25 Years Ago, January 9, 1976.

AFTER walking over Grange Fell in wind and pelting rain on Sunday afternoon, Mr Alfred Hall-Davis, MP for Morecambe and Lonsdale, called for an early solution to the high cost of school transport.

Mr Hall-Davis, along with parents and pupils, walked the two-and-a-half mile route from Grange to Cartmel Priory School to spotlight the hardship suffered by families in rural areas.

Organised by the Parent Teacher Association, some 50 people braved the wind and rain and trekked over the Fell, a trip which a number of pupils have been making every day since October.

It was in October that Ribble Motors increased bus fares and, as a result, many children started walking because their parents could no longer afford to pay.

Mr Hall-Davis was asked to take part because as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Mrs Margaret Thatcher when she was Minister of Education he was very much involved with the working party set up to review school transport arrangements.

The working party recommended that there should be a right for parents to ask for free transport; that a flat rate, fixed on a national basis, should be charged - this would mean all children travelling to school would pay a set rate; and that any charge should be remitted in cases of hardship.

50 Years Ago, January 13, 1951.

THE influenza epidemic which this week spread to Westmorland, has affected hundreds of workers and caused inconvenience to many business concerns, mainly in the south of the county.

In one Kendal school, two-thirds of the 400 pupils on the register are absent, while at Oakbeck, near Appleby, the whole of the 15 scholars and the sole teacher are suffering from influenza or measles.

Doctors in Kendal and the south of the county are having an extremely busy time and some are experiencing the greatest difficulty in coping with a situation that has increased their visiting lists to almost unworkable proportions.

To deal with the enormous number of patients on their books - estimated yesterday (Thursday) at nearly 3,000 in Kendal alone - medical practitioners are working 18 to 20 hours a day and are even devoting what should be their free afternoons to meet the number of patients.

In some streets of Kendal almost every house has one or more person affected and in some cases whole families are down with the illness.

100 Years Ago, January 12, 1901.

IN A go-ahead village not far from Kendal a few days ago, a wedding took place at which the bridegroom was unexpectedly generous.

In scattering coppers as usual among the scrambling children, some silver was included.

The children were overjoyed; but the joy of the bridegroom was abbreviated.

The silver was there by mistake.

In the evening a representative of the bridegroom went round, calling it in again.

It was a thrifty not to say courageous act; but I must leave you to imagine what is being said about it in that village.

150 Years Ago, January 11, 1851.

OUR old friend, Lord Campbell, says that, in Scotland, a man can scarcely tell whether he is married or not.

How different is the case in this happier part of the kingdom! Here, every moment of a husband's domestic life is a sensible assurance of the fact that he is blest with a wife.

When he comes down in the morning - if he can possibly have forgotten that fact - he finds his newspaper aired for him, his egg and toast ready, his tea made and his kettle simmering on the fire.

All these preparations for his comfort have been made by her.

And there she sits, ready either to divert him with pleasant observations, or, if he is inclined to read, to busy herself with the arrangements of the table, and not only to remain silent herself, but also to keep the children, if there are any, from disturbing him too.

Should he have committed a slight imprudence overnight, and have a headache in consequence, she consoles him, and administers his soda-water.

When he rises to go out, his boot-hooks are at hand; so are his boots, probably warmed.

When he returns, the best dinner the house can afford awaits him.

If he expresses a wish, he finds that it has been anticipated, if he makes a remark, it is assented to.

Yes; well does the Englishman know that he is married, by feeling, at every turn, the sweet pressure of the conjugal tie.