Show WAKEMANS wanderings KESWICK england july io 10 1893 the first time I 1 ever saw a peasant of the english lake district that splendid portion of england strewn with mountains scabs fells and hills and gemmed gemmec with countless lakes comprising the shires hires s of cumberland westmoreland and the northern part of lancashire was in company with a personal friend of john ruskin mr A M fraser of scott street annan scotland who lives among his friends and books not a stones throw from where jane welsh carlyles youthful ideal lover the gent lest soul that scotland ever knew noble saintly edward irving was born it was a gray grisly grew some day when the mountain mists like gigantic bellying sails were pounding back and forth between the mountains of scotland and cumberland now and then iii their napping flapping concussions flinging sheets of slanting rain from their heavy folds which the wind instantly caught up and swept stin stingingly angly against the bareheaded bare headed 1 and barelegged bare legged egged fishers of the leaden colored firth my friend had to do with the railway service took me to the annan station yard secured a huge shunting engine with stoker and driver for our use we were soon reeling and crashing across the great annan bridge connecting scotland with england and our strange conveyance for sightseeing among peasantry at last halted with hoarse challen beneath the gray and echoing crags where on the english side of the solway tiny stone built bowness looks out upon scotland and the firth just where nearly 2000 years ago the great wall of romany servius came to an end because of the unconquerable gaelic hordes of the wild barbaric north everything in and about this gray little nest upon the heights above the solway seems of everlasting stone the rough half stairs half street leading up to and through the hamlet was of stone the few huddled structures were of stone rude stone window ledges eaves gargoyle gutters gutter spouts s ats and all the little chapel was like ke a huge mossy mass of stone protruding from a shapeless mass of stones the choked yard surrounding it was enclosed by a stone wall huge enough to have been left by hadrian himself and the huddled grave stones seemed like jagged half decayed teeth of stone which chic for centuries had gnashed grashed at and been gnashed grashed by elements as hard as stone the sparse soil showing between the stone roadway and the stone houses and here and cropping up between house and byre or paddock and wall was thick and flinty with stone and even the hard faces of the few old old dames now and then seen peering at us from the tiny ingle beuk windows of stone W were ere as set and fixed and vacuous as stone at one window we saw the face of a hardy man past ast middle age and we straightway knocked knocked at his wide low door and were bidden to enter among mong these humble folk the coming of strangers ge rs at any time or hour is not reckoned an intrusion but rather a pleasure and there are no bolts nor locks upon the doors of any peasants habitation in all this english alpine country they are trustful and simple and good in the face of all friendly approaches but hard and dreadful as their own mountain scabs and fells where wrong is found beneath friendly addresses we had come simply to see and talk but it mattered not what our coming was for and the old man gave welcome as as a lord As my friend engaged him in conversation in dialect and topic common to the region I 1 sat and studied this old man and his picturesque environment eager to more fully know as time and many wanderings among the lake district peasantry have since given ample opportunity of the stuff and stock of which such imposing human frames are made and the influences fluen ces of the centuries that have given to ignorant men and women most remote from the activities of other men and thi things such a wondrous lofty and almost indefinable i nd finable calm the man was a universal type of the lake district peasantry he was much more than six feet in height and as he moved about the large low room his head just escaped the huge oaken beams of the ceiling his hair was soft silken and bountiful flaxen where the silver has not yet come and with his full fine beard suggested a strain of the old norse blood his forehead was high wide white his eyebrows were bushy but fine and flossy above large eyes oi of lustrous light blue deep set steady and almost mournful mourn mournful fui in their gaze the nose was strongly cut truly classic and the mouth was large but and firm this sort of a head set upon a huge and perfect frame stout as the timbers of his centuries old habitation gave a man who looked straight at you and made you despite yourself look straight at him in return I 1 have found other such frames and faces amlung the fishers of the english west coast at Col dingham below the firth of forth among the highland crofters among the petty lairds of the shetland islands and not a few among the mountain peasantry peas 1 of anish owen round about 91 alieve in the north of ireland and I 1 have won dered if their endless communion with nature in her dreadful moods as well as their lives of danger and deprivation had not to do with tempering the light of their kindly eyes with the changeless look ot of mournful resignation which is set there as if with a graven seal upon them but I 1 have ever found humble men like these sturdy tender grave and true the interior of this peas ants home was as characteristic and fine as the appearance of its sturdy old possessor the large room room where we sat was th the e fire firehouse house or living room of the habitation it was fully eighteen feet wide and twenty five feet long all the door and window casements the ceiling beams and the timbers about the fireplace had been hewn out of solid oak the floor was of the same huge slate slabs as the roof and these were so clean from scrubbing that they shone like dusky mirrors beneath our feet there were many windows no two in in range all little and splayed inward lythe sides of each of their stone apertures aper tures as white as snow and the sash of of each was half bidd hidden en b by milk white muslin huge settles of 0 oak with fleece or chintz encased covers were ranged along the low white walls in one corner its face yellow with age solemnly ticked an eight day clock its clumsy frame built into the abutting walls in the center of the room was a long strong table with huge legs cross pi pieces e oes o es and braces worn wom and polished from r 0 m use and its great age was plainly told in one half its length being provided as I 1 have found entire tables in the peasant homes of brittany with square oval and circular depressions in which the food of the children and hinds was served perhaps a hundred years ago when even pottery was a luau luxury ana and only the peasant master his wife and the elder sons and daughters knew the use of the rudest delft more curious than all else was the entire side of the fire room containing the fireplace in which though our visit was in midsummer there was a cheery comforting blaze A huge arch sustained the bowed cottage wall this stone arch was really the base of the chimney in its center was the open fireplace hung about with chains hooks and cranes and at each side was a narrow splayed window like those of a castle turret tiny outlooks out looks from this peasant of a snuggery and the dark mouth ot of the chimney above must have been nearly six feet across I 1 have found the same add arrangement in the cottages of old cla chans in the hebrides in the scottish highlands and in the ancient half deserted weavers village of gattonside Gatt onside near melrose beside the tweed the slates of the floor in front of this fireplace were decorated with grotesque C tesque figures and designs one of mahs noahs dove and scrollwork scroll work in ochre achre and vermilion chalk a universal homeside homesite hom eside custom among the lake district peasantry the chairs were huge and high and of oak the bureaus and dressers quaintly decorated with shining pewter and strange old bits of chinaware were high narrow and sprawling legged and all allot of mahogany the beds for one for the house master occupied a corner of the room were high huge and strong enough for the repose or 0 giants and were of strangely carved oak out from this ample living room extended inviting vistas through low lean itan tos each one doubtless built in a different century and each provided with many tiny windows with deep casements through which could be caught a glint of blossom a spray of foliage or the gray of some ancient structure the whole a dream of sweet old age centuries old rooting to the very rocks of the hills endless content and unbroken repose no wonder is it that the heart of the wanderer when coming upon scenes like this for the moment thrills with longing to end his and bide for aye where the bitter struggle of life may no more come within such winsome storm defying walls I 1 this picture of a single peasant home at ancient bowness on solway is one of even tone with thousands of others from the scottish border down through the mountain dales and passes to the grand lake district across cumberland and aind westmoreland past morecambe More cambe bay almost to the river lune in lan bashire ca shire its peasant basant owner was a 40 statesman that that one word is the key to his splendid sel f poise his simple strong nature and to the ample comfort and fixedness of his environment it is true of them all these statesmen are peasants absolutely possessing the soil which they till there is no tuft pulling head ducking or knee cringing among such as these in england or any other country in the ancient feudal times the barons were often in sore stress to repel the scottish border incursions cur or to make equally barbarous forays of their own to provide retainers who would fight to the death for these barons as well as for their own mountainside mountain side rock hewn cabins it was found a wise thing to parcel out the lands in tiny bits to hirelings and these retainers were in time enfranchised the they were only bound to their liege lorz lords for military service in defense when feudalism passed away the landowners land owners remained freemen and possessors in fee of the little estates hence statesmen the noblest peasantry of all europe and a wondrous though singularly unheeded example to the remainder of britain in its endlessly perplexing agrarian problems in no other portion of england unless it be in the quaint old stone built villages among the malvern and cots wold hills has there been so little change as in this english alpine region but two faint arteries of travel thread through it one is a railway from ancient penrith to workington Wor kington on the irish sea the other is the most picturesque coach road in britain it leads from keswick where the shrine of southey is found past lordly helvellyn Helve llyn the mountain monarch of the region and mystic dunmall raise ahr through 0 ugh grasmere where dequincy dequina lived li v ed and hartley coleridge and wordsworth sleep sl side ae by side on past rydal mount and quaint old ambleside Amble side with its cherished memories of harriet martineau christopher north and dr arnold to windermere and the little bowness of westmoreland where the kindly face of mrs hemans seems pressed against every rose embowered empowered windowpane window pane so but a little walk through any mountain pass away from these thoroughfares and you will come to the ancient stone built states mens homes and nearly the same manner of peasant mountain life as existed hundreds of years ago wordsworth was born among this folk he engagingly speaks in this wise of their moun tain side habitations hence buildings I 1 which in their very form call to mind the processes of nature do thus clothed in part with a vegetable garb appear to be received into the bosom of the living principle of things as it acts and exists among the woods and fields you will seldom find a detached and isolated habitation from a half dozen to a score will together in some dell huddle beneath the frowning height of a dreary nestle along the side of foaming ghyll crouch closely together in the tangled verdure of some narrow pass or stand like a clump of mossy rocks beside some shadowy upland turn wherever found many of their peculiarities are common to all you will always find them beneath the shade of lofty lofty sycamore trees and when the leaves of these are gone there is always near the cotta cottage e the green of the fir tree to gladden tae the eyes in winter I 1 do not believe there is a peasants home in the entire lake district where the wimpling sound ot of near running water is not endlessly heard the orchards ord hards are large and bountiful the stout walled gardens are splendidly kept and fruitful there are always comfortable stone outbuildings buildings out for cattle walled and covered sheep folds foldi to withstand the most pitiless mountain tempests invariably a tidy stone shed for the many hives of bees which distil dastil from the mountain heath the sweetest hinny in england and in summer time every cottage wall is a mass of naming flaming roses everyone of these habitations is a museum or of ancient house utensils the oldest one known to man the queen is here all implements of the hand weaver and sPi spinner are here the antique fulling boards were here and I 1 have as often found in these habitations the mether that most ancient of gaelic and celtic drinking vessels as I 1 have come upon them in the cabins of the hebrides or the west of ireland when folk have stood still so long and have so steadily fended bended all change they usually furnish most inte interesting studies in their daily lives customs and folklore folk lore and yet these people are singularly singularly lacking in any strongly mar ke ked aside from that found foun I 1 in their unyielding tenacity to the home and actual ownership of the soil their universal thrift and integrity and their almost of calm and repose they were never a boisterous roistering roy folk and to this day th the salesmen dal esmen of one valley may have no acquaintance with knowledge or of those of another valley unless the huddled homes of the latter happen to lie along the mountain road leading to the nearest market town partly accounting for this is the unbroken custom of never hiving off people of the same blood and family name occupy entire districts and are sufficient unto themselves this occasions grotesque nomenclature of identification one is known as jock 0 V t rigg another myles ot beck another barrow bacat bent backed aboab another Fr atchin quarrelsome ned and still another byspiel mischievous billy these are re all likely to be heads of families and grave old men the names came along with them from boyhood and every one accepts his neighborhood designation as he does his increase of children or flocks and herds in dignified though prideful content some other distinctive ancient customs are still found in the remoter remoler districts the watching of the dead almost identical in manner with the 6 irish wake is universal courting is facilitated by the household retiring after putting out the I 1 lights agh ts and leaving the font or lovesick couple upon the long settle of the fire room to their hearts content at which modem delicacy may stand aghast but this manner of proves sturdy and true funer i als furnish heroic feasts at a few of i the mountain towns birin still survives when the maidens who wish to engage at service stand in groups at the marketplace market place but they will no longer hold in their hands the wisp of straw which was the olden badge of servitude on shrove tuesday the boys still ferociously play beggarly scot a game based on the forays of the old time borderers border ers shaking bottle |