the canal, then by the railroad. It is difficult to believe in the rapidity with which these changes have taken place. To the older people in Westmorland it seems only the other day that the canal was opened throughout its length from Lancaster to Kendal;* and now the whole county is intersected in several directions by railroads. Still, however, there is a tenacity of Westmorland feeling, which holds on firmly and steadily to the past. Especially we must mention the statesmen, or hereditary proprietors of land which they farm themselves. No doubt

such estates have been passing out of the old families more rapidly than formerly; but still there is a strong feeling in the county for the acquisition and possession of land; so that the system has a tendency to reproduce itself: and probably it would be a great evil if this kind of sturdy middle-class were to become extinct. The character of the farming has naturally far more to do with grazing than with corn. As to other employments of the people, the one manufacture, which demands particular notice from its great antiquity, is the making of woollen goods at Kendal. In Henry VIII.'s reign we find this place spoken of as 'emporium pannis laneis celeberrimum.' Wool hooks and teazles are on the corporation arms. Falstaff's rascals in Kendal Green' will occur to every one. A blue dye, however, seems gradually to have come into more general use.† This at least was the colour of the Kendal cottons or 'Kendal bumps,' which used to be made in large quantities during the last century for negroes in the West Indies and United States, as a protection against chill after working in the violent heat. And the woollen manufacture still holds its ground in Kendal, though changes in detail have taken place. The wool is no longer spun in the country cottages, and brought on ponies to the market-town to be woven; and the demand now is for railway-rugs and carpets. There are also two small manufactures, not altogether unconnected with one another, which ought just to be noticed: for they are strictly characteristic of the county. The bobbin-mill is a very familiar feature of such scenes as Skelwith Force and Stock Gill Force, while the term still applied by country lads to gunpowder is taken

turesque mode of conveying goods very vividly before the mind: and some of the bells worn by the leading horses may be seen in the Kendal Museum, and in a farm-house at Hincaster.

* For a few years the swift packet-boat, drawn by horses, was a most agreeable mode of travelling between these two towns.

A most interesting reference to both dyes is to be found in the Collection of Wills published by the Surtees Society (vol. 26, 1853). The Kendal will (dated 1613, at p. 77), in which a green and a blue jacket are mentioned, is for more reasons than one worthy of notice.

Vol. 122.-No. 244.

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from

from the name of the Westmorland family by whom it was first manufactured in these parts.*

With regard to the dialect of Westmorland, and its proverbial language, which has subsisted in many places up to the present time in its old raciness and vigour, there are considerable materials for examining and describing them philologically, and also for presenting them as indications of the character of the local peasantry. Mrs. Wheeler groups with Westmorland, in her title-page, 'the adjacency of Lancashire and Yorkshire,' and Cumberland is commonly spoken of in the same breath with Westmorland. In fact there is a certain north-western type of language, corresponding in the main with a north-western type of character, which is understood best when viewed as a whole. Any one may notice, in coming up from Yorkshire into Westmorland, that the country people give the sound of noo and hoo to the words now and how. On one occasion a word used in conversation was felt to be ambiguous, and the question was asked, 'Well! but which floor do you mean? Is it the floor (flour) of which we make bread, or the floor we stand on, or the floor (flower) which grows in the garden?' Another peculiarity-very marked in the neighbourhood of Kendal, and not much found, so far as we have observed, over the south-eastern border of the county-is the substitution of o for aw, and of aw for o. Thus, to quote another puzzle which occurred in conversation (though it must in honesty be added that Westmorland is not so infirm in regard to the letter has some more southern counties), this question was asked, 'Well! but which do you mean? Is it an oak, a bird, or a hawk-tree? Still, on the whole, little would be gained from studying the dialect of this county in separation from that which prevails round its boundary lines.

There is, however, considerable interest in collecting the proverbs and observing the customary phraseology of any particular district, even without any philological end in view, and simply for the sake of discovering indications of character. And this one thing may be said of the people in Westmorland-that they are amusingly in the habit of understating what they mean. A bad man is said to be 'a vara' moderate chap; a man outrageously drunk to be no better for his beer;' while of an utter reprobate

*The 'potters,' a kind of indigenous gipsies, often curiously bearing the names of the great Northern families-Howards, Lowthers, and Musgraves-are not yet extinct. They seem to have been peculiarly identified with Natland, a village three miles south of Kendal. A notice of them will be found in the 'Lonsdale Magazine,' a periodical which did not live long, but which contains some local information of value.

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it was remarked that there were a deal o' folks mair particler aboot doin' reet nar him.' When the rain is pouring incessantly, the weather is said to be dampish' or 'softish.' In answer to a question about the road, we were told that it was 'a lang way from bein' a good un;' and indeed we found (we were going on horseback from Mardale into Swindale) that, to quote a phrase used on a similar occasion, it was raytherly to make as you gaw.' The Westmorland man shows in his words that his nature is to be cautious. 'I nivver like to mell wi' a beck boddom,' said a labourer who was asked to mend some stepping-stones. 'Nivver mell wi' parsons, lawyers, and doctors,' said another man, who was recommending prudence in graver matters. 'Them as laddles their wits oot of other folk brains 'll nobbut be middinly sarrad,' is a proverb which might have its application in every county of England. Yet the Westmorland man, though he is heedful, and a bad man to skill on' at first, is a hearty and honest friend when you have secured his regard. The peasantry of this part of England is a fine race both in body and mind. No one who has seen these men on a market-day or at a sheep-shearing could hesitate to say that they are stronger, more active, and more handsome than in most parts of England. Intellectually, too, their rank would be equally high. And the standard of education is good. In no county are so small a number, proportionately, unable to write their names. In none, again, is the average commission of crime so small. The Appleby assizes are sometimes ludicrous. On the one occasion when we attended them, though there was all the apparatus of Judge and Sheriff, wigs and halberds, there were just two criminals-one for stealing some bread and cheese, and one for burning some 'ling'—and of the two one was acquitted. It must, unhappily, be admitted that vice and crime are not always co-ordinate, and that there may be a good average of education with a lower average of morality.

More space than we can afford might, with advantage, be given to the local customs of Westmorland, some of which remain, while some are only recently extinct. The 'cock-penny,' recently paid as a fee in schools, points to an amusement condemned now universally for its cruelty, but which formerly was not thought discreditable either to master or scholars, and which indeed had the hearty sanction of Christopher North' at Elleray. Old men at Ambleside, not very long ago, remembered the time when, on St. John the Baptist's day, the countrypeople used to go up in large numbers to spend the summer night on the top of High Street, where they kindled a fire, and entertained

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entertained themselves with games and races. Of the customs which survive, one of the most beautiful is the annual 'rushbearing' which takes place at Ambleside and also at Grasmere and Warcop. Something, perhaps, is to be regretted in the fact that the simple combinations of flowers and rushes, which used to be devised by the village children, have been supplanted by more elaborate floral decorations superintended by benevolent ladies of the higher classes. But it is a festival which happily binds together both rich and poor, and old and young; and nothing can be more touching than the lines written for the occasion by Owen Lloyd, when we consider them in connection with his beautiful and sorrowful life. There are other festive seasons in the county, which are attended with considerable excitement. 'Nut-Monday' is still a great occasion in Kendal, though perhaps some of its delight is taken away by the recent regulation of the municipal authorities, which makes it no longer one of the feria conceptive of Westmorland, but fixes the anniversary to a certain day. Two annual gatherings in two very different parts of the county are the Cherry-feast at How Town on Ulleswater, and the entertainment given on the 12th of May at Levens. At the former the lads and lasses, and older people, come from the neighbouring dales and across the lake, to keep festival on the excuse of eating the excellent cherries which grow in the warm corner under Barton Fell. The latter is a long-established act of hospitality shown to the Town Council of Kendal and other guests, who come to play bowls in the famous old garden, and to regale themselves on radishes and oat-cake, and ale of peculiar merit, called 'Morocco.' Under this head of local customs it would be proper to include the celebrated Brough Hill Fair, which is described by Gray; and, if our narrowing limits permitted, we might dwell on such animated scenes as the 'boon-ploughing' in the lower country, when on a tenant's taking a new farm all the neighbours bring their ploughs and horses,—or the ‘sheepshearing' on the mountains, which is an occasion of no little vivacity, work, and merriment, every year, in such places as Bernard Gilpin's old home at Kentmere.

One subject, the most important of all, has not even been touched the supply, the character, and the education, of the Clergy in Westmorland. There was a time when the poorly endowed parishes in the mountains were not provided with such ministers of the Gospel as could command general respect: but that time is now passing steadily away. Once it would not have been thought at all unnatural to say, as it has been said, of a graceless character:-'He keeps vara' bad company, 't parson

and

and sich.' Now, however, successful efforts are in progress for improving the endowments, and for distributing men of good education through the parishes. Nor have we any right indiscriminately to depreciate the older class of clergy, who were for the most part statesmen's sons, and educated in the Grammar Schools, whence they proceeded direct to the Bishops for ordination. These were often men of high character as well as hard heads; and, though they might be ignorant of the refinements of Theology, they were not rarely better Latin scholars than their successors. The Church owes a debt of gratitude, which ought not to be forgotten, to such men as Robinson of Clifton, and Bowstead of Bampton, who educated in difficult times large numbers of the local clergy. Westmorland has now been rescued from a very disjointed ecclesiastical state, and has a far better opportunity of concentrated efforts for good than when its southern portion belonged to the enormous and undivided diocese of Chester. Even before the recent changes were matured, the quick eye and vigorous movements of Bishop Blomfield caused many improvements: and now under the influence of various causes a superior class of clergy has been gradually gaining ground in Westmorland. Just now one honoured name stands out before us in prominent relief. We can speak of Archdeacon Evans now,―of his learning, his scholarlike taste, his modesty and gentleness, and his clear, calm, Christian maturity of character,as we could hardly have ventured to speak during the continuance of his life. The various scenes of beauty in the parish where he lived and died are depicted most truthfully in two of his own published works, in the little engravings of his 'Parochial Sketches,' and in the headings of the chapters in the 'Ministry of the Body.' No scenes could be more in unison with his own character. His was the spirit of Herbert and Keble. The harmony of light and shade, the blending of hill, and wood, and water, at the head of Morecambe Bay, form a landscape most calm and bright,' on which some softening gleam' appears to rest in every season. No place ought to be more congenial to us at this moment. In resigning our task of description, and quitting Westmorland where it touches the sea, we look back with affection on Heversham, and think with reverence of Robert Wilson Evans.