We now turned along an old coach road which crossed the hills over Cartmel Fell to Kendal, and appeared to be very little used.  Our road climbed steadily for about two miles, when suddenly there came a bright interval between the showers, and we had a magnificent view of a portion of Lake Windermere, with a steamboat leaving the landing-stage near Newby Bridge.  We stood, as it were, riveted to the spot; but another shower coming on, the view vanished like a dream, though it lasted sufficiently long to bring us encouragement and to cheer us upon our wet and lonely way.  The showers seemed as full of water as ever they could hold, and sheltering-places were by no means plentiful.  Sometimes sheltering behind trees and sometimes in farm buildings, we proceeded but slowly, and about eight miles from Kendal we halted for lunch at a small inn, where we found cover for so long a time that, after walking about three miles from that town, we called at another inn for tea.  It was astonishing how well we were received and provided for at these small inns in the country.  Every attention was given to us, a fire lighted to dry our coats, and the best food the place could provide was brought on to the table.  We were shown into the parlour, and the best cups and saucers were brought out from the corner cupboards.

The temperance movement appeared to be permeating the most unlikely places, and we were astonished to find the crockery here painted with temperance signs and mottoes, including a temperance star, and the words “Be them faithful unto death.”  This seemed all the more remarkable when we saw that the sign on the inn was the “Punch Bowl.”  The rain had apparently been gradually clearing off, while we were at tea, but it came on again soon after we left the comfortable shelter of the inn, so we again took refuge—­this time in the house of a tollgate, where we had a long talk with the keeper.  He pointed out a road quite near us which had been made so that vehicles could get past the toll-bar on their way to and from Kendal without going through the gates and paying toll.  This had been constructed by a landowner for the use of himself and his tenants.  As a retort the toll people had erected a stump at each side of the entrance, apparently with the object of placing a chain across the road, and had also erected a wooden hut to shelter a special toll-keeper who only attended on Kendal market days.  Some mischievous persons, however, had overturned the hut, and we did not envy the man who on a day like this had to attend here to collect tolls without any shelter to protect him from the elements.  Tollgates and turnpikes were ancient institutions on the British roads, and in many places were in the hands of Turnpike Trusts, who often rented the tolls to outsiders and applied the rent chiefly to the repair of the roads.  A fixed charge was made on cattle and vehicles passing through the gates, and the vehicles were charged according