( 486 ) 
XXVII. — The Cumberland and Westmoreland Farm-Prize Com- 
petition, ISsiO. Bj Hekbekt J. Little, of Coldham Hall, 
Wisbech. 
It would be difficult to find a more interesting district than that 
assigned to the Farm Prize Competition in connection with the 
Carlisle Show. Besides the entire counties of Cumberland and 
Westmoreland, the hundred of Haltwhistle, in the western part of 
the county of Northumberland, was included in the plan, its 
natural features apparently qualifying it for competition with the 
rugged districts of the two counties associated with it. How- 
ever, no entry was made from this quarter, and it may be dismissed 
with this brief notice. But one need not go beyond the borders 
of the " Lake Counties" to find a country of surpassing interest. 
Their natural charms have long been recognised as superlative 
even in a country which boasts so much beauty as England. 
In no part can the hills which diversify the landscape with 
such justice be called mountains ; nowhere can such lovely 
lakes be seen ; and over no district has such a spirit of poetry 
been shed. But without these attractions, he would be a care- 
less traveller who forgot its connection with some of the most 
striking pages of English history ; who did not call to mind the 
ancient deeds of daring which along all this border-land were 
reflected in the minstrelsy of the times, or carried down by 
tradition from generation to generation. The graphic pictures 
given us in the pages of Macaulay and other historians enable 
us to recall to some slight extent the warlike scenes or tragedies 
to which for many a century these counties were subject, by 
reason of their neighbourhood to a bitter and relentless enemy ; 
and one at least of the farms visited bears tokens of the days when 
in very truth it was necessary that every man's house should be 
his castle. Another is close to the spot where Charles Edward's 
army, after his unsuccessful invasion of England, having to 
beat a hasty retreat, forded the Esk where it was breast-deep, 
towards the end of November. " There were at one time 
2000 men in the water, with only their heads and shoulders 
visible.* On reaching the opposite side the pipes struck up 
and the men danced reels until they were dry." Though in 
these peaceful times it may be difficult to realise the days 
when the sound of the horn across the vale, or the beacon-fire 
on the hill-top, again and again called every man to another 
turn at his traditional foes ; when bloodhounds were kept to 
track the marauder to his lair ; and when the knowledge of the 
* Murray, p. 101). 
