WESTMORELAND, one of the most northern English counties. It is separated from the sea-shore by a narrow strip of the county of Lancaster, which bounds it on the south and south-west, as do Cumberland on the north and north-west, and Yorkshire on the east. It is of very irregular shape. Its greatest length is forty, and its greatest breadth thirty-five miles. According to the best estimate, it contains 762 square miles, or 489,680 British statute acres. It is divided into four wards, distinguished by the prefixes of East, Kendal, Lonsdale, and West, which are again divided into thirty parishes.

The population of the several wards in 1831 was found to be, of the West Ward, 7884; of the East Ward, 14,455; of Kendal Ward and Kendal Town, 27,252; and of Lonsdale Ward, 5448.

The population of the whole county amounted in 1801 to 41,617, in 1811 to 45,922, in 1821 to 51,350, and in 1831 to 55,041. At the last-mentioned period the males were 27,576, and the females 27,465. The dwelling-houses were 10,353, inhabited by 10,984 families.. Of the families, 4454 were chiefly employed in agriculture; 4116 were chiefly employed in trade, manufactures, and handicraft; and the remaining 2414 were comprised in neither of the preceding classes. By the census of the same year, the number of males twenty years of age was 14,020; the occupiers of land employing labourers, 1435; the occupiers of land not employing*labourers, 1685; the labourers employed in agriculture, 3474; persons employed in manufactures or making manufacturing machinery were 1074; in retail trade or handicraft as masters or workmen, 3621; the capitalists, bankers, professional, and other educated men were 602; the labourers in labour not agricultural were 1195; the other males twenty years of age (except servants), 746; male servants twenty years of age 188, and under twenty years 66; and the female servants 2576. This county is the least densely peopled of any in England.

The greater part of the county consists of bleak and barren moors, and groups of lofty and naked mountains. The valleys between these mountains, through which the rivers wind, are of moderate fertility, and when well cultivated yield good crops of oats, and in some few instances of wheat and barley. The better parts of these valleys are appropriated to feed cattle or produce hay. The acreable value of the land, in the whole of this county, is much lower than that in any other part of England. According to the returns under the income-tax, the average annual rent and tithes together did not exceed 8s. 7d. per acre, being about half the average value of the rest of the kingdom. The romantic prospects, however, which are afforded by the contrast between the mountains and the lakes, more than repay the traveller for rambling at his leisure through the fine scenery. The lakes of Winandermere and Ulleswater are partly in this county, and those of Grasmere and Hause Water, with several smaller lakes, provincially called Tarns, wholly so. Besides the char (a fish almost peculiar to these lakes), trouts, pikes, perch, and eels, are taken abundantly in these waters.

The cattle of Westmoreland are of the long-horned kind, and attain a large size when well fed. The butter they afford is highly valued, and supplies to some extent the markets of the metropolis. Large flocks of sheep are fed on the mountains, which yield a coarse wool; but by crossing the breed the wool of late years has been much improved. Numbers of geese are fed on the moors, and these, with hams, form a part of the exports of the county. Westmoreland is nearly destitute of coals, and the metallic ores lie so deep, or are in so remote situations, that there is none of them worked. Slates of the finest quality are abundant, and large quantities of them are exported. Limestone is also very plentiful.

The principal manufactures of the county are chiefly carried on at Kendal, a place early celebrated for the woollen cloth which bore its name. This manufacture, and that of linsey-woolsey, as well as of coarse worsted stockings, are still continued; and considerable progress has recently been made in introducing the making of cotton goods. It appears by the parliamentary returns, that in 1831 the town of Kendal was in a state of such activity as to employ between 500 and 600 males, upwards of twenty years of age, in making cotton checks, kerseys, linseys, blanketing, and other goods. Woollen goods are made at Kirkland and some other places, and gunpowder at Sedgwick and Long-dales, while the cotton trade of Kendal and its vicinity has been remarkably extended.

The principal rivers are the Eden, the Lune, the Ken or Kent, and the Lowther, which are more remarkable for the beauties displayed on their borders, and for the abundance of fish they contain, than for any facilities they afford to intercourse. None of them is navigable, nor are there any artificial canals.

The county gives the title of earl to the family of the Fanes, and that of Lonsdale to the Lowthers, and recently the title of Baron Brougham to the head of the family of that name, and of Langdale to the Master of the Rolls. Two members of the House of Commons are returned for the county. The town of Kendal with its townships, and those of Kirkland and Nether Graveship, have been created a borough by the reform law, and elect one member; and by the same law the ancient borough of Appleby has been disfranchised.

The most remarkable seats of noblemen and gentlemen are the following: Lowther Castle, earl of Lonsdale; Appleby Castle, earl of Thanet; Abbot Hall, Christopher Wilson, Esq.; Mint House, J. H. Long, Esq.; Netherdale Hall, John Mounsey, Esq.; Brougham Hall, Lord Brougham; Carlton Hall, Lord Wallace.

The town of Kendal contains 10,015 inhabitants, and Kirby Lonsdale 1686. No other town in the county has a population of 1500.^[1. See Button’s Beauties of England. England Delineated. Parliamentary Population Returns. ] '