L a n g h o lm e .
S h e e p .
the middle arch: the river was here low, and the bed appeartl
roughened with tranfverfe waved rocks,, extenfively fpread, an!
fharply broken.
The town of Langholme appears in' a fmall plain, with the entrant!
o f three dales, and as many rivers, from which they take theiil
names,, entring into it, viz. Wachopdale, Eufd'ale and EJkdale; the laii
extends thirty or forty miles in length, and the fides as. far as I couli
fee, bounded by hills of ftnooth and verdantgrafs, the fweet foodol
the iheep, the great ftaple of the country. T o give an idea of thcl
confiderable traffic carried" on in thefe animals, the. reader may btl
told, that from twenty to thirty-fix. thoufand lambs are fold ¡1
the feveral fairs that are held, at Langholme in the year. Ttl
this mult be added, the great profit made o f the wool, fold intol
England for our coarfer manufactures -y of the Iheep themfelves fen!
into the fouth, and. even of the cheefe and butter made from the!
milk o f the ewes *
The truftees for encouraging o f improvements give annul!
premiums to fuch who produce the fineft wool, or breed the belli
tups ; a wife meafure in countries emerging from iloth and pol
verty.
The manufactures o i Langholme, are ftufis,.ferges,,.black and white!
plaids,,plains,&c. moftly fold into England.
The caftle is no more than a fquare tower, or border-houfe,.once|
belonging to the Armjl'rongs. In my walk to it,was ffiewn the place!
where feveral witches had fuffered in the laft century : this reminds!
me o f a very lingular belief that prevaled not many years ago in thefe!
* For a fuller account oft he management of the iheep of this county, vide the I
Appendix..
parts: I
parts: nothing lefs than that the midwives had power o f transferring
part of'the primasval curfe bellowed on our great fir ft:
mother, from the good wife to her hulband. I faw the reputed off-
fpring of fuch a labor ; who kindly came into the world without
giving her mother the left uneafinefs, while the poor hulband was
roaring with agony in his uncouth and unnatural pains.
The magiftrates o f this place are very attentive to the fuppreffion
of all exceffive exertions o f that unruly member the tongue : the
Wank, an inftrument of punilhment, is always in readinefs ; and I
was favored with the fight; it is a fort of head-piece, that opens and
inclofes the head of the impatient, while an iron, fharp as a chizzel,
enters the mouth, and fubdues the more dreadful weapon within.
This had been ufed a month before, and as it cut the poor female
till blood gulhed from each fide o f her mouth, it would be well
that the judges in this cafe would, before they exert their power
again, confider not only the humanity, but the legality o f this
practice.
The learned. Doctor Plot * has favored the world with a minute
defcription, and a figure o f the inftrument, and tells us, he
looks on it ‘ as much to be preferred to the ducking ftool, which
‘ not only endangers the health o f the party, but alfo gives the
tongue liberty ’twixt every dip ; to neither o f which this is at all
I lyable.’
Among the various cuftoms now obfolete, the moft curious was
that of Handfifling, in ufe about a century paft. In the upper part
of EJkdale, at the confluence of the white and the black EJk, was
* Hiß. Staffordßnre, 38g, tub. xxxii.
A BRAKE .
H a n d f i s t i n c ;
held