Morning journal and courier., 1891-04-25

 with one to wear ''to mill, to market and to meetingm she now has at least three, and perhaps half dozen, to suit costumes or occasions. While there is every encour- agement offered to buy materials of all kinds at reasonable rates, and while there are many women who must fail ignomini- ously when they attempt to construct bonnet, it is evident that the house-to- house milliner, like the visiting dressmaker, will find plenty of work for her skillful hands, and If real artist in this line her success is assured. HILARY. MIR. wAKEMAN's JOURNEYINGs. At Keswick, England-The English
 Lake Distriet-Nature's Feast for
 Common Enjoyment-The Cumbri-
 an Peasantry-Their Status and
 Character.
 KKswIcK, England, April IS. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 It would not be a surprising thing if the English lake district were as well known, in that almost msssureless topography of sentiment and universal geography of lite nature, to as many American as English people. For, out of its tender heart have issued countless streams of eyer-living thought and imagery, flowing so deep, strong and far that they have long ago penetrated to uttermost lands, and are as fatherland waters to all who own the good old Saxon tongue.
 Perhaps, too, of late years it is actually seen, at least from one beaten track through it, by as many American as Eng fish eyes. But our people as rule do not know it as Englishmen or Scotchmen, or Irishmen know it. We hurry through it to criticize, compare, analyze, tolerate, and thus lose the precious charm of those things which, aside from it's occasional sublimity and always exquisite loveliness, make the region almost consecrated ground. That, too, not from barbaric ru- ins, hideous scars of war and more intole- rable monuments of ecclesiastical strifes and victories. The tenderest of all bene diction is here. The Almighty never else where fashioned the face of the earth in more entrancing mold. And then, as if the fiat were that still further grace should shine from every feature, lofty-souled men and women were born here, or came bere, and in the centuries worshiped the God through all this transcendent handi- work by pouring forth their hearts and souls in ever-living psalms. Thus was the complete magic wrought; until from More cambe bay, which pushes in from the Irish sea to cut grim Lancashire almost in twain, to the wondrous tide-bores of Solway Firth over against the land of Burns, you can turn your eyes scarcely upon noun tain or vale, lake or river, crag or tarn, rock or rivulet, forest or copse, beck or waterfall, hamlet or home, that does not send thrilling through the vision to exul- tant memory some tender association with tender life, or strike some subtle chord upon the harp of fadeless song.
 The Scotch glory in the straths and crags of their Highlands and islands; the Irish have pathetic and mournful pride | in their ancient Celtic and later ecclesias- | tic monuments, and an exultant pride in their Giants Causeway, their lone peaks of Donegal and Connemara, and their matchless Killarney; while the English fondly fancy that, outside of the lake dis trict, among the peaks and valleys oi | uOrGu w al6S, dE6 bCculC DcdullcS ol buI | passing splendor. But the English lake | district is, as it were, natures feast foI l common enjoyment. It is the one spot in the three kingdoms where gentle genii of | the place are powerful enough to annihi- | late the race bitterness of centuries. In l deed it is the sweet and pensive lullaby nest of all Britain.
 Its geography, ethnology and etymology may have much to do with this. The re zion, from a race standpoint, is almost 1 neutral ground. It is in the northwestern and all things considered, the most remote portion of England. Its area comprises the northern, sea-detached pat of Lanca shire and all of the important shires o
 Westmoreland and Cumberland. Thre' sides, it's northern, western and southern are shut in by the Irish sea and estuaries
 while natural barrier on the eastern sid,
 is formed by the Pennine range of hills
 which furnishes Yorkshire, Durham anC
 Northumberland their wild and savsg
 fells and moors. Peopled originally b.
 Cambro-Celts, their descendants clung t
 a region almost inaccessible in the past
 and thus sustained, from the barbari
 stone age to the golden age of poetry an'
 art, few abrupt divisions and impinge
 ments from Roman, Danish and earl | English invasion. All influences fo
 change were consequently gradual an
 gentle, and never markedly unequal fror
 the English on. the east and south, th
 Irish on the west, and the Caledonians o
 the north.
 During three extended visits to the r'
 zion, in which most of my time WE
 passed among the peasantry, there hay
 been found very many diesimilarities bt
 tween these people and the peasant clas
 in any other portion of England. Thoug
 the student of books may fail to find tn
 apparent in the literary remains of tf
 host of prose writers and poets who dre
 almost their sole inspiration from the lal
 country; and though there may remain I
 evidence that these curious distinctions a
 tracted the everyday attention of the me
 and women of genius, who so long live
 where these contrasts were constantly al r parent; the interesting fact still remain Q that Cumbrian men and women, as all il inhabitants of north Lancashire, Cumbe 6 land and Westmoreland are generical = called, are almost as different from oth'
 lowly English folk, in traditions, superst tions, manners, customs, and particula ly in vernacular, as are those of Vale : who so patriocally treasure every vestil t of their ancient Kymric life and tongu e The Scotch are most kindly disposed D their Cumbrian brethren across the Sc d way, for they know that in their veil @ flows an admixture of Caledonian bloc
 The Irish across the narrow channel a l. drawn to them, as to the Welsh, becau n the Cumbrians have with the Irish al Welsh common Celtic percentage. T l, region is English through centuries e domination and gradual absorption IS English nationality. Something as t 7- Highlanders are to Scotland, and as 6 ts the Donegal and Connemara Highlands d to Ireland, the Cumbrians stand to l. rest of England as type of independe, re half-defant folk, whose simplicity, piet er hardiheod and solidarity compel genui ,f admiration and respect.
 If ethnological reasons, though but ha 'n consciously recognized, render the Engli a. lake district common ground of delie lg for all British nationalities, the distinct lg status and character of its peasantry c le tainly give it an added charm to the tr, ae eler who has interest in men as well as .d mountains and rocks. The larger prop ic ton of the rural population, or dalesm, D. are the families of "statesmen," or m
 owning and farming their own tiny pie a of land. These have come down to tn h. intact from baronial times. In those of days the border incursions from Scotia a taxed to the utmost the wits and resour e, of the northern barons. To provide e oh retain required forces for their often 8, O. needs, the system of parceiling out he land, in fee, and enfranchising the will he retainers to whom they were oivep V