more
necessary than at present, for in houses such as
have been described, a hat was an useful article of
dress within doors, because it protected the hair
from the foul discharge of the chimney. The up
per story remained open to the roof, and in many
instances formed but one chamber, called the loft,
which was undivided by partitions : here the chil
dren and servants lodged, without the least distiiic-
tion of rank or attention to decorum, except that
the men occupied One end of the place and left the
other to the women.- A rope was stretched across
this nocturnal receptacle of the family, upon which
coats, gowns, and other articles of ajiparel, both
male and female, hung promiscuously ; to com
plete the furniture of this apartment, in the house
of a country weaver or shoemaker; who foUnd
lodgings for his journeymen, a tub stood in that
part of the loft occupied by the men, for, private
uses. The impartiality of history obliges the au
thor of these remarks to go farther, and to eonfess
that the inhabitants of Westmorland, or at least
those who lived in the country, were inattentive to

FURNITURE.

another appendage to domestic cleanliness in the
beginning of the eighteenth century ; for .whetl
Sir Daniel Fleming showed a place of retreat to a
neighbouring gentleman, his guest admired the
convenience, but acknowledged in a manner some
what laughable,* that his house did not afford an
accommodation of the kind.

LETTER IV.
FURNITURE.
Though the dwellings of our ancestors appear rude
in description, their furniture was plain and homely
in an equal degree, for service seems to have been
the only quality they consulted in their domestic
utensils ; every article of which, now in being,, in
dicates an abundance of timber and a scarcity of
iron. Wooden pins very often supplied the place
of nails ; and the latches as well as the bolts of
doors were cut out of wood. Their apartments,
instead of being furnished with the wardrobes and
dressing-tables of modern times, contained a num
ber of rudely carved chests ; in some of these the
clothes of the family were deposited ; and the rest
were intended for the preservation of malt, oat-
* "^1 and my house set God's leather against God's wea
ther." This anecdote was formerly communicated by a
worthy clergyman ; and should the reader be of opinion
that its appearance in this place requires an apology, the
author cannot do better than copy the example of the his
torian Gibbon, who observes, on a similar occasion, that
he certainly might translate what a Right Rev. Divine had
written. B

14 FURNITURE.
meal, and dried meat. The bedsteads,* anciently
in use, were of massy oak, having a tester of the
same material : the chairs were also formed of clum
sy wainscot; some of them were actually made of
the trunks of hollow trees, in which the carpenter
completed what time had begun. The variety of
tables, required in modern house-keeping, was
formerly unknown ; a board stood in the common
hall, which was from four to seven yards long ; it
rested upon four or six posts, these were fixed into
two parallel frames, one of which united their
upper, and the other their lower ends. The longest
sides of this rustic table were furnished with two
forms or benches, upon which the family and their
guests were seated at meal times : maple trenchers
supplied the place of plates ; and liquids of every
kind, including milk, broth; and beer, were served
up in Wooden vessels, made of staves and hoops,
in the manner of barrels. The want of lightchairs
made rt necessary to furnish the corner of the chim
ney with tvvo benches, each of them being suffi'
* 'A carved oak bedstead, in a good state of preservation,
may be seen at Dodding Green, near Kendal : it is a rare
piece of antiquity. The head consists of oak boards to the
top, and is filled with well executed engravings, but of no
determinate figure ; in the centre is the date, 1386, which
is engraved or cut out of the wood, and the cavity is filled
up with a black substance, so as to be even with the sur
face of the board. ~ Some more modern furniture, such as
qak chests, &c., manufactured about one or two hundred
years ago, have their dates raised up, or cut in alto-relief.
The cornice attached to the tester has been ornamented
with a number of square oak mouldings, glued, or rather,'
fixed with a cement, of the same black substance with which
the figures were formed. This cement is composed of a
resinous body, supposed to be the fat of some animal,
united with an oxide of iron, and appears to have been a
substitute for glue.

FURNITURE. 15
cient to afford seats for four or five persons. The
fire-place was protected from the cold blasts; which
found an easy entrance into the house through the
badly jointed doors and windows, by a screen,
which was placed in front of it. In the centre of
the hearth stood a square upright staff, having a
row of holes along one of its sides, and its lower
end fixed into a log of wood by way of foot. This
simple contrivance supplied the place of a modern
stand ; for it supported the candlestick, which was
properly named at the time, being a socket formed
of a hollow stick. This was fixed to the side of
the upright rod, at a convenient height, by along
peg that projected from the side of the moveable
candlestick, and was forced into one of the holes
intended for its reception. In this warm but
smoky retreat, the family spent the tedious even
ings of winter in knitting, spinning of flax, carding
of wool, and other necessary employment. The
conversation of these family meetings was ofteti
disposed to perpetuate the credulity of the times:
the favourite topics^ consisting of apparitions,
omens, the mischiefs of witchcraft, and fairy tales ;
these idle stories were related by the aged to the
young, from a desire to perpetuate the memory of
wonders, which, according to their belief, had been
seen in the days of their forefathers, and in the old
times before them. In all probability these super
stitions came into the island with our Saxon an
cestors, where they continued toen.slave the minds
of their descendants to a late period ; but the free
dom of the press encouraged a spirit pf enquiry,
which dispelled the gloom of monkish ignorance,
and the extension of commerce gave birth to a
taste for elegance, which put premature simplicity
out of countenance. Without doubt llie love of

i6 FURNITURE.
innovation made its first appearance in, the metro
polis, and spread in every direction from the centre
of trade and opulence ; in consequence of which
it at length reached this remote part of the king
dom. When a passion for modish furniture began
to be felt in Westmorland, the rudeness of the na
tive workmen did not permit them to imitate the
productions of better artists,.and their want of skill
obliged the admirers of fashion to bring vanous
articles of domestic elegance from adistance. This
impediment did not long retard the progress of
refinement; for the taste of the people grew with
their commerce, and invited new descriptions of
artizans to settle amongst them, who not only in
troduced new trades, but also subdivided the old
handicrafts into separate branches. The cabinet
maker invaded the province of the carpenter,
whose rude chests and tables he brought into dis-
reputeby a superiority of design and workmanship:
tho mantua-maker interfered with the tailor, who
had been employed by the women as well as the
men before the arrival of this female opponent.
In the mean time the wooden cans and platters,
formerly in use, were exchanged for vessels of tin
and pewter, and shops were opened for the sale of
glass and porcelain. Perhaps the manners of the
country received many corrections from the stran
gers who came to reside in it ; such at least was
the case in one remarkable instance. The cuslonj
of interring the dead. without coffins was not un-
frequent in the neighbourhood of Kendal so late
as the beginning of the eighteenth century ; the
practice was finally suppressed by the admonitions
of the Rev. William Crosby, vicar of Kendal, a
man of exemplary morals, who held the living frqin
1699 to 1734.

17
LETTER V.
AGRICULTURE AND FOOD.
A PEOPLE whose wants are few and moderate, al
ways prefers ease and frugality to the accommo
dations and abundance which are procured by un
remitting industry ; such undoubtly were the sen
timents entertained by the inhabitants of West
morland at the commencement of the eighteenth
century. Their dress as well as houses and furni
ture have been described in the three preceding
letters; as for their manner of living, it appears
to have been homely in an equal degree, and not
less repugnant to modern notions of comfort and
elegance. The agriculture of our ancestors con
sisted of those practices which constitute what is
now called the old system of husbandry; and their
lands were cultivated according to the worst plan
of management. When a field was broken up out
of grass, it was sown with black oats*dl the ma
nure of the estate was bestowed upon it for a crop
of barley the next year; and the owner lafd it
down again in the third year with a second crop of
oats without the addition of grass seeds ; so that
the future produce of herbage was committed to
nature and te accident. The collector of these his
torical fragments has been told, that lime was first
used as a manure for moist grass land in Old Hut-
ton about forty years ago ; he had the information
from the person that made the experiment ; who
added, that the attempt was universally ridiculed
until the result of it was seen. Hollinshead men,
tions the cultivation of spring wheat in the neigh-
B 2

IS AGRICULTURE AND FOOD.
bourhood of Kendal so early as the reign of Eliz
abeth ; but the introduction of green crops as food
for cattle is of recent date; and but few of the
pot herbs, now in use for the table, were commonly
raised eighty or a hundred years ago. This inat
tention to agriculture and gardening obliged the
people to be content with little variety; in fact
oaten bread, dressed barley, and a few onions,
constituted the chief part of their vegetable diet
during winter; so little indeed were the inhabitants
of Kendal, or at least a majority of them, formerly
accustomed to the use of roots and greens, that
the town did not enjoy the advantages of a common
garden before the year 1738; though the culture
of fruit trees was introduced into the country about
the time of the Restoration. The art of fattening
cattle in Winter was neither well understood nor
much piacticed eighty or ninety years ago; the
first attempts of the kind were tried on sheep,
which were fed in small numbers during the dead
season with the tender branches of the two ever
greens ivyland holly. The supply of animal food
proved iri^jdaiuate to the ilemands of the comran-
nity, for the fat slock fed in Autumn, being killed
off by Christmas, very little fresh meat appeared
in the markets before the ensuing Midsummer,
except veal.
The substantial yeoman, as well as the manufac-
tUrers, provided against this inconvenience by
curing a quantity of beef at Martinmas ; the great
est part of which they pickled in brine, and the
rest was dried in the smoke. Every family boiled
a sufficient piece of their salt provisions on Sunday
morning, and had it hot to dinner, frequently with.
the addition of an oatmeal pudding. The cold
meat came day after day to the table so long a&

AGRICULTURE AND FOOD. 19
any of it remained, and was as often eaten with oat
bread alone ; at the same time a wooden can, full
of the briny liquor in which the beef had been
cooked, was placed, warm and thickened with a
little meal, before each person by way of broth.
The stomach was encouraged in the better sort of
houses to digest these stubborn materials by a sup
ply of pickled red cabbage, which was prepared for
the purpose in October or November. Hogs were
slaughtered betwixt Christmas and Candlemas,
and converted principally into bacon, which, with
the dried beef and dried mutton, afforded a change
of salt meat in the spring. The fresh provisions
of winter consisted of eggs, poultry, geese, and ill-
fed veal, the calves being then carried to market
when two or three weeks old. After the salmon
season commenced, great quantities of this modern
luxury were brought from Carlisle, and sold in
Kendal market from one penny to twopence per -
pound, the want of spring carriages apd the low
state pf trade that then prevailed jp p»ancashire,
offering the owners of the fish no ttiifjucement to
carry their commodity farther sou%.F„JI'he abun
dance and cheapness of salmon in tfe southern
extremity of Westmorland at the time we are
speaking of, may be inferred from the following
circumstance: indentures are said to be preserved
at present in the charity school at Kendal, which
provide that the boys apprenticed by them shall
not dine on this kind of food or fish in general of-
tener than three days in the week. r^

20

LETTER VI.
AGRICULTURE AND FOOD  (COntinUed).
The last letter concluded with a bill of fare for win
ter, the articles of which appeared commonly upon
the tables of manufacturers oryeomen; but the con
dition of the labouring poor fell short of these
equivocal comforts, for they subsisted chiefly on
porridge made of oat-meal or dressed barley boiled
in milk, wiih the addition of oat bread, butter,
onions, and a little salted meat occasionally. Cer
tain circumstances, apparently connected with the
indigestible food of the wealthy and the meagre
diet of the poor, seem to have effected the general
health of the people in spring, when agues were
so common that the frequency of them persuaded
vulgar credulity into a belief that the effects of the
disorder were beneficial to young persons. The
pre valenceSi this malady cannot be justly attri-
buted to Ay malignant quality of the air or soil;
on the contrary, it may be ascribed to the priva
tions which the inhabitants suffered during winter.
For agues, which are almost unknown in West
morland at present, disappeared gradually as salted
provisions fell into disrepute, and the culture of
esculent vegetables became belter understood and
was more attended to. In the year 1730, potatoes
were sparingly used in the country ; for the quan*
tity consumed in Kendal was brought from Kirk-
by Lonsdale, where one Masden or Marsden had
introduced the culture of this useful root. The
man was nick-named Potato Masden by his neigh
bours. This may be called an accidental but na-

AGRICULTURE AND FOOD. 21
tural imitation of the primitive Romans, who
named many leading families in the republic from
their pursuits in agriculture. Masden had the
honour of being a great benefactor to posterity,
perhaps without any patriotic intention, for he
taught the succeeding generation how to raise a
plentiful supply of a nutritive vegetable at an easy
expence, the introduction of which into the north
of England has prevented those deaths that occa
sionally afflicted the labouring poor so long as they
depended on grain in the winter.
En Friamus ; sunt hie etiam sua proemia laudi.
Not long after the introduction of potatoes, tea*
became a favourite beverage with th^w^omen, in
spite of a steady opposition from the men: perhaps
it found its way into the North in form of presents
from the metropolis ; and the method of prepar
ing this foreign luxury not being generally under
stood, these presents were sometimes turned to ri
diculous uses. One old lady received a pound of
tea from her son in London, which she smoked in
stead of tobacco, and did not hesitate to prefer the
weed of Virginia to the herb of China. , Another
mother converted a present of the same sort and
magnitude into an herb pudding; that is, she
boiled the tea with dressed barley, and, after strain
ing off the water, buttered the compound, which
she endeavoured to render palatable with salt, but
in vain, for the bitter taste was not to be subdued.
The consumption of wheat became greater and
more general after tea was introduced than it had
been before that period. At the beginning of the
* When this foreign luxury first became fashionable,
cups and saucers neatly turned out of wood were commonly
used instead of porcelain.

22 AGRICULTURE AND FOOD.
eighteenth century flour made from this grain was
never seen in the cottage of the labourer, and rare
ly made its appearance on the tables of the middle
class, except on high festivals ; even the frugal
housewife often evinced her attachment to econo
my on these occasions by making her pastry of
barley meal, which she veneered with a thin cake
of flour. One custom has survived the wreck of
many provincial singularities, that shows the high
estimation in which wheaten bread was held by
our ancestors. It is still considered in many parts
of the country in the light of a parting gift or a
token of remembrance from the dead to the living;
for every person who is invited to a funeral receives
a small loaf at the door of the deceased, which he
is expected to carry home with him. The anti
quity of this present is fully established by the
monastic name which it bears ; for the people call
it by the latin appellation of Arval Bread, proba
bly from the practice of distributing the loaves in
the open air. The increasing demand for wheat
encouraged the farmers to pursue the modern sys
tem of cultivating it; and though the experiment
succeeded in many places, thin cakes made of oat
meal without leaven still continue to be the bread
in common use. This predilection for an ahcient
article of diet deserves to be perpetuated as a pub
lic benefit ; for oat bread is nutritive, and the com
parative cheapness of it enables the labouring poor
to lay out a greater proportion of their earnings
in butchers' meat and esculent vegetables, than
can be applied to the snme purposes by the la
bourers in the South, on the supposition that their
wages are equal to those in the North, which is
not the case at least with the peasantry.

23
LETTER VII.
rENTERTAlNMENTS AND FESTIVALS.
The preceding review of ancient manners will
convince the reader that the domestic affairs of
our ancestors were regulated by maxims of the
strictest economy, — this at least was^the case on
ordinary occasions ; but every attention to parsi
mony disappeared on festivals, more especially on
the annual return of Christmas. At this period
festivity became general, the treat circulated from
house to house, and every table was decorated in
succession with a profusion of dishes, including all
the pies and puddings then in use. Ale-possets
also constituted a favourite part of these festive
suppers, and were given to strangers for breakfast '
before the introduction of tea. They were served
up in bowls, called doublers, into which the com
pany dipped their spoons promiscuously; for the
simplicity of the times had not yet seen the neces
sity of accommodating each guest with a basin or
soup plate. The posset-cup shone as an article of
finery in the better sort of houses ; it consisted of
pewter, and was furnished with two, three, or more
lateral pipes, through which the liquid part of the
compound might be sucked by those who did not
choose the bread. This plentiful repast was moist
ened with a copious supply of malt liquor, whiph
the guests drank out of horns and the wooden cans
already mentioned. The aged sat down to cards
find conversation for the better part of the night,
while the young men amused the company with
exhibitions of maskers, amongst whom the clown

ENTERTAINMENTS AND FESTIVALS. 24
was the conspicuous character ; or parties of rapier-
dancers displayed their dexterity in the sportive
use of the small-sword. In the meantime the
, youth of both sexes romped and gambolled pro
miscuously, or sat down not unfrequently to hunt
the rolling-pin. Perhaps a description of this pas
time cannot bd easily accommodated to the refine
ment of modern expression; the partj', however,
squatted on the floor in a circle, holding their legs
upright,and keeping their hands below their knees.
Thus was a covered way formed round the ring,
in which the rollirig-pin moved quickly from hand
-to hand, being struck frequently against the ground
to inform the hurtter of its place, who continued
running round the circle in eager pursuit of the
flying object. The high sense of decorum which
prevails at present may lead the reader. to put
an unfavourable construction on the virtues of his
ancestors; but common customs do not indicate
the conduct of a nation to be good or bad with
unerring certainty ; they only speak the degree of
refinement at which the community has arrived.
The Finlanders are a people of exemplary morals,
but both sexes enter their vapour baths promiscu
ously in a state of nudity, where the females ad
minister water to the male visitors: on the con
trary, a strict attention to extiernal decency fre
quently conceals the deformity of a lewd charac
ter in a land of polished manners. Refinement is
not to be expected in a society of equals ; it only
flourishes in those communities, a number of whose
members enjoy a superiority of fortune. This was
not the condition of Westmorland formerly ; for,
excepting the estates of a few noblemen and ba
ronets, the land was divided into small freeholds
and customary tenements, in the occupation of the

ENTERTAINMENTS AND FESTIVALS. 25
owners, whose slender patrimonies merely exempt
ed them from mercenary labour. The situatioa
of the manufacturer was not more enviable, for he
drew the support of his family from the industry
of four or five journeymen. A state of society ap
proaching so nearly to equality, obliged persons of
the middle rank to treat their inferiors with fami
liarity, and inspired the poor with a spirit of inde
pendence. The consequences of such a system of
manners are evident, for it was calculated to che
rish allthe sterner virtues, while it banished the
graces of jpolished life from the seat of humble
mediocrity. The absence of that distinction which
springs from a great disparity of property, kept a
majority of the people on terms of intimacy, and'
induced neighbourhoods to associate for mutual
, assistance; for the country was divided into latings,
so called from the North country verb, to late,
signifying to seek or invite. When a death hap
pened in one of these districts, the heads of houses
within the circuit met to condole with the friends
of the deceased ; and the younger members of the
community watched the corpse during night to the
day of interment. The mistresses of families also
met to celebrate the birth of every child ; and the
expences of the treat given on the occasion were
defrayed by the voluntary' contributions of the vi
sitors. This, as well as the preceding custom, still
remains in several parts of the country, and when
a poor person dies, the charges of the funeral are
alleviated by the private donations of the neigh
bours. But of all the festiVe occasions known in
ancient times, no one could be compared with a
marriage ; it was attended by the whole lating,
each family being summoned to meet on the ap
pointed day by the bridegroom in person, attended

36 LITERATURE.
by a cavalcade of his friends. The young of both
^xes accompanied the couple to church on horse*
hack, and when the cereinoiay vfas ended, a race
took place to the festive homse fox- a riband, which
decorated the coaqueror. The rest of the daj was
spent in c'arous'mg, and in athletic exercises, con
sisting of foot-balJ InatcheSj pitehitig the bar,
wrestlmg for bells, and fpot races. Bidden wed
dings are still remembered in the mountainous
parts of Cumberland. It is necessai-y to add, that
the expences of regaling a neighbourhood so
sumptuously did not fallen the new-married coupie,
but upon their guests ; who repaid all charges by
contPibtttlons of money and utensils, which were
given to the bride, who sat in s^tate to receive the
donations of the company.

LETTER VIII.
LITERATURE.
The familiarity of the middle and lower ranks
may be asscribed in part to the system of public
instruction, which was the same for all. After the
Reformation had excited a spirit of enquiry in the
nation, the people of Cumberland, Westmorland,
and the adjacent parts of Yorkshire, soon perceived
classical literature to be the cause which had con
ferred such high importance on the clergy in prer-.
ceding ages ; and this discovery was followed by »
laudable and general desire to impart the same
kind of knowledge to the laity of succeeding ge
nerations. Every plan of public improvement that
meets with universal patronage is sure tb prosper ;
and was the case with the system of education pro-

LITERATURE. 27
jected by our ancestors : for frecschools were esta
blished in process of time almost in every township
or hamlet, besides a common parochial school in
the vicinity of each parish church. Every semi
nary of this description was endowed with a sti
pend for the maintenance of a master, who instruct
ed the children of all conditions within his district,
in English, Latin, and Greek, free of expence.
The nature of this establishment entitled the pre
ceptor to nothing more than bis salary ; but the
parents of his pupils thought proper to reward his
diligence by an annual gratuity at Shrovetide, call
ed a cock-penny to this present time. A stranger
to the customs of the country will suspect some
thing whimsical in this name, but it has its foun
dation in reason ; for the boys of every school were
divided into two parties every Shrovetide, headed
by their respective captains, whom the master chose
from amongst his pupils; this was probably done
in imitation of the Romans, who appointed the
principes juvenum on certain occasions. These
juvenile competitors contended in a match at foot
ball, and fought a cocls'battle, called the captains'
battle, in both which contests the youthful rivals
were not more interested than their parents. The
plan of tuition here described answered two pur
poses of unequal_importance, for it handed down
the favourite diversions of the country from father
to son, and furnished every hamlet with its scho
lar, who was prepared on all occasions to contend
for the palm of erudition with the learned of other
townships and distant parishes. This practice was
calculated to promote classical knowledge, at a
time when good writers in the English language
were but few ; it is, however, difficult to determine
whether a taste for fine composition will be more

£8 LITERATURE.
certainly and l^more generally diffused through a
people, at present, by a grammatical attention to
the ancients, or by the study of the best modern
authors. One thing is obvious, a steady applica
tion to grammar is disposed to confine the judg
ment to words and their connexions ; but the man
who reads latin for the purpose of conjugating and
scanning the language, passes his time loo frequent
ly in admiration of old Lilly, without catching the
beauties, or retaining the sentiments, of the writers
he peruses.
The last remark is general, and not confined to
the seminaries of this country, which have furnish
ed the pulpit and the bar with many learned men,
who have been ornaments to their respective pro
fessions. The Rev. Thomas Shaw, D. D., holds
a conspicuous place amongst the illustrious cha
racters of Westmorland. He was a native of
Kendal, and son of one of its aldermen; after com
pleting his studies at Oxford, he travelled over
those parts of Africa and Asia that lie contiguous
to the Mediterranean and Red Seas. His Travels
were published after his return, and threw much
light upon the antiquities, the geography, and na
tural history of those countries which are famous
in ancient history.* Ephraim Chambers, a man
* Since the first publication of these Letters
" A mighty spirithath eclipsed,"
in the death of the Rt. Rev. Richard Watson, D.D., of
Calgarth, than whom few men have done greater honour
to the county of Westmorland.
Subsequent to this, Natural History has been deprived
of an invaluable friend, by the demise of John Gougb,
Esq., late of Kendal, a gentleman well known in the philo
sophic world ; and whose posthumous works are now- in
preparation for the press.

LrrfiRA'TURE. 29
of science, and author of the first Cyclopaedia, re
ceived his education in the grammar school of
Kendal, and is reported to have been a native ei
ther of that town, or of Milton, in the neighbour
ing parish of Heversham. The catalogue of Bri
tish plants was also considerably augmented by the
observations of a few ingenious men resident in the
county, about the close of the seventeenth and the
beginning of the eighteeth century. These were
Dr. Lawson, of Great Strickland, Mr.Fitz-Roberts,
of the Gill, near Kendal, and John Wilson, a jour
neyman shoemaker, of the same tovrn, author of a
Synopsis of British plants, in Ray's method, the
first part only of which was published, though the
latter was ready for the press at the time of his
death. Mr. William Hudson succeeded these
cultivators of indigenous botany ; he was born in
Kendal, at the W^hite Lion Inn, which was kept
by his father. This gentleman cultivated the sci
ence with indefatigable industry, and contributed
greatly to the introduction of the Linnean system
into England, by adopting the ideas, the scientific
language, and the artificial arrangement, of the
Swedish naturalist, in his Flora Anglica. Mr.
Hudson resided principally in London, where he
followed the profession of an apothecary or sur
geon ; he was a timid man, and led a very retired
life. His death was occasioned 'by his refusing to
open his doois when a fire was raging in the neigh
bourhood, from an apprehension that the mob
would enter and plunder his house. He persisted
in hi^ refusal until the heat and vapour proved fa
tal to him, which accident happened betwixt the
years 1795 and 1798.

c 2:

s»
LETTER IX.
LITERATURE — (continued).
The last letter contains remarks on the state of
literature and the public schools in Westmorland,
at a time when the inhabitants were less aspiring
than they are at present. These seminaries dif
fused a competent knowledge of Latin and Greek
through Cumberland, Westmorland, and the
neighbouring parts of Yorkshire; but as these
establishments were intended to promote the study
of the learned languages alone, the parochial and
village preceptors confined their attention to this
object ; and itinerant scriveners, or writing- masters,
were employed to teach the art of writing, as well
as the science of arithmetic. These travelling tu
tors knew their respective circuits, in which they
removed froin one hamlet to another in search of
pupils, and were frequently hired into gentlemen's
,families for weekly wages. Many of the^e are said
to have been ingenious men ; but the occupation
fell gradually into disrepute, and has been discon
tinued many years ; for the extension of commerce
introduced a more convenient, and perhaps a more
rational, system of education. The study of the
classics is confined at present in a great measure to
the parochial schools, and little is taught in the
inferior seminaries besides English, writing and
arithmetic. The consequences of this change are
cbvious ; classical scholars are no longer found
amongst the husbandmen in this part of the coun
try, for all that receive any education are put to
agriculture or trade, with the exception of a few

LITERATURE. 3?
that are intended for one or other of the learned
professions. Poor children in the country have the
same opportunity of instruction they had formerly;
that is, they are taught to read free of expence ;
but the schoolmaster of modern times acts in the
double capacity of classical preceptor and scrivener;
he is consequently paid for teaching writing and
arithmetic by the parents or guardians of his pupils.
The education of the poor is greatly improved of
late in Kendal, for they have the advantage of Sun
day Schools, a Female Charity School, and Schools
of Industry, in addition to the two elder semina
ries, the Free School and Blue-coat Hospital.*
The opportunities for instruction afforded by these
establishments have evidently encouraged a love
of literature amongst the mechanics and labouring
manufacturers of Kendal, many of whom associ
ated fourteen or fifteen years ago to form an eco
nomical library, which was begun and is still sup
ported by monthly contributions, proportioned to
the circumstances of its members, who are all
working persons. f I can add, with pleasure, that
this collection does honour to its supporters; for
it is not stuffed with the productions of modern
, novelists, many of whom deserve no better name
than that of mental poison. This censure may be
deemed severe ; but writings of a romantic cast are
calculated to render the mind insensible to the
plain narrative of history and the occurrences of
* Since then National Schools have been established for
the education of children of both sexes, in which there are
now not less than S70 scholars.
+ This Library is now transferred and united to the
"Mechanics' and Apprentices' Library," organized inl834,
where the studious mechanic can enjoy the best scientific
wbrks at a little more than one penny a week.

32 LITERATURE.
common life. The origin of the mischief here
complained of is apparent, for the novelist endea
vours to amuse the fancy by exaggerated pictures
of virtues or vices, and by unexpected turns in the
fortune of his hero. It is true, many works of
imagination abound with excellent sentiments;
but then the morality of novels, like the fatenace-
ous part of certain esculent vegetables, is corrupt
ed by the admixture of poisonous juices. The
good sense of later times appears in tew instances
more conspicuously than in the attention that is
now, paid to female education. It was formerly
thought necessary to teach a girl the art of read
ing, that she might peruse the Bible for herself;
the daughters of better families also learned to
scrawl a hand, which was not^lways Very legible;
but the advantages of arithme^ were reserved for
the boys, This absurd practice created a great
disparity of intellect in the two sexes; for it was
not an uncommon thing in former days, to find an
illiterate woman married to a yeoman who could
read the Testament in Greek, and was acquainted
with the best Tyriters of the Augustine age. Com
merce, however-, has in a great measure now cor
rected this spiecies of injustice ; for it has been dis
covered, that a wile can manage many parts of a
business equally with her husband ; she is of course
prepared to give him assistance, should events re
quire her aid. In consequence of the preaefiit
change in the coiiduct of parents, the care of edu
cating a family is more impartially divided between
the sons and daughters..

33
LETTER X.
.TRAVELLING AND, CARRIAGES.
The facts recorded in the preceding letters indi
cate a state of society, which was less distinguished
by a spirit of enterprise, than a love of economy.
Every one was content with domestic conveniences
of the plainest kind ; which moderation at home
made the people inattentive to public accommo
dations, and ihe highways were accordingly not
only ill contrived, but kept in bad repair. This
negligence arose from the inactive manners of the
tinies, which did not require the roads to be better.
Wheel carriages, were very little used for pri
vate intercourse or trade; for persons of both sexes
made short journeys on horseback,"lhe women be
ing commonly seated on pillions behind the men.
Very few made long excursions from home, ex
cept the manufacturers of Kendal, many of whom,
according to a preceding remark, travelled on foot
in quest of orders for theiivwrorsted stockings and
linsey-woolsey. Carriers did not employ wag
gons, but drove gangs of pack-horses,* each of
t * Before turnpike roads were made, and before waggons
came in use, the following pack-horses, &c., transported
the merchandise of Kendal, viz.
One gang of pack-horses to and from London every week,
of about ...... - 20
One gang from Wigan weekly, about - - 18
One gang from Whitehaven, about ... - 20
From Cockerifiuth  1''
Two gangs from Barnard Castle - - - 26
Two gangs from Penrith twice a week, about 15 each 60
One gang f^-om Settle twice a week, about 15 - - 30
Cameo over

,34 TRAVELLING AND CARRIAGES.
which were preceded by a bell-horse, and the own
ers reckoned a young woman equivalent to half a
pack in lading their beasts of burden. The predi
lection for transporting all kinds of commodities
on horseback was so general, that the fuel con
sumed in Kendal came to the town in this manner.
Coals were brought in sacks upon galloways from
Ingleton ; and the turf Or peat, was conveyed
from the mosses in halts.* These were a pair of
strong wicker hampers, which were joined by a
pack-saddle, and hung across a horse's back ; they
were put to various uses in husbandry, wh*ich of
fices are now performed by carts. Before the Sub
ject of fuel is dismissed, it will be proper to ob
serve, that the introduction of coals and turf into
Kendal appears to be of recent date, comparative
ly speaking. 1 have examined an ancient account
of household expences and receipts kept in the
neighbPurhood of the town, from lQ72 to 1701,
in which coals are not mentioned, though peats
occur frequently. Several documents are still ex
tant, proving that wood was once uuiveisally burn
ed in the country ; and fuel of every description is
at present comprised in Westmorland under the

Brought ovet 189
Erom, York weekly, about - - - - 10
From TJlverston ... . 5 „
From Hawkshead twice a wsek, about 6 . - 12
From Appleby twice a week, about 6 - - - 12
From Cartmel ...... ^ 6
Carriages three or four times a week, to and from Mill-
thorpe, computed at 40 h6rse IdSd - . . - 40
Froni Sedbergh, Kirk"by Lonsdale, Orton, Dent, and Other
neighbouring villages, about - - - 20
^ Total 594
Besides 24, every six weeks for GlasgbW.
* This word is probably derived from 7jn« or haltet an
obsolete participle of the verb to hold.

TRAVELLING AND CARRIAGES. 35
geaera.! name of elden, which signifies old things.
Of old wood of no use but for the fire. To return
to wheel carriages; halts gave way to carts in the
ptogress of general improvement. These vehicles
were ill-contrived, particularly the wheels, which
consisted of two circular boands fixed without
ipokes immovably to the ends of a cylindrical axle.
The injudicious nature of the constiuction required
the axle itself to revolve beneath the cart, where
it was kept in its place by two pairs of parallel
wooden pins, that projected downwards from the
frame flf the bpttom. Carriages of this awkward
description continue,in a few instances, to disgrace
therwds of Westmorland, which, perhaps, are at
this time some of the best in England, though they
were bad in the extreme about the middle of the
last century.
The year 1752 may be called an epocha in the
manners of the country. Acts of Parliament were
obtained for two turnpike roads, one from K^igh-
ley to Kendal, the other from Heron Syke, where
it joined the Lancaster road, to Eamont Bridge,
on tiie confines of Cumberland. The completion
pf these public works introduced new modes of
travelliBgi which 1 shall not mention at present,
becaufe they were enuniej-ated in the first Letter.
XQll'gates, for the support of highways, were first
appointed in England, by Act of Parliament, in
1663 ; and the beneficial effects of the institutions
appear to have«3{tendcd northward, along the east
coast, much earUer than aloiixg the west. This js
proved by the Countess of Nithsdale, in her inter
esting narrative of her Lord's escape from the
Tower inn 16; for she expressly says, that she
took the stage-coaeh at Newcastle in the beginning
of that year, which was forty-seven years prior to

36 NATIONAL REFINEMENT.
the appearance of the same vehicle in this country.
Perhaps no one circumstance contributed more to
reduce the manners of the nation to a common
standard, than the establishment of these periodi
cal carriages. The facility and expedition which
they afford to travelling, may be said to create tra
vellers ; for persons of all descriptions are trans
ported in these coaches from the remotest corners
of the island to the capital, where they copy the
manners of the citizens, and acquire their senti
ments. This mode of conveyance was brought to
its present degree of perfection in 1786, when the
mail-coach began to run betwixt Manchester and
Glasgow, passing through Westmorland, and tak
ing Kendal in its way.

LETTER XI.
NATIONAL REFINEMENT.

(

The foregoing traditional fragments relate to a
system of manners and opinions that prevailed in
this part of England about the time of the union,
in 1707. The distinguished features of this system
have been insensibly reduced to the general stan
dard by the operation of moral causes, which are
pointed out in the preceding Letters. The reader,
however, ought not to imagine that the customs,
practices, and sentiments which he has been per
using were confined to Westmorland and the
neighbouring counties; they only lingered here
to a late period, for obvious reasons. The man
ners of an insular people change more slowly than
those of continental nations, and the inhabitants
of a mountainous district retain ancient usages

NATIONAL REFINEMENT. 37
longer than the natives of an open country. , The
latter fact, taken in conjunction with the distance
<)f the north from the centre of pplitenessi explains
the tardy advances of our ancestors in improve
ment ; and the former, relating to the genius of
islanders in general, applies with equal propriety
to the British nation. In fact, the people of
England formerly bore the same inferior relation
to Italy, France, and the Netherlands, which the
natives of Westmorland bore in la;ter times to the
inhabitants of the southern counties.
Should the peruser of these Letters feel himself
disposed to smile at the honiely apparel of our
ancestors, he has only to revert to the times when
Elizabeth reigned and Shakspeare wrote,* to find
a picture of greater simplipity ; for he may then
contemplate in imagination the populace of Lon
don dressed in buckram Or green druggets made
at Kendal, with woollen bonnets on their heads,
and cloth hose on their legs. . If the houses of
Westmorland were poor and illrCpntrived, in the
beginning of the last century, the dwellings of the
sonth had as bad or worse properties in the reign
of Henry the Eighth. Erasnms, who visited this
country after the Reformation, reproaches the
English with being disgustingly filthy ; he adds,
that their floors were made of Ipam and covered
with rushes, under which dirt of every kind was
permitted to collect, and to lay unmolested.- —
Shakespeare's scene at an inn in Rochester, in
Henry the Fourth, Part I., corroborates the remarks
of Erasmus, by the description tha,t the carriers

* But, as the devil would have it, three misbegotten
knaves, in Kendal green, came at ray back, and let drive
at me. — Fahtaff, in King Henry IF.
D

38 ifATIONAt ftfiFlltfiMENT.
give of their bed-cbambel', and the inconvenienei**
¦ fhey suflered for Want of the tub mentioned in the
third letter. But what can be said of the lodgings
that London aflfbrds to its poor inhabitants at pre
sent .'' This question may be answered by the ae*
count which the inmates of the Pear- tree public-
house gave of their own accommodations on occa*
sion of the late murders in RatcliiFe Highway^
Artists of different nations, honest men and asSafi-'
sins, were huddled together in an undivided apart
ment; and it appeared in the course of the evi
dence, that a milk-woman occupied a bed in this
Common dormitory. It is loag since the custom
of sleeping promiscuously ceased in the North,
but in all probability it still continues in the crowd
ed haunts of irien ; for tbowgh improvements ori
ginate fbt the most part in populous cities, the be
nefits of useful inventions are more impartially
distributed in the cPutitry. Crowded bed-rooms
were fashioAable in the South before the middle of
the seventeenth century; when gentlemen slept
two in the same bed, or several in the same apart-
ftient. Ctjlonel Huncks deposed on the trial of
Axtell the regicide, that Axtell came, on the morn
ing of the King's execution, into a room at White*
hall, where he and Cromwdl were sitting with
Colonels Phajfieand Hacker, Generals Ireton and
Harrison beitVg'in bed together in the same apart
ment. Dr. Plot observes in his account of the
Just Devil of Woodstdck^, that the Parliament's
commissioners slept two m a bed, that their ser
vants lodged in the room with them, and' to com
plete the ludicrous assemblage, a quarter of beef
laid upon the floor. This narration shows what
were the ideas of convenience and decency enter
tained by the better soit of people during the In-

NATIONAL REFINEMENT* 39
teiTegnum. If men enjoyed personal comforts,
they were accommodated ; bqt the ideal pleasures,
which result fi'Qia eiider and the appearance of
things, were oegkcted in every part of the nation.

LETTER XIL
NATIONAL REFINEMENT-— CpOn^WWe^,^.
Strangers from the South formerly looked upon
the maple trenchers gf our grandfathers with con
tempt, supposing them to indicate a degj-ee of rus
ticity peculiar to the country ; and they might
appear in this light to persons who possessed more
taste than knowledge of ancient manners. There
is no necessity, however, to return to the fifteenth
or sixteenth century in order to find these wpoden
plates in general use ; for Dir, Plot expressly says
in the narrative already alluded to, that the coun
terfeit demon threw great ta umbers of trenchers
about the lodging-room of the commissioners, and
that one of them, who arose to see what was going
forward, found two dozens of these utensils in his
bed when he returned. Let it be remembered that
this ludicrous affaix was transacted at a royal seat
in Oxfordshire, no longer ago than the year 1649.
The old latches for door^, which are now out of
fashion in the north of England, appear to have
been used in the Tower £>f London so late as the
year 1716; for the Countess of Nithsdale says in
her interesting letter to her sistpr,. " then before I
¦shut the door, I pulled through, the string of the
latch, so thatit could only be opened on the inside."
If the clothing and domestic conveniences, of the
fimeient English appear rude in the opinion of a

40 NATIONAL REFINEMENT.
modern, their food was certainly bad, and in many
instances disgusting, when compared with ours.
The people at large lived in winter on salted flesh
and fish, with the addition of bread, cheese, butter,
milk, and beer. In the accounts which have come
down to us describing the magnificent feasts of the
nobility, we find a profusion of dishes, consisting
of fowls wild and tame, quadrupeds, as well as the
inhabitants of the water. Porpoises and seals were
numbered amongst the dainties of former times,
and the birds most in vogue seem to have been
those which are now rejected on account of their
oily nature and rancid flavour. The most remark
able circumstance in these details is the want of
vegetable food ; for bread made of wheat and bar
ley appears to supply the place of roots and pat-
herbs. It is certain that peas, beans, carrots, tur
nips, cabbages, onions, and mustard, were sparing
ly cultivated in the reign of Elizabeth. This may
be collected from the work of old Gerarde, and
the catalogue might be enriched with a few more,
suchasspinage, skirrets, and sperage or asparagus^
the last of which was eaten in sallads. But a taste
for flesh and bread had the ascendancy to a much
later period; for a judicious author, who wrote
about thirty years ago, says, that the consumption
of esculent vegetables was then six times greater
in the vicinity of London than at the time of the
Revolution. So feeble was the spirit of enterprize and ex
periment in this country formerly, that the Eng
lish imported the productions of the orchard and
garden from the Netherlands, so late as the begin
ning of the sixteenth century ; for hoiticulture was
but little attended to before the year 1532 ; when
gardeners were invited from the Continent to fur-

KATIONAL REFINEMENT. 41
nish the table of Anne BuUeyne with the fruits,
roots, and pot-herbs, to which she had been accus
tomed at home. This pleasing and useful art was
encouraged by many ingenious men in the reign
of Elizabeth ; since which time it has been culti
vated with increasing success both for culinary and
ornamental purposes in the united kingdoms.-^
John Gerarde, a celebrated botanist in London,
had the honour of introducing potatoes into Eu
rope from America ; it was cultivated at first as an
uncommon exotic of a doubtful nature, and did
not come into use as common food before the be
ginning of the eighteeth century.
I will conclude this detail of historical facts re
lating to national improvements, by observing that
the Westmorland cart, before described, is the
ancient cart of England ; for Dr. Plot, whose His
tory of Oxfordshire was published in 1705, says
expressly ,'that a similar vehicle, having wheels of
the same awkward construction, was then generally
used in that county. He also mentions a supposed
improvement in wheel carriages; which shows
with what reluctance men relinquish ancient cus
toms. The alteration consisted in an iron axle,
that was square at one end, and fixed into one of
the wheels, with which it turned, the other end
was made round and permitted the opposite wheel
to revolve upon it.
P. S. Perhaps the following list of plants, show
ing the time when each species was introduced in
to England, will aflTord some amusement to the
lover of horticulture: — Pale gooseberries intro
duced 1520; artichokes and parsley, 1551; cur
rants, 1555 ; lettuces, garden cress, and apricots,
1562;'spinage, 1568; beets, thyme, and mulber
ries, 1596; radishes,cucumbers,and potatoes, 1597.
D 2

WESTMERIA,
AN HISTORICAL POEM.

When Saxon valour Saxon force repell'd.
And rustic liberty by arms upheld,
The young Westmeria* grac'd the sylvan train.
That once adorn'd Northumbria's-t wide domain ;
Taught by the duties of her native soil.
She learnt the shepherd's and the warrior's toil ;
When wearied heroes bid the tumult cease,
And hateful Discord left the fields to Peace,
She fed the herd, and watch'd the fleecy care,
Fann'd in her grassy vales by Alpine air ;
And chas'd the savage boar in rural pride,
Like fair Diana, down the mountain's side ;
Or slew the wolf, insatiate of blood,
With all the shaggy monsters of the wood.:|:
In festive hours she left the hunter's spear,
To drive with hound and horn the bounding deer.
But still her youthful hand desir'd to wield
The Mercian lance, or Caledonian shield :

* Westmeria, (or Westmariai) according to some writers of the
middle age, is the Latin appella,tiqn of Westmorland.
t Northumberland was the largest of the s^ven kingdoms con
stituting the Heptarchy. It appears to have been considered as a
dependant state, and to have been govemed by a Viceroy, so late
as the Norman Conquest ; which, office was held,, at th^t period,
by Tosti, the brother of Harold.
\ The boar, the wolf, and the Ijear,, were formerlynatives of this
island, the last of which was frequently carried ftom Caledonia to
Home, to be exhibited to -the people.T-MortiaJ.

44 WESTMERIA.
For when dread rumours of approaching harms
Call'd each aspiring soul to deeds of arms ;
When Caledonia rose, or the rude main
Transported to these shores the ruder Dane,
Who, pouncing like the eagle on his prey,
Bore Anglia's wealth and Anglia's nymphs away.
The martial Maid advanc'd with dauntless scorn,
To wind the clarion and the warrior's horn,*
To wield the axe, and wave the spear.t whose gleam
Dar'd emulate the meteor's quivering beam.
Which shines refulgent in the northern sky,
An arm'd horizon to the wondering eye.
Thus heav'n-born Peace to savage- War gave way j
A lively emblem of a vernal day,
When radiant gleams succeed the pelting storm.
And driving showers the face of spring deform :
So Saxon freedom spent her childish years
In gleams of smiles and transient clouds of tears.
When the dire Norman stretch'd his iron hand,
With ruin fraught, and slavery o'er the land ;
When Freedom fled to more auspicious climes, +
And left the realm to Tyranny and crimes ;
Westmekia learnt, beneath a foreign lord.
To bend the bow and draw the Gallic sword ;
But true to martial fame and Anglia's sta*;i.
She serv'd the- tyrant vpho deserv'd her hate :
Thus Philomel, sweet tenant ot the grove !
Attunes her voiee to sorrow, or to love,
Torn by some ruffian from the vocal spray.
With matchless art she pours the captive fay.
The tuneful minstrel, though with thraldom crost,
Exerts her pow'rs to mourn her freedom lost,
* Many customory estates in this country were held by carnage,
which tenure obliged the propristor.to. notify the approach of an
enemy by the blowing of a horn.
t ITieSaxons were of G«rm*to extraction, and seem to have imi
tated the warriors- of the mother country, in disregarding the bow,
and fighting in close 'combat -(Vith the battle-axe and spear.
t After the battl6 of Hastings hadiplaced WiUiam the Conque
ror on the thrBitfeof, England, many who survived the' camage fled
toCooistantinoptev Mid fentered intiytlie service of the Greek Em
perors ; these foreign troops displayed their courage and animo'
sity to the -rei^ riarme of the ijatibn by which they had beejivan-
quijihedi for-they bore a principal Share in protecting Gteece ftom
the ravages of the Sicilian Normoans.

WESTMERIA. 45
The plaintive sorrow speaks in cadence clear,
Melodious music to her tyrant's ear, *
In vain she tries to move his ruthless choice.
Beholds his prey, enamour'd with her voice.
Not such, Westmeria, was thy fate of yore ;
For when fair Angliaconn'd old Athens' lore.
She spurn'd thedotard Ignorance, and his train,
Reclaim'd her rights, and broke from thraldom's chain.
Then Freedom rear'd again her honest head
Within thy grassy vales and lowly shed ;
Then Commerce came with her industrious hand,
From Belgium's shore, to thy sequester'd land.
The stranger's boon thou h'ail'd, her train caress'd,
And bade thy swains by Commerce to be bless'd.
Thou taught fair Anglia, ere she durst presume,
To spin the fleece and guide the plastic loom ;
Thy genius first Arachne's art essi^y'd.
And gave a cradle to the infant trade.
Commerce, the friend of poverty and woe.
The lawless chief subjected to the law,
Expell'd Oppression from the peasant's bower.
And crumbled into dust the Baron's tower. ,
Dire were the times, by might and faith o'eraw'd,
Oppress'd, by feudal force and priestly fraud ; '
When Chiefs and Monks pretended.to controul.
The first the body, and the last the soul.
But Commerce came, hail the auspicious hour,
To vanquish barbarous zeal and lawless pow'r ;
For pitying Heaven, by feeble means design'd
To humble pride and humanize mankind,
To break the Noble's yoke, the Priesthood's rod.
Which made each slave a villaine to his God.
Wisdom divine the wondrous change decreed,
Andde&tin'd Commerce to achieve the deed.
The nymph, obscurely bred and vilely born.
Excited in hfr youth the Baron's scorn ;
Her sire a recreant soldier in disgrace, — ¦
Her swarthy mother, of the gypsey race,
A basket bore, replete with holy wares,
To bright Ausonia's carnivals and fairs.
Collecting, for her own and infant's need,
A scant subsistence from the Romish creed.
The daughter soon increased their little trade
With trinkets, well contrived and neatly made ;

46 WESTMERIA.
Creating by her skill fi mist supply,
Tflf^alra the con,5cieiice and to charm the eye.
From tower to tower the ipaid tk$se baubles sold,
And drajii'd the Baron pf hjs hoarded gold;
The lonely Monk forgot celestial joys,
A)lur'd by Comnjerfe and her gUtteripg toys.
No Ignger mea|i, sl)e rises to renown.
For weiilth and fame her youthful labours crown ;
Now slaves and beggars swell her growing train.
Drawn from the i^udai and monosfic reign ;
The castle now, and cioister'd abbey's gate.
Deserted moufn in solitary state,
Where once the mendicant and villaine stood,
Imploring eleemosynary food-
Far from these lordly piles, the needy crowd
Round Comnierce throng'd, and to her dictates bow'd ;
Th' industrious she upheld with cheerful mind,
And profFer'd liberty to all mankind.
The Baron BOW, shorn, of his pomp and pride,
I'ossess'd his wealth, but purchas'd all beside ;
The Monks were left neglected in their cells.
Useless their .relics and religious spells.
Then hoary Ignorance fled, a doating wight.
Presumptuous still, but never in tha right ;
With Superstition, of infernal kind.
Alike to fear and cruelty inclin'd ;
And Slavery vile, by constitution prone
To cheat and serve, to murder and to fawn.
Broke was the Noble's yoke, the Priesthood's rod, '
Which made each slave a villaine to his God.
Sweet is the tale of energetic woe,
Which bids the tear of sympathy to flow.
When Genius. sings, in animated strains.
Why Beauty mourns, or Innocence complains.
But softer scenes of home-felt joys impart
Superior raptures to the Patriot's heart 5
That heart, which vibrates to his country's tale.
As iEol's lute obeys the breathing gale.
Seraphic lute ! could I presume to sing
Enchanting numbers from thy magic string.
My humble Muse should tell in accents mild,
(In trembling strains inimitably wild.
Strains such as fair angelic forms rehearse,)
Westmeeia's itory in immortal verse.

WESTMERIA. 47
Alas ! these strains adorn celestial lays $
Then, guardian nytnph, accejrt a native's praise.
When young Aurora shdds the orient light.
Her safiron beams divide the robe of night;
But still the sable veil, though rent and torn.
Resists the feeble efforts of the morn.
In shadowy forms the dusky fragments fly,
AUd sireak with light and shade the dappled shy ;
Till rising Phtebus, potent source of day,
Dissolves the cheqoer'd tissue in his ray.
Thus dawning Truth, a glimmering radiance shed,
Westmeria 1 on the cloijds -which Error spread
O'er thy fair vales, with fell intent to blind *•
The human judgment, and enslave the mind.
For still thy swains rehears'd the mystic tale,
Still phantoms saw in ev'ry grove and dale ;
Still Error^ friend to legendary lore.
The lying fiend wh6m Fraud to Ignorance bore.
Of wizards tatk'd, and ghosts in shrouds array'd.
Of sprites and goblins haunting bill and glade.
Of moonshine sports led by the Fairy Queen,
Where ouphes and elphins ianc'd upon tlie green.
But dawning Science, with her powerful ray,
Drove Error, wizards, sprites, and elves away.
Then happier tiays t&y swains, Wes'tmeria, bless'd,
When Reason's beam il(um''d the Patriot's breast ;
Whea,ifree from fancy's ills, without controul.
He pfov'd the latent vigour of his soill ;
leartt'd all that Rome, and ill that Athens taught,
Pleas'd fo enjoy the luxury of thought.
Thus the poor lark, from youth a captive bound,
Whom bars of wood and rods of wire surround,
Fixt tei a turf, in warbling spends his age.
And for the -world mistakes his narrow cage ;
But should kind chance elude his tyrant's care,
Wond'ring, he wings his flight through realtns of air.
Now low, now high, the truant loves to soar,
Alive to extacies unfelt before.
Such were the feelings of thy loyal band,
When recreant Jame& ^rsootthis injur'd land,.
Of Britain's wrath and Nassaur's sword afraid.
To ask the slaves of France their impious aid.
Unhappy France ! still to thy interest blind.
Foe to thyself, and- scourge of human kind ;

4S WESTMERIA.
May the keen lance, and cannon's deadly roar,
Purge thy foul veins of slavery's filthy gore.
-jboquacious Fame proclaim'd a numerous host
Of Gallic legions on the Eastern coast ;*
From vale to valg the awful rumour ran,
While rising courage spread from man to man ;
The artist left his loom, rous'd by the tale.
While swains and shepherds pour'd from hill and dale.
Defensive arms supplied the theme of all ;
To arms they rush at Lowther's patriot call.
From Kendal's mould'ring towers Westmeria saw
Her valourous natives in the plains below ;
EiTch bosom burning with (he hallow'dfire.
Which patriot zeal and liberty inspire.
Eastward the heroes bent their steady course,
Resolv'd with France to match their puny force.
False was the rumour, — butnot such the praise
Of those who aim'd to wear great Codes' bays —
Codes, who dar'd the Tuscan host oppose
Alone, to combat in his country's cause. —
Illustrious Shades! defend Westmeria's swains.
Who war for freedom on Iberia's plains, t

* After the abdication of James II. in the year 1688, a rumour
was spread in the north of England, that the abdicated monarch
was laying off the Yorkshire coast, ready to make a descent with
a numerous army fromFrance, in hopes of regaining his lost throne.
This report gave the Lord Lieutenant of Westmorland an oppor
tunity of showing his own and the people's attachment to the new
order of things. He accordingly called out the Posse Comitat%s,
comprising all able-bodied men from sixteen to sixty. The order
was obeyed with alacrity ;, and the inhabitants met armed .in a
field called Miller's Close, iear Kendal, from whence they march
ed to Kirkby Lonsdale. This historical fact explains.the following
popular rhyme, the meaning of which is, at this dayj'not generally
understood : — ' /
" Eighty-eight was Kerhy feight.
When never a man was slain ;
They yatt their meaat, an' drank their drink,
And sae kom merrily haem again."
t At the time this Poem was first published, (1811,) a number
of Westmeria's gallant sons were serving in, the British army in
Spain, — hence the invocation. .

Kendal : Frinted by Hudson if Nicholson.