4 
The Farming of Westmorland. 
This great natural division asserts itself in various ways, 
remarkable in so small a county. The vernacular of the common 
people on cither side of it is different ; that on the north ap- 
proaches the Cumberland and Border tongue, while that on the 
south may be called the pure Westmorland dialect, quite dif- 
lerent from that of Lancashire. The modes of farm manage- 
ment, farming customs, times of entry on farms, weights and 
measures of grain, the soils, and general features, are more (jr 
less distinct, while the rainfall is something like 40 per cent, less 
on the north than on the south side of the line. 
The county is pretty well supplied by railways, which appear 
to intersect 21 out of 32 parishes. The Lancaster and Carlisle, 
now part of the great London and North- Western system, pierces 
the county through its centre from south to north, scaling the 
heights of Shap Fell, once thought by George Stephenson to 
be impracticable for the locomotive ; a branch from Kendal 
taps the lake district at Windermere ; another from Low Gill, 
down the Vale of Lune, links the county with Yorkshire. The 
South Durham line, from Tebay over Stainmore, affords access 
to the Durham Coal Fields and the east coast. The " Eden 
Valley " connects the county town of Appleby Avith Kirkby 
Stephen and Penrith. The Ulverston and Lancaster Railway, 
crossing the upper part of Morecambe Bay, cuts through a nook 
of the county at Arnside. 
The outlay on highways is about 4000Z. a year, but they cer- 
tainly cannot be described as in good order. 
The annual cost of out and indoor relief and maintenance of 
the poor is about 5400Z, The poor-rates average about Is. 3f/. in 
the pound; highway rates, 4c?. ; tithes, 2s. per acre. Some of the 
parishes are tithe free, or nearly so, land having been allotted in 
lieu thereof on the inclosure of the commons. 
The following shows the height in feet of various points above 
the sea-level : — 
Mountains. 
Mountain Passes. 
Towns and ^'^lIagcs. 
Lakes and Tarns. 
Feot. 
( Helvc'Uvii . . . 31ia 
^\'est . \ liuw Fell . . . 2'.)f;o 
(Langdale I'iku . 2401 
[High Street r . 2fiG3 
Shap Fells. . . ]937 
Central {WasdalePike . 1853 
jOrtoii Scar. . . 1352 
I Wild Boar Fell. 2323 
[MallerstaugFell 2328 
, 1 Stainmore . . . 1565 
Pennine I ^^^^^^^ _ _ g.^. 
ouaul . 1 iim-to,! i^iijc _ 1349 
(.Cross Fell . . . 2799 
Feet. 
Dunmail Raise 800 
Kirkstone . . 14fi7 
|.ShapFellsRoad 1300 
Orton Road . 1250 
Ash Fell. . .1180 
Stainmore . . 1436 
Feet. 
Kcmlnl Town Hall . . 171 
Kirkby Lonsdale Cliureh 214 
Kirkby Stephen . . . 550 
Crosby Ravensworth . 700 
High Winder .... lUOO 
Feet. 
Windermere. . 134 
Kydal .... 181 
(irasmere . . . 2U8 
Easodale ... 915 
Stickle . . . .1540 
Hayes AVater . 13i^3 
lUea Water . . 1.584 
Hawes AVater . 694 
Ulleswatcr . . 477 
