|
Page 15:-
Though an inland town, there are some very considerable
manufactories of checks, which are daily increasing; two
common breweries in good employ; two hair-merchants, who,
(limited as their business may seem,) are both men of
property; and a tannery, where some business is done. Yet as
these employ but a small part of the inhabitants, perhaps
the manners of no place are more strongly or generally
stamped with the marks of ease and peace. Few are rich, but
as few miserably poor. Whoever wishes to enjoy a social
glass, is seldom at a loss for a companion. A regular
Card-Assembly, during the Winter; and small, though
agreeable private parties all the year round, furnish the
fair sex with ample amusement; whilst two well frequented
bowling-greens, afford, during the fine weather, exercise
and amusement to such of the males who have no better
employment. During the races and assizes [sessions], a more
gay and agreeable place cannot be imagined. The more than
usually bustle of those times rousing the inhabitants out of
that placid dream of existence they at other times enjoy,
and animating them to a degree of real mirth and festivity
rarely met with in more pompous scenes.
But why not here, as well as any where else, should I pay
the tribute due to the general manners of the country? They
deserve it. Every reputable farmer in the neighbourhood
prides himself upon the goodness of his ale, and is never so
happy as when his friends have taken as much of it as they
can carry home. The gentlemen are remarked for affability
and hospitality. True it is, that, like trees which grow
single, every little irregularity has ample room to expand
and shew itself; but at the same time, all is pure nature,
undisguised by art. To rise still higher; even a Cynic would
acknowledge, were he at Graystock, that there is at least
one Nobleman who has the art of joining the polish of France
to the hospitality of Britain, and whose chief delight is to
shew, that true nobility can reside alone in superior worth.
Penrith has an excellent market on Tuesday, and a small one
on Saturday. The Tuesday market is likewise a market for
live-cattle, both fat and lean, from Lammas till
Whitsuntide; but from Whitsuntide till Lammas the
cattle-market is held upon the Nolt-Fair. The markets here
are disposed in a manner truly astonishing in so small a
town: the wheat-market is in one part of the town; rye and
potatoes in another; barley in another; oats and pease in
another; live-cattle, horses, and hogs have also their
distinct markets. The measures here are different in
different articles; as there are two customary bushels in
use here, one of 80 quarts and another of 64: by the first
are sold barley and oats; by the second, wheat, rye, fruit,
pease, and potatoes. The second is called the Penrith
Bushel, and is double the Winchester measure, and three of
the bushels are called a Load.
The average prices of Fish, in this and the neighbouring
inland towns is as follows:
|
|
| Sea-Fish in
general, | 2d. | Stream
and Esk-Trout, | 2d. |
| Salmon, | 3 | Ulswater-Eels, | 2 |
| Ulswater-Trout, | 3 | Mussels and
Cockles, | 1 per
quart. |
| Charr, | 3 | Oysters, | 2s.
6 per hundred. |
|
|
Penrith is perhaps the greatest thoroughfare in the North of
England: all the Irish [most of the Irish] now crossing the
sea at Port-Patrick, and consequently take this in their
road to the Metropolis. Should they come by Whitehaven this
is still their road: besides, since the improvements of the
roads, those who are travelling from Scotland to London
generally chuse this road. Another set of never-failing
travellers are those whom nature, in opposition to an absurd
law, prompts to connubial ties; this way they must come on
their road to Gretna-Green; more famous, though less
dangerous in our days, for the cure of love-sickness, than
the promontory of Leucothoc was in days of yore. Those,
likewise, whom a taste for natural beauties impells to visit
the Lakes, always consider Penrith as a kind of home in
these solitary regions: and the consequence is natural, all
the inns here seem to vie with each other in attention, and
strain every sinew in making the country as agreeable as
possible.
|
Lakes Guides menu.
