278 



Farming of Cumberland. 



been often chosen for convenient access to the common or peat- 

 moss. 



When the commons were inclosed, houses, before conveniently 

 placed as to roads — such as the period then afforded — were some 

 of them found at less convenient distances from the new ones. 

 A spring of water may have determined the locality of some ; 

 and shelter, or a view, may have influenced the situation of others. 

 In few instances do we find the centre of the farm selected, where 

 time and distance might best be economised. To be near a 

 public road is no trifling advantage, but a greater still is to be in 

 the centre of the every-day action. 



Fuel and Peat- Mosses. — Coal, which is found in several parts 

 of the county, and is now easily procured, has almost everywhere 

 superseded the use of peat as fuel ; wood is partially used where 

 it is plentiful and coal scarce. No land which at a reasonable 

 cost can be laid dry enough for agricultural purposes is now 

 reserved for peats. 



It is recorded in an ancient court-book belonging to the manor 

 of Derwentwater, dated about three centuries ago, that a tenant 

 named Wren was fined 135. 4c?. for having two fires on at the 

 same time in one "toft" (house), the custom of the manor then 

 not permitting the tenants the use of more than one fire at a time 

 in the same house, as a means of preventing the undue consump- 

 tion of the peat-bogs. 



Scaleby Moss,* vv^hich till lately supplied most of Carlisle with 

 peats, is now nearly exhausted, and is being converted into arable 

 land. 



In 1771 an eruption of Sol way Moss occurred during a dark 

 November night, at its south-eastern edge, overwhehning by a 

 torrent of black mud upwards of 500 acres of land belonging to 

 the Netherby estate, stated to be the "pride of the country" in 

 its agriculture, and the residence and maintenance of twenty-eight 

 families, all of whom lost their whole possessions by it, and had 

 the world to meet anew without a penny. Their farms were 

 covered several feet deep, their houses and furniture overwhelmed 

 by the weight, their cattle and crops smothered and destroyed, 

 and the face of the country so changed that when daylight came 

 the bewildered fugitives could not recognise their own habitations 

 or farms. This amazing mass of peat-earth was removed in the 

 course of a year or two, by a simple yet ingenious method of 



* On the 25th May, 1845, the skeleton of a woman, evidently of ancient times, 

 was found by a peat- cutter in Scaleby Moss, imbedded eight or nine feet in the 

 peat. It was wrapped in what appeared to be the skin of a deer, wliich was 

 formed like a garment, and had evidently been worn, as the hair was rubbed off 

 in several places. It was composed of different pieces, united by seams, which 

 had been executed with considerable neatness. The line black hair, wliich was 

 quite as long as that worn by the females of the present day, was much admired. 



