The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-10-20

| on which they stand.
 Precisely as in this time. outside these stone-buiit Umbrian cottages you will come beneath the pleasant shade Of sycamores and always see standing near. the tall firs through which "the winds sing when other trees are leaf less" SD s.
 Each has its tiny orchard. whose oc- eupants. gnarled and messy, are grown to the size of primeval forest trees An ample herb-bed is nurtured with the greatest care. There Is q near Till or spring-spout with its ceaseless mu- sical wimple, and invariably q comedy garden titled with the diligence of those in Holland. The most comfortable of stone out buildings. often extending from the main structure in the olden form Of stout enclosure or court. adds some thing of feudal picturesqueness to these 'statesmens' fine old homes. and give perfect winter housing to the cat tie and the diminutive but hardy Um- brian mountain sheep; and no home Is "ishouS iso ioHb btouc bhSa hoa N"N 'H numerable hives of bees which distill from the mountain heather the dark est. but ever the sweetest, honey to be found in Britain.
 The interiors of these sturdy domi- ciles are found to be none the less char acterlstic. Standing in the door of any one of them. your eyes may again trace. In the antiques of utensils and furnishings, a complete museum of rus tic household evolution, from the stone age to your own age of Brummagen and brass.
 You will find within them the quern, old as Aryan life, the ancient Celtic mother or drinking-cup, the rudest and earliest of spinning-wheels, with delft of the first English kilns, varied by faulty bits of "Wedgewood" brought here from Staffordshire by hawking reaus and settles: all mingled In most startling contrast with tawdry house. hold ornaments of the present time; but the old things prized ever dearest still.
 The village and home life of these sturdy folk Is very simple and unevent- full. Each little community is sufficient unto itself, because of the unbroken custom of seldom "hiving-off." The younger shoots of the family grow up beside the old. I found entire villages peopled by statesmen of the same fam iI,, opd po,,a. propoupcad ocnuirament physical peculiarity, or location of hab- itation, providing ample distinction.
 So, too, their amusements and merry makings are few and of the most prim- itive character. Their piety is intense and of that stern and severe nature which is oftenest accompanied by in eradicable superstition.
 Their universal spook Is the "bogle.' It is ghost, goblin, witch, warlock, or bedeviling what-not. But 1t is a great comfort to their old women; a certain corrective for "haddering" children; and brings all Umbrian folk closer to- gether in the ample home-glow of their blazing ingle-nooks in the long winter nights, when the tempests howl among | Skiddaws dreary scars or thunder along the "Striding Ridge" of mighty Helvellyn. ,.,,.
 found in fact, I had come into a new world of feeling and association; had stepped from old England into an older Britain, intact and unimpaired by time or change; and the elation of dis covery was like wine within my veins. With this environment and in this al- most exultant mood, I came to little eerie in southern Cumberland, near where it's hoary peaks peer over upon the still mountainous but gentler heights and more peaceful lakes and glens of witching Westmoreland. It was a tiny hollow in the highest hills, a marvellous, misty dell, set like an emerald nest between encircling bikes whose gray old peaks were half in sunshine and half in feathery, trail- ing cloud. Still, as within a nest, here and 'there lay brown and mottled rounded clumps of trees and stone, housing the almost inert life of the quiet statesman community.
 Spumy waterfalls hung ghostlily against the crags. A dark outline of fir trimmed the hollow at their base; and just where had left the shadowy pass through which I had come from Grasmere in search of my own scant acres, quaint stone bridge, perhaps as ancient as Devorgilla's gift to olden Dumfries, in Scotland, spanned foam ing stream, which tumbled melodiousls around the edge of the dale in its mad pace from the shadowy tarns above to some invisible gorge below. -
 Old stone walls,. zigzag and. sinuous, divided the dale into little steadings and these again into tiny fields. Mar row, winding lanes trailed in and about the low, gray abodes of stone; and in the branches of the matted shrubs and trees overhanging them, birds fitted and sung as if ever undisturbed by1 change of season or by man. .=a
 But one outlook from this peaceful scene was given. Away westward through the mountains was a single rift in the wall of stone. Bright sum- shine lay beyond on the bosom of a slumberous valley, sapphire set with the lovely Vast Water, with purpling| mountains still beyond.
 Cattle grazed lazily within tiny out reaching dells. Above these, almost like the chamois of the Alps, diminu- tive Umbrian sheep scampered along perilous lodges or leaped prettily from rock to rock in quest of hidden banks of grass.
 Cattle and sheep bells in innumerable varying tones, from seen and unseen herds, echoed and re-echoed until the