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Borrowdale, till within these last thirty years, was
hardly in a state even of civilization; the surface of the
ground was very little cultivated, for agriculture was not
understood there, and the inhabitants were a proverb, even
among their unpolished neighbours, for ignorance. A thousand
absurd and improbable stories are related concerning their
stupidity; so many, indeed, that one would almost have been
tempted to parody the old Jewish sarcasm of, "Out of Galilee
cometh no prophet;" into a more modern form; out of
"Borrowdale cometh no common sense."
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Not above twenty years ago, a cart or any kind of
wheel-carriage, was totally unknown in Borrowdale; in
carrying home their hay (for they make no stacks,) they lay
it upon their horses in bundles, one on each side; yet,
strange to tell, so bigotted are the inhabitants, even of
the more civilized parts, that they obstinately adhere to
this absurd custom: the traveller may even see hay carried
in this manner through the streets of Keswick; and if he
asks the reason, he will meet with no other answer, than
that it is an old custom:
"Custom that mankind into slav'ry brings,
The dull excuse for doing silly things."
Their manure they carried in the same manner, putting it in
wicker baskets; in the same manner they carried the smaller
wood for firing, the larger logs they trailed. Their food in
Summer consisted of fish and small mutton of a particular
kind; in Winter they lived upon bacon and hung mutton. Nor
was their manner of drying their muttons less rude; they
hung the sheep up by the hinder legs, and took away nothing
but the head and entrails. In this situation I myself have
seen seven sheep hanging in one chimney, and have been told
of much greater numbers.
One story, that shews the uncommon ignorance which prevailed
in this vale, I cannot help relating, as I know it to be
strictly true. It happened, indeed, within my own memory,
and was communicated to me by a man who that a party
concerned. One of the shepherds being upon the mountains,
saw a red deer, an animal with which he was totally
unacquainted. He instantly run and told his neighbours that
he had seen an horned horse, and begged their
assistance to catch him. His neighbours immediately provided
ropes, thinking to take him by the same means as they did
their horses when wild, viz.; by running them into a strait,
and then tripping them up with a cord. Accordingly a
considerable number of them set off to take this strange
animal. The chace, we may very naturally suppose, was
fruitless; they followed the deer for several hours, and at
last returned, all of them heartily tired, and most of them
thoroughly convinced they had been chacing a witch.
The people of Borrowdale have been, on account of the old
commonplace-joke of walling in the cuckow, called Borrowdale
Gowks; the word gowk being the Scottish name for a
cuckow. Their dialect is likewise very different from the
general dialect of the county; in all their words they leave
out the letter h, and have many names for things
different from their neighbours. An heron they call
Joan-na-ma-cronk; a glead, or kite, they call
Jack-eslop, with many others of the same species. The
following letter, written by a young traveller in ridicule
of his former acquaintance, will be the best specimen both
of their words and ideas.
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