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entirely to the products of their farms. They consumed a large 

 quantity of animal food ; and as sheep and cattle were in the best 

 condition for slaughtering in autumn, it was then that the dalesmen 

 stocked their wide chimneys with a supply of meat for the winter 

 and spring. No animals were slaughtered in spring, for having 

 been on short commons all the winter, they were too lean to kill 

 for food. It must be borne in mind that oilcake and "Thorley's 

 food for cattle" were not yet in existence. Tea, coffee, and 

 wheaten bread, now so common, were then little known in our 

 dales; almost the only bread our ancestors ate was "haver-bread," 

 or oatcake; and their "poddish," a most important part of their 

 diet, was but the same meal boiled instead of baked. They 

 brewed their own ale, and drank it at nearly every meal. Such, 

 together with milk, butter, and cheese, the produce of their own 

 dairies, was the food of our forefathers. No doubt they lived well 

 in their way. After tea, coffee, and sugar came into more general 

 use, it is said that an old dalesman remarked that " he wonder't 

 what t' warl wad cum teu efter a bit, when fvvoks noo-a-days 

 couldn't git the'r breakfast wi'out hevin' stuff frae beath East an' 

 West Indies." 



Until about the middle of last century, the roads of the country 

 were in a wretched state. Instead of wheeled carriages, pack- 

 horses, and in some cases sledges, were used for conveying 

 merchandise from one place to another. There is an old man 

 now living in Grasmere whose grandmother could remember the 

 present church bells being brought to Grasmere on sledges by the 

 old road over the top of White Moss, then the main road between 

 Ambleside and Grasmere. Then there is the old story about the 

 first lime ever taken into Borrowdale. It was, so the story goes, 

 conveyed thither in a sack, on the back of a horse, and when the 

 man in charge of it got as far as Grange Bridge, a heavy thunder- 

 shower came on, and the lime began to smoke and grow hot in 

 the sack ; to stop this, he poured some water on it (which he 

 brought in his hat from the beck), which increased the smoke so 

 much that, thinking there must be some devilry in smoke which 

 was increased by water, he took fright, threw his load into the 

 beck, and galloped home. 



