EDUCATION IN THE DALES. 167 



perfect level, to which the mountains come down 

 with a sheer sweep, is partly divided off into fields ; 

 and a few farmhouses are set doWn among the 

 fields, on the bends of the gushing and gurgling 

 stream. There is a chapel, — the humblest of cha- 

 pels, — with eight pews, and three windows in three 

 sides, and a skylight over the pulpit. There is 

 also a school. The schoolmaster is entertained on 

 " whittlegate " terms ; that is, he boards at the 

 farmhouses in turn. An old man told us that the 

 plan answers. " He gets them on very well," said 

 he ; " and particularly in the spelling. He thinks 

 if they can spell, they can do all the rest." Such 

 are the original conclusions arrived at in Wastdale 

 Head. It struck us that the children were dirtier 

 than even in other vales, though the houses are so 

 clean that you might eat your dinner off the board 

 or the floor. But the state of the children's skin 

 and hair is owing to superstition in all these dales ; 

 and the schoolmaster is the one who should cure 

 the evil. A young lady who kindly undertook to 

 wash and dress the infant of a sick woman, but 

 who was not experienced in the process, exclaimed 

 at the end, " O dear ! I forgot its hands and arms. 

 I must wash them." The mother expressed great 

 horror, and said that "if the child's arms were 

 washed before it was six months old, it would be a 

 thief j " and, added she, pathetically, "I would not 

 like that." The hair and nails must not be cut for 

 a much longer time, for fear of a like result. The 

 Yorkshire people put the alternative of dirty and 

 clean rather strongly in their proverb, " Better hev 

 a bairn wi a mucky feace than wash its noase off : " 

 but the Cumberland folk view the matter more in 



