CUMBERLAND, the north-westmost co. of England, bounded n. by Scotland and the Solway firth, w. by the Irish sea, a. by Lancashire, e. by Westmoreland, Durham, and Northumberland. It is eleventh in size of the English counties; greatest length, 74 m.; greatest average breadth, 22; 75 m. of coast: area, 1523 sq.m.; being cultivated, and I in mountain and lake. The surface is mountainous in the s.w. and e.; the middle consists of hills, valleys, and elevated ridges; and the n. and n.w. districts, including the vale of Carlisle, are low, flat, or gently undulated. The mountains in the s.w. are high, rugged, and sterile, with deep and narrow valleys, lakes, rivers, water-falls, and woodlands. The chief mountains are Sca Fell Pike, 3,166 ft.: Sea Fell, 3,100; Hel vellyn, 2,055; Skiddaw, 3,022. From the latter are seen the Gorman ocean and the Irish sea. The Pennine chain, the great backbone of the n. of England, skirts the n.e. bor der of C., and rises in Cross Fell, 2,001 feet. C. has 15 lakes, the largest one, Ulles water, being 9 m. by 1. Six of the chief water-falls are 60 to 156 ft. high. The chief rivers are the Eden, running 35 m. n.w. into the Solway firth; the Esk, running s. into the same; and the Derwent, which collects the water of six lakes and several tarns, and runs 33 in. n.w. and D. into the Irish sea. The great west or Carlisle and Lancaster railway route from Edinburgh to London, crosses the n.e. part of Cumberland.
The lake district, or nearly the s.w. half of C., consists of Silurian slates, with pro« trusions of granite and trap rocks, and with new red sandstone along the coast s. of St. Bees Head. In the n. is a semicircular strip of carboniferous limestone; then follow strips of coal strata and permian rocks; then the new red sandstone plain of Carlisle. with carboniferous limestone on the n.c., including a trap-dike 30 m. long, parallel to and on the e. side of the Eden, and crossing to the w. near Ainstable. C. abounds in • mineral wealth—silver, copper, lead, iron, phunbago, gypsum, limestone, coal, slates, marbles, marl, and several of the more rare minerals.
In the mountainous parts, the climate is cold, wet, and variable, especially from July to Oct.; on the coast, it is mild. There is a fall of 50 in. of rain annually at Whitehaven, and of 68 at Keswick; while at some places among the mountains the fall sometimes reaches 100 inches. Half of the cultivated soil consists of dry loam. Much of the sub soil is wet clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, turnips, and potatoes. There are many small dairies. Many sheep and cattle are reared in the mountains. The estates are generally small, and farmed by the owners, or held under the lords of the manors by customary tenure. Many of the small or peasant proprietors have had their lands in their families for centuries, and have a high spirit of independence. There are manu factures of woolens—much being domestic—cottons, linen, earthenware, and glass. C. is divided into five wards or hundreds, 104 parishes, and nine poor-law unions. The chief towns are Carlisle, Cockermouth, Whitehaven, Workington, Maryport, Wigton, Penrith, Keswick, Egremont. Pop. '71, 220,253. In the same year the number of electors was 20,174. Its rental, in gross, was R1,236,929. C. returns eight members to parliament—four for the county, two for Carlisle, one for Cockermouth, and one for IN'hitehaven. C. formed part of Cumbria (q.v.). Many Roman relics have been found, such as altars, inscriptions, coins, instruments, utensils. During Saxon times, it was under Danish law. Henry III. united it to England. For three centuries before the union of England and Scotland, C. was the constant scene of war and devastation, from incursions of the English and Scotch into this, a debatable tract between the two king doms. It was again devastated in the civil wars of the 17th c., and in 1715 and 1745. C. had formerly several monasteries and hospitals; and on the borders, many towers or peel-houses; and it haS still some old Norman and Gothic churches,