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page xxxvii:-
fastnesses in which their enemies took shelter; which may be
very true, and the effects of this industry very general,
and yet enough may be found for future ages to do, from a
renewal of those very causes, and that of the wildness
against which the Romans had combated. I have heard also,
that King John was very intent on destroying the forests in
the North of England, and caused a great quantity of ground
to be cleared; but neither of these causes affect much the
disforesting of which we now speak, of which the effects are
at this day so visible, and which, at least in my opinion,
was the work of many ages, and undertaken on very different
occasions. Great roads generally carry a degree of
cultivation into the particular district through which they
pass, and the less important ones, or by-ways, may be
supposed to have a similar effect; though we find that in
some places of Cumberland those effects were often, nay, for
the most part interrupted by the ruggedness of the country,
and the robbers that infested such ways. The neighbourhood
also of towns and fortified places furnished occasion by the
shelter which such places gave to small towns; as was and
yet is the case with respect to Carlisle and its adjacent
villages, together with many others scattered up and down
the country near the ruins of fortresses; others again owe
their origin to the collections of sheds and booths under
which those lodged who watched the cattle, or the ford of
rivers. Of these I have made mention before; but those
districts have for the most part been cultivated at a later
period than the rest, where the houses stand distinct from
one another, each in their own portion of land, and with its
own name; for such were inclosed, or at least marked out all
at once, and every man fixed his residence in the portion
allotted to him, as is at present not uncommon on the
inclosure of pasture-grounds. But this implies a security
not much experienced in the former times; and of such a kind
of regular allotment we have no records, but such as are
modern, in comparison of what we know concerning those
things which I have already mentioned, as giving occasion to
villages, and of course to some degree of cultivation; to as
much at least as might, however confined and imperfect, and
however far from general, supply the inhabitants with bread,
whilst the waste lands supported their cattle, and the woods
furnished their game.
When therefore I say that the nature of the soil of these
countries particularly inclines them to become forest, I
comprise their general character; which I cannot better
exemplify, than by taking notice of the prodigious oaks,
yews, elms, and other trees which lately were and indeed yet
are visible in many places. I may add, that the veins of
minerals are numerous in the mountains; that the black-lead
of Borrodale is almost a peculiarity; nor is the slate of
some quarries much less than one.
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I subjoin here two or three quotation respecting the first
settlement of men on certain parts of the county of
Cumberland, or at least the first settlement we are
acquainted with, that it may be more clearly understood what
was meant in the paragraph preceding the last. We find it
mentioned, that Henry III. in the third year of his reign,
disforested that part of the Forest of Englewood
which is contiguous to the town of Dalston. William de la
Wast-dale, a hermit, was the first who made any inclosures
in Sabergham. Bewcastle, as it is now called, formerly
belonged to the Barony of Brough; it was laid waste entirely
by the incursions of the Scots, until its old masters
undertook, after a considerable space of time, to feed their
cattle there in Summer, and constructed booths and huts for
the herdsmen: those becoming permanent habitations, are said
to have given the name of Booth-castle, or Bew-castle. to
the old Roman fortress which stood there. Adard de Logili,
Lord of Wigton, was the firsts who inclosed a parcel of
ground near Carlisle, called Blackhill. from a rising ground
amidst it covered with black heath: Cardew, in the same
neighbourhood, was made habitable in the time of Rufus:
Raughton was desart much later, and was first cleared by one
Ughtred (whose posterity were called de Raughton) being held
by him as a fee-farm for taking care of the hawks in
Englewood for the King: Skelton (formerly Scale-town, or
Villa ad Scalingas) was civilized by de Boyvill of
Livington, who built Scales here for the watchers of
his cattle anno 1120, in the reign of Henry I. It was a
tract covered with whins, and indeed such did its contiguous
waste-ground remain, till
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