OF WESTMORELAND, 295

there till they were fattened upon the paſtures in ſum- mer. Farmers, in thoſe days,ſeldom eat any butcher- fi meat; they lived on bread and butter, and what other little matters the farm afforded. Now labeurers gene- rally breakfaſt on that very ancient food pottage, with the help of a little cheeſe and bread; they dine on but- cher-meat and potatoes, or pudding; and ſup on pota- toes, or pottage, or bread and cheeſe.

The bread generally eaten in the county'is made from oat-meal. Water and oat-meal are kneaded together in- to 2 paſte without any leaven z this paſte is rolled into a circular cake of about twenty inches in diameter, and is placed upon a thin flat plate of iron, called a girdle, un- der which a fire is put, and the cake thus baked goes by the name of cl/ap-bread, and is to be ſeen at almoſt every table in the county. This very particular deſcription of baking cakes may appear too minute, or altogether un- neceflary, and it owes its place here to the requeſt of ſome

“perſons of rank wha wiſhed to fe it recorded ſomewhere. “The meal is molly gropnd to ſuch a degree of fineneſs

that a meaſure of úxteen quarts will weigh ſixteen pounds, Farmers, labourers, and manufadtarers uſually have fife teen cakes made from fixteen pounds of meal, and as many baked in a day as will ſerve their families for a month. Such of the gentry as eat this ſort of bread, moſít of them now eating bread made from wheat, have it

baked much more frequently, and alſo much thinner. À

labouring man will eat ſixteen pounds of meal made into bread in a fortnight; the price of ſixteen pounds of meal ïs variable from 1s. ód. to 2s. ód.; the medium is 25, which gives IS. a-week for each labourer for bread; his cottage and his fuel coft at leaſt as much more. His wages for three-quarters of a-year are gs. a-week, and 8s. a-weecKk for the other quarter; but making allowance for broken days, 8s. a-week may be confidered as the full amount of

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