'Nan's habits bewilder me,' observed Mildred. 'She eats so little flesh meat, as she calls it; and whatever time I go into the kitchen, she seems perpetually at tea.'
'Ay, four o'clock tea is the great meal of the day; the servants certainly care very little for meat here. I am often surprised, when I go into the cottages, to see the number of cakes just freshly baked; it is the most tempting meal they have. The girdle-cakes, and the little black teapot on the hob, and not unfrequently a great pile of brown toast, have often struck me as so appetising after a cold, wet ride, that I have often shared a bit and a sup with them. Have you ever heard of Kendal wigs, Miss Lambert?'
Mildred shook her head.
'They are very favourite cakes. Many a farmer's wife on a market-day thinks her purchases incomplete without bringing home a goodly quantity of wigs. I am rather fond of them myself. All my oat-bread, or havre-bread as they call it, is sent me by an old patient who lives at Kendal. Do you know there is a quaint proverb, very much used here, "as crafty as a Kendal fox"?'
'What is the origin of that?' asked Mildred, much amused.
'Well, it is doubtful. It may owe its origin to some sly old Reynard who in days long since "escaped the hunter many times and oft;" or it might possibly originate in some family of the name of Fox living at Kendal, and noted for their business habits and prudence. There are two proverbs peculiar to this country.'
'You mean the Pendragon one,' observed Roy.
'Yes.'
'Let Uter Pendragon do what he can,
Eden will run where Eden ran.'
'You look mystified, Miss Lambert; but at Pendragon Castle in Mallerstang there may still be seen traces of an attempt to turn the waters of Eden from their natural and wonted channel, and cause them to flow round the castle and fill the moat.'