PREFACE 
OR a long time workers in scientific and archeological research 
have been waiting for a History of Cumberland which would 
cover the whole field of local investigation, and aim at a more 
complete and accurate account of the north-western county than 
it was possible to give when the older histories were compiled. Valuable 
additions have been made to our knowledge of the natural history and 
archeology of the district by the labours during the past thirty years of 
the Cumberland Association for the Advancement of Literature and 
Science and the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Arche- 
ological Society. But the scientific observations and antiquarian researches 
of the various workers remain scattered throughout the numerous publi- 
cations of these societies. Before the materials thus collected could be 
used, they required to be sifted and arranged by experienced specialists 
with a view to supervising the work of the local student and of centring 
interest on the characteristic features of the district. For the first 
volume of this History the editors have had the co-operation of men 
who are well acquainted with the county and have taken a prominent 
part in the work of these societies in the several departments with which 
their names are identified. 
In former histories of Cumberland no systematic effort worthy of 
the name has been made to examine the physical features of the county 
or to treat it as a floral or faunal area. With the exception of Hutch- 
inson, who has recorded the results of some excavations undertaken in 
the eighteenth century, the archeology of the district has been a sealed 
book to the older historians of the county. Attempts to reduce to order 
the confused evidences of prehistoric Man, or to classify the earthworks 
and early lapidary remains with which Cumberland abounds, have been 
of a very meagre description. Even now our knowledge must not be 
considered complete either in the flora and fauna or in the archeology. 
The less popular orders in the fauna are here as in other counties inade- 
quately studied and recorded ; and great as has been the activity in 
recent years in the field of archeological research, much has been lost 
through carelessness in the past, and the spade has not been used with 
the frequency and thoroughness that the importance of the subject 
requires. 
The editors regret that in one particular the chronological sequence 
of the contributions to this volume has been broken. The section on 
Romano-British Cumberland has had to be held over for the second 
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