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many of the farm-houses now are turned into cottages or out-houses, 

 while others lie in ruins ; from whence it may be inferred that the 

 tenements (or holdings) must, at one time, have been much smaller 

 and more numerous than at present. That this was actually the 

 case, in one instance, at least, we have direct proof, for it is on 

 record that Queen Catherine, wife of Charles II., held thirty-nine 

 customary tenements in Grasmere. I have also ascertained that 

 at the beginning of the present century there were as many as 

 twenty -six "statesmen" in Grasmere — men who each kept a few 

 cows, and a small stock of sheep on the common. Such was 

 probably about the number of "statesmen" in the vale when the 

 poet Gray passed through it. In his description of Grasmere, the 

 poet mentions that "not a single red tile — no gentleman's flaring 

 house or garden, breaks in upon the repose of this little unsuspected 

 paradise ; but all is peace, rusticity, and happy poverty, in its 

 neatest and most becoming attire." Could the poet now re-visit 

 Grasmere, he would hardly be able to recognize it. Of gentle- 

 men's houses there are an abundance, and but one "statesman" 

 properly so called remains. But, perhaps, the change which Gras- 

 mere more than any other of our mountain valleys, has undergone 

 in a comparatively short period, is most strikingly illustrated by 

 comparing the Grasmere of to-day with Grasmere as depicted by 

 Wordsworth, who lived there for some years about the beginning 

 of the century. He describes it as a perfect republic of shepherds 

 and agriculturists, among whom the plough of each man was 

 confined to the maintenance of his own family, or the occasional 

 accommodation of his neighbour. Two or three cows furnished 

 each family with milk and cheese. The chapel was the only edifice 

 that presided over these dwellings — the supreme head of this pure 

 commonwealth, the members of which existed in the midst of a 

 powerful empire, like an ideal society, or an organized community, 

 whose constitution was imposed and regulated by the mountains 

 which protected it. Owing to the smallness of the estates, there 

 was not sufficient employment in farm work at all times for a 

 "statesman" and his family, and carding, spinning, and weaving 

 formed the employment of the winter months, and of any spare 



