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Page 98:-
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Herdwick sheep
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Some, when speaking of the north and its inhabitants, have
been pleased to say, that they lived poorly and meanly; in
derision, saying, "They eat bread and pudding made of corn,
such as is given to the swine and horse in the south; and in
houses like hog sties." Let such say what they will; with
the corn and small mutton of this country I envy not their
situation and diet. There is a kind of sheep in these
mountains called Herdwicks †, which when fed
to the highest growth, seldom exceed nine or ten pounds a
quarter; they, contrary to all other sheep I have met with,
are seen before a storm, especially of snow, to ascend
against the coming blast, and take the stormy side of the
mountain, which, fortunately for themselves, saves them from
being over-blown. This valuable instinct was first
discovered by the people of Wasdalehead, a small
village, whose limits join those of Borrowdale. They, to
keep this breed as much as possible in their own village,
bound themselves in a bond, that no one of them should sell
above five ewe (or female) lambs in one year; means,
however, were found to smuggle more, so that all the
shepherds now have either the whole or half breed of them;
especially where the mountains are very high, as in
Borrowdale, Newlands, and Skiddow, where they
have not hay for them in winter. These sheep lye upon the
very tops of the mountains in that season as well as in
summer; and, as I said before, keep to the stormy side,
where the wind blows the snow off the surface of the ground.
If a calm snow fall, the shepherds take a harrow, and drag
it themselves over the tallest heath, or ling; the snow then
falls to the bottom, and the sheep feed upon the tops of it,
and the moss which grows upon the stones. They are so
remarkably wild and stupid in their temper, that in forcing
them by dogs to washing, shearing, &c. they have laid
down and died without much fatigue.
Whence this breed first came I cannot learn; the inhabitants
of Nether Wasdale say they were taken from on board a
stranded ship, however, till within these few years, their
number was very small: they grow very little wool; eight or
nine of them jointly not producing more than a stone, yet
their wool is pretty good.
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Scarness
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We return now to Scarnhouse, by West called
Scareness: in the parish register, &c. it is
called Scarnhouse, and the inhabitants say it
received its name thus: All the ground below the road to the
Lake was stinted cow-pasture, and upon this hill the cows
were always milked; the owners of them kept a person called
a Cowherd, who collected them at this place twice-a-day, for
which he had one shilling a head for the year; and in time
the cows were taught to come by the sounding of a horn (a
custom used in many places in this county to this day.) The
herd built himself a little hut where he slept, and at a
certain hour every morning and evening blew his horn, at
which signal both the milk-maids and cows used to come.
Scarn, in the Cumberland dialect, is cow-dung, and is
not applied to any other kind of excrement which is called
muck: The cows, coming so much about the herd's
house, covered the ground near it with scarn, that
the milk-maids could not easily walk among it; hence, out of
contempt, they called the house Scarn-House, a name
it bears to this day. A little further is Broadness;
it is also a round hill, jutting into the Lake, as is
Bonas, (see plate VIII.) but neither of them so
beautiful as Scarn-House, or so rich soil.
In a hollow, and out of sight of the road, yet near Bonas,
stands, obscurely sequestred, the parish church of
Bassenthwaite. In troublesome times, (particularly in the
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time
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† Herdwick sheep are certainly not the produce of our
Island; there is such a kind found among the mountains of
Switzerland, and some parts of Denmark. This confirms the
account given by the natives, and for my own part, I suppose
the ship which they were taken from, wrecked upon this
coast, to have been a Danish East Indiaman.
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gazetteer links
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-- "Broadness" -- Broad Ness (?)
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-- "Scarnhouse" -- Scarness
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-- St Bega's Church
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-- "Wasdalehead" -- Wasdale Head
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