Today is Cumberland Day. 10 things you might not know about Cumberland.
Cumberland is a historic county in the UK, bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish counties of Dumfriesshire and Roxburghshire to the north.
It’s not officially a county any more – in 1974 it was made part of Cumbria.
Not to be confused with Cumberland Gap, which is a mountain pass in the eastern United States near the tripoint of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee.
The name is derived from Common Brittonic and means "compatriots". Cumbria and the Welsh name for Wales, 'Cymru', derive from the same root.
Although it’s now absorbed by Cumbria, the name is still used: HMS Cumberland; the Cumberland Fell Runners Club; the Cumberland Athletics Club; local newspapers The Cumberland News, and The West Cumberland Times and Star, and the Cumberland Building Society.
And of course, Cumberland Sausages. They are made from minced pork, Thyme, Sage, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, and rusk – which acts as a binder. Sausages can only be marketed as Cumberland sausages if they are made in the area.
It is mentioned in Macbeth as the kingdom given to Prince Malcolm.
It had a county flower, Grass-of-Parnassus.
In the Middle Ages, it had its own language as well. It was called Cumbric and is believed to have become extinct in the 12th century.
Cumberland included parts of the Lake District, and so was home to England’s highest natural peak – Scafell Pike, and Lake Windermere, the largest natural lake in the UK.
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