While the process above detailed was going on, the native forest must have been every where receding; but trees were planted for the sustenance of the flocks in winter,—­such was then the rude state of agriculture; and, for the same cause, it was necessary that care should be taken of some part of the growth of the native woods.  Accordingly, in Queen Elizabeth’s time, this was so strongly felt, that a petition was made to the Crown, praying, ’that the Blomaries in High Furness might be abolished, on account of the quantity of wood which was consumed in them for the use of the mines, to the great detriment of the cattle.’  But this same cause, about a hundred years after, produced effects directly contrary to those which had been deprecated.  The re-establishment, at that period, of furnaces upon a large scale, made it the interest of the people to convert the steeper and more stony of the enclosures, sprinkled over with remains of the native forest, into close woods, which, when cattle and sheep were excluded, rapidly sowed and thickened themselves.  The reader’s attention has been directed to the cause by which tufts of wood, pasturage, meadow, and arable land, with its various produce, are intricately intermingled in the same field; and he will now see, in like manner, how enclosures entirely of wood, and those of cultivated ground, are blended all over the country under a law of similar wildness.

An historic detail has thus been given of the manner in which the hand of man has acted upon the surface of the inner regions of this mountainous country, as incorporated with and subservient to the powers and processes of Nature.  We will now take a view of the same agency—­acting, within narrower bounds, for the production of the few works of art and accommodations of life which, in so simple a state of society, could be necessary.  These are merely habitations of man and coverts for beasts, roads and bridges, and places of worship.

And to begin with the COTTAGES.  They are scattered over the vallies, and under the hill sides, and on the rocks; and, even to this day, in the more retired dales, without any intrusion of more assuming buildings;

    Cluster’d like stars some few, but single most,
    And lurking dimly in their shy retreats,
    Or glancing on each other cheerful looks,
    Like separated stars with clouds between.—­MS.

The dwelling-houses, and contiguous outhouses, are, in many instances, of the colour of the native rock, out of which they have been built; but, frequently the Dwelling or Fire-house, as it is ordinarily called, has been distinguished from the barn or byer by rough-cast and white wash, which, as the inhabitants are not hasty in renewing it, in a few years acquires, by the influence of weather, a tint at once sober and variegated.  As these houses have been, from father to son, inhabited by persons engaged in the same occupations, yet necessarily with changes in their circumstances,