Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-07-27

special Correspondence OF Gazette ana Jodrnal
KEswIcK, Eng, July 1.-THE first time
ever saw peasant Of the English Lake
district-that splendid portion OF England
strewn with mountains, scaws, felis and
hills and gemmed with countless lakes,
comprising the shires Of Cumberland,
Westmoreand and the northern part OF
LanCashire-was in company with per-
sonal friend of John Ruskin, Mr.. A. NJ.
Fraser of Scott street, Amman, Scotland,
who lives among his friends and books
not u stones throw from where Jane
Welsh Carlyle's youthful ideal lover, the
| gentlest soul that Scotland ever knew,
| noble, sanity Edward Irving, was born.
1t was a gray, grisly, grewsome day
| when the mountain mists like gigantic
bellying sails were pounding back and
| forth between the mountains OF Scotland
and Cumberland, now and then in their
| tapping conclusions t1iuging sheets OF
| slanting rain from their heavy folds,
| which the wind instantly caught up and
| swept stingingly against the bare-headed.
bare breasted and bare-legged fishers of
the leaden.colored Firth.
My friend had to do with the railway
| service; took me TO the Amman station
| yard; secured huge shunting engine with
| stoker aud driver for our use; we were
soon Keeling and crashing across the great
| Amman bridge connecting Scotland with
| England; and our strange conveyance for
/ sight seeing among peasantry at last halted
| with hoarse challenges beneath the gray
and echoing crags where, on the English
side of the Solway, tiny stone.built Bow
ness looks out upon Scotland and the
| Firth, just where, nearly 1000 years ago,
the great wall of Roman Servius came to
| an end because of the uncomfortable
Gaelic hordes Of the wild, barbaric north.
Everything In and about this gray little
nest upon the heights above the Solway
seemed Of everlasting stone. The rough
half-stairs, half-street leading up to and
through the hamlet. was OF stone, The
few huddled structures were of stone; rude
stone window-ledges, caves, gargoyle gut
ter-spouts and all. The little chapel was
like huge, unshapen messy mass OF stone
protruding from shapeless mass OF stones.
The choked yard surrounding it was Gu
closed by stone wall huge enough to have
been left by Hadrian himself, aud the
huddled grave stones seemed like Jagged,
halfdecayed teeth of stone which for cen
turtles had CRASHED at and been CRASHED
by elements as hard as stone. The sparse
soil, showing between the stone roadway
and the stone houses. end here and there
cropping up between house and byre or
paddock and wall, was thick and fiinty
with stone. And even the hard faces of
the few old, old danes now and then seen
peering at us from the tiny ingle-neuk
windows of stone were as set and fixed
and vacuouS as uncarYed stone.
AT one window we saw the face of a
hardy man past middle age, and we
straightway knocked at his wide, low door
and were hidden to enter. Among these
humble folk the coming OF strangers at
| any time or hour is not reckoned an in
trusion, but rather pleasure; and there
! : are no bolts or locks upon the doors of any
peasants habitation in all this English
Alpine country. They are trustful and
al MIA nd In ha s,f oil ia
approaches, but hard and dreadful as theiI
= own mountain scawy and fells where
: wrong is found beneath friendly addresses
We had come simply to see and talk; bui
it mattered not what our coming was for
and the old man gave welcome as statelily
B Us a lord. AS my friend engaged him ir
conversation IN dialect and topic common
: to the region, ! sat and studied this ole
Y man and his picturesque environment
. eager TO more fully know, as time anC
= many wanderinBs among the lake distric
S peasa1try have since given ample oppor
-; tunity, OF the stuff and stock of Which
!, such imposing human frames are made
and the influences of the centuries tina
q have given 70 ignorant men and women
O most remote from the activities Of othe
men and things such wondrouS, Lofty
l. and almost indetinable calm.
Is This man was u universal type OF the
IT lake district peasantry. he was muct
B. moved about the large, low room, his hea
! Just escaped the huge oaken beams Of III
% ceiling His hair was soft, silken an,
bountiful; tlaxen where the silver had no
q yet come; and with his full, tine beard sug
,e gested a strain of the old Morse blood. HI
a. forehead was high, wide, white. His eye
brows were bushy, but line and hossy
l. above large eyes OF lustrons light. blu
" deep set, steady and almost mournful IL
"A their gaze. The nose was stronghold
~ sruly classic; and the mouth was large
he but characterize and firm. This sort OF
head set upon huge and perfect frame
stout US the timbers of his centurIes-ol
le habitation, gave man who looked straigt
H. at you and made you, despite yourself
a. look straight at him in return.
ne | have found other such frames an
40 faces among the fishers of the Englis
evS west coast, at Codingham, below the Firt
ii of Forth, among the Highland crofter
Of among the petty ''lairds'' of the Shetlnn
ISLANDS, and not a few among the innui
a. Sieve Snaght, in the north OF Ireland, an
is | have wondered il their endless con
Ne munion with nature in her dreadf
he moods. as we'll as their lives of danger an
nv deprivation, had not TO do with telnperin
hIe the light OF their kindly eyes with Il
NO ehangeless look OF mournfnl resgEatic
M which is set there as if with craven Sc
upon them. But / have ever foun
humble men like these sturdy, tende
NV grave and true,
he The interior of this Cumbrian peasant
en- home was as characteristic and fine US Il
appearance of its sturdy old possessc
4 The large room where we sat was the III
is house, or liying-roon OF the habitation.
oia was fully IL feet wide and rs feet long.
:, the door aud window easements the &c
IL ing beams and the timbers about the iii
rie place had been hewn out of solid oak. L
lac door was Of the same huge slate slabs
20 the roof, ana these were so ciean fro
81. scrubbing that they shone like dusky m
If rors beneath your feet. There were maj
~ windows, no two in range, all little a
III splayed inwardly,th sides of each of tn,
he stone apertures as white as snow; and 1
,es sash OF each was half hidden by mi
white muslin. Huge settles OF oak wi
as fleece or chintz-encased covers were rang
Ike along the low white walls. In one corn
its face yellow with, age, solemnly tick
an eight-day clock, its clumsy frame blu
yer into the two abutting walls. In the CEN
ant of the room was long, strong table, wi
huge legs, cross.pieces and braces, wo
ing ana polished from use; and its great 1
ers was plainly told in one-half its lens
- being provided, as have found emit
IA tables III the peasant homes of BrittaI
yer with square, oval and circular depressio
10 in which the food of the children a
" binds was served perhaps hundred ye
ess ago, when even pottery was n luxury, o
ur- only the peasant master, his wife and
mas elder SONS and daughters knew the use
the rudest delft
: More curious than all else was the emf
De- side of the ',fire-room" containing the i
the place, i'll which, though our visit was
midsummer, there was a CHEEKY, &c
ply forting blaze. huge arch sustained
tide bowed cottage wall. This stone arch
h.. | really the base of the chimney. In