INTRODUCTION 7 



services of pewter were in general use till they were displaced by earthen- 

 ware of the coarsest description. Candles were made from mutton 

 and bacon fat with the pith of the rush for wicks. " Even at this 

 date," wrote Briggs in 1822, " several poor people in the neighbour- 

 hood of the mosses, make a tolerable livelihood by peeling rushes for 

 candles, and making besoms and bears* of the peelings." They were 

 burnt in tall rudely-wrought iron sconces stuck into a heavy wooden 

 block, and were so constructed that they could be heightened or 

 lowered by a rough ratchet on the iron support. They are sought 

 after now as curios, as also the moulds in which the candles were 

 made. The girdle and brandreth were in regular use for baking the 

 unleavened bread — the girdle was an iron disc 26 inches in diameter, 

 and was placed upon the three-legged iron brandreth which was eight 

 inches high and thirteen inches wide at the rim ; this was placed over 

 the open hearth-fire and upon it the haver-bread or clap-cake, as it was 

 called, made from the meal of the black oats, was baked in quantities 

 to serve the entire family a month or more, a whole day being devoted 

 to the work. The bread was stored away in a large oak chest, rudely 

 carved with the initials of the family and the date when it was made, 

 which usually stood in the kitchen opposite the fire where it could be 

 kept quite dry. 



Dried turf or peat carried from the mosses in halts was universally 

 burnt. The price of coal made its use prohibitive and what little was 

 used in the southern divisions of the county was carried in sacks from 

 Ingleton in Yorkshire on the galloways' backs, except what was 

 brought in the few smaU vessels that made Milnthorpe their port of 

 call. In the northern part of the county it was brought from Stain- 

 more to Appleby in smaU carts for the Saturday market. 



Many of the peat fires were kept burning from generation to 

 generation, especially on the lonely hiU-farms, where neighbours were 

 miles apart. The making of a peat-fire required no little skUl, the red 

 embers were first shaped into a pyramid on the centre of the hearth, 

 round which half-peats were placed in a circle and outside these again 

 whole peats were stood on end and finally the small broken pieces of 

 peat were thrown into the centre ' ant fire loos.' The fire was seldom 

 allowed to go out on account of the trouble of rekindling it — the 

 process being a long one with the old flint and steel and tinder-box 



* Mats. 



