io Life and Times of " The Druid!' 



Trade is that small holdings have disap- 

 peared under its influence, together with 

 those fine specimens of yeomen farmers who 

 were once the strength and pride of Eng- 

 land, and of whom Dr. Lonsdale wrote, in 

 i860, that "many a canny homestead, where 

 yeomen had for centuries held their own and 

 taught their sons and grandsons the proud 

 traditions of their race, no longer affords 

 shelter to the ' weel-kennt folk of ither days.' 

 Even the names of the founders of these 

 time-honoured families are forgotten, and in 

 many rural districts this disappearance or 

 obliteration of names awakens reflections of a 

 by no means agreeable kind. Among many 

 changes affecting men and interests in the 

 northern counties of England, none is more 

 marked, none sadder, than that arising from 

 the ceaseless acquisition of real estate, and 

 the absorption of small holdings by large 

 landed proprietors, who are scarcely known 

 by sight to the people among whom they 

 live." 



How much "The Druid" owed to the 

 brave and rugged character of the simple, 

 manly, and truthful Cumbrians among whom 



