Farming of Cumberland. 



245 



soon finds his store of discarded implements a serious item of 

 dormant capital, and a consequent drawback on the profits. 

 The small farmer is thus disadvantaged by being compelled to 

 work his farm with a lesser variety of implements of an inferior 

 class ; and, in addition, has usually to meet the greater com- 

 petition for his small holding by the promise of a higher rent 

 in proportion than the larger tenant pays. 



Without enumerating the smaller implements used on the 

 farms, it may be sufficient to state that the farmers appear to 

 be as deeply imbued with the onward spirit of the times as 

 those of any county can be ; and very many miss no opportunity 

 of visiting the neighbouring agricultural exhibitions, and particu- 

 larly the Royal Agricultural Society's show, when it is held in any 

 of the northern counties. At those places they observe and com- 

 pare, and, such as can- afford, purchase whatever appears suitable 

 for the operations of their several farms, and thus become possessed 

 of implements equal and similar to the best in the kingdom. 



Horse Trappings and Harness. — On inquiry into the ancient 

 husbandry of the county, we find the accoutrements of the farm- 

 horse to have been of a most primitive character. There is 

 no record of the kind of harness used when the legislature 

 found it necessary to pass "An Act agaynst plowinge by the 

 taile." * And until the cessation of hostilities between England 

 and France, w^hen the border farmers acquired some security for 

 reaping what they might sow, harness for other than the pur- 

 poses of war and foray was not in demand. 



Hemp was a material always in request for carrying out the 

 arbitrary sentences of the Lords of the Marches and of the feudal 

 barons of the county, and, in the absence of foreign commerce, 

 was a necessary article of cultivation. Its uses in this depart- 

 ment would naturally suggest its adaptation to the purposes of 

 husbandry, where strength and flexibility were required. Some 

 of the domestic arts, such as spinning and weaving, were neces- 

 sarily carried on by the females during the disturbed periods, 

 and continued till long after the men found leisure to devote 

 their time to the cultivation of the ground. Thus trappings of 

 hempen girthing came into use along wdth the " tummel-cars.'' 



The head-gear of the horse was a hempen or straw halter ; 

 the " bragham " (neck collar, pronounced braff ham) was a 

 doubled sheepskin with the wool outside, or of plaited straw ; 

 the cart-saddle likewise of straw, or a sheepskin bag stuffed 

 with straw — all produced and made up at home ; and thus the 

 horse was rigged out for the cart, and yoked at the shoulder by 

 a pair of " widdys " (withes or willows), connecting with the 

 shafts the heavy wooden hames, which were prevented from 



* 10 aud 11 Car. L, Sess. 4, c. 15, 1634. 



