134 



VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



living in that county were then distinguished by a 

 marked difference of habits, manners, and character, 

 from their neighbours. A remnant of these pecu- 

 liarities is even still to be found, notwithstanding the 

 singularities of the inhabitants, and local circum- 

 stances, combined to render this a favourable situation 

 for the introduction and improvement of the potato. 



The land in Lancashire is rather poor, and the 

 climate rainy, so that wheat, with even the present 

 improved system of husbandry, cannot be raised 

 to very great advantage. Oats were consequently 

 there, as in Ireland and the Lowlands of Scotland, 

 the staple production. The Mechanics, who worked 

 chiefly in iron and brass, were all cottagers, who 

 followed their respective employments in the winter, 

 and raised food for themselves upon their little 

 patches of land in the summer. The population of 

 Lancashire then bore a great resemblance to the 

 cotters of Ireland. They were, however, more in- 

 genious in handicraft works, and still more resem- 

 bled the manufacturing peasantry in the centre and 

 south of Scotland, who grow the whole or the 

 greater part of their food upon their cottage lands. 

 Even the education of their children was formerly 

 often obtained out of the produce of their little field; 

 the school-master went ' thigging,' that is, collecting 

 a portion of produce from every cottager, in propor- 

 tion to the wealth of the individual, and to the 

 number of pupils he might have contributed to the 

 school-room. The poor likewise were relieved by 

 a voluntary contribution of produce, and it is pro- 

 bable that this system worked as well as that of 

 a compulsory rate. Even in the smaller burghs of 

 Scotland, and in the villages where the lands are held 

 on feu or perpetual lease, the same system was, and 

 in many places still is, followed. The portioners, 

 as they are called, are allowed a house in the village, 



