Chapter IV: Part 4

The relief occasioned to Britain by the duke's victorious efforts was acknowledged by his being voted an income of L40,000 per annum in addition to his revenue as a prince of the royal house. The duke took no part in the Flanders campaign of 1746, but in 1747 he again opposed the still victorious Marshal Saxe; and received a heavy defeat at the battle of Lauffeld, or Val, near Maestricht (2nd of July 1747). During the ten years of peace Cumberland occupied himself chiefly with his duties as captain-general, and the result of his work was clearly shown in the conduct of the army in the Seven Years' War. His unpopularity, which had steadily increased since Culloden, interfered greatly with his success in politics, and when the death of the prince of Wales brought a minor next in succession to the throne the duke was not able to secure for himself the contingent regency, which was vested in the princess-dowager of Wales. In 1757, the Seven Years' War having broken out, Cumberland was placed at the head of a motley army of allies to defend Hanover. At Hastenbeck, near Hameln, on the 26th of July 1757, he was defeated by the superior forces of D'Estrees (see SEVEN YEARS' WAR). In September of the same year his defeat had almost become disgrace. Driven from point to point, and at last hemmed in by the French under Richelieu, he capitulated at Klosterzeven on the 8th of the month, agreeing to disband his army and to evacuate Hanover. His disgrace was completed on his return to England by the king's refusal to be bound by the terms of the duke's agreement. In chagrin and disappointment he retired into private life, after having formally resigned the public offices he held. In his retirement he made no attempt to justify his conduct, applying in his own case the discipline he had enforced in others. For a few years he lived quietly at Windsor, and subsequently in London, taking but little part in politics. He did much, however, to displace the Bute ministry and that of Grenville, and endeavoured to restore Pitt to office. Public opinion had now set in his favour, and he became almost as popular as he had been in his youth. Shortly before his death the duke was requested to open negotiations with Pitt for a return to power. This was, however, unsuccessful. On the 31st of October 1765 the duke died.

A Life of the duke of Cumberland by Andrew Henderson was published in
1766, and anonymous (Richard Rolt) _Historical Memoirs_ appeared in
1767. See especially A. N. Campbell Maclachlan, _William Augustus,
Duke of Cumberland_ (1876).

CUMBERLAND, the north-westernmost county of England, bounded N. by the Scottish counties of Dumfries and Roxburgh, E. by Northumberland, S. by Westmorland and Lancashire, and W. by the Irish Sea. Its area is 1520.4 sq m. In the south the county includes about one-half of the celebrated LAKE DISTRICT (q.v.), with the highest mountain in England, Scafell Pike (3210 ft.), and the majority of the principal lakes, among which are Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite, Buttermere and Crummock Water, Ennerdale, Wastwater, and, on the boundary with Westmorland, Ullswater. From this district valleys radiate north, west and south to a flat coastal belt, the widest part of which (about 8 m.) is found in the north in the Solway Plain, bordering Solway Firth, which here intervenes between England and Scotland. The valley of the Eden, opening upon this plain from the south-east, separates the mountainous Lake District from the straight westward face of a portion of the Pennine Chain (q.v.), which, though little of it lies within this county, reaches its highest point within it in Cross Fell (2930 ft.). A well-marked pass, called the Tyne Gap, at the water-parting between the rivers Irthing and South Tyne, traversed by the Newcastle & Carlisle railway, intervenes between these hills and their northward continuation in the hills of the Scottish border. Besides the waters of the Eden, Solway Firth receives those of the Esk, which enter Cumberland from Scotland. Liddel Water, joining this river from the north east from Liddisdale, forms a large part of the boundary with Scotland. The Eden receives the Irthing from the east, and from the Lake District the Caldew, rising beneath Skiddaw and joining the main river at Carlisle, and the Eamont, draining Ullswater and forming part of the boundary with Westmorland. The principal streams flowing east and south from the Lake District are the Derwent, from Borrowdale and Derwentwater, the Eden from Ennerdale, the Esk from Eskdale, and the Duddon, forming the greater part of the boundary with Lancashire. There are valuable salmon fisheries in the Eden, and trout are taken in many of the streams and lakes.

_Geology._--The mountainous portion of Cumberland is built up of two
different types of rock. The older, a sedimentary slaty series of
Ordovician age, the Skiddaw slates, surrounds Bassenthwaite,
Saddleback, Crummock Water, Keswick and Cockermouth and the western
end of Ennerdale Water. The same formation is found in the northern
flanks of Ullswater also north and east of Whitbeck. The other type of
rock is volcanic; it gives a more rugged aspect to the scenery, as may
be seen in comparing the rough outlines of Scafell and Honister Crags
or Helvellyn with the smoother form of Saddleback or Skiddaw. These
volcanic rocks, owing to much alteration, are often slaty; they have
been called the "green slates and porphyries" or the Borrowdale
Series. The Skiddaw slates are usually separated from the newer green
slates above them by a plane of differential movement, for both have
been thrust by earth-pressures from south to north, but the former
rocks have travelled farther than the latter which have lagged behind;
hence Messrs Marr and Harker describe the plane of separation as a
"lag-fault." Much general faulting and folding have resulted from the
movement; the thrusting took place in Devonian times. About the same
period great masses of granitic rock were intruded into the slates in
the form of laccolites, which often lie along the lag planes. Such
rocks are the granophyre hills of Buttermere and Ennerdale, the
microgranite patches on either side of the Vale of St John, and the
great mass of Eskdale granite which reaches from Wastwater to the
flanks of Black Combe. At Carrock Fell, N.E. of Skiddaw, is an
extremely interesting complex of volcanic rocks, and in many other
places are diabase and other forms, e.g. the well-known rock at Castle
Head, Keswick.

From Pooley Bridge, Ullswater, on the east, by Udale round to Egremont
on the west, the mountainous region just described, is surrounded by
the Carboniferous Limestone series, with a conglomerate at the base.
Upon these rocks the coalfield of Whitehaven rests and extends as far
as Maryport. The coal seams are worked for some distance beneath the
sea. The vale of Eden between Penrith, Hornsby and Wreay is occupied
by Permian sandstone, usually bright red in colour. Red Triassic rocks
form a strip about 4 m. broad east of the Permian outcrop; a similar
strip forms a coastal fringe from St Bees Head to Duddon Sands. The
same formations are spread out round Carlisle, Brampton, Longtown,
Wigton and Aspatria. East of Carlisle they are covered by an outlier
of Lias. A great dislocation, the Pennine Fault, runs along the
eastern side of the vale of Eden; it throws up the Lower Carboniferous
limestones with their associated shales and sandstones to form the
elevated ground in the north and north-east of the county. Several
basic intrusions penetrate the limestone series, the best known being
the Whin Sill, which may be traced for a number of miles northward
from Crossfell. Evidences of glacial action are abundant; till with
sands and gravel lie on the lower ground; striated rocks and _roches
moutonnees_ are common; perched blocks are found on the plateau by
Sprinkling Tarn and elsewhere. Moraine mounds are quite numerous in
the valleys, and have frequently been the cause of small lakes.

_Climate and Agriculture._--The climate is generally temperate, but in the higher parts bleak, snow sometimes lying fully six months of the year on Cross Fell and the mountains of the Lake District. As regards rainfall, the physical configuration makes for contrast. At Carlisle, on the Solway plain, the mean annual fall is 30.6 in. At Penrith, on the north-eastern flank of the Lake District, it is 31.67; on the western flank 42.3 in. are recorded at Ravenglass, close to the coast, and 51.78 at Cockermouth, some miles inland. In the heart of the district, however, the fall is as a rule much heavier, in fact, the heaviest recorded in the British Isles (see LAKE DISTRICT). Somewhat less than three-fifths of the total area of the county is under cultivation, the proportion being higher than that of the neighbouring counties of Northumberland and Westmorland, but still much below the average of the English counties. Black peaty earth is the most prevalent soil in the mountainous districts; but dry loams occur in the lowlands, and are well adapted to green crops, grain and pasture. Wheat and barley are practically neglected, but large crops of oats are grown. Turnips and swedes form the bulk of the green crops. Hill pasture amounts to nearly 270,000 acres, and a good number of cattle are reared, but the principal resource of the farmer is sheep-breeding. The sheep on the lowland farms are generally of the Leicester class or cross-bred between the Leicester and Herdwick, with a few Southdowns. Throughout the mountainous districts the Herdwicks have taken the place of the smaller black-faced heath variety of sheep once so commonly met with on the sheep farms. They are peculiar to this part of England; the ewes and wethers and many of the rams are polled, the faces and legs are speckled, and the wool is finer and heavier in fleece than that of the heath breed. They originally came from the neighbourhood of Muncaster in the Duddon and Esk district, and tradition ascribes their origin variously to introduction by Scandinavian settlers, or to parents that escaped from a wrecked ship of the Spanish Armada. In general they belong to the proprietors of the sheep-walks, and have been farmed out with them from time immemorial, from which circumstance it is said they obtained the name of "Herdwicks." Long after the Norman Conquest Cumberland remained one of the most densely forested regions of England, and much of the low-lying land is still well wooded, the Lake District in particular displaying beautiful contrasts between bare mountain and tree-clad valley. The oak, ash and birch are the principal natural trees, while sycamores have been planted for shelter round many farmsteads. Plantations of larch are also numerous, and the holly, yew, thorn and juniper flourish locally.

Landed property was formerly much divided in this county, and the smaller holdings were generally occupied by their owners, who were known as "statesmen," i.e. "estatesmen," a class of men long noted for their sturdy independence and attachment to routine husbandry. Most of these estates were held of the lords of manors under customary tenure, which subjected them to the payments of fines and heriots on alienation as well as on the death of the lord or tenant. According to the _Agricultural Survey_ printed in 1794, about two-thirds of the county was held by this tenure, in parcels worth from L15 to L30 rental. On large estates, also, the farms were in general rather small, few then reaching L200 a year, held on verbal contracts, or very short leases, and burdened like the small estates with payments or services over and above a money rent. In modern times these conditions have changed, the "statesmen" gradually becoming extinct as a class, and many of the small holdings falling into the hands of the larger landed proprietors.

_Other Industries._--Carlisle is the seat of a variety of manufactures; there are also in the county cotton and woollen industries, pencil mills at Keswick, and iron shipbuilding yards at Whitehaven. But the mining industry is the most important, coal being raised principally in the district about Whitehaven, Workington and Maryport. Side by side with this industry much iron ore is raised, and there is a large output of pig-iron, and ore is also found in the south, in the neighbourhood of Millom. Gypsum, zinc and some lead are mined. Copper was formerly worked near Keswick, and there was a rich deposit of black lead at the head of Borrowdale. Granite and limestone are extensively quarried. Stone is very largely used even for housebuilding, a fine green slate being often employed. Shap and other granites are worked for building and roadstones.

_Communications._--The chief ports of Cumberland are Whitehaven, Workington, Maryport, Harrington and Silloth. The London & North-Western railway enters the county near Penrith, and terminates at Carlisle, which is also served by the Midland. The Caledonian, North British and Glasgow & South-Western lines further serve this city, which is thus an important junction in through communications between England and Scotland. The North-Eastern railway connects Carlisle with Newcastle. The Maryport & Carlisle, the Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith, and the Cleator & Workington Junction lines serve the districts indicated by their names, while the Furness railway passes along the west coast from the district of Furness in Lancashire as far north as Whitehaven, also serving Cleator and Egremont. The Ravenglass & Eskdale light railway gives access from this system to Boot in Eskdale. Coaches and motor cars maintain passenger communications in the Lake District where the railways do not penetrate.

_Population and Administration._--The area of the ancient and the administrative county is 973,086 acres, with a population in 1891 of 266,549 and in 1901 of 266,933. The county contains five wards, divisions which in this and neighbouring counties correspond to hundreds, and also appear in Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire in Scotland. The municipal boroughs are Carlisle (pop. 45,480), a city and the county town, Whitehaven (19,324), and Workington (26,143). The other urban districts are Arlecdon and Frizington (5341), Aspatria (2885), Cleator Moor (8120), Cockermouth (5355), Egremont (5761), Harrington (3679), Holme Cultram (4275), Keswick (4451), Maryport (11,897), Millom (10,426), Penrith (9182), Wigton (3692). Of these all except Keswick, Millom and Penrith are in the industrial district of the west and north-west. The urban district of Holme Cultram includes the port of Silloth. Among lesser towns may be mentioned St Bees (1236), on the coast south of Whitehaven, until 1897 the seat of a Church of England theological college. The grammar school here, founded in 1533, is liberally endowed, with scholarships and exhibitions. Cumberland is in the northern circuit, and assizes are held at Carlisle. It has one court of quarter sessions and 12 petty sessional divisions. The city of Carlisle has a separate commission of the peace and court of quarter sessions. There are 213 civil parishes. Cumberland is in the diocese of Carlisle, with a small portion in that of Newcastle. There are 167 ecclesiastical parishes or districts within the county. There are four parliamentary divisions, the Northern or Eskdale, Mid or Penrith, Cockermouth and Western or Egremont, each returning one member; while the parliamentary boroughs of Carlisle and Whitehaven each return one member.

_History._--After the withdrawal of the Romans (of whose occupation there are various important relics in the county) little is known of the region which is now Cumberland, until the great battle of Ardderyd in 573 resulted in its consolidation with the kingdom of Strathclyde. About 670-680 the western district between the Solway and the Mersey was conquered by the Angles of Northumbria and remained an integral portion of that kingdom until the Danish invasion of the 9th century. In 878 the kingdom of the Cumbri is referred to, but without any indication of its extent, and the first mention of Cumberland to denote a geographical area occurs in 945 when it was ceded by Edmund to Malcolm of Scotland. At this date it included the territory north and south of the Solway from the Firth of Forth to the river Duddon. The Scottish supremacy was not uninterrupted, for the district at the time of its invasion by Ethelred in 1000 was once more a stronghold of the Danes, whose influence is clearly traceable in the nomenclature of the Lake District. At the time of the Norman invasion Cumberland was a dependency of the earldom of Northumbria, but its history at this period is very obscure, and no notice of it occurs in the Domesday Survey of 1086; Kirksanton, Bootle and Whicham, however, are entered under the possessions of the earl of Northumbria in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The real Norman conquest of Cumberland took place in 1092, when William Rufus captured Carlisle, repaired the city, built the castle, and after sending a number of English husbandmen to till the land, placed the district under the lordship of Ranulf Meschines. The fief of Ranulf was called the Power or Honour of Carlisle, and a sheriff of Carlisle is mentioned in 1106. The district was again captured by the Scots in the reign of Stephen, and on its recovery in 1157 the boundaries were readjusted to include the great barony of Coupland. At this date the district was described as the county of Carlisle, and the designation county of Cumberland is not adopted in the sheriff's accounts until 1177. The five present wards existed as administrative areas in 1278, when they were termed bailiwicks, the designation ward not appearing until the 16th century, though the bailiwicks of the Forest of Cumberland are termed wards in the 14th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries each of the five wards was under the administration of a chief constable.

Owing to its position on the Border Cumberland was the scene of constant warfare from the time of its foundation until the union of England and Scotland, and families like the Tilliols, the Lucies, the Greystokes, and the Dacres were famous for their exploits in checking or avenging the depredations of the Scots. During the War of Independence in the reign of Edward I. Carlisle was the headquarters of the English army. In the Wars of the Roses the prevailing sympathy was with the Lancastrian cause, which was actively supported by the representatives of the families of Egremont, Dacre and Greystoke. In 1542 the Scottish army under James V. suffered a disastrous defeat at Solway Moss. After the union of the crowns of England and Scotland in 1603, the countries hitherto known as "the Borders" were called "the Middle Shires," and a period of comparative peace ensued. On the outbreak of the Civil War of the 17th century the northern counties associated in raising forces for the king, and the families of Howard, Dalston, Dacre and Musgrave rendered valuable service to the royalist cause. In 1645 Carlisle was captured by the parliamentary forces, but in April 1648 it was retaken by Sir Philip Musgrave and Sir Thomas Glenham, and did not finally surrender until the autumn of 1648. Cumberland continued, however, to support the Stuarts; it was one of the first counties to welcome back Charles II.; in 1715 it was associated with the rising on behalf of the Pretender, and Carlisle was the chief seat of operations in the 1745 rebellion.

In 685 Carlisle and the surrounding district was annexed by Ecgfrith king of Northumbria to the diocese of Lindisfarne, to which it continued subject, at least until the Danish invasion of the 9th century. In 1133 Henry I. created Carlisle (q.v.) a bishopric. The diocese included the whole of modern Cumberland (except the barony of Coupland and the parishes of Alston, Over-Denton and Kirkandrews), and also the barony of Appleby in Westmorland. The archdeaconry of Carlisle, co-extensive with the diocese, comprised four deaneries. Coupland was a deanery in the archdeaconry of Richmond and diocese of York until 1541, when it was annexed to the newly created diocese of Chester. In 1856 the area of the diocese of Carlisle was extended, so as to include the whole of Cumberland except the parish of Alston, the whole of Westmorland, and the Furness district of Lancashire. In 1858 the deaneries were made to number eighteen, and in 1870 were increased to twenty.

The principal industries of Cumberland have been from earliest times connected with its valuable fisheries and abundant mineral wealth. The mines of Alston and the iron mines about Egremont were worked in the 12th century. The Keswick copper mines were worked in the reign of Henry III., but the black-lead mine was not worked to any purpose until the 18th century. Coal-mining is referred to in the 15th century, and after the revival of the mining industries in the 16th century, rose to great importance. The saltpans about the estuaries of the Esk and the Eden were a source of revenue in the 12th century.

Cumberland returned three members for the county to the parliament of 1290, and in 1295 returned in addition two members for the city of Carlisle and two members each for the boroughs of Cockermouth and Egremont. The boroughs did not again return members until in 1640 Cockermouth regained representation. Under the Reform Act of 1832, Cumberland returned four members for two divisions, and Whitehaven returned one member. The county now returns six members to parliament; one each for the four divisions of the county, Egremont, Cockermouth, Eskdale and Penrith, one for the city of Carlisle and one for the borough of Whitehaven.

_Antiquities._--Very early crosses, having Celtic or Scandinavian characteristics, are seen at Gosforth, Bewcastle and elsewhere. In ecclesiastical architecture Cumberland is not rich as a whole, but it possesses Carlisle cathedral, with its beautiful choir, and certain monastic remains of importance. Among these are the fine remnants of Lanercost priory (see BRAMPTON). Calder Abbey, near Egremont, a Cistercian abbey founded in 1134, has ruins of the church and cloisters, of Norman and Early English character, and is very beautifully situated on the Calder. The parish Church of St Bees, with good Norman and Early English work, belonged to a Benedictine priory of 1120; but according to tradition the first religious house here was a nunnery founded c. 650 by St Bega, who became its abbess. Among the parish churches there are a few instances of towers strongly fortified for purposes of defence; that at Burgh-on-the-Sands, near Carlisle, being a good illustration. Castles, in some cases ruined, in others modernized, are fairly numerous, both near the Scottish border and elsewhere. Naworth Castle near Brampton is the finest example; others are at Bewcastle, Carlisle, Kirkoswald, Egremont, Cockermouth and Millom. Among many notable country seats, Rose Castle, the palace of the bishops of Carlisle; Greystoke Castle and Armathwaite Hall may be mentioned.

See J. Nicolson and R. Burn, _History and Antiquities of the Counties
of Westmorland and Cumberland_ (London, 1777); W. Hutchinson, _History
of Cumberland_ (Carlisle, 1794); S. Jefferson, _History and
Antiquities of Cumberland_ (Carlisle, 1840-1842); S. Gilpin, _Songs
and Ballads of Cumberland_ (London, 1866); W. Dickinson, _Glossary of
Words and Phrases of Cumberland_ (London, English Dialect Society,
1878, with a supplement, 1881); Sir G. F. Duckett, _Early Sheriffs of
Cumberland_ (Kendal, 1879); J. Denton, "Account of Estates and
Families in the County of Cumberland, 1066-1603," in _Antiquarian
Society's Transactions_ (1887); R. S. Ferguson, _History of
Cumberland_ (London, 1890); "Archaeological Survey of Cumberland," in
Archaeologia, vol. liii. (London, 1893); W. Jackson, _Papers and
Pedigrees relating to Cumberland_ (2 vols., London, 1892); T. Ellwood,
_The Landnama Book of Iceland as it illustrates the Dialect and
Antiquities of Cumberland_ (Kendal, 1894); _Victoria County History,
Cumberland_; and _Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland
Antiquarian and Archaeological Society_.

CUMBERLAND, a city and the county-seat of Allegany county, Maryland, U.S.A., on the Potomac river, about 178 m. W. by N. of Baltimore and about 153 m. S. by E. of Pittsburg. Pop. (1890) 12,729; (1900) 17,128, of whom 1113 were foreign-born and 1100 were of negro descent; (1910) 21,839. Cumberland is served by the Baltimore & Ohio, the Western Maryland, the Pennsylvania, the Cumberland & Pennsylvania (from Cumberland to Piedmont, Virginia), and the George's Creek & Cumberland railways, the last a short line extending to Lonaconing (19 m.); by an electric line extending to Western Port, Maryland; and by the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, of which it is a terminus. The city is about 635 ft. above sea-level, and from a distance appears to be completely shut in by lofty ranges of hills, which are cut through to the westward by a deep gorge called "The Narrows," making a natural gateway of great beauty. Cumberland has a large trade in coal, which is mined in the vicinity. As a manufacturing centre it ranked in 1905 second in the state, the chief products being iron, steel, bricks, flour, cement, silk and leather; there is also a large dyeing and cleaning establishment. The value of the city's factory products increased from $2,900,267 in 1900 to $4,595,023 in 1905, or 58.4%. Cumberland is an important jobbing centre also. The municipality owns and operates its water-works and electric lighting plant. The first settlement of the place was made in 1750; in 1754 Fort Cumberland was erected within what are now the city limits, and in the year following this fort was occupied by General Edward Braddock. Cumberland was laid out in 1763, but there was little growth until 1787, and it was not incorporated as a town until 1815; it was chartered as a city in 1850.

CUMBERLAND, a township of Providence county, Rhode Island, U.S.A., in the N.E. part of the state, about 6 m. N. of Providence and having the Blackstone river for most of its W. boundary. Pop. (1890) 8090; (1900) 8925, of whom 3473 were foreign-born; (1910) 10,107; area, 27.5 sq. m. It is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway. Within its borders are the villages of Cumberland Hill, Diamond Hill, Arnold Mills, Abbott Run, Berkeley, Robin Hollow, Happy Hollow, East Cumberland, and parts of Manville, Ashton, Lonsdale and Valley Falls. The surface of the township is generally hilly and rocky. In the N. part is a valuable granite quarry; and limestone, and some coal, iron and gold are also found. Cumberland has been called the "mineral pocket of New England." The Blackstone and its tributaries provide considerable water power; and there are various manufactures, including cotton goods, silk goods, and horse-shoes and other iron ware. The value of the township's factory product in 1905 was $3,171,318, an increase of 80.6% since 1900, this ratio of increase being greater than that shown by any other "municipality" in the state having a population in 1900 of 8000 or more. At Lonsdale, William Blackstone (c. 1595-1675), the first permanent white settler within the present limits of Rhode Island, built his residence, "Study Hall," about 1635. Cumberland was originally a part of Rehoboth, and then of Attleborough, Massachusetts, and for many years was called, like other sparse settlements, the Gore, or Attleborough Gore. In 1747, by the royal decree establishing the boundary between Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Attleborough Gore, with other territory formerly under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, was annexed to Rhode Island, and the township of Cumberland was incorporated, the name being adopted in honour of William Augustus, duke of Cumberland. In 1867 a part of Cumberland was set off to form the township of Woonsocket.

CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS (or more correctly the Cumberland Plateau or Highlands), the westernmost of the three great divisions of the Appalachian uplift in the United States, composed of many small ranges of mountains (of which Cumberland Mountain in eastern Kentucky is one). It extends from Pennsylvania to Alabama, attaining its greatest height (about 4000 ft.) in Virginia. The plateau is rich in a variety of mineral products, of which special mention may be made of coal, which occurs in many places, and of the beautiful marbles quarried in that portion of the plateau which lies between Virginia and Kentucky and crosses Tennessee. The plateau has an abrupt descent, almost an escarpment, into the great Appalachian Valley on its E., while the W. slope is deeply and roughly broken. The whole mass is eroded in Virginia into a maze of ridges. Cumberland Mountain parts the waters of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. This range and the other ranges about it are perhaps the loveliest portion of the whole plateau. The peaks here and in the Blue Ridge to the E. are the highest of the Appalachian system. Forest-filled valleys, rounded hills and rugged gorges afford in every part scenery of surpassing beauty. The Cumberland Valley between the Cumberland range and the Pine range is one of special fame. In the former range there are immense caverns and subterranean streams. Cumberland Gap, crossing the ridge at about 167 ft. above the sea, where Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee meet, is a gorge about 500 ft. deep, with steep sides that barely give room in places for a roadway. The mountains, river and gap were all discovered by a party of Virginians in 1748, and named in honour of the victor of Culloden, William, duke of Cumberland. Afterwards the gap gained a place in American history as one of the main pathways by which emigrants crossed the mountains to Kentucky and Tennessee. During the Civil War it was a position of great strategic importance, as it afforded an entrance to eastern and central Tennessee from Kentucky, which was held by the Union arms; and it was repeatedly occupied in alternation by the opposing forces.

The mountaineers of Kentucky and Tennessee are a strange stock, who retain in their customs and habits the primitive conditions of a life that has elsewhere long since disappeared. They have been pictured in the novels of Miss Murfree and John Fox, Junr. They are a tall, straight, angular folk, of fine physical development; the volunteers for the Union army from Kentucky and Tennessee during the Civil War--most of whom came from the non-slave-holding mountain region--exceeded in physical development the volunteers from all other states. For the education of these mountaineers Major-General Oliver Otis Howard founded in 1895 at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee, the Lincoln Memorial University (co-educational; non-sectarian; opened in 1897), which has collegiate, normal training and industrial courses, and an affiliated school of medicine, Tennessee Medical College, at Knoxville. The university had in 1907-1908 14 instructors and 570 students. Berea College in Kentucky was a pioneer institution for the education of mountaineers.

CUMBERLAND RIVER, a large southern branch of the Ohio river, U.S.A., rising in the highest part of the Cumberland plateau in south-east Kentucky, and emptying into the Ohio in Kentucky (near Smithland) after a devious course of 688 m. through that state and Tennessee. It drains a basin of somewhat more than 18,000 sq. m., and is navigable for light-draught steamers through about 500 m. under favourable conditions--Burnside, Pulaski county, 518 m. from the mouth, is the head of navigation--and through 193 m.--to Nashville--all the year round; for boats drawing not more than 3 ft. the river is navigable to Nashville for 6 to 8 months. At the Great Falls, in Whitley county, Kentucky, it drops precipitously 63 ft. Above the falls it is a mountain stream, of little volume in the dry months. It descends rapidly at its head to the highland bench below the mountains and traverses this to the falls, then flows in rapids (the Great Shoals) for some 10 m. through a fine gorge with cliffs 300-400 ft. high, and descends between bluffs of decreasing height and beauty into its lower level. Save in the mountains its gradient is slight, and below the falls, except for a number of small rapids, the flow of the stream is equable. Timbered ravines lend charm to much of its shores, and in the mountains the scenery is most beautiful. Below Nashville the stream is some 400 to 500 ft. wide, and its high banks are for the most part of alluvium, with rocky bluffs at intervals. At the mouth of the river lies Cumberland Island, in the Ohio. During low water of the latter stream the Cumberland discharges around both ends of the island, but in high water of the Ohio the gradient of the Cumberland is so slight that its waters are held back, forming a deep quiet pool that extends some 20 m. up the river. A system of locks and dams below Nashville was planned in 1846 by a private company, which accomplished practically nothing. Congress appropriated $155,000 in 1832-1838; in the years immediately after 1888 $305,000 was expended, notably for deepening the shoals at the junction of the Cumberland and the Ohio; in 1892 a project was undertaken for 7 locks and dams 52 ft. wide and 280 ft. long below Nashville. Above Nashville $346,000 was expended on the open channel project (of 1871-1872) from Nashville to Cumberland Ford (at Pineville); in 1886 a canalization project was undertaken and 22 locks and dams below Burnside and 6 above Burnside were planned, but by the act of 1907 the project was modified--$2,319,000 had been appropriated up to 1908 for the work of canalization. During the Civil War Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, and Fort Henry near by on the Tennessee were erected by the Confederates, and their capture by Flag-officer A. H. Foote and General Grant (Feb. 1862) was one of the decisive events of the war, opening the rivers as it did for the advance of the Union forces far into Confederate Territory.

CUMBRAES, THE, two islands forming part of the county of Bute, Scotland, lying in the Firth of Clyde, between the southern shores of Bute and the coast of Ayrshire. GREAT CUMBRAE ISLAND, about 1(1/2) m. W.S.W. of Largs, is 3(3/4) m. long and 2 m. broad, and has a circumference of 10 m. and an area of 3200 acres or 5 sq. m. Its highest point is 417 ft. above the sea. There is some fishing and a little farming, but the mainstay of the inhabitants is the custom of the visitors who crowd every summer to Millport, which is reached by railway steamer from Largs. This town (pop. 1901, 1663) is well situated at the head of a fine bay and has a climate that is both warm and bracing. Its chief public buildings include the cathedral, erected in Gothic style on rising ground behind the town, the college connected with it, the garrison, a picturesque seat belonging to the marquess of Bute, who owns the island, the town hall, a public hall, library and reading room, the Lady Margaret fever hospital, and a marine biological station. The cathedral, originally the collegiate church, was founded in 1849 by the earl of Glasgow and opened in 1851. In 1876 it was constituted the cathedral of Argyll and the Isles. Millport enjoys exceptional facilities for boating and bathing, and there is also a good golf-course. Pop. (1901) 1754, of whom 1028 were females, and 59 spoke both English and Gaelic. LITTLE CUMBRAE ISLAND lies to the south, separated by the Tan, a strait half a mile wide. It is 1(3/4) m. long, barely 1 m. broad, and has an area of almost a square mile. Its highest point is 409 ft. above sea-level. On the bold cliffs of the west coast stands a lighthouse. Robert II. is said to have built a castle on the island which was demolished by Cromwell's soldiers in 1653.

The strata met with in the Great and Little Cumbrae belong to the
Upper Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous systems. The former,
consisting of false-bedded sandstones and conglomerates, are confined
to the larger island. The Carboniferous rocks of the Cumbrae belong to
the lower part of the Calciferous Sandstone series with the
accompanying volcanic zone. In the larger island these sediments,
comprising sandstones, red, purple and mottled clays with occasional
bands of nodular limestone or cornstone, occupy a considerable area on
the north side of Millport Bay. In the Little Cumbrae they appear on
the east side, where they underlie and are interbedded with the lavas.
The interesting geological feature of these islands is the development
of Lower Carboniferous volcanic rocks. They cover nearly the whole of
the Little Cumbrae, where they give rise to marked terraced features
and are arranged in a gentle synclinal fold. The flows are often
scoriaceous at the top and sometimes display columnar structure, as in
the crags at the lighthouse. Those rocks examined microscopically
consist of basalts which are often porphyritic. In Great Cumbrae the
intrusive rocks mark four periods of eruption, three of which may be
of Carboniferous age. The oldest, consisting of trachytes, occur as
sheets and dikes trending generally E.N.E., and are confined chiefly
to the Upper Old Red Sandstone. They seem to be of older date than the
Carboniferous lavas of Little Cumbrae and south Bute. Next come dikes
of olivine basalt of the type of the Lion's Haunch on Arthur's Seat,
which, though possessing the same general trend as the trachytes, are
seen to cut them. The members of the third group comprise dikes of
dolerite or basalt with or without olivine, which have a general east
and west trend, and as they intersect the two previous groups they
must be of later date. They probably belong to the east and west
quartz dolerite dikes which are now referred to late Carboniferous
time. Lastly there are representatives of the basalt dikes of Tertiary
age with a north-west trend.

CUMIN, or CUMMIN (_Cuminum Cyminum_), an annual herbaceous plant, a member of the natural order Umbelliferae and probably a native of some part of western Asia, but scarcely known at the present time in a wild state. It was early cultivated in Arabia, India and China, and in the countries bordering the Mediterranean. Its stem is slender and branching, and about a foot in height; the leaves are deeply cut, with filiform segments; the flowers are small and white. The fruits, the so-called seeds, which constitute the cumin of pharmacy, are fusiform or ovoid in shape and compressed laterally; they are two lines long, are hotter to the taste, lighter in colour, and larger than caraway seeds, and have on each half nine fine ridges, overlying as many oil-channels or vittae. Their strong aromatic smell and warm bitterish taste are due to the presence of about 3% of an essential oil. The tissue of the seeds contains a fatty oil, with resin, mucilage and gum, malates and albuminous matter; and in the pericarp there is much tannin. The volatile oil of cumin, which may be separated by distillation of the seed with water, is mainly a mixture of cymol or cymene, C10H14, and cumic aldehyde, C6H4(C3H7)COH. Cumin is mentioned in Isaiah xxviii. 25, 27, and Matthew xxiii. 23, and in the works of Hippocrates and Dioscorides. From Pliny we learn that the ancients took the ground seed medicinally with bread, water or wine, and that it was accounted the best of condiments as a remedy for squeamishness. It was found to occasion pallor of the face, whence the expression of Horace, _exsangue cuminum_ (_Epist._ i. 19), and that of Persius, _pallentis grana cumini_ (_Sat._ v. 55). Pliny relates the story that it was employed by the followers of Porcius Latro, the celebrated rhetorician, in order to produce a complexion such as bespeaks application to study (xx. 57). In the middle ages cumin was one of the commonest spices of European growth. Its average price per pound in England in the 13th and 14th centuries was 2d. or, at present value, about 1s. 4d. (Rogers, _Hist. of Agric. and Prices_, i. 631). It is stimulant and carminative, and is employed in the manufacture of curry powder. The medicinal use of the drug is now confined to veterinary practice. Cumin is exported from India, Mogador, Malta and Sicily.

CUMMERBUND, a girdle or waistbelt (Hindostani _kamar-band_, a loin-band). In the East the principle of health is to keep the head cool and the stomach warm; the turban protects the one from the sun, and the cummerbund ensures the other against changes of temperature. In India the cummerbund consists of many folds of muslin or bright-coloured cloth.

CUMMING, JOSEPH GEORGE (1812-1868), English geologist and archaeologist, was born at Matlock in Derbyshire on the 15th of February 1812. He was educated at Oakham grammar school, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, taking the degree of M.A., and entering holy orders in 1835. In 1841 he was appointed vice-principal of King William's College, Castletown, in the Isle of Man, and this position he held until 1856. During this period his leisure time was devoted to a study of the geology and archaeology of the island. The results were published in a classic volume _The Isle of Man; its History, Physical, Ecclesiastical, Civil and Legendary_ (1848). In 1856 he became master of King Edward's grammar school at Lichfield, in 1858 warden and professor of classical literature and geology in Queen's College, Birmingham, in 1862 rector of Mellis, in Suffolk, and in 1867 vicar of St John's, Bethnal Green, London. He died in London on the 21st of September 1868.

CUMNOCK AND HOLMHEAD, a police burgh of Ayrshire, Scotland, on the Lugar, 33(3/4) m. S. of Glasgow by road, with two stations (Cumnock and Old Cumnock) on the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 3088. It lies in the parish of Old Cumnock (pop. 5144), and is a thriving town, with a town hall, cottage hospital, public library and an athenaeum. Coal and ironstone are extensively mined in the neighbourhood, and the manufactures include woollens, tweeds, agricultural implements and pottery. When Alexander Peden (1626-1686), the persecuted Covenanter, died, he was buried in the Boswell aisle of Auchinleck church; but his corpse was borne thence with every indignity by a company of dragoons to the foot of the gallows at Cumnock, where they intended to hang it in chains. This proving to be impracticable they buried it at the gallows-foot. After the Revolution the inhabitants out of respect for the "Prophet's" memory abandoned their then burying-ground and turned the old place of execution into the present cemetery. Five miles S.E. lies the parish of New Cumnock (pop. 5367) at the confluence of Afton Water and the Nith. It is rich in minerals, iron, coal, limestone and freestone, and has a station on the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Two miles N.W. of Cumnock is Auchinleck (pronounced Affleck), with a station on the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Coal and iron mining and farming are important industries. It is the seat of the Boswell family, three generations of which abbreviated greatness--Lord Auchinleck, the judge (who dubbed Dr Johnson "Ursa Major"), his son James, the biographer, and his grandson Sir Alexander, the author of "Gude nicht and joy be wi' you a'," "Jenny's Bawbee," "Jenny dang the weaver," and other songs and poems, who perished miserably in a duel. Pop. of Auchinleck parish (1901) 6605.

CUNARD, SIR SAMUEL, Bart. (1787-1865), British civil engineer, founder of the Cunard line of steam-ships, was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the 21st of November 1787. He was the son of a merchant, and was himself trained for the pursuits of commerce, in which, by his abilities and enterprising spirit, he attained a conspicuous position. When, in the early years of steam navigation, the English government made known its desire to substitute steam vessels for the sailing ships then employed in the mail service between England and America, Cunard heartily entered into the scheme, came to England, and accepted the government tender for carrying it out. In conjunction with Messrs Burns of Glasgow and Messrs MacIver of Liverpool, proprietors of rival lines of coasting steamers between Glasgow and Liverpool, he formed a company, and the first voyage of a Cunard steamship was successfully made by the "Britannia" from Liverpool to Boston, U.S.A., between July 4 and 19, 1840 (see STEAMSHIP LINES). In acknowledgment of his energetic and successful services Cunard was, in 1859, created a baronet. He died in London on the 28th of April 1865.

CUNAS, a tribe of Central American Indians. Their home is the Isthmus of Panama, from the Chagres to the Atrato. They are sometimes called Darien or San Blas Indians. They are a small active people, with remarkably light complexions.

CUNDINAMARCA, till 1909 a department of the eastern plateau of Colombia, South America, having the departments of Quesada and Tundama on the N., Tolima on the W. and S., and the Meta territory on the S.E. and E. The territorial redistribution of 1905 deprived Cundinamarca of its territories on the eastern plains, and a part of its territory in the Eastern Cordillera out of which Quesada and the Federal district were created--its area being reduced from 79,691 to 5060 sq. m., and its estimated population from 500,000 to 225,000. A considerable part of its area consists of plateaus enjoying a temperate climate and producing the fruits and cereals of the temperate zone, and another important part lies in the valley of the Magdalena and is tropical in character. The district of Fusagasuga in the southern part of this region is celebrated for the excellence of its coffee. The capital of the department was Facatativa (est. population, 7500), situated on the western margin of the _sabana_ of Bogota, 25 m. N.W. from that capital by rail. Other important towns are Caqueza, Sibate, La Meza and Tocaima.

CUNEIFORM (from Lat. _cuneus_, a wedge), a form of writing, extensively used in the ancient world, especially by the Babylonians and Assyrians. The word "cuneiform" was first applied in 1700 by Thomas Hyde, professor of Hebrew in the university of Oxford, in the expression "dactuli pyramidales seu cuneiformes," and it has found general acceptance, though efforts have been made to introduce the expression "arrow-headed" writing. The name "cuneiform" is fitting, for each character or sign is composed of a wedge ([symbol] or [symbol]), or a combination of wedges ([symbol]), written from left to right. The wedge is always pointed towards the right ([symbol]) or downwards ([symbol]) or aslant ([symbol]), or two may be so combined as to form an angle ([symbol]) called by German Assyriologists a _Winkelhaken_, a word now sometimes adopted by English writers on the subject. The word cuneiform has passed into most modern languages, but the Germans use _Keilschrift_ (i.e. wedge-script) and the Arabs _mismari_ ([Arabic: mismari]) or nail-writing.

Discovery and decipherment.

In Persia, 40 m. N.E. of Shiraz, is a range of hills, Mount Rachmet, in front of which, in a semicircular form, rises a vast terrace-like platform. It is partly natural, but was walled up in front, levelled off and used as the base of great temples and palaces. The earliest European, at present known to us, who visited the site was a wandering friar Odoricus (about A.D. 1320), who does not seem to have noticed the inscriptions cut in the stone. These were first observed by Josaphat Barbaro, a Venetian traveller, about 1472. In 1621 the ruins were visited by Pietro della Valle, who was the first to copy a few of the signs, which he sent in a letter to a friend in Naples. His copy was not well made, but it served the useful purpose of directing attention to an unknown script which was certain to attract scholars to the problem of its decipherment. To this end it was necessary that complete inscriptions and not merely separate signs should be made accessible to European scholars. The first man to attempt to satisfy this need was Sir John Chardin, in whose volumes of travels published at Amsterdam in 1711 one of the small inscriptions found at the ruins of Persepolis was carefully and accurately reproduced. It was now plainly to be seen, as indeed others had surmised, that these inscriptions at Persepolis had been written in three languages, distinguished each from other by an increasing complexity in the signs with which they were written. The three languages have since been determined as Persian, Susian and Babylonian. But before the decipherment could begin it was necessary that all the available material should be copied and published. The honour of performing this great task fell to Carsten Niebuhr, who visited Persepolis in March 1765, and in three weeks and a half copied all the texts, so well that little improvement has been made in them since. When Niebuhr returned to Denmark he studied carefully the little inscriptions and convinced himself that the guesses of some of his predecessors were correct, and that the inscriptions were to be read from left to right. He observed that three systems of writing were discernible, and that these were always kept distinct in the inscriptions. He did not, however, draw the natural conclusion that they represented three languages, but supposed that the proud builders of Persepolis had written their inscriptions in threefold form. He divided the little inscriptions into three classes, according to the manner of their writing, calling them classes I., II. and III. He then arranged all those he had copied that belonged to class I., and by careful comparison decided that in them there were employed altogether but forty-two signs. These he copied out and set in order in one of his plates. This list of signs was so nearly complete and accurate that later study has made but slight changes in it. When Niebuhr had made his list of signs he naturally enough decided that this language, whatever it might be, was written in alphabetic characters, a conclusion which later investigation has not overthrown. Beyond this Niebuhr was not able to go, and not even one sign revealed its secret to his inquiry. When, however, he had published his copies (in 1777) there were other scholars ready to take up the difficult task. Two scholars independently, Olav Tychsen of Rostock and Friedrich Munter of Copenhagen, began work upon the problem. Tychsen first observed that there occurred at irregular intervals in the inscriptions of the first class a wedge that pointed neither directly to the right nor downward, but inclined diagonally. This he suggested was the dividing sign used to separate words. This very simple discovery later became of great importance in the hands of Munter. Tychsen also correctly identified the alphabetic signs for "_a_," "_d_," "_u_" and "_s_," but he failed to decipher an entire inscription, chiefly perhaps because, through an error in history, he supposed that they were written during the Parthian dynasty (246 B.C.-A.D. 227). Munter was more fortunate than Tychsen in his historical researches, and this made him also more successful in linguistic attempts. He rightly identified the builders of Persepolis with the Achaemenian dynasty, and so located in time the authors of the inscriptions (538-465 B.C.). Independently of Tychsen he identified the oblique wedge as a divider between words, and found the meaning of the sign for "b." These may appear to be small matters, but it must be remembered that they were made without the assistance of any bilingual text, and were indeed taken bodily out of the gloom which had settled upon these languages centuries before. They did not, however, bring us much nearer to the desired goal of a reading of any portion of the inscriptions. The whole case indeed seemed now perilously near a stalemate. New methods must be found, and a new worker, with patience, persistence, power of combination, insight, the historical sense and the feeling for archaeological indications.