Wi' crackin', an' jwokin', an' braggin', 



An' fratchin' an' feightin' an' aw, 

 Sec glorious fun an' divarsion 



Was ne'er seen in castle or ha'. 



Sing hey for a snug clay biggin, 



An' lasses that like a bit sport ; 

 Wi' friends an' plenty to gie them. 



We'll laugh at King George an' his court. 



In the |Lake Country, stone and slate being plentiful, no other 

 building materials seem to have been used. The houses were of 

 rude construction, being built (as indeed they are still) of unhewn 

 stone, but with far less care about jointing, and fewer "through 

 stones" than are thought necessary now. In the oldest houses in 

 the more remote dales, no mortar seems to have been used — 

 probably from the difficulty of obtaining lime, for in some instances 

 clay has been used as a substitute. They were roofed with rough 

 slates, nearly as thick as flag-stones, and said not to have been in 

 all cases taken from quarries, but to have been split from stones 

 lying on the surface. The timber used in the construction of the 

 houses was all heart of oak. Doors, floors, and window frames 

 were all of the same material. The beams were made of whole 

 trees roughly squared, while the smaller rafters and joists were 

 split. The carpenters of those days used very few nails, wooden 

 pins being made to serve the same purpose. In houses of the 

 usual size, there were seldom more than three rooms on the ground 

 floor, viz., the dwelling apartment, or house-part, the dairy, and 

 the parlour. The parlour was generally used as the bedroom of 

 the master and mistress. The house-part was a sort of best 

 kitchen, and was the ordinary sitting-room of the family. There 

 was frequently an out-kitchen, called the down-house, in which 

 washing, baking, brewing, etc., were carried on. Long after the 

 use of coal and fire-grates had become general throughout England, 

 our dalesmen still continued to burn peats and wood upon the 

 open hearth. Indeed it was not until nearly half of the present 

 century had elapsed, that railway communication making coal 

 cheaper, and the increased value of labour making peat dearer, 



