28 



I.— AREA. 



WESTMORLAND was surveyed in 1768 by Ainslie, and a map of 

 this survey was published in 1770 by T. Jeff eries, Geographer to 

 His Majesty, on a scale of an inch to a mile ; from this map, by weighing 

 a piece of paper. Bishop Watson, of Calgarth, estimated the area of 

 the county to be 540,160 statute acres, which estimate was accepted 

 by Pringle in his report to the then Board of Agriculture in 1794. In 

 1811, according to the trigonometrical survey, the number of statute 

 acres in the county was 488,320, of which 60,000 were in tillage and 

 190,000 in pasturage, the whole being of the annual value of £221,556. 

 Mannex gives the area of the county in 1849, 487,680 acres, and the 

 total annual value of land as assessed for the poor rates, £221,054, and 

 the annual value of land per statute acre, 9/-. The first Agricultural 

 Returns were made in 1866, and the area of the county was taken at 

 485,432 acres, and in 1868 Webster gave the acreage as 500,904 acres, 

 of which fells and commons accounted for 147,025 acres, hill pastures 

 and allotments 74,420, rough pastures and low allotments 33,793, and 

 lakes, tarns, etc., 8,518 acres. Webster gives the average rental of 

 land per acre (excluding towns and railways) in 1868 about 14s. 6d. per 

 acre, and of the ancient inclosed lands, commons excluded, as nearly 

 as possible 20s. per acre. In 1880, according to the Agricultural 

 Returns, the area of the county was 500,906 acres, which was 

 increased in 1896 owing to an alteration of this boundary to 503,073 

 acres. Since 1900 according to these returns the area of land and 

 water in the county is 505,330 acres, 497,100 being land and 8,230 

 acres water. 



The correct area of the county together with that of each of the 

 Civil Parishes as last revised by the Ordnance Survey in 1896-97 is 

 given in the following table : — 



