button to main menu  Martineau's Complete Guide to the English Lakes, 1855

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Page 140:-
[at]tended the fairs and markets. The capacity of the dalesmen in this respect,- in the quantity of strong liquor that they can carry - is remarkable; and they have only too good a training. Spirits are introduced on all occasions. At sales, of which there are many, every spring and autumn, in the dales, and which are attended by all the inhabitants who can go, for miles round,- glasses of spirit are handed round among the purchasers, all day long. The settling of accounts at Candlemas is attended by the same curse,- every debtor expecting his creditor to offer him the compliment of a glass of strong liquor. On that day, it is unpleasant to ladies to be abroad, near settlements where the Candlemas payments are making,- so many are the drunken people whom they meet. It is common to swallow the strong liquor undiluted, in considerable quantity. An old dalesman, welcome in Ambleside for his shrewdness, simplicity and originality, appeared one day at a house where the gentleman was absent, but the lady at home. The lady asked the visitor to sit down and await her husband's return, proposing to offer him some spirit and water meantime. He replied he wonnot be nice about t' first part e't' offer, but as tot' watter, it could be gitten at ony gate (way) side.
  emigration
To return to the former condition of the "statesman." The domestic manufactures he carried to town with him,- the linen and woollen webs woven by his wife and daughters,- would not sell, except at a loss, in the presence of the Yorkshire and Lancashire woollens and cottons made by machinery. He became
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