220 



Farming of Cumberland. 



go out of the county in search of mowing or harvest-work ; thus, 

 some of the young men of Bewcastle and other neighbouring 

 parishes go over to the earlier harvests of Durham and Northum- 

 berland, and return in time to share in the labours of their own 

 corn-fields. Others, from the small farms in the mountain vales, 

 try their luck in the great hay-harvests of Craven ; and not a 

 few go from the bases of the western mountains to the early 

 harvests of Furness, where their extraordinary exertions have in 

 some seasons been recompensed with from Ss. to Is. a day, and 

 victuals in abundance.* Of late years the wages have been 

 less tempting, seldom averaging more than ?>s. per day, with 

 meat, &c. Since more attention has been paid to draining and 

 early and regular sowing, there has been less difference in the 

 period of harvest between the naturally rich lands of Furness 

 and the improved lands of Cumberland ; and it not unfrequently 

 happens now that a loeek or so is the only difference^ instead of 

 two or three weeks, as formerly. 



The next to describe are the occupiers of from 40 to 100 

 acres, whose pursuits are purely agricultural. 



In this class are comprised both tenant-farmers and the race 

 of men so greatly prized as the stay of the country in genera- 

 tions gone by — the Cumberland " statesmen,"! or rather the 

 " estatesmen." These have been described as the contented 

 race who had no ambition or emulation to spur them to step out 

 of the beaten track of their fathers. But this description is now 

 altogether erroneous. It is from the savings of this class that 

 their younger sons have been educated, and spread over the 

 kingdom as clergymen and in other professions, several of whom 

 have enjoyed honours and dignities in a ratio which few other 

 counties could boast of. The successful and wealthy inhabitants 

 of London, Liverpool, Manchester, and other commercial and 

 manufacturing towns, are not sparingly intermixed with the off- 

 shoots from the vales of Cumberland ; and the British colonies, 

 in all parts of the world, have numbers of the progeny of the 

 Cumberland " statesmen " among them, as successful in their 

 vocations as the emigrants from any other country ; from almost 

 every parish of this county has the spirit of adventure sent them 

 forth ; the army and navy have had their share too, and these 

 are some of the causes of the comparatively small increase of 

 population in the rural parishes. Farms of the sizes above referred 

 to are by far more numerous than any other all over the county, 

 but there are particular districts where none of them are found. 



* No ale or beer is given to Cumberland labourers, except in rare instances in 

 harvest. 



+ In a few of the north-eastern parishes (Bewcastle for instance) these statesmen 

 are called " lairds." 



