8 
The Farming of Westmoi land. 
Leon drained, limed, and kept in pasture, tluir present value 
Avould have been tlireelold what it is. 
It is noticeable that many decent patches of land on the open 
commons have been ploughed at some period, and there is 
scarcely an acre even of the best meadows and pastures that has 
escaped the plough at some time or other. 
One reason of this, in addition to the tempting prices above 
referred to, was doubtless the defective internal communication, 
Avhich caused every farmer to grow grain to provide bread for 
liis family, otherwise unobtainable. Till within a comparatively 
recent period there were no carriage-roads, and all the traffic of 
the county was carried on by pack-horses. If the traveller looks 
underneath the present bridges, he will hnd that most of them 
have been widened once or twice, the original width being not 
calculated for carriages. In those times the farmer manufactured 
much of his own clothing from his own wool, and it is not long 
since the spinning-wheel disappeared from the farm-houses. 
Many of the rural roads go right over the hills in an appa- 
rently unaccountable manner. When pack-horses only were in 
request, a steep hill was not of the consequence it ultimately 
proved for carriages, and the base of the hill, along which the 
road might have gone level, was then probably an impassable 
swamp. 
Pringle's report in 1797 says, "A large proportion of the 
land is occupied by 'estatesmen' of from 10/. to 50/. a-year, and 
the farms in general are so small that it is rare to meet with 
one of 100/. rent, though there are some of 200/. or 250/." 
A wonderful change has since taken place ; the old class of 
" estatesmen " are nearly extinct, although a few remain, prin- 
cipally in the mountain dales. The ancient small tenements, 
which had descended from father to son for many generations, 
l)ecame burdened with charges to younger members ; often the 
family was too large to be sustained on the limited area, while 
mortgages and arrears of interest accumulated with fatal celerity ; 
then perhaps came bad seasons, losses in stock, and similar 
reverses to which the occupier of land is always liable, and so at 
last the patrimonial estate had to be parted with. The tendency 
has all along been to render the already large landowners larger 
still, while the small owners are gradually disappearing. 
In the neighbourhood of the Lakes a new class of competitors 
for the ownership of the soil has arisen in the merchant princes 
of the manufacturing districts, who eagerly buy up any nook 
where they may escape from their own smoke, and enjoy pure 
air and bracing breezes, with shooting and fishing. 
As regards farms, the tendency has been and continues in the 
v/ay of consolidation, by laying two or three small farms into 
