when he could get it.' His mother lived with him, and they 

 toiled on these hill-sides, making a livelihood chiefly by cut- 

 ting and burning the common brackens, from which they 

 obtained a residue which was used in the manufacture of 

 soap. Their graves are said to be discernible near the old 

 * hog-house.' This was the estate afterwards given by Charles 

 I. to Huddlestone Phillipson, for his services in the civil wars. 

 The valley now contains a string of hamlets, — Town Head, 

 High Green, Crag, High Fold, and Town End ; and its farm- 

 steads and outbuildings show some of the most curious speci- 

 mens of ancient edifices that are to be seen in the district. 

 Among the curiosities of the village is a little inn bearing the 

 extraordinary sign of ' The Mortal Man.' It owes its name 

 to an old sign-board of which it formerly boasted. The 

 board bore the portraits of two well-known inhabitants of 

 the valley with this verse between them : — 



* O ! Mortal Man that liv'st on bread, 

 How comes thy nose to be so red? ' 



* Thou silly ass that looks so pale, 



It comes of drinking Birkett's ale ! * 



This board was afterwards removed to Cartmel, and is now 

 defaced by the weather. But the author of this rhyme was 

 not the only poet who was a native of Troutbeck. The 

 uncle of the painter Hogarth lived here, and was famous for 

 his songs. They were mostly of a satirical nature, his sub- 

 jects being furnished by the pecuHarities of his neighbours. 

 The father of the painter also lived here, and the house is 

 pointed out, being one of the group at the Crag. The vil- 

 lage is almost entirely composed of old houses, most of 

 which have undergone little change and few repairs, — the 

 ancestral homes of the ' statesmen,' who still exist here in 

 unusual force. 



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