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 a very irregular shape. Its greatest length is 40, and its greatest breadth 35 miles; containing, by the best estimate, 763 square miles, or 490,320 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. Population. The population, according to the returns of 1821, amounted to 51,359, of whom 25,513 were males, and 25,846 females. The families were 10,438; of whom 5096 were chiefly employed in agriculture, 3801 in trade, manufactures, or handicraft, and 1541 were comprised in neither of those classes. The increase of inhabitants in the preceding ten years had been only 12 per cent. The density of population is much less than in any other county, being but one individual to nine acres and a half of land. The greater part of the county consists of bleak Face of the and barren moors, and groups of lofty and naked Country. 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 those 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 such remote situations, that they are 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 Manufactures chiefly carried on at Kendal, a place early celebrated for woolen cloth, which bore its name. This manufacture, and that of linsey woolsey, as well as of coarse worsted stockings, is still continued, and recently considerable progress has been made in introducing the making of cotton goods. The principal rivers are the Eden, the Lune, the Rivers 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 are navigable, nor are there any artificial canals. This county gives titles to two noble families, the Representatives of Westmoreland and Lonsdale. Two members are returned to the House of Commons by the county, and two by the borough of Appleby, which, though small, is the capital of the county, and the place where the assizes and elections are held. The most remarkable seats of noblemen and gentlemen are the following: Lowther Castle, Lord Lonsdale; Appleby Castle, Lord Thanet; Abbot Hall, Christopher Wilson, Esq.; Mint House, J. H. Long, Esq.; Netherdale Hall, John Mounsey, Esq.; Brougham Hall, Henry Brougham, Esq.; Carlton Hall, Right Hon. Thomas Wallace. The town of Kendal contains 8984 inhabitants, and Kirby Lonsdale 1643; no other town in the county has a population of 1500. See Britton's Beauties of England; England Declimated; Parliamentary Population Returns. (w. w.) Boundaries.