Farm-Prize Competition, 1880. 
521 
this outlay. Good fences have been planted, and are tended 
with much care : coppice and whins have been gradually removed 
from the "Park "land, and its quality improved by liming and 
draining. Meadows have been limed and dunged ; and last, 
but not least, good watering places have been made in every 
field, a running spring having been tapped, and an iron trough 
inserted at Mr. Lowthian's own expense. I must not except the 
gates from this category of improvements. They are all capital, 
made of oak, well painted, and in thoroughly good order, many 
of them hung on massive Penrith-stone posts, which must be 
almost everlasting in their wear. Most of these numerous 
improvements have been carried out at Mr. Lowthian's expense, 
but some of them with the help of the landlord, who must have 
an equal gratification with his tenant in feeling that their mutual 
efforts have been successful, and that they have won a victory in 
a worthy cause, by the silent and peaceful subjugation of the 
forces of Nature. I will only just add that the July visit of the 
Judges found excellent crops and great cleanliness of land, and 
that the stock also was in capital condition. The pastures were 
especially admirable for their fine sward and thick growth of 
clovers — caused no doubt, in some measure, by the abundant 
application of lime ; and as a mark of the great improvements 
carried out here, and of the capital stock and general system of 
management, the second prize was unhesitatingly awarded to 
jNIr. Lovvthian. 
Mr. Wm. Atkinson's Faem, Burneside Hx\.ll, 
Westmoreland. 
Recommended for Third Prize, Class I. 
Situation. — On leaving Kendal the Windermere railway as- 
cends the valley of the little river Kent, and about two miles 
from that town reaches the village of Burneside, situated just 
where the valley of Long Sleddale joins that of the Kent. Here, 
in a bright, verdant, and tolerably open country, is Burneside 
Hall, the farm I am about to describe ; but I must first say a 
word about the house, which is an exceedingly interesting resi- 
dence, retaining several features which denote its former im- 
portance, though Time has made havoc with its structure. 
Ancient Manor. — The first mention of this manor of Burne- 
side seems to be in the reign of Edward L,* when its lord was 
* I am entirely indebted for these particulars to a Lecture on the history of 
this house, rt-ad by the Rev. G. F. Weston, Vicar of Crosby, Bavensworth, in 1867, 
to the Members of the Kendal Literary and Scientitic Institution. 
