The Farmhuj of Westmorland. 
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Tlic! vari()\is dales, siuli as Lan<i;'clale, Patterdale, Hartsop, 
Troutbeck, Kentmere, Lon^j Sleilclalo, Maitindale, Mardalo, 
Swindalc, Wet Sleddale, and Mallorstann:, are unique in character. 
In the centre of the vale is the swift - flowing "babblin* 
brook," with a narrow strip of verdant mead on either side, then 
succeed the " intack," or fell-side pasture, often fringed with 
sliaggy underwood and bosky dells, vestiges of the pi-imaeval 
forests — above all are the cloud-capped mountains. The inha- 
bitants retain much of the primitive simplicity of their fore- 
fathers. On the fells of Martindale there still survives a herd of 
Avild red deer. 
Pringle, writing in 1793, describes the then existing system of 
farming as very primitive indeed. On the best arable lands the 
course v/as — 1st year, oats ; 2nd, barley ; 3rd, oats ; sometimes 
two crops of oats before the barley. The land was then left to 
itself, without any seeds sown, the farmers thinking that quite 
needless, as the land was so " girse proud." The next year's 
produce was a thin crop of natural ha}', mostly twitch-gi-ass and 
weeds ; the ci'op used to improve till towards the third year, but 
then deteriorated, and at seven years the ground was a soft carpet 
of moss, then came the plough and the above course again. 
On the lighter soils about Kendal, a crop of potatoes was 
taken between the oat crops, followed by barley, and then oats 
again ; turnips were then quite a curiosity, and people would 
travel miles to see a crop of an acre or two, some pronouncing 
them a new-fangled and useless fancy. 
About the beginning of the present century the high price of 
grain, caused by the Continental wars, led to the inclosure of 
many thousands of acres of the lower lying commons. This 
period is still spoken of by the older farmers as " Bonneypart 
time," and with many a sigh of regret, when the famous crops 
and prices then obtained are remembered. Immediately thi; 
allotments were set out the plough was stuck in, and a scourging 
succession of corn-crops, one after another, taken for years. At 
the same time large and costly buildings wei-e erected, as if such 
times were to last for ever. The land being " fresh," and 
generall}' heavily limed, produced fine crops at first, but after the 
final struggle of Waterloo, and the collapse of prices, all was left 
to Dame Nature ; it " laid itself down," and a deal of it, as 
about Newby, Sleagill, Ormside, Bleatarn, Hoff, and many other 
places, has never been touched since — permanently depreciated, 
and a monument of folly, much of it on the bare clays being 
scarcely grassed over after lying half a century. One farm is 
pointed out as having, when newly inclosed, been let at 300/. 
a-year, now let at only about one-third of that amount. 
If instead of being robbed with the plough, these districts had 
