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it was worth while to put them in the savings bank ; and the very fact of 

 their having an account there, led them into habits of sobriety and 

 economy, and gave them feelings of independence and self-respect, which 

 they had not had before. With few exceptions, too, they are now able 

 to read and write; and availing themselves of the increased facilities for 

 travelling, they go more from home, and are consequently as a class 

 much better informed, and more civilized in every way. There are still, 

 of course, specimens of the old boorish type to be found here and there, 

 but they are getting fewer year by year, and will no doubt in time 

 disappear altogether. 



The midsummer rejoicings, once general throughout England, were 

 partly kept up in the north, till the beginning of the present century. 

 In Hutchinson's history of Cumberland, 1794, we learn, that at Cum- 

 whitten, the festival was then celebrated with bonfires and dancing ; and 

 Sullivan tells us, that the same custom was observed at Melmerby several 

 years later still. At Michaelmas it was the custom among our forefathers 

 to kill their cattle out of the pastures, for their winter provisions ; and in 

 October they brewed their ale for the ensuing year. There are other 

 local customs, such as clippings, shepherd's feasts, and kurn suppers, 

 which are still partly observed, and therefore do not require much 

 explanation. 



Forty or fifty years since, sheep shearing time, which extended over 

 the second and third weeks of July, was quite a festive season among the 

 vales. Every flock master made a clipping, to which he invited all his 

 neighbours and friends ; and every housewife made a brewing of extra 

 strong ale, called clipping drink, for the occasion, and to it the dalesmen 

 always did ample justice before they went home. The shepherd's feasts 

 do not date very far back, being simply meetings of shepherds from the 

 surrounding vales, which are held at some particular inns. To these 

 meetings, all the stray sheep picked up on the mountains during the 

 autumn are brought, and after being claimed by their respective owners, 

 a supper is provided by the host, and the evening is spent in conviviality. 

 The kurn suppers of the district correspond to the harvest homes of 

 other parts of England, and the name is another example of the way in 



