INTRODUCTION 3 



feared, and the still larger ones, the old manor-houses, now almost 

 entirely occupied by tenant farmers, still shew something of their 

 former strength by remains of dilapidated towers and battlements. 



The houses of the statesmen and farmers were of a very poor 

 character, being built of rough unhewn stone, long and low and often 

 joined on to the end of the farm buildings ; the whole range of buildings 

 was covered with slates, in those parts of the county where they could 

 be obtained, " rudely taken from the quarry before the present art 

 of cutting them was understood," "and therefore rough and uneven 

 in their surface, so that both coverings and sides of the houses have 

 furnished places of rest for the seeds of lichens, mosses and flowers ; " 

 the slates were hung on laths by means of oak pegs and plastered on 

 the inside ; in other parts of the county where slates were not obtain- 

 able the houses were thatched with heather or rushes according to 

 their situation. In Ravenstonedale the people were not allowed to 

 cut rushes for thatching before " the first Tuesday after St. Bartholo- 

 mew's Day, at 12 oclock in the day " under a fine of 3s. 4d. 



The price of roofing slate per rood of forty-two and one-fourth 

 square yards at Kendal in 1786 was £1 3s. 4d. for the coarsest sort to 

 £1 15s. for the finest. 



Near the house were a few trees, sycamores or tall Scotch firs, 

 against one of which near the door a cheese-press was often to be 

 seen, with a small enclosed garden near by for the pot-herbs and a 

 sheltered nook for the bees. The sanitary arrangements were by no 

 means satisfactory, the door often opening direct upon the midden- 

 stead, subjecting the families of new tenants to a seasoning fever — 

 remonstrance or counsel was useless, for " Wha iver heard o' cow- 

 muck making a body badly? " 



The kitchen in these farms was the principal room in the house, 

 in height so low that a taU person could scarcely stand upright, except 

 between the big oak beams which crossed the ceiling : the floor was 

 covered with large square-shaped thick slate flags — 



" Smooth blue slabs of mountain stone 

 With which the parlour-floor, in simplest guise 

 Of pastoral homesteads, had been long inlaid ; " 



or it was paved with cobbles from the nearest beck, or where these were 



