ANOTHER TALE OF AHCADY. 69 



it home. The increased demand for wheat 

 encouraged the hill farmers to pursue the more 

 modern methods of cultivating it ; and though 

 the experiment has everywhere succeeded, thin 

 cakes of oatmeal without leaven are even now 

 daily eaten in quantities in almost all the houses 

 of the mountain dales. It is upon this and oat- 

 meal porridge that the famous wrestlers of 

 Cumbria are reared, and at present there seems 

 but little likelihood of its disuse. 



And now, to come to another side of the 

 subject — to more recent times. It is hardly 

 remarkable to those who know the 'Statesman 

 class, that its descendants of to-day have suffered 

 less from recent agricultural depression than 

 others. And this, perhaps, is owing to the 

 sterner virtues and natural shrewdness which 

 are among the characteristics of the dalesfolk. 

 At the same time, it must be understood that 

 nearly all the farmers' sons in the north go out 

 to work as farm servants ; and it may at once be 

 said that the northern farm labourer is nothing 

 akin to his southern brother. It is probably no 

 exaggeration to say that he is superior to him 

 in every way in which comparison is possible. 

 The southerner seems unable to lift himself 



