PREFACE Vll 



Mr. Macpherson has thought it necessary to impose upon 

 another the task of defining ' Lakeland.' 



'Lakeland/ for the purposes of this book, comprehends 

 the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, and that part 

 of Lancashire known as Lancashire Over-Sands, or Lan- 

 cashire North of the Sands : it is, in fact, the present diocese 

 of Carlisle plus the parish of Alston, which, though in the 

 county of Cumberland, is part of the diocese of Newcastle. 

 The most northerly point of Lakeland is the Scotch Knowe, 

 otherwise called Lamyford, situate on the Kershope Water, 

 in an angle between the counties of Northumberland and 

 Eoxburgh, the one English, the other Scotch. With the 

 exception of four miles, defined by a bank of earth between 

 the rivers Esk and Sark, the whole of the western boundary 

 of Lakeland is water-washed : by fresh water for a compara- 

 tively short way, that is, starting from Scotch Knowe, by the 

 rivers Kershope, Liddell, Esk, Sark, and Esk again. From 

 the mouth of the Esk the Solway becomes the boundary as 

 far as the lofty cliffs of the North Head of St. Bees, the most 

 westerly point of the district, At this point the 'running,' 

 if one may so call it, is taken up by the Irish Sea, as far as 

 the south end of Walney Island, the most southerly part of 

 the district : round the corner of Walney Island, Lakeland is 

 bounded along one half of its southern border by the waters 

 of Morecambe Bay. This long line of sea-coast, nigh 100 

 miles long, is broken by many estuaries : the estuaries of 

 Esk and Eden, of Waver and Wampool, of Irt, Mite, and 

 Esk, of Levens, and of Kent, and of other minor streams, 

 whose sands, creeks, and marshes, feeding and sheltering 

 innumerable flocks of sea-fowl, are happy hunting-grounds 

 alike for the sportsman and for the naturalist. Great 

 changes have at various times taken place in these estuaries : 

 thus the joint estuary of Irt, Mite, and Esk, once, in Boman 

 and later times, a noble harbour, is now so silted up on the bar, 



