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yards to the right or left. There was a general belief, which has 

 partly come down to our own times, which in some degree accounts 

 for the scrupulous exactness with which they kept upon these old 

 established paths. It is a vulgar error of course, but there are 

 old people yet living who will tell you, that if a corpse on its 

 way to church, is carried by a fresh way across the fields, that 

 way becomes a public road for all time, not to be stopped by any 

 thing short of an act of parliament, if by that. The ceremony over, and 

 the body left in its last resting place, as many of the attendants as chose 

 went back to the house, where each was presented with a small loaf of 

 bread to take home. This was called arvel bread, and was originally 

 given only to the poor, but afterwards came to be offered to all alike. 



Turning to the periodical customs, or those observed at particular 

 seasons of the year, we find, that many such have disappeared within the 

 memory of persons now living, and still more, if we go back another 

 generation or so. In treating of these, it must not be supposed that 

 they all belong exclusively to the district. The purely local customs are 

 very few, and in looking into the matter, we find, that many which have 

 commonly been considered such, have had their counterparts in other 

 places widely separated from each other. Most customs, however, have 

 in each district, something quite local in the way of their being observed. 



Very many of the old customs observed by our forefathers no doubt 

 had their origin in some religious or superstitious belief For instance, 

 the customs once common in these counties of making bonfires at mid- 

 summer, and burning the Beltain, or Baalfires at Mayday, were no doubt 

 relics of the fire worship, which was universally practised among the Celts. 

 In like manner, the custom of visiting, what were called holy wells, upon 

 particular days, and waking the well, once much observed in Cumberland, 

 most probably came from a belief in water spirits, a superstition which 

 was a part of the Scandinavian mythology. There were several holy 

 wells in the Lake District, at which annual meetings were once held. 

 Near Penrith were four such, which were visited in succession on the four 

 Sundays of May, on which occasions drinking tents and confectionary 

 stalls were erected, and various sports and diversions indulged in. 



