48 NATURE AND WOODCRAFT. 



CHAPTER V. 



ANOTHER TALE OP ARCADY — I. 



My Northern Arcady of 1 790 was unfortunately 

 placed. It was away from the well-trodden 

 tracks of commerce, and a hundred miles from 

 the nearest manufacturing centre. The folk of 

 the fell dales of a century ago lived out their 

 lives in a narrow way — lives that were bounded 

 by the hills of the valleys that had bred them. 



One of the yeomen, more cosmopolitan in his 

 ideas than his neighbours, and who had climbed 

 to the highest peak of the hill range, returned 

 and told his neighbours that England was 

 a bigger place than he had thought. Yet 

 these primitive fell folk were a fine race. 

 They had the virtues which attach to dwellers 

 in a hill country. On the whole, they were 

 thrifty, industrious, and independent. Most 



