INTRODUCTION. 



Physical Situated on the borders of the two sister kingdoms, having 



features. 



its shores washed by the Solway and the Irish Sea, the County 



of Cumberland includes within its area of 1,515 square miles 

 a rare diversity of physical features, bleak moorlands, lowland 

 mosses, and upland tarns blending then- influences to coimter- 

 act the grave disadvantages imposed upon the county by its 

 westerly position. The total area of Cumberland may be 

 divided into three nearly equal portions of arable land, of 

 grazings, and of waste, the latter com})rehending such ex- 

 tensive woodlands as Penrith Beacon, Barron and Coombe 

 Wood, and the plantations of the Netherby estate. The 

 Pennine hills constitute the eastern boundary. About twelve 

 miles south and west of Carlisle, the fells of Caldbeck rise 

 gently from the Cumbrian plain, while behind them tower the 

 massive proportions of Skiddaw (3,058 ft.), and a host of 

 brother giants, containing in their generally well-wooded 

 vales a cluster of lakes, of which Ulleswater (nine miles in 

 length) is the largest, though the reedy Bassenthwaite is most 

 favoured by wildfowl. The becks and rivers of Cumberland 

 are numerous, including the Duddon, Derwent, Esk, Irt, Mite, 

 Lyne, Irthing, Caldew, Petteril, but especially the rocky Eden, 

 which, springing in Westmorland, flows steadily northward, 

 to irrigate an undidating tract extending from the base of the 

 Pennine range to the confines of the lake district. Between 

 the western shores of Cumberland and the higher grounds, 

 there extends a belt of low ground from two to five miles in 



