THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

The women were no less heroical than the men; they had an invincible detestation of cowardice; they accompanied their husbands to the field of battle, partaking of all their perils, urging them onwards with the most inspiriting appeals; and when repulsed, their death was as glorious as their martial spirit was undaunted.

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First and foremost of all, they inherited an unchanging and unquenchable love of liberty.  They were free, because they inhabited vast wildernesses, rude forests, and gigantic mountains.  Liberty is the sole treasure of an indigent people, and is therefore grasped the more eagerly: a poor country does not excite the avidity of the conqueror, and they who possess it defend it easily.  They were free, because untrammelled by those pleasures often so dearly bought, rendering the protection of a powerful master an absolute necessity.  They were free, because hunters and shepherds of the hills and forests are not oppressed like the timorous and pusillanimous inhabitants of towns; and because a wandering, unsettled people, if deprived of liberty in one place, will command it in another.

Ord/Cleveland