^^^ 
 
 I MLlJ 
 
 Ugetids & Historical Kots 
 
 OF 
 
 by 
 
 Gibson M.
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND.
 
 GIANT SLAYING WILD BOAR.
 
 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 ON PLACES OF 
 
 NORTH WESTMORELAND. 
 
 BY 
 
 THOS. GIBSON, M.D. 
 
 PENDRAGOK CASTLE. 
 
 i 
 
 OLD AND NEW. 
 
 See how the autumn leaves float by, decaying, 
 Down the red whirls of yon rain-swollen stream ; 
 
 So fleet the works of man back to their earth again 
 Ancient and holy things fade like a dream. 
 
 KlNGSLEY. 
 
 Xon&on : 
 
 UNWIN BROTHERS. 
 
 J. WHITEHEAD & SON.
 
 PA 
 
 &7O 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " There, stranger, ply thy curious search, 
 
 And oftentimes beside 
 The crumbling edifice thou'lt see 
 
 Some rudely-sculptured effigy." BENTLEV. 
 
 THE antiquary, sighing after renown, endeavours to 
 impress the public that signs certified by some autho- 
 rity are better than natural conclusions, and he holds 
 up his erudition, uncontradicted for the most part, if 
 only qualified by bold assertion. " Hold on," we 
 fancy we hear the renowned Dr. Dauntless say ; " I 
 can testify that my knowledge of these matters is un- 
 bounded, and ought not, by any means, to be ques- 
 tioned." We, on the other hand, hold that to give a 
 name on tradition only is very different from giving 
 the natural bearings of a locality, as well as its 
 
 764932
 
 vi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 historical aspect. Distinctive names may, indeed, 
 be received on tradition when natural facts bear out 
 the allegation. The form, for example, of a ravine, a 
 hill or mound, or British fort, does not warrant any 
 one to assert on tradition that certain events occurred 
 at these places, unless well authenticated by original 
 proofs, afforded historically by the occupation of 
 invaders or by the aborigines. But, forsooth, some 
 say, unless you give us unequivocal reasons, don't 
 give any on assumption. It is easy to speculate, and 
 speculators on original names and localities may 
 easily be questioned. Nay, their assumptions may 
 turn out to be presumptions merely, and so have no 
 weight at all. 
 
 We propose in this small volume to give our 
 opinion, and, as far as we can, and no further, prove 
 our assertions, leaving the rest to those learned pun- 
 dits who make such things as are herein touched on 
 their special study ; and we await the opinion of the 
 public, for whom we cater, with the confident belief 
 that they will appreciate our honest efforts to amuse 
 and instruct them, regardless of our genius or fame, 
 which may be likened to the flickerings of a tallow 
 candle in comparison with the brilliant meteors, and
 
 INTRODUCTION. vii 
 
 may be easily extinguished. Our feeble efforts, de- 
 pending on ourselves, and outside the learned factions, 
 may seem futile when compared with the concoctions 
 and deductions of more brilliant geniuses. We do 
 not object to criticism dealing with facts, and only 
 show indifference to hypercriticisms which deal with 
 arrangement only. 
 
 Our little book is of a miscellaneous character, and 
 widely different to any standard work of history, but 
 it deals with subjects common to the locality 
 physically, legendary, historically, and socially and 
 does not profess to be other than a compilation of 
 facts, with original matter due to the observation 
 and inspiration of the various authors, including 
 ourselves, of the subjects treated on. A work may 
 be almost chaotic in its arrangement, but it will be 
 very poor indeed if it does not contain within it 
 some germ from which scholars versed in such 
 lore may extract something of use ; or probably it 
 may help them to lay bare some forgotten fact, or to 
 explain some obsolete phrase which will assist the 
 student of archaeology. 
 
 We live in days of progress and high pressure. If 
 what we have now is better than what our ancestors
 
 viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 possessed, then we must be very far advanced indeed. 
 But if we look back on the relics of the past, whether 
 it be to those of architecture, or the fine arts, or 
 literature, we find it hard to keep pace, nowadays, 
 with their perfection. We may find things more 
 elaborately done, and many prodigious works carried 
 on by recent enterprise and inventions, yet the work 
 is not more refined than that of ancient times. We 
 may see splendid structures rise, yet not more correct 
 in form or beauty of workmanship. Neither is 
 language more elegant than it was in the days of 
 Chaucer, Shakespeare, or Johnson. Learning is 
 more diffused, but is more utilitarian. Authors there 
 are in greater force, but quality often gives place to 
 quantity. As small streams flow into and increase 
 larger ones, so the products of lesser minds, if but 
 facts are woven into their productions, help to swell 
 greater works. Historians do not invent ; they 
 collate and gather into form from every quarter 
 motes of learning, which they embody in their 
 works. We have seen some critics treat with scorn 
 the efforts of a humble author of a few pages dealing 
 with matters we have touched upon, forgetting that, 
 if small things are not allowed to grow, larger ones
 
 INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 could not be supported. The massive column is not 
 raised without small tackle, and each little stone in 
 a crevice strengthens the fabric. Such a critic is 
 like the towering giant exulting in his strength, 
 when he looks down upon men of lesser stature. 
 
 In spite of laying ourselves open to such criticism, 
 we have ventured to obtrude ourselves into the 
 smaller domains of literature, while we humbly 
 pray that as many have had by their opportunities 
 more advantages than ourselves in becoming ac- 
 quainted with the tomes of learning which noble 
 minds have stored up for their benefit, and from 
 which, possibly, they have profited, that they will be 
 indulgent enough to give us credit for what is of use 
 in this work, although it may not come up to their 
 special standard. 
 
 I am under great obligation to those writers 
 quoted, especially in the chapters on geology, and 
 other subjects. I have not hesitated to draw largely 
 from them, but more from past recollection and 
 study of the surroundings than from present or 
 recent reading. In fact, we have ourselves dabbled 
 a little in geology ; and therefore if errors of 
 description not conducive to correct and established
 
 x INTRODUCTION. 
 
 rules occur, let the blame rest with us alone, and 
 not on the eminent authorities our knowledge of the 
 science was primarily culled from. 
 
 I trust my numerous friends, and subscribers will 
 not be disappointed at my placing before them this 
 limited contribution of a subject so important. I 
 have only now to add that whatever be the opinions 
 of materialist students on evolution, I hold to none of 
 their theories, or understand that the agencies of 
 nature can in any way be explained contrary to 
 what our experience of life is, and its sequence in 
 death. 
 
 I am indebted to my friend, Mr. Thomas Fawcett, 
 of Kirkby Stephen, and my son, R. W. Gibson, for 
 the sketches used in the illustrations, and also to 
 my friend, the Rev. W. M. Fell, of Ravenstonedale, 
 for his kindness in helping me to peruse and correct 
 some of these pages. Also I am especially in- 
 debted to Mr. Rowland E. Whitehead, who, in the 
 subject of " Orton Quakers," has given me much in- 
 formation embodied in the chapters at the end of this 
 work, drawn from books, papers, and records, which 
 are in the possession of his family. Therefore it 
 remains only to add that I trust my readers will not
 
 INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 be disappointed at the result of my labours. If they 
 are gratified and enlightened, if ever so little, then 
 their gratification will also gratify myself. 
 
 T. G. 
 
 Or/on, January 4, 1 887.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Superstitions Charms Stories of quaint characters 
 Ancient prison discipline 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Legends Stories Orton Dobbie Murders near Sun- 
 biggin Tarn and Archer Hill Halls and Hospices . 15 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 (Quaint sayings Poem on Orton Dobbie Roman re- 
 mains Kagmire Dunmallet Churches and beacons 37 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Obsolete customs Hen sacrifice Holly night at Brough 
 Riding thestang Lead-mining Namesof places 
 Antiquarian researches Derivation of local names . 53
 
 xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PACK 
 
 Locomotion Pack-horses Canals, roads, and railways 
 
 Description of routes 80 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Geology of the district Cause of deposition of limestone, 
 
 boulders, &c. ...... 9 1 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Appleby Castle Countess of Pembroke Brougham Hall 
 Brougham Castle and other ruins Ancient families 
 Eminent natives of the county The livings of 
 Orton, Kirkby Stephen, Crosby Ravensworth, &c. 
 Manors and manorial customs . . . . 104. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Shap Spa Shap Abbey Poem in the vernacular 
 Lowther, and other places in the locality Monks, 
 Druids, &c 141 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Legend of Stainmoor Fitz Barnard Ewbank of Stain- 
 moor Hartley Castle Trade of the district Ew- 
 bank Scar, a Poem , 156 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Climate of the dales of Westmoreland ; its peculiarity 
 
 Mode of living, &c 170
 
 CONTENTS. xv 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PACK 
 
 Original poetry by various authors Christmas customs 
 
 Sports Dialogues in the vernacular, and otherwise . 179 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Real property Customary dues, duties, and services 
 Origin of land tenure Doomsday Book Poor Law 
 Political division of the county, &c. Monasteries . 217 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Westmoreland Quakers Short biographical sketch of 
 
 George Whitehead and others of the locality . . 236 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 George Whitehead : persecution, trials, and imprisonment ; 
 
 his fortitude and Christian charity . . . .251 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Notes on Helm Wind, Echoes, Land Tenure, Historic 
 
 Remains, Geology, Fairies, Need Fire, &c. . .271 
 
 GLOSSARY 295.
 
 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 NORTH WESTMORELAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " Legends that were once told or sung 
 In many a smoky fireside nook." 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
 IN the thinly peopled districts, amid the remote dales 
 of Westmoreland, an amount of superstition still 
 remains, although the connection with the outer world 
 by railway and telegraph is now complete. The 
 belief in second sight, in wraiths, in the dead watch, 
 and in the howling of the dog before death takes 
 place, retains in this part of the country numerous 
 adherents ; and there still remain a few who believe 
 
 2
 
 2 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 in witchcraft, moles, and mothers' marks, in cauls 
 and crowing hens, as portending good or bad luck ; 
 while the cure of many complaints, such as tooth- 
 ache, and many diseases of a more subtle nature, are 
 tried to be got rid of by charms and incantations. 
 The whooping-cough was formerly treated by passing 
 the patient under the belly of a broodmare ; and a 
 panacea exists in a neighbouring county for the cure 
 of hydrophobia. It is not considered lucky by some 
 to marry on a Friday, or to take a journey on that 
 day, or to enter into the possession of a house ; 
 while some people, on seeing a single magpie, have 
 been known to turn back when proceeding on a jour- 
 ney ; on the other hand, if two were seen, they 
 proceeded as encouraged by a good omen. Falling 
 stars and comets render the minds of some people 
 uneasy, as foretelling storms, wars, and even the dis- 
 solution of the world itself. No doubt the public 
 mind is being gradually cleared by the spread of 
 education ; and the credulous dalespeople have, by 
 the advent of cheap literature and communication 
 with the outer world, become less dependent for 
 information and amusement upon the local story- 
 teller and wandering chapmen. The practice of
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 3 
 
 going " furth " has been done away with, in a great 
 measure, by the introduction of village libraries and 
 mechanics' institutes ; while the daily paper and the 
 weekly local lend greater attraction to the inquiring 
 mind, and keep the public well up in general and 
 local information. Gatherings, however, are not 
 unfrequent, and large parties of young and old flock 
 together on winter nights at neighbours' houses, 
 where are enacted games, charades, and other inno- 
 cent modes of amusement, partaking, however, less 
 and less every year of the legendary lore. Burns, 
 in his " Halloween," gives a good description of the 
 manner of amusing the local youngsters, which has 
 been copied, more or less, in this part of the country. 
 Ghosts and hobgoblins come in, however, for a share 
 of discussion, and places are still marked out where 
 some murder has been committed, and where flayings 
 are often seen. At a place called Stenkrith Bridge, 
 near Kirkby Stephen, a subterranean stream is 
 pointed out where the rumbling sound caused by the 
 water has given rise to the impression that machi- 
 nery was at work. It is called " The Devil's Mustard 
 Mill." A legend occurs that an old woman who 
 resided at Tebay could turn herself into the form of
 
 4 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 a hare, and in this state used to give sport and much 
 trouble to the dogs of a neighbouring squire, who 
 could never catch her. This old dame prophesied 
 that carriages without horses would run over Loups 
 Fell since verified by the formation of the Lancaster 
 and Carlisle Railway. It was a current belief if 
 you could draw blood from the arm of a witch, that 
 she was powerless against you. Until very recently, 
 in more southern counties, the ordeal of fire and 
 water was enforced against the supposed witch, which 
 often resulted in the death of the victim. It was, in 
 fact, a statutable offence, and punishable with death. 
 The pretended power of sorcery and telling of fortunes 
 by cards during the former part of the century was 
 frequently had resort to, the professors making a 
 living, even in Westmoreland, by the gullibility of the 
 credulous. We were acquainted with a schoolmaster 
 who roasted the heart of a chicken stuck full of pins, 
 with fastened doors, at midnight, and he vowed that 
 the witch came to the door and pitifully entreated 
 him to desist, and promised she would not molest 
 him again. Her offence was that she had bewitched 
 a calf, so that it died, and the schoolmaster (no fool, 
 either, in other matters) thoroughly believed it. So
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 5 
 
 recently as the time mentioned, cattle affected with 
 murrain were passed through smoke raised by fire 
 by the rubbing of two pieces of wood together. It 
 was called " need fire." There is a current belief 
 even now, that if a child has its finger-nails or hair 
 cut before it is a year old, it will become a thief; and 
 that a black cat can hinder a matrimonial engagement. 
 Some people hold to the opinion that a nightcap 
 ought to be inversible, and without an opening; and 
 that a person cannot die easily on a pillow stuffed 
 with pigeons' feathers. It is said to be unlucky to 
 kill a spider. A goat is frequently kept among cattle 
 to preserve them in health. A raven and a talking 
 magpie are lucky about a house ; and a stone with a 
 hole in it, hung up behind the stable door (so 
 the legend goes), will keep witches away. In 
 some parts of the bed of the river Eden, near 
 Kirkby Stephen, are holes popularly said to be 
 cauldrons for performing Druidical sacrifices. They 
 are, however, made by the action of stones obtain- 
 ing a rotary motion by the force of the water. An 
 astrologer used to be consulted at a place near 
 Orton called Redgill. The astrologer's tombstone 
 is in the churchyard of Orton. He was popularly
 
 6 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 believed to be able to cast the horoscope, and con- 
 sidered well versed in the black art, whatever that, 
 maybe. The name of this worthy was Fairer. His 
 business lay in circumventing witches, laying spirits, 
 and in other kindred pursuits. From the nature of 
 things in those days we have no doubt his practice 
 and popularity would alike be extensive and remune- 
 rative. If a cock crew in front of the house, the 
 belief was that you might expect a stranger. If a 
 piece of coke flew out of the fire, a coffin or a purse 
 was indicated ; and the mote in the wick of a candle 
 was a token that a letter might be expected. Candle 
 omens are innumerable and of various kinds; some are 
 so well known as not to need mention, some not so 
 general. "A collection of tallow," saysGroze, "rising 
 up the candle close to the wick is styled a winding- 
 sheet, and deemed an omen of death to the family." 
 He also tells us that a spark on a candle denotes that 
 the person opposite will receive a letter ; to show 
 when and to whom the letter is to come, on a knock 
 of the table making it drop, it comes the next day, 
 and so on. A kind of fungus burning on the candle 
 denotes a stranger will visit you. Candles that burn 
 blue denote a spirit in the house. Says Milton,
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 7 
 
 the following lines from the " Knight of the Burning 
 Pestle " has it : 
 
 " Come you whose loves are dead, 
 
 And whiles I sing, 
 
 Weep and wring 
 Every hand and every head 
 Bard with cypress and sad yew, 
 Ribands black and candles blue, 
 For him that was of men most true." 
 
 A candle burning blue seems, however, to be a sign 
 of frost : 
 
 {' Constable, my watch is set, charge given, and all is peace, 
 But by the burning of the candle blue, 
 Which I, by chance, espied through the lanthorn, 
 And by the dropping of the beadle's nose, 
 I smell a frost." 
 
 The amiable Vicar of Wakefield, referring to his 
 daughters' waking dreams, says, " The girls have 
 their omens too." They saw rings in the candle. 
 The Irish say when they put out the candle, " May 
 the Lord renew or send us the light of heaven ! " 
 The Venetians say, " On the wedding night leave the 
 candle burning, as the one who puts it out will die 
 first." Candles nowadays take a place at the high 
 altar in Ritualistic and Romish churches ; they assist
 
 8 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 by their numerous lights at Irish wakes, and in 
 former times were used by people who did penance. 
 Query What light by this light ? When fortunes 
 are told from the dregs of a teacup, a red shawl is 
 essential to the fortune-teller, who has not seen the 
 ghost appear in the meantime springing apparently 
 from the shades, upsetting the gravity of the old, and 
 contributing to the fears of the young, who think it is 
 a supernatural visitation. Likewise fortune-telling 
 by cards excites much attention, and is believed in 
 by the credulous. At a certain house, not a hundred 
 miles from Tebay, a party of women, young and old, 
 were amusing themselves in this way one winter's 
 night, carrying on churning at the same time by the 
 fire, when, at a critical point in the fortune-telling, 
 the churning was left, and a surprise was announced 
 by the holder of the cards. There was a surprise : at 
 that moment a horse rushed in, saddled and bridled, 
 having thrown its rider, upsetting the churn, which 
 astonished the kneeling party by the fire, much 
 to the loss of the host, and their discomfiture. 
 
 In the Middle Ages the heliotropes were highly 
 valued, as well as the moon-stone a precious stone 
 of Ceylon. Pliny describes it as containing an image
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 9 
 
 of the moon, which waxes and wanes according to 
 the state of that luminary. Chalcedony disperses 
 sadness, and, if worn with the hairs of an ass run 
 through it, would, it was said, overcome all disaster. 
 Crystals of different kinds are famous : one belonging 
 to Dr. Dee, the prince of quacks, is preserved in the 
 Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. The ruby bruised in 
 water was a panacea, and powdered agate for all the 
 " ills flesh is heir to ; " the amethyst could prevent 
 intoxication this would be a boon to modern 
 tipplers ; sapphire and emerald were to strengthen 
 the sight, so did the turquoise and the latter was 
 a proof from injury from falls from any height ; the 
 diamond baffles poison, keeps off insanity, and dispels 
 vain fears. Such are a few of the ancient and popular 
 fallacies even of the present age. 
 
 There is a belief yet existing that philtres can be 
 given to excite love, and these compounds are made 
 of different ingredients which we have no wish to 
 re-introduce to notice; suffice it to say that such-like 
 potions are more or less innocuous, while some are 
 positively dangerous. In all love philtres various 
 herbs, however, occupy a prominent part, and as the 
 language of flowers serve as tokens between persons
 
 io LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 amatorily inclined, so love philtres made into a small 
 packet and suspended from the neck are said to 
 produce those desires so peculiarly dependent upon 
 the tender passion. Charms' for toothache are 
 frequently worn, and we read amongst the Jews, as 
 well as Christian nations, the phylacteries were a 
 charm on which passages of Scripture were tran- 
 scribed on slips of parchment, and these were worn 
 on the left arm and forehead. Omens of different 
 kinds, by their general diffusion, often present them- 
 selves to the most polished people. Who has not 
 heard of the talismanic stones found in the brains 
 of birds, of the tortoise, of the hyaena, and of the 
 fabulous carbuncle of Peru, said to be of the size and 
 form of a fox, and only visible at night, with long black 
 hair, and which is said to open. a flap in its forehead, 
 and to emit a brilliant light ? This light the natives 
 believe to proceed from a precious stone ; but if any 
 one rushes at the animal, the flap is let down, the 
 person is blinded, and the animal disappears in the 
 darkness. This carbuncle has been the theme of 
 poets, and to this day it is regarded as a precious 
 stone of no mean value, whatever virtues it may 
 possess of an occult nature. The toad was supposed
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 11 
 
 to possess in its head a jewel of great value, and 
 was an antidote against poison, but more frequently 
 swallowed as a precautionary measure. 
 
 In the early part of the century, Wesleyanism 
 was in its infancy in these parts. Many of the sect 
 were subject to much persecution. It is related of 
 the late Mr. Stephen Biphskill, that going to Kendal 
 market, he was frequently assailed by epithets, more 
 forcible than polite, by a stone-breaker on the road- 
 side, who thought it a part of his duty to indulge in 
 them ; in fact to be a Methodist or Methody, as 
 they were vulgarly styled was something to be 
 reproached with. This stone-breaker having time 
 after time indulged to his heart's content in vitu- 
 perative language, was one Saturday morning rather 
 astonished on Mr. B-^nskill presenting him with a 
 small cheese, and ever after was particularly civil 
 an instance of Christian charity overcoming evil 
 with good. 
 
 A member of the medical profession practising in 
 these parts, having arrived at nearly the limit of 
 human existence, being a single man, and much an- 
 noyed at times by housekeepers, thought he would 
 like to marry a respectable yeoman's sister of mature
 
 12 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 age, yet in single blessedness, and that he would go 
 and see the object he had set his mind upon. After 
 journeying about two miles, the brother, it being his 
 bedtime, leaving the couple, the maiden lady inquired 
 of the doctor his business, as it was getting late. 
 " Whya, Peggy " (using the vernacular), " I want 
 a wife; hes tu any notion ?" "Whya," says she, 
 " it's rather suddent. I think I winnet wed just 
 yet." About a month after, she called upon the 
 doctor, having considered the matter, and said to 
 him : " I think, doctor, we had better wed." The 
 doctor replied : " Nay, I think ut we'll be as we 
 are, Peggy." The latter, rather discomfited, retired, 
 exclaiming, "I'll strike while t' iron's het next time ! " 
 Formerly many clergymen were ordained from the 
 small grammar schools, which up to the time we 
 write were classical. This was before the late 
 Education Acts placed all the establishments on a 
 scale of popular gradation, but lowered the classical 
 to the mechanical, and thus debarred the prospect 
 of the poor boy entering on the. road to profes- 
 sional distinction. It is related that a young man 
 was sent with 20 in his pocket to Carlisle from 
 Ravenstonedale for ordination, mounted on the mare
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 13 
 
 which did the universal work of the homestead : he 
 was away a few days. On returning, his mother, 
 being on the look-out for him, thus accosted him : 
 " Priest or nea priest ? " " Priest, sure enough ; 
 and if I'd hed another 20 I cud hev gittent oad 
 mear maad into ane ano." Ravenstonedale has been 
 lately embellished with mansions that can fairly lay 
 claim to be considered elegant. One called Hwith 
 House, built by the late J. Hewetson, Esq., a native 
 of Street, in Ravenstonedale ; Brownber House, 
 added to by Mr. Fothergill ; Cold Beck House, by 
 the late A. Metcalfe Gibson, Esq. ; and Elm Lodge, 
 built by T. A. Metcalfe Gibson, Esq., all natives of 
 this dale. 
 
 Prison discipline is much more enforced nowa- 
 days. It is recorded that those confined for debt in 
 Appleby Gaol some seventy years ago had great 
 latitude, inasmuch as they were allowed, on asking 
 leave, to go out and visit their friends, take recreation, 
 and indulge themselves as their means presented, 
 and although not generally prone to disobey their 
 lenient governor, yet sometimes he had to administer 
 reproof if they did not return in good time for bed 
 even to the extent of threatening to lock them out
 
 14 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES. 
 
 if they did not keep proper time and give him an 
 opportunity of going to bed in good season say ten 
 o'clock in summer, and nine o'clock in winter. A 
 surgeon, incarcerated for killing his wife in a fit of 
 passion, although a prisoner for life, was similarly 
 indulged, even to the extent of practising and giving 
 his advice to all who sought it. Many availed them- 
 selves of it. Such is human nature charitable in 
 the main, but self-seeking in the abstract.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 " Full well 'tis known adovvn the dale, 
 Though passing strange indeed the tale, 
 And doubtful may appear." 
 
 SHENSTONE. 
 
 THERE are plenty of people who are fond of larking 
 nowadays ; still, the walking ghosts are somewhat 
 rare, although no doubt plenty of fun to some, and 
 danger to others, has been brought about by this 
 practice. A story is told of an elderly tailor who was 
 almost frightened to death, in coming along the fields 
 from Winton to Kirkby Stephen, by the knapping of 
 his own shears and lapboard. He fancied he saw, on 
 a moonlight night, something uncanny. He set off 
 to run. The shears called, " Catch him ! Catch 
 him ! " at least he thought so, and he only dis- 
 covered the mistake when getting over a stile, black
 
 16 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 in the face with excitement, that it was his own 
 implements that caused the disturbance. This same 
 worthy was once waylaid by a pair of buxom damsels 
 on his road home from Soulby, who fired at him 
 with an iron candlestick, laden with pebbles, the click 
 behind the hedge near his head being sufficient to 
 alarm him. Their temerity, however, was rewarded 
 by the tailor falling into a swoon, when they had to 
 get him restored as best they could, and see him 
 safely home. An old sexton was waylaid by his own 
 wife, covered with a sheet so the story goes near 
 the churchyard of Crosby Ravensworth, while he was 
 staggering home drunk. It had the effect of sobering 
 him, and his spouse, in the spirit, exacted a promise 
 of future steadiness, which we believe he kept. 
 There used to be a wandering spirit between Winton 
 and Kirkby Stephen, it is said, of the name of 
 Jingling Annas, which was laid to rest (exorcised) 
 near the bridge crossing the Eden, by the intervention 
 of a wise man from Stainmoor. Who he was the 
 legend does not acquaint us with. The rock is, 
 however, pointed out beneath which the quiescent 
 spirit now rests. An old poacher in the neighbour- 
 hood of Orton was invited by a neighbouring squire
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 17 
 
 to get him a hare. He thought that he would 
 humour the squire ; so one day he knocked at the 
 door, and was invited, bag in hand, into the parlour. 
 The squire accosting him, said, "Well, Jimmy, 
 have you got a hare ? " " Yes," he replied ; and, 
 tilting her out, she broke through the window and 
 bolted across the lawn. " Why, you rascal," said the 
 squire, " what did you bring her in that way for? " 
 " Whya, ye see, squire, I heven't a license te kill, 
 sa I thought if I fetched her alive ye would kill 
 her yersell." A rare instance of cunning and wit. 
 
 This part of the country, about thirty years since, 
 was startled by the phenomenon of a strange occur- 
 rence at an isolated farm-house, called the Orton 
 Dobbie something like a spirit-rapping business 
 on a large scale. It drew for many weeks people 
 from long distances to make out the cause of it, but 
 it was never really bottomed, and the occurrence is 
 now looked upon by some as a real visitation of the 
 unseen, while others think (!) it was augmented or 
 arranged by the residents for pecuniary profit, if not 
 by them originated. At a place near Kelleth, in the 
 parish of Orton, on a dark night in November, 1837, 
 there was committed a brutal murder upon a carrier 
 
 3
 
 18 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 of the name of Hunter, who was on his way home 
 to a place called Archer Hill, nearly opposite to 
 Kelleth. He was shot from behind, his head literally 
 riddled, and his money taken from him by some 
 daring assassin, who has never yet been found out. 
 He was a man about thirty-four years of age, and 
 his son, now deceased, resided until very lately at 
 the homestead called East Gills, which, at the 
 time of the murder, was occupied by the murdered 
 man's father. Another murder was committed in the 
 same parish some time after upon a poor drover. He 
 was found alive, and lingered some little time, but 
 was never sensible enough to give any clue to his 
 assailants. This is referred to again in verse in a 
 subsequent chapter. 
 
 This murder occurred near to Sunbiggin Tarn. 
 It is to be deplored that such things could happen 
 so recently and not be found out. We apprehend, 
 however, that under the present police arrangements 
 the murderer or murderers would not have escaped 
 so easily. In those days parish constables were 
 the only detecters of crime, and very probably their 
 capabilities did not come up to the requirements 
 which such cases demand in their investigation.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 19 
 
 Nowadays, a little clue to trained minds develops 
 important deductions, which aid to bring matters to 
 light and culprits to justice. Poor Hunter's death 
 remains still unavenged, and his widow and children 
 are now numbered with the dead. There still re- 
 main some grandchildren orphans but very young 
 and of course not capable of realizing the anguish 
 which their progenitors must have suffered from 
 their awful and sudden bereavement. 
 
 Whenever anything is too obscure to be compre- 
 hended, even by the antiquarian mind, then the Druids 
 furnish a hook to hang a' tale upon. In the centre 
 of Westmoreland, and notably at Shap and Gun- 
 nerkeld, stones are found, placed either in circles or 
 parallel lines, noting that they have served some pur- 
 pose, and possibly were the places where religious 
 and sacrificial services were celebrated. There is a 
 circle of stones midway between Orton and Raisebeck, 
 in a field called Gamelands, and supposed to have 
 been used for such purposes, though the name of the 
 field would lead us to think that it had been a place 
 where anciently games were held or game abounded. 
 Many places lead the mind to contemplate what may 
 have been the site of religious houses in a district
 
 20 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 remote from abbeys and monasteries, and no doubt 
 thinly inhabited in ancient times. Hospices in the 
 form of friaries, cells, and places of retreat, appear 
 to have been of frequent occurrence. At the various 
 hospices travellers used to rest on their journeys, and 
 if benighted the friars, who were generally the cus- 
 todians, gave them refreshment and shelter. Such 
 a house was the Spital on Stainmoor : the traveller 
 if poor had all free of charge, but those whose worldly 
 prosperity was such as they could afford recompense 
 gave it as a votive offering, which was placed in a 
 receptacle provided for the purpose, and placed 
 in a conspicuous place to meet the eye of the 
 stranger, with a text of admonition above it proper 
 for the occasion as " Laus Deo," " Deo Gratias," 
 &c. These hospices were frequently mere cells, or 
 low buildings with one or two rooms put up by the 
 friars themselves, and differed very little from the 
 hermitages, which were of course inhabited by 
 recluses, and removed far from the roads frequented 
 by travellers in general. A portion of the building, 
 however, was fitted up as a chapel, and generally 
 screened off from public gaze to enable the occupant 
 to retire unobserved during the times of devotion,
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 21 
 
 the Crucifix and Sacred Relics being duly reverenced, 
 These relics were generally the bones of some 
 one who had been famous in life, and had died in 
 the order of sanctity. The relics were offered to 
 all those who wished to abjure their sins or confess 
 some fault or crime, and it was considered of the 
 last importance that an oath once taken on the relics 
 must be faithful and earnest, or the person would 
 be everlastingly shut out from the blessing and hope 
 of eternal happiness. The lawlessness of the people 
 who did not believe in the religion presented to them 
 was no doubt very great, because the Church of Rome 
 was at that time the only source of comfort to those 
 whose life was spent in the most civilized countries. 
 It was the custodian of morality, religion, and, so far, 
 the only instrument in the education of the people, 
 all of whom, except those directly in power or of 
 influence with the Church, were totally uneducated ; 
 the serfs and villains we read of being bought and 
 sold with the land, not exactly as slaves, but 
 having prescribed duties on a particular estate, and 
 corresponding punishment awarded according as such 
 duties were neglected, or certain rights curtailed. 
 But with all the faults of such a system, it is very
 
 22 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 evident that we owe to the abbeys and monasteries 
 very much ; for the attainments they cultivated, for 
 their knowledge of architecture as seen in the 
 splendid ruins of their buildings, in the practice of 
 various useful handicrafts, and, what is most remark- 
 able, the knowledge they displayed as regards agri- 
 culture in those days. For if we carefully examine 
 the situations they selected for building their edifices, 
 we generally find that these things were sure to be 
 regarded namely, the best and sheltered situations ; 
 the nature of the soil and proximity to a plentiful 
 water supply; their fish-ponds well embanked, and 
 no doubt proper attention paid to the breeding and 
 rearing of animals such as the country then 
 produced ; they had neighbouring forests for fuel and 
 mastage for their numerous herd of swine : the out- 
 come of all this was their care of the poor, who came 
 to their gates for food and ghostly advice, and their 
 attention to the rich, whose patrimony when leaving 
 this world was often devoted to the monastery as dues 
 for their shriven soul being landed, as was believed, by 
 the aid of holy men, in heaven. 
 
 Various places in this country are now designated 
 spitals, which no doubt in ancient times were
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 23 
 
 hospices, in some cases to which travellers could 
 resort when travelling over the barren wilds of West- 
 moreland ; and notably the spital on Stainmoor was 
 a house of that kind. They were mostly religious 
 houses belonging to the Romish Church, and the 
 friars were wont to inhabit such places. They were 
 the sentinels or outposts of larger religious com- 
 munities, and their daily life and avocation were 
 such that many aspired to this mode of seclusion, 
 in order the better to separate themselves from 
 the luxuries of civilized life, and to give succour and 
 ghostly aid to those whom circumstances induced to 
 dwell in remote localities, or whom chance threw 
 in their way. But there was likewise another class 
 of hospitals and the spital near Kirkby Thore 
 was doubtless one of them where people were 
 isolated from the rest of mankind when suffering 
 from the disease of leprosy ; and these hospitals 
 were often largely endowed with land for their 
 support, leprosy being a disease of a most hideous 
 character, whereby the functions of the body were so 
 altered, and the blood so contaminated, as to be as 
 bad as scrofula in more recent times, and almost as 
 incurable. We read in Scripture of lepers being as
 
 24 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 white as snow, the eruption being of a scaly nature, 
 and the whole countenance and complexion being 
 rendered hideous by the loathsome eruption on the 
 skin. That leprosy was a complaint in this country 
 where separation and complete isolation was neces- 
 sary, we need not stop to argue, but it is evident that 
 nowadays it is almost, if not entirely, unknown. 
 This happier state of things has been brought about 
 by the change of diet which we in this country have, 
 by reason of our great advantages, been led to adopt 
 the more general use of a vegetable diet. The almost 
 total abolition from bur tables of the kind of living 
 our ancestors indulged in, and the more general 
 habits of cleanliness and changes of raiment we use, 
 has added to this desirable result. The time was 
 when neither potatoes, cabbages, peas, or lime-juice, 
 were to be had, and when flesh was only obtainable 
 that either had been salted down for the winter's use, 
 or farinaceous food of the coarser sort was mainly 
 indulged in. The various remedies we now employ 
 for the eradication of skin diseases were almost 
 unknown, and had it not been that in the summer 
 months many roots of an anti-scrofulous nature were 
 obtainable which we now never think of acquiring,
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 25 
 
 the population of this country in ancient times would 
 have been more tainted than it was with scrofulous 
 complaints, of the kind to which, from the change- 
 able climate and habits of the people, they were liable. 
 Many in other districts, from unhealthy workshops 
 and trades which produce mechanical irritation of 
 the air passages, fall victims to that most direful 
 disease, tubercular consumption. That leprosy has, 
 by our changed habits and regimen, disappeared 
 from amongst us, renders us hopeful that, with our 
 almost fanatical rage for sanitary reform, this country 
 may have cause to be thankful ere long that many- 
 diseases now thought to be incurable may only exist 
 in name ; but, on the other hand, with our luxurious 
 habits the wish expressed will hardly be realized. 
 
 The names of many places attached to religious 
 houses are thus indicated. In the parishes of Orton, 
 Crosby Ravensworth, Asby, Appleby, and many 
 others, they occur as Our Lady's Well, St. Helen's 
 Well, Friary, Friarbiggins, Friar's Moss, Holywell, 
 and others are familiar. These may have been 
 branches from the Abbey of St. Mary's at York, or 
 from Shap Abbey, as history tells us that the large 
 church of Kirkby Stephen was under the domination,
 
 26 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 in Catholic times, of the religious community at 
 the former place. History is barren, however, of 
 authentic information. In the days when the pedlar 
 and mendicant were the only newsmongers of the 
 district, the advent of either was looked upon as a 
 privilege, and they were welcomed by the dales 
 people as the chief source of amusement. They 
 were treated as members of the family, and very 
 frequently as honoured guests, especially the pedlar, 
 who used to display his wares to the wondering eyes 
 of the rustics, and drive a profitable trade to his own 
 advantage. The mendicant stayed on if the weather 
 was inclement, having a bed provided, sometimes in 
 an outhouse, or before the kitchen fire, and then depart 
 with his awmus of meal, bacon, and other provisions, 
 which he could sell or consume as he thought proper. 
 In fact in our time the lodging-house keepers used 
 to feed the fattest pigs from the surplus meal, 
 bread, &c., bought by them from their customers, or 
 exchanged for a night's lodging. In short mendicity 
 was a trade, and the Edie Ochiltrees described by 
 Scott could be seen in many garbs going their rounds 
 in this part of the country. In very recent times 
 the beggar was not the slouching fellow we come
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 27 
 
 across nowadays. With his staff in hand, and 
 meal-bags slung over his shoulder, he looked every 
 inch a man, who thought he had a right to ply his 
 trade, and every one was bound to serve him. 
 
 Many stories are told of the eccentricities and 
 mistakes of the rustic population. A story is 
 told of two worthies, who were taking an active part 
 in a trial, from the neighbourhood of Little Asby, 
 who had a book on law which had been lent to them 
 by a solicitor who practised in Appleby in former 
 times. The book related to pains and penalties for 
 doing certain things, as well as the law relating to 
 real property. They had, we presume, been success- 
 ful in their suit against the other litigants, and coming 
 after midnight through the village of Hoff in great 
 glee, they perceived an odour of fried bacon. They 
 thereupon went to the cottage whence the odour 
 came, and there found a man engaged in frying bacon. 
 The one who was supposed to be posted up in the 
 law-book said to his companion, " There is a law 
 against frying bacon in that book we had ; we will 
 take this fellow before the magistrate at Appleby." 
 The man protested, but they, being the stronger 
 party, compelled him to go with them, thinking by
 
 28 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 this means they could pocket the money due to the 
 informants. The magistrate opened his eyes with 
 astonishment at the charge, but they persisted that 
 it was in the book which had been lent to them. He 
 asked for the book, which was pretty well thumbed, 
 and the clause was read thus by him : " Any one firing 
 a beacon after twelve o'clock at night is liable to the 
 penalty of a fine, or in default imprisonment, half 
 the fine to go to the informant." Only a slight 
 mistake, but a substantial difference between frying 
 bacon and firing a beacon. This is only one of the 
 many queer stories that are told, the nucleus of which, 
 no doubt, is true ; and as they have been handed 
 down from remote times, they form an interesting 
 contrast with the present state of things. There 
 was a greater distinction between the various classes 
 of people in former times than at present, and the 
 stories we read of, or hear from others, make us 
 aware of it. 
 
 The most ancient ruins in Westmoreland are those 
 of Brough, Brougham, Lammerside, Pendragon, and 
 Bewley Castle. Appleby Castle, restored, was occu- 
 pied till recently by the land steward, now by Lord 
 Hothfield, the successor to the patrimony of the late
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 29 
 
 Earl of Thanet. Some of the ancient manor houses 
 belonging to former squires and yeomen many of 
 them dignified by the name of " hall," which literally 
 means a stone building are let with farms. In former 
 times, the houses of the peasantry were mostly either 
 mud hovels, or made of clay and wattles sticks wound 
 through upright posts and plastered over with clay. 
 There are some very substantial buildings. Most of 
 them date i.e., the halls, &c. from about the begin- 
 ning of the seventeenth, and some as far back as the 
 sixteenth, century. They have generally mullioned 
 windows, oak rooftrees (called rafters), and often oak 
 pannelling inside, as partitions between the rooms. 
 Sometimes the heavy grey slates are fastened down 
 with sheepshank bones hitched over the laths ; at 
 other times with oaken pins, and some with large- 
 headed nails. These houses show indications of 
 the open hearth, now covered in with modern fire- 
 places. 
 
 There is an inn at Kirkby Stephen where resided 
 a worthy couple, some seventy or more years ago, 
 who kept a magpie. The bird could talk, and, over- 
 hearing its mistress say, " Our yall's (ale) sour," it 
 repeated it more than was pleasant to the host
 
 30 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 before his customers. He took and ducked it in 
 the pump-trough. A chicken had in the meantime 
 been brought in and put before the fire, after 
 tumbling in and being rescued out of the pig-tub. 
 The magpie, hopping towards the fire, and seeing 
 the invalid wrapped up in a cloth warming before 
 the fire, went up to it, and exclaimed, " Did thou 
 say our yall was sour ? " A publican, at the village 
 of Warcop, was possessed of a raven, who used to 
 startle the customers by calling out, " Pay up ! pay 
 up ! " If a hat was placed over its head, it would, on 
 getting rid of it, call out, " What's matter, min ? " 
 Will-o'-the-wisp has given rise to many a ghost 
 story and legend of leading on to destruction some 
 unfortunate benighted wight ; and many a ghost has 
 been conjured up in the imagination from the sight 
 of a rotten tree-stump in a state of phosphorescence, 
 familiarly known as touch-wood, decayed vegetable 
 matter being really the cause of much of what we 
 know as night lights, which hover about bogs and 
 mosses, and even have given rise to superstitions, 
 and been looked upon as omens of evil. 
 
 Open fireplaces are not uncommon, and the 
 rannel-balk, or bar of iron across the chimney, may
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 31 
 
 frequently be seen to suspend by a chain large 
 vessels, sometimes of copper, for various dairy and 
 culinary purposes. The quern, or handmill, formerly 
 in use for grinding corn, is very frequently found, 
 either used as a building stone, or, as was the case 
 lately, doing duty as a paving-stone in the byre. 
 When corn was winnowed formerly it was placed on 
 the barn-floor on a windy day, the doors being oppo- 
 site to each other; and in this way the chaff was 
 cleared off, and afterwards used for filling bed-ticks 
 to sleep upon. Even at the present time these kind 
 of beds are in use in most farmhouses. It may have 
 struck the traveller in Westmoreland that the fields 
 in the neighbourhood of the villages are very small, 
 and although of late years a good many of them 
 have been enlarged by throwing down stone walls 
 and hedges, yet a good number of small enclosures 
 remain. A class of occupiers has become almost 
 extinct, this having been brought about in a great 
 measure by the application of steam to machinery, 
 which has done away with handloom weaving, once 
 the prevalent employment of the cotters in the 
 villages of Westmoreland. These cotters, whose 
 looms occupied a large portion of their dwellings,
 
 32 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 used to weave woollen cloths for the use of the 
 neighbourhood, as well as hemp and linen, and along 
 with this employment they usually had a cow or two 
 grazing near, on the common, while for hay the 
 small enclosure near the house was reserved. They 
 were mostly owners of the little freehold, and it is 
 not unlikely that those small enclosures were origin- 
 ally parts of larger ones, subdivided from father to 
 son until they became as we now see them. This 
 state of things has now, in a great measure, passed 
 away, and the freehold cotter and the weaver (except 
 in rare instances) are amongst the things of the past. 
 Their superiors in station of the yeoman class, by 
 subdivision of property (some of them not long ago 
 owning freeholds of from fifteen to twenty and sixty 
 acres, or more), are rapidly being absorbed by the 
 larger proprietors, and, as land sells at a high rate, 
 it is an inducement for them to part with it and 
 embark their capital in larger farms as tenants. 
 In the neighbourhood of several villages are still 
 seen fields of small extent, sometimes not more than 
 two or three acres, subdivided by a sod dyke or 
 boundary stone, called a " merestone." These plots of 
 land are called " town lands," and originally might
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 33 
 
 have been owned and cultivated, as no doubt some 
 were, for the production of hemp and potatoes, the 
 former to be used for the manufacture of hempen 
 cloths, and the latter for the use of the family. This 
 state of things still exists in Ireland, as well as the 
 subdivision of property into small holdings. But the 
 peasantry of Ireland do not hold the same position 
 as the English cotter did, and for various reasons 
 are not so well off. Several villages were almost 
 depopulated in former times. When each township 
 was obliged to keep its own poor, the owners and 
 occupiers of property in land in some small town- 
 ships evicted the poor people because they were 
 afraid they would have them to support. We 
 wonder, if they had the same population now, 
 whether they would take the same course. The 
 formation of the Poor-law Unions has made a great 
 change in the expenditure of the poor-rates; and 
 although each parish has the overseeing of its own 
 poor, and the disbursement of the rates as in former 
 times, what is now called local government is some- 
 what expensive, and is only local in name, being 
 under the surveillance of paid officials from the 
 Government, with union houses, called workhouses, 
 
 4
 
 34 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 instead of the cottages where the paupers were 
 housed in olden times, arid where the aged couples 
 were not parted from each other as now. An Act 
 passed in the reign of Elizabeth enacted that no 
 cottages be erected without an allotment of four 
 acres, and every labourer had a right of turning a 
 cow out on to the waste. At that time wheat was 
 6s. 8d. per bushel; waste land worth about a shilling 
 an acre, equal to i now ; wages 4d. to 6d. per 
 day ; a sheep worth about 2s. 46.., equal to 145. 
 now ; and a soldier received 6d. per day. Those 
 were the good old times ! 
 
 The growth of wheat, especially in Westmoreland, 
 is not a staple production, but much of the lower 
 alluvial plains in the neighbourhood of Warcop and 
 down the vale of the Eden is suitable for its produc- 
 tion, as well as for the growth of barley. For the 
 introduction of wheat into this country no doubt we 
 are indebted to our fore-elders, who made excursions 
 to the East, and to the Phoenicians, who traded to 
 this country to the coast of Cornwall for tin, by way 
 of Marseilles. The staff of life to the ancient Britons 
 was undoubtedly the acorn, and long subsequently 
 great attention was paid to the immense forests that
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 35 
 
 overran vast tracts of country. The oat from Scan- 
 dinavia seems, as the forests decreased and popula- 
 tion increased in these islands, to have taken the 
 place of the acorn in the manufacture of bread, as 
 well as a coarse grain called bigg, similar to barley, 
 which till recent times was largely used for food by 
 the common people. It has long since been ascer- 
 tained that the Gauls practised the art of what 
 modern agriculturists term ensilage, and that in 
 times of peace they buried large stores of acorns, 
 chestnuts, and beech-mast, to be exhumed and used 
 for food in times of scarcity and when at war. 
 French bread was made of corn pounded in mortars 
 and handmills. Several handmill stones have been 
 found in Westmoreland. The corn so bruised was 
 made into cakes called galette, or unleavened dough, 
 and was baked in ashes. Galette, or galet, applied 
 equally to a round flat stone or a flat cake, and is, 
 according to some, of Phoenician derivation Hebrew 
 galad, Celtic kaled, signifying hard, and from which, 
 according to Camden, the word Caledonia is derived, 
 the ancient name of Scotland 
 
 " Caledonia stern and wild." 
 On the line of march between England and Scotland
 
 36 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES. 
 
 has been found, whether of Roman manufacture or 
 of more modern times, two singular articles (probably 
 formerly in one) not unlike a hand-glass frame in use 
 by the ladies of our time, not far from Shap Wells, 
 when digging peat out of a bog. They consist of two 
 bronze frames with bevelled edges, in which, if the 
 two were placed together, might be inserted a piece 
 of metal or glass, which may have been in use as an 
 article of the toilet or for other purposes, probably 
 to turn a cake baked in ashes.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 " Of strange tradition many a mystic trace, 
 Legend and vision, prophecy and sign." 
 
 SCOTT. 
 
 AT the gatherings among country people, there is 
 often a large amount of gossip and curious surmises 
 about persons and things generally. An old maiden 
 lady once asked another rather younger, when busy 
 at the quilting frames, " What head do old maids 
 come under in the prayers of the Church, think 
 you ? " The other replied, " Perhaps as the desolate 
 and oppressed." The expressions in this part of the 
 country are peculiar, e.g., " As dead as a herring," 
 " As slippery as an eel," " As sharp as a lop," " As 
 poor as a kirk mouse," " As feckless as a hen," " As 
 fause as a fox," " It snapt like a bunnel" (hemlock), 
 " He will not part wi' th' reek of his kail," " He 
 would skin a flint," " An idle man is a lazy lout
 
 38 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 a sly one as deft as a thief in a mill." The pro- 
 verbs are innumerable, e.g., " Never cast a clout till 
 May be out," " Easy got, easy gone," " Many haws, 
 many cold toes," " Like master, like man," " Dree 
 as haver (oat) malt," " Fleec't ewe, fleec't lamb," 
 " Love me, love my dog." 
 
 An eccentric tailor once played off a joke upon 
 some men who professed geology, by telling them he 
 could get any quantity of specimens from an extinct 
 volcano, not far from Kirkby Stephen. They told 
 him to send some to an address in London, and gave 
 him a guinea. On coming down the next year, after 
 being heartily laughed at at home for their gullibility, 
 they sent for the tailor, a well-known wit, and after 
 upbraiding him with sending a lot of slag and 
 rubbish, he said if they would pay his passage to 
 London and back he would go and explain it to the 
 gentlemen, who had, he assured them, not under- 
 stood the specimens. A bystander was so tickled 
 that he slipped half a crown into the tailor's hand, 
 saying, " Well done, Jack, thou's fit to sit them all." 
 Another eccentric fellow went to the justice-room, 
 and opening the door, exclaimed, " Hulloa, a hun- 
 dred justices." The chairman, knowing the man,
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 39 
 
 looked up, and asked him how he made that appear. 
 " Why," he said, " there's yersel and two cyphers." 
 This man, Neddy Becham by name, used to wander 
 all over the country and excite the mirth and 
 curiosity of the people. He once alarmed the in- 
 habitants of Appleby by wrapping himself in hay- 
 bands, and, setting fire to them, rolled down the 
 street at midnight calling out " Fire, fire." This 
 has been excelled, however, by a wag in recent 
 times, who brought the people out at midday by an 
 announcement, through the bellman, that a certain 
 professor would walk on the river about noon. The 
 people, never thinking that it was the ist of April, 
 flocked in great numbers, much to their chagrin, but 
 to the great amusement of the author of the hoax. 
 Joe Matcham, another worthy, used to attend 
 funerals, and made some remarks, very frequently 
 after the service, on the character of the deceased. 
 Here is a specimen on the death of an organist at 
 Appleby : 
 
 " Oh, cruel Death, where is thy sting ? 
 
 Thou's worse than any viper ; 
 Thou's gone and murdered Willy Ling, 
 That noted organist and piper."
 
 40 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 He was very fond of horses, and would mount a 
 horse whenever a chance arose. It is related, when 
 watering a horse below the bridge at Appleby, that 
 some wag told him to ride farther in. Joe replied, 
 " Let it drink this first." He at last mounted a horse 
 in front of the " Red Lion " at Kirkby Stephen. 
 His wife happened to be standing near, and wished 
 him to desist, but he persisted in mounting it, and 
 said 
 
 " Farewell to Bet, I've had enough of thee : 
 And now to glory let me ride with glee." 
 
 He was killed in a few minutes by a fall from the 
 horse, near the Town-head. There resided at the 
 village of Winton an old man whose belief was so 
 thorough in witches, that he returned from going to 
 Appleby market because the wheels of his cart came 
 off, never dreaming that it was possible, as was the 
 fact, that the linch-pins had been taken out by the 
 scholars at the boarding-school. This old man used 
 to carry with him a rowan-tree staff, which he forgot 
 that morning hence the mishap. He used to wear 
 in his beaver hat a hare's foot on one side, and a 
 piece of rowan-tree bark or leaf on the other this, of 
 course, to keep the witches away.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 41 
 
 The superstitions of a country remain, and are 
 handed down with more certainty, amongst the 
 poorer classes, than the deeds of renown of the 
 hunting and warlike barons of a former period. The 
 scar called Ewbank Scar, above Hartley Castle, 
 derived its name, so tradition tells us, from the fact 
 that a Ewbank from Stainmoor rode over it after a 
 stag, not knowing that a fatal chasm was concealed 
 on account of the level appearance of the ground on 
 both sides of it, the horseman and stag meeting their 
 death at the same spot. This, as well as the 
 " Legend of the Wild Boar," has been beautifully 
 rendered in poetry by two native bards, Joe Steel and 
 John Armstrong, extracts from which are found in 
 this compilation. The natural curiosities in the 
 neighbourhood of this place have been portrayed in 
 rhyme with very pleasing effect, which we are not 
 able to give in full. Stenkrith Bridge is well worth 
 visiting, with the curious rocks below it ; and the 
 noble viaducts on the South Durham Railway, over 
 Podgill and Merrygill, near Hartley, as well as the 
 magnificent iron bridge spanning the Belah Gorge 
 just below Barras station, on East Stainmoor, and 
 others leading up to the summit near Maiden Castle
 
 42 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 and Rere Cross, where Malcolm II., King of Scot- 
 land, placed his standard when the two northern 
 counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland were 
 under his sway all these and other curiosities of 
 wood and dale, of ruined castle, and many other 
 things of minor note, would well repay the tourist 
 on his route through these parts for investigating. 
 Old and new link the past with the present, 
 and render a true interest to the antiquarian and 
 scientific mind. 
 
 It is said that witches will not follow you over the 
 keystone of the bridge (vide " Tam o' Shanter ") ; 
 nor will they go over a running stream. At a place 
 called Hauskeugh, in Ravenstonedale, there is sup- 
 posed to be a ghost which will not appear if you 
 whistle three times. At Kickersgill, not far from 
 this place, is a legend that some crockery which was 
 taken away by some people when moving, always 
 came back again. The same was said of a skull 
 that used to be at the foot of a stair at Hayfell. 
 These supposed relics of some tragedy of ancient 
 date no doubt are set at rest (exorcised) by the inter- 
 vention of the same agency that laid the spirit of 
 Jinling Annas, near Kirkby Stephen ; at any rate, we
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 43 
 
 are not aware they are to be seen in these places 
 nowadays. 
 
 It was told to us by Joe Steel, the mason poet, 
 that while digging an ashpit in a house not far from 
 the Wath in Ravenstonedale, belonging to Squire 
 Thompson, he found a bottle' full of crooked pins, 
 which he conjectured had been buried to keep 
 the witches away, as he was informed that the chil- 
 dren had been ill with a fever, and the cows had 
 cast their calves ; all coincident to the prevailing idea 
 at the time that such things could not occur except 
 from the agency of malevolent spirits, and notably 
 witches. It was said that such and such a one had 
 cast the evil eye a poor, wretched, dirty old woman, 
 probably, whose only crime was dirt and poverty. 
 
 ORTON DOBBIE. 
 
 A GHOST STORY IN RHYME. 
 
 BY T. G. 
 
 SOME forty years ago, I ween, 
 
 Strange sounds were heard and sights were seen 
 
 On hillside farm far up the fell, 
 
 Where cowslips grow and heatherbell. 
 
 Its site is bare, no woodlands near, 
 But brooks are bubbling fresh and clear ; 
 There's Jeffrey Mount and Roger How, 
 And Borough Bridge just on the brow.
 
 44 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 The Pennine Range and Cumbrian Hills 
 
 Here meet in strange fantastic gills 
 
 Of undulating rising ground 
 
 Form ridge on ridge and mound on mound. 
 
 Then stretching north are far-famed fells, 
 And health resort short named the " Wells," 
 Where gentry come and humble folk, 
 The waters take, and appetite invoke, 
 
 Where heather blooms ; fresh air to cull 
 And visions see no cares to dull ; 
 Visions of health not long to seek, 
 Regaled on hams and eggs and steak. 
 
 Not far to reach, of fair renown, 
 Is a fine church in Orton town ; 
 And further still, in road reverse, 
 Is the old abbey Shap, of course. 
 
 And Shap itself, renowned in story, 
 
 With its old church so grim and hoary, 
 
 Reminds us of those sylvan days 
 
 When monks were wont to preach, and praise 
 
 The Almighty Power who had them blest, 
 And placed them in so snug a nest. 
 But spoilers came, the nest pulled down, 
 And revelled in the adjacent town. 
 
 The Druids, too, have left their mark, 
 And circle cromlech like the ark 
 Are seen, but squandered, as you'll say, 
 In modern times by a railway.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 45 
 
 But we return to Lune's fair brink, 
 
 And Birkbeck leave, which thus does link 
 
 The valley and the hill together 
 
 One through verdant fields, the other past the heather. 
 
 My tale now localized ; strange story though, 
 When pots and pans such din bestow 
 As all the country rings with news, 
 A dobbie or a ghost broke loose. 
 
 Some said a murder had been done, 
 Others said it was nothing they need shun. 
 But when pots are whizzing through the air, 
 And tables dance a hornpipe with a chair, 
 
 The cradle rocks, the kettle jumps off t'fire, 
 And t'churn is met walking quite entire, 
 Without the aid of man or woman's wit, 
 No rest at all the cause know not a bit. 
 
 A domestic, more than half suspected, 
 Was watched, but seldom was detected. 
 The wise went to unravel ; the sages met, 
 But nothing could make out or knowledge get. 
 
 The country round was in a scare ; 
 Dr. Fairer long dead, no good to get there, 
 His books were hunted, black art tried, 
 Nothing unravelled, but mystified. 
 
 Sorcery and witchcraft each were blamed, 
 The parsons came were not ashamed, 
 " Endor's witch," a precedent had they, 
 And Holy Writ, who could that gainsay?
 
 46 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 Such things were done in ancient times, 
 Why not now on other lines ? 
 The family living at the house 
 Interrogated ; it was no use. 
 
 Speculation caused by the sudden death 
 Of a dweller on this lonely heath 
 Was rife, when an aged man was found 
 Stiff and stark dead upon the ground ; 
 
 The inquisition on him a cause failed to show, 
 Therefore nothing can ourselves now know. 
 Whether by means natural or foul 
 The body died and left a troubled soul, 
 
 To revisit earth in this flighty way, 
 
 To give vent to rumour and to cause dismay, 
 
 The wits and wise men puzzled were, 
 
 And crowds did go, were thus attracted there. 
 
 A coach was run, with "Orton Dobbie" inscribed thereon. 
 On Brough Hill fair, which many looked upon, 
 That sight I saw 'twas strange to see, 
 What puzzled others, often puzzled me. ' 
 
 1 This occurrence created at the time a great sensation in 
 Westmoreland. Many inquiries have been set on foot to eluci- 
 date the mystery, some considering that some one had been 
 practising spirit-rapping ; but whatever may have been the cause, 
 there has never been any explanation given of a satisfactory 
 nature, and the manifestations ceased as suddenly as they 
 began, after continuing a few weeks, and have never since been 
 seen or heard of.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 47 
 
 In these days the position of the statesman and 
 farmer are so equalized that it is difficult to dis- 
 tinguish them ; while, on the other hand, the more 
 opulent of farmers upon large farms often vie with 
 the neighbouring gentry in their style of living. In 
 other walks of life, such as the local clergy, who in- 
 deed were sometimes, as now, ordained as literates, 
 we see a wide difference : not only are their stipends 
 increased (some, however, have far too little), but 
 their sphere of labour is now totally different. Very 
 few, if any, now engage in agriculture, others are 
 active magistrates ; some more or less Ritualists, 
 whose time is occupied more or less in church duties 
 and observances ; while others are interested in 
 politics or antiquarian research. But in former times 
 it is related, that so poor were the livings in such 
 places as Patterdale (Patrick's Dale) and Swindale 
 (Swin a curved or crooked dale), near Haweswater, 
 that the minister had whittle-gate (whittle or knife) 
 and gate (free board) at every farm or other house in 
 the parish, turn and turn about for a week together, 
 but also employed himself for hire, at sheep-shearing, 
 hay harvest, and other employments incident to the 
 times; in winter even knitting and teaching school,
 
 48 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 as well as doing the service of the church. Mr. 
 Gilpin, writing in 1772, says that a Mr. Mattinson was 
 minister of Patterdale for sixty years under these aus- 
 pices ; and Mr. Walker, of Seathwaite, called Won- 
 derful Walker, was also under the same necessity to 
 augment his income, the stipend ranging from 12 
 to 20 per annum only of course equal now to four 
 or five times as much : but they saved, brought up a 
 family, and (the former at least), after sending one 
 or more to the University, died at the age of ninety, 
 and left two thousand pounds in money. Such is an 
 example of the manners and thrift of the clergy in 
 those small isolated parishes in those days. A clergy- 
 man there married and buried his nearest friend and 
 relation, having married to a second wife his own 
 father; when he died some years after he buried him, 
 and performed the service over his remains. Such 
 were the isolation and simple manners of the times. 
 It appears from Mr. Gilpin that Inglewood forest 
 extended as far south as Plumpton, where a large 
 Roman station, or station camp, is apparent, not 
 unlike the modern encampment. The roads made by 
 the Romans were uniformly straight, and you seldom 
 see a road of Roman construction of a winding
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 49 
 
 nature, their model being the Appian way; at 
 Ragmire, where the road formerly crossed, a boy 
 found some large wooden frameworks, unimpaired by 
 time, which the Romans had laid as a foundation for 
 their causeway. This latter word (causey) occurs 
 frequently now in the neighbourhood of villages, 
 and is no doubt in some way attributable to 
 their (the Romans') interference. It is not to be 
 supposed that all Roman roads were military roads, 
 although their outpost roads no doubt were often 
 where villages now stand, and it is very likely 
 that numerous places owe their origin to the 
 Romans, where the people located then, either 
 as camp followers or agriculturists. About a hun- 
 dred years ago it is recorded that Patterdale was 
 invaded, then, as now, by sightseers from towns, 
 who, instead of improving themselves by the simple 
 and virtuous habits of the residents, endeavoured to 
 contaminate them ; e.g., they were induced to carry 
 their horses on a flat-bottomed boat to the middle of 
 the lake, when a plug was taken out, and the boat 
 sank, when of course the poor horses made for the 
 shore, the owner of the first which landed being the 
 winner of a prize. This shows a spirit of cruelty, 
 
 5
 
 50 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 not unmingled with a species of heathenish gratifi- 
 cation, as real as bull-baiting, cock-fighting, or any 
 other practice which tends to torture an animal for 
 the excitement either of gain or less unworthy mo- 
 tives. From this lake is seen the conical hill of Dun- 
 mallet here is a name, in our opinion, not unlike 
 Dunmailraise, probably derived from the same source, 
 only in this latter case it appears in the diminutive 
 ,as the (at one time at least) small bare hill. 
 
 At Crosby Garrett is a church placed upon the 
 summit of a hill, which is a conspicuous object for 
 some distance, but very troublesome for aged and 
 infirm persons to approach ; the legend is that the 
 stones were placed for building a church in the 
 village during the day, but found on the top of the 
 hill in the morning. The work inside the church is 
 somewhat unique, but of a very restricted nature, it 
 being in the cathedral style of Norman architecture. 
 There are some specimens of stained glass, and a 
 portion of it is very ancient. The hagioscope is here 
 to be seen in perfection. Captain Johnson, who has 
 considerable property here and a villa residence, was 
 instrumental a few years ago in restoring the north 
 aisle, in which is the hagioscope, and keeping it in
 
 OF .NORTH WESTMORELAND. 51 
 
 its original character. A stained-glass window has 
 been inserted to the memory of the Rev. Mark 
 Newby ; subject, John Preaching in the Wilderness. 
 There is a tablet to the memory of M. Thompson, 
 Esq., of Stobars Hall, near Kirkby Stephen, erected 
 by his sister, who recently bought the manor and 
 advowson of the trustees of W. Crawford, Esq., who 
 had previously succeeded to it by devise of the Rev. 
 W. Bird, a former incumbent. 
 
 Churches situated like the church at Crosby 
 Garrett appear to our eyes as somewhat strange in 
 fact, are very inconvenient. The climb up is very 
 fatiguing to elderly people, and the situation is 
 altogether unlike what obtains in most places; but 
 we must look to ages long past to ascertain the 
 reason why places of worship were placed in such 
 positions. The hill upon which the church stands 
 at Crosby Garrett is one of peculiar shape. On one 
 side of it is a precipice which is difficult, if not 
 impossible, to mount ; on the other sides are de- 
 clivities of abrupt descent. The hill itself might 
 indeed have been selected as a fort beacon, or place 
 of worship in former times, and possibly it may 
 have been used for all these purposes. It commands
 
 52 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES. 
 
 a view of the valley by which it is surrounded ; it 
 would, if a beacon, be in full view of those places on 
 Cross or Roman Fells. But the most probable cause 
 of the church being built where it is, is that it was 
 a place used by the Druids in their religious cere- 
 monial, or by the Pagans, who selected elevated 
 positions to worship; if by fire, then it could be seen 
 to great advantage by the neighbouring people at a 
 great distance ; if the worshippers were addicted to 
 worship the rising sun, as in ancient times the 
 Pagans were, then this place would, in the eyes of 
 the inhabitants in those times, be a sacred place. 
 And therefore it is not improbable that it might be 
 a sanctuary or safe retreat for the inhabitants of 
 the place, as well as its usefulness as a beacon, 
 whereon could be placed a light, either on its tower 
 or hung from some projecting point, to warn the 
 district of the approach of marauders, who might, 
 leaving the vale of the Eden at any point, make a 
 raid into the secluded valley in which the village 
 stands.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " With the past and with the present, 
 
 Quaint old manners still are linked, 
 Olden customs grave and pleasant 
 
 Lingering still, though nigh extinct." C. T. C. 
 
 ONE of the obsolete customs is that of putting 
 drunkards in the stocks as a punishment. There 
 was formerly a custom called the " Hen-hunt " on 
 Shrove Tuesday this Joe Steel has described else- 
 where in verse called " The Hen Sacrifice." It ap- 
 pears that about a dozen men were blindfolded ; the 
 hen was put into a pit, and those who first struck the 
 hen were proclaimed the victors. This custom was 
 abolished in the lifetime of the late Captain Irving, 
 an active magistrate then residing at Wharton Hall. 
 It is supposed that this amusement arose from
 
 54 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 the fowl being considered to be a delicacy for the 
 labourer in ancient times. So says Tusser, in 1620 
 
 " At Shrovetide to Shroving, go thresh the fat hen, 
 If blindfold can kill her, then give it thy men ; 
 Maids, fritters and pancakes, enough see you make, 
 Let Slut have one pancake, for company's sake "- 
 
 and so on. 
 
 Tusser Redivivus, his annotator, relates that the 
 hen is hung on a fellow's back, who has also some 
 horse bells about him (pack-horse bells, we suppose) ; 
 the rest of the fellow's are blinded, and have boughs 
 in their hands, with which they chase this fellow 
 and the hen about some large court or small en- 
 closure. The fellow with his hen and bells shifting 
 as well as he can, they follow the sound, and some- 
 times hit him and his hen ; other times he can get 
 behind some of them, they thresh one another 
 favouredly (sic). But the jest is, the maids are to 
 blind the fellows, which they do with their aprons, 
 and the cunning baggages will endear their sweet- 
 hearts with a peeping-hole, while the others look 
 out sharp so as to hinder it. After this the hen is 
 boiled with bacon, and stores of pancakes and
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 55 
 
 fritters are made. Tusser again says that the hen 
 that did not lay eggs before Shrove Tuesday was 
 threshed with a flail, and if killed, the man got 
 her for his pains. In other places a hen was thrown 
 down and maltreated by the blinded ruffians, and 
 the legends say the hen spoke. But we refrain. 
 
 At Brough, near Stainmoor, is a curious custom 
 striving for the holly. This takes place on Epiphany, 
 or twelfth night. A large piece of holly is placed 
 on the bridge in the middle of the town, and those 
 who are lucky to get it on their side of the bridge, 
 have the merry night or dancing at the public-house 
 on the winning side of the stream. There is a 
 difference of opinion as to the origin of twelfth 
 day. Brand says that " though its customs vary in 
 different countries, yet they concur in the same end, 
 that is, to do honour to the Eastern Magi." He 
 afterwards observes, that the practise of choosing 
 " King " on twelfth day is similar to a custom that 
 existed amongst the ancient Greeks and Romans, 
 who, on the festival of Saturn, about this season of 
 the year, drew lots for kingdoms, and, like kings, 
 exercised their temporary authority. Mr. Fosbroke 
 affirms that " the King of Saturnalia was elected by
 
 56 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 beans." This election by beans leaves little doubt 
 that the practice, although rather different at Brough, 
 is the remains of Druidical or other superstitious 
 ceremonies (vide Fosbroke, " Dictionary of Anti- 
 quities"). In France, " twelfth " cake has a bean in 
 it, and the drawing is held for the slices; the one who 
 gets the bean is King or Queen. There is another 
 curious custom still existing. If a person afflicted 
 with warts put some smooth pebbles into a sheep's 
 bladder, and throw them over the left shoulder, the 
 warts are said to disappear. The custom of col- 
 lecting eggs as Easter dues is still kept up in some 
 parishes, which go to the priest ; while the parish 
 clerk has his threepence or fourpence per head at 
 this season. The boys keep up the custom of "pace 
 egging," and also that of Guy Fawkes. This last, 
 however, is almost universal. A bull-ring used to 
 be shown, and the stone that it was fixed into, at 
 Kirkby Stephen ; the practice of bull-baiting as 
 well as cock-fighting forming one of the amusements 
 of former times. The custom of " Riding the 
 Stang " used to be practised formerly in Westmore- 
 land. A man or a boy would bestride a piece of 
 wood a pole or stang, as it was called and then
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 57 
 
 be carried shoulder high. This was a form of 
 popular rebuke, and has not long been disused. It 
 held up to ridicule a delinquent in the eyes of his 
 neighbours, and was generally practised when a 
 person was guilty of wife-beating or inconstancy. 
 The procession would stop at intervals on its way 
 through the town or village, and especially before 
 the person's house represented, the rider reciting 
 the following ditty 
 
 " It is not for me that I ride the stang, 
 But for , who did his wife bang ; " 
 
 to which was added the cause of the domestic 
 quarrel, in the form of an impromptu oration. 
 Another custom, now obsolete, was when any 
 person an inmate of the workhouse died, a boy or 
 man used to go along the street of the town of 
 Kirkby Stephen with a bell, somewhat like that 
 of a town-crier, and give the name of the dead 
 person, and when he or she was to be buried. This 
 might be for the purpose of acquainting any one 
 who knew the party when out of the house who 
 might be desirous of attending the funeral, pauper 
 funerals not being generally very well attended.
 
 58 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 The conveyance of goods and merchandize in olden 
 times by pack-horses is worthy of note. Whole 
 strings of horses at stated intervals, about eighty 
 or a hundred years ago, passed from Kendal to 
 Darlington, via Waitby and Stainmoor. Some of 
 the cross lanes and fording places still exist, notably 
 one called Greensike Lane, near Kirkby Stephen, 
 coming out opposite the head of Winton Road, near 
 Eden Place, in the township of Hartley : of this we 
 shall treat more fully in another chapter. The 
 gathering at sheep-shearings and sheep-washings 
 is made more or less the occasions of merry- 
 making. Boon ploughings, sile raisings (timber for 
 roof), are also a mixture of working and feasting ; 
 while the statute hiring, where men and masters 
 meet at Martinmas and Whitsuntide to arrange 
 terms, are still in vogue. Some people deprecate 
 them, while others look upon them as convenient. 
 The sports and pastimes of a neighbourhood have 
 great effect, no doubt, upon its morals, and as people 
 must have recreation, it is not to be wondered at 
 that any kind of sport is well patronized. There 
 is growing up, however, an opinion that " Athletic 
 Sports " contribute, when well conducted, to supply
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 59 
 
 a want of which young people are not slow of avail- 
 ing themselves. This, with galas, where bands of 
 music are engaged and dancing patronized, are no 
 doubt an innocent and commendable mode of enjoy- 
 ment, while flower-shows and rush-bearings con- 
 tribute not a little to the cultivation of a spirit of 
 commendable rivalry, in growing choice varieties of 
 flowers ; but the latter custom carries the mind 
 back to the time when rushes really were bedded 
 on the floor of the church, as is now done in the 
 parish of Pavenham, near Bedford, every year, 
 because the patron of the living holds a field con- 
 ditionally that this is done, but flowers in other 
 places are now substituted by being placed on the 
 walls and other conspicuous places in the church ; 
 These so-called rush-bearings are held in this country 
 at Warcop, Musgrave, and Grasmere. 
 
 We cannot close this chapter without noticing the 
 mines of Dufton, Hilton, and Murton, which, how- 
 ever, are not now so flourishing as they were a few 
 years ago. These mines are leased by the London 
 Lead Mining Company from the respective lords of 
 the manors, and are an offshoot of that more gigantic 
 operation of mining which has been carried on for
 
 60 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 more than half a century at Middleton in Teesdale, 
 Weardale, and other places in the county of 
 Durham. These works are not very far distant, 
 however, as the crow flies, and the pedestrian who 
 undertakes to go across the Fells by way of High- 
 cup Gill, passing Cauldron Snout on the other side, 
 will be rewarded by the magnificent scenery which 
 presents itself to his view as he journeys down the 
 vale of Teesdale, past High Force, and so on to 
 Middleton. The system of payment some years ago 
 was, and we believe still is, somewhat peculiar, and 
 exercises considerable influence upon the fortunes 
 of the miners and their domestic relations. For 
 instance, a miner is debited with the output of lead 
 only which he is fortunate to find, while to reach it 
 he sometimes works for months and years before he 
 realizes any profit. In the meantime the company 
 allows him what is called subsistence (subsist 
 money at the rate of ten shillings formerly, but now 
 we hear of fifteen shillings weekly). Yearly accounts 
 and profits are declared annually about the new 
 year, and it sometimes happens that the fortunate 
 miner has probably from 50 to 100 or more to 
 his credit over and above his subsistence money;
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 6r 
 
 while on the other hand many are in debt to the 
 amount of the money received in weekly payments. 
 This is a hardship, we think, and scarcely fair, be- 
 cause it is speculative and the poor man is doing dead 
 work for the company, which is a monopoly. The 
 case does not rest here, for formerly and we know 
 nothing to the contrary many men were in debt all 
 their lives, and the son had to rub off the debt of the 
 father, and so on, until he positively could not in 
 some instances see his way to clear himself in a 
 lifetime ; and if he left his work in debt, he would 
 never be employed again by the same company. 
 Many have emigrated to quit themselves of this 
 burden, and begun life in a new part of the world 
 notably at a place called Galena in America, which 
 term denotes the lead region. Such is an instance 
 of a Trade Union the opposite of what generally 
 obtains in other works and trading communities in 
 this country. 
 
 The names of places in this county are significant 
 of ancient times, such as Ladyford, Ladywell (Our 
 Lady's well). Shaws signify a scrubby wood; a 
 grange, a farm building in a park-like enclosure ; 
 scout, a look-out, as Scout Green ; and so on. The
 
 62 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 various names of fields have been given to denote 
 some peculiarity of the location or incident that has 
 taken place near them. Elevated positions have 
 often been the site of villages long since swept away, 
 while some fields contain ruins which are sometimes 
 set down as places of worship, sacrifice, or burial. 
 At a county archaeological meeting (June, 1878) the 
 question of local names was broached, and amongst 
 others the word " rees," as applicable to " raise " (Dun 
 Mail Raise). The legendary part of it we pass over, 
 as to the suppositious doings of King Dunmail, &c., 
 and proceed to mark that as Dun denotes a hill, Moel 
 bare, and Raise rise or " rees," that the name is evi- 
 dent from the appearance of the hill itself, being raised 
 mound-like. It was also stated at that meeting that 
 Raise meant a stone heap. The word is ubiquitous : 
 stenkrith, sten, stennis, stone ; rith, red, the k being 
 evidently added ; and in Stenniskeugh (stony level), 
 keugh is used instead of haugh, the stones on which 
 might easily be raised into an heap but as we have 
 also hurrock and cairn, Raise is probably far-fetched. 
 If this word indicated a stone heap on the top of a 
 hill, where the bones of warriors were interred, it is 
 a pity that it was not more generally known, and
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 63 
 
 many a stone heap on the top of a hill might have 
 been explored ere this to some purpose. We should 
 rather hold to the name of Barrow for places of 
 ancient sepulchre, because proof of these holding 
 the remains of warriors, or skeletons of men sup- 
 posed to be such, have been laid bare by the labours 
 of Canons Greenwell, Simpson, and others, at Raset, 
 near Mason Wath, and Kilman (or Kinman), near 
 Sunbiggin, in this county. It is notable that these 
 skeletons were found buried with hollow troughs like 
 wooden spouts alongside, through which had passed 
 fire, to the extent of charring the inside of the 
 .trough, and so making them impervious to decay. 
 Stones were carefully laid about them, and being in 
 a dry situation, the bones were found in good preser- 
 vation. Some of the mounds had been disturbed, 
 however, possibly by previous explorers of whom we 
 have no account. It is evident, however, that with- 
 out these precautions, these remains of what are 
 supposed to have been Pictish warriors would 
 have long ago crumbled into dust. To return to the 
 word Raise. Not far from Sunbiggin rises a stream 
 flowing immediately at the foot of a hill on which 
 the village or hamlet of Raisebeck stands, while a
 
 64 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 mile or so further on, at the foot of a ravine on the 
 same brook, stands Raisgill Hall, an ancient farm- 
 house the one, viz. Raisebeck, being on a mound at 
 the rise of the Beck, and the other at the foot of the 
 gill, or where it rises above, thus denoting Raise or 
 the rise of the gill. On the opposite side of the 
 Lune, overlooking this gill is Gaisgill, the word 
 " gaze," we presume, being significant of the look- 
 out upon the gill ; and so on, while we have Redgill, 
 Longgill, Over-le-Gill, and many others; Ellergill, the 
 eller or alder gill, a tree the wood of which is sought 
 after for making the soles of clogs. Cotegill, Archer 
 Hill, and Eastgill, all denote their positions exactly. 
 Some places derive their names from shape, as, 
 Gibbert's, a hill between Raisebeck and Orton from 
 Gibbous, crooked ; ber, or bergh, a hill. There is a 
 hill near Wild-boar Fell called Clouds. Evidently this, 
 name is of Celtic origin (Clwd), a collection of stones 
 being the main objects. (Wilbert) Wildboar Fell, the 
 word Kelleth, the name of a hamlet, Stenniskeugh 
 Stennis, stone ; haugh, level ground are again 
 significant. Dr. Burn, in his history of Westmore- 
 land, says Kelleth is derived from keld, a well, and lyth, 
 soft which latter is evidently a misnomer, because
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 65 
 
 we have proof that it is directly opposite. Keld is a 
 term used for well, for we have it in many places, as 
 Cold Keld in Ravenstonedale ; but the word lyth, from 
 lithos, Greek, a stone (Query : How do Greek names 
 occur here ; have the Phoenicians travelled north 
 from Cornwall ?) is directly the opposite to soft e.g., 
 Lytheside and other places, where the ground is on 
 limestone, and the water, from holding lime in solu- 
 tion, is hardened. The old village of Tebay, being at 
 the confluence of the Birbeck with the Lune, spreads 
 out into a broad estuary, and therefore would be 
 called " the bay." Coatgill and Coatflat, from cote, 
 A.S. cuit, Welsh, a cot or small dwelling, or 
 gathering place, an enclosure for sheep and cattle ; 
 and Bybeck, from By, a dwelling on the Beck these 
 names are easily understood. In the neighbourhood 
 of Waitby, Wharton, and at Ashfell, Sunbiggin, 
 and Crosby, are many other names denoting sacri- 
 fice, worship, or burial. For instance, the villages 
 of Wharton and Hartley do not stand in the same 
 places as formerly. Hartley possibly stood in the 
 park above, called Cellarance (clearance), and pro- 
 bably the village was removed into the hollow for 
 the same purpose as Wharton was removed, to
 
 66 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 make way for a deer-park, by a former owner.. At 
 Orton, on the eastern side of the village, are founda- 
 tions showing that the ancient town of Orton was 
 much larger. In fact, as Overton, it must have been 
 very much larger, to have merited a charter for a 
 market many centuries ago. The market, although 
 now held on a Wednesday, was formerly held on a 
 Friday. On the east and west coast of England, 
 wherever a Danish or Norwegian settlement was 
 founded, the names still remain as Thorp, Thvvaite, 
 and many others. From Suffolk to Aberdeen the 
 eastern shores of this country were occupied by the 
 Norwegian (Norsemen), Danish, and Angle settlers; 
 the northern regions of England, Scotland, and 
 islands west of Scotland, formed part of the Scan- 
 dinavian Kingdom under Malcolm III. The Gaels 
 held the west Highlands, the Cymric Picts the Low- 
 lands. After the Norman Conquest the Saxon heir 
 to the crown of England retired to the court of 
 Scotland, and Malcolm married one of his sisters at 
 Dunfermline in 1070. His successor, Malcolm IV., 
 grandson of David I. of Scotland, was (after being 
 defeated by Somerland, Chief of the Isles, near Ren- 
 frew, in 1164) induced by Henry II., much to the
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 67 
 
 regret of his countrymen, to exchange the territories 
 held by the Scottish kings in England which in- 
 cluded the counties of Westmoreland, Cumberland, 
 and Northumberland for the earldom of Huntingdon. 
 Besides the use of several local words at this day 
 along with a sprinkling of the Celtic, there still 
 remain a goodly number of words in daily use for 
 which we are indebted to the Norse and Danish 
 invader. It will be seen from this and the different 
 complexions of the inhabitants of England and their 
 physiognomy that they are a mixed breed ; some 
 have very light auburn or sandy hair, others brown 
 or black, according as they are descended from the 
 Norman, Saxon, Danish, or Norwegian, who have 
 remained in this country after their invasions of it. 
 
 The parish of Ravenstonedale is rioted for having 
 some of the oldest Dissenting places of worship in 
 England. There is in the centre of the village the 
 Independent Chapel, recently restored, and now 
 ministered in by a resident minister, who has a 
 well-built house, called the Manse, at the top of the 
 village, as his residence. The burial-ground, in front 
 of the chapel, is neat, and in it reposes many branches 
 of the Hewetson family. It is kept in good order,
 
 68 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 and perhaps is one of the best memorials which 
 carries the mind back to the Commonwealth. Close 
 by the road to Sedbergh, at Fell End, in the same 
 parish, is what appears to be a compound of old 
 school-house and barn, but a portion of which is 
 really an ancient Friends' Meeting-house. Just 
 within the gate, to the left on entrance, without 
 memorial-stone or anything to mark the spot, lie the 
 remains of several Friends who have been interred 
 here. It is a lonely, neglected place, and the only 
 care seemingly bestowed upon the hallowed ground 
 is given it by the tenant of the adjoining barn, who 
 has put up a few hurdles to prevent the cattle from 
 trampling on the neglected graves of the Friends 
 who have been interred here. Query : Are there 
 no Friends to look better after such-like places, or 
 relatives of the dead to at least show some respect 
 to the memory of those who doubtless were as sin- 
 cere as their survivors in the faith, and had kindred 
 feelings of decency, to which all Quakers lay claim ? 
 The names of villages and fields which frequently 
 occur in this county are significant, such as Yan 
 Wath, Mazon Wath, Sand Wath, Sand Pot, Sand 
 Field, denoting proximity to water; Ridding, a
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 69 
 
 clearance of wood ; Rowgate, a place to mark cattle ; 
 Melgate, a boundary ; Merestone, an upright stone 
 for the same purpose. Some fields near Kirkby 
 Stephen called Stamps (sluice fields), at the foot of 
 what was once a tarn, evidently got their name from 
 having sluices to prevent overflows of water in sum- 
 mer, and thus saving the crops. The tarn is now 
 filled up. A lane called Bloody Bones, near here, is 
 said to be the place where cattle were buried during 
 the cattle plague which ravaged the country in the 
 year 1747. The parish of Ravenstonedale was for- 
 merly noted for two things a court of probate and 
 a deer park, the latter belonging to the former owners 
 of Wharton Hall. At a place called Cote Moor it is 
 said Sir James Lowther used to encamp during the 
 shooting season, not far from Ellergill. The word 
 " Eller" often occurs in this part, and denotes the 
 wood alder, from which clog soles are usually made. 
 There are many places of interest the Roman 
 Road, called street in this neighbourhood, beneath 
 the foot of or at Wild-boar Fell, and other objects of 
 passing interest ; the noble mansion built to the east 
 of Cote Moor by the late John Hewetson, Esq. ; the 
 old-fashioned yeoman-like dwelling of Tarn House,
 
 yo LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 belonging formerly to Sir Thos. Fothergill, standard- 
 bearer to the first Lord Wharton, when Lord Warden 
 of the Marches, and which is noted for massive oak 
 furniture collected by the late Thomas Fawcett, 
 Esq., of Sedbergh, a former proprietor. It is now 
 the property of John Fothergill, Esq., of Brownber, 
 in Ravenstonedale. At a place near Greenside, on 
 the grounds of the late Mrs. Chamberlain, is a 
 spring which ebbs and flows according, as it is said, 
 to the state of the tide. The sea, being forty miles 
 away, cannot, we should think, influence it. It is a 
 fact that the spring subsides and then appears again 
 at intervals. This parish was formerly noted for the 
 knitting of stockings, and to show the state of wages 
 at that time I have recorded an instance where a 
 man of the name of Ward, a native of Orton, was 
 engaged somewhere about ninety or a hundred years 
 ago, and who died perhaps about forty years ago. 
 At any rate his son, who died at the age of seventy, 
 some five years ago told me this story, that his 
 father was hired to Mr. Hewetson of Ellergill for 
 twenty-nine shillings the winter half-year, and that 
 half-year being from Martinmas to Whitsuntide, 
 the latter being a movable feast, had exactly twenty-
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 71 
 
 nine weeks in it, and that for the first quarter, 
 or until Candlemas or a little after, during the 
 long nights he used to knit stockings for the 
 master, who sold them for sixpence a pair, and that 
 he could knit a pair of stockings every week. We 
 wonder if the young men of to-day would knit 
 stockings every winter night, if they could, for the 
 master, at sixpence per pair. The Mr. Hewetson 
 who owned Ellergill at that time was ancestor of 
 the present owner, and grandfather to the late John 
 Hewetson, Esq., who, setting off from home with the 
 proverbial half-crown in his pocket, amassed nearly 
 a million of money in London, his will being proved 
 for 800,000 in money and thirteen estates, and 
 who, dying without issue, enriched many of his 
 relatives in -this country, principally nephews and 
 nieces. It is recorded of another old gentleman who 
 resided at Narthwaite, at the extreme southern point 
 of the county in Ravenstonedale, that before the 
 bridge was built leading up to that place, he and the 
 family used to ford the river by means of a pair 
 of stilts, and that, when a new servant was engaged, 
 sometimes a ridiculous contretemps occurred. A boy 
 would be despatched, and have to ford the river on
 
 72 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 stilts, with a burden of hay generally in the winter 
 time, for the sheep depasturing on the moor on the 
 other side, when very likely, owing to the uneven 
 bottom of the brook, hay and boy were plunged head 
 over ears into the water. The old yeoman was 
 generally in hiding to rush to the rescue if needed, 
 and enjoyed the joke amazingly. At this place it is 
 usual to carry the manure in panniers up the hill- 
 sides, and let it fall out by a slide at the bottom, 
 owing to the steepness of the ground ; or in some 
 places a sledge can be used, with boarded sides, for 
 the same purpose. This occurs also at Mallerstang, 
 on the steep hillsides, upon the ridge of the western 
 side of which runs along the railway from Settle to 
 Carlisle. Carts used to be made formerly with long 
 sides and upright spindle-like supports^ for carting 
 turves and peats (elding A.S. eild, fire) in those 
 parts, and may still be in use. The gear for horses 
 was generally very primitive, rushes (sieves) being 
 used to make the collars (braighams) with, wooden 
 hames to fix the traces to the collar, and the breech- 
 ing or stays made of girthing or hemp ; the only 
 part they were indebted to the saddler for being the 
 saddle, in which of course the saddle-tree is fixed
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 73 
 
 and covered with leather. A halter did service for 
 a bridle ; if a young horse shied, it was not unusual 
 to stitch an old hat-rim to the sides of the halter-head 
 to prevent the horse from running away, this part of 
 the hat being called the flype ; bedding for cattle, 
 now as then, being obtainable from the morasses on 
 the moors, in the form of rushes. 
 
 Such were some of the habits of a former genera- 
 tion, and then, as now, economy was the rule and 
 order of the day amongst the dalesmen. 
 
 The Roman station of Burton is not far to the east 
 of Warcop. Here the word Bur occurs again, the 
 Bergh fort or hill town. Burdock, a sort of teazle, 
 has been suggested, but this we dismiss. Brough, 
 with its ruined castle on the site of a Roman 
 fort, is sufficiently clear, and does not require 
 comment, looking to former explanations. When 
 the Romans held this country, no doubt sufficient 
 outposts or forts would be established mainly to 
 hold in check the Picts and Scots, against whom 
 they erected their great work, the Roman Wall, 
 between Newcastle-on-Tyne and Bowness on the 
 Solway. The Roman station at Borrow Bridge has 
 now been sufficiently examined to prove that, like the
 
 74 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 more perfect structure of Birdoswald, near Gilsland, 
 the land of Ghylls (Gill, a ravine) it has been a 
 quadrangular work of great strength ; the eastern 
 gateway and ovens adjoining are very conspicuous. 
 Two or three Roman coins were found after a recent 
 exploration by the tenant, Mr. Day, who let the 
 present writer see them. 
 
 Mauld's Meaburn, in the parish of Crosby Ravens- 
 worth, Maud being the name of the king's daughter 
 to whom it was granted in former times, vide History 
 of Westmoreland ; and King's Meaburn, the same as 
 retained by the king. The name Meaburn or Millburn 
 Latin, from Meo, to pass through ; Burn, Scottice, 
 a brook ; or Mel, the stream running through the 
 middle of the valley. Other derivations common to 
 the district, as Crosby, the cross or church village in 
 Saxon times ; Ravensvvorth, Worth being the Saxon 
 for village J By, the Danish, and probably from Raven, 
 the ensign on the Danish flag, or the abode of the 
 ravens, same as Ravenstonedale. In the vicinity of 
 Mauld's Meaburn in fact contiguous to it is a 
 mansion called Flass House. The word Flass is often 
 met with ; there is a Flass in Ravenstonedale. 
 Probably, as both are near water, the word is a
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 75 
 
 corruption of Floss, which is used in connection 
 with flowing water, from the Latin fluo, to flow. At 
 the foot of the village of Meaburn is Meaburn Hall, 
 the former residence of the Lowther family. This 
 ancient building, the remains of which represent the 
 ancient Tudor style of architecture, is surrounded by 
 yew trees of great age probably antecedent to the 
 Battles of Cressy and Agincourt. Yew trees are 
 here and there found about ancient houses and in 
 some churchyards. Their evident use has been to 
 make bows for warfare in ancient times, before the 
 invention of gunpowder. 
 
 We have previously given a version of Dunmail- 
 raise, as far as the derivation of the meaning of the 
 word suggests itself. It was the boundary of the 
 kingdoms of England and Scotland in ancient 
 times, much more so than the division of the 
 counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland. The 
 latter county was not distinguished from the former 
 in ancient times, being almost overrun by forests, 
 and its boundaries not defined from Cumberland, 
 but going under the latter name until the time 
 of Malcolm II. of Scotland ; in fact, it is said 
 that the division was made by a Saxon Prince,
 
 76 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 on the death of Dunmail, King of Cumberland, 
 who was slain in battle. The Kingdom of Cumbria 
 included ancient Westmoreland. The authentic 
 history, however, of this rude monument is little 
 known ; it consists of a monstrous pile of stones 
 heaped on each side of an earthen mound a gigan- 
 tic cairn, such as was commonly reared in the 
 North in those days to mark particular events, some 
 of them not less rude in structure but of less formid- 
 able proportions. But for whatever purpose this 
 rude monument was fabricated, it is a monument of 
 antiquity of quite as much historical as legendary 
 interest. In ancient times boundaries and landmarks 
 were common in Eastern countries. Jacob, when he 
 left his father-in-law's house with two wives abruptly, 
 was overtaken by Laban, and after an altercation, 
 made a treaty a heap of stones each of them 
 taking it for a witness that neither of them was to 
 pass over it to the other's harm. Mr. Gilpin, writ- 
 ing in 1772, in corroboration that Cumberland and 
 Westmoreland were looked upon as one in former 
 times (although he makes a distinction at that date 
 of course), speaking of the entrance into Cumberland 
 as a scene " marked very strongly with the sublime,"
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 77 
 
 in a foot-note to his " Tour " says : " There are 
 three passages of this chain of mountains into Cum- 
 berland. This by Ambleside is the wildest and most 
 picturesque ; a second by Brough over Stainmoor is 
 dreary rather than wild ; and a third by Shap is both." 
 But this part, bounded by the Tebay gorge, was 
 Westmoreland proper in former times, the Barony of 
 Kendal, Burn observes, being counted as partly in 
 Lancashire and Yorkshire in " Doomsday Survey." 
 It is, however, more particularly the nature of this 
 work to confine ourselves to the East and West 
 Wards, although the Ambleside and Lake Districts, 
 naturally shut off from these wards, are now politically 
 connected ; but the traveller, as he journeys from 
 Barnard Castle by rail to Tebay, on emerging from 
 the moorland district on the outskirts of Durham 
 into Westmoreland, will be struck with the sudden 
 panorama unfolded before him as he is whirled along 
 from Barras over the Belah Viaduct, where is a 
 lake-like expanse of country. This part of Westmore- 
 land is known as the Valley of the Eden ; it stretches 
 to the right far into Cumberland itself; in fact, he 
 has crossed the Pennine range, and is hurrying on 
 to where the lake mountains or Cumbrian range
 
 78 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 join together at the Tebay gorge, and form as it 
 were the natural barrier of the political division at 
 this point. The ancient hall of Hillbeck, now a 
 modernized mansion, but none the less picturesque, 
 lies on the height above Brough (Verteroe) Burgh, 
 under Stainmoor, a station of the Romans, with 
 the watch tower in the wood beyond, called Fox 
 Tower ; and a glimpse of the ancient but ruined 
 castle of Brough is plainly conspicuous. Such are 
 some of the ancient and historical landmarks. Brough 
 itself, serenely but solemnly picturesque, is waiting 
 for the revivification of trade, when some enterpris- 
 ing mill-owner or manufacturer of the future, far 
 from the busy marts and larger towns, sees fit to 
 utilize the water-power and adapt some of the many 
 sites and buildings, now fading away for want of 
 enterprise, to some object of utility, either of manu- 
 facturing or engineering interest. We have often 
 been struck that, with a population of the wage 
 earning class and so much latent power running 
 as it were to waste, the various places where water- 
 power is plentiful have not been utilized. Can it 
 be that this part of the country has been or is so 
 conservative in its tendency that it brooks no inter-
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 79 
 
 ference with its isolation from the rest of the world ? 
 because the cost of transit is now no excuse, the 
 railway runs near enough to most places, rents 
 are comparatively low, and living comparatively 
 cheap.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 NOWADAYS travelling by railway is a stupen- 
 dous advance upon what was the common mode 
 about a century ago, when pack-horses were the 
 only mode of conveyance. We have seen a string 
 of horses in our time come into the East Ward 
 with bags of coal upon their backs small horses, 
 or Galloways, as they were locally called on their 
 way from the county of Durham ; but this mode 
 of conveyance was formerly the only one. At a 
 former period, the narrow roads that still exist 
 in some parts of the county were no doubt made 
 purposely for this mode of conveyance, where it 
 is impossible for a vehicle to pass another; and 
 until Macadam made the discovery that broken 
 stones could be made to consolidate the roads, 
 and facilitate travelling, those narrow lanes were
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 8r 
 
 the only roads that were kept up by the public, 
 and called Township Roads ; the turnpike, so called 
 from the gate hung across the newly-formed roads, 
 being put up by Trustees of Highways, and shares 
 were taken in those roads on the same principle 
 as we now invest in railways. The Trustees, after 
 paying a dividend by the letting of the tolls thus 
 collected at the Turnpike or Gate House, disbursed 
 the remainder of the money in keeping up, or assist- 
 ing the parishes to keep up, the repairs required, 
 keeping a surveyor, who had the local government 
 and surveillance of the parish official. Thus, carry- 
 ing by packages on horseback gave place to carts 
 and waggons, the saddle-horse for swift personal 
 movements ; and saddle-bags to coaches and other 
 vehicles the variety of which is common to our 
 experience. The only canal in Westmoreland, 
 starting from Kendal, conveyed passengers and 
 light goods south to Preston, where the coaches 
 ran from, to the metropolis ; and, as canals ramified 
 through the flat parts of England prior to coaching 
 days, they were the most expeditious mode of 
 transit at the time we write of. If the young people 
 of this period like to interest themselves in inves- 
 
 7
 
 82 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 tigating this subject, the roads from Newbiggin to 
 Waitby, across Smardale Gill, above the railway 
 viaduct, leading down from Waitby, through by 
 Eden Place, and on to Winton these will furnish 
 them with proof enough that nothing has been said 
 but facts about the extreme narrowness of the 
 roads ; and the wonder is that in some parts the 
 road permitted a passage to a cavalcade of this 
 sort when meeting each other ; but the jingling bell 
 of the leading horse or teamster would warn the 
 traveller to seek a halting place or an easy open 
 way to enable them to pass with comfort. The 
 large hostelry of Low Borrow Bridge, with its 
 narrow bridge without ledges, over a chasm of the 
 Lune, a little below the present bridge, no doubt 
 was in existence before the coaching days, or even 
 before the perfect and macadamized road over Shap 
 Fells was made. This dreary route will no doubt be 
 remembered by those now getting into the sere and 
 yellow leaf of age, as one of the wildest bits of 
 road to be encountered between Penrith and Kendal. 
 A pedestrian is said to have questioned a boy 
 alluding to the very wet weather often encoun- 
 tered here " Well, my lad, does it always rain
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 83 
 
 here ? " " Nay," said the lad, " it sometimes 
 snaws " (snows). The hostelry of High Borrow 
 Bridge stands on the margin of the old narrow 
 road leading to Kendal, and the contour of the hills 
 and ravines is called "demmings." These reads gen- 
 erally were carried straight up and down hill, and 
 the small bridges here and there still existing show 
 that no cart could possibly go over. A straight 
 line drawn across from Kendal to Barnard Castle, 
 would almost strike the entire route of the ancient 
 roadway between those places, coming over by 
 Bretherdale, at a place called Brest High. There 
 is no doubt these localities at that time were more 
 self-supporting than at present; more corn was 
 grown than now in mountain districts, i.e., oats, 
 chiefly because wheat could not ripen owing to the 
 high latitude of most parts ; and it is evident from 
 the numerous corn-mills, some in ruins, others still 
 in working order, that each hamlet of a few houses 
 was dependent upon the local supply of the neces- 
 sary of life. Oatmeal and milk, bacon and potatoes, 
 with a little barley bread, and an occasional bit 
 of mutton, was the diet of the country people. 
 Beef was seldom eaten fresh, but farmers joined
 
 84 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 in a bullock or cow in the autumn, and dried 
 cured beef was always used during the winter, being 
 summer-fed ; very few beeves being fattened in winter. 
 Indian meal, linseed and cotton-cake were unknown 
 as feeding-stuffs. Dried beef and bacon, along with 
 pease-pudding, leeks and other vegetables, were 
 the chief diet. Flour-bread from wheat, tea, and 
 coffee were luxuries almost unknown to the hardy 
 people of the north ; but home-brewed ale, whey- 
 sops and skimmed milk cheese were the chief 
 substitutes. 
 
 Enough has been already said to show that at the 
 time alluded to, when transit of goods was rare, and 
 travelling irregular, many people never left their 
 native dale during a life-time ; and a person in our 
 younger days who had journeyed to London, on re- 
 appearing in his native dale after a short absence, was* 
 looked upon as a rara avis, or something out of the 
 common line, and deserving of honour and com- 
 mendation. Now, it will not be amiss if we endea- 
 vour to touch upon another mode of progress, and its 
 development ; we mean the railroad. 
 
 The first line made in this part was the Lancaster 
 and Carlisle Railway, which, entering the county near
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 85 
 
 Burton, in Kendal Ward, continues its way due north 
 until it leaves the county at Yanvvath, when it enters 
 Cumberland. It cost upwards of a million and a 
 quarter. This is at the rate of 17,000 per mile, and 
 was completed in the short space of two years and a 
 half. There is not a tunnel on the whole line from 
 Lancaster to Carlisle, a length of over 70 miles, 
 although it rises on Shap Summit to 1,000 feet 
 above the level of the sea. The line was opened for 
 traffic on the i5th of December, 1846. About fifteen 
 years after, the South Durham and Lancaster Union 
 Railway was opened, having its junction with the 
 former line at Tebay. It passes over Stainmoor, and 
 the stupendous nature of the work, owing to the num- 
 ber of viaducts which span the gorges of Podgill 
 and Merrygill near Kirkby Stephen, and the immense 
 iron bridge over the Belah gorge near Barras 
 Station on Stainmoor, being over 200 feet high, with 
 numerous others of solid masonry, renders it a re- 
 markable achievement of engineering skill. It like- 
 wise has no tunnels. The line rises to a height of 
 1,300 feet above the level of the sea on Stainmoor 
 Summit, the view from which is peculiar and grand 
 as the train emerges from the dizzy height of " Stain-
 
 86 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 moor's stormy waste," the view taking in the whole 
 of the vale of the Eden, having the Yorkshire hills on 
 the south-east, the Pennine range on the north-east, 
 the Cumberland range on the west, and the noble 
 massive hill of Wild-boar on the south. There can 
 be no fairer scene as the train runs down an incline 
 of seven miles, until it stops at Kirkby Stephen, 
 where there is a junction with the Eden Valley, 
 which, leaving the main line, here passes Appleby, and 
 joining the London and North-Western Railway at 
 Clifton, has its terminus at Penrith, at which place is 
 another terminus, that of the Cockermouth and Kes- 
 wick line of railway, which is in connection with 
 the Whitehaven and other lines belonging to the 
 Furness Railway Company, passing in this way by 
 St. Bees, and so on to Furness Abbey, Barrow, 
 Ulverston, and the Lake District. But the greatest 
 and costliest feat of modern engineering in this 
 district is the more recent one of the Settle to Car- 
 lisle line of railway, a continuation of the Midland 
 System. It enters the county at the head of the 
 Vale of Eden in Mallerstang, passing Aisgill Force, 
 and, directing its course under the face of Wild-boar 
 Fell, enters the tunnel at Birket at the head of
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 87 
 
 Wharton hamlet, when a splendid view opens out 
 to the tourist, the line passing at a considerable ele- 
 vation on the left bank of the Eden, passing Pen- 
 dragon, and through the park of the ancient seat of 
 the lords of Wharton, near Wharton Hall, leaving 
 Kirkby Stephen on the right, and passing by a 
 stupendous viaduct over the South Durham Line 
 over Scandale Beck, near which is the celebrated 
 Witch Stride over which, in olden time, crossed the 
 renowned beldame, Nan Trotter, in her nocturnal 
 rambles. This is on the outskirts of Ravenstonedale 
 Park, and near the Lime Works abutting on the 
 South Durham Line. The village of Crosby Garrett 
 then comes into view, and in it may be seen the 
 quaint church seated upon a hill or large mound, 
 while Hillbeck Hall, Roman Fell, and the Pennine 
 range are on the right. At no great distance is 
 the ancient town and castle of Brough, the Roman 
 Verterae, and other objects of interest. The county 
 town of Appleby is then reached, after passing over 
 the river Eden, where is another gigantic bridge, 
 near the village of Ormside; and in the summer time 
 to the right may be seen on the common of Bracken- 
 ber literally the Fern or Bracken Hill the encamp-
 
 88 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 ment of the Cumberland Militia on the one side and 
 the Westmoreland Militia on the other, who make 
 this the headquarters of their manoeuvring during 
 their active service or annual training. The Settle 
 to Carlisle Railway has cost about 3,000,000, being 
 probably the most expensive line ever made in this 
 country, being an average of nearly 40,000 per mile. 
 For eighty miles of length the difficulties surmounted 
 have been great, and more especially in the neigh- 
 bouring county about Dent, and further south, nearer 
 Settle. Miles of tunnelling had to be done, and land- 
 slips were common during the making of the line 
 owing to the nature of the soil, which was often 
 boggy, the country being subject to great rainfalls, 
 and the line often running alongside enormous steeps, 
 which rendered the undertaking both costly and 
 arduous, as the price of land had been more than 
 doubled since the formation of the Lancaster and 
 Carlisle undertaking. But it bids fair to promote the 
 welfare of the public, and is a competing line with 
 the latter, which almost enjoyed a monopoly before it 
 was constructed. The scenery along the route can- 
 not be surpassed for wild grandeur on its early 
 course, and also after passing Appleby the features
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 89 
 
 of the country undergo a change not less agreeable, 
 as it skirts along the vale under the Pennine range, 
 crossing and re-crossing the Eden, or running high 
 above it, rendering the scenery viewed from its eleva- 
 tion truly grand and magnificent, until it enters the 
 border town of Carlisle, and mingles with other com- 
 panies in the grand citadel station almost unrivalled 
 for beauty, bustle, and clamour of business.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE geology of some parts of the bottom of West- 
 moreland, as this part is called, is peculiarly in- 
 teresting. In the neighbourhood of Kirkby Stephen 
 is a rocky deposit called " brockram " (breccia), a 
 conglomerate of magnesian limestone and red 
 sandstone. There is a small bed near Brough, but 
 the general deposit is limestone. In the centre of 
 the county red sandstone crops out underneath, 
 and is found in the bed of the rivers. At Ashfell 
 Edge it is seen tilted up, with the limestone on 
 the top facing Ravenstonedale, at an elevation of 
 several hundred feet above the level of the sea ; 
 while on the west of the county, as before observed, 
 is the granite quarry at Wasdale Head, on the top
 
 NOTES OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 91 
 
 of Shap Fells; while down towards the edge of 
 Yorkshire, south of Tebay Station, on the hills 
 and in the bed of the river, occurs the blue whin- 
 stone, bolt upright, and nearly like a slate in its 
 fracture, but more generally hard and unequal. 
 On the south-east side of the county, near Rothay 
 Bridge, and on the south-east of Nateby, near the 
 head of Swaledale, are quarries of flag similar to 
 those found in the centre of Yorkshire, and some 
 other parts of the county. Not far from Orton, in 
 one part of the Scaur, occurs a quarry of white 
 freestone, which can be got in large blocks, and 
 which was utilized in re-building a part of the parish 
 church. In many places, amongst the limestone 
 are found fossil shells of Crustacea and forami- 
 nifera, at elevations of many hundred feet above sea 
 level. But in the Crosby and Orton Ridge, there 
 are not fewer than three distinct beds of limestone 
 interstratified with beds of sandstone, all of which 
 dip from the parallelism of the Lune to that of the 
 Eden, and running beneath the latter stream towards 
 that of Cross Fell ; showing that the entire structure 
 of the elevated ridge, which forms a conspicuous 
 feature of the county of Westmoreland, is newer
 
 92 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 than the channel of the Lune, as the beds of 
 stratification, from the Lune in the direction of the 
 Eden to the summit of this mountain chain, holds 
 its dip uniformly from the Lune and to the Eden. 
 Why, therefore, have the beds of stratification as met 
 with in the Shap and Orton limestone been elevated, 
 while those of the old red sandstone have been de- 
 pressed on a regular declination ? Because the 
 upper group is altogether a more recent one, the 
 material of which has been drifted at a subsequent 
 date upon the declination of an older structure, 
 and placed between the range of two separate 
 currents, the force of which had been materially 
 exhausted latterly : the stronger current having 
 deposited the whole material on a low angle of 
 ascent, and a less powerful one having cut off 
 the advancing beds of the other precipitously a 
 normal law of deposition, which has very commonly 
 happened, in even extended sequence, and as seen 
 on the side of Cross Fell. The Tyne having afforded 
 the stronger current comparatively, and the Eden 
 a weaker one, has uniformly cut away the ascend- 
 ing beds of that range of hills along its western 
 escarpment, in a precipitous form, from Talkin to
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 93 
 
 Stainmoor. The same normal law of a sedimentary 
 process which obtains in the Shap and Orton range 
 of hills, is gone over again on the side of Cross 
 Fell, like waves of normal translation repeated ; 
 the weaker checking the advance of a stronger 
 power: the impetus gained on the side advance 
 from being subdued by a minor force on that gone 
 towards, and appearing as if its action was sud- 
 denly checked the very same law of active force 
 which originates the Helm Wind, and governs its 
 phenomena. This, then, is the theory given of 
 the deposition of carboniferous limestone of the 
 East and West wards of this county, of which we 
 in particular dilate upon. Drifting as the tidal wave 
 did from the Norwegian coast, upon the line stretch- 
 ing from east to west at the base of the Pennine 
 chain, the Solway wave took the free range of the 
 valley of the Eden, and even over Shap Fells, 
 depositing the huge boulders of granite, and even 
 lifting some of them over Stainmoor. It may, how- 
 ever, suffice here to remark, that the geological 
 formation of this county is of sufficient interest 
 to engage, as it will undoubtedly at some future 
 time, more of the attention of scientific inquirers
 
 94 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 than seem to have interested them recently on this 
 question. For the action of tidal waves we refer to 
 the works quoted herewith. It is evident that the 
 scarping of the sides of hills was due to a southern 
 and not a northern tidal wave, like the Solway; 
 and that the elevated hills of Orton and Shap Fell 
 were covered at an early period by shallow water, 
 and that the wave of the Solway brought back, after 
 the exhaustion of the southern current, the gritty 
 scoriae and silt which has produced the limestone 
 rocks we have been treating on. With the exception 
 of volcanic products, accepted geology agrees that 
 the composition of all rocks has been effected 
 whilst submerged in the great deep. Have the hills, 
 then, and dry land been upheaved from the ocean; 
 or has the ocean gone down from the hills by 
 the valleys which were made by the previous 
 oceanic furrowings? Some geologists are apt to 
 think that the revolution of the axis of the earth, 
 excepting always that the waters upon the globe 
 come also under this definition, and that the sub- 
 sidence of the waters was caused by a slow revolution 
 of the earth upon its axis ; the great forces in 
 motion may then have gradually been lessened in
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 95 
 
 intensity, and the evaporation may have gradually 
 caused the waters to lose some of their bulk. But 
 we leave this part of the question ; and, in so doing, 
 only notice the fact that such evidences are exist- 
 ing as lead us to the conclusion that forces longer 
 in existence have so formed the surface of the earth 
 that the records of universal domination of the water 
 cannot be doubted ; and whether the Noachian 
 deluge existed for any length of time long after the 
 earth had resumed its present shape, or long anterior, 
 we have no means of ascertaining. Sufficient has 
 been brought to light by modern investigation 
 to prove that most points subsequent to the deluge 
 recorded in the Scriptures have been cleared, and 
 the ruined cities of Nineveh, and the inscriptions 
 upon the tombs and other ruins in those buried 
 cities, verify the truth of those records ; and whether 
 the age of the world be six thousand or sixty thou- 
 sand years, geology does not dispute the record 
 of Holy Writ. Some are doubtful as to the measure- 
 ment of time, and this consideration may well 
 obtain and, with our limited knowledge, be a stum- 
 blingblock, -but we nevertheless find, on every hand, 
 abundant proof of the handywork of a Great Power,
 
 96 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 and that Power we must acknowledge as the Great 
 Architect of the Universe. * 
 
 Granite being the primary rock or basement 
 upon which all other- alluvial deposits rest, the 
 action of fire or gases within the earth has 
 caused its upheaval in those places where we see 
 it on the surface, and thus is displayed the benefi- 
 cence of nature in bringing to light her hidden 
 bounties for the benefit of man. Mr. J. Rooke, of 
 Aikhead, near Wigton, writing in 1838, says, speak- 
 ing of the tide-wave of the Solway Frith : " On 
 the close of the deposition of the old red sandstone, 
 the geology of our island assumes a more and more 
 extended shape in our hand. Its connecting links 
 are less dislocated ; the range of the various tide- 
 waves become distinctly mapped out ; the primary 
 isles stand apart from the rest ; and the processes 
 on which creation's round has been organically 
 conducted, become, in themselves, unanswerably 
 authenticated." In the consideration of mountain 
 limestone, he says : " Here we confess that its 
 origin is beset with incidents not easily explained. 
 
 1 Vide Professor Sedgwick's and other works, for which we 
 are indebted for much of the foregoing Whellan's " History of 
 Cumberland and Westmoreland," &c.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 97 
 
 Alumina and silica are, in themselves, simple earths, 
 and combinable in any proportions. Again, why has 
 the deposition of carboniferous limestone been so 
 much delayed, and hitherto so sparingly combined 
 with aluminous and silicious materials ? Decom- 
 position and an exhibition of new forms and 
 combinations are the chief modes and means by 
 which a habitable globe has been constructed." 
 " Infinite Wisdom ever works according to om- 
 niscient forms. Might not lime, up to a given date, 
 be mainly held in aqueous solution, and owe its origin 
 to a carboniferous form to carbonic acid drawn from 
 the atmosphere, by going through processes of 
 animal and vegetable life ere it fully combined 
 with lime ? " Even grant this suggestion to be an 
 idle theory, yet its statement is sufficient to show, 
 that what might be so mysterious to us, might be 
 easy and plain to an All-wise and Almighty Creator. 
 If lime originally took a fluid form, and carbon an 
 aerial one, might not their combination lead to a 
 material subsidence of the ocean ? 
 
 The enormous quantities of calcareous earth, 
 whatever its origin may have been, which subsequent 
 to a given period of time has been scoured from the 
 
 8
 
 98 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 Arctic Ocean, and distributed so plenteously on the 
 European levels, is exceedingly apparent. Previous 
 to the deposition of carboniferous limestone, the 
 Pennine chain of England had little or no existence, 
 except a foundation of old red sandstone, to rest 
 upon. This chain, so conspicuous in the geology 
 and features of England, runs from Berwick-on- 
 Tweed to Ashbourne, in Derbyshire. Most of the 
 material of the Pennine chain, and in which car- 
 boniferous limestone predominates, has probably 
 been brought by the tide-wave from the Arctic 
 Ocean. And here it may be remarked that the 
 appearance of the whinsill or whinstone in certain 
 districts, abruptly cutting off the carboniferous lime- 
 stone, is peculiar. A theory has been advanced 
 that, in the volcanic action which took place again 
 and again, the carboniferous limestone has been 
 suddenly hardened by being poured out in a heated 
 state, and cooled in a carboniferous sea. Mr. Rooke 
 says that the mountain limestone chiefly lies in 
 an area enclosed by the primary isle of the south of 
 Scotland on the north-west, and by the Dunstan- 
 borough ridge of old red sandstone on the south-east, 
 as if it had got into a funnel which carried it within
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 99 
 
 the vortex of a western tide-wave of the Solway 
 Frith. 
 
 The Skiddaw cluster of mountains standing out 
 northwards on the centre of the Cumberland group, 
 takes the shape of a convex curve on their northern 
 aspect ; and we observe the carboniferous limestone 
 mantling directly along such curve, in a belt-like 
 form, from Whitehaven to Ravenstonedale in West- 
 moreland, preserving a continuous line for sixty- 
 five miles in length, until it finally joins the main 
 body of the Pennine range of hills. 
 
 In Westmoreland there are a few small seams 
 of coal, especially on the ridge bordering on York- 
 shire, on Stainmoor, and Mallerstang, the former 
 gradually increases in thickness of deposit as it 
 approaches the latter county, and until the rail- 
 way opened up communication with the Durham 
 collieries were mainly relied upon to serve this part 
 of Westmoreland upon which we treat. Mr. Rooke 
 says: 
 
 "We have to consider the deposition of the 
 coal measures, what the origin has been, in what 
 direction it has been brought, and why it is found so 
 abundantly in one place, sparingly in another, and
 
 TOO LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 altogether wanting in others. Had the material of 
 which coal is composed not been mainly a deposit 
 and a foreign product, it might not have been so 
 evenly found in its accompanying strata as its 
 position and other incidents would seem to indicate. 
 Its combustible properties may fairly be attributed 
 to a vegetable origin. So much granted, from whence 
 is the abundance of bituminous ingredients usually 
 found in carboniferous coal derived. Pine is dis- 
 tinguished from any or most other ligneous products, 
 for the bitumen it contains. 
 
 " It will, therefore, from the above, be right to 
 attribute the origin of coal to ravaged forests of 
 pine drifted upon our coasts by the action of the 
 forces herein described ; these being subject to 
 superincumbent pressure by the liquid deposit of 
 carboniferous and other alluvia, have been pressed 
 down, subjected to this organic change, and still 
 liable to spontaneous combustion. The coal measures 
 of Great Britain, valuable as they are, are none the 
 less forests of submerged pine, drifted from regions 
 in which the primeval forest held at one time 
 paramount sway. 
 
 "It appears that mountain or carboniferous lime-
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 101 
 
 stone overlaps mainly the coal deposits, and 
 that mill-stone grit is regarded as a lower member 
 only of the coal formation. It assumes on the 
 eastern side of the Pennine range larger proportions ; 
 in it are found very thin seams of coal ; it forms 
 the mass of Ingleborough in Yorkshire. From what 
 is here detailed, it appears that the chief origin of 
 coal must be considered as ligneous, that it is a 
 foreign product derived from forests overthrown by 
 tremendous torrents of wind, and carried by a 
 deluge of water upon these shores, being swept 
 by the currents of the ocean, which eventually 
 drifted them over to this Island, and, in the bene- 
 ficence of a wise Creator, during the time that 
 the earth was taking its present shape, and the 
 crucible of Nature was in other directions disolv- 
 ing out of her bowels, by igneous action, the precious 
 metals, and depositing them for the use of man in 
 the iron-bound coasts of this Island, as well as 
 in other countries where precious metals abound, 
 for the use of future time, when by their aid the 
 industry of the world was promoted, and the 
 civilization of all nations were to depend on the 
 hidden secrets of Nature, testifying to His Almighty
 
 102 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 power and providential interposition to prolong by 
 His gifts the races of mankind." 
 
 The immense blocks of stone that are so plenti- 
 fully scattered about in the neighbourhood of Shap, 
 convey to our minds a lesson of the intensity of forces 
 at work in ages long distant, but which nevertheless 
 have left the imprint of time upon, not only the 
 surface of the earth, but even in the strata below 
 the surface. The fossilized shells, to the initiated 
 in the science of Geology, tell us. in language un- 
 mistakable, that the ocean bed was once where now 
 the mountains and valleys are. Even some of the 
 highest of the mountains, such as Ashfell, give evi- 
 dence of its submersion, in the numerous fossils found 
 thereon. That the current which flowed over this 
 neighbourhood drifted in from the north-west is evi- 
 dent, and that the huge boulders came enclosed in im- 
 mense icebergs cannot be doubted ; and as the climate 
 gradually warmed by the influence of the Gulf Stream 
 and other potent agencies, the ice and ocean itself 
 was done away with the one by the numerous 
 agencies which we have briefly noticed, the other 
 by the internal commotions of the earth itself and 
 its consequent upheaval. Owing to the gradual cool-
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 103 
 
 ing down of its structure, the various strata as they 
 now occur were permanently laid. It is noticeable 
 that the lower a well is sunk, the higher the tempera- 
 ture becomes ; so that, a priori, the inference is that 
 the middle part of the sphere of the earth is yet 
 in a state of fervent heat. In many parts of the world 
 the accumulated gases are given off by volcanoes 
 and by hot springs in others, which are more or less 
 sought after by valetudinarians ; and the oil-springs 
 of Pennsylvania furnish another proof that the car- 
 bonizing substances within the bowels of the earth 
 are more or less under the influence of a high temper- 
 ature. To argue the point of the age of the world 
 from Revelation or from Geology is vain and 
 ridiculous, because it is not by years as we know 
 them that the crust of the earth could have been 
 prepared for the reception of the creatures now living 
 upon it ; nor, indeed, of the other species which 
 preceded them.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE tourist would scarcely fail to visit the county 
 town of Appleby, with its ancient Castle, as well as 
 Brougham Hall and the ruined Castle of Broug- 
 ham. The ancient castles of Appleby, Brougham, and 
 Brough lead us to consider the family of Clifford, 
 whose descendant the Countess of Pembroke was. 
 Besides her castles, which she repaired, she found 
 the churches belonging to the several villages on her 
 estates in ruins, and these also she repaired ; the 
 spire of one had been broken-down, another had been 
 turned into a magazine and a third into a hospital, 
 in the civil wars. Her several buildings and repairs, 
 on her first coming into the North, did not cost 
 her less than forty thousand pounds probably 
 equivalent to two hundred thousand pounds in these 
 days. In fact she was a blessing to the country where-
 
 NOTES OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 105 
 
 ever she went. She was everywhere the common 
 patroness of all who were distressed. Her heart 
 was large as her ability, and misery of every kind 
 that could get its story fairly represented to her was 
 sure of relief. She founded the hospital of St. Ann, 
 in Appleby, for twelve poor widows, and liberally 
 endowed it. Nor was her filial affection less remark- 
 able ; she caused a monument to be erected between 
 Penrith and Appleby called the Countess Pillar, on a 
 spot where she last parted with her mother, Margaret, 
 Dowager Countess of Cumberland, and left an annuity 
 of four pounds a year to be paid, on the stone table 
 placed hard by, to the poor of the parish of Brough- 
 ham, in which the pillar is erected. In short, she was 
 prudent, generous, and brave ; she stood up for her 
 rights with indomitable courage, and mostly suc- 
 ceeded. She was equally jealous of her dignity and 
 privileges, and whether her antagonist wore a crown 
 or was a republican even Cromwell himself she 
 was equally ready to uphold them. She kept an 
 office in every castle she resided in ; and all her 
 receipts and disbursements were entered with com- 
 mercial exactness. Her economy was equal to her 
 exactness ; nothing was spent in vanity, nothing
 
 106 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 trifled away. All the family expenses were under 
 the articles of necessities, and the very form of 
 regularity in which they constantly ran made one 
 year a check upon another. It is related that she 
 applied for a customary boon hen to a rich Halifax 
 tradesman named Murgatroyd, who refused to pay it 
 he had succeeded to a tenement at Skipton. She 
 won the lawsuit which followed his refusal, at a cost 
 of 200, and then invited him to dinner, which he 
 accepted, the boon hen being served up as the first 
 dish. " Come," said she, " Mr. Murgatroyd, let us 
 now be good friends. Since you allowed the hen to 
 be dressed for my table, we will divide it between 
 us." History was her chief reading, and possibly 
 she might be led to it by examination of the records 
 of her ancestors, whose names occur in ancient 
 history so frequently. The Veteriponts and Cliffords, 
 being of course so prominent in every record, their 
 traditional deeds of valour would to her be equally 
 an incentive to activity in those peaceful acts of 
 embellishing her castles and estates and practising 
 charity towards her poorer neighbours. It is said 
 that materials were collected by her and the learned 
 men whom she employed, sufficient for three large
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 107 
 
 volumes still extant, we believe, amongst the family 
 records at Appleby Castle. 
 
 Brougham Hall, the residence of the Broughams, 
 has by the beauty of its situation been styled the 
 Windsor of the North. There are several hills 
 called beacons, which acted as points of observation 
 and warning against the incursions of the Scots. 
 These beacons were lighted up by fire on a given 
 signal from the beacon nearest the point of danger, 
 and thus telegraphed to one another. The alarm 
 was given from the beacon nearest Scotland when- 
 ever a raid was observed from the hills on which the 
 look-out was planted. There are some stones which 
 are called " nine standards," to the east of Kirkby 
 Stephen, upon Hartley Fell, supposed to be points of 
 observation, or dummies to delude the Scots in their 
 incursions. Ewbank Scar is a noted place for pic- 
 nics, and the scenery from this to Podgill Foot, 
 embracing a view of Kirkby Stephen and the tower- 
 ing hill of Wild Boar, cannot fail to interest the 
 visitor to this neighbourhood. Not far off, near the 
 station, are the curious rocks of Stenkrith, in the 
 bed of the Eden. The neighbourhood of Kirkby 
 Stephen abounds in fine scenery : the towering Wild
 
 io8 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 Boar and Mallerstang Fells to the south ; the hills 
 to the east above Hartley ; on the south, Whar- 
 ton Hall, the ruins of Pendragon and Lammerside ; 
 and on the west of Kirkby Stephen the modern 
 mansion of Stobars. One of the noble family of 
 Wharton, whom Swift noticed with considerable 
 spleen when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, was the fifth 
 Thomas Lord Wharton ; he had a residence of great 
 splendour at Wooton, in Buckinghamshire, and it 
 is said that many of the pictures and articles of vertu 
 were sold to the Czar of Russia on the wreck of the 
 fortunes of the last representative, the Duke of 
 Wharton, who died a fugitive at an early age, who 
 fled on account of his Jacobinical principles to Spain, 
 and ended his life in a monastery where the monks 
 had given him shelter as a poor outcast. His fore- 
 elders were generally of the Protestant faith, and 
 even the fifth lord was more or less an adherent of 
 Puritanism. He was the author of " Lillibullero," 
 a satirical poem which caused a great sensation at 
 the time. The legacy of the Bible to so many 
 parishes in Westmoreland, Cumberland, and York- 
 shire, was by Philip, the fourth Lord Wharton. 
 At Kirkby Stephen, where there is a large church
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 109 
 
 recently restored at considerable expense, is kept up 
 the old custom of tolling the curfew (couvre-feu) at 
 eight o'clock every night. In the churchyard is 
 pointed out a raised flattened stone, supposed to be 
 over the grave of the poet Langhorne, who was born 
 at Winton, near here ; but some say it is the tomb 
 of his parents, the Rev. Joseph Langhorne and his 
 wife, who were interred here. The most conspicu- 
 ous monuments are those inside the church to the 
 Wharton and Musgrave families, some of whose 
 effigies recline upon their sarcophagi in lonely and 
 dignified state. The mural tablets within the church 
 are more recent, the principal ones being that to 
 Edward Hartley, Esq., late of Millbecks, in Kirkby 
 Stephen, and another to Thos. Monkhouse, Esq., 
 of Winton. There are some curious monuments also 
 at Brough, under Stainmoor ; a monumental stone 
 or rune has been unearthed there. The scenery about 
 Brough is grand, being flanked on one side by the 
 noble ruin of Brough Castle and on the other by 
 the hills of Hillbeck and Hillbeck Hall, the wood 
 adjoining the Hall, and the Fox Tower. Brough 
 was anciently a part of the parish of Kirkby Stephen, 
 the same as Grasmere and Windermere were parts of
 
 no LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 the parish of Kendal (vide Burn and Nicholson's 
 " History of Westmoreland," page 564). 
 
 Kirkby Stephen is a vicarage, formerly in the 
 patronage of Ivo de Talebois, Baron of Kendal, who 
 granted the same to the Abbot and Convent of St. 
 Mary's, York. After the Dissolution it came to 
 the Whartons of Wharton Hall, till the Duke of 
 Wharton granted the same to his steward, Walter 
 Smalls, Esq., of Gilling in Yorkshire, and then to 
 his daughter Jane, wife of Henry Chaytor, Esq., of 
 Croft, Yorkshire, then to their son, Henry Chaytor, 
 Esq., LL.D. ; it then passed by purchase to the late 
 Rev. Henry King, whose trustees sold it to the Earl 
 of Lonsdale, the present patron. The Abbey of St. 
 Mary, York, was surrendered to King Henry VIII., 
 and the revenue of Kirkby Stephen Church appears 
 to have been of lands, tenements, and cottages in 
 Kirkby Stephen of the value of g 55. oj^d.; in Nateby, 
 45. ; in Winton, 2os. ; and for the farm of the rectory 
 with the tithe of various villages, tithe sheaves of 
 Kirkby Stephen, 12; Hartley and Soulby, 1265. 8d.; 
 Wharton and Nateby, 4 8s. 8d. ; Winton, Kaber, 
 and other places, 2 2s. In 1547 King Edward VI. 
 granted to Sir Richard Musgrave, of Hartley, Knight,
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. in 
 
 the rectory of Kirkby Stephen with the advowson of 
 the vicarage, but in consideration of 471 he granted 
 the rectory and advowson the next year to Thomas 
 Lord Wharton, except the tithes of corn and hay of 
 Hartley, Soulby, and Kaber. And here be it re- 
 marked that the name Musgrave was probably for- 
 merly Mar-grave, count or warden of the marches; and 
 further let it be here observed that the whole of the 
 tithes belong to a rectory, while those appertaining to 
 a vicarage are only part of and held jointly, but with 
 proper proportion to individual rights by lay impro- 
 priators, who have succeeded to the portion which 
 was part and portion of that paid to the abbots of 
 monasteries, who allowed some portion to the vicar 
 of the parish. In small parishes they allowed all the 
 revenues to the priest, so he was rector : the word 
 vicar meaning literally one that acts for another 
 the abbots formerly, and bishops in some instances, 
 standing in the place of rector of a parish, or impro- 
 priators or owners of a benefice for the time being. 
 So a vicar did not, strictly speaking, get all the 
 revenue appertaining to the church before the Dis- 
 solution, but a rector did ; the lay impropriators 
 now get that which formerly was paid to the abbots
 
 112 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 of the monasteries by which priests were supplied, 
 the church being granted to them by being either 
 bought of the Crown or otherwise. 
 
 Regarding the supposed interment of Lord Whar- 
 ton and his two wives in the church of Kirkby 
 Stephen, under the alabaster sarcophagus which 
 said alabaster, by the way, was probably brought 
 from the neighbourhood of Kirkby Thore, in which 
 a deposit of it is worked to this day, and made into 
 half-moons for rubbing floors with in a document 
 kindly lent to me by Colonel Burn in manuscript, 
 along with annotations by Dr. Burn, with and in his 
 original copy of the " History of Westmoreland," in 
 which it was found, it is therein stated that a 
 similar monument is in Healaugh Church, near Tad- 
 caster in Yorkshire, and in other respects of inscrip- 
 tion and recumbent figures similar to the one in 
 Kirkby Stephen Church. It is also stated that in 
 " the year 1783, the arch of the vault under this monu- 
 ment at Healaugh fell in ; which was entered by the 
 Rev. Mr. Preston and others, and three skeletons 
 found therein, supposed to be those of Thomas Lord 
 Wharton and his two wives, one skeleton being 
 raised above the other two on a kind of platform ; "
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 113 
 
 or words to this effect. This seems to show that 
 Thomas Lord Wharton and his two wives were 
 buried at Healaugh, near Tadcaster, and not at 
 Kirkby Stephen the sarcophagus there being com- 
 memorative of the family connection with this place 
 only. An elaborate Latin inscription is translated 
 and given in this document by James Clitheroe, Esq., 
 of Boston House, Middlesex, Anno Domini 1783. 
 
 Joe Steel's legendary verses on the " Hunting of 
 the Wild Boar " give a very good description from 
 Hellgill in Mallerstang to Hartley. The giant's 
 victory and the death of the wild boar are well 
 painted, as well as that of the huntsman who met 
 his death at Ewbank Scar. He has also portrayed 
 elsewhere, in verse, the vandalism of the man who 
 broke up the Countess of Wharton's rocky seat and 
 her forced seclusion when her husband was absent 
 at Court. On a hill near the Kirkby Stephen Rail- 
 way Station is the site, so says tradition, of the 
 ancient castle of Croglin, but there is not a vestige 
 remaining. It is averred that one of the Whartons 
 of Wharton Hall, who lived at Lammerside Castle 
 previously to the building of Wharton Hall in the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, about 1555, married a 
 
 9
 
 114 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 daughter of Philip Hastings, of Croglin in Cumber- 
 land, and that her dowry was part of the lordship of 
 Croglin ; and that she brought by marriage into the 
 Wharton family that part of the property on the 
 Nateby side of the river now inclosed in the park 
 belonging to Wharton Hall. Croglin Castle may 
 have been built by the Hastings, as it is not un- 
 likely they might have a seat here out of the way in 
 troublesome times, far from the marauding Scots ; 
 and it is very likely that they would own more land 
 than the strip mentioned, because being an ancient 
 family, and land cheap in those days, they possibly 
 held a large portion of land at Nateby and Kirkby 
 Stephen nay, even the castle of Croglin might be 
 absorbed in the building of Wharton Hall. The site 
 now belongs to the trustees of the late Matthew 
 Thompson, Esq., who, along with his sisters and 
 daughter, own a large tract of land in the Kirkby 
 Stephen, Ravenstonedale, and Orton districts, &c. 
 Philip Hastings had no male issue, but some of his 
 descendants in the female line lived at Mauld's Mea- 
 burn, while others found their way into Yorkshire, 
 the name still surviving. There is evidence of an- 
 other Cumberland gentleman coming south, from his
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 115 
 
 place of residence at Threlkeld, to Crosby Lodge, 
 where he had a park for his deer. This property 
 belongs to some of the Dent family, who for genera- 
 tions have gradually, as well as the Wilkinsons of 
 Warcop, through commerce attained great wealth ; 
 the fine mansion at Mauld's Meaburn, called Flass 
 House, being the residence of the late Wilkinson 
 Dent, Esq. 
 
 There are no traces of mural monuments to the 
 Threlkeld family in the Parish Church of Crosby 
 Ravensworth, that we are aware of. At a very few 
 places (except Dallam Tower and on Martindale 
 Fells) are any deer kept in this county at present. 
 There are several incidents of events in history re- 
 lating to the passing of the troops of the Pretender, 
 and also of Charles II., over Crosby Ravensworth 
 Fells, which formed the high road between Lan- 
 cashire and Scotland in those days ; and an obelisk 
 at a place called Black Dub records the latter 
 event. There still exists in Mallerstang (Mallard, a 
 duck; stang, pool) the ancient family of Atkinson, 
 whose ancestor, Captain Atkinson, in 1663, was tried 
 and executed for taking part in a Republican meet- 
 ing after the restoration of Charles I., at what was
 
 Il6 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 called the Kaber Rigg Plot, and his estate forfeited 
 to the superior lord, the owner of Appleby Castle. 
 His descendants now farm the land which, but for 
 this circumstance, they would probably hold in their 
 own right. The feudal laws in this part of the 
 country, as far as the tenants are concerned, are 
 somewhat vexatious and unequal as regards their 
 duties and services. It is evident that the squire- 
 archy in the North were numerous in former times. 
 Look at the innumerable places called halls, one in 
 nearly every village some of them remarkable as 
 ruins, and showing that the owners kept up a sort of 
 feudal state. No doubt the small freeholders and 
 cottars, before the spread of commerce by the inter- 
 communication with the world outside, were mainly 
 dependents upon the larger proprietors for their daily 
 bread ; as agriculture would be the only occupation, 
 and the amusements of the chase the main diversion 
 of the lord or squire at the hall. The manors be- 
 longed in most instances to the resident proprietor, 
 and therefore he had several rights and privileges, 
 which were exacted by personal services of the vassal 
 (villain) of that period ; now the halls, estates, and 
 manors are in several instances, in fact in most
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 117 
 
 instances, amalgamated under the great houses of 
 Lowther, Musgrave, Tufton, and some minor lords. 
 The squires of old have given place to men who 
 have accumulated wealth in commerce, or by other 
 than hereditary means. The old yeomen are being 
 gradually extinguished. There is, however, greater 
 elasticity in the farming interest, money is more 
 generally diffused, and commerce has effected the 
 independence of the masses more than legislation 
 could do ; in fact, feudalism has not abated its 
 pretensions, but is satisfied with money payments 
 instead of personal services. Appleby was noted 
 for its adherence to the royal cause and to 
 Charles I. Bird, a corn-dealer of Stainmoor, pro- 
 claimed Cromwell's " Charter of Restriction " at 
 Appleby ; but Mr. Machel, of Kirkby Thore, in his 
 MS. " History of Westmoreland," says he hailed 
 from Kirkby Stephen, " that nest of all traitors." 
 Another officer of the Commonwealth, called Major 
 Scaife, resided at Winton Hall, a remarkable old 
 building, which, with the adjoining estate, now 
 belongs to Thos. Mason, Esq., J.P., of Kirkby 
 Stephen. Winton is remarkable as being the birth- 
 place of the brothers Langhorn, translators of
 
 ii8 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 Plutarch's " Lives," and of Dr. Burn, vicar of 
 Orton and chancellor of the diocese of Carlisle. 
 This gentleman, the author of "Burn's Justice" 
 and other legal works, was also joint author of the 
 " History of Cumberland and Westmoreland " with 
 Jos. Nicholson, Esq., the nephew of a clergyman 
 and prelate of Carlisle, who was born at Plumland, 
 in Cumberland, in 1655, where his father was rector. 
 He left the MS. of Cumberland, from which the 
 materials were drawn for Nicholson and Burn's 
 " History of Westmoreland." The present owner and 
 occupier of Orton Hall, Richard Burn, Esq., is the 
 lineal descendant of Dr. Burn. He is lieut. -colonel 
 in the yeomanry cavalry, now retired ; justice of the 
 peace, and deputy-lieutenant for Westmoreland ; was 
 high sheriff of the county in 1852, and is chairman 
 of the Westward bench of justices, in which division 
 for magisterial purposes Orton is situated, although 
 it is in the Eastward division for poor-law purposes. 
 In 1874, or thereabouts, Richard Burn, Esq., headed 
 the movement for the restoration of the parish 
 church, and acted along with the late vicar as 
 churchwarden in accomplishing this desirable and 
 laudable object. . Bishop Gibson, born at Bampton,
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 119 
 
 near Shap, compiled a "Digest of Ecclesiastical 
 Law ; " he was Bishop of London. Thomas Gibson, 
 M.D., of the same place, married a daughter of the 
 Lord Protector Cromwell. The manor and advowson 
 of Orton are separate, and vested in the freeholders, 
 who hold a triennial court, admitting tenants to the 
 court roll, and exercising their privileges by holding 
 a court under four nominal lords and a jury of free- 
 holders to settle matters relating to the manor. The 
 rectorial tithes are also vested in the landowners, 
 who, being resident, present to the living through 
 trustees, but vote independent of, and depute the 
 trustees to present only an unusual thing, probably 
 of rare occurrence. It is stated that there are only 
 thirteen livings under this kind of patronage in 
 England. Dr. Burn (" History of Westmoreland ") 
 says it is not certain where the ancient manor-house 
 stood, but the old hall in the centre of the village 
 anciently belonged to the Birbeck family, who were 
 afterwards seated at Coatflat Hall, near Tebay, the 
 old hall now called Petty Hall, from being in the 
 Petty family, one of whom, Sir Christopher Petty, 
 removed from here to reside, as tenant we presume, 
 to Skipton Castle, in Craven, Yorkshire. Petty
 
 120 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 Hall, in the centre of the village of Orton, as the 
 old farmhouse is now called, bears date 1604, and 
 is the property of the writer of these pages. If the 
 ancient mullioned windows and other substantial 
 marks about it, and the old well called Hall Well 
 in front of it, does not affix it as likely to have been 
 in some way attached to the manor, then there are 
 no other marks to identify a manor-house in Orton. 
 The courts of the manor may have been held here, 
 nevertheless ; as the Blenkinsops, of Hillbeck, who 
 held a moiety of the manor, held their courts at 
 Raisgill Hall, the Musgraves may have held their 
 courts for their moiety here, as they claim a small 
 free-rent for a garth behind the same. These and other 
 moieties (vide Burn's " History of Westmoreland ") 
 were conveyed from the different owners to Edward 
 Branthwaite, Oliver Birkbeck, Roger Ward, Robert 
 Whitehead, and George Sharp, to hold in trust for 
 the freeholders the manorial rights. Thus the whole 
 manor was united in the hands of the freehold pur- 
 chasers, and is now, as then, conveyed as before- 
 mentioned to lords of the manor in trust for the 
 sake of keeping courts-leet and baron, for the con- 
 venience of the tenants. Orton Church was given by
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 121 
 
 the first lord of the manor of Orton, Gamel de 
 Pennington, to the priory of Conishead, in the reign 
 of Henry II. It belonged to Conishead Priory 
 after the dissolution. Dr. Burn says, " In right of 
 her Duchy of Lancaster, Queen Elizabeth, after 
 exercising her privilege twice before, presented John 
 Corney, A.M., in 1595. During his incumbency 
 the rectory and advowson (amongst others to sell 
 again for profit) were purchased by Francis Morrice, 
 of the City of Westminister, Esquire, and Francis 
 Philips, of the City of London, Gentleman. They 
 sold the rectory and advowson of the parish of Orton, 
 in 1618, to the said John Corney, Edmund Branth- 
 waite (ancestor of Mr. Branthwaite of Kendal, 
 and owner of the Bye Beck and other farms at 
 Orton and Tebay), and Philip Winster, for the 
 sum of 570, in trust for the landowners of the said 
 parish ; and these three conveyed to twelve feoffees 
 in trust to present upon an avoidance such person to 
 the vicarage as shall be chosen by a majority of the 
 landowners, being resident, at a meeting to be ap- 
 pointed by the said feoffees within three months next 
 after the avoidance ; and in trust when the number 
 shall be reduced to convey to other feoffees, to be
 
 122 
 
 chosen by such majority as aforesaid, and so it 
 still continues." The last presentation was in 1882, 
 when the Rev. Edwd. Holme, by a majority of votes, 
 there being four candidates, secured the election. 
 The present writer had the honour of presiding on 
 this occasion. 
 
 A copy of the composition between the Bishop of 
 Carlisle and the Prior of Conishead concerning the 
 vicarage of Orton in the year 1263. It was trans- 
 lated from the Latin by the late Dr. Burn, and taken 
 from a writing on paper in the parish box, and 
 which Dr. Burn says in the transcription seems to 
 have been taken from a former copy, much fretted, 
 or from the original itself. A few words here and 
 there, he says, he could not make out, have been 
 placed to make it readable, &c. I have omitted a part 
 as to oblations, but give other dues in full in No. II. 
 
 The following is the translation : 
 
 I. "To all Christian people who shall see or hear 
 the present writing ; Robert, by Divine permission 
 an humble minister of the church of Carlisle, wishest 
 health in the Lord everlasting ; when we, being
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 123 
 
 called to the valuation of the perpetual vicarage of 
 Orton in our diocese, had given command by the 
 authority of the Pope, to the prior and convent of 
 the church of Cunningshell (Conishead), rectors of 
 the aforesaid church, that they might be present 
 at the said valuation, if they should see it to be 
 expedient for them ; and, by the same authority, 
 had fully made enquiry touching the value of the 
 aforesaid church, by men worthy of belief, sworn to 
 this and examined. The said prior, for himself and 
 his convent, appearing in our presence, wholly sub- 
 mitted himself to our ordinance as to the said valu- 
 ation. We, therefore, having prayed for the grace of 
 the Holy Ghost, and having taken a just estimate 
 of the value of the said benefice, by the authority 
 aforesaid, do rate to the perpetual vicarage of the 
 said church, four pounds and fourteen shillings, 
 and instead of the said sum of money, we do assign 
 the portion within-written underneath, that is to 
 say, two dwelling-houses, with two oxgangs of land, 
 with all their easements and appurtenances what- 
 soever, within the village and without it." 
 
 Then follows a description of oblations, mortu- 
 aries (living and dead), with the best garments of the
 
 124 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 deceased ; offerings, churchings, and other things 
 which appertain to the church generally, as dues, 
 duties, and observances, which to particularize is need- 
 less and unprofitable. The date is as above written. 
 At the bottom of the above writing is another, 
 which we give below ; but omit for want of space 
 the deed of purchase which is translated from the 
 Latin by Dr. Burn, and content ourselves, as coming 
 more within our title of " Historical Notes," with 
 the following extract. This refers to a valuation 
 of the living in the time of Henry VIII. , in the 
 same handwriting as the former, about the year 
 1540. The former valuation was 4 145., this latter 
 makes it -17 55. 4d. In this case we give the 
 translation from the original Latin accounts by Dr. 
 Burn. 
 
 II. For the tenths of our Lord the King, of the 
 
 vicarage of the church of Orton : 
 
 s. d. 
 
 The mansion-house, with the glebe of 
 the parish church of Orton, in the 
 diocese of Carlisle, the rectory of 
 which is appropriated to the priory of
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 125 
 
 Cunningshell (Conishead), in the diocese - s. d. 
 
 of York. The mansion-house, with the 
 
 glebe of the aforesaid vicarage is of the 
 
 yearly value of ... ... ... ... o 8 o 
 
 Also two tenements which are of the yearly 
 
 value of ... ... ... .. o 15 o 
 
 Also the tithes of flax and hemp in com- 
 mon year's value of ... ... ... 024 
 
 Also the tithes of the fleeces of wool and 
 
 lambs, ditto ... ... ... 12 o o 
 
 Also oblations, small tithes, altarages, with 
 the profits of the Easter book, are worth 
 by the year ... .. ... ... 400 
 
 In all... 17 5 4 
 
 s. d. 
 Out of which the vicar requires 
 
 for synodals, paid to the 
 Bishop of Carlisle every year 050 
 Also procuration money at the 
 visitation, to be paid from 
 term to term to the said 
 bishop ... ... ... o 15 o 
 
 The indenture of the sale of this living has been
 
 126 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 recited in part or the substance thereof in a former 
 part of this work. 
 
 From papers kindly lent to me by the Vicar of 
 Orton, I noticed a correspondence that took place 
 between a prominent member of the Society of 
 Friends and Dr. Burn after the publication of the 
 " History of Westmoreland " by himself and Mr. 
 Nicholson, wherein reference is made to the prose- 
 cutions that were in vogue against the Quakers, 
 which were instituted before a session at Kirkby 
 Stephen. The neighbourhood of Orton furnished 
 members to this sect ; but, according to Dr. Burn, 
 only one family in this parish " were of the Society 
 of Friends," and this family was undoubtedly the 
 Whiteheads, who in his time lived at Sunbiggin. 
 They were the direct ancestors of Mr. Alderman 
 Whitehead. This gentleman is a native of Rais- 
 beck, in which township Sunbiggin lies. His father 
 was a respectable yeoman at Raisbeck. He sold 
 his ancestral property, removed to and died at 
 Appleby, but is interred in Orton churchyard, with 
 other members of his family. Many of the name 
 still reside in the parish. Mr. Alderman White- 
 head went to London at a comparatively early
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 127 
 
 age, and rapidly rose to eminence, wealth, and social 
 position. He has twice unsuccessfully contested the 
 Appleby division of his native county for a seat in 
 parliament, and only failed to secure this high dis- 
 tinction by a very few votes. He has served as 
 sheriff for London and Middlesex, and is a leading 
 citizen of the great metropolis. His elder brother, 
 Mr. John Whitehead, was mayor (1886) of Appleby, 
 having had the honour of being elected first mayor 
 of the reformed corporation ; he also holds the 
 position of clerk to the East Ward Board of Guar- 
 dians, Westmoreland. 
 
 Crosby Ravensworth church and manor the deri- 
 vation of the name is intimated further on. It is 
 a vicarage, in the patronage of Joceline Bagot, 
 Esq., of Levens Hall, near Milnthorpe, a descend- 
 ant of Col. Graham, who purchased it from the 
 Bellinghams, of Over Levens, Westmoreland. He 
 also owns the manor of Gaythorn, and Gaythorn 
 Hall, a small part being in this parish. The manors 
 of Crosby Ravensworth, Mauld's Meaburn, and Rea- 
 gill, in this parish, are now held by the Earl of 
 Lonsdale ; the latter was formerly possessed by the 
 Whartons of Wharton Hall. The manor of Mea-
 
 128 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 burn appears formerly to have been held by Sir 
 Andrew Harcla, of Hartley Castle. Near Mauld's 
 Meaburn is an obelisk regarding the place where 
 Joseph Addison's ancestors dwelt. He was the 
 son of Lancelot Addison, Archdeacon of Lichfield, 
 whose father, Lancelot Addison, resided at Meaburn 
 Town Head. Joseph, his grandson, was secretary to 
 the Marquis of Wharton when Lord-lieutenant of 
 Ireland, and married the widow of the Earl of War- 
 wick. He died in 1719, aged 49 years, leaving an 
 only child, a daughter, by the Countess of Warwick. 
 The living of Crosby Ravensworth is now enjoyed by 
 the Rev. G. W. Weston, M.A., a justice of the peace 
 for Westmoreland, who, in conjunction with the 
 late Wilkinson Dent, Esq., of Flass House, and 
 other influential persons connected with the parish, 
 have restored the parish church, which is the most 
 perfect specimen of church architecture in the county, 
 and, considering the cost incurred, and the labour 
 bestowed upon it, almost unprecedented in a small 
 country parish, perhaps in the whole country. In 
 the churchyard are several monuments to the Dent 
 and Gibson families. 
 
 Reagill, or Regill, in the parish of Crosby Ravens-
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 129 
 
 worth, derives its name from Rene, according to some, 
 from its being a name familiar in the time of William 
 the Conqueror ; but it is possible that this name may 
 have been derived from Reynard, the fox, or Rey- 
 nard's Gill. The most remarkable objects of interest 
 at the present time are the gardens or enclosed 
 grounds, wherein are to be seen the works of the 
 late Mr. Thomas Bland, a self-taught sculptor, who, 
 in a short space of time comparatively, has erected 
 statues to Milton, to Burns, and scores of other 
 celebrities, both ancient and modern ; the chief of 
 which works are, however, a recumbent Venus, and 
 a piece of inlaid masonry representing mythical 
 figures of an oriental type. He painted several pic- 
 tures on different subjects, and erected the statue of 
 Britannia which adorns the top of the hill overlook- 
 ing Shap Wells Spa. At these gardens used to be 
 held a gala in the autumn, at one of which, when 
 the author was present, Mr. Anthony Whitehead, 
 himself a poet of no mean order in the vernacular, 
 appeared as a giant raised on stilts, which elevated 
 him some ten feet or more, covered over with ample 
 robes to make the thing appear as real as possible 
 with flowing beard, and huge staff, and recited a poem 
 
 10
 
 130 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 of his own composition relative to the feats of the 
 character he was representing. 
 
 Not far from Orton Scar, is a place called Castle 
 Fold, supposed to be a place in marauding times for 
 the security of cattle ; and at some little distance 
 from the footpath leading to the village of Asby is 
 the renowned Pate Hole, a subterranean cavern, 
 through which runs a stream, emerging, it is said, at 
 St. Helen's Well, in Great Asby, supposed to be 
 connected with the bed of the Eden, near Stenkrith 
 Bridge, at least eight or ten miles away. We have 
 many instances of subterranean brooks, and notably 
 one flowing from Sunbiggin Tarn, which enters 
 the earth in a field near Holme Bottom, and 
 emerges again near the road leading from Rais- 
 beck to Kellith. A learned antiquary has given the 
 derivation of the name of the Asby Cavern, as the Pate, 
 or Badger Cavern. Whether this is right or not we 
 do not stop to argue, but the word Pate may be derived 
 from the Latin Patens, an opening, nevertheless. The 
 manor house and greater part of the manor of Gay- 
 thorn, formerly the seat of some of the Bellingham 
 family, of Over Levens, is in the parish of Great 
 Asby. The manor of Great Asby is divided into
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 131 
 
 two portions, and one portion, along with the ancient 
 hall, has recently come, by purchase from the Park 
 family, into the possession of the Earl- of Bective, 
 who owns much property in the neighbourhood of 
 Kirkby Lonsdale and Kendal. He resides at Underley 
 Hall, near the former place, and is M.P. for the 
 Kendal division of the county. The other portion 
 of the manor of Great Asby belongs to Miss Hill, of 
 Bank Foot, near Appleby, who built the church and 
 is patroness of the living. St. Helen's Well and 
 almshouses, erected and endowed by a Mr. Fairer, 
 are objects of interest. The other portion of the 
 manor, that of Little Asby, belongs to Lord Hoth- 
 field (late Sir H. J. Tufton, Bart.). At this place was 
 formerly a chapel dedicated to St. Leonard, on the 
 grounds of Mr. John Jackson. A little to the south- 
 east are the remains of an earthen fort, or British 
 camp. Not far from these sites, the trustees of the 
 iate Mr. Joseph Jackson, of London, intend to build 
 a place of worship with money left for that purpose, 
 and to endow it for the Independent community. 
 Whygill Head, at the top of the gill, is a large 
 estate here ; the derivation of the name may be from 
 Wrygill, on account of the twisted nature of the gill, 
 or ravine, near which the house stands.
 
 132 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 In the churchyards of many places are interesting 
 monuments with quaint inscriptions, some of them 
 worthy of note as covering the remains of people 
 whose descendants still inherit their property as 
 yeomen. There are many such at Ravenstonedale, 
 Orton, Tebay, Shap, and many other places in this 
 county. In Orton churchyard is the Calling Stone, 
 where people used to assemble to hear the parish 
 clerk give out the announcement of sales to be held 
 in the neighbourhood after service ; and nearly oppo- 
 site, under a flat stone, raised up a little, reposes the 
 remains of the noted Dr. Fairer, of Redgill, before 
 alluded to ; on a tablet of brass is a memorial on a 
 similar stone, to a Dr. Sharp, a native of the 
 parish, whose descendants reside at Rayne the 
 inscription records his death 150 years ago. There 
 is a similar one to Francis Wardale, a benefactor of 
 the school at Orton about the same period. 
 
 There are some small mines of coal, lead, and 
 copper in the county on Stainmoor, Mallerstang, 
 and Asby respectively. There is a peculiar disturb- 
 ance caused by the wind on the range of hills at the 
 foot of which the villages of Dufton, Knock, Milburn, 
 &c., are situated, called the "Helm Wind" (vide
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 133 
 
 Dr. Barnes' explanation in a note hereafter). It is 
 said to be caused by the rarification of the air rushing 
 through a condensed medium, owing to the configura- 
 tion of the hills in this neighbourhood. Just above 
 here is the renowned Cross Fell range, and the moun- 
 tains called Windmer End. Above Brough are the 
 Hillbeck Hills, and near to Roman Fell (at the foot of 
 which lies the village of Warcop), stretching to the 
 conical pikes of Dufton, Knock, and Murton, there 
 is here a scene of irregular beauty, but magnificent 
 beyond conception ; at the base of which, from the 
 station at Bowes (Lavatraj), entering the county at 
 Silverkeld Well, the ancient Roman road traverses 
 the east of the county on to Brough (Verterae), passing 
 through the hamlet of Burton, near which many 
 Roman relics have been found ; and so on until it 
 comes to Kirkby Thore and Plumpton, at both of 
 which places were stations, or Roman camps. 
 
 A work of this kind would not be complete if 
 it did not notice the manor and family of Lowther. 
 Of ancient lineage, and holding extensive possessions 
 in Cumberland and Westmoreland, -this family has 
 been a most important factor in the history of 
 the county ; but as this is referred to in extenso in
 
 134 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 all county histories, it only remains for us in these 
 Historical Notes to record that it appears the manor 
 of Lowther was anciently held in two parts by the 
 Lowthers under the Earl of Cumberland, by the service 
 called nolt-geld, paying yearly to the said Earl twenty 
 shillings and fourpence ; and by the service called 
 sergeants'-food, ten shillings yearly. In other .places 
 this fine is called sergeahts'-oats. It is also recorded 
 that the third part was held of Robert Strickland, 
 Esq., paying yearly one hawk, or sixpence. The 
 Earl of Lonsdale is now the sole landowner, and 
 lord of the manor. Lowther Castle, the seat of 
 the Earl, stands in a magnificent park of about six 
 hundred acres. It is furnished in a style of splen- 
 dour scarcely equalled in these days, and contains 
 a collection of pictures and works of art in sculp- 
 ture almost unrivalled. In the churchyard of the 
 parish church, which is in the park, is a mauso- 
 leum erected by William, Earl of Lonsdale, in 
 1857, and embellished with polished granite from 
 Shap Fells, wherein repose many members of the 
 Lowther family. The nearest railway station is 
 at Clifton, about two miles south of Penrith. 
 The magnificence of Lowther Castle is described
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 135 
 
 by the poet Wordsworth, in a sonnet commenc- 
 ing 
 
 " Lowther, in thy majestic pile are seen, 
 Cathedral pomp and grace in apt accord, 
 With the baronial castle's sterner mien, 
 Union significant of God adored, 
 And charters won and guarded with the sword 
 Of ancient honour." 
 
 The Strickland family, now resident at Sizergh 
 Castle, near Kendal, but formerly of Strickland, 
 near Lowther, seem to have held the adjoining 
 manor of Hackthorpe under the Barons of Kendal, 
 but it is now owned by the Earl of Lonsdale. 
 Hackthorpe was long the residence of Mr. Jacob 
 Thompson, a celebrated self-taught painter, many of 
 whose works are engraved, e.g. Highland Ferry, &c. 
 The manor of Morland was anciently included in 
 the Kendal barony, and there is a long descrip- 
 tion of the descent of this barony in Whelan's 
 " History of Westmoreland." It seems to have been 
 held in moieties between the religious house of 
 Wetheral Priory, Robert Bowes and his wife, and 
 John Southwark, Esq ; but the moiety belonging 
 to Wetheral Priory seems now to belong to the
 
 136 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 Ecclesiastical Commissioners, to whom it was trans- 
 ferred soon after the dissolution of the religious 
 houses, by the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle, to 
 whom it had been previously granted at the afore- 
 said dissolution. It is stated in Whelan's " History," 
 that a survey of the manor was made in Jan- 
 uary, 1649, " when it was found that the free rents 
 amounted to 2 igs. od.; the assize from copyholders 
 at Michaelmas and St. Thomas's day, 14 135. id. ; 
 mill moulter rent, i ; pension for the parson at 
 Lowther, i 6s. 8d. ; fines, royalties, &c., 8 33. 2d. 
 The tenants appear to hold from the Ecclesias- 
 tical Commissioners, a rare thing in these parts. 
 The latter present to the living as well. The tithes 
 in Morland, Bolton, Great Strickland, Sleagill, and 
 Thrimby were abolished at the enclosure of the 
 commons, when land was given in lieu thereof. 
 The tithes in the other townships have since been 
 commuted to a rent-charge (vide Whelan's " His- 
 tory," page 802). 
 
 The same authority informs us that the tenants of 
 Morland are obliged to pay suit and service to 
 the lord's courts. The copyhold customary tenants 
 within the manor hold their lands and tenements by
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 137 
 
 copy of court-roll to them and their heirs for ever, 
 according to the custom of the manor ; the widows 
 in the manor after the death of, their husbands have 
 a right to one moiety of all customary estates their 
 husbands die seized of. All customary tenants in the 
 manor, upon descent or alienations, pay to the lord 
 three years old rent as a fine certain. That stran- 
 gers, such as are not tenants, pay to the lord for 
 a fine, sometimes five years old rent, sometimes 
 seven (we suppose this will refer to purchasers). 
 The tenants had the privilege by custom to get 
 timber for the repair of their ancient houses and 
 barns out of Morland Wood. It is stated in a recent 
 work that this is commuted for school purposes. 
 The lord of the manor of Morland, his tenants, 
 servants, and freeholders, are free from tolls, and 
 possess many other privileges in accordance with 
 the provisions of a charter granted the fifth year of 
 Henry VIII. (vide Whelan's "History," page 802). 
 The displays and turns-out of the local magnates 
 selected for sheriffs vie with each other, and are of 
 the most gorgeous and elaborate nature, far surpass- 
 ing many counties of greater importance. The list of 
 crime is not very great at the Assizes ; in fact, with
 
 138 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 the exception of concealment of birth, which formerly 
 was very frequent, no serious cases of late years have 
 presented themselves. In the county, the popula- 
 tion, although it has undergone great changes in its 
 habitues, resulting from the railways that have been 
 made, are uniformly well-behaved, prosperous, and 
 industrious ; and mainly, in. .this part of the county, 
 engaged in agriculture. 
 
 Biography gives us the names of many eminent 
 men, natives of this county, who have rendered great 
 service ta education, and notably the late Canon 
 Simpson, LL.D., Vicar of Kirkby Stephen. Others 
 have made their mark in the seats of learning, while 
 many have made fortunes by trade and commerce ; 
 others, distinguished in the senate and on the 
 Episcopal bench Dr. Lancelot Addison, father 
 of the- statesman and poet, the celebrated Joseph 
 Addison, who married the dowager Countess of War- 
 wick ; Bishop Bainbridge, born at the obscure 
 hamlet of Burton, near Warcop, who was Archbishop 
 of York in 1508; Cuthbert Buckle, who built Buckle's 
 Bridge, at the foot of Oxenthwaite Hill on Stain - 
 moor, and was Lord Mayor of London in 1593 ; 
 Bishop Gibson, born at Knipe, near Bampton ; Dr.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 139 
 
 Collinson, who endowed the school at Musgrave,* 
 Dr. Close, Bishop of Carlisle, born at Birkbeck 
 Fells; Sir John Thwaites, late chairman of the 
 Metropolitan Board of Works, born at Toddy Gill, 
 near Warcop, and a host of others. The Pother- 
 gills of Ravenstonedale, after arriving at eminence 
 at Oxford, built and endowed the grammar school 
 of their native place. Many of the name still 
 hold much property in the neighbourhood. Many 
 an obscure man has risen by his industry and 
 talent to high offices in the State, from remote 
 districts, and, did the limits of this work permit, 
 we might give several more instances. Suffice 
 it to say, that the endowed schools of Westmore- 
 land are mainly indebted to the patient and 
 successful scholar who, after making his way to 
 the universities, often with slender means, when 
 success crowned his efforts, frequently was anxious 
 to give to his native village and the humbler classes 
 the means of education. But we are afraid the 
 times are past when, as used to occur formerly, 
 the grammar schools of Westmoreland villages 
 furnished, without a very great outlay to the 
 people, a classical education, before the present
 
 140 NOTES OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 
 
 elementary system was established. There are, 
 however, some grammar schools which are emi- 
 nently distinguished, such as Heversham, Appleby, 
 &c., but they are more of the boarding-school type 
 than the day grammar schools of ancient times.
 
 SHAP ABBEY.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ' Trust me no tortures that the poets feign 
 Can match the fierce, th' unutterable pain 
 He feels who, day and night devoid of rest, 
 Carries his own accuser in his breast." JUVENAL. 
 
 THERE can be no doubt whatever that diseases are 
 often brought on by self-indulgence, and if nature 
 has provided a cure it ought to be used and ap- 
 preciated. In the midst of scenery truly grand, 
 surrounded by mountains of unrivalled beauty, stands 
 the hotel built by the ancestors of the present Earl 
 of Lonsdale, in the neighbourhood of a Spa, called 
 Shap Wells, about mid-way between Orton and 
 Shap. It has been of repute for upwards of a cen- 
 tury. It ranks as an hepatic water, its principal 
 ingredient being sulphuretted hydrogen in solution 
 with other salts. The baths have gained repute in 
 the treatment of rheumatic affections, as well
 
 142 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 as its kindred disease, gout. It is easy of access 
 being situated on the Lancaster and Carlisle 
 Railway (now London and North-Western) from 
 the Shap Station, to which an omnibus is run by the 
 proprietor to meet several trains daily in the summer 
 season. The environs of the hotel and spa have 
 been planted with trees of several kinds of pine, and 
 walks are beautifully laid out, which lead out upon 
 the heather-clad hills, and to the various objects of 
 interest in the neighbourhood passing, waterfalls 
 and glades of surpassing beauty to the granite quarry 
 and works, and to the monument erected in com- 
 memoration of her present Majesty's accession, by 
 the Earl of Lonsdale. At the verge of the county, 
 embracing the extreme limit of our description, is 
 Clifton, where, in 1745, the rebels under the young 
 Pretender were signally defeated by the Duke of 
 Cumberland. A heroine, we are informed, in the 
 shape of a peasant girl, whom Sir Joseph York 
 rewarded most liberally, was found to carry a message 
 from him to the Duke across the line of fire when 
 no other messenger could be found. This legend is 
 told in that part of the country until now. From 
 Clifton we turn aside to view the noble pile of
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 143 
 
 buildings erected by a late Earl. of Lonsdale, in the 
 beginning of this century, but in 1770 it was then 
 called Lowther Hall, and before the family was en- 
 nobled it belonged to the famous Sir James Lowther, 
 whose eccentric disposition led him to be familiarly 
 styled, and to this day familiarly called, Jamie 
 Lowther. The family, after being extinct in the 
 male line, have been re-created from the parent 
 stock, which reside at Swillington in Yorkshire. 
 One of the latter family was Irish Secretary, and 
 an active member of the late Tory Government. 
 The Lowther family, who own large possessions in 
 Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Rutland, have ever 
 been staunch Conservatives, and the ever memorable 
 contest between Henry Brougham, afterwards Lord 
 Brougham, in 1826, was a tough struggle, but their 
 immense influence gained the day, and the eminent 
 jurist afterwards was returned to Parliament for 
 Yorkshire. He resided at Brougham Hall during 
 the latter part of his life, but this must not be 
 confounded with Brougham Castle, now in ruins. 
 He died at Cannes in France, a few years ago, and 
 was succeeded by his brother, the late peer. The 
 residence is not far from Lowther Castle, and has
 
 144 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 been styled the Windsor of the North. For a more 
 general account of these two noble families we refer 
 the reader to Whelan's " History of Westmoreland," 
 &c. From Lowther Castle we again turn our steps, 
 and after passing Whinfell Forest we come gradually 
 up the country, which has before been partially de- 
 scribed, until we come to the ancient town of Appleby, 
 the " Aballaba," some say, of the Romans, and the 
 residence of the ancient family of Clifford. From 
 Shap Wells drives to different parts are arranged, 
 and in a short time objects of interest can be reached, 
 viz., the ruins of Shap Abbey, Lowther, &c. Near 
 Shap are the remains (but partially obliterated by 
 the making of the railway) of Karl Lofts, a remark- 
 able double row of stones, said to be placed by the 
 Druids and used by them in their sacrifices. Other 
 similar objects of interest at Gunnerkeld, near Shap, 
 are worthy of examination, and drives to the lake 
 called Haweswater, Brougham Castle, Arthur's Seat, 
 the Nine Churches, and many others. As a quiet 
 resort, Shap Wells is unique, situated far from 
 the busy world. In the summer months, the man of 
 business must feel invigorated by the mountain 
 breezes, and the aroma from the heather, which,
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 145 
 
 laden with honey-seeking bees, whose perpetual hum 
 is music to the ear, gives him a zest for life, and a 
 store of health capable of recruiting the weary, care- 
 worn body, if not undermined by disease. The 
 angler can have scope for his amusement ; and the 
 sportsman will (if he can partake of the amusement) 
 have the pleasure of seeing his favourite on the wing 
 in fact, grouse are abundant. The Lune and its 
 tributaries are within a short distance. The Birbeck, 
 a principal feeder of the Lune, runs close by the 
 hotel, and is well stocked with trout, small certainly, 
 but nevertheless all that can be desired by the 
 epicure. Shap Spa can compare favourably with 
 Harrogate, Gilsland, and other places where the 
 same ingredients contribute to aid nature in throwing 
 off the nocuous humours so fruitful of disease. As 
 has been previously noticed, Shap Abbey T is situated 
 about a mile from the village of Shap, anciently 
 Heppe, a name supposed to be derived from the 
 choup or heppes on the wild rose. Although very 
 little remains of Shap Abbey, there is still sufficient 
 left to give an impression of its former greatness. It- 
 was founded by a community of White Canons or 
 1 Vide "History of Westmoreland," &c. 
 II
 
 146 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 Cistercian Monks, so called from their dress, which 
 consisted of a white cassock, a white rochet, white 
 cap, and long white cloak. They came to England 
 about the year 1120, and a branch of them settled at 
 Preston Patrick, and afterwards removed to Shap, 
 and were largely indebted, so history informs us, to 
 Thomas, son of Gospatrick, of Preston Patrick ; 
 to the Veteriponts, barons of Westmoreland ; to 
 William de Derwentwater ; Uctred, son of Simon de 
 Bothelton ; Henry de Threlkeld ; and many others ; 
 so that the monks held free pasturage over a great 
 extent of country, as well as lands at Milburne, at 
 Appleby, at Gargrave, in Craven, in Annandale, at 
 Ormside, at Lowther, and other parts of Westmore- 
 land ; the latter given to them by the widow of Sir 
 Hugh de Lowther (some historians say by the 
 daughter of Lord Clifford). These lands are now 
 again, after a lapse of 400 years, as well as the 
 ruined abbey itself, in possession of the Lowthers, 
 and several rectories and advowsons which formerly 
 belonged to it. The Bishop of Carlisle (as the abbey 
 was not exempt from the jurisdiction of the ordinary) 
 admitted the abbots, who took the customary oaths 
 of canonical obedience. It was surrendered in 1540-1
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 147 
 
 by Richard Evenwood, the last abbot, who, as well 
 as the other members of the community, received a 
 pension. All the Cistercian orders were dedicated 
 to the Blessed Virgin. The rules and observances as 
 to mortification and devotional exercises were ex- 
 tremely rigorous, but a previous Pope permitted 
 them to be relaxed. The white dress of the Cister- 
 cian Monks was worn with a black hood and girdle, 
 but almost every religious house had different hoods. 
 The Savignian Monks wore grey ; the Savignian 
 Monks were the closest and most scrupulous followers 
 of St. Benedict. In 1148 the whole order passed 
 into the Cistercian or Bernardine, in honour of St. 
 Bernard. He founded no less than one hundred and 
 sixty monasteries ; and the Cistercians had no fewer 
 than eight hundred abbeys, of which eighty-five were 
 in England and Wales, but only two in Lancashire 
 Whalley and Furness. The Augustine, Domini- 
 can, Franciscan, and the Carmelites, were the four 
 mendicant orders whose sphere of duty lay in the 
 populous towns all over Europe. The Benedictine 
 and Cistercians dwelt mostly in country districts, and 
 were great feudal landowners. Sir Walter Scott, in 
 the " Abbot " and " Monastery " has given a good
 
 148 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 description as to the great influence they yielded, 
 and also of the time when their influence began to 
 decay. It is very evident that the abbey of Shap 
 was in no way inferior to either Furness or Melrose 
 as far as its influence and wealth were concerned ; 
 and if the sacerdotal power had not clashed with the 
 secular in the time of Henry VIII., he being of a 
 stubborn disposition, and determined not to abate one 
 jot of his pretensions to absolute authority, England 
 might still have been as much Roman Catholic as 
 France or Spain, or even Ireland, at the present time. 
 Annexed is a poem by Mr. A. Whitehead, of Reagill. 
 
 AN ADDRESS TO SHAP ABBEY, 
 ON THE EXCAVATIONS OF ITS RUINS IN 1864. 
 
 BY ANTHONY WHITEHEAD, OF REAGILL NEAR SHAP. 
 
 Peur auld Abbey ! some comfort has come i' thy need ; 
 Thou's lang been encumber'd wi' rubbish an' weed, 
 But his lordship ' at last has proposed a good deed 
 To clear thy auld pile of its rubbish sea vile 
 Embedded now thickly on transept and aisle, 
 Sen monks of the order sea stately did pass 
 Down the aisle to the altar, at matins an' mass, 
 
 1 The Earl of Lonsdale.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 149 
 
 What a pity to see thee for ages neglected, 
 
 An' stan' i' thy ruin sea ragg'd and dejected ; 
 
 Thou who yance was wi' reverence sea girtly respected. 
 
 When thou steud i' thy grandeur sea matchless in splendour 
 
 Nea finger durst point, or tongue wag in slander 
 
 At the monks of the order who stately did pass 
 
 Down thy aisle to the altar at matins an' mass. 
 
 My dinner each day for a week I'd ha' gi'en 
 
 If just for ten minutes I could but ha' seen 
 
 Thee i' thy prime as thou yance mun ha' been, 
 
 When thy matin bells rang their musical clang 
 
 As the monks wi' mould candles doon 't abbey did gang, 
 
 While the leets like kaleidoscopes danc'd through the glass 
 
 As they march'd in full order at midneet to mass. 
 
 Auld history tells us the cause o' thy ruin 
 
 When King Henry VIII. for divorcement was suing, 
 
 An' banished peur Keaytee, to start a fresh wooing ; 
 
 Then basken an' lullen in t' arms of Nan Bullen, 
 
 He meayde her his queen, but her reign was a dull'n ; 
 
 'Twas then that he wanted more silver an' brass, 
 
 Sea he scail'd the peur abbeys, the monks, an' their mass. 
 
 Aey lale dud' t' think when thou offered protection 
 To t' beaynes o' girt Clifford ' tell t' day o' resurrection, 
 'At beayth thee an' them wad be gi'en for dissection 
 When t' king, like Beltshezzer, fand cash ran short measure 
 An' sent dbon Tom Cromwell to git him mair treasure ; 
 
 1 Lord Robert Clifford, killed at Bannockburn.
 
 ISO LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 An' he was a cowardly unprincipal'd ass, 
 
 Paid reverence to nought, neither monks nor their mass. 
 
 Sea now niver mair thou mun haude up thy heed, 
 
 But miter an' moulder like t' beaynes o' the deed, 
 
 But still an odd prop or a creaym i' thee need 
 
 May stop the decay that is wasting away 
 
 The wa's o' thy steeple, sea ancient an' gray, 
 
 'At yance was possess'd o' five girt bells o' brass 
 
 To summon the monks to their meals and their mass. 
 
 Mystic religion seems to have been attractive at 
 all periods of the world's history. The pagans 
 worshipped effigies of animals ; the Roman Catholic 
 venerates the cross ; the mystic sign at baptism of 
 the cross gives it prominence in the Reformed or 
 Anglican Church. But while we venerate ancient 
 forms and ceremonies, we are not bound to put 
 implicit faith in the symbols alone. Symbolical 
 religion was attractive even in the earliest times. 
 Mysterious rites and sacrifices were practised amongst 
 the Druids, who, in the groves, with the oak and the 
 mistletoe for adjuncts to their ceremonies, practised 
 in the dead of night or early morn those sacrificial 
 services which, at that time, dwelling amongst an 
 illiterate community, served to surround themselves 
 with veneration, if even they themselves did not feel
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 151 
 
 a stimulus from those practices to profound venera- 
 tion of the Almighty, Whose power now, as then, 
 consists in ordering according to His will all things for 
 the best to them that seek help by faith according to 
 the light revealed to them, and the convictions gene- 
 rated within their breasts of a sublime conception of 
 the might and power of the Divine Architect of the 
 universe. When we open the great store-house of 
 Divine Truth we there find that stones were taken out 
 of the Jordan by Joshua and set up in Gilgal. Mr. 
 Porter says (vide his work on " The Giant Cities of 
 Bashan ") the name Gilgal signifies a circle of stones. 
 Gilgal subsequently became the centre or meeting- 
 place for secular government, and also for religious 
 observances. Some such origin then historians 
 rightly imagine, we believe, to be the origin of Druid-u 
 ism. We know that circles of stones, called Druidical! 
 circles, exist in this country as well as in Gaul, their 
 chief place on the continent, but not so famous as 
 Britain, which was the great centre of such obser-f 
 vances. These memorials exist amongst us on Salis-i 
 bury Plain, at Overbury, and may we not also imagine 
 the same observances were inculcated and general 
 meetings held at such places as Keld, near Shap;
 
 152 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 borough, near Eamontbridge ; and Gamelands, near 
 Orton ; for it is there we can observe in our own 
 locality the circles small though they be, yet none 
 the less perfect. It was in those circles, so the 
 meagre history we can trace informs us, that was 
 wont to be held meetings, where legislation was dis- 
 cussed and judgment determined by the sages of the 
 occult science of Druidism a species of assizes 
 where the learned met and those initiated into the 
 mysteries of Druidism delivered judgment, as was 
 their acknowledged and paramount right, vouchsafed 
 to them by the illiterate (outside that community), 
 as were the inhabitants of those days, who being 
 impressed by the mystic symbolism of the secret 
 institution they beheld from afar practising rites and 
 ceremonies to which they were not admitted, were 
 kept back by the presumption of the elect, who avowed 
 themselves sole partakers of the Divine authority. 
 Caesar says of this religious body : " The justice exe- 
 cuted in that judgment seat was, according to ancient 
 testimony, bloody and terrible. The religious rites 
 were debased into the fearful sacrifices of a cruel 
 idolatry. But it is impossible not to feel at the bottom 
 of these superstitions there was a deep reverence for
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 153 
 
 ,what was high and spiritual. They instructed youth, 
 encouraged science, and proclaimed an existence 
 beyond the grave. It was especially the object of the 
 Druids to inculcate this that souls do not perish, 
 but pass after death into other bodies ; this led 
 men to be more courageous. They discerned the 
 motion of the heavenly bodies, the extent of the 
 universe, nature of things, the influence and ability 
 of the immortal gods." The Druids were employed to 
 offer sacrifices, to appease the wrath of an offended 
 deity when war, famine, or disease afflicted the Gauls 
 sacrificing human victims ; making receptacles of 
 wicker-work, filling them with living men, and then 
 destroying them by fire. The moon seemed to them 
 most emblematical of some heavenly principle. They 
 wore the half-moon and horns on the head, the 
 breast, and side of the face, the horn open at both 
 ends and enlarged at the extremities; a jug on a 
 rude bench, with structures of wicker-work, com- 
 pleted not only the costume of the Arch Druid, 
 in his long flowing robes delivering judgment, but 
 the surrounding accompaniments in the sacred grove. 
 Do we read of a similar sect, or is the name only 
 significant, who now inhabit the ruined Cities of the
 
 154 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 Plain in Syria and about Damascus, called Druses, 
 who wear on certain occasions similar costume and 
 decorative insignia the crescent moon which gave 
 the name " Two-Horned " to the goddess Carnain ? 
 This body of men (whose religion nearest approaches 
 to Christian Dogma, but whose practises, like those 
 of the Druids, are a mystery, their manners being 
 patriarchal and simple, although courageous) are 
 bound together for defence. They are divided inta 
 two classes as regards religion the initiated and the 
 ignorant. With the former the rites, ceremonies, and 
 doctrines remain a profound secret, the holy books- 
 are preserved and read by them alone. In this there 
 is a difference : the Druids knew no books. The 
 Druses assemble in chapels not in groves every 
 Thursday evening [says Mr. Porter, whose travels 
 amongst them will be read with great interest], 
 refusing admission to all others. What they do 
 then, and there, is unknown, but there is reason to 
 believe that these meetings are quite as much of a 
 political as of a religious character. The Druse 
 sheikhs are an hereditary nobility. The Turk holds 
 nominal sway, but the real power is with these 
 chieftains of that land whose Bible history is so
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 155 
 
 important, and to which by the denunciations of 
 prophecy so much interest is derived in corrobor- 
 ation of the Sacred Book and its illustration of Divine 
 power and unerring judgment. The question is, 
 therefore, was Druidism a living faith ?
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ON the border-land between Westmoreland and Dur- 
 ham is a noted hostelry called Spital, on the road to 
 Bowes, noted as the scene of Dickens' " Dotheboys 
 Hall." This spital, no doubt, is the site of an hospice, 
 where the belated traveller could obtain rest and re- 
 freshment while travelling over the wilds of Stain- 
 moor, and no doubt tenanted by some holy man or 
 friar, that could give ghostly advice and comfort to 
 those whom chance threw in his way ; as many would 
 be glad to sojourn at the wayside resting-place on this 
 inhospitable mountain ; nay, a place like this might 
 even be the abode of a community similar to those 
 who inhabit Mount St. Bernard, for, although com- 
 munication would not be so frequent in days long past, 
 yet there were always bands of men who traversed, 
 either for plunder or more legitimate purposes, the
 
 NOTES OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 157 
 
 wildest districts. Besides, this was the border-land 
 between the ancient kingdoms of England and Scot- 
 land, and what was more important, it was frequently 
 the battle ground between the Picts on the one side 
 and the Scots on the other, while the civilizing 
 Romans often would come in contact with the abo- 
 riginal inhabitants in outlying posts like these. The 
 influence of the Church of Rome would spread its 
 mission houses and erect hospices, called now spitals, 
 for the seclusion of the lepers. Leprosy in those 
 days, and long after, was a specific disease, owing, 
 no doubt, to the use of too much salted animal food. 
 The (spital) house on Stainmoor, and the other at 
 Temple Sowerby, are about twelve miles from the 
 neighbouring abbeys of Egglestone on the one hand, 
 and Shap on the other. This border-land between 
 Westmoreland and Durham is not far from the summit 
 on Bowes Moor, where the extensive tracts of moor- 
 land are well stocked with grouse, for which enormous 
 sums are made by the proprietors, as much as fifteen 
 guineas being obtained for a single gun for a fort- 
 night's shooting. This is the place where the South 
 Durham Railway from Tebay enters the latter 
 county. On the summit of the hill is Maiden
 
 158 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 Castle, and this name would lead people to think 
 that there had been a castle there at some time, but 
 there never was anything of the kind, the word castra, 
 3. camp, and maida, a hill, being the true definition ; 
 and at another place is Rere Cross, the division of 
 the kingdoms of Scotland and England in former 
 times. This hill commands a view of the whole of 
 the beacon outposts, erected at a later date for 
 warning the people at each successive raid of the 
 Scots, who were wont to harry the whole country to 
 the verge of Yorkshire, which surrounds Westmore- 
 land on its southern aspect. The scenery here from 
 this, the backbone of the Pennine Range, embraces, 
 as you descend on the railway to Kirkby Stephen, a 
 view of the Vale of Eden, with the Cumbrian Range 
 of hills in the west, with Skiddaw clear in view, and 
 other mountains farther north ; while, as you turn the 
 point at Coatgarth, and overlook the wooded height 
 on which a farmhouse now stands, anciently a strong- 
 hold of Sir Andre de Harcla, the site of Hartley 
 Castle, the seat of the Musgraves of Edenhall in 
 ancient times, you see the towering hill of Wild- 
 boar Fell, with the mountains of Mallerstang 
 flanking it on the east. It was at the time of our
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 159 
 
 story a very turbulent and troublesome period. The 
 border chieftains were rough in war, and, as is often 
 the custom in semi-savage warfare, no less rude in 
 their reprisals, even to the carrying off of the wives 
 and children of their neighbours. The feudal chiefs 
 were very frequently at war with each other on the 
 slightest provocation, but more frequently on account 
 of the marauding practices which were at that time 
 prevalent. The extensive moors, where the wild 
 boar and the stag roamed, were often the scene as 
 well as the outlying demesne of savage warfare. 
 Long before the time of those who erected the 
 castle of Brough, or ever the castle of Barnard rose 
 proudly on the banks of the Tees, there dwelt on 
 Stainmoor a fierce and marauding chieftain. He 
 had no castle, but a sort of rude fortalice, in which 
 he and his attendants lived, not far from the banks 
 of the Dowgill riveret, to which he retreated after 
 each foray ; and was rich and powerful enough to 
 keep up a sort of feudal state, although we do not 
 know he had any grant of lands either from Saxon 
 or Norman kings. About the time mentioned there 
 lived on the banks of the Tees a Norman baron of 
 the name of Fitz Barnard, who had come over with
 
 i6d LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 the Conqueror, and who was looked upon with aver- 
 sion as an intruder by those chieftains of the Saxon 
 blood whose lands had been confiscated to the 
 invaders. Fitz Barnard was probably one of the 
 ancestors of Barnard Baliol, who built Barnard 
 Castle a century later. The chieftain, who dwelt on 
 Stainmoor, and whose descendants dwell yet in 
 the neighbourhood, we presume, was named Dew 
 Banke, or De Banke (corrupted now possibly to Ewe- 
 bank), held possession of a great part of Stainmoor, 
 as far as he could hold by constant combats with the 
 Barons of Brough. It often happened that Dew 
 Banke, while hunting the deer over the rugged fells 
 bounding the east of Stainmoor, came in contact 
 with Fitz Barnard, who, with his retainers, and 
 accompanied by an only daughter, were often out 
 engaged in the chase. In fact, the wild range of 
 moor from Bowes to Wemmergill now a shooting- 
 box of one of the most renowned shots in England 
 at this day, the Hon. Mr. Milbanks, nephew to the 
 Duke of Cleveland was a splendid haunt for the 
 stag in those days, the horns of which are often now 
 found in the morasses and swamps in many parts of 
 this county. The moors abounded with the badger,.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 161 
 
 the heath with grouse, and the woods harboured 
 numerous foxes, and also the wild cat. It was on 
 one of these excursions that Dew Banke came 
 upon Fitz Barnard, both of whom had a goodly 
 number of retainers, when, quarrelling over the right 
 of hunting, from words they came to blows, and Dew 
 Banke's party, being the more numerous, the others 
 were fairly put to flight, and the lovely daughter of 
 Fitz Barnard became a prisoner along with a few 
 others, who were let off as too great an incumbrance. 
 However, she was carried captive by Dew Banke to 
 his stronghold on Stainmoor, and, as was the custom 
 in those days, clad in a rough riding-habit of home- 
 spun woollen cloth, dyed with indigo of a rich blue 
 colour. Before the use of fire-arms no fortalice 
 could be stormed without a regular siege, and the 
 battering-ram, and the cross-bow, and the short 
 sword were the only weapons available. It is true 
 that in hand-to-hand conflicts the short sword was a 
 very efficient weapon ; but if a prisoner was once 
 immured it became a very difficult matter to release 
 him. To invest even a small building requires a 
 strong body of men, and therefore it was useless for 
 Fitz Barnard to attempt a rescue without a sufficient 
 
 12
 
 162 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 force. Ralph de Neville, living at Raby, was ap- 
 pealed to, to aid in the deliverance of Ethel Fitz 
 Barnard, and by a stratagem the fort of Dew Banke 
 was surprised. However, to make the story short, 
 when the combined forces of Fitz Barnard and De 
 Neville had effected a breach in the walls of the 
 fortalice, Ethel Fitz Barnard was rescued and placed 
 upon a charger, and with an escort set off for her 
 home on the Tees, near where the ruined castle of 
 Barnard now stands. Dew Banke, whose anger 
 knew no bounds, rushed out of the fortalice mounted 
 on his charger, through the ranks of the besiegers, 
 and, followed by two or three retainers, overtook the 
 escort, and, in the furious- fight which followed, 
 he, by one stroke, cut off the head of Ethel Fitz 
 Barnard, who is said to be seen still headless at the 
 midnight hour, dressed in blue, and mounted on a bay 
 charger galloping along the road towards her home. 
 The legend further says that she was not unkindly 
 treated by Dew Banke while his prisoner, but he 
 failed to win her love, and she positively refused to 
 be his bride. She was tended, however, very kindly 
 by the female servants of Dew Banke. It was 
 chagrin at her loss, it is said, when she was escaping,
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 163 
 
 that led him to commit the deed which sent her soul 
 unshriven to eternity, and thus caused the still 
 wandering spirit to haunt the face of the earth at 
 the midnight hour. 
 
 The foregoing may sound somewhat like romance, 
 but when the state of the country is considered about 
 the time of the Crusaders, it will readily be seen 
 that, divided as the country was between the feudal 
 lords and the monastic institutions, a tragedy like 
 the one we portray was not unlikely. Each feudal 
 lord was a king as regards those below him, and 
 had very little restriction placed over him, owing to 
 the distance of the sovereign who alone was above 
 him. The former owned the vassals and serfs. 
 Some of the most powerful barons were those whose 
 fortunes had risen by favour of the Court, or who 
 by their valour had obtained pre-eminence. They 
 generally waged war if their prerogatives were in- 
 fringed or their dignity offended. They were generally 
 illiterate so far as book learning went, but strictly 
 and eminently proud of their race, descent, and warlike 
 exploits. They generally lorded it over their inferiors, 
 and were very jealous of any unusual interference from 
 those above them. But, having always a fear of the
 
 164 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 Church, for, under the pretext of granting a pas- 
 sage to heaven and bliss to the immortal soul, the 
 monks and superior clergy were ready to shrive the 
 body at death for a fixed sum, or to pray the soul out 
 of purgatory for a consideration, and to say any 
 number of masses, provided the estate of the defunct 
 baron was sufficient to pay for it. All this was the 
 effect of superior but crafty intelligence acting on 
 rude and illiterate minds. This, however, was made, 
 in England at least, by the Reformation, a thing of 
 nought, by the spread of the gospel and the Dissolu- 
 tion of the Monasteries. In those days small towns 
 banded together to protect themselves from the 
 rapacity of the barons, and sometimes had to fortify 
 themselves and hazard war to protect their com- 
 merce, which was chiefly with the Low Countries. 
 England being a great wool-growing country, ex- 
 ported much, not only raw material, but manufac- 
 tured such articles as she could by the means, 
 of hand-loom weaving, Kendal about this time 
 becoming famous for its cloth, called Kendal green. 
 In Flanders hand-loom weaving was prevalent ; linen 
 was woven chiefly in France. The communication 
 at that time with foreign countries was by the East
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 165 
 
 Coast. The North Sea was the great fishing-ground 
 before the discovery of America and the invasion by 
 us of India. Our commerce is now mainly to and 
 from ports on the western coast, which have grown up 
 since the time of which we now treat. During Lent 
 all Christendom in those days, and every Friday, 
 lived upon fish. The commerce with the East was 
 chiefly in the control of the great cities of the Mediter- 
 ranean Sea Venice, Carthage, Marseilles, Lyons, &c. 
 France was especially noted for its silk manufactures. 
 The Crusades did much to open up the trade between 
 Asia and Europe. It can be easily understood how 
 likely the towns were to be jealous of the rapacious 
 Barons, some of them being although barons- 
 robbers, who waylaid the caravans of merchandise, 
 composed of pack-horses, and, unless strongly guarded 
 by soldiers in the pay of the towns or small com- 
 munities to which they belonged, they were apt to be 
 waylaid and seized. In almost all cases when the 
 towns sprang up, they did so from the cause chiefly 
 that the population outgrew the wants of the barons, 
 and they either discharged their servants, or the 
 bondsmen themselves (Bongate is said to have been 
 a former refuge of such) procured their liberty by
 
 166 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 money or extra service payments. When the power of 
 the Crown arose, the towns were the stepping-stones 
 by which it gained its power, and in order to subdue 
 the turbulent barons, began to protect and grant 
 charters for protection and the sale of merchandise. 
 In those days the peasantry were a numerous class, 
 and were affected by this feudalism. They were the 
 property of the person who owned the estate they 
 lived upon. They had to cultivate his land on certain 
 days, and had a bit of their own for their services. 
 They could not transfer those services, however, to 
 another, neither could the baron or owner of the estate 
 sell them except with the land. They went, however, 
 with the estate. It was a species of serfdom, but 
 qualified in some degree from some of its barbarities. 
 The people were tenants only of their little allot- 
 ments, with common rights over the unallotted pas- 
 tures, woods, and forests, along with the baron's stock, 
 which were precluded from being overstocked by a 
 want of winter food. They lived upon animal food, 
 which was eaten fresh, with such herbs as nature 
 gave forth from uncultivated fields. Except for the 
 mere use of the baron's household, very little land was 
 then under the spade or plough. Potatoes had not
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 167 
 
 been introduced, Sir Walter Raleigh having brought 
 those esculents from America a century later than 
 when we treat of. Tea, coffee, and other luxuries were 
 then unknown in this country. It will be seen that 
 the towns were enemies of the feudal nobility by 
 reason of their different positions and mode of life. 
 Commerce introduced money payments instead of 
 barter. Payment by labour, being the old-fashioned 
 mode, was gradually substituted by money payments, 
 and barter abolished. This was first done in England. 
 On the continent the ancient feudal system pre- 
 vailed for a much longer period. In fact, in Hungary 
 the old system of taking a portion of the crop, or 
 even of labour instead of rent, still obtains. The 
 towns protected the runaway serfs, vassals, or villeins 
 of the lord, who could not be recovered by him, if he 
 wished, if out of his service for a year and a day. 
 The power of the Barons was great, as shown by the 
 legendary story of Ethel de Barnard and Dew Banke, 
 who resided on Stainmoor (the family name after- 
 wards, no doubt, being transformed into Ewbank, the 
 prefix of " de " or/' d " being common in those days) ; 
 and if the story be true, she was no doubt taken in 
 reprisal in some petty war or affray between those
 
 168 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 chiefs in those feudal days. The tradition has been 
 handed down to these times, and more than one person 
 solemnly avers that they have seen the apparition as 
 stated. 
 
 EWBANK SCAR. 
 
 BY MR. JOHN ARMSTRONG 
 (Late of Kirkby Stephen, now of Manchester}. 
 
 Loud the echoes replied to Ewbank's brisk " Holloa," 
 From Stainmoor's rude steeps on the dawning mist-crowned, 
 
 As he called from his homestead his kindred to follow, 
 Mid the clang of the horn, and the bay of the hound. 
 
 Up sprang from the heath the fear- winged plover, 
 The sweet-throated linnet suspending his tale, 
 
 While the wild-eyed stag shot swift from its cover, 
 With huntsmen and hounds full cry on the trail. 
 
 Away went the stag, like an arrow's flight, bounding 
 O'er the long stretching moor, yet brightly bedewed, 
 
 The weather-beaten crags with hoof-falls resounding, 
 As they struck in the track of the hotly pursued. 
 
 Great was the clamour and hurry of the chasing, 
 As the sturdy young huntsmen all joined in the race, 
 
 Each hill, brake, and hollow impetuously tracing, 
 Till, fairly out-wearied, some dropped from the chase.
 
 EWBANK SCAUR.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 169 
 
 Still fainter and fainter the number decreased, 
 
 The wild waving antlers at distance in view, 
 But unheeded as danger the distance increased, 
 
 To Ewbank, so reckless, left lone to pursue. 
 
 Deep merlegills echoes from slumber arousing, 
 Loud rang to the clang on the rock-strewed way, 
 
 And ravens, upstarted from carrion carousing, 
 At th' advance of the courser flew shrieking away. 
 
 IBut on like wind, o'er the hill madly speeding, 
 
 Rude clump, fence, or hollow, no check to his speed, 
 
 The old castle towers of Harcla receding, 
 
 Nigher to the game at each stretch of the steed. 
 
 The rocks that protruded to the iron hoofs flashing, 
 
 Each flash a bright beacon from the doom that was laid, 
 
 Stag, hounds, and horseman o'er the precipice dashing, 
 At the bottom lay bleeding, all mangled and dead. 
 
 Long as the lichen-browed scar, huge, wild, and hoary, 
 Shall, frowning, impend o'er the thick-wooded dell 
 
 3 Twill bear on its summit the sad tragic story, 
 Which legends pathetic through ages will tell.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE dales of Westmoreland have been proverbial 
 for the longevity of their inhabitants ; but whether 
 this is to be accounted for by the healthiness of 
 the climate is doubtful. Westmoreland being very 
 mountainous, and on a limestone foundation, with, 
 in many places, contracted dales, where the sun, on 
 account of the height of the hills, scarcely ever shines 
 in the valleys for several months ; in some situations 
 as in Mallerstang and Bretherdale giving rise to 
 goitre ; in some instances from the hardness of the 
 water, but in other instances this is balanced by the 
 softness of the water which flows from the morasses, 
 which, like large sponges, absorb the rainfall, which 
 the altitude of the hills draws down as the moisture 
 flows over the top, giving rise to heavy rainfalls, 
 and in some instances to water-spouts, which scoop
 
 NOTES OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 171 
 
 out of the hills large masses of earth, flowing down 
 in the valleys, as in the neighbourhood of Tebay 
 and other places, and covering a large portion of 
 the meadow and pasture land as it falls. The solid- 
 ness of such avalanches of earth renders it a costly 
 operation to remove, and of course irreparable damage 
 is done to many a mountain-farm that lies under 
 the influence of such phenomena. But a great deal 
 may depend upon the habits of a people living, as 
 former generations did, in a simple and unexcitable 
 manner, their diet consisting chiefly of milk, oatmeal, 
 home-brewed ale, bacon, potatoes, and sometimes 
 not more than two or three times a week 
 mutton or beef; at least this was the frugal mode 
 of living of the yeomen and farmers till lately. 
 With the rise of provisions, the expense and flim- 
 siness of dress different to the homespun of former 
 times and the extra exertion of the faculties of 
 the mind to gain a living in these more expen- 
 sive times, combined with the luxuries of life which 
 every one strives to obtain, and in many cases 
 from the indulgence in intoxicating liquors, the 
 longevity of the people in comparison with 'their 
 ancestors may fairly be disputed ; and the spread
 
 i;2 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 of maladies may be fostered and engendered of 
 a kind leading to mortality never known to the 
 inhabitants of remote districts formerly. Climate, 
 however, has possibly a good claim for notice in 
 a medical point of view whether it be essential 
 to the prevention of some diseases, or the cure 
 of others. In a mountainous district like Westmore- 
 land, situated at no great distance from the Atlantic 
 and German Oceans, the humidity from the former 
 attracted by the mountains which nearly surround 
 it, and a large portion of it occupying an elevated 
 position in the centre, and subject to heavy rain- 
 falls, it cannot be wondered that in some seasons 
 of the year inflammatory and scrofulous diseases 
 make sad havoc among the people, who are exposed 
 by the nature of their employment to the vicissi- 
 tudes of a somewhat variable atmosphere. Climate 
 depends a great deal upon geographical position, 
 sheltered situations, the influence of the sun, 
 dryness of the soil, humidity, the prevailing winds, 
 the influence of the Gulf-stream, &c. In my 
 observations on the north-west coast of England, 
 by the aid of meteorological observations and 
 tables, supplied to me by the Rev. F. Redford,
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 173 
 
 of Silloth, which were published by me in the 
 year 1872 in the British Medical Association Journal, 
 I there attempted to show that the dryness of the 
 atmosphere, freedom from fogs, and the presence 
 of ozone, have a good deal to do with the healthi- 
 ness of a locality ; and also that the porosity of 
 the soil in many places, by rapidly absorbing and 
 carrying off the water even when there was an 
 excessive rainfall ; and especially when occurring 
 at any place near the sea rendered it of great 
 importance as a health resort and as a residence 
 for invalids. Such dryness and freedom from the 
 bad effects of evaporation of moisture to excess, 
 give invalids opportunities to get exercise, which 
 is of prime importance, and which they could not 
 get in less favourable situations. But while I 
 endeavoured to show in that paper that Southport, 
 Silloth, and other places on the west coast, as well 
 as some others differently situated such as Grange, 
 which is sheltered from the east are particularly 
 adapted as residences in the colder months of the 
 year, especially when east winds prevail, I did 
 not omit to state that at Silloth, for instance, the 
 prevailing winds being from the south-west and
 
 174 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 the Solway, an arm of the sea which is land- 
 locked, and the current running with the wind, 
 aided by the influence of the Gulf- stream this might 
 have something to do with equalizing the tempera- 
 ture of a place so peculiarly situated. But this 
 mode of reasoning is borne out by facts of surprising 
 interest, viz., no place in England gives with 
 instruments so much per centage of ozone, except 
 the marine residence of Her Majesty in the Isle 
 of Wight. It will naturally be asked by those 
 unacquainted with chemical and meteorological 
 reasoning, What is ozone ? To render the subject 
 plain, every one who has noticed, or cares to notice, 
 a thunderstorm, knows that electricity is generated, 
 and that the lightning, so much feared by some, 
 has the power to purify, and, of course, does purify 
 the atmosphere, and gives to the senses a feeling 
 that there is abroad a peculiar odour, not unlike 
 that which is noticed from an electrical machine. 
 It is in its composition not unlike nitric acid ; and 
 as nitrogen exists mechanically mixed with oxygen 
 in the atmosphere in the proportion of three of 
 nitrogen to one of oxygen, it is probable that a 
 .greater supply of oxygen exists after electrical action,
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 175 
 
 and that at the expense of nitrogen and watery, 
 vapour. It may be best to say then that ozone 
 is oxygen intensified or modified, rendered stronger 
 in fact, and that influences are at work in parti- 
 cular locations, to render it more permanent than 
 in others because, if a current of air has not free 
 course over a great space, the atmosphere becomes 
 impregnated with the gases from workshops, decom- 
 positions of vegetable matter, and other impurities. 
 Climate partakes largely of the nature or altitude 
 of a district, and its proximity to the sea. But 
 the health of a community no doubt depends 
 more upon sanitary arrangements. Pent up pestilen- 
 tial gases are to be avoided, but it is a surprising 
 fact that the men employed in the London sewers 
 are proverbially healthy. This may be accounted for 
 in a great measure by the strong current of air 
 rushing through these artificial media, and, pro- 
 bably, in a great measure to the absorbing power 
 pf water which they are flushed with more or less 
 continually. However, the main facts regarding the 
 health of people in any district agree ; that absti- 
 nence from intoxicating liquors, and enervating in- 
 fluence of habits of any kind which are detrimental
 
 176 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 to health, should be observed ; while a wet or 
 humid climate, although it has its advantages 
 in a hilly district, yet low, undrained situations 
 are to be avoided. To keep up the uniform heat 
 of the body, therefore, is of great importance, 
 and this can be done by wearing flannel next 
 the skin, which prevents the evaporation of the 
 heat of the body when over-exerted, and prevents 
 the penetration of the cold to the surface better 
 than any other material in common use. How 
 often however do we see young females insufficiently 
 clad, especially about the chest, with the most flimsy 
 material, and no doubt this in a great measure gives 
 rise to many complaints that may be serious in 
 themselves, and lay the foundation frequently of that 
 dire disease, consumption, which is too frequent 
 amongst a certain class of people, both male and 
 female. Diet, of course, has a great deal to do with 
 keeping up the temperature of the body, and here 
 again the materials are at hand for every one. 
 Nothing can be better or cheaper, in fact within the 
 reach of everybody who can procure food at all, viz., 
 oatmeal porridge and new milk. This, supplemented 
 by a few ounces of wheaten bread, soup, or solid animal
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 177 
 
 food, with a modicum of preserved or fresh fruit, 
 is all that is absolutely necessary to insure health. 
 The most cheerful time, however, amongst the hills 
 of Westmoreland, is when the sun's rays beam upon 
 us for a few weeks in summer. But the pastures 
 call out loudly to use a term in common use for 
 moisture, and without rain the flocks and herds that 
 graze upon our pasture would lack the verdant juices 
 which alone contribute to their growth and enjoy- 
 ment. There is, however, much pleasurable en- 
 joyment in the light frosts of winter, when locomotion 
 is not impeded by heavy snow-falls ; and the Cana- 
 dian atmosphere alone can outvie that of Westmore- 
 land in its strengthening influence. 
 
 The proximity of the sea is often of great use to 
 invalids who are suffering from a peculiarity of con- 
 stitution, from a sedentary life in towns, or in 
 localities remote from the sea. Owing to climatic 
 influence, a change is often necessary in fact, in 
 some cases indispensable to health ; so the different 
 health resorts are recommended for some virtue, 
 either as regards the nature of the water, as mineral 
 water, or for the purity of the air. The expanse of 
 ocean, stretching as it does for thousands of miles ; 
 
 13
 
 178 NOTES OF NORTH WESTiMORELAND. 
 
 its water laden with salts, possessing the virtue and 
 properties of medicine, the system by respiration 
 rapidly absorbs, although imperceptibly, many in- 
 vigorating qualities derived from the air which is 
 breathed. In a variable climate like England it will 
 be seen that pulmonary consumption and scrofula, 
 aided by the different trades from which noxious 
 vapours and irritating substances are inhaled, contri- 
 bute thousands of victims annually, and figure largely 
 in the bills of mortality. It is a question whether any 
 other country on the globe is afflicted with such a 
 variety of diseases affecting the air-passages, and 
 hereditary scrofula. 
 
 The frequent inter-marriages in isolated districts 
 have been remedied by the opening up of railways 
 and migration of people from secluded parts ; still, it 
 will be long before marriages of near relations 
 will be eschewed ; as tending to deterioration of off- 
 spring both in mind and body, until a better 
 knowledge of the subject becomes more generally 
 diffused, and the fundamental laws of health better 
 understood by the community.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 AT no place does Christmas produce more heart- 
 inspiring mirth than amongst the natives of Cumber- 
 land and Westmoreland, nor are there any other 
 counties which can vie with them in manly athletic 
 sports, as witness the various wrestling matches all 
 over the country, and notably those arranged by 
 natives who are resident in London, and who assemble 
 at Lillie Bridge to contest in their favourite pastime, 
 thus attracting from their native dales all those who 
 are distinguished for pre-eminence in the struggle of 
 strength. But at Christmas among his native dales 
 the farmer, who is often a stockman more than any- 
 thing else, can be seen with his hands enveloped in 
 huge mittens of home manufacture, being gloves 
 without fingers, and only the thumb being distinct 
 from the lump ; often thrusting them half-way into
 
 i8o LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 his trousers pockets ; with a fustian jacket well 
 buttoned up to his chin, jogging along merrily to his 
 daily labour, singing or whistling as he goes, with 
 his jolly red face, scarcely perceiving the dairymaid, 
 with her (piggin) milk-pail in her hand (and often 
 carried when filled on her head) hurrying to the (byre) 
 cow-house, where the smell and warmth of the cows 
 makes her often exclaim that it's a pleasure to gang 
 milking through the snaw (snow) to git among the 
 kye (cows) ; while the boy mucking (cleaning) the 
 byre thinks that his job is not so very nice, while she 
 laughs at him for her gratification. The (tarns) 
 small lakes and ponds, or the river on the top of 
 some weir, may be seen covered with boys slid- 
 ing in their wooden clogs mostly, frequently by 
 moonlight, tripping themselves up often, when they 
 roll all in a heap. The roars of laughter resound, and 
 they think it fine fun to have a break in like this upon 
 their (shirling) sliding. In the frosty or snowy days 
 the farmers' men may yet be seen upon the smaller 
 farms, where threshing machines are not obtainable, 
 threshing the corn in couples with a flail, which con- 
 sists of a hand-staff, with leather thongs attached 
 to a heavy stick about four feet long, called the
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 181 
 
 " soople " (A.S. swipa, a whip ; Fr. souple), and occa- 
 sionally having a little pull at home-brewed out of a 
 jug hid in a hole of the wall in the corner; while in 
 the farmhouse itself, either churning, washing, baking, 
 or making mince pies, the wife and daughters of the 
 household are often to be seen at Christmas time, for 
 the entertainment of themselves or some expected 
 family party. In the long winter evenings card parties 
 are invited, bowls of punch are not uncommon, 
 while roast goose and plum puddings form the 
 Christmas Day repast in many a farmhouse and 
 substantial household. All seem merry ; the cares 
 of life are left in abeyance as much as possible, for 
 what is the use of repining at losses and crosses at 
 the end of the year. Let us hope, they say, for a 
 good new year, and better luck next time, and so on ; 
 while the lads and lasses play off charades. Amateur 
 theatricals, glees, concerts, &c., are got up frequently 
 at village parties, and many a night's amusement is 
 improvised for the edification of a great number of 
 the community. Tea parties for the aged, Sunday- 
 school treats and Christmas trees are procured for 
 the children, and prizes often given for excellence in 
 singing, drawing, and other accomplishments at this
 
 i82 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 season of the year by the teachers of various day and 
 Sunday schools. The barring out of the master used 
 to be carried out, and after he had promised a treat 
 and holiday to suit the scholars, he was let into the 
 school' where the treat was held. We can remember, 
 however, some rather rough scenes at such times, 
 and one in particular, where the master ventured 
 to look through the keyhole, when he was burned 
 about the face by a piece of hot iron thrust through 
 it. This custom, we believe, is now abandoned 
 as thoughtless and useless, because set holidays 
 obtain nowadays. Such are some of the amuse- 
 ments which Christmas annually produces. It unites 
 the different members of the family under the paternal 
 roof, and cements the good-will of each other towards 
 their neighbours. There is often sadness felt from 
 the absence of some near and dear one, perhaps 
 gone away for ever; but as we cannot always live in 
 the past, our future should be brightened by such 
 gatherings, and our minds mellowed and hallowed 
 by bereavement as we think of the yearly festivity, 
 and celebrate the anniversary of that birth which 
 gave " Glory to God, and peace on earth towards 
 men."
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 183 
 
 Edwin Lees, writing about the year 1839-40, 
 in a neat little volume of poems descriptive of 
 Christmas, gives the following abstract, which we 
 transcribe as a very good description of such a scene 
 in Westmoreland : 
 
 " When on the barn's thatched roof is seen, 
 The moss in tufts of liveliest green ; 
 When Roger to the wood pile goes, 
 And, as he turns, his fingers blows ; 
 When all around is cold and drear, 
 Be sure that Christmas-tide is near." 
 
 Mr. R. Story, of Gargrave School, in Yorkshire, 
 wrote the following in 1829, on the Parish Clerk : 
 
 " Learn next that I am parish clerk, 
 A noble office by it mark, 
 It brings me in six guineas clear, 
 Besides et ceteras every year ; 
 I give the solemn deep amen, 
 Exalted then to breath again, 
 The heart devotion of the crowd. 
 But, oh, the fun when Christmas chimes 
 Have ushered in the festive times, 
 And sent the clerk and sexton round 
 To pledge their friends in draughts profound, 
 And keep on foot the good old plan, 
 As only clerk and sexton can.
 
 1 84 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 Nor less the sport when Easter sees 
 
 The daisy spring to deck her leas, 
 
 Then claimed as dues by Mother Church, 
 
 I pluck the cackler from the perch ; 
 
 Or In its place the shilling clasp, 
 
 From grumbling dame's slow opening grasp ; 
 
 But Visitation Day ! 'tis thine 
 
 Best to deserve my native line ; 
 
 Great day, the finest, brightest gem 
 
 That decks the fair year's diadem ; 
 
 Grand day that sees me costless dine, 
 
 And costless quaff the rosy wine, 
 
 Till seven churchwardens doubled seem, 
 
 And doubled every taper's gleam, 
 
 And I, triumphant over time, 
 
 And over tune, and over rhyme, 
 
 Called by the gay, convivial throng, 
 
 Lead in full glee the choral song." 
 
 The following by J. B. is not inapplicable to the 
 district of which we treat. It has been transcribed 
 from The A nimal World : 
 
 " Nobbet a dog, ye say, but than 
 
 He was a friend as weel 
 Ta me, an' as a friend his loss 
 
 Ah'd hey ye know ah feel ; 
 Ah hed him eight lang 'ears er mair, 
 Ah brak him in mysell,
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 185 
 
 An' better niver poddish supped, 
 Er niver went ta t' fell. 
 
 He knew his wark and did it weel, 
 
 That's mair than ah can say 
 Fer many a snafflin man ah've known, 
 
 Howiver much his pay ; 
 When ah brak me leg ya winter 
 
 Et gaen ower t' frozen snow, 
 Ah'd deed on t' spot ah's varra sure, 
 
 Bet Ray let oor folk know. 
 
 He come reet heam, and wadn't rest 
 
 Till t' lads turned oot to see 
 Whear ah was, an' Ray varra seun 
 
 Brout them wi' help ta me ; 
 And wen he gat auld an' feckless, 
 
 He'd lie be t' kitchen fire, 
 And dream that he was efter t' sheep, 
 
 Er bringing t' cows ta t' byre. 
 
 Na, na, ah's nut shamed if a tear 
 
 Does fa' fer poor auld Ray, 
 For if " nobbet a dog," we shared 
 
 Many a kear (care) and joy ; 
 Nobbet a dog, ah wish ye friends 
 
 May pruive as true ta ye, 
 As my auld fouer-fuited friend 
 
 Was ivver true ta me."
 
 186 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 LINES ON HUNTER, THE CARRIER, 
 
 WHO WAS WAYLAID AND SHOT ON A DARK NIGHT IN 
 NOVEMBER, 1837 ; AND ON A DROVER FOUND MURDERED 
 SOME TIME AFTER NEAR SUNBIGGIN TARN. 
 
 ON Lune's fair bank where violets grow, 
 The stream itself new-born and low, 
 The whole, just here, o'erlooked by Kelleth high, 
 Where drowsy cows and lambs so quietly lie ; 
 
 Coat Gill, Midfield, and Archer Hill, 
 And many a stream and many a rill 
 With Lune's pure water ere doth blend, 
 And anglers come sweet hours to spend ; 
 
 One sad event long since occurred, 
 A murder 'twas, as is averred ; 
 The railway now is planted where 
 The scene I paint, the roadway near. 
 
 A carrier, on the lonely road he came 
 From Kendal town, well-known by name, 
 Poor Hunter, he, as was not rare, 
 Brought goods, exchanged for country ware, 
 
 Was wending home in covered cart, 
 And near approached with loving heart 
 His wife and children sure to greet, 
 And in sweet confidence to meet.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 187 
 
 But an assassin, close by the hedge, 
 Waylaid him, shot him, while on the ledge 
 Of cart was riding ; fell backward he, 
 Launched by foul murder into eternity. 
 
 No one was seen, but t' shot was heard, 
 His money gone, and the dastard 
 Villain escaped, no weapon found, 
 No suicide this, no other sound. 
 
 The poor horse his body carried home, 
 The sight how horrid 'twas to some, 
 That some his father and his wife so dear, 
 In sorrow left to mourn for many a year. 
 
 The poor drover, who upon the road was found, 
 No friends had he, cold laid upon the ground, 
 And buried in the old churchyard alone, 
 But where's not known, ne'er marked by any stone. 
 
 By lonely tarn, Sunbiggin by name, he met his fate, 
 And this, another mystery, is unravelled yet, 
 This foul deed was done near Raisebeck Head, 
 By whom 'twas done no one knew, perhaps the dead 
 
 Had by some companion been bereft of life, 
 Or killed by some casual villain, who was rife 
 For plunder, whene'er he could securely find 
 A victim to assail, and heedless of mankind.
 
 188 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 The lonely tarn close by is a weird spot to name, 
 A spot forsooth to anglers not unknown to fame, 
 The speckled trout when angled from a boat 
 Has charms to some, while on its bosom slowly float 
 
 The coot, the duck, and the strange seagull, 
 No stranger here when by floods the tarn is full ; 
 The plover, curlew, and the grouse do brood close by 
 Till August comes, and many through the sportsmen die. 
 
 These mysteries not all ; O others have arisen, 
 Suspicious deeds, the authors ne'er in prison, 
 Justice awaits, the " mills of God grind small," 
 The cowardly wretch, now screened, may have a fall. 
 
 And the seared conscience, now a peccant one, 
 May yet be brought to traverse or bemoan 
 The false oath pledged, and anguish borne 
 By Innocence, and punishment dire and forlorn. 
 
 And wretches, who conspire to conceal, 
 Maybe by bribes, will not reveal, 
 While others rob by many ways, 
 And judgment waits for future days. 
 
 But acts like these will not remain unpenned 
 Long as the heather blooms, the moorland scanned 
 By travellers on this road, where cairns are found 
 Of Picts and Scots in mounds, its hallowed ground.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 189 
 
 The Almighty power will strict justice wield, 
 And guard the right, true innocent to shield ; 
 While guilt with quaking fear beriven, 
 Appeals in vain from earth to God and heaven. 
 
 T. G. 
 
 LEGEND OF THE WILD BOAR. 
 BY JOE STEEL. 
 
 ONE day the boar he met a lusty deer, 
 
 They soon engaged in war, 
 And had a contest most severe 
 
 Close to a rugged scaur ; 
 They met and met full many a time, 
 
 At length the deer was borne 
 Against a jutting rock of stone, 
 
 And left behind one horn, 
 Which lay half hid in moss and grass, 
 
 And as the years went round 
 Sank down more deep in the morass, 
 
 Until the horn was found 
 By men working in a drain 
 
 Below the Sunny Brow, 
 When it was brought to light again, 
 
 But to my story now. 
 
 The one-horned buck for many a year 
 Was hunted by the swains,
 
 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 Who got one thing, it does appear, 
 
 Their labour for their pains, 
 Until a youthful sportsman bold 
 
 Came off the Stainmoor side, 
 And ran the buck round Hartley fold. 
 
 The buck went on through fair and foul, 
 
 And never picked his way, 
 The rider's horse, quite past control, 
 
 Would neither turn nor stay ; 
 They galloped o'er yon scaur so high, 
 
 Yon scaur, that bears the name 
 Of Ewbank, that's the reason why, 
 
 And how the title came. 
 
 The sportsman was a Ewbank from 
 
 Below the Woffer Gill 
 On Beelah side, who thought to come 
 
 The buck and boar to kill ; 
 But ne'er a sportsman more 
 
 After that fatal day, 
 Attempted to hunt down the boar ; 
 
 He ran full many a day, 
 Till gallant Phillip Hartley 
 
 Essayed to bring him down, 
 With dogs brought o'er from France ; 
 
 One murky afternoon 
 He met him at the Podgill Head, 
 
 But soon I wot he found
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 191 
 
 His Gallic dogs were dead 
 
 And himself a mortal wound, 
 Which he'd received about the breast ; 
 
 And soon, alas, his friends 
 Interred him in a freestone chest, 
 
 And there my story ends. 
 
 A giant appeared and thus he said 
 
 With half a fiendish laugh, 
 " I'll lay the monster low" ; 
 
 The foot-marks of the boar was seen, 
 He traced him to the hill 
 
 Where first the water flows, 
 That feeds the Scandale rill, 
 
 Which gathers as it goes ; 
 And there he espied the savage brute 
 
 Upon the mountain brow, 
 Tearing the sods with his snout 
 
 Just like a farmer's plough ; 
 The noise he heard, and forward sprung 
 
 With bristles up on end, 
 And slaver from his tongue, 
 
 Full furious as a fiend ; 
 
 The giant with one stroke on loins 
 
 Deprived the boar of life, 
 Which gave a title to the hill
 
 192 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 That ne'er will pass away, 
 For it is called Wild Boar Fell 
 E'en to this very day. 
 
 NOTE. Mr. Joseph Steel, as before-mentioned, was a working 
 stonemason, chiefly in the employment of the late M. Thomp- 
 son, Esq., J.P., D.L., of Stobars Hall ; but after his death he 
 was employed by that gentleman's trustees and his sisters in a 
 confidential capacity as land steward or agent till his death, 
 which happened in 1882. 
 
 THE GROT. 
 
 SEQUESTERED spot, deep mossy shade, 
 And trickling drops of water sprayed, 
 Which, dancing in the sunbeam, vied 
 With diamond lustre : I espied 
 A spot ; t'was small, but who can tell 
 The beauties of that fairy dell. 
 
 In summer the drops and water spray 
 
 Are blended in a motley way 
 
 In winter frost, then what a change, 
 
 Large pearls of icicles arrange 
 
 From roof of grot, like spangles hung, 
 
 Or rows of beads, or pearls unstrung. 
 
 But then what nature does at will 
 No mortal can outstrip by skill.
 
 KNIGHT-TEMPLAR, TIME OF SIR A. DE HARCLA CIR. I34O.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 193 
 
 From atoms small arise each wonder, 
 Sprung up unseen, yet there no blunder ; 
 Outstripping art in magic shades, 
 Thus nature paints the pretty glades. 
 
 And many a spot, so simply shielded, 
 To men obscure much pleasure yielded ; 
 Whilst pomp and pride in passing by, 
 Such simple pleasures never spy, 
 But jostle in the crowded throng 
 And like vain shadows glide along. 
 
 Their minds wrought up to such a pitch 
 By subtle arts oft landed in the ditch : 
 They strive to cull, by sweet caressing 
 From fashion's foible every blessing ; 
 Their thoughts about some splendour bent, 
 Nor think that all their time's misspent. 
 
 But let me feel my mind at ease, 
 Enough for me if nature please ; 
 I'll roam o'er hill and dale and heather, 
 Nor care for wind or roughest weather ; 
 There's beauty still in seasons changing, 
 And pleasures sweet in ever ranging. 
 
 The grot was near an ancient mill, 
 
 Not far from leafy scarr'd Podgill ; 
 
 The castle stood above on view, 
 
 With Harcla's (Hartley) pride, in keeping true ; 
 
 The moorland shade and cataract's roar 
 
 Is heard around, as when the wild boar
 
 194 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 Prowled about in savage quest, 
 
 Or, when by hunter sadly prest, 
 
 By hill and brook he sought to rest 
 
 To save his life, like others did his best. 
 
 The landscape still shows yet the Gill 
 
 And proves too well the hunter's skill. 
 
 The boar was slain in strange combat, 
 But this is proved, no need of that ; 
 The grot is there, near Hartley Stream, 
 And sparkling still in winter's gleam, 
 When ice-bound is the watery moss 
 That to the scene gives such a gloss. 
 
 And hard by Eden stream yet flows, 
 
 As time still onward goes, 
 
 The mill beneath the hoary castle's gone, 
 
 In ruins the castle's not alone 
 
 The pride of Harcla now is o'er, 
 
 But not the fame of hero or wild boar. 
 
 Harcla's race succeeded not to this domain, 
 
 Nor honour from the world obtain. 
 
 A rebel's lot was his, in ignominy to die ; 
 
 On spikes his head and members lifted high 
 
 The law majestic, to uphold was then 
 
 As now, the law of God to men. 
 
 My finale now approaches near, 
 
 The grot is there, the grove, the stream so clear ; 
 
 And sparkling nectar as of old, 
 
 By bards and others are extolled ;
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 195 
 
 The landscape's changed where castles were, 
 And other homes and objects there. 
 
 T. G. 
 
 NOTE. Roger de Clifford being attainted of treason, 1510 
 Edward II., the king granted to Sir Andrew de Harclay the 
 castle of Brougham, the manors of Mallerstang, King's Meaburn, 
 Kirkby Stephen, and Langton (this is Langton near Appleby), 
 with the wood of Whynnefeld (Whinfell), together with the 
 Sheriffwick, reserving to himself the cornage (Countess of Pem- 
 broke's " Memoirs "), which again being forfeited by Sir Andrew, 
 were restored to the said Roger by King Edward IV., in the 
 first year of his reign. 
 
 HAWESWATER. 
 
 WRITTEN AFTER A VISIT WITH T. GIBSON, M.D., BY MR. 
 JAMES R. BLAND, SEPT. 4TH, 1879. 
 
 EMBOSOMED mid mountains bleak and bold, 
 Like a living sheet of silver rolled 
 
 H awes water lies. 
 
 And on its surface so calm and still, 
 Faithfully mirrored is each high hill 
 
 Kissing the skies. 
 
 Oh beautiful lake, how fair art thou 
 As the glorious sun sheds on thee now 
 
 His noontide ray !
 
 196 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 Like a glimpse of the far-famed fairy-land 
 Seem thy waters blue and mountains grand, 
 Sublime, yet gay. 
 
 As now on thy lovely shores I ride, 
 
 And the mountains stand in all their pride, 
 
 Hemming thee round, 
 
 My soul is filled with a secret fear 
 At the power Divine displayed here 
 
 Awfully profound. 
 
 In a small and quiet churchyard sleep, 
 In death's long slumber, so calm, so deep, 
 
 So peaceful still, 
 
 Many who trod life's devious way 
 
 Afar from the spot where rests their clay 
 
 Beneath the hill. 
 
 Rest ye, rest in slumber sweet, O rest ; 
 The peace of God, the portion of the blest, 
 
 Be yours for aye. 
 
 And when God shall call you from your sleep 
 May it be to the land where none may weep 
 Where's endless day. 
 
 O Father, grant that my life may be 
 Sure and smooth as the water I see 
 
 So peaceful still ;
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 197 
 
 That like the mountains which round it stand, 
 The love of God on every hand 
 
 May guard from ill. 
 
 Mr. Bland is a native of Orton, and is now master of Ivington 
 School, Herefordshire. He has shown himself worthy of his 
 native country by his own advancement from youth upwards 
 without material aid from others. So much will show that he is 
 talented and discerning. 
 
 OUR VILLAGE. 
 
 OUR village in a valley secluded lies, 
 Umbrageous woods and purling streams supplies 
 With beverage cool, and shady walks, 
 Where neighbours meet and crack their jokes^ 
 A place you'll know of some renown, 
 Though far removed from any town. 
 
 A town itself, so styled, but not so clear, 
 
 Unless we hold to traditions old and drear ; 
 
 A church full fair, it stands upon a hill ; 
 
 A manor-house of ancient date ; and old corn mill ; 
 
 Its people proud, as proud can be, 
 
 Of its ancient charter, and its heraldry. 
 
 The hall, a modern structure fair to view, 
 Not very ancient, nor yet too new,
 
 198 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 Enclosed with woods and fairy ground, 
 Handsome by art and skill profound ; 
 A stream meanders through the vale quite near, 
 And noble walks close to its waters clear. 
 
 An oasis, this our village, and our boast 
 When by the stormy tempest on the waste 
 Our flocks and herds sore pressed are driven, 
 And noble woods uprooted and upriven, 
 They shelter find beneath the glades 
 Of woods and shielings, free from raids. 
 
 Of yore were harried by the Scot, 
 And hot trod taken, by them got 
 Nor leave nor license asked or given, 
 Where, from their owners reived and riven, 
 Our castle thwaites with peels were planted, 
 To these were driven by guards undaunted 
 
 By beacon light, if but forwarned, 
 
 A hot reception got, and left unharmed. 
 
 Peel towers now are swept away 
 
 We live in peace, nor fear the night affray ; 
 
 Unless it's some misguided loot and fool 
 
 Whose shrieks vie with the screeching owl. 
 
 Our village is not so far behind the age, 
 But yet renowned, if not for men of lineage ; 
 Burn here wrote his work on Justice ; well 
 Compiled our county's history, as all can tell,
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 199 
 
 With Nicholson, from papers others left so rare, 
 As nothing since could be or aught compare. 
 
 A man of parts, so good a scholar he 
 
 That chancellor was made in Carlisle chancellorie, 
 
 Justice, judge, and vicar all combined, 
 
 Historian, biographer, was intertwined, 
 
 But Orton's vicar still, firm to his first post, 
 
 T'was here he lived 'tis true, the name not yet is lost. 
 
 There's sages still, though some are meek, 
 
 You'll find them now, not far to seek ; 
 
 The spot itself, 'tis destined still to bear 
 
 Its fair renown you must beware, 
 
 Not scoff at local gossips, who in print 
 
 Pourtray our virtues, or recall some strange event. 
 
 And freaks of nature oft-times, strange to say, 
 With other matters not so clear to-day 
 As once were known to other mortals, 
 When clear of t' village and church portals, 
 For just across the Lune's broad stream 
 A man once lived could solve a dream ; 
 
 Or by the stars could fortunes tell ; 
 Circumvent a witch ; love philters sell ; 
 Old Dr. Farrer's bones amongst us lie, 
 Who read black art, which others mystify, 
 Malevolent spirits held in check, 
 And laid them low in nearest Beck.
 
 200 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 'Twas thus you'll see, 'tis clear and plain, 
 Our village noted long, not now disdain ; 
 We now are free from doubt and fear, 
 Witches now beguile by other arts, 'tis clear : 
 No hags or hideous dames enthral to-day, 
 But buxom girls bewitch in quite another way. 
 
 T. G. 
 
 A DIALOGUE BETWEEN TWO FARMERS, 
 ANTHONY AND JOHN. 
 
 A . Hoo ayre ye to-day ? Hey ye hard ony news ? 
 
 J. Nay, nut mich. I'se warrent ye hennet gitten 
 duont t' hay yet. 
 
 A. Nea, nut we ; t' weather's bean sea wet, en 
 wer rayther wake. Our haytime man was we us 
 three weeks, and we nivver gat a forkful ot time. 
 
 J. Hey ye hed aught et ocshun mart laytly ? 
 
 A. Na, nut mich. I nobbut hed a coaf to sell. 
 It was a spiff 'un. I gat five pund for't, un it was 
 nobbut five weeks auld. I dun't care mich fer thir 
 ocshun marts meysell. I like te sell me awn things 
 meysell ; but some foak say they maek rnair o'r ther 
 stuff, un that's summit, anyhow. What ! they say 
 theve gitten watter warks et Kirkby, becos t' watter
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 201 
 
 they bed was'nt varra gud ? I nivver saw nout et aill 
 when I was thear ; did ye ? 
 
 J. I nivver drinch mich watter be't sell. I allus 
 like a sup o' gin in't. It's nobbut a cald thing et'sell 
 isn't watter, I think. 
 
 A. Our Betty says et furs kettle sumtimes. Et's 
 limestane watter, but it's nut bad fer folk, is t' watter. 
 Al nivver tak much hurt frate watter. It's sum 
 kick-maleeri fancy et fine folk end doctors sa. It's 
 bad is drinking bad watter ; but t' watter ell nut be 
 varra bad, I'se sud think, ef they'd keep t' filth out et 
 channels en drain toon, as they sud du. 
 
 J. Whya, the'll please thersells likle : the'll be 
 summat te pay for us chaps, that's varra likle. 
 
 A. Ye say reet, nowt se sartain. Gud day. Ayre 
 ye au weel at beam ? 
 
 J. Aye, varra. Is your folk au reet ? Gud day. 
 
 A. Ah say, John, dud tu ken Peggy Rellick, ut 
 leved et Whorton a few yers sen. 
 
 J. Aye, marri dud e. She was a strange oad 
 woman. She used tu gang about we oad duds, war 
 ner a pack ov clooted woo' seeks, en a girt round 
 thing o' patched on her hede, like a bee skep. 
 
 A . Aye, marri did she. They sed she was worth
 
 202 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 brass ; but I did think't ent parrish wad hev to 
 bury her. But, od rat, barn, there was sum queer folk 
 lang sen. Thou wad ken t' Gelbert lads, didn't te ? 
 
 J. Aye, I sud think sea ; Johnny et Gelbert's 
 knobbled me we his stick ance when I was a lat, et 
 Bluidy Banes' loaning. He used to wear a white 
 hat et Kitty Harker gev him, and gay proud he was 
 on't. They sed he tuke it back becos it didn't fit ; 
 but oad Ben Titley, t' oad hatter, fettled it up for 
 him, and pacified Johnny, sea that he war it tell't 
 oad rim dropt off. 
 
 A. Did te ken that oad man e Rissendel we't 
 lean nag ? He thow't he wad spart' nag be putting 
 t' meal batch on his oan back afore getting on tul't 
 nag. He was a regular oad skinflint. I'se varra sure 
 he grudged reek of his kail. 
 
 J. Od zounds, lad, but ther was kettle wark eh 
 them times, when t' meal was twelve shillin' a peck, 
 en flour five shillin' a stane. Ther was nea railways 
 than, te noo, ner Marley flour frae Barny Castle, tell 
 Jordan fetch't it. Whya, thull aiblins ma ha forgitten, 
 our quality thow't et cuntre wad aw ga te reck wi' 
 thur railways ; but ther hes been mair brass astir 
 sen they began te mak them. I'se warrant addling
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 203 
 
 hes been far better, while baith meal en flour is far 
 cheaper nowadays. A deel o' fouke was varra sair 
 put tu't e Bonny time, and often efter; but there is 
 ya thing et's gitten up nay, twa or three. Luke et 
 price ov beef, en mutton, en butter, en milk. Whya, 
 our Betty says et she can hardly get a drop to bake 
 we, an' our bease hes been dry now mebbe a fortnit 
 or mair. 
 
 A . Whya, tu sees, folk eats mair flesh meat now 
 en fatty cakes, cos addlings better, en you can hardly 
 tell t' common folk fra t' gentry now, if they keep thir 
 mun shut. Barn things is gettin tull a terrible pitch 
 e dress nowadays. Whya, when I was yung yan 
 thow't yansell varra weel off if yan gat anes poddige 
 twice a day, en stirabout en lobscouse fur dinner. 
 Now ther's terrible wark o' up en down wi' tea parties 
 and picnics, sec dancing and fleeing about owt et 
 duar, oft draggled wi' wet claes, en gits thir deeth o' 
 coad far worse, I sa, nir a gud merri neet lang sen. 
 Sumtimes they gat coad ower heatin' thersells en 
 than turning out. But folks was harder lang sen ; 
 we hedn't sea many doctors knockin' about, unless 
 t' lyins-in, an' them's things et mun happen, or t' 
 world would sune be at an end.
 
 204 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 J. Whya, when I went to skule wi' me wallet en 
 bit o' bluemilk cheese en bread, I never ailt nowt, I 
 was oft au treacle ower. We never used nae butter, 
 our fowke couldn't afford it, en it was nobbut about 
 sevenpence a pound, eh them days. 
 
 A. Whya, it's au wark for farmers to mak ends 
 meet yet they say, but they can always ramp about 
 e fine gigs en what nut, and rents is up twice as 
 much as they used to be. 
 
 3^. Aye, but thou sees thur railways, en ya thing 
 or another, hes raised produce. Whya, you cannot 
 get a decent cow now under twenty pund, yan mud 
 ha gitten as good fer ten, twenty year sen, lale good 
 bagged uns. Ther fine short-horn breed er a gay bit 
 bigger, but sum on em er nobbut middlin' milkers. 
 
 A. Now, dust a think, John, et land grows mair 
 now they gat te usin sea mich artificial ? En my 
 opinion, ther nowt bangs good muck. I dun't reckon 
 mich on't as good littery muck, wi' plenty o' suction 
 in't, it'll bring a crop anytime ; but them chaps et 
 sells artificial, en gis papers out, wad mak yan 
 believe et t' monia, et yan cannot see, is t' main thing 
 for makking t' quorn and girse grow. 
 
 J. Whya, it may be sea. Iv'e tried nitre mesell.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 205 
 
 Bless us, barn, it does leather't. Whya, ye can omest 
 see t' girse grow ; fine dark luking stuff, it does plate 
 it and nea mistake. But it's like drawing t' tooth ot 
 graud ; it wants summit wi' sum suction in't to fetch 
 a crop neest time. 
 
 A. Aye, varri likeli. I yance hard that Dr. 
 Gibson (thul mebbe ea heard him ance, lecturing 
 about sech like things), he wad fain persuade folk et 
 banes is best fur land. He maeks out et guano is 
 nobbit fish banes et's gone through birds, en ses this 
 tank stuff caps owt for makin girse grow. 
 
 J. Whya, he's nobbut red about it ; what can he 
 know ? I sud think if he minds his awn job it'll be 
 as weel. Farmers owt ta knau as weel as these 
 fellas. He mebbe thinks es yan doesn't ken these 
 jawbrekkers yan gits fra these muck chaps about 
 their mannyures. Et's o' Greek ta me. They mud 
 as weel send yan a Hebrew Testament to read ev 
 this cuntry. 
 
 A. Let's gang intu t' " Fleece" en ev a drop o' 
 summut ta drink. It's nobbut dry wark talking 
 without summint ta sup on. Does tu think ef these 
 chaps et gits sech girt wages er these railways, en 
 up an down, save owt ?
 
 206 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 J. Nay, barn, I cay't tell. I sud think nut. Ther 
 ower much sabblement amang thir tea parties en a* 
 thir finery. When I was a lad my muther used ev 
 linsey-woolsey slop ower her shoulders, and mebbe 
 a flannel petticote fur Sunda's. Nowadays ther's 
 edgings ta o' kinds o' things. T' women er decked 
 out like as if aw t' things they hed wir ta be put on 
 thir backs et ance. 
 
 A. But tu see's cuntra's turned upside down. 
 Yan can git ta Lunnon in as many 'ours as days 
 lang sen, en fowk et cuntra hes gitten ta dress ther- 
 sell like as they dua et towns. It'll be lang afore 
 they see any mair times like oad uns. I nivver think 
 et owt cum up ta knee-breeches and swallow-tail'd 
 quoats. But I mun away. It's gayn ta get out fera 
 hay-da, en we mun ev a lot in to-day. It's nobbut 
 parlish weather. 
 
 J. Whya, aye, Gud-day. Has gayn to see t' oad 
 Squire et Skelcies ? They say he's a varra gud cow 
 to sell ; sea, Gud-day.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 207 
 
 LOCAL SAYINGS IN RHYME. 
 
 BY JOE STEEL. 
 
 " WHEN t ! curlew whistles leyat at neet 
 Noo that's a sign o' snow and sleet" 
 
 " When t' helm's low and foxes bark 
 Bar up your doors afore it's dark." 
 
 " When t' wind blows hard frae Stowgill eyast 
 Ye ma foad yer sheep and hoos yer beyast." 
 
 " A snoa-storm o' the month of May 
 Mack's Kysty Kye yeat styadal hay." 
 
 " A snoaey April and a snizey May 
 Mack farmers ettle out their hay." 
 
 " She sets up her back, that all crock you 
 She'll nevvir live to hear t' cuckoo." 
 
 " A nanny pet lamb makes a dwining yeu, 
 Nut yan oot o' ten on em ever doos dow." 
 
 " If t' esh tree buds before t' yack 
 The following summer will be black ; 
 But if t' yack buds titter cummer 
 'Tis sure to be a drufty summer."
 
 2.58 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 " Fill esp and sap and keep it dry 
 The heart of yack it will defy ; 
 But eller wood is nine times better 
 Ner esp or yack for under waiter." 
 
 " Trin tran sike, like master sike like man, 
 A lazy life brings scant or scan." 
 
 " If Candlemas Day be cloudy and black, 
 It will carry away oad winter on its back ; 
 But if t' sun shine before it is newn, 
 Winter, depend on't, isn't hoaf dewn." 
 
 " If Candlemas Day be fine and clear, 
 We'll hev two winters in one year." 
 
 "If Candlemas Day be sunshiny and warm 
 Ye may mend yer oad mittens and look for a storm." 
 
 NOTE. Yuletide, Yaletide, Christmastide. The yule showing 
 great light on the fire was formerly regarded 'as the turn of the 
 year, after the shortest day. Shrovetide, Shrift-tide, i.e., Con- 
 fession. A Christmas-box originally was put in a ship to collect 
 pence to give, to pay for a safe return, to the priest no pence 
 no paternoster.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 209 
 
 A DIALOGUE ON SCHOOLS. 
 
 Squire. Well, John, how many children have 
 you ? 
 
 Labourer. Six, please, your honour. 
 
 5. Do they go to school ? 
 
 L. Yes, they all go but the young one. 
 
 S. I am glad to hear. The education of the 
 young is of great importance ; in fact, as you know, 
 the Government enforces it. 
 
 L. Yes, I think it is a pity Government troubles 
 itself with such like matters so much. 
 
 5. But you know, John, everybody is not like 
 you. Some people would not care if their children 
 never went to school at all, which might lead the 
 children into habits of idleness and mischief. 
 
 L. I think it is very hard that parents cannot 
 have the control over their children. A boy or girl 
 is of no use to help them nowadays. 
 
 5. You mean that they are not allowed to work 
 under a certain age, as formerly ? 
 
 L. Yes, and more than that ; I never hear that 
 any of them that go to these schools get on so much, 
 after all. 
 
 15
 
 5. Oh, yes; they often come up to the higher 
 standards, you know. 
 
 L. I don't know much about the standards, but I 
 know formerly there were very clever men made out 
 of the old grammar schools. 
 
 S. Yes, but you see, John, things are different 
 nowadays. The labouring class ought to have equal 
 advantages. 
 
 L. So far as that goes, perhaps, they have. 
 What I complain of is, that there is not a chance 
 for a labourer's son to get on as formerly. 
 
 5. He may be removed, you know, into a middle- 
 class school, if he shows talent. 
 
 L. Yes, but the labouring man cannot afford it. 
 
 S. Sometimes he may get assistance. 
 
 L. Very rarely. Every one is not so liberal as 
 you, sir. 
 
 S. You think, then, that the old system was the 
 better for the generality of poor people who have 
 clever children ? 
 
 L. Decidedly so, sir. 
 
 5. But masters could not be got, nowadays, who 
 would be willing to teach classics for the small 
 stipends of village grammar schools.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 211 
 
 L. But how does it happen that the stipends are 
 so small ? I suppose the value of the land these 
 schools are endowed with is increased same as other 
 lands ? 
 
 S. In some instances they are ; but in others, 
 owing to neglect in the cultivation of them, and their 
 uncertain tenure, they have not increased in value as 
 they ought. 
 
 L. If these lands were sold, I suppose they would 
 bring in a good price ; and, if the money was invested 
 in something else, the stipends could be increased. 
 
 S. This would interfere, you see, with the will of 
 the founder. 
 
 L. But the will of the founder is interfered with 
 already, or else the grammar schools would not have 
 been made elementary only. 
 
 S. The Charity Commissioners, in their wisdom, 
 and the Parliament, have thought it better that a 
 chance should be given to all the lower classes to be 
 educated up to a certain standard. 
 
 L. But this deprives the really clever boy of 
 advancement. 
 
 5. In very many cases higher education does 
 harm ; and, besides, it is necessary that gentlemen's
 
 212 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 sons be made into priests and doctors. There is 
 little enough chance for getting employment for 
 gentlefolks, nowadays, suitable for them. 
 
 L. I thought as much. Did you ever know a 
 gentleman's son a schoolmaster by profession ? 
 
 S. Well, certainly not often in villages. 
 
 L. You think, then, it is better to keep a sort of 
 caste between individuals of certain station ? 
 
 5. Yes, perhaps for the good of society it is 
 better. 
 
 L. George Stephenson and George Moore were 
 not born gentlemen, I think ? 
 
 5. No, or for that matter, our parson either ; but 
 you see such men have to keep themselves aloof 
 from the people they spring from. 
 
 L. No more, sir, than Simpkins, the miller, who 
 was a poor lad, and is now a rich man. 
 
 S. But Simpkins does not visit amongst the 
 upper classes, and the parsons and doctors ought to 
 be men who could be received. 
 
 L. Oh, yes; I see a prophet has no honour in 
 his own country ; but perhaps he might be allowed 
 to show that he has brains in a new country. 
 
 Squire, slowly retiring, was heard to mutter :
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 213 
 
 " These fellows are not quite so civil since they got 
 the franchise." 
 
 THE ANTIQUARY. 
 
 BY ANTHONY WHITEHEAD, OF REAGILL, NEAR SHAP. 
 
 YE strangers that ramble down't Vale of Lyvennet, 
 To see bonny Nature and breathe the fresh air, 
 
 Fra the spring at Black Dub a't way down to the Eden 
 There's seines interesting, romantic, and rare. 
 
 Westward fra the Dub 'boute a cannon-shot distance 
 There's cromlecks an' cairns full of auld Celtic baynes ; 
 
 A temple where't Druids sang prayers to the plannets, 
 Set aw arround wi' a circle o' staynes. 
 
 An' in times leayter still, when the Romans reayde foray, 
 An' meayde a new wroad as they crossed ouer the fell, 
 
 May be seen to this day, near the black dub ye find it, 
 An' if you dispute me ga see for yoursel'. 
 
 There's many quere places a't way doon the valley, 
 An' Hamelets or toons where the Brittans did dwell ; 
 
 There's traces o' some to be seen in t' Lang-deayle, 
 But men, farther larn'd, their origin may tell. 
 
 Crosby Kirk, of auld standing, next claims oor attention, 
 Wi' awe an' wi' reverence oor minds for to fill ; 
 
 Flass House is a feature 'at ought to be mentioned, 
 An' Addison's birthplace on Meaburn Hill.
 
 214 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 But the main pleayce I wish to point out to your notice 
 Is Reagill, where yance leev'd the fam'd Thomas Bland, 
 
 An' auld antiquary, cramfull o' queer notions 
 As any you'll find in the length o' the land. 
 
 He kent a' the history o' t' world's creation, 
 Fra t' making of Adam to t' birth o' Tom Thumb ; 
 
 He tell't us the earth's composition was gasses, 
 An' fowak meayde of air seayme as a baloon. 
 
 He talk'd about metals being fused by eruption, 
 An' how they were melted like souder or tin ; 
 
 He kent aw the strata of rock fra the surface 
 Aw t' way doon to the boiling het fluid within. 
 
 He scabbl'd off shells fra the hard rock o' limestone, 
 An' sed they'd been fishes, some thousand years sen ; 
 
 He was crack'd, that's a cartainty, out of aw question, 
 To think of imposing o' sensible men. 
 
 Then sec a collection of rubbish an' kelder, 
 
 Auld things 'at he tell't us the Brittans yance meayde ; 
 
 Bits o' spears, meayde o' flint, broken millstones and trinkums, 
 Sec a cargo o' kelder, a decent ship-leayde. 
 
 Gang when you would, between sunrise an' setting, 
 You'd find him in't garden, or else in his den, 
 
 Where he spent aw his time wi' his mell an' his chisel, 
 His paint-brush an' canvas or scetch-book an' pen.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 215 
 
 He wad travel ten mile, wi' a sketch-bewke in nap-sack, 
 To draw some auld shield 'at he might wish to see ; 
 
 An' than fra the dots, cross lines, an' the shap on't, 
 He wad spin oot a yarn of their lang pedigree ; 
 
 An' tell who's it was, whether duke, lord, or baron, 
 An' how they behaved when they went a crusade ; 
 
 Or, if 'twas a she 'at the shield had belanged tul, 
 He could tell ye at yance if sh'd deed an auld maid. 
 
 He'd creatures of aw macks stuck up in his garden, 
 
 Fra a Hippotamus to Whittington's cat ; 
 Lions, dogs, deevils, wild boars, an' teayme eagles, 
 
 Beats Wombwell's Managery hollow an' flat. 
 
 There's Addison, Caesar, St. George, an' Hugh Miller, 
 Poet Burns, an' lots mair, I forgitten their neayms ; 
 
 An' busts o' girt men fra aw parts o' the world, 
 
 An' some in the meun, I dare say, hed their heayms. 
 
 In the cauld days o' winter he set on a fire 
 
 In a grate like a helmet, stuck in a w'hole ; 
 A shield for his shovel, a sword for his poker, 
 
 And an Indian tomahawk split the girt-cwoal. 
 
 He pay'd equal respect to a bewk-larn'd beggar, 
 
 A hawker, a squire, a duke, or a lord ; 
 If they talk'd about science or tell't a good stowry 
 
 He grappled it aw, without missing a word.
 
 216 NOTES OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 
 
 Tho' a wreck of the former, 'tis still interesting, 
 An' the owner will give you admission quite free ; 
 
 Sea, if you be strangers, don't fear you'll be welcome, 
 If you come up to Reagill, the Garden to see.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 IN this county real property, for the most part, 
 consists of customary freeholds of inheritance, 
 held according to the custom of the manor, the 
 tenant having a freehold interest, but not a freehold 
 tenure. It is conveyed by sale and admittance. There 
 are various statutes for voluntary enfranchisement of 
 land, and affecting the rights of widows to the inheri- 
 tance in land in case of the husband dying intestate. 
 In parts of the East and West Wards the widow has 
 half, in others a third of her husband's customary 
 estate ; but there is always an heir-at-law, and no 
 heriots are claimed. Heriots are claimed in some 
 places where the widow has a life interest in land. 
 The word is from the Saxon hereward," here," an army 
 yat or gate; "ward," a march or expedition. In some 
 places parcel heriots are claimed, especially on the 
 borders between England and Scotland, for every
 
 2i8 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 parcel of land acquired to the original estate. Thus we 
 see an evident injustice to claim for work ceased to be 
 done, as Border raids and warfare are things of the 
 past ; therefore the lords of the manor are not under 
 obligation to serve as guardians of the peace. In 
 Queen Elizabeth's Survey, in the i6th year of her 
 reign, of the Richmond Fee, Kendal Barony, " on 
 the death of the tenant the lord is to have the best 
 beast the tenant died seized of, in the name of the 
 heriot." In the reign of King James I. this was 
 confirmed. Upon the death of a tenant, leaving a 
 widow behind him, an heriot shall be paid, for which 
 she is to enjoy her husband's customary estates, 
 during her widowhood only. Dr. Burn says in all 
 antiquity we have not met with more than one heriot 
 paid by one person. On the contrary, the second 
 best horse was due to the Church, and was carried 
 by the name of mortuary or corse (corpse) present, 
 being carried before the corps (corpse) and delivered 
 to the priest at the place of sepulture. 
 
 Besides rent, fines, heriots, suit of court, and the like 
 dependencies, there were likewise boons, which vary 
 in several manors as to pay : a farm hen or capon, 
 to plough, harrow, mow, reap, carry coals, to repair
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 219 
 
 well the lord's mill-race, and such like. But to 
 prevent endless altercations, fines, boons, and 
 presents have been reduced to money payments 
 and fixed rents, and in others the estate is enfran- 
 chised. 
 
 It appears that in the manor of Ravenstonedale 
 the widow has the peculiar privileges of possession 
 previously alluded to. All lands at the Conquest 
 were said to be held of the king, who gave to 
 629 Norman knights, at the Roll of Battle Abbey, 
 all lands in England, after despoiling the Saxon 
 owners, many of whom were reduced to slaver}'. 
 The grievances instituted then as military service 
 continued to the time of Charles II., when all 
 tenures of honours, manors, lands, &c., were turned 
 into free and common soccage. The latter term, 
 which was used to denote leasehold, was land held 
 by the ceorl (whence our word churl), who was a 
 countryman or artizan, and who was a freeman. 
 They were called sockmen, literally ploughmen ; the 
 soc, ploughshare; and their lands, socklands. Some 
 lands in the neighbourhood of Warcop are so desig- 
 nated, but known now by the modernized term of 
 stockings, which, as sock is a form of stocking, is
 
 220 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 easily derivable. When a ceorl had acquired five 
 hides of land, a large house, courtyard, and bell to 
 call in his servants, he was promoted to the rank of 
 thane of the lowest class, similar to the barons or 
 earls of modern times. 
 
 The ancient tenure of land in this country was by 
 homage, fealty, and cornage. The latter was knights' 
 service, and included wardship, marriage, and relief. 
 Homage, from the Latin homo, a man. By it a man 
 was bound to be faithful to his lord, even at the risk 
 of life and freedom. Fealty was almost the same 
 thing, but he was a free tenant, and although giving 
 assistance as in time of war, he was not obliged to 
 kneel. It is taken from the Latin fidelitas, fidelity. 
 Cornage was peculiar to the Border service against 
 the Scots, and hornegeld and noutegeld, or noltgeld, 
 were synonymous terms. They were annual pay- 
 ments of horned cattle, and the contributions of live 
 stock was used to furnish food for the Border castles, 
 for we find in the reign of Henry II. that under the 
 Anglo-Saxon term of noutegeld is signified a cow- 
 tax. Scutage, Latin scuta, a shield, whereby pay- 
 ment of a tax was levied instead of personal service 
 against the Scots, when garrisons and troops were
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 221 
 
 maintained by the Border lords and landed pro- 
 prietors as safeguards against the frequent Border 
 inroads. These taxes, as arbitrary fines, quittance, 
 lord's-rent, and other matters, are now levied by the 
 respective lord of each manor, the tenants having at 
 the same time to contribute their quota to imperial 
 taxation. This is freedom of owners of the soil with 
 a vengeance ! 
 
 One of the species of tenure in Westmoreland is 
 
 copyhold, which had its origin in the days of serf- 
 dom, when there were belonging to each manor a 
 number of families in the vilest servitude, who per- 
 formed the meanest services, and were held by the 
 lord of the manor as part of his goods and chattels. 
 They could not be transferred to any other master, 
 but might be enfranchised by a deed of manumission 
 (same as the serfs lately freed in Russia). For the 
 support of these families small plots of land, part of 
 which the villeins, as they were called, or vassals, 
 not unfrequently added to their small patches from 
 the unenclosed common, and thus increased their 
 holdings. As the children were born to the same 
 state as their parents, these small farms descended 
 from father to son, until, in time, they obtained a
 
 222 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 prescriptive right at common law, and by the con- 
 stant and immemorial usage of the manor; but as 
 tenants they had nothing to show for these estates 
 but these customs (until they, when money became 
 more plentiful, changed hands by deed), and the 
 admissions, in pursuance of them, entered on the 
 rolls of the Lords' Court, or the copies of such wit- 
 nessed by the steward. They were called tenants by 
 copy of Court Roll, and their tenure copyhold. 
 
 Many tenants on copyholds, i.e., lands held from 
 the superior lord, by admittance at the Lords' Court, 
 on which is a fine at the death of the lord, and alien- 
 ation of the tenant-owner, amounting in some in- 
 stances to a year's, and sometimes more, value of 
 the crops on the estate, which is a hindrance 
 to the proper cultivation of the farm, and gives no 
 encouragement as to draining, cropping, &c., because 
 every improvement made by the tenant-owner only 
 increases his liabilities, and renders his ownership 
 both irksome and precarious; in fact, if he purchases 
 an estate in copyhold, he has only, as it were, the 
 good-will of the profits, although he can demise the 
 estate, subject to the fines and exactions set forth 
 and imposed by custom by the Lords' Court on
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 223 
 
 admittance ; and, if he refuses, the land can be 
 forfeited to the lord of the manor. Surely this is a 
 remnant of feudalism which ought not to exist in a 
 country like this, where military service is imperial 
 and substantive taxes are paid by all alike. It is 
 true that a so-called tenant can be enfranchised, but 
 it is an expensive, and frequently an intricate pro- 
 cess, from the state of the law, with the reservations, 
 and the composition for the fees of the steward 
 because he loses his profits by enfranchisement of 
 the manor. On the principle of commutation the 
 purchase money should be calculated on a capital 
 sum, with a full discharge of feudal privileges, which 
 ought to render enfranchisement compulsory on every 
 change of tenant. 
 
 In looking over this part of the country and ex- 
 amining into the present value of land, it is some- 
 what surprising how it has increased in value during 
 the last thirty or forty years, in comparison to what 
 it was before that period, when the best land was 
 worth from 35 to 40 per acre, and is now worth 
 about three times that sum ; in fact, plots of forty 
 acres that were worth between 300 and 400, less 
 than fifty years ago, have been sold, without any
 
 224 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 material alteration of the buildings thereon, for six 
 times its value, say in 1828 and 1868 respectively. 
 
 Some 150 years ago money was left to various 
 livings in Westmoreland. Owing to the cheapness 
 of land in the parish of Orton, and free tenure, large 
 plots in this neighbourhood were secured in this 
 way, which are now held by the incumbents of the 
 livings for the time being of Brough, Stainmoor, Great 
 Musgrave, and Bolton ; and other estates, for the 
 benefit of schools, were formerly purchased in Orton 
 parish, such as those of Measand, Crosby Ravens- 
 worth, &c. The land itself, in some instances, is in 
 tolerable cultivation ; in others, water-logged and 
 unimproved, giving an illustration that land under 
 such proprietorship is not always advantageous to 
 swell the production and enhance the value of these 
 investments to the community, or even to the incum- 
 bents of livings, or for school purposes. 
 
 If a similar state of things hold good to such an 
 extent in other parishes in England, it may be a 
 matter of consideration in the land legislation of the 
 future whether such tenure is of advantage to the 
 nation at large, or otherwise. Tenants of glebes, at 
 least, have no encouragement held out to them by
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 225 
 
 such landlords, and any claim they may make for 
 unexhausted improvements, I should imagine, is 
 effectually barred by contract. It is also quite likely 
 that these landlords would not object to a compul- 
 sory sale by Act of Parliament, and a reinvestment 
 in public funds, which would undoubtedly increase 
 their income, and give them less cause for uneasi- 
 ness by not having constantly before their eyes the 
 claim to be paid by their successors for dilapida- 
 tions. The estate most assuredly will be assessed at 
 their demise, in every instance. 
 
 The land tenure in Westmoreland is as unsatisfac- 
 tory in some parts as it is unimpeachable in others ; 
 but there is no instance, probably, in which it is 
 more desirable than in those glebes where the land 
 is at a distance from the parsonage, and not immedi- 
 ately occupied by the incumbent. 
 
 A short notice may here be given to the measure- 
 ments in vogue at different times and places. The 
 English standard of 1,760 yards to a mile is not, 
 according to Dr. Burn, the customary measure of 
 this country, which is often the proportion of two 
 computed miles to three measured ones. It has no 
 reference to the Roman mile. Theirs was some- 
 
 16
 
 226 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 thing short of the statute measure, according to Mr. 
 Horsley, of about thirteen to fourteen. He further 
 observes, that in most parts of England thirteen 
 computed miles make fourteen in the Itinerary 
 (that is, Roman miles). Near Wales, in the western 
 as well as the northern parts of England, two English 
 computed miles make three Roman. It is nearly the 
 same in Scotland, and in some cross roads. It is a 
 common saying in Scotland, in reply to a question of 
 distance, to say so many miles and a "bittock," the 
 bittock being a dree bit to get over. 'Occasionally, 
 about London, and twenty miles around, the miles 
 are nearly equal, or not more than in proportion of 
 one or two in twenty different (" Horsley," pp. 382 
 and 383). There is also in Westmoreland and 
 Cumberland a mensuration of acres called custo- 
 mary, being 6,760 square yards to the acre, whereas 
 the statute measure is 4,840 square yards, the former 
 being the measure of the Irish plantation acre 
 (Smith's " County Down," p. 7), as if, the land 
 being bad, they give good measure. This probably 
 applies in many instances to the fells in our district, 
 as the mountain ranges are called about here. We 
 speak of fells in the north, and each mountain is
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 227 
 
 designated by the name of fell. Thus we have 
 Roman Fell, at the foot of which is the Roman 
 road leading from Bowes to Kirkby Thore ; Ash 
 Fell, south of Kirkby Stephen ; Shap Fell, Cross 
 Fell, and many others. We speak of a fell tempest 
 the same as a fell tyrant, and possibly the word is 
 derived in the first instance from the boisterous and 
 tempestuous weather met on those mountains, desig- 
 nated fells, in this country (vide Burn's " History," 
 p. 3). The same author, on the derivation of the word 
 "Able," "Avel," &c., as applied to Appleby, speaking 
 of the word " Apple " as the word likely to be right, 
 in preference to "Aballaba," the Roman station, says 
 that the word devil, in the same way, is drawn from 
 " doer of evil." Many places are well named, if the 
 origin of the name could be traced. We speak of 
 the " hause " near Orton, Greyrigg Hause, and other 
 places of similar name. The word " hause," according 
 to Dr. Burn, may be derived from Haustiis, Latin for 
 draught, a term in medicine. Places so denominated 
 lead up to high hills, and are, strictly speaking, the 
 gullies or throats to attain the place or more ex- 
 panded substance of the great body of land beyond. 
 The proprietors of the lands under the feudal
 
 228 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 system provided for the poor, and in the system of 
 tithes it was ordained, when Christianity was in- 
 troduced into this country, that a tenth part of the 
 produce of the land was to go to the Church, one 
 fourth of which tithe was appropriated to the in- 
 digent. This was the state of things when Henry the 
 Eighth suppressed the monasteries, and confiscated 
 their property. These monasteries were not only 
 the seats of learning, but were asylums for the 
 destitute and unfortunate, the decayed, or super- 
 annuated servant, the cripple, the widow, and found- 
 ling ; but they were also the almoners of the poor ; 
 they served as inns for the wayfaring man, who 
 heard the vesper bell from afar, inviting him to repose 
 and devotion in the morning he could go on his 
 way rejoicing. By the act of Henry the Eighth, the 
 poor were left in such indigence, that his daughter 
 Elizabeth was led by their dreadful sufferings to 
 impose a poor's-rate on all occupiers of land, houses, 
 and other property. The new Poor Law was passed 
 in 1834. This act has had the effect of increasing in 
 a great measure the self-dependence of the lower 
 classes; for while they detest the workhouse, the 
 pittance of relief is so small that no person can be
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 229 
 
 induced to live in idleness upon it. The state of 
 trade on the other hand, has been so benefited by 
 the repeal of the Corn Laws, and an impetus given 
 to the general industry of the country by removing 
 other restrictions to trade, that the latter has 
 advanced in recent times to such extent, that wages 
 are more than quadrupled since the passing of the 
 Poor Law act ; while the spirit of independence has 
 been largely developed by the spread of universal 
 knowledge, from cheap literature, and the various 
 enactments, by shortening the hours of labour, and 
 giving protection to life in mines and factories, as 
 well as by the safeguards to the working classes, 
 which they themselves have originated against 
 want and sickness, by the organization of benefit and 
 kindred societies ; while the spread of education, by 
 salutary enactments, has given an impetus to attain- 
 ing a standard of religious and moral sentiment, not 
 before capable of being realized by the working popu- 
 lation of this country. 
 
 The natives of Westmoreland have great privileges 
 in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The 
 fellowships and valuable livings of the old founda- 
 tions of Queen's College, Oxford, are exclusively
 
 230 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 appropriated to the natives of Westmoreland and 
 Cumberland. In the same College there are valu- 
 able exhibitions by the Lady Elizabeth Hastings to 
 youths from Appleby and Heversham Schools. The 
 value of the capital and property of the various 
 charities in this county, may be estimated at 
 130,000, producing about 5,600 per annum. 
 
 " Westmoreland was one of the two counties in 
 England which furnished an hereditary sheriff, but 
 on the death of the last Earl of Thanet, without 
 direct issue, the office fell into abeyance, and the 
 sheriffs are now elected as in other counties, from 
 the magistrates. The shrievalty of Westmoreland 
 was held by the Countess of Pembroke, the 
 descendant of the Cliffords, and the ancestor of the 
 last Earl of Thanet. She sat on the bench, and 
 entertained the judges, and in other respects sus- 
 tained the office with great dignity. She was a 
 woman of great spirit and enlightenment, and 
 memories of her generosity and benevolence exist 
 in many parts of the county. In the ancient church 
 of Appleby, restored recently, is to be seen the coat 
 of arms and monument to perpetuate her memory. 
 And the castle at the top of the hill, occupied by
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 231 
 
 Lord Hothfield, contains interesting mementoes of 
 the times in which she lived." l 
 
 Domesday Book is the record of the value and 
 kind of property, which William the Conqueror, 
 in 1086, being the twentieth year of his reign, 
 ordered to be compiled within six months from 
 every county or shire in England, except the four 
 northern counties Northumberland, Cumberland, 
 Durham, Westmoreland ; these latter counties had 
 incurred the displeasure of the Conqueror. Fifteen 
 years before, the citizens of York and Durham 
 massacred the Norman garrison, and in retaliation 
 William ordered the country, from the H umber to 
 the Tyne, to be devastated by fire and sword. The 
 order was executed, and for half a century after the 
 land was waste and uncultivated. The desert so 
 made was considered worthless left to turmoil, 
 without law, and without care from its conquerors, 
 so that they thought it unworthy of notice. The 
 Domesday Book was compiled by the aid of the 
 sheriffs, lords of manors, presbyters of churches, the 
 reeves (or overseers), the bailiffs, and six villeins 
 
 1 Vide Hodgson's " History of Cumberland and Westmore- 
 land."
 
 232 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 out of every village or hundred ; who held a court, 
 presided over by monks and priests, as being then 
 the only people who could read and write, which 
 they did in Latin. They had to find out who held 
 so many hides of land, as was held in the time of 
 Edward the Confessor, and who held it now, i.e., in 
 1086 ; how many carucates (or plough-gates) there 
 were in demesne preserved, or in the lord's own 
 hand; how many vassals, how many villeins, 
 cottars, serfs, freemen, tenants in socage (hereditary 
 right) ; how much wood, meadow, pasture land, 
 mills, fish-ponds; the gross value in Edward the 
 Confessor's time and now. This Survey was com- 
 pleted in five months ; the Book or transcripts 
 from it were lodged in the Chapter House of West- 
 minster, and is now in the Record Office, bound and 
 preserved, being written on vellum, or calf-skin, to this 
 day. Its name is supposed to have been taken from 
 Domus Dei, being preserved in the House of God. 
 The hides of land referred to are supposed to mean 
 a hundred and twenty acres, or as much as could be 
 ploughed and managed by a team of oxen. This is 
 now the popular belief. There is no name attached 
 to the Domesday Book. Some copies, supposed to
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 233 
 
 be the originals from which the book was compiled, 
 have been evidently kept in the counties, from which 
 the transcripts in the Book were made. The Domes- 
 day Book is in two volumes, easily legible, but con- 
 tracted in its description. It is, however, the basis 
 of what has ever since been of history as regards 
 the Government and Justice of the kingdom, as 
 regards land and hereditary right. The first volume 
 is of 382 pages ; the second volume of 450, of larger 
 written characters, and deals with Essex, Suffolk, 
 and Norfolk only. In them, however, we get a con- 
 cise account of the history of the times, as regards 
 barons, thanes, freemen and freewomen, socmen 
 or freeholders, villeins or churls, serfs or theows 
 their means of existence, their culture of the land, 
 fisheries, mining, salt-making, and the enormous 
 power of the Church in those days. 
 
 Westmoreland, although a small county, contain- 
 ing, according to the census of 1881, about 63,000 
 inhabitants, is almost entirely cut in two by the 
 Cumberland range of mountains, of which High 
 Street, near Mardale, on the one side, and Staveley 
 on the other, is about the centre. This range on 
 the north, terminates just beyond Kirkstone Pass
 
 234 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 the only route from the westward via Patterdale ; 
 from Ullswater to Windermere, via Ambleside. On 
 the south, the high range of Shap Fells, continuing 
 from Mardale to Jeffrey Mount, south of Tebay, con- 
 stitute a natural division or barrier between the 
 two halves of the county, the more populous of the 
 two being that in which the disenfranchised borough 
 of Kendal is situate, which, together with Lonsdale 
 Ward, constitutes the Kendal Union. On the west 
 of the county, in the other, or what is now called 
 the Appleby division, are the East and West Wards. 
 To make up the difference in population, so as to 
 equalize it better for political purposes, the Ambleside 
 and Windermere polling district commences at the 
 township of Under Mill Beck, and including it, is 
 added to the Appleby division, the only route being by 
 Kirkstone Pass out of the West Ward, or by rail via 
 Kendal. There was, however, no other alternative 
 but to add to the Appleby division the Lake district 
 of Westmoreland, to give equality of population, and 
 even then the Kendal Ward or division has about 1500 
 more within its borders, Appleby being the old county 
 town. Before the Reform Act of 1832, it sent two 
 members to Parliament, the most renowned of whom
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 235 
 
 was the celebrated William Pitt, who became Prime 
 Minister soon after his election, his political oppo- 
 nent being the celebrated Fox. Appleby has been 
 deprived of its gaol, although Quarter Sessions and 
 Assizes are still held in the ancient Court Houses, 
 the former for county business only, and thence by 
 adjournment to Kendal, where the prisoners are tried; 
 and the gaol at Kendal once an House of Correc- 
 tion only is now the only prison in the county. The 
 inhabitants are mostly engaged in agriculture in the 
 East and West Wards, chiefly in rearing and grazing 
 cattle, and in the production of butter, for which the 
 district is famous. There were at one time tanneries 
 at Kirkby Stephen and Temple Sowerby, as well as 
 a woollen mill at the former place ; and now a small 
 business is done at Coupland Beck, in the manufac- 
 ture of coarse and other woollen goods. The lead 
 mines of Dufton used to give employment to a good 
 many people, but these, as well as a small mine in 
 Mallerstang, are not now worked ; and with the ex- 
 ception of the granite works on Shap Fell, the slate 
 quarries of Langdale, and a small mine in Patter- 
 dale, agriculture is now the sole employment of the 
 inhabitants.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 IN Westmoreland, the Quakers, from the very 
 beginning of the movement, were strong both in 
 numbers and in zeal. The spirituality of the system 
 seemed to have a special charm for the dwellers in 
 these northern dales, which only received a new zest 
 from a persecution that insulted their independence. 
 Religion with them was something more than in- 
 tellectual eclecticism ; it was a power that mastered 
 their whole being, and even manifested itself in the 
 physical symptoms, from which their name was 
 derived. The colony in the Kendal district was the 
 most numerous; but in Ravenstonedale, too, there 
 was a far from contemptible band, and if it lacked 
 something in numbers, it by no means fell short in 
 the fervour or persistency of its attachment to the 
 common cause. 
 
 The first powerful awakening that the North
 
 NOTES OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 237 
 
 received, was from the lips of George Fox. He was 
 attracted to the Yorkshire border of Westmoreland 
 by the gathering at Sedbergh for the servant-hiring 
 fair, and spent no inconsiderable portion of the year 
 1652 within the county. With that visit are con- 
 nected many conversions, pregnant with results in 
 the near future. Edward Burrough, "the son of 
 thunder," who was to be snatched away before his 
 prime ; John Audland, so amiable and so comely ; 
 John Camm of Camsgil, who gave up all his pros- 
 pects, " man of wealth " though he was, " and rising 
 rapidly in the world ; " Miles Halhead ; Richard 
 Hubberthorne ; Francis Howgill, the clergyman 
 who gained for Fox a fair hearing in that first scene ; 
 with many another of the earlier missionaries, 
 yielded to the spell of religious zeal at that time. 
 
 In the following year, Fox returned to the North, 
 and, after speaking a few words of encouragement 
 to the Friends of Westmoreland, passed on towards 
 Carlisle. But the spirit of persecution was abroad, 
 and, after claiming a few victims in the sister- 
 county, was soon to cross the border, and glut itself 
 with imprisonment and death in Appleby and Kendal 
 gaols. At Carlisle, Fox was flung into prison " as
 
 238 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 a blasphemer, a heretic, and a seducer ; " and so 
 venemous was the antipathy to his views, that even 
 the high sheriff, " Wilfrey Lawson," as Fox calls 
 him, forgetting the impartiality due to his office, 
 "stirred them much up to take away my life, and 
 said he would guard me to my execution himself." 
 Not even acquittal by the court could satisfy the 
 sheriffs thirst for blood ; and with brutal malignity 
 he bade a gaoler detain in custody men who had 
 been declared guiltless, until they should " pay their 
 fees or rot." 
 
 Fox's departure was closely followed by the arrival 
 of Naylor, who, on being driven out of Kendal by a 
 turbulent mob, found head-quarters for a time at 
 Orton. But the clergy incited the people to 
 violence ; a son of one of the clergymen led them 
 on ; Naylor's house was stormed, and he himself 
 seized by the throat, dragged into a field before a 
 justice of the peace, and after summary and tumult- 
 uous proceedings, sent to prison to await his trial. 
 For twenty weeks he was immured in the foetid cells 
 of Appleby Gaol, and then thanks to the clement 
 and conciliatory spirit of Mr. Pearson a magistrate 
 who was afterwards induced to join the Quaker
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 239 
 
 fraternity he was acquitted of the charge of 
 blasphemy, and set free. 
 
 Such, however, was not the attitude of the 
 majority of the magistrates. In 1660 the chronicler 
 records how eight heads of families " were all taken 
 from their own houses by order from Captain John 
 Lowther . . . and committed to prison," because 
 conscience forbade them, in avowing their loyalty, 
 to take an oath. Sir Daniel Flemming, too, of 
 Rydal Hall, James Duckett of Grayrigg, and Sir 
 Philip Musgrave, joined heartily in the persecution. 
 Flemming was the deviser of subtle snares to entrap 
 the Quakers into the meshes of the law ; and so 
 thorough was the detestation in which he was 
 held, that Musgrave acknowledged, when attempting 
 to bias the Judge of Assize, " some of the Quakers 
 being sent to prison, one of them died there ; and 
 they carried his corpse through the country, and set 
 this paper on the coffin : ' This is the body of such 
 an one, who was persecuted by Daniel Flemming to 
 death." " Duckett was a bitter, uncompromising, and 
 mean-spirited foe ; Lowther a rigid exactor of the 
 last farthing that the law allowed ; and Musgrave 
 " a violent man . . . who endeavoured to incense
 
 240 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 the judges," and whose bitter jests sank deep into 
 the Quakers' hearts. 
 
 If such was the tone of the justices even in the 
 presence of the judges, if even the dispassionate 
 calmness of Judge Turner had no power to shame 
 them into a dignified demeanour, it is easy to under- 
 stand their virulence when unrestrained. Quakers 
 throughout the county fell under their persecuting 
 scourge ; and amongst many victims, Orton and 
 Ravenstonedale furnished not a few. 
 
 "John Dickinson of Grayrigg was several times 
 imprisoned and put to more than 10 charge for not 
 paying tithes." The names Atkinson and Barwick, 
 Moser and Ayrey, appear time after time in the 
 records of the court. " From Anthony Bownass of 
 Shap, for fines of 2 155. for himself and others, 
 they took two kine, one steer and a little heifer, 
 worth about j" Thomas Atkinson of Orton had 
 to forfeit some of his goods and lands. Clarkson, 
 Pindar, and Robinson, all of Ravenstonedale, lost 
 goods worth 4 12s., and lands of the yearly value 
 of -2. John Holme and John Fawcett of Orton 
 were also fined. Thomas Moore of Newbiggin paid 
 heavily for his presence at a conventicle. And
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 241 
 
 altogether over 150 persons were prosecuted under 
 ancient laws, and many more for refusal to pay 
 tithes towards a church in which they had no 
 communion. 
 
 Passing on some few years, we find Thomas Scott 
 of Newbiggin an earnest preacher in the Quaker 
 cause ; whilst John and Alice Alderson of Raven- 
 stonedale seem to have been gifted with greater 
 energy than the rest ; both were active ministers, 
 and Alice journeyed through Scotland and Ireland, 
 and even so far as America, to advocate the prin- 
 ciples of her sect. 
 
 But head and shoulders above all these, alike from 
 the variety of his sufferings, the length of his days, 
 and the influence that he wielded through life, 
 stands that hero of Westmoreland Quakers, George 
 Whitehead. Born in the parish of Orton about the 
 year 1635, he was, in the words of the historian, 
 "trained up to learning, and though but a youth, 
 instructed others in literature, and continued in that 
 calling some time after he came to be convinced of 
 the Truth." The serious bent of his mind showed 
 itself from the very first. He loved retirement, he 
 tells us, " with some other studious scholars, though 
 
 17
 
 242 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 but mean and poor in the world, rather than the 
 company of loose, extravagant boys, though of the 
 gentry or richer sort, who were given to much play." 
 His parents resided at Sunbiggin, and their ances- 
 tors had lived there for centuries. Two other 
 branches of the family were located at Kelleth and 
 Raisbeck. He was sent to school at Blencoe in 
 Cumberland, at that time the leading school of the 
 north. He was marked out by his parents for a 
 university career, and ultimately the Church. But 
 whatever the ambitious hopes of his parents, a con- 
 science morbidly sensitive barred the way. He noted 
 the contrast between priestly professions and priestly 
 lives ; he even scrupled to give utterance in church 
 to the self-confident outbursts of the Psalmist ; and 
 about the age of seventeen he openly joined the 
 despised body whose champion and leader destiny 
 intended him to be. 
 
 For upwards of two years he tortured himself with 
 doubt ; " vain thoughts, imaginations, and wander- 
 ings of mind became a suffering and a burthen " to 
 him ; but as he thought of God's mercy, " the sense 
 hereof did soften, break, and tender " his heart ; and 
 then " a weighty concern came upon " him " to
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 243 
 
 leave his father's house and county of Westmore- 
 land." The breach with his parents seems to have 
 been a great grief to him ; but it had to be faced. 
 " Yet my parents and relations had great natural 
 affection and care in their way for me; for when 
 they appeared most opposite and offended (which 
 was a near trial to me) . . . their trouble and grief 
 came more from their priest's influencing them . . . 
 and fear of my misfortune or losing preferment in 
 the world, than either from any prejudice against me 
 or my religious persuasion." 
 
 He travelled southwards on his missionary tour, 
 and made for the district of the thriving manufac- 
 tures in the Eastern Counties. There his sufferings 
 at once began ; and even if by leaving his home he 
 escaped from the domineering of a Lowther, the 
 sinister malignity of a Flemming, or the vindictive 
 petulance of a Musgrave, it was only to encounter 
 persecution similar to theirs from the intolerant 
 magnates of the South. Time after time he was 
 flung into prison by men who were judges and 
 prosecuting counsel in one ; any plea sufficed 
 blasphemy, or absence of visible means of subsis- 
 tence ; even refusal to remove his hat in court a
 
 244 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 liberty which the king himself permitted was 
 twisted into contempt. Unmerciful lashings, until 
 the very people sickened and cried out " Hold " ; 
 insults and buffetings ; violence, and even threats of 
 branding ; such formed the administration of the 
 law ; and all this, although, as the chronicle tells, 
 " people admired to see a young man so well habited 
 and on so good a horse, passed as a vagrant." 
 
 For three years he endured such a life, and then r 
 on his return to the North, was received as a prodigal 
 son, with " great joy and kindness " by his parents. 
 His mother and a sister became converts, and his 
 father always observed a benevolent neutrality to the 
 Quaker views. Much of his time was spent in 
 visiting friends ; he rode over to Margaret Fells at 
 Swarthmore ; he often preached at Pardshaw Crag, 
 and to judge from his words in later life, the memory 
 of the country was often a solace to him in the 
 hour of trial. " Although," he says, in telling his. 
 own story, " we were confined to a noisome common 
 ward and strait stinking yard, yet the Lord by His 
 power so sanctified the confinement to me, that I 
 had great peace, comfort, and sweet solace, and was 
 sometimes transported and wrapt up in spirit, as if
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 245 
 
 in a pleasant field, having the fragrant scent and 
 sweet smell of flowers and things growing therein, 
 though I was not in an ecstasy or trance, my senses 
 being affected therewith ; so that the Lord made 
 bitter things sweet unto me, and hardships easy." 
 
 But much as he loved his northern home, duty 
 called him away ; for beneath his kindly nature lay 
 a stern inflexibility of conscientious resolve. He 
 returned again to the advanced and populous dis- 
 tricts of England, and engaged once more in his 
 busy, practical pursuits. 
 
 The severity of his life, the simplicity of his garb, 
 his frugal table, his innocent frankness, his tender- 
 ness to little children, his kindness to the sick, and 
 the vigour and earnestness that glowed through his 
 every word, won for him the love and admiration of 
 all who knew him well. But it required other 
 qualities than these to gain for him so rapidly the 
 predominance that he now acquired. At the age of 
 twenty-four we already find him the spokesman of 
 his sect before Parliament and in Committee, and 
 pleading against the folly and iniquity of the 
 Clarendon code. It was his imperturbable temper ; 
 his readiness in repartee ; his clear-headed logic,
 
 246 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 which was so patent in his public disputations with 
 professors at Cambridge and Westminster; his 
 accurate knowledge of the law; his intelligent 
 acquaintance with history and precedent ; and above 
 all his eloquence, that made him, while yet a mere 
 stripling, a leader among the Friends. Perhaps, 
 too, it was his dogged courage, his refusal to yield to 
 the coarse brutality of the gaolers, and his determi- 
 nation to endure the loathsome severities of a prison 
 life, jarring though they were to his sensitive nature, 
 that still further increased the respect in which he 
 was held. 
 
 A few months later, he was dragged roughly out 
 of the pestilential ward where his friends, Burrough 
 and Hubberthorne, had already fallen a prey to 
 disease and death, in order to meet a trumped-up 
 charge of complicity in the Kaber Rigg Plot. The 
 plot was of Westmoreland origin, he was a West- 
 moreland man; the pretext was obvious; and he 
 was hurried off to the Tower. However, nothing 
 of a tangible or even of a suspicious nature could 
 be proved ; so his life was spared, and he was 
 relegated once more to the felon's cell. 
 
 For twelve years the Quakers were exposed to
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 247 
 
 all the fury of a rampant church twelve years 
 thronging with events of importance to the Quaker 
 world. Whitehead himself came in for a full share 
 of imprisonment and fine. In the winter of 1654 he 
 had been imprisoned at Norwich, and, in com- 
 pany with other Quakers, had lodged " upon the 
 bare boards on the floor in his wearing clothes, and 
 little covering besides ; and there they lodged fo* 
 eight weeks together in the cold winter." In the 
 next year, he had been at -Bury St. Edmunds, where 
 the gaoler, the turnkey, and the prisoners, had all 
 combined in maltreating them. The gaoler was a 
 Presbyterian preacher, and therefore felt it his duty 
 to repress the Quakers, whilst their protests against 
 the drunkenness, which he encouraged amongst the 
 prisoners for his private gain being a tapster by 
 trade still further increased his religious enthu- 
 siasm. He allowed the prisoners to kick and strike 
 the Quakers, and when the violence of one of them 
 seemed likely to lead to murder, in the man's hearing 
 he said, " Let him do what he will." " Thus," says 
 George Whitehead, " we were daily abused, beaten 
 on the face and noses, pulled and bruised, till the 
 blood has gushed out, kicked and threatened to be
 
 248 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 killed." In 1656 he was in the stocks at Saffron 
 Walden, and flogged at Nayland. In 1658, after 
 his return from the North, he was imprisoned at 
 Ipswich until the Protector's death. Though po- 
 litical difficulties in the following two years saved 
 him from imprisonment, the populace at Peter- 
 borough and other towns placed his life in imminent 
 peril. During the next twelve years the same brutal 
 persecution went on. In 1661 he was again an 
 inmate of Norwich Castle. He speaks of it as " a 
 very incommodious habitation and lodging room, for 
 want of a chimney, and having an old, decayed 
 stone arch over it. The rain came so much in upon 
 us, that we could not keep it off our beds, though we 
 set dishes or basins to keep off what we could. In 
 the cold of winter we burnt a little charcoal in 
 evenings, which we found somewhat injurious and 
 suffocating, having no chimney to vent the smoke or 
 steam thereof. . . . Though the recess, or hole in 
 the wall, was so poor and incommodious as it was, 
 we chose it for our lodging, partly for the ease of our 
 other friends, who were too much crowded in a 
 better room below." 
 
 In 1662, during one of his imprisonments in
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 249 
 
 Newgate, he displayed his accustomed magnanimity, 
 and it was no doubt the spirit that prompted his 
 action then, that won the affection of his fellow- 
 sufferers throughout his life. " So many of us," he 
 says in his " Christian Progress," " were crowded 
 together, both in that called the Justice Hall side 
 and in the Chapel side of the prison, that we were 
 hard put to it for lodging room. The Chapel was 
 on the top of Newgate, where many Friends lay in 
 hammocks crowded ; and Richard Hubberthorne and 
 I lay on a small pallet-bed, in a little hole or closet 
 behind the chapel, and opening into it, so as the 
 breath and steam of those that lay next us (in the 
 chapel) came much upon us. We chose to lodge on the 
 chapel side, for the encouragement of many of the poorer 
 sort of friends who were there, and that they might 
 not be offended or troubled (as we thought they 
 might) if we had taken up our lodging among the 
 richer sort of our friends, on Justice Hall side." 
 
 Often during this period he was summoned before 
 Sir Richard Brown at the Old Bailey. On one 
 occasion he records how, as a Friend was speaking in 
 court, "the said Sir Richard Brown in derision, 
 began to sing ' Ha' you any kitchen-stuff, maids ?
 
 250 NOTES OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 
 
 Ha' you any kitchen-stuff, maids ? Hey, Wall-fleet 
 oysters, will you buy any Wall-fleet oysters ? Will 
 you buy any Wall-fleet oysters ? ' And he tuned it 
 out much like the women that cry kitchen-stuff and 
 Wall-fleet oysters up and down the streets of 
 London. I thought it a very strange indecent 
 behaviour for a Justice of Peace . . . ; but this 
 showed how, in this persecuting spirit, a principal 
 persecutor triumphed in his own iniquity and gloried 
 in his shame." 
 
 In 1664 " a company of soldiers, with muskets 
 and lighted matches in their hands, rushed into " a 
 meeting at Horsleydown, " and before they came 
 into the inner door, one of them fired a musket, and 
 two of them violently pulled George Whitehead 
 down, . . . and George Whitehead asking them to 
 show their warrant for what they did, a soldier held 
 up his musket over his head, and said that was his 
 warrant." For preaching at this meeting he was 
 imprisoned for three months.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Apropos of this, the record says that Whitehead 
 and others " were thrust in among -the felons, who . 
 searched their pockets and took away what money 
 they found from several of them, being therein 
 encouraged by the keeper. Besides, the ward itself 
 was such a nasty stinking hole, and so crowded with 
 felons and women that lay among them, that the 
 friends having nothing to sit or lie on, were obliged 
 when weary to sit down on the floor among the 
 vermin ... by the prisoners urine, in a place that 
 stank grievously." The gaolers thought nothing of 
 appropriating their food, and even some of their 
 clothes ; whilst the use of bodily violence, towards 
 men who never struck in return, was too general to 
 require particular record, and too secure to be 
 checked by fear. 
 
 In 1668 he again found himself in the same prison,
 
 252 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 though in better quarters and for a shorter term. 
 During the next year he was free from any judicial 
 interference with his work. But in 1670 one of 
 his meetings was again disturbed, and he himself 
 dragged before Sir Joseph Sheldon at the Guildhall. 
 All this exposure and maltreatment seriously 
 affected his health. Three times he was laid low 
 with ague and fever, and on two occasions his friends 
 gave up all hope. After one of these attacks he paid 
 a short visit to his home in the North, but on news 
 of the outbreak of the plague in London, felt im- 
 pelled to go there for the succour of the distressed. 
 Throughout that historic time, he laboured unre- 
 mittingly among the Friends ; it was he for whom 
 they all asked when the hour of death drew nigh, 
 and all seemed to look to him as their comforter and 
 guide. It might have been thought that national 
 panic would mitigate somewhat the ferocity of 
 persecution. But it was not so, and Whitehead, 
 when leaving home on Sunday morning, always took 
 his nightcap with him, in readiness for gaol ; or, if 
 there was a momentary pause, such hesitation on 
 behalf of " God and the king " was speedily 
 repaired.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 253 
 
 In 1670 he was thrice before the Magistrates of 
 London, being fined over 60 in all r a sum which at 
 that time would have purchased a herd of thirty kine. 
 On one occasion he showed his legal acumen to 
 remarkable effect, and, although it did not avail 
 him in the judgment, no impartial reader can fail to 
 award him a dialectical victory. In the same year 
 he married for the first time. His wife had been one 
 of the most beloved of all the women Friends ; she 
 was the first to speak at public gatherings, the most 
 constant and discriminating in her charity, and, 
 although somewhat older than George Whitehead 
 himself, proved the most suitable wife he could have 
 had. 
 
 But before this an event had occurred which was 
 of great significance for the growing society. In 
 1668, Penn, the future Governor of Pennsylvania, 
 joined them. He and Whitehead soon became inti- 
 mate friends, for there was much that was common 
 to their natures, and in six years we find them 
 publishing a folio, entitled " The Christian Quaker," 
 which they had jointly composed. This, however, 
 was not Whitehead's only work ; he was a prolific 
 writer, and his ever-active brain seemed to find
 
 254 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 repose from the whirl of ordinary life in the animated 
 controversies of a pamphleteer. Over one hundred 
 and thirty of his writings are extant, and their size 
 is as various as their subject matter. From folio to 
 octavo, and from octavo to the modest handbill, only 
 balanced the wide range from theological or legal 
 controversy to the ephemeral exhortation or rebuke. 
 Rogers composed his " Rhyming Scourge " with 
 which to lash this Churchman's foe ; whilst Bugg, 
 the most persistent of his opponents, wrote book 
 upon book. The intricacies of their argument have 
 little interest now, save to the antiquarian mind, nor 
 is there much literary satisfaction to be derived from 
 its perusal. The force and lucidity of Whitehead's 
 style found an opponent of unworthy calibre in a 
 man who could bring his book to a close with the 
 following indifferent lines : 
 
 " Come rouse, old George, and either quite condemn 
 Your errors great, or else the same defend." 
 
 The year 1672 is one of engrossing interest to 
 the historical student. Every schoolboy knows 
 (to use Macaulay's phrase) that then Charles II., by 
 his Declaration of Indulgence, began the subtle plot
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 255 
 
 against political liberty that was so nearly brought 
 to success. At that time over four hundred Quakers 
 were in prison on conscientious grounds, and, in 
 spite of the Declaration, it was a matter of some 
 difficulty to procure their release. Whitehead wrote 
 a letter to the King which he induced an influential 
 friend to deliver, and soon afterwards he was ad- 
 mitted to an audience in Council. He was accom- 
 panied by a friend, Thomas Moor, whose futile and 
 pig-headed obstinancy was nearly being the wreck of 
 the interview. Misunderstanding the distinction 
 between legal and moral offences, he declined a free 
 pardon for what he did not believe to be wrong, 
 .and had not Whitehead with politic tact come to 
 .the rescue, Moor would have been the ruin of their 
 cause. 
 
 But even when the order for release was obtained, 
 it was no light task to carry through the matter to 
 the end. Legal difficulties cropped up on every 
 .side. Finch, the Attorney-General, was only mode- 
 rately amenable, and, although Judge Hale with 
 kindly consideration proffered Whitehead every help, 
 it would have been a long time before his imprisoned 
 ..friends came out had it not been for his personal
 
 256 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 activity and exertion. He obtained a special order 
 from the King for a reduction of fees, and, although 
 that had raised the opposition of officials, he spurred 
 them on night and day. Then, having once got hold 
 of the bulky document, he himself went post haste 
 from sheriff to sheriff until all his friends were out 
 of gaol. 
 
 But within two years that Declaration had been 
 withdrawn. A parliament, that was loyal to its 
 Church before its King, could not brook a use of the 
 prerogative for such an object. For the rest of this 
 reign, therefore, persecution was resumed, and in 
 fact, by 1680 the number of prisoners had grown so 
 vast that Whitehead was once more moved to appeal 
 to the King. Yet, though the King's subtle charm 
 of manner and good-natured words seemed hopeful, 
 nothing was done. " We were sensible," he says, in 
 his autobiography, " that the King at that u time (as I 
 have known him at several others) was touched in 
 his conscience, and somewhat tenderly affected, 
 . . . but some persons about or near him were not 
 our friends and had too much influence upon him." 
 
 Hardly two months had elapsed before Whitehead 
 was himself in gaol. The scene was laid in Norwich,
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 257 
 
 and it was the occasion of perhaps the most magnifi- 
 cent of all his trials. The Recorder was intent upon 
 conviction, varied the proper procedure, and tried to 
 bully the prisoner into damaging confessions. But 
 it was of no avail ; Whitehead stood his ground 
 with resolute coolness, insisted time after time upon 
 his legal rights, and finally extorted from the borough 
 magistrates an acknowledgment that his demands 
 were right. The Recorder gained nothing in argu- 
 ment from a man who could quote extensively from 
 Dalton's text book and the Institutes of Coke, who 
 could compare statute with statute, and refer with 
 pertinent suggestiveness to cases in former reigns. 
 Confessing himself baffled, with the remark, " I per- 
 ceive that you are read," he yet persisted in his 
 arbitrary course. Certificates had been sent from 
 London to testify that the prisoner was " a man in 
 good repute, and esteemed a man of competent 
 estate." But, overriding both equity and the law, he 
 sent the prisoners to gaol. 
 
 From his cell, Whitehead penned some weighty 
 arguments for the perusal of the magistracy. A man 
 who can, while in prison and without the means of 
 reference, cite legal maxims, reproduce the very 
 
 18
 
 258 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 words of Magna Charta and the Petition of Right, 
 give extracts from eight legal text books, and quote 
 from or refer to about thirty statutes, is no mean 
 antagonist. He showed by admirable reasoning that 
 the procedure and the judgment were alike indefen- 
 sible. The Earl of Yarmouth and other gentlemen 
 of the district intervened on his behalf, but, although 
 the Recorder was removed, his sentence was carried 
 out. 
 
 Four times within the next three years Whitehead 
 renewed his personal solicitations to the King. On 
 one occasion, Charles, waiving the etiquette of Court, 
 permitted him to stand with covered head, and with 
 his usual penetration urged that the distinctive 
 customs of the Quakers were mere affectation, and 
 that, as for the use of "thee" and " thou," the occur- 
 rence of the words in the Bible was due rather to the 
 caprice of the translators than to any significance in 
 the words. At another time he was in the park at 
 Hampton Court when Whitehead came, and, with 
 the exception of allowing an usher to remove his 
 guest's hat and hang it upon the palings, was as 
 gracious as before. Yet the characteristic flippancy 
 of the remark, " Can't your friends swear themselves
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 259 
 
 out of prison ? " must have been rather shocking to a 
 rigid moralist. In their last interview the monarch's 
 pettish and impatient mood showed that his health 
 was breaking and his end was near. 
 
 With the accession of James II., Dissent in Eng- 
 land seemed to have a fresh chance. A man of 
 stronger character and more stubborn will than 
 Charles, it was he who had devised the plan of 1672, 
 and when, as king, he took up the broken thread, 
 one agent towards his acquisition of arbitrary power 
 was to be the support of grateful Dissenters. A 
 seemingly permanent toleration was to be the lure 
 that led to a sacrifice of political power. In the 
 guilelessness of his heart Whitehead was entrapped ; 
 he paid many visits to the palace, and was thoroughly 
 imposed on by the ingenuous manner of James. 
 Even so direct a reference as this : " You have a 
 right to election of Members of Parliament ; I would 
 have your friends to have a care that they do not 
 give their voices to such as are against liberty of 
 conscience," did not excite his suspicion. The 
 political ignorance of the Quakers, their adhesion 
 to the principle of universal toleration, and the trust 
 of his friend Penn in Charles, who had broached the
 
 260 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 scheme, may all be urged in extenuation of the 
 Quaker leader. But credulity so gross amounts 
 almost to a political crime, and, had it not been for 
 the reckless folly of James and the keener wisdom of 
 the other sects, the day of freedom might have been 
 long postponed. 
 
 The "glorious Revolution," however, drove James 
 into exile, and from the accession of William III., 
 the era of domestic peace, recuperation, and repose, 
 may be said to date. To the Quakers this meant 
 toleration, in company with the rest ; and after 
 Whitehead had impressed the King with the analogy 
 between the Quakers and the Menists whom his 
 grandsire had absolved from the necessity of oaths, 
 that stumbling-block of offence was partially re- 
 moved. 
 
 But ere this, Whitehead had utilized the pliancy 
 of James to strike a blow at the informers who were 
 his bane. A Commission was issued to inquire into 
 this social scandal, and so conclusive and overpower- 
 ing was the evidence that Whitehead collected, that 
 in utter weariness the Commissioners declared that 
 they knew enough to make their report. 
 
 With the advent of toleration the days of stirring
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 261 
 
 romance were fled. George, with his young wife (his 
 second), whom he had married in 1688, spent a 
 life uneventful to the outer eye, but full of those 
 unostentatious acts which lend beauty to an unselfish 
 life. From time to time he visited the Court to 
 present a petition or to read an address. He pleaded 
 before Parliament, and argued out Bills in Committee. 
 He joined in sending a salutation to Peter the Great 
 when he came to England ; he read an address to 
 Queen Anne, and headed a deputation to King 
 George. But there was little or nothing to disturb 
 the even tenour of his declining years. As the years 
 passed over his head he continued persistent in 
 his work, and although, as strength failed him, his 
 position became that of Nestor, not Achilles, yet his 
 name was a potent influence still, and in his life he 
 received all the tributes of honour and respect which 
 a grudging posterity has since been slow to award. 
 
 He was by nature a man of fine presence, but as 
 time wore on and the consciousness of responsibility 
 added lustre to his natural grace, the dignity inherent 
 in old age made him doubly grand. He was vene- 
 rated as the hero of struggles that were past, the 
 achiever of that liberty which the Quakers now
 
 262 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 enjoyed, and, as he rested at the end of a long life of 
 toil, he so towered over the younger generation, that 
 he seemed in very deed, what in their gratitude they 
 named him, the " father " of their sect. 
 
 In youth his fervent earnestness had sometimes 
 made him aggressive beyond the limit of a nice 
 courtesy. But whatever may have been his boyish 
 crudities, the mellowing hand of time brought 
 maturer wisdom, and in old age he had a temper 
 gentle, endearing, and happy, forgiving even Hilton 
 the informer, by whom he had been cruelly wronged; 
 loving to all his sect ; careful to prevent and diligent 
 in composing differences ; tender-hearted and full of 
 sympathy that at times broke all bounds. The 
 quaint pathos of his sermon over Dinah Johnson, the 
 maid who died of a broken heart, is sufficient in itself 
 to tell the tale. 
 
 For some years he lived on whilst the Society was 
 established in security and peace, and then, full of 
 years and honour, he was gathered to his fathers, and 
 buried in Bunhill Fields on January 13, 1722-23, 
 In the funeral oration it was recorded that " he was 
 one of the most able ministers of the Gospel in our 
 day ; he was not only a zealous contender for and
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 263 
 
 assertor of the true faith and doctrine ... in a sound 
 and intelligible testimony, but also was valiant and 
 skilful in the defence thereof, against adversaries and 
 opposers of the same ; and one who through a long 
 course of many days was careful to adorn the doctrine 
 of our holy profession by a circumspect life and godly 
 conversation. Being thus qualified, and of a meek 
 and peaceable disposition, he was had in good esteem 
 amongst most sorts of people that were acquainted 
 with him, which tended much to the opening his 
 way in his public service for truth, and frequent 
 solicitations unto several kings and parliaments, 
 bishops and great men of this our land, for the 
 relief of our suffering friends ; in which labour of love 
 and eminent services . . . this our dear friend was 
 principall}' exercised. . . . We may truly say he was 
 a tender father in the Church, and, as such, was of 
 great compassion, sympathizing with friends under 
 affliction, whether in body or mind ; a diligent visitor 
 of the sick, and labouring to comfort the mourning 
 soul ; careful to prevent and diligent in composing 
 differences. . . . Dear friends, much more might we 
 say on behalf of this our dear deceased friend ; an 
 elder worthy of double honour; but it is not with.
 
 264 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 us to give large encomiums of the dead ; we have 
 rather chose to give but short hints of some of the 
 Christian virtues and qualifications he was endued 
 withal, believing there is a witness in the hearts of 
 many yet remaining that doth testify for him, and his 
 faithful labours and service in his day." 
 
 We have lingered over this career, not longer than 
 it deserves, but longer perhaps than Whitehead's 
 absence from Orton might seem to justify in parish 
 " Reminiscences." But, after all, he was the greatest, 
 not merely of Orton, but of Westmoreland Friends ; 
 and from the time of his death the Quakers of this 
 parish have not made much stir. Alice Alderson, 
 who was mentioned above, lived, like him, to an 
 advanced age, and throughout her life was full of 
 activity and enthusiasm in the propagation of her 
 views. She was highly esteemed by all who came 
 into contact with her, but since the memoirs and 
 chronicles of the day are comparatively silent, the 
 details of her work are now unknown. 
 
 For 1818, during Brougham's first election con- 
 test, we find the following record, which may or may 
 not refer to an Orton Friend : " A disciple of George 
 Fox (not of Kendal) is denounced for deserting the
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 265 
 
 cause of Mr. Brougham, bribed, we say, by certain 
 civilities, and he weak, vain man now ranks with 
 the enemies of Israel." And, later in the same year, 
 the Gazette reports that " Quaker children, too, 
 hitherto particularly praised as patterns of good con- 
 duct, have been decked with blue ribbons, and have 
 joined in insulting language against those whom 
 they fancied to be of the Lowther party." It is thus 
 quite clear that the days of their political ignorance 
 and apathy had passed away. Such notices as still 
 remain either have reference to politics or are so 
 recent as to make no demand on our limited space. 
 Yet one more story that illustrates the shrewdness 
 of the Friends may perhaps be not inappropriate. 
 After the election of 1833 the Gazette says: "An 
 
 old Friend of , and known as the father of the 
 
 sect, was asked the other day when he intended to 
 start for Westmoreland to vote for Barham. He 
 replied, ' I'll tell thee what : I've been three times 
 there and three times beaten, and will not go a fourth 
 to be beaten. We cannot stand the yellows ; but if 
 I thought there was any chance at all, I would go 
 on my hands and knees.' " 
 
 We must take farewell of Orton Quakers. There
 
 -66 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 may be gaps in the story that could be filled in from 
 private memoirs. But whether there be any other 
 local heroes or not, it is well to remember that in 
 their day these quaint staid people did perform a 
 work ; and that, though their affected primness 
 may for us seem out of date, it yet has done good 
 service for even those who are now most willing to 
 scoff. 
 
 The Quakers in Westmoreland are not now so 
 numerous as in the days of Whitehead, but there 
 are still an influential body of Friends in Kendal 
 and its neighbourhood. It is remarkable that nearly 
 all the leading families in that ancient Borough 
 have come of that stock the Wakefields, Crewd- 
 sons, Wilsons, Whitwells, Braithwaites and Crop- 
 pers, of only a generation back, were Friends ! 
 
 There exists at Newby Head a disused burial- 
 ground, popularly designated the " Quaker Se- 
 pulchre," in which were buried the remains of 
 Thomas Lawson, formerly priest of Ramside, Lanca- 
 shire, who, after joining the Friends, settled at Great 
 Strickland, and kept a grammar school. He is 
 said to have been the first to systematize the study 
 of botany in this country. He died, 1690. One of
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 267 
 
 his pupils placed a tomb over his grave, bearing this 
 inscription : 
 
 " Sub hoc Tumulo jacet Corpus Thomas Lawson, de Maynae 
 Stricklundiae Ludimagister et Botanicus non imperitus qui obiit, 
 12 Die November, Anno Domini, 1690. ^tatis 55." 
 
 At Great Strickland there was a commodious 
 meeting-house, which is still standing, but con- 
 verted into a dwelling-house. 
 
 Upon the closing of Strickland Meeting, Morland 
 became the chief centre for Friends of the district, 
 where a neat and commodious meeting-house was 
 built about the beginning of the present century. 
 At that time there were several families of Friends 
 resident in the county town (Appleby), who regularly 
 attended this Meeting, but of late years these have 
 all died out, and the main support of the place has 
 been the Thompson family, resident in the village, 
 and two or three others. 
 
 The Thompsons of Morland, now represented by 
 Charles Thompson, J.P., 1 trace back their pedigree 
 
 1 Mr. Thompson was one of the founders of the " United 
 Kingdom Alliance " for the suppression of the traffic in intoxi- 
 cating liquors. He is President of the Band of Hope Union for 
 the parishes in North Westmoreland, and a warm supporter of 
 temperance generally.
 
 268 LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES 
 
 seven generations, always within the parish, and for 
 five generations as the owners and occupiers of the 
 dwelling-house at Morland, now the residence of the 
 family. It was built in 1722 by John Thompson, 
 respecting whom a tombstone in the parish church 
 graveyard testifies as follows (translated from the 
 Latin) : 
 
 " Here are deposited the remains of John Thompson, late 
 schoolmaster of Barton, in this county. A man of the most 
 exemplary piety, probity, and sobriety. A great admirer of, and 
 well versed in the politer sort of literature. 
 
 " In life he lived esteemed by all, and died universally re- 
 gretted, on the 1 7th July, in the year of our Lord, 1736." 
 
 His school was held in the south transept of the 
 church at Morland, over the door of which was 
 inscribed in the stone lintel : " Ludus Grammaticus 
 Johannus Thompsonis, Anno 1699" (see Bulmer's 
 " History and Topography of Westmoreland "). 
 
 The Thompsons have been Friends for but three 
 generations. The most flourishing branch of the 
 family is that now resident about Liverpool, which 
 sprung from Thomas (who resided at Appleby), the 
 grandson of John (above), and which numbers 
 among its conspicuous members Professor Silvan us 
 Thompson, London University.
 
 OF NORTH WESTMORELAND. 269 
 
 At Tirril there is also an ancient meeting-house 
 and graveyard, now only occasionally used. Here 
 were interred the remains of the unfortunate tourist 
 who lost his life on Helvellyn, and whose fate has 
 been immortalized by Sir Walter Scott with touch- 
 ing effect. 1 His remains were not discovered until 
 three months afterwards, when they were found 
 guarded by a faithful terrier bitch, his constant 
 attendant. 
 
 1 " I climb'd the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn, 
 
 Lakes and mountains beneath me gleamed misty and wild, 
 All was still save by fits, when the eagle was yelling 
 
 And starting around me, the echoes replied. 
 On the right, Striden-edge round the red tarn was bending, 
 And Catchedicam, its left verge was defending, 
 One huge nameless rock in the front was ascending, 
 When I marked the spot where the wanderer had died.. 
 
 Dark-green was that spot 'mid the brown mountain heather, 
 
 Where the Pilgrim of Nature lay stretched in decay, 
 Like the corpse of an outcast abandoned to weather, 
 
 Till the mountain-winds wasted the tenantless clay. 
 Not yet quite deserted, though lonely extended, 
 For faithful in death, his mute favourite attended, 
 The much-loved remains of her master defended, 
 And chased the hill-fox and the raven away."
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTE A. 
 
 CROSBY RAVENSWORTH. In the south of this parish 
 is Croshy Lodge a substantial farmhouse supposed 
 to have been erected on the site of Sir Lance- 
 lot Threlkeld's seat. To the east, at the foot of the 
 ravine, near the entrance, is a bridge over which 
 the road passes, formed from the natural rock. The 
 gill, or wood, adjacent to, and perhaps all the en- 
 closed ground which now forms the farm, was the 
 deer-park. Sir L. Threlkeld's other seat was in Cum- 
 berland (vide " History of Westmoreland "). To the 
 south-east of this place is Black Dub, and near the 
 Dub or well is a small obelisk, erected by the late 
 Thomas Bland of Reagill, which records the passing 
 of the army of Prince Charles, to recover his ances- 
 tral throne. Near here was found a rapier now in
 
 272 APPENDIX. 
 
 the author's possession supposed to belong to some 
 of his retainers ; it was found embedded in the moss 
 hard by. Oddendale, or Odindale, and Hardendale 
 two words of Danish import ; the former gener- 
 ally given as of divine origin, and boasts of a Druids' 
 circle. The latter is famous as the birthplace of 
 Dr. John Mill, an eminent biblical scholar, whose 
 birth is given in 1645. 
 
 My attention has been drawn by Mr. W. B. 
 Arnison, of Penrith, to the fact of two mounds of 
 earth on the south of Crosby Gill, called Robin 
 Hood and Little John's graves ; the mounds are 
 those lying close to the boundary wall of the Park, 
 where Sir Lancelot Threlkeld is said to have kept 
 his deer. Whether Robin Hood and Little John 
 met their fate here whilst on a marauding expedition, 
 or are buried here, is more than doubtful. It is a 
 far cry from Sherwood Forest, and not an inviting 
 country to explore by freebooters from the South, 
 one would think. My attention was further drawn 
 by this gentleman to the custom of fire worship, and 
 also of need fire, which latter I had slightly alluded 
 to already in the first portion of this work. Fairies 
 also have not escaped his notice. These ethereal
 
 APPENDIX. 273 
 
 beings were credited with many a freak ; if anything 
 was lost the fairies had something to do with it, and 
 to propitiate them, food generally bread and milk 
 was placed at the mouth of caverns or glens, 
 where they were said to frequent, and the food 
 generally disappeared. No doubt, if placed in these 
 places, it was eaten up by the numerous predators, 
 which would inhabit, as they do now, these seques- 
 tered spots. A weasel, a rabbit, or some of the 
 feathered tribe, would no doubt welcome an addition 
 to their repast so readily provided. Wens and 
 warts were charmed in those days ; witches and 
 wizards laid claim to supernatural powers. The 
 schoolmaster is abroad now. He was then, no doubt, 
 in existence, but his knowledge, like his neighbours, 
 was impregnated with all the superstitions of his 
 time. But the erudite maxims of the past have 
 given place to the investigations of the chemist and 
 the philosophers of our time.
 
 274 APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTE B. 
 
 TEBAY. 
 
 I HAVE given the derivation of this place as The 
 Bay, which, except at the outlet of Borrowbridge, 
 where the Lune (Aluana, clear water) flows through 
 a narrow and rocky defile, there could not be any 
 way of escape for the water, which no doubt in 
 pre-volcanic times was hemmed in by the hills, 
 which were afterwards rent in twain by volcanic 
 action. This is no suppositious theory, for if there 
 be any truth in geology, then there is ample evidence, 
 to the north-west of this place, of volcanic action, or 
 else the granite hills of Shap would not have been 
 thrown up to public view, and become objects of 
 utility ; because it is well known that granite is the 
 lowest strata of the crust of the earth, therefore it 
 does not need such a stretch of imagination to prove 
 that the trap or whinstone which formed the dam 
 of the lake to the north of Borrowbridge, might 
 easily on this hypothesis be accounted for. But there 
 are other less speculative grounds to prove that it 
 was a lake or bay, which could not be otherwise, if
 
 APPENDIX. 275 
 
 there was no outlet at Borrowbridge. The shape of 
 the valley proves this. Its widest part is immediately 
 north of the old village of Tebay. There is not far 
 from the surface a level bed of gravel, not small or 
 triturated, so as to become more or less of a kind 
 that could be thrown out by floods over a given 
 space, but cobbles, not large, but of the kind which 
 are now found abundantly in the bed of the river 
 close by. These were lately brought to light by the 
 planting of the posts which do service for the 
 telegraph. So much for the proof. Hitherto we 
 have been told that this place owed its name to a 
 family of De Teba or De Tebay. It is more likely 
 the family owed its name to the place already named 
 by its configuration and ancient use as an inland 
 lake, or bay of fresh water; though changed in form, 
 as are many other places, by the force of nature 
 ages ago. 
 
 NOTE C. 
 
 ASKHAM. 
 
 ASBY, Ash Fell, and other places in the Midlands 
 and East Coast of England, occur where the
 
 276 APPENDIX. 
 
 prefix ash or aske is found. There used to be a 
 small reptile (newt) very common in these northern 
 parts, called asp or aske in common parlance, and 
 ash wood seems to be the indigenous tree in many 
 parts. Probably the name with the affix by has 
 been given to localities where one or other of these 
 particular objects were most commonly met with. 
 In my description of Little Asby, I noticed that, in 
 a field immediately south-east, and not far from the 
 foundation of the ancient chapel of St. Leonards, at 
 Old Asby, now Little Asby, is the remains of a 
 camp, probably British. It is a quadrangular 
 earthen structure, except to the north, where the 
 soil has evidently been carted away for the purpose 
 of agriculture. In it is a well, so that the besieged 
 could be supplied with water; and inside at its 
 south-west point, but isolated from the outer (vallum) 
 or earth-work, is a raised mound which -might be 
 the inner fort or outlook of the fortification. Cer- 
 tain it is, so far as I know, the most perfect work 
 of its kind there is in this part of the country ; and 
 which so far has been overlooked in the history of 
 Westmoreland, by previous writers.
 
 APPENDIX. 277 
 
 NOTE D. 
 
 THE ROMAN CAMP AT LOW BORROWBRIDGE. 
 
 THE station at Borrowbridge was one of great 
 strategic importance. It commanded two very im- 
 portant passes : one to the north, by the Valley of 
 the Lune at the Tebay gorge ; the other to the 
 west, by the Valley of the Borrow, and it was 
 practically the only direct route for inland communi- 
 cation between the Roman legion at Chester and 
 the different garrisons on a great portion of the 
 Roman Wall. Streams of Roman soldiers, with 
 their stores and baggage, must have been continually 
 passing through, and a large body of fighting men 
 would constantly be on duty to guard and defend 
 the stronghold in case of attack. The ancient 
 inhabitants of the country, driven from their peaceful 
 homes in the valleys, would here, midst the wild 
 rugged mountains, make a last desperate struggle 
 for freedom. Of this there are numerous evidences 
 on the almost inaccessible fells which surround us. 
 Frequent traces of hut-circles and earthworks, for-
 
 278 APPENDIX. 
 
 merly the dwellings and defences of the half-savage 
 Briton, still exist. 
 
 The camp was visited by the Cumberland and 
 Westmoreland Antiquarian Society on June 27, 
 1883, when a paper was read, in which the writer 
 pointed out the importance of the questions that 
 might be solved, if inscribed stones or tiles should be 
 found, and of its bearing on the crux vexata of the 
 loth Iter. [Mr. John Just, an eminent authority, 
 ventured to describe Borrowbridge as " Alone," a 
 station of the loth Iter. Mr. C. Nicholson pro- 
 fessed to identify it as " Alauna."] 
 
 As the result of the interest created, the work 
 of exploration (with the sanction of Lord Lonsdale) 
 was begun under the supervision of the president 
 (the late Canon Simpson), and the work was 
 carried on in October and November, but the 
 committee were much disappointed at the result of 
 their excavations. The results were nil. Nothing 
 was found to throw light on the name of the camp, 
 or to elucidate the loth Iter. The trenches were 
 dug in various directions no coins were found, no 
 tesselated pavements, very little pottery, and no 
 miscellaneous relics, as recorded in the body of the
 
 APPENDIX. 279 
 
 work, were found. Mr. Day, the tenant of the farm, 
 after the excavations were completed found two 
 Roman coins, and the impression of another in 
 baked or hardened clay. 
 
 [Epitomized from transactions of the Cumberland 
 and Westmoreland Antiquarian Society of 1885.] 
 
 NOTE E. 
 
 ANCIENT MANORIAL COURTS. 
 
 IN ancient times were held courts of Pied Poudre, 
 or Pie Powder, as we know by the annual proclama- 
 tion of the fair held at Kirkby Stephen on St. Luke's 
 Day which is done at the instance of the lord of 
 the manor and owner of the tolls arising from the 
 sale of goods and merchandise liable to pay toll at 
 Kirkby Stephen. After the proclamation of the fair 
 is read by the agent of the lord of the manor, is 
 added the words, or something to this effect, that all 
 disputes arising are to be settled by the parties 
 appearing at the court of the lord of the manor, of 
 matters arising within his jurisdiction called the
 
 280 APPENDIX. 
 
 " Court of Pied Poudre." This is no doubt a 
 remnant of Norman law, whereby the lords of 
 manors exercised the office of judges in their own 
 courts by themselves or stewards, relative to matters 
 arising in their respective manors ; and this mode 
 of proceeding was no doubt of a very summary 
 character : the name of the court signifying that 
 the matters were to be settled before the dust was 
 shaken off the feet of the litigants, that is the 
 literal meaning of Pied Poudre from PCS, a foot ; 
 and poudre, dust. 
 
 NOTE F. 
 
 WIDOW-RIGHT. 
 
 THERE is very frequently a clause put in wills in 
 this county, and many other parts no doubt, that a 
 widow is to enjoy property during her widowhood or 
 chaste behaviour. It is recorded in The Spectator, 
 vol. viii., 1771, that in some manors in Berkshire 
 and Devonshire, "if a customary tenant die, the 
 widow shall have what the law calls free bench in 
 all his copyhold lands, dum sola et casta fuerit, that is, 
 while she lives single and chaste ; but if she commits
 
 APPENDIX. 281 
 
 incontinency, she forfeits her estate ; yet if she will 
 come into court riding backward upon a black ram, 
 with his tail in her hand, and say certain words (in 
 rhyme, which we, for reasons of decency, do not 
 here reproduce), the steward is bound by the custom 
 to re-admit her to free bench. It is evident by this 
 that the lord of the manor could for unchastity 
 claim the property, unless this species of penance 
 described by The Spectator was practised in public, 
 which was none the less, we are told, than a public 
 performance of the degrading exhibition alluded to. 
 
 NOTE G. 
 
 PREHISTORIC REMAINS ON MOOR DIVOCK, NEAR ULLS- 
 WATER, STONE CIRCLES, SEPULCHRAL REMAINS, ETC. 
 
 [Mr. W. B. Arnison, of Penrith, has furnished me 
 with the following note with reference to the Trans- 
 actions of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Anti- 
 quarian Society, of which he is a most indefatigable 
 and painstaking member, for which I here make my 
 respects and acknowledgment, as well as for many 
 hints I have adopted in this work.]
 
 282 APPENDIX. 
 
 The following is extracted from a Paper by Dr. 
 M. W. Taylor, late of Penrith : 
 
 ON the road from Penrith to Bampton is the little 
 village of Helton, anciently called Helton Fleckett, 
 which heretofore formed a portion of the Manor of 
 the Sandfords, the ancient lords of the pale of 
 Askham Hall. 
 
 Above the village there is an enormous mountain- 
 ous waste, which stretches away for miles over the 
 fells, which form the watersheds of U 11s water (uille, 
 Fr. Elbow), Haweswater, and Windermere. 
 
 An advanced spur of these mountains, separating 
 the valley of the Lowther from that of Ullswater, is 
 Barton Fell, and on it, just outside the higher 
 enclosures of Helton village, there is an extensive 
 plateau of heath and peat moss ; it is called Moor 
 Divock or Doovack. It is 1000 feet above the level of 
 the sea. The old Roman Road crosses this moor, and 
 the surface of this ancient causeway is marked out by 
 the short greensward which covers it, and the course 
 of it may be traced for seven or eight miles along the 
 crest of the ridges, proceeding over Kidsty Pike and 
 High Street.
 
 APPENDIX, 283 
 
 This was the Roman highway from the shores of 
 Windermere through the vale of Troutbeck, joining 
 the great York Road over Stainmoor at Brocavum, 
 the camp at Brougham. 
 
 We leave the enclosures of Helton Head by a 
 gate which opens on to the common of MoorDivock, 
 and we perceive to the right a rough cart-track 
 proceeding across the moor in a north-easterly 
 direction to Pooley Bridge. By the side of this road, 
 about a quarter of a mile distant from the gate, there 
 looms against the sky a large single standing stone 
 called the Kop-Stone. It is the most southerly of 
 the pre-historic structures which stud the area of 
 this moor. It measures five feet out of the ground, 
 and is about fourteen feet in girth. It is not hewn 
 nor dressed, but is a natural ice-borne boulder, 
 composed of one of the metamorphic rocks of the 
 district. 
 
 Lying adjacent are a low ring mound or earthwork 
 fifty-seven feet in diameter ; a stone circle ; small 
 circle and cairn ; another circle called " standing 
 stones," and various other single and double circles ; 
 and also cairns, now called, from their shape, " star- 
 fish " cairns.
 
 284 APPENDIX. 
 
 For those desiring further information as to the 
 pre-historic remains in the East and West Wards, I 
 append the following references to the " Transactions 
 of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian 
 Society " : 
 
 British Barrow at Hackthorpe, vol. ii. p. n. 
 Buried Stone Circle, Eamont-side, vol. i. p. 167. 
 Leacet Hill Stone Circle, Clifton Dykes, vol. v. p. 76. 
 Clifton Barrows, vol. v. p. 79. 
 Stone Circle, Gamlands, vol. vi. p. 183. 
 
 ,, near Snap, vol. vi. p. 176. 
 
 ,, Moor Divock, vol. viii. p. 323. 
 
 Goggleby Stone, Shap, vol. vi. p. 209. 
 Crosby Ravensworth, vol. ii. p. 205. 
 Eamont Bridge (Papal Indulgence), vol. ii. p. 32. 
 ,, Earth Works, near, vol. vi. p. 444. 
 
 ,, King Arthur's Round Table, vol. 
 
 vi. p. 450. 
 Church Bells. 
 
 Brough, vol. vi. p. 83. 
 Query. Crosby Garret, vol. vi. p. 84. 
 Kirkby Stephen, vol. iv. p. 239 ; vol. vi. p. 83. 
 Orton, vol. vi. p. 84.
 
 APPENDIX. 285 
 
 NOTE H. 
 
 IN the work itself I have incidentally mentioned 
 the late Dr. Simpson as a man who was an eminent 
 son of Westmoreland. As an antiquary he was an 
 undoubted enthusiast, and contributed largely to 
 establish and extend a knowledge and interest in the 
 science ; and there are others still living whose 
 work in the future will be hailed with satisfaction in 
 this department. We are not void of living ce- 
 lebrities in other departments. Who has not heard 
 of the Poet Close, and who has not read of the 
 Orton Chronicler? to both of whom- in past years 
 I have been much indebted for their notice of me in 
 their lucubrations ; in fact, to Mr. John Simpson, the 
 parish clerk of Orton, I am under many obligations 
 for many traditions and stories embodied in this 
 work. He has been parish clerk of Orton over forty 
 years; a man of rare genius, somewhat of a poet 
 or rhymster; and has contributed to the public prints 
 many quaint sayings and notes of interest. 
 
 Some parish clerks in these parts have been noted 
 for their longevity and eccentricities. At one time 
 an old man held the office at Kirkby Stephen, who
 
 286 APPENDIX. 
 
 for a long time could not walk without the aid of two 
 sticks, which he used to hang over his reading desk, 
 when engaged in the services of the church. On 
 one occasion an old man, on going into the pew next 
 the desk, happened to dislodge a stick, but im- 
 mediately restored it to the parish clerk. He took 
 it by the small end and dealt a blow with it at the 
 innocent offender (which, alighting on his bald head, 
 echoed through the church), saying, " Thou'll mebbe 
 mind t' next time." This occurred about forty years 
 ago. The old man was very deaf, and had to hobble 
 up to the communion rails after the clergyman to 
 say " Amen," which very frequently came in at any 
 but the right time. About this time pews were often 
 sold by auction, either separately or with a residence. 
 The writer recollects one sold for 25 sterling at 
 Kirkby Stephen. 
 
 Many obsolete customs are remembered by people of 
 middle age even. In many townships a small field was 
 set apart, the rent of which was paid annually to the 
 constable of the township ; and in many places there 
 is a custom of holding land which, being left by 
 former proprietors of a farm, is let to the tenant as 
 part and parcel of the farm. It is imperative that
 
 APPENDIX. 287 
 
 a bull be kept for the purposes of the tenants of 
 certain farms within a radius which is specified in 
 the deeds of the farm, and by custom all those 
 living on farms so specified do avail themselves of 
 the privileges of the bull. The land in question has 
 no connection with, nor is the custom a privilege of 
 any one connected with, the former proprietor, but 
 has simply been a bargain to do away with turbary, 
 or the privilege of getting peat on some enclosed 
 land, or by taking in an allotment from the waste, 
 and the land being cultivated has been allotted to 
 the proprietor on the condition of keeping a bull for 
 his neighbours. 
 
 NOTE I. 
 
 IT is very probable that with enormous forests which 
 overran England when the Romans first came to 
 this country, and long afterwards, during the Anglo- 
 Saxon (Angles and Saxon) times the mixed breed 
 of those nearer continental countries, Danes, Nor- 
 wegians, and Bretons, which under the name of 
 Anglo-Saxons afterwards colonized this country
 
 288 APPENDIX. 
 
 that the various buildings, churches, monasteries, 
 and private dwellings, were mainly of wood, and 
 that those edifices which remain, since the Saxon 
 times, under the name of Saxon churches built 
 of stone, are very few in number. Certainly there 
 are a few. At Clapham, near Bedford, is a Saxon 
 tower of colossal proportions at the end of a modern 
 church, and there are a few others in other parts 
 of the country; but the principal stone edifices 
 of churches, monasteries, and the like, date not 
 earlier than from the time of the Norman Conquest. 
 There were probably many stone churches in the 
 Saxon England of the ninth and tenth centuries, but 
 these were destroyed by the Danes, who were 
 pagans ; and building in wood was the rule, there 
 being at that time a general belief in Christendom 
 that the world was to come to an end in the year 
 1000, and that it was useless to build of stone or 
 brick, on account of this prediction, for a posterity 
 that would be non-existent. Such houses continued 
 to exist all through the middle ages ; many old 
 manor houses with open roofs continue to attest to 
 the workmanship, which was copied from the Anglo- 
 Saxons in " tymbre " work or " getymbering," as it
 
 APPENDIX. 289 
 
 was called in those times. The great fire in London 
 was the means of banishing wooden structures, and 
 stuccoed covered erections, whose principal supports 
 were wooden frames, in the city ; but it is evident 
 from those remaining in Chester and other places, 
 that this mode of building, although co-existent with 
 stone erections at a later period, were those most in 
 use, and this is seen to be the prevalent mode in our 
 colonial possessions and in America, at the present 
 time. 
 
 NOTE J. 
 
 THE Helm-wind. Dr. Barnes says " the air or 
 wind from the east, ascends the gradual slope 
 of the western side of the Pennine chain, or Cross 
 Fell range of mountains, to the summit of Cross 
 Fell, where it enters the helm or cap, and is 
 cooled to a less temperature ; it then rushes forcibly 
 down the abrupt declivity of the western side of 
 the mountain into the valley beneath, in conse- 
 quence of the valley being of a warmer temperature, 
 and this constitutes the Helm-Wind. The sudden and 
 violent rushing of the wind down the ravines and 
 
 20
 
 -290 APPENDIX. 
 
 crevices of the mountains, occasions the loud noise 
 that is heard. The current again is met at the 
 foot of the mountains by a cooler wind, which causes 
 the other to rebound ; this is called the Helm-bar. 
 The meeting of the opposing currents, and the sudden 
 condensation of air and moisture in the Bar-cloud, 
 gives rise to its agitation or commotion, as if strug- 
 gling with contrary blasts. The bar is not the cause 
 of the wind but the consequence of it. When there is 
 a break in the bar, the wind rushes over the country. 
 Here again the effect is mistaken for the cause. 
 In this case the Helm-wind, which always blows 
 from the east, has overcome the resistance of the 
 Bar-cloud, or the wind from the west, and con- 
 sequently does not rebound into the higher regions 
 again ; a general east wind in this case will prevail. 
 The Helm rarely occurs in summer, because the 
 temperature of Cross Fell is much higher at that 
 season of the year. The places most subject 
 to it are Milburn, Kirkland, Ousby, Melmerby, 
 and Gamblesby. Sometimes the atmosphere may 
 be so clear that not a cloud is to be seen, when 
 suddenly a small cap or cloud is seen extending 
 from south to north the Helm is then said to
 
 APPENDIX. 291 
 
 be on and in a few minutes the wind is blow- 
 ing so furiously that it often throws down trees, 
 overturns stacks, and will even overturn a horse 
 and cart. It has an exhilarating effect on the 
 spirits, but it often occasions great damage to 
 the crops, beating the leaves of trees until they 
 are quite black." 
 
 Besides the music of winds and tempests, the 
 echoes that are excited in different parts give rise to 
 much speculation ; some are heard on land, others 
 on water. There is a fine echo near Stenkrith Bridge, 
 about fifty )'ards north of it. But every lake and 
 gorge surrounded by rocks and mountains forms 
 an instrument of sound, and gives rise to a variety 
 of sounds, no two being exactly alike ; some being 
 monotones, others being reverberating, even six or 
 more times. Such are heard at Windermere, Ulls- 
 water, and Derwentwater, and the effect upon the 
 ear as the sound is tossed from rock to rock 
 whether the sound be of fire-arms, musical instru- 
 ments, or the human voice is surprising, like 
 celestial beings repeating the sounds of human 
 creation, and carrying forth to unknown regions 
 the intensified tones created by terrestrial agencies,
 
 292 APPENDIX. 
 
 but lacking response to questions (by answers), and so 
 far unfathomable. The visitor to Ullswater should 
 penetrate the Vale of Patterdale, thence to Mardale, 
 where he will see, surrounded by glorious hills, a beau- 
 tiful lake (Haweswater) ; these valleys were anciently 
 the domains of two potentates of ancient lineage, and 
 called respectively kings of Patterdale and Mardale. 
 
 NOTE K. 
 
 GEOLOGY has engaged the attention of many eminent 
 men, whose writings it would be well to consult. 
 Lyell, Miller, Agassiz, Croll, Geikie, Jules, Sedg- 
 wick, Murchison, and many others. They give us 
 an idea of past time by the agencies at work, and 
 teach us how deeply the surface of the land has been 
 denuded, and how much sediment has been deposited. 
 As Lyell has remarked, the extent and thickness of 
 our sedimentary formations are the result and the 
 measure of the denudation the earth's crust has 
 elsewhere undergone. Therefore every one should 
 examine for himself the great piles of superimposed 
 strata, and watch the rivulets bringing down mud,
 
 APPENDIX. 293 
 
 and the waves wearing away the sea cliffs, in order 
 to comprehend something about the duration of past 
 time, the monuments of which we see around us. 
 
 NOTE L. 
 
 THE Teutons (Germans), Scandinavians (Swedes, 
 Norwegians, and Danes), who conquered Normandy, 
 and afterwards England, gave, of course, their names 
 to the places they inhabited ; thus, the Thwaites 
 (woods), Thorps (villages), Bys (dwellings), fell 
 (feldt), bel (hill) we have Green Bell, a mountain in 
 Ravenstonedale. The Romans afterwards left their 
 impressions on the language in the same manner. 
 We have barr and burrh (barrows, mounds of earth), 
 birrens (stone heaps, cairns, &c.) ; from the Saxon (or 
 Angles), cap (top), and ber (the top crown or forti- 
 fied hill). Crossbar, Dogbar, Stobar or Stockbar, 
 denoting places where cattle were formerly sheltered 
 and guarded from the marauders of the north the 
 Picts and Scots (Celts) of former times fighting the 
 Romans step by step on the mountain ranges of 
 this country, while later on the Scottish borderers and
 
 294 APPENDIX. 
 
 English came in conflict. The erection at these 
 places of Peel Castles and Bars were the consequence. 
 These latter disturbances were mainly brought about 
 by the unsettled government of the times, the Scotch 
 looking upon the English as their natural enemies ; 
 and, until the union of the two kingdoms, the Arm- 
 strongs and the Eliots, Grahams, and others, were 
 more or less caterans and robbers, whose scene of 
 conflict was the debatable land on the borders of 
 both countries, the English preventing as much as 
 possible their depredations by keeping up Wardens 
 of the Marches, with a military force under the local 
 and feudatory chiefs, amongst whom at this time 
 was Lord William Howard of Naworth, Musgrave of 
 Edenhall, and Wharton of Wharton Hall. These 
 families, or their representatives (the latter family 
 being extinct), enjoy certain rights and privileges to 
 this day for their services at that time, much, we 
 think, to the detriment of a free exercise and fair ex- 
 pansion of the rights of property, by the continuance 
 of the custom of paying heriots, fines, dues, duties, 
 and services to these feudal owners, who have ceased 
 to render those services which the exigencies of 
 former times created.
 
 GLOSSARY 
 
 OF TERMS USED IN THE DISTRICT. 
 
 Aiblings. Perhaps, doubtful. 
 
 Addle. To earn by labour. 
 
 Agist. To let out to pasture. 
 
 Agley. Awry, to squint. 
 
 Airts. Points of compass. 
 
 Aik. Oak. (A. S., eac, ac.} 
 
 Aid. Old (A. S., eald, auld.) 
 
 Amaist. Almost. 
 
 An. If. (A. S. Anan.) 
 
 Anters. In case of, perad venture. " I'll take my lag et 
 
 anters." 
 
 Antrums. Tantrums, flighty. 
 Aries. Earnest money. Yearles. 
 Arsle. To move backwards. 
 Aske. Dry. (Teutonic, ask, a newt.) 
 Anld shoon. Old shoes. 
 Ax. To inquire. 
 Aj re. A weir. Saltaire.
 
 296 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Bally balla. A village (Celtic). 
 
 Bane. Ready to assist another. 
 
 Bang. To beat. 
 
 Baste. To drub by fisticuffs. 
 
 Bauk (Teutonic). A beam. 
 
 Baulk. To deprive, baffle. 
 
 Beal(K.S.}. To cry out. 
 
 Beck (Teutonic). A brook. 
 
 Bensel. To castigate. 
 
 Ber. A hill. 
 
 Benzler. Large. " Ifs a benzler" 
 
 Bigg. To build. Newbiggin. 
 
 Birks. Birch. Birkbeck. 
 
 Blate. Not afraid to speak. 
 
 Blake. Bright yellowish. Blake butter. 
 
 Blether. Bluster. 
 
 Bluid. Blood. 
 
 Boke, bocken. To belch. 
 
 Boot. To exchange, to give money extra. 
 
 Boss. A master. 
 
 Bouk. Large, bulky. 
 
 Braad. Broad. (A. S., brodder.} 
 
 Bracken. A fern. 
 
 Brandrer. To brand cattle. 
 
 Brant. Steep. A brant hill. 
 
 Brash. Horse laugh, rude. 
 
 Brock. A badger. Brockholes. 
 
 Brosson. To burst. 
 
 Broumber. A barrow. Or Broom Hill.
 
 GLOSSARY. 297 
 
 Bumblekite. Brambleberry. (Saxon, Beig-bran.} 
 
 Bump. Coarse woollen yarn. 
 
 Burgh. A fort. Brough. 
 
 Burk. To conceal. 
 
 Bus. A kiss. 
 
 Busk. A rush, reeds. 
 
 By. A dwelling. 
 
 Byre. Cowhouse. 
 
 Cairn. A heap of stones. 
 
 Cold. Cold. 
 
 Capstans. Coping, or top-stone. 
 
 Caul. A membrane covering a child at birth. 
 
 Chimla. Chimney. 
 
 Chizzle. The husk of wheat, bran. 
 
 dagger. To stick. 
 
 dart, darty. Dirty, sticky. 
 
 dead (A. S., claded). To clothe. 
 
 dew. A ball of yarn. 
 
 dough. Clack, a stone. Clachan. 
 
 Clout. A rag, to mend. 
 
 dud (Saxon), Clwd (Celtic). Cloud. 
 
 Clung. To cling. 
 
 Coppy. A small field. Coppice^ or enclosure of wood. 
 
 Corker. Big. 
 
 Conney. Winsome, bonny. 
 
 Coup. Exchange. 
 
 Coyn. A corner stone. 
 
 Crack. Familiar conversation.
 
 298 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Craps. Scraps. 
 
 Crowdie. Oatmeal scalded with water or broth. 
 
 Cruds. Curds of whey. 
 
 Grumpy. Brittle, dry- baked. 
 
 Cuddy. Donkey. 
 
 C^lmmer. To come. 
 
 Dag. Dew, draggled with rain. 
 
 Dam. To stop up, e.g. mill dam. 
 
 Darrock. A day's work. 
 
 Deight, dighf. To winnow corn. 
 
 Dilly dally. To hesitate. 
 
 Dirl. To spin round. 
 
 Dobbie. A Ghost. Orton Dobbie. 
 
 Dodd. A round hill. 
 
 Dole. Deal out, to give in charity. 
 
 Dollop. The whole lump, or lot. 
 
 Donnet. Devilish. That et donnet. 
 
 Dorf-thorpe (A. S.). Village. 
 
 Donke. Misty. 
 
 Dcu. To be good. Nout et Dou (no good). 
 
 Draff. Brewers' grains. 
 
 Dree. Slow. " As dree as haver mote" (oat malt). 
 
 Driish. To rush, fall down. 
 
 Dub. A small pond, e.g. Black Dub. 
 
 Dunnot. Do not, let alone. 
 
 Ea. Water. Eamont. 
 Eddish. Eatage, after-math.
 
 GLOSSARY. 299 
 
 Efter (A. S.). After. 
 Endivas. To continue. 
 Esk, ash. To ask a question. 
 Ettle. To part with sparingly. 
 Eyast. E.g., east wind. 
 
 Fain. To be glad. (Saxon, fosgan.) 
 
 Fansome. Lovely. 
 
 Farrow. Parturient effort of the sow. 
 
 Fash. Worry, anxiety. 
 
 Faitt. Fault, to fi,nd fault 
 
 Fant. Faint. 
 
 Fause. Cunning. 
 
 Feckless. Not quick, slow of motion. 
 
 Fell, fierce (A. S.). Fells, wild hills. 
 
 Fend. To provide. 
 
 Fettle. To repair. 
 
 Fizzle. Uneasy. 
 
 Flacker. To flutter. 
 
 Flammergasted. Upset, taken aback. 
 
 Flate. Frightened. 
 
 Planter some. Light-headed, giddy. 
 
 Flecked. Spotted. 
 
 Flite. To scold. (Saxon, flitan.) 
 
 Fluke. To outwit, jerk. 
 
 Flyre (Icelandic, flyra). To laugh scornfully. 
 
 Foad. To fold sheep. 
 
 Fold. An inclosure. 
 
 Formal. To bespeak. (Saxon, fonnel.)
 
 300 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Foss, floss. Flowing water. Flass. 
 Fractious. Quarrelsome. 
 Frummerty. Wheat boiled in milk. 
 Frowsey. Disordered. 
 Funkey. Cowardly. 
 
 Gait. A stint in a common pasture. 
 
 Gang (A. S.). To go. Gangan. 
 
 Gap. An opening. 
 
 Gar. To dare. 
 
 Garrock. Awkward. 
 
 Cast, geld. A barren cow. 
 
 Gate, ghaut, gut. A passage. 
 
 Gaun (A. S., gangan.) To go. 
 
 Gaveloc. A lever. (A. S., javelin.) 
 
 Geer. Furniture. (Saxon, gearn, harness.) 
 
 Giggle. Flighty. 
 
 Gill, ghyll. A ravine. (Icelandic, gil.} 
 
 Girn, gurn. To grin, grimace. 
 
 Girt. Large, e.g., a girt lad. 
 
 Glent. To look askance. 
 
 Glop. To look up in surprise. (Fr. Glupcn.} 
 
 Goffrom (A. S. geaper). To gape, a vulgar person. 
 
 Goister. Goisterer, loud roysterer. 
 
 Gounded. Gummed, e.g., sore eyes. 
 
 Gowk (Scotch). Heart of a tree, a simpleton. 
 
 Gox (A. S., gos, gor). Goose. "By Go\" an expletive. 
 
 Grise (A. S.). Swine. Griseburn. 
 
 Grumpy. Surly.
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Grunstone. Grindstone. 
 Gulls. Porridge. 
 
 Hack. A saddle-horse. 
 
 Haigh. A hill-side. 
 
 Ham. A home. 
 
 Hansel. A gift, first money. 
 
 Hurrock, urrock. A stone heap. Penhurrock. 
 
 Haver oats. Haver meal. 
 
 Heck. Behind, cast back. 
 
 Helm. Helm wind : covering, diminutive of helmet. 
 
 Higgledy-piggledy. Heads and tails. 
 
 Hirple. Lame, stiff walker. 
 
 Hithe. Haven. Rotherhithe. 
 
 Hi the. Come here. 
 
 Hobble. To get into a mess or hobble. 
 
 Hog. Weaned lamb, a first year's sheep. 
 
 Holm (Norse). A meadow or island in river. 
 
 Hoven. Blown up by eating grass. 
 
 Hoii'ket. To dig or scratch. 
 
 Hull, hoi (A. S.) A small building. 
 
 Hurst. A wood. 
 
 Ing. A meadow. Lady Ing. 
 
 Ingle. Fire-place. 
 
 Inver. River-mouth ; to join. 
 
 Jarble. To draggle in the wet. 
 
 yank. To joke. 
 
 Jostle. To joust, to push.
 
 302 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Ken. To kno\v. (Danish, kennan.} 
 
 Kemp. A camp. Kemphow. 
 
 Keslop. The stomach of calves. 
 
 Kil. A cell, a church. 
 
 Kist. A chest or trunk. 
 
 Kitting. A young cat, kitten. 
 
 Kittle. To tickle, skittish. 
 
 Knag. To scold. Nag. A horse. 
 
 Knaw. To know. 
 
 Knock. A hill. 
 
 Kirn. A churn. 
 
 Kye. Cows. 
 
 Kysty. Nice at eating. 
 
 Kyte. The belly. 
 
 Laithe. Barn. 
 
 Little. 
 
 <w. A game at cards. 
 Law. A mound, a hill. 
 Ztfw. To punish. 
 
 Ley (A. S.). An open place, a scythe. 
 Llan (Welsh). Church. 
 Lief (A. S., leaf). As lief; I'd rather. 
 Lig. To lie down. 
 Lish. Active. 
 
 Lobscouse. Meat boiled with potatoes. 
 Loup. To leap. Lupus, wolf. 
 Lown. Calm, <?.., lown day. 
 Loo. An open plain.
 
 GLOSSARY. 303 
 
 Lun, Llwyn (Celtic). A wood. Hoff Lun. 
 Lund. A sacred grove. Lnnds. 
 
 Maffly. Childish. 
 
 Maida. A hill. Maiden Castle. 
 
 Maist. Most. 
 
 Happen mebbe. May happen. 
 
 March, marechal. A trooper ; officer of horsemen. 
 
 Mare. More. Mickle-mare, 
 
 Marras. Like to like. 
 
 Maslin. Silly fellow. 
 
 Mazle. To bewilder. 
 
 Midden. Dung-heap. 
 
 Mel, mell. Middle. Melbecks. 
 
 Mone. Dull, to bemoan. 
 
 Melder. Miller's toll. 
 
 Nant. Valley. Nantwich. 
 Neef. Hand. 
 Neest. Next. 
 Neuk. Nook. 
 Neun. Noon. 
 Nieveful. Handful. 
 Nincompoop. Silly fellow. 
 Nin, nout. Nothing. 
 Nuidlin. A silly fellow. 
 
 Onny. Any. 
 
 Onlig. A burthen, such as forced charity.
 
 304 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Onset. A building, the whole onset. 
 
 Ower. Over. 
 
 Owerplush. That which is over, above measure. 
 
 Oivmas, awmus. A gift to a beggar. 
 
 Pace. Paschal, Easter eggs. 
 
 Parlous. Perilous. 
 
 Piggin. A milk pail, e.g., to serve calves with. 
 
 Pen. A hill. Penhurrock, 
 
 Pirn. To twist. 
 
 Rattan. A rat ; Rations, staves of wood. 
 
 Ravel. To draw out from a clew of yarn. 
 
 Rax. To stretch, to sprain. 
 
 Reek. Smoke of fire. 
 
 Reisted. Smoked bacon overdried. 
 
 Reistet. Stupid. 
 
 Rig up. To clothe. 
 
 Roopt (Icelandic, wroop). Hoarse from cold. 
 
 Rouky. Misty. Scotch mist. 
 
 Sap. A plane tree, 
 
 Scale (A. S.). To spread, e.g., manure. 
 
 Scour. Diarrhoea in calves. 
 
 Scout. A look-out. Scout Green. 
 
 Scran. Victuals. 
 
 Scind (A. S., scindeti). To wash away. 
 
 Seklike. Such-like. 
 
 Shirk. To run off, e.g.," from a bargain.
 
 GLOSSARY. 305 
 
 Shirl. To slide, to skate. 
 Shog. A slow jog-trot. 
 Sile. To strain, e.g., milk strainer. 
 Skirl. To scream shrill. 
 Skratt. A demon. 
 Skreed. A thread, shreds. 
 Skrunsh. To masticate, e.g., horses. 
 Slape. Slippery. 
 
 Slaver. Foam. (Icelandic, slefa.) 
 Slenk. To sneak, idle. 
 Slock, Slacken. To quench thirst. 
 Slother. Frothy. 
 
 Slot (Teutonic, slob). A door bolt. 
 Smere. Clover. Smardale. 
 Sna. Snow. 
 
 Souple. Wooden flail, end hung loose. 
 Spiff. Smart, fine. 
 Stane. Stone. Stainmoor. 
 Stag. An unbroken horse. 
 Stang (Dutch). A pole, cart shaft. 
 Staple. A market or socket for a bolt. 
 Stecked. A stubborn horse. 
 Stee. A ladder. (A. S., steynes, stairs.) 
 Stegg (Icelandic, steggr). A gander. 
 Sten. Stone. Rith, red. Stenkrith. 
 Steven. To be vexed. 
 Stiddy (A. S.). An anvil. 
 
 Stinted. A right to put cattle to grass in enclosure. 
 Stirk (A. S.). A young heifer. Stirkland. Strickland. 
 21
 
 306 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Storken. To freeze. (Fr., starker, to stiffen.) 
 
 Strackling. Worthless fellow. 
 
 Strake, To draw, level measure. 
 
 Street. Road. Roman Road, 
 
 Stun (A. S., stunner). To amaze. 
 
 Stydal. Mouldy. 
 
 Swirl. To swing, hand over. 
 
 Swop (A. S.). To exchange. 
 
 Tarn (Norse). A tear. Bleatarn. 
 
 Teg. A hog, a weaned lamb. 
 
 Teem. To pour out. (Icelandic, toma.} 
 
 Terble. Terrible. " There's terble wark." 
 
 Tew. To labour till exhausted. 
 
 Thack. To thatch. 
 
 Thibel. A stick to stir porridge. 
 
 Thorpe. A village. Crackenthorpe. 
 
 Thrang, To be busy. 
 
 Thrattles. Sheep dung. 
 
 >^ 
 
 Threap. To argue foolishly. 
 
 Thrune. To purr like a cat. 
 
 Thwack. To beat. 
 
 Thwaite. A wood. Oxenthwaite. 
 
 Tine. To shut, prong of fork. 
 
 Tither. The other. 
 
 Titter. Sooner. Titter cummer (a tittering laugh). 
 
 Toft. A field. Knocking Toft. 
 
 Tooti (A. S.). Toe. Tories, toes. 
 
 Ton. A town. IVmton (whin furze).
 
 GLOSSARY. 307 
 
 Torfit. To die. 
 
 Tonzle. To tease, rumple. 
 
 Timmer, Wood, especially for building. 
 
 Twistle. A boundary. Entwistle. 
 
 Ty (Welsh). A cottage. 
 
 Uncanny. Not pleasant, to be dreaded. 
 Uphaud. To support. 
 Urchin. Hedgehog. 
 
 Varra. Very. (Fr. vrai.} 
 Vamp. To boast. 
 Veigle. To entice. 
 
 Wad. A pencil, black lead. 
 
 Wallop. To beat. 
 
 Wamble. To wriggle, wobble. 
 
 Wame. The stomach. 
 
 Wanckle. Weakness, e.g., of joints. 
 
 Wangle. To walk slowly about. 
 
 Wark. Work, e.g., sek wark, such work. 
 
 Warrel. Quarry (to quarry). 
 
 Wax. To grow. 
 
 Wee. Little. 
 
 Weason. The windpipe. 
 
 Welt. To beat, part of shoe sole. 
 
 Ween (A. S., wenan, wen). To fancy, think. 
 
 Wliang. A shoe lace. (Saxon, thwang.) 
 
 IVJielp. A pup.
 
 308 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Wheezle. To wheeze, e.g., thick breathing. 
 
 Whiffler. A trifler. 
 
 Whinge. To cry. 
 
 Wtiin. Furze, gorse. 
 
 Whittle (A. S., huytel). A knife. 
 
 Whittling (Saxon, thivitaii). To peel a stick with a knife. 
 
 WJiigmaleerie. Fanciful. 
 
 Wick (A. S.). Alive, a village or bay. 
 
 Woa (A. S.). Worth, i.e., weorthen, wall. 
 
 Wreeth. Snow rolled up. 
 
 Wraith. A ghost. 
 
 Oak. 
 Kwvfc. To hark. 
 yaf/ (A. S., half). Hot. 
 Yaud. An old horse. 
 
 To eat. 
 
 To twist as in sewing leather. 
 Yeather. The stick wound on top of hedge. 
 Yowl (A. S.). To howl. 
 Ymve. A ewe. 
 
 END.
 
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