28 WOODCUTTERS. 



Fell above a century ago. They were so intent 

 on their wood-cutting that they spent Sunday in 

 cooking their food for the whole week. They 

 ate little but oatmeal porridge; and, when that 

 fell short, they tried Friar Tuck's ostensible diet 

 of dried peas and hard beans. As they grew old, 

 they began to feel the need of domestic help. 

 Said the one to the other, "thou raun out and 

 tait a wife." — " Yes ! " was the reply ; " if thear 

 be a hard job, thou olus sets yan tult." The 

 thing was accomplished, however; and when the 

 old fellows were still chopping away at upwards 

 of eighty, rain or shine, ill or well, there was the 

 wife in the dwelling, and children to help. The 

 brothers left considerable property; but it went the 

 way of miser's money ; and there are no Dodgsons 

 now in Cartmel Fell. 



All the way to Furness, there are specimens of 

 roads and lanes which are locally called Ore gates 

 [ways] from their being constructed from the slag 

 and refuse of the iron-ore formerly brought into 

 the peninsula to be .smelted, on account of the 

 abundance of charcoal there. There are few objects 

 more picturesque, to this da} r , than the huts of 

 the woodcutters, who remain on a particular spot 

 till their work is done. Upon piled stems of trees 

 heather is heaped to make a shaggy thatch ; and 

 when the smoke is oozing out, thin and blue, from 

 the hole in the centre, or the children are about 

 the fire in front, where the great pot is boiling, 

 the sketcher cannot but stop and dash down the 

 scene in his book. The children will say he is 

 " spying fancies," — as they say of every one who 

 sketches, botanizes, or in any way explores ; and, 



