.
t ^ SO*
■ ;_
H
a
«S
"ft*
[ I 1
TO V- »
JOSEPH BANKS, Efq;
Dear Sir,
I Think myfelf fo much indebted to you, for making me the vehicle for conveying to the public the rich difcovery of your lafl voyage, that I cannot difpenfe with |j. this addrefs the ufual tribute on fuch occalions. You
2 took from me all temptation of envying your fuperior §> good fortune, by the liberal declaration you made that
the Hebrides were my ground, and yourfelf, as you
3 pleafantly exprefTed it, but an interloper. May I meet o with fuch, in all my adventures !
Without lefTening your merit, let me fay that no one has lefs reafon to be fparing of his ftores of knowlege. co pew poffefs fo large a fhare : you enjoy it without often- tation ; and with a facility of communication, the refult of natural endowments joined with an immenfity of obfervation, collected in parts of the world, before, either of doubtful exigence, or totally unknown. You have enriched yourfelf with the treafures of the globe, by a circumnavigation, founded on the moil liberal and fcientific principles.
a The
u
DEDICATION.
The xvith century received luftre from the numbers of generous volunteers of rank and fortune, who diftin- guifhing themfelves by the contempt of riches, eafe, and luxury, made the moft hazardous voyages, like yourfelf> animated by the love of true glory..
In reward, the name of Banks will ever exifl with thofe of Clifford, Raleigh and Willughby, on the rolls of fame, celebrated in fiances of great and enter- prizing fpirits : and the arffiic Solander muft remam a fine proof that no climate can prevent the feeds of knowlege from vegetating in the breaft of innate abi- lity.
You have had j.ufUy a full triumph decreed to you by your country. May your laurels for ever remain un- blighted !. and if fhe has deigned to twine for me. a civic wreath, return to me the fame good wifh.
I am,, with every due acknowlegement,.
Dear Sir,
Your obliged, and
Downing,
March i, i;74»
moil obedient humble Servant, THOMAS PENNANT.
[ m 3
ADVERTISEMENT.
THIS journey was undertaken in the fummer of 1772, in order to render more complete, my preceding tour ; and to allay that fpecies of reftleifnefs that infe&s many minds, on leaving any attempt unfinifhed, Confcious of my deficiency in feveral re- fpects, I prevaled on two gentlemen to favor me with their company, and to fupply by their knowlege what I found wanting in myfelf.
To the Rev. Mr. John Light foot^ lecturer of Uxbridge, I am obliged for all the botanical remarks fcattered over the following pages. But it gives me great pleafure to fay that he means to extend his favors, by foon giving to the public a Flora Scotica, an ample enumeration and hiitory of the plants obferved by him in the feveral places we vifited. To Mr. Lightfoot, I mud join in my acknowlegements, the Rev. Mr. John Stuart of Killin, for a variety of hints, relating to cufbms of the natives of the highlands, and of the iilands, which by reafon of my ignorance of the Erfe or Galic language, muft have efcaped my notice. To both I was indebted for all the comforts that arife from the fociety of agreeable and worthy companions.
I muft not omit my thanks to the feveral gentlemen who favored me at different times with accounts and little hiftories of the places of their refidence, or their environs. To begin with the mod fouthern, my bed acknowlegements are due to
Mr. Aikin, Surgeon, for the account of IVarrington.
a 2 Mr.
it ADVERTISEMENT.
Mr. Thomas V/eji favored me with feveral things relating to the North of Lancajhire.
Doctor Brownrigg, the Rev. Doctor Burn, Jofeph Nicholfon, Efq-, of Hawkfiery, and the Rev. Mr. Farijh of Carlijle, afforded me large fupplies relating to their counties of IVeJlmorekind and Cumberland.
In Scotland, John Maxw.el, Efq; of Broomholme, and Mr. Utile of Langholme favored me with feveral remarks relating to Ejlcdale.
The Rev. Mr. Jaffray, minifter of Ruthwell, with a hiitory of his parifh.
Sir William Maxwell, Bart, of Spring keld, with variety of draw- ings, found at the Roman ftation at Burrens *.
John Goldie, Efq-, of Dumfries, fupplied me with numbers of ob- fervations on that town and county.
The Rev. Mr. Duncan Macfarlane of Drummondy with an account of his parifli.
Mr. John Golborn, engineer, with an account of Glafgow, and various mifcellaneous remarks.
For the excellent account of Paijley, I am indebted to Mr. Francis Douglas.
The Rev. Mr. GerJJocm Stuart fent me materials for an* account of the ifle of Arran.
Alexander Campbel, Efq-, of Ballole, and Charles Freebain, Efq; communicated feveral obfervations relating to the ifle of Hay.
Joseph Banks, Efq; communicated to me his defcription of Staffa ; and permitted my artift to copy as many of the beautiful drawings in his collection, as would be of ufe in the prefent work.
* I muft not otjiit my thanks to the Rev. Mr. Cordiner, minifter of the epifcQpal chapel at Bamjf, for an elegant drawing of the urn in the preceding volume.
I muft
ADVERTISEMENT.
I mull acknowlege myfelf in a particular manner indebted to the Rev. Mr. Donald Macquin of Kilmuir, in the ifle of Skz'e, for a molt inftructive correfpondence relating to the antient cuftoms of the place, and to its various antiquities. A fmall part I have mingled with my own account : but the greater fbare, in juftice to the merit of the writer, I have delivered unmutilated in the Appendix to the third volume.
The Rev. Mr. Dounie, minifter of Gair-Ioch, obliged me with various remarks on his neighborhood.
The Rev. Mr. Donald Macleod of Gknelg, the fame, refpecling his.
To Doctor Ram/ay of Edinburgh, I mull return thanks, for a variety of fervices : to Mr. George Paton of the fame place, for an indefatigable and unparalleled afiiduity in procuring from all parts any intelligence that would be of ufe to the work in view.
PLATES.
[ vi ]
A T E S.
F.ontifpiece. A Angular Ifle of the Eaft fide of Lismore.
I. No. I. Druidical temple near Keswick. II. Tripodal pot, 43
p. 28, Ilf. filver. plate, vide additions. IV. Altar, p. 60.
II. Skiddaw mountain, 46 •III. Antiquities. No. I. xGauliJh figure, p. 55. No. II. head of Jupiter, p.
77. No. III. another head, ibid. 63 IV. Warwick church, and arch of the door. No. I. the plan of Wetherel
cells, p. 60. 86
V. View of Wetherel cells, 70 VI. No. I. Fortune. II. a Terminus, a female Faun. III. Three fol-
diers, barbarians, 83
VII. Mifcellaneous antiquities, 84
■VUL Caerlavoroc cattle, 109
IX. Lincluden abby, 119
X. Countefs of Galloway's tomb in that abby, 120
XI. Earl Douglas's tomb in Douglas church, 134.
XII. Rothesay cattle, in the ifle of Bute, 181
XIII. Loch-Ranza bay, and the manner of taking the balking (hark, 192
XIV. The crag of Ailsa, and a view of the cattle, 216 XV. Sheelins in Jura, and a diftant view of the Paps.
* A cottage in Ilav, 246 XVI. * Infide of a poor weaver's cottage in Ilay, 261 XVII. The abby in Oransay, 269 XVIIt. The cloifters of the fame abby, 270 XIX. # The crofs in Oransay; and the lhaft of another in Killarow church- yard, in Ilay, 270 XX. Tomb in the abby of Oransay, 270 XXI. View of Jona, from the found, 277
XXII. The cathedral in Jona, 289
XXIII. Infide of the fame, 290
XXIV. Tombs in the cathedral and nunnery, 290 XXV. Chart of Jona, Stakfa, and the other ifles of Mull, 298
XXVI. No. I. View down the firth of Clyde, 299
II. of Staffa, &c.
XXVII. * View of the Eatt columns in Staffa, 300
'■* All marked thus are taken from the drawings communicated by Mr. Banks.
2 XXVI1J.
PLAT E &
XXVIir. *FiNGAL'scave, 301
XXIX. * Ifle of Buachail.le, 303
XXX. * Bending pillars, 304
XXXI. * Part of the fame, and a view of.BuACHAiLLE, 305
XXXII. View in Can nay, 316
XXXIII. No. I. Dryas oclopetala. II» CherJeria fedoides. Found on Baike-
<val, in Rum, 327
XXXIV. Women at the Quern, and at the Luagb, with a view of Talyskir g28
XXXV. View from Beinn-nacaillicb, in Skie, 329
XXXVI. Danijb fort in Bracadale, 336
XXXVII. View of Dun vegan cattle, and the loch beyond, 338
XXXVIII. Dun-tuilm cattle, 350 XXXIX. Eriocaulon decangulare, p. 2.88. Cornus Herbacta*
found about Loch-Broom, 364
XL. DUNDONNEL, 378
XLI. Danijb edifices in Glen-elg, 392
XL1I. View at the upper end of Loch Jurn, 39& No. I. View of Lunga, and the Dutchman's, cap. II. and III, diffe- rent views of MacLeod's great table.
XLIIJ* Dunstaffage cattle ; the chapel and rock oppofite, 409
XLIV. The ivory image, p. 354. No. I. a military fcythe. II. a Danijb
fword p. 290. 111. part of a rude iron fvvord, found in
Ilay. 410
vu
A
T O U R
I N
SCOTLAND,
AND
VOYAGE to the HEBRIDES,
MDCCLXXIL
N Monday the 18th of May\ for a fecond time, take my Chester, departure for the North, from Chester ; a city without parallel for the Angular ftructure of the four principal ilreets, which are as if excavated out of the earth, and funk many feet beneath the furface •, the carriages drive far below the level of the kitchens, on a line with ranges of mops •, and over them, iTS rows, on each fide the ftreets, paffengers walk from end to end, fecure from wet or heat, in galleries purloined from the firft floor of each houfe, open and baluflraded in front. The back courts of all thefe houfes are level with the ground, but to go into any of the four ilreets it is neceflfary to defcend a flight of feveral fteps.
B The
A TOUR
The ftreets were once confiderably deeper, as is apparent from the mops, whofe floors lie far below the prefent pavement. The leffer ftreets and allies that run into the greater ftreets, vvere- floped to the level of the bottoms of the latter, as is particularly vifible in Bridge-Jlreet. It is difficult to affign a realbn for thefe hollowed ways : I can only fuppofe them to have been the void left after the deftruction of the antient vaults mentioned by an antient hiftorian : In this cyte, fays the Polychronicon *, ben ways under erthe with vowtes and Jione-werke wonder ly wrought thre chambred werkes : I grave with olde mennes names therein. There is alfo Julius Cezars name wonder ly in ft ones grave, and other noble mennes alfo, with the wry tynge about : meaning the altar and monumental inferiptions of the Romans. Cathedral. The cathedral ('till the reformation the church of the rich mo-
naftery of St. JVerburgh) is an antient ftructure, very ragged on the outfide, from the nature of the friable red ftone -J- with which it is built ; but ftill may boaft of a moft elegant Weftern front ; and the tabernacle work in the choir is very neat : St. Werburgh's fhrine is now the bifhop's throne, decorated with the figures of Mercian monarchs and faints ; to whom the fair patronefs was a bright example, living immaculate with her hufband Ceolredus, copying her aunt the great Ethelreda, who lived for three years, with not lefs purity, with her good man Tonberffus, and for twelve with her fecond hufband, the pious Prince Egfrid. Hiftory relates, that
* Higden's Polychronicon, or rather that by Roger Ceftrenfis, a Renedicline monk Of St. Wtrburgh'% ; from whom Higden is faid to have ftolen the whole work. This Roger was cotemporary with Trivet, who died A. D. 1328.
f Fale-Rojal, .19..
this
INSCOTLAND. $
this religious houfe was originally a nunnery, founded A. D. 66o, by Wulpherus, king of the Mercians, in favor of his daughter's in- difpofuion. The nuns, in procefs of time, gave way to canons fecu- lar ; and they again were difplaced by Hugh Lupus, nephew to the conqueror, 1095, and their room fupplied by Beneditlines.
The beauty and elegant fimplicity of a very antique gothic chap- Chapter-house, ter-houfe, and its fine veftibule, merits a vifit from every traveller. The date of the foundation is uncertain, but it feems, from the fimi- litude of roof and pilafters in a chapel in the fquare tower in the caftle, to have been the work of cotemporary architects, and thefe architects were probably Norman ; for the mode of fquare towers, with fquared angles, was introduced immediately on the conqueft.
The cloifters, the great refectory, now the free-fchool, and a gate- way of moil Angular ftructure, are at prefent the fole remains of this monaftery. The ruins near St. John's church are fine reliques of the piety of the times •, and the mafly columns, and round arches within the church, mod curious fpecimens of the clumfy flrength of Saxon architecture. The former are probably the remains of the monaftery of St. Mary, founded by Randal, fecond E. of Chefter, for Beneditline nuns. The church was founded by King Ethelred, in 689 : an uncouth infcription on the walls informs us, that ' King ' Ethelred minding more the blifle of heaven, edified a colledge ' church notable and famous in the fuburbs of Chejler pleafant and * beauteous in the honour of God and the Baptift St. John with the 1 help of bimop Wulfrice and good Excillion *.' It was rebuilt in 906, by Ethelred, E. of Mercia, after he had expelled the Danes
* So tranflated from bono auxilio.
B 2 out
A TOUR
out of the city. This was alfo the cathedral, until fuppknted in 155 1, by the church of the abby of St. Werburgb.
Castle and The caftle is a decaying pile, rebuilt by one of the Norman earls,.
ALLS' on the fite of the more antient fortrefs. The walls of the city (the
only complete fpecimen of old fortifications) are one mile three quarters and a hundred and one yards in circumference, and, being the principal walk of the inhabitants, are kept in excellent order, The views from the feveral parts are very fine : the mountains of FlintJJoire^ the hills of Broxion, and the infulated rock of Bee/ion, form the ruder part of the fcenery ; a rich flat gives us a fofter view, and the profpect up the river towards Boughton, recalls in fome degree the idea of the Thames and Richmond hill.
Antiquities. The Hypocauft, near the Feathers inn, is one of the remains of the
Romans, it being well known that this place was a principal ftation. Among many antiquities found here, none is more lingular than the rude fculpture of the Dea Armigera Minerva, with her bird and altar, . on the face of. a rock in a fmall field near the Welch end of the bridge. Trade.. Chester has been, at different times, a place d'armes, a great'
thorough-fare between the two kingdoms, and the refidence of a . numerous and polifhed gentry. Trade, till of late years, was but little attended to, but at prefent efforts are making to enter into that of Guinea, the plantations, and the Baltic -, and from the Rbccnix tower is a good Pifgah view of an internal commerce by means of a canal now cutting beneath the walls.
Since the year 1736, and not before, great quantities of linen-cloth have been imported from Ireland to each of the annual fairs : in that year 449654 yards j and at prefent about a million of yards are
brought
I'N SCOTLAND. 5
brought to each fair. Hops are another great article of trade, for above ten thoufand pockets are fold here annually, much of which is forwarded to the neighboring ifland. But the only ftaple trade of the city is in (kins, multitudes of which are imported, dreffed here,- but fent out again to be manufactured. Here is a well-regulated poor-houfe, and an infirmary ; the laft fupported by contributions from the city, its county, and the adjacent counties of North-Wales. The firft has happily the left ufe of this pious foundation ; for, Healthiness. whether from the drynefs of the fituation, the clearnefs of the air, or the purity of the water, the proportion of deaths to the inhabitants has been only as 1 to 31 ; whereas in London 1 in 20, and 3-4ths •, in Leeds 1 in 21, and 3-5ths j and in Northampton and Shrewjbury, 1 in 26, annually pay the great tribute of nature *. Might I be per- mitted to moralize, I mould call this the reward of the benevolent and charitable difpofition, that is the characteriftic of this city •, for fuch is the facrifice that is pleafing to the Almighty.
About two miles from Cbefter, pafs over Hook heath, noted for Hoole heath. having been one of the places of reception for ftrangers eftablimed by Hugh Lupus, in order to people his new dominions. This in par- ticular was the afylum allotted for the fugitives of Wales.
Ride thro' the fmall town of Tr afford : this, with the lordfhip of Newton, was, as Daniel King obferves, one of the fweet morfels that the abbot of St. Werburgh and his convent kept for their own whole- fome provifion. Get into a tra£t of fandy country, and pafs be- neath Hellejby-Tor, a high and bluff termination of Delamere foreft, Hellesby-Toiu
* Vide the obfervations on this fubjett of that humane phyfician, my worthy friend, Dr, Haygarth.
compofed 1
A T G U R
compofed of the fame friable ftone as that near Chefler, but veined with yellow. Hence a view of the junction of the Weever and the Merfey, and an extenfive tract of marihy meadow, with fome good and much rufhy grafs ; and beyond is the beginning of the wide eftuary that flows by. Leverpool Frodesham. Crofs a little brook, called Llewyn, and reach Frodefljam ; a town
of one long ftreet, which, with its cattle, was allotted by EdwarAl. to David, brother to Lewelyn, laft Prince of Wales, as a retainer in his double perfidy againft his own blood, and his own country. Not a veftige is left of the caftle, which flood at the Weft end of the town ; was latterly ufed as a houfe by the Savages, and was burnt down in 1652, when one of that name, an Earl Rivers, lay dead in it.
This, as well as moft other towns and villages in Chejhire, flands on an eminence of fand-ftone, and by that means enjoys a fituation dry, wholeibme and beautiful.
The church ftands at a vaft height above the town. In the re- gifter are thefe two remarkable inftances of longevity : March the 1.3th, 1592, was buried, Thomas Hough, aged 141 ; and the very next day was committed to the earth, Randle Wall, aged 103. I obferved alfo, that in the Winter of 1574, the peftilence reached this fequeftered place, for four are then recorded to have died of it. In early times that avenging angel fpread deftruction thro' all parts of the land ; but her power is now ceafed by the providential cefTation of the natural caufes that gave rife to that moft dreadful of calamities. Archery, Above the church is .Beacon hill, with a beautiful walk cut along
its fide. At the foot are four butts (archery being ftill practifed
here)
IN SCOTLAND, 3
Here) for an exercife in which the warriors of this county were of old eminent. The butts lie at four, eight, twelve, and fixteen roods diftance from each other : the laft are now difufed j probably as the prefent race of archers prefer what is called fhort-fhooting *.
Crofs the Weever, on a good flone bridge : from a neighboring warehoufe much cheefe is ihipped off, brought down the river in boats from the rich grazing grounds, that extend as far as Nantwich. The river, by means of locks, is navigable for barges as high as Win/low bridge -, but below this admits veffels of fixty tuns. The channel above and below is deep and clayey, and at low water very difagreeable.
On the North banks are the ruins of Rock-favage, fuffered, Rock-savage. within memory, to fall to decay •, once the feat of a family of the fame name •, and not far remote, on the fame range, is Afion, a good houfe, finely fituated, but rendered too naked through the rage of modern tafte.
About two miles farther, on the right, is Dutton-Lodge, once the Dutton-Lodge, feat of the Duttons ; a family in poffeffion of a fingular grant, having Magijierium omnium Leccatorum et meretricum totius Ceftrejhire. This- privilege came originally from Randal, 6th Earl of Chefier, to Roger Lacy, conftable of that city, who, when the Earl was cloiely befieged by the Welch in Rudland catte, collected haflily for his relief a band of minftrels, and other idle people, and with them fucceeded in the attempt ; after which his fon John affigned it to the Duttons, one of that name being afliftant in the affair.
* I think myfelf indebted to Mr. Robert/on, librarian to the Royal-Society, an old archer, for the correction of this paffag^.
Reach
8 A T O U R
Halton castlb. Reach Halton cattle, feated on an eminence, and given by Hugh Lupus to Nigellus, one of his officers, and founded by one of the two. Nigel held it by this honorable and fpirited fervice, that whenever the Earl made an expedition into Wales, the Baron of Haldon mould be the foremoft in entering the country, and the laft in coming out *. It became afterwards the property of the houfe of Lancafier, and was a favorite hunting feat of John of Gaunt. The caftle is a ruin, except a part kept as a prifon. It belongs to the dutchy of Lancafier, and has ilill a court of record, and other privileges.
From the caftle is the molt beautiful view in CheJJjire ; a rich pro- fpeft of the meanders of the Merfey, thro' a fertile bottom ; a pretty wooded peninfula jutting into it oppofite to Runcorn ; the great county of Lancajhire, filled with hedge-row trees ; and beyond foar the hills of Torkjhire and Lancafdre ; and on the other fide ap- pears Che/hire, and the dill loftier Cambrian mountains ; but clofe beneath, near the church, is ftill a more pleafing view ; that of a row of neat alms-houfes, for the reception of the fuperannuated fervants of the houfe of Norton, founded by the late Pufey Brook Eiiqj my friend, and the friend of mankind. Norton. Defcend the hill, and pafs by Norton, a good modern houfe, on the
fite of a priory of canons regular of St. Augufiine, founded by Wil- liam, fon of Nigellus, A. D. 1 135, who did not live to complete his defign ; for Eujlace de Burgaville granted to Hugh de Catherik pafture for a hundred flieep, in cafe he finifhed the church in all refpeds conformable to the intent of the founder. It was granted at the difiblution to Richard Brook, Efquire.
• Blunt\ Antient Tenures.
Continue
IN SCOTLAND.
Continue my way along a flat dull country, reach the banks of the Merfey, ride over a long caufeway, having before me a perfect wood of lofty poplar, that fpeaks the foil j and Warrington as if in the midft of it. Enter
LANCASHIRE,
after crofling a handfome Hone bridge 'of four arches, which leads into the town, and was built by the firft Earl of Derby, to accommodate Henry VII, then on his road on a vifit to his lordmip, probably to footh the Earl after the ungrateful execution of his brother, Sir William- Stanly. It was at firft a toll-bridge, but his lordfhip generoufly releafed the country from that tax, at a lofs of as many marks as was equivalent to the portion of one of his daughters. >
The priory of the hermit friers of Auguftine, founded before Warrington. 1379, flood near the bridge, but not a relique exifts. The en- trance into the town is unpromiiing, the ftreets long, narrow, ill built, and crowded with carts and paffengers ; but farther on are airy, and of a good width, but afford a ftriking mixture of mean buildings and handfome houfes, as is the cafe with moft trading towns that experience a fudden rife ; not that this place wants an- tiquity, for Leland fpeaks of its having a better market than Manchefter upwards of 200 years ago. At that time the princi- pal part of the town was near the church, remote from the bridge, and was acceffible only by a ford, but the conveniency of a fafer tranfit foon drew the buildings to that end.
C The
10
OUR
Chwrch. The church has of late undergone much alteration, but two>
of the antient fide chapels ftill remain : one belonging to the Maffies contains nothing but a fmall mural monument, with a very amiable character of Francis Majfey, Efq-, Lord of the ma- nours of Rixton and Glajbrook, lad of the antient family, which was extinct with him in 1748 ; but in an oppofite chapel is a magnificent tomb of Sir Thomas Boteler and his lady, in alabafler : their effigies lie at top, hand in hand, he in armour, fhe in a re- markable mitre- maped cap •, round the fides are various figures, fuch as St. Chriftopher, St. George, and other fuperftitious fculp- tures. The Botelers were of great antiquity in this place; the firft took his name from being Butler to Ranulf de Gernons, or Me/chines, Earl of Chejler. His pofterity acquired great pof- fefiions in this county*, and one of them obtained the charters for markets and fairs at Warrington, from his Prince Edward I. Tradition fays, that Sir Thomas, then refident at Beauly houfe, near this town, was, with his lady, murdered in the night by afifafiins, who croiTed the moat in leathern boats to perpetrate their villainy.
Beneath an arch in the wall near this tomb is another, contain- ing a figure in a long robe, muffled up to the chin ; the head wrap- ped in a fort of cap, and bound with a neat fillet.
Befides this church is a neat chapel of eafe, lately rebuilt, and many places of worfhip for Prefbyterians, Anabaptifts, Quakers, Methodifls and Roman Catholics : for in manufacturing places it often falls out that the common people happily have a difpofition
* Dugdalis Baronage I. 653.
to
IN SCOTLAND. iV
to feek the Lord, but as unhappily difagree in the means of ren- dering themfelves acceptable to him.
Here is a free-fchool, very confiderably endowed, and made very refpectable by the merits of the preient mafter. An academy has of late years been eflablifhed in this town, with a view of giving an education to youth on the plan of an univerfity.
The manufactures of this place are very confiderable ; formerly Manufactusbs. a great quantity of checks and coarfe linnens were made here, but of late years thefe have given way to that of Polldavies, or fail- cloth, now carried on with fuch fpirit (in the town and country) as to fupply near one half of the navy of Great-Britain. The late war gave a great rife to this branch, and a fudden improvement to the town.
The making of pins is another confiderable article of commerce ; locks, hinges, call-iron, and other branches of hardware, are fabri- cated here to a great amount : very large works for the refining of copper, are carried on near the town j and the glafs and fugar houfes employ many hands. By means of all thefe advantages the town has been doubled within thefe twenty years -, and is fuppofed to contain at prefent between eight and nine thoufand inhabi- tants.
The manufactures of this place are moil readily conveyed down to Liverpool, by means of the Merfey. The fpring-tides rife at the bridge to the height of nine feet, and veifels of feventy or eighty tuns can lie at Bank-quay, the port of the town j where warehoufes, cranes, and other conveniences for fhipping of goods are erected. I muft not omit that thirty or forty thoufand buihels of potatoes are annually exported out of the rich land of the en- Potatoes
C 2 virons
1.2
A TOUR
virons of Warrington, into the Mediterranean, at the medium price of 14c!. per bufhel. This is the root which honeft Gerard, about two hundred and forty years ago, fpeaks of as a food, as alfo a meat for pleafure being either rofted in the embers or boiled and eaten with oile vinegar and pepper or dreffed feme other way by the hand of ajkilful cooke *. Fish. The falmon fiihery is very confiderable, but the opportunity,
of fending them to London, and other places, at the beginning of the fealbn, keeps up the price to about 8d per pound, which gradually finks to 3d or 2d halfpenny, to the great aid of the poor manufacturers. Smelts, or as they are called in all the North, fparlings, migrate in the Spring up this river in amazing flioals, and of a fize fuperior to thofe of other parts, fome hav- ing been taken that weighed half a pound, and meafured thirteen . inches. Graining. In this river is found a fmall fifh called the Graining, in fome
refpects relembling the dace, yet is a diftind and perhaps new fpecies •, the ufual length is feven inches and a half ; it is rather more (lender than the dace, the body is almoft (trait, that of the other incurvated •, the color of the fcales in this is filvery, with a bluifh caft ; thofe of the dace have a yellowifh or greenifh tino-e : the eyes, the ventral and the anal fins in the Graining are of a pale color -f. Orford-hall. Make a vifit to John Blackburne, Efq; at his feat of Orford, a
mile from Warrington ; dine and lie there. This gentleman from
• Herbal, 928.
f Ray's in P. D. 8. P. P. 15.V. 9. A. 10. C. 32.
his
IN SCOTLAND.
his earlieft life, like another Evelyn, has made his garden the em- ploy and amufement of his leiiure hours ; and been molt ftrccefsful in every part he has attempted: in fad: he has an univerfal know- ledge in the culture of plants. He was the fecond in thefe king- doms that cultivated the Pine apple: has the belt fruit and the belt kitchen garden: his collection of hardy exotics is exceedin°-lv numerous ; and his collection of hot-houfe plants is at left equal to that at Kew. He neglects no branch of botany, has the aquatic plants in their proper elements •, the rock plants on artificial rocks ; and you may be here betrayed into a bog by attempting to gather thofe of the morafs.
Mrs. Blackburne his daughter extends her refearches {till farther, and adds to her empire another kingdom : not content with the- botanic, fhe caufes North America to be explored for its animals, and has formed a Mufeum from the other fide of the Atlantic, as pleafing as it is instructive.
In this houfe is a large family picture of the AJht on' 's of Chad-, derton, confifting of a gentleman, his lady, eleven children livino- at that time, and three infants who died in their birth : it was painted in the reign of James I. by Tobias Ratcliff; but has fo little merit, that I mould not have mentioned it, but to add one more to Mr. Walpole\ lift of painters.
May 19, Pafs through IVinwick, a fmall village remarkable for Winwick. being the richeft rectory in England: the living is worth 2300 1. per annum ; the Rector is Lord of the Manor, and has a glebe of 1300I. annual rent: it is fingular that this county, the feventh in fize in England, has only fixty-one parifhes, whereas Norfolk, . the. next in dimenfions has no fewer than fix hundred and fixty.
In.
'3
H
A TOUR
In the wall of an old porch before the Rector of Wimvick's houfe, is fafely lodged a bible, placed there by a zealous incum- bent, who lived in the days of Oliver Cromwel, in order that at left one authentic book might be found, mould the fanatics corrupt the text, and deftroy all the orthodox copies.
On the outfide of the Church is this infcription, cut in old letters : .
Hie locus, Of<waMe, quondam tibi placuit valde; Nortbanumbrorum fueras Rex, nuncque polorum Regna tenes, Prato partus MarceUe * vocato. Anno milleno quingentenoque triceno, Sclator poft Chrijlum murum renovaverat iftum : Henricus Jobn/lon curatus erat fimul hie tunc.
Ofwald was king of Northumberland ; the mod pious prince of his time •, and the reftorer of the chriftian religion in his dominions : at length, A. D. 640, receiving a defeat near Ofwejlry, by Penda, pagan king of Mercia, was there flain, his body cut in pieces, and ftuck on poles by way of trophies.
At Redbank between this place and Newton the Scots in Augufi 1648, after their retreat from Prejton, made a refolute Hand for many hours againft the victorious Cromwel, who, with great lofs on both fides, beat them from their ground •, and the next day made himfelf mafter of all their remaining infantry, which, with their commander Lieutenant-general Bayly, furrendered on the bare con- dition of quarter +.
• Mufer-field near Ofiuejlry.
f Whitslock, 332. Clarendon, V. 162.
Pafs
L N SCOTLAND.
Pafs through Newton, a fmall burough town : the country flat and fertile. On approaching Wiggan, obferve feveral fields quite white with thread, bleaching for the manufacture of flrong checks and coarfe linen, carried on in that town and neighborhood.
Wiggan is a pretty large town and a burough. It has long been Wiggan,. noted for manufactures in brafs and pewter, which now give way to that of checks: an ingenious fellow here turns canal coal into vafes, obelifks, and muff- boxes, and forms excellent blackmoors heads out of the fame material.
The beft crofs-bows are alio made in this town by a perfon, who fucceeded his father in the bufinefs -, the laft coming there from Rippon about a century ago.
In the church is an infcription in memory of Sir Roger Brad* Jhaigh of Haigh, an eminent loyaliil in the time of the civil wars : and a tomb much defaced of a Sir William Bradjhaigh, and his lady Mabel, who lived in the reigns of Edward the II. and III. a remarkable hiftory attends this pair : in the time of the firft mo- narch, he fet out for the holy land in quell of adventures, and left his fair fpoufe at home to pray for his fuccefs : but after fome years abfence, the lady thinking he made rather too long a ftay, gave her hand to Sir Ofmund Nevil, a Welch knight. At length Sir William returns in the garb of a pilgrim ; makes himfelf known to his Mabel, is acknowleged by her, and lhe returns to her allegiance •, Sir William purfues the innocent invader of his bed, overtakes him at Newton park, where my unfortunate countryman is flain. The poor lady being confidered as an acceffary to his death, is condemned to a weekly penance of walking barefoot
from
*5
1 6
OUR
from the chapel in Haigh-Hall, three miles diftant, to expiate her crime, to a crofs near Wiggan, at this day called Mabel's crofs.
Not far from the town is the little river Douglas, immortalized by the victories of our Arthur * over the Saxons on its banks. This dream in 1727 was widened, deepened and made navigable by locks, almoft to the mouth of the Ribble : and was among the fiift of thofe projects which have fince been puriued with fo much utility to the inland parts of the kingdom. This canal conveys coal to fupply the north of the county, and even part of Wejlmore- land, and in return brings from thence limeftone. Haigh-hall. On an eminence about a mile from IViggan, is Haigh, the feat
of the BradJJjaigbs, an antient houfe, built at different times, the chapel fuppofed to be as old as the time of Edward 11. in the front are the Stanly arms, and beneath them thofe of the family ; which in all civil commotions had united with the former, even as early as the battle of Bofworth field.
In this houfe are fome excellent pictures •, our Saviour with his difciples at Emaus, by Titian, with the landlord and waiter; a line attention and refpecl is exprefTed in the countenances of the difciples.
A very fine head of Sir Lionel Tolmach, by Fr. Zucchero, on wood ; fliort grey hair, a forked beard, rofy complexion ; a beau- tiful viridis fencolus .
Eliz lady Dacres, daughter of Paul vifcount Bayr.ing, relict of Francis lord Dacres, created countefs of Sheppy for life, by Ch. II. in 16S0, a head on wood: a blooming countenance.
* Henry of Huntingdon, 313.
A head
IN SCOTLAND.
17
A head by Riley, of Sir John Guife, great grandfather to the pre- fent baronet : and another of lady Guife, by Kneller.
Charles I. in his robes.
George Villiers duke of Buckingham, in the robes of the garter, affaflinated by the gloomy Felton.
A large equeitrian picture of Ch. I. a copy after Vandyck.
His daughter, Mary princefs of Orange, mother to kino William.
Henry Murray, efquire, gentleman of the bedchamber to Ch. II. his daughter was married to Sir Roger Bradfhaigh, the fecond baronet.
This neighborhood abounds with that fine fpecies of coal Canal coal* called canal, perhaps candle coal, from its ferving as cheap light for the poor to fpin by, during the long winter evenings : it is found in beds of about three feet in thicknefs ; the veins dip one yard in twenty ; are found at great depths, with a black bafs above and below -, and are fubject to the fame damps fiery and fuffocating as the common coal. It makes the fweeteft of fires, and the moft chearful : is very inflammable ; and fo -clean, that at Haigh-Hall a fummer-houfe is built with it, which .may be en- tered without dread of foiling the lio-htefl cloaths.
Leaving JViggan, obferve on the road-fide near the N. end of the town, a monument, erected by Alexander Rigby, Efq-, in me- mory of his gallant commander Sir Thomas Tildefly, who was killed on this fpot in the engagement with Lambert, in 1650: a faithful domeftic, fupporting his dying mafter, was mot in that fituation by a rebel trooper, who was inftantly piftoled by his generous officer, who -abhorred the barbarity even to an enemy.
D Reach
IS A T O U R
Stan&ish. Reach SlandiJIo, a village with a very handfome church and
fpire fteeple : the pillars within fhew an attempt of the Tufcan order; it was rebuilt in 1584, and chiefly by the afliftance of Richard Moodie, Rector of the place, who maintained the work- men with meat, at his own coft, during the time. He was the fir ft proteftant pallor, conformed and procured the living by the ceflion of the tythes of Standijh, probably thinking it better to lofe part than all. He lies in effigy on his tomb,. drefTed' in his francifcan habit, with an infcription declarative of his munificence towards the church. In front of the tomb are two fmall pillars with ionic capitals, the dawning of the introduction of Grecian archi- tecture.
Here is a handfome tomb of Sir Edward Wrightington, Knight, King's council : he died 165S, and lies in alabafter recumbent in his gown. A curious memorial of Edward Chifnal, Efq; of Cbifnal, who was, during the civil wars, Colonel of a regiment of horfe, and another of foot ; and left there fhould be any doubt, the commifllons are given in full length upon wood. This gentle- man had the honor of defending Latham houfe under the command, of the Heroine the Countefs of Derby.
At Mrs. Townlefs, at Standi JIj -Hall ^ are fome few reliques of the Arundel collection, particularly eight pieces of glafs, with the labors of Hercules moft exquifitely cut on them. A large filver fquare, perhaps the pannel of an altar, with a moft beautiful relief of the refurrection on it, by P. V. 1605. Two trinkets, one a lion,, the other a dragon, whofe bodies are formed of two vaft irregular pearls.
Make
IN SCOTLAND,
Make an excurfion four miles on the Weft, to Holland, a. vil- Holland. lage where formerly had been a priory of Benediclines, founded by Robert de Holland, in 13 19, out of the collegiate chapel, before ferved by canons regular. Nothing remains at prefent but the church, and a few walls. The pofterity of the founder rofe to the greatefl honors during feveral of the following turbulent reigns ; but thofe honors were attended with the greatefl calami- ties. Robert himfelf, firfb Secretary to Thomas of Woodftock, Earl • of Lancajler, after betraying his mafter, loft his head, by the rage of the people, in the beginning of the reign of Edw. III. His pofterity, many at left of them, were equally unfortunate: Thomas de Holland, Duke of Surry, and Earl of Kent, fell in the fame manner at Cirencefter, by the hands of the townfmen, after a ram infurre&ion, in order to reftore his mafter, Richard II. His half brother, John, Duke of Exeter, and Earl of Hunting- don, underwent the fame fate, from the hands of the populace at Plejfy, in EJfex, for being engaged in the fame defign. And his grandfon Henry, Duke of Exeter, experienced a fortune as va- rious as it was calamitous. He was the greateft fubject in power under Henry VI. and was brother in law to Edw. IV. yet, as Comines 'relates, during the firft depreftion of his unhappy mafter, he was feen a fugitive in Flanders, running barefoot after the Duke of Burgundy's coach, to beg an alms : on ?#he laft attempt to replace Henry on the throne, he again appeared in arms at the battle of Bamet, fought manfully, and was left for dead in the field ; a faithful domeftic gave him affiftance, and conveyed him" into fancluary •, he efcaped, and was never heard of 'till his corps was found, by fome unknown accident, floating in the fea be-
D 2 tween
*9
20
A TOUR
tween Dover and Calais * ; and thus clofed the eventful hiftory of this ill-fated line- Return thro* this deep tract into the road at Standijh : the country from hence to Prefton very good ; on the laft a long val- ley runs parallel. At a place called Pincock bridge crofs the Tar- row, a pretty ftream, watering a narrow romantic glen, wooded on both fides.
Ride through Walton, a very populous village, near the Ribbk, a fine river, extending thro' a range of very rich mea- dows, as far as the picturefque vale of Cuerden. Crofs the river on a bridge of five arches, afcend a hill, through lanes once deep, narrow, and of difficult approach -, where, in 17 15, the rebels made fome refiitance to the King's forces in the ill-concerted affair of that year. Preston. On the top lies Prefton, a neat and handfome town, quiet, and
entirely free from the noife of manufactures ; and is fupported by paffengers, or the money fpent by the numerous gentry that inhabit it. It derives its name (according to Camden) from the Priefts or Religious that were in old times the principal inhabitants. Here was a convent of grey friars or Francifcans founded by Edmund Earl of Lancafter, ion of Henry III. Robert de Holland abovementioned, was a confiderable benefactor to the place, and was buried here. A gentleman of the name of Prefton gave the ground f . Might not the town take its name from him ? Here was alfo an antient hofpital dedicated to Mary Magdalene, mentioned in 1291 in the Lincoln taxation j;.
* Stew, 426; f Stevens's McnaJ}. 1. 154. % Tanner, 234.
This
IN SCOTLAND.
This place was taken by ftorm in 1 643 by the parlement forces under Sir John Seaton, after a moft gallant defence : It was at that time fortified with brick walls *.
North of this town began the action between that gallant officer Sir Marmaduke Langdale, and the parlement forces under Cromwel. The former commanded the Englijb army that was to act in con- junction with the Duke of Hamilton in his unfortunate invafion in July 1648. Langdale gave the infatuated Scot, notice of the ap- proach of Cromwel, and in vain advifed the aflemblingof the whole force, his council was loft. He alone made a ftand in the fields near Prejlon for fix hours, unafiifted by the Duke, who pufhed the march of his troops over the bridge, leaving Sir Marmaduke to be overpowered with numbers,
The walks on the banks above the Ribhle command a moft beautiful view of meadows, bounded by delicious rifings ; the river meandring between 'till the profpect clofes with it's eftuary. Continue here the whole night, and lie at the Black-Bull.
The spectator has long fince pointed out the knowledge that may be collected from figns : it is impoffible not to remark the propriety of the reigning ones of this county : the triple-legs, and the eagle-and-child, denote the great porTefiions of the Stanlies in thefe parts ; the bull, the juft pre-eminence of it's cattle over other counties ; and the royal-oak, it's diftinguifhed loyalty to it's fove- reign. I am amazed they do not add the Graces, for no where can be feen a more numerous race of beauties among that order, who want every advantage to fet off their native charms.
• Parlement Chronicle, 268.
Go
21
22
A TOUR
May 20. Go over a flat country, with rufhy fields on each fide j crofs
the Broke and the Calder ; fee on the one fide Blazedale fells, and on the other Petting mofs, which fome years ago made an eruption fimilar to that of Solway. Crofs the JVier, near GarJIang^ on a bridge of two arches •, about twelve miles lower it fwells into a fine har- bor, whence the provincial proverb, as fafe as Wier. Veflfels put into it for the fail- cloth made at Kirkham.
Garstang. Breakfaft at GarJIang; a irnall town, remarkable for the fine
cattle produced in it's neighborhood : a gentleman has refufed 30 guineas for a three-year-old cow j has fold a calf of a month's age for 10 guineas, and bulls for 100 ; and has killed an ox weighing 21 Tcore per quarter, exclufive of hide, entrails, &ce Bulls alfo have been let out at the rate of 30 guineas the fea- fon •, fo that well might honeft Barnaby * celebrate the cattle of this place, notwithstanding the misfortune he met with in one of it's great fairs.
'Veni GarJIang, ubi nata Sunt armenta fronte lata; Veni GarJIang, ubi male Intrans forum beftiale, Forte vacillando vico Hue et illuc cum amico, In Juvencaj dorium rui, Cujus cornu laefus fui.
Abundance of potatoes are raifed about the place, and fent to London, Ireland and Scotland.
* Better known by the name of drunken Barnaby, who lived the beginning of t\t laft century, and publifhed his four itineraries in Latin rhyme.
In
IN SCOTLAND.
Sir Edward IValpok is Lord of this manor, his father having obtained a grant of it from the crown.
Near the town, on a knowl, is a fingle tower, the poor remains of Grenebaugh caftle: it was built by the firft Stanley, Earl of Derby, to fecure himfelf in his new poffeiTions, the forfeited eflates of the Torkijls, who did not bear, without refentment, this usurpation on their property. Among the attainted lands, which were vefted in his lordlhip, are reckoned thofe of Pilkington, Brought en, and JVotton *.
Soon after leaving Gar Jiang the country grows more barren, uneven, or (lightly hilly. From a common called the Grave have a fine view of
LANCASTER, built of ftone, and lying on the fide of a hill : Lancaster, the caftle built by Edward III. + forms one great object, the church another; and far beyond is an arm of the fea,- and the lofty mountains of Furnefs and Cumberland. The town is not regular, but is well built, and contains numbers of very handfome houfes. Every ftranger muft admire the front of Mr. Noble's, faced with ftone, naturally figured with views, rivers and mountains, in the fame nature with the pietra imbofcata and ruinata of the Italians, The inhabitants are alfo fortunate in having fome very ingenious cabinet-makers fettled here; who fabricate mod excellent and neat goods at remarkably cheap rates,, which they export to London and the plantations. Mr. Gillow's warehoufe of thefe manufac- tures merits a vifit.
* LelancCs Itin. vi. 35.
f Vetufta Monumenta, &c. publilhed by the Society of Antiquarians, No. 41.
It
23
24
A TOUR
It is a town of much commerce: has fine quays on the river Lune, which brings up fhips of 250 tons burden clofe to the place. - Forty or fifty fhips trade from hence directly, to Guinea and the Weft-Indies: others to Norway. Befides the cabinet goods, fame fail cloth is manufactured here •, and great numbers of candles are exported to the Weft-Indies. Much wheat and barley is imported.
The cuftom-honfe is a fmall but elegant building, with a portico fnpported by four ionic pillars, with a beautiful plain pediment : each pillar is fifteen feet and a half high, and confifts of a fingle (lone. There is a double flight of fteps, a ruftic furbafe and coins j a work that does much credit to Mr. GiUow, the architect. Castle. The caftle is very intire ; has a moft magnificent front, confift-
ino- of two angular towers, and a gateway between ; and within is a great fquare tower : the courts of juflice are held here •, and here are kept the prifoners of the county, in a fafe yet airy con- finement. Church. *j;he church is feated on an eminence near the caftle, and com-
mands an extenfive, but not a pleafing view. Within is a mural monument in memory of Sir Samuel Eyres, one of the judges of the king's bench in the time of King William', and a very pompous in- fcription on the grave-flone of T'ho. Covell, fix times mayor of the town, 48 years keeper of the caftle, 46 years one of the coroners of the county, captain of the freehold land of the hundred of Lonfdale on this fide the fands,. &c. &c. died Aug. 1, 1639.
Ceafe, ceafe to mourn, all tears are vain and void, He's fled, not dead, diflblved, not deftroycd : In Heav'n his foul doth reft, his body here bleeps in this duft, and his fame every where
Triumphs •
INSCOTLAND. 25
Triumphs : the town, the country, farther forth, The land throughout proclaim his noble worth.
Speak of a man fo courteous,
So free and every way magnanimous ;
That ftory told at large here do you fee
Epitomized in brief, Cotell was he.
This is given as a fpecimen of an epitaph fo very extravagant, that the living muft laugh to read; and the deceafed, was he capable, muft blufli to hear.
On the north fide of the church-yard are the remains of an old wall, called the wery wall. Camden conjectures it to have taken its name from Caerwerid, or the green fortrefs, the Britijh name of Lancajler : and that it was part of a Roman wall. For my part, with LelawL, I fufpect it to have been part of the enclofure of the Priory, a cell of Beneditline monks of St. Martin, at Sees in France, fupprefTcd by Hen. V. and given to Sion abby.
The fhambles of this town mull not be omitted : they are built Shambles. in form of a ftreet, at the public expence ; every butcher has his fhop ; and his name painted over the door.
Crofs the Lune, on a handfome bridge of four arches. Turn to the left, and after four miles riding, reach Hefs bank, and at low water crofs the arm of the fea, the Moricambe of Ptolemy, that divides this part of the county from the hundred of Furnefs, a detached trad Cartmel Sands, peninfulated by the fea, lake, or river, a melancholy ride of eleven miles •, the profpect on all fides quite favage, high barren hills in- dented by the fea, or dreary wet fands, rendered more horrible by the approach of night, and a tempefluous evening, obfcured by the driving of black clouds. Beneath the fhade difcerned Arnfide tower,
E the
2*
A TOUR
the property of the Stanlies for fome centuries. Before us was an extenfive, but fhallow ford, formed by the Kent and other rivers,, now parted with trouble by the beating of the waves.
At the entrance into this water am met by a guide, called here the Carter, who is maintained by the public, and obliged in all weathers to attend here from fun rife to fun fet, to conduct pafTen- gers over. Cartmel. Three miles from the more is Cartmel, a fmall town with moft
irregular ftreets, lying in a vale furrounded by high hills. The gateway of the monaftery of regular canons of St. Aujlin, founded in 1 1 88, by William Marefchal, Earl of Pembroke, is ftill Handing. But this had long been holy ground, having about the year 67 7, been given to St. Cuthbert, by Eg/rid, King of Northumberland, with all its inhabitants, at that time, entirely Britijh,
The church is large, and in form of a crofs ; the length is 157 feet : the tranfept 1 10 : the height 5J. The fteeple is molt Angu- lar, the tower being a fquare within a fquare ; the upper part being fet diagonally within the lower. The infideof the church is hand- fome and fpacious : the centre fupported by four large and fine cluttered pillars : the Weft part more modern than the reft, and the pillars octagonal. The choir beautiful, furrounded with flails j whofe tops and pillars are finely carved with foliage ; and with the inftruments of the pafTion above.
On one fide is the tomb ftone of William de Walton, with a crofs on it. He was either firft or fecond prior of this place. The infcription is only Hie Jacet Frater Wilelmus de Walton Prior de Cartmel.
On the other is a magnificent tomb of a Harrington and his lady,
both
IN SCOTLAND.
both He recumbent beneath a fine carved and open work arch, decorated with variety of fuperftitious figures ; and on the furbafe are grotefque forms of chaunting monks. He lies with his leo-s acrofs, a fign that he had obtained that privilege by the merits of a pilgrimage to the Holylatid, or a Crufade. He is faid to have been one of the Harringtons of Wrafholm tower, his lady a Huddlejion of Milium Caftle. It is probably the effigies of Sir John de Harrington, who in 1305, was fummoned by Edw. I. with numbers of other gallant gentlemen, to meet him at Carlijle, and attend him on his expedition into Scotland; and was then knighted along with Prince Edward, with bathing, and other facred ceremonies *.
The monument erected by Cbrijlopher Rawlinfon, of Carkhall, in Cartmel, deferves mention, being in memory of his grandfather, father, and mother. The laft a Monk, defcended from a Tho. Monk of Devon/hire, by Frances Plantagenet, daughter and coheir of Ar- thur Vifcount Lijle, fon of Edw. IV. and this Chrijlopher dying without iffue was the laft male by the mother's fide of that great line.
In a fide chapel is the burial place of the Lowthers -, among other monuments is a neat but fmall one of the late Sir William.
Pafs through fome fields, a ftrange mixture of pafture, rock and May 21.
fmall groves. Defcend a hill to Holker, once the feat of the family Holker.
of the Pre/Ions, fince the property of the Lowthers, and lately that of Lord George Cavendijh : a large irregular houfe, feated in a pretty park, well wooded; and on the fide of the houfe is a range of low rocky hills, directing the eye to an immenfe chain of lofty mountains.
• DugdaUs Baronage, II. 99,
E 2 At
27
28
A TOUR
At Hotter are feveral good pictures : among the portraits, the beautiful, abandoned, vindictive, violent Dutchefs of Cleveland, miitrefs to Ch. II. by Lely.
A Mrs. Low t her, by the fame.
Admiral Penn, dreffcd in black, with a cravat and fafh, long and of a good honeit countenance. He rofe very early in life to the higheft naval commands -, was a captain at twenty one, rear admiral of Ireland at twenty-three, general in the firft Dutch war at thirty-two-, difgraced and imprifoned by Cromwel, for his unfuc- cefsful attempt on St. Domingo, though he added, in that very expe- dition, Jamaica to the kingdom of Great Britain : on the reftoration, commanded under the Duke of York in the fame fhip, at the great fea ficrht of 1665, when the laurels of the firft day were blafted by the myftic inactivity of the fecond •, for where princes are concerned, the truth of mifcarriages feldom appears. He foon after retired from the fervice, and died at the early age of forty- nine.
The late Sir James Lowther ; a character too well known to be dwelt on.
The head of Thomas Wriothejly, Earl of Southampton, the friend of Clarendon, and virtuous treafurer of the firft years after the reftoration.
His lady, leaning on a globe.
A very fine head of a Prefion ? in black, a ruff, fhort grey hair,-, round beard.
A head called that of an Earl Douglas, with this infcription : Novit paucos fecura qities, at.fuce. xxii. A. M. D. xi. On the head a black bonnet, countenance good, beard brown, drefs black.
A fine head of Vandyck, when young, leaning : by himfelf.
An.
I N S C O T L A N D. 29
An old man reading, and a boy, on wood, marked j. w. Stap.
Two boys at dice, and a woman looking on : a fine piece by Mori I !i 0.
St. Francis d'Ajfize^ kneeling, very fine. And variety of other good paintings.
Crofs another tracl: of fands, three miles in breadth, and am con- ducted thro' the ford by another Carter. This officer was originally maintained by the priory of Com/bed; but at the ctiffolution'the King charged himfelf and his fuccefibrs with the payment : fince that time it is held by patent of the dutchy of Lancafter^ and the faiary is paid by the receiver-general. Reach
Uherfton, a town of about three thoufand fouls, feated near the Ulverstok, ■water fide, and is approachable at high water by veffels of a hundred and fifty tuns \ has a good trade in iron ore, pig and bar iron, bark,, lime-llone, oats and barley, and much beans, which laft are fent to Leverpool, for the food of the poor enflaved negroes in the Guinea trade. Numbers of cattle are alfo fold out of the neighborhood, but the commerce in general declines •, at prefent there are not above fixty veffels belonging to the place ; formerly about a hundred and fifty moftly let out to freight j but both mafter and failors go now- to Leverpool for employ.
Quantities of potatoes are raifed here ; and fuch is the increafe that 450 bufhels have been got from a fingle acre of ground. Some wheat is raifed in low Fumefs, near the fea, and in the ifle of Walney : but the inhabitants of thefe parts have but recently applied them- felves to hufbandry. Among the manures fea-fand and live muf- cles are frequently ufed ; but till within thefe twenty years even the ufe of dung was fcarcely known to them>
Make
S°
OUR
Iron mines. Make an excurfion of four miles to the Weft, to vifit the great
iron mines at Whhrigs : the ore is found in immenfe beds beneath two ftrata, one oipinnel or coarfe gravel, about fifteen yards thick ; the next is lime-ftone of twenty yards : the ftratum of ore is rather uncertain in extent, but is from ten to fifteen yards thick, and forty in extent ; and fometimes two hundred tuns have been taken up in a week. A cubic yard of ore weighs three tuns and a half : the common produce of metal is one tun from thirty-five to forty hun- dred of ore i but fome has been fo rich as to yield a tun of iron from twenty feven hundred of the mineral.
The ore lies in vaft heaps about the mines, fo as to form perfect mountains •, is of that fpecies called by mineralogifls hematites and kidney-ore j is red, very greafy, and defiling. The iron race that inhabit the mining villages exhibit a ftrange appearance : men, women and children are perfectly dyed with it, and even innocent babes do quickly affume the bloody complexion of the foil.
The ore is carried on board the mips for 12 s. per tun, each tun 21 hundred; and the adventurers pay is. 6d. per tun farm for li- berty of raifing it. It is entirely fmelted with wood charcoal, but is got in fuch quantities that wood in thefe parts is fometimes want- ing i fo that charcoal is fometimes procured from the poor woods of Mull, and other of the Hebrides.
Thefe mines have been worked above four hundred years ago, as appears by the grant of William of Lancafter, Lord of Kendal, to the priory of Conijbed, in this neighborhood, of the mine of Plumptont probably part of the prefent vein ; which he conveys libera introitu et cxitu ad duos eouos cum hominibus minam cariandam, &c. *
* Dugdak, II, 425.
The
IN SCOTLAND.
3-i
The veftiges of the antient workings are very frequent, and ap- parent enough, from the vaft hollows in the earth wherever they have funk in.
From one of the banks have a great view of the lower Furnefs, as far as appears, a woodlefs tract, and of the ifle of Walney, ftretching along the coaft, and forming to it a fecure counterfcarp from the rage of the fea. At the South end is Peel caftle, originally built, and Peel castle. fupported by the abby of Furnefs, and garrifoned with fixty men, as a protection againft the Scots.
The abby lies oppofite, and the very ruins evince its former mag- Furness abby. nifkence*. It was founded in 1127, by Stephen, Earl of Moriton and Bologne, afterwards King of England, or rather removed by him from Tulket in Aundirnefs. The monks were originally of the order of Tironenftans, of the rule of St. Benedicl, but afterwards became Cifter cians -f-.
The little Tarn, or water called Standing Tarn, is within fight ; it is of considerable depth, and abounds with pike, roch and eels ; alfo with large trout ; and is remarkable for having no vifible outlet, but difcharges its waters by fome fubterraneous pafTage.
See, towards the North, at a fmall diftance, the hill of Black- Black-Coomb. Coomb, in Cumberland, often vifible from Flint/hire, and an infallible prefage to us of bad weather. I found from the report of the inha- bitants of thefe parts, that the appearance of our country is equally ominous to them, and equally unacceptable.
See Swartz-moor hall, near which Martin Swartz and his Germans Swartz-moori
* Finely engraven among the views publifhed by the fociety of Antiquaries. f Dugdale, I. 704- An excellent and full account of this abby has been lately publifhed, by Mr. Thomas Weft*
encamped
2 A T O U R
encamped in 1487, with Lambert Simnel, in order to collect forces in thefe parts, before his attempt to wreft the crown from Henry VII. He was fupported by Sir Thomas Broughton, a gentleman of this neighborhood, who, efcaping afterwards from the battle of Stoke, like our Owen Glendwr lived many years (when he was fup- pofjd to have been (lain) in great obfeurity, fupported by his faith- ful tenants in Weftmor eland. George Fox. And in after-times the melancholy {pint of George Fox, the
founder of quakerifm, took pofTeffion of Swartz-moor hall, firft cap- tivating the heart of a widow, the relict, of judge Fell, the then inha- bitant, moving her congenial foul to refign herfelf to him in the bonds of matrimony. From thence he fallied forth, and I trufl unintentionally, gave rife to a crowd of fpiritual Quixotes (difowned ^ indeed by his admirers, as his genuine followers) who for a period difturbed mankind with all the extravagancies that enthufiafm could invent.
Return to Uherjlon, and dine with Mr. Kendal of that place, who mewed me every civility. In his pofieffion faw a fingular tripodal jug, found in the neighborhood : it was wide at the bottom, and narrow a.-: the top, with a fpout and handle made of a mixed metal; the height of the vefTel was eight inches three quarters, of the feet two three quarters. One of the fame kind was found in the county of Down*, in Ireland-, yet probably both might be Roman, the laft brought by accident into that Kingdom ; for Mr. Gordon, tab. 42. has given the figure of one carved on the fide of an altar.
Proceed by Newland iron furnace ; afcend a high hill whofe
* Antient and prefent State of the county of Down, p. 55.
very
IN SCOTLAND.
very top, as well as others adjacent, appears well peopled. Defcend to Penny-bridge, or Crakeford, where a fhip of 150 tons was then building. Furnaces abound in thefe parts, and various forts of im- plements of hufbandry are made here.
Keep along a narrow glen on excellent roads, amidft thick cop- pices, or brum woods of various forts of trees, many of them Wood*. planted exprefsly for the ufe of the furnaces or bloomeries. They confifl chiefly of birch and hazel : not many years ago fhip loads of nuts have been exported from hence. The woods are great ornaments to the country, for they creep high up the hills : The owners cut them down in equal portions, in the rotation of fixteen years, and raife regular revenues out of them ; and often fuperior to the rent of their land, for freeholders of fifteen or twenty-five pounds per annum, are known to make conftandy fixty pounds a • year from their woods. The furnaces for thefe laft fixty years have brought a great deal of wealth into this country.
Obferve that the tops of all the a(h trees were lopped ; and was informed that it was done to feed the cattle in Autumn, when the grafs was on the decline -, the cattle peeling off the bark as a food. In Queen Elizabeth's time the inhabitants of Colton and Hawkfoead fells remonftrated againft the number of bloomeries then in the coun- try, becaufe they confumed all the loppings and croppings, the fole winter food for their cattle. The people agreed to pay to the Queen the rent fhe received from thefe works, on condition they were fup- preifed. Thefe rents now called Bloom Smithy, are paid to the crown to this day, notwithstanding the improved ftate of the country has rendered the ufe of the former indulgence needlefs.
Keep by the fide of the river Crake : near its difcharge from Conin-
F fton
1%
34 A T O U R
Jlcn mere, at a place called Waterfoot, lay abundance of flate brought: down by water from the quarries in the fells : obferved alfo great heaps of birch befoms, which are alio articles for exportation. CoNutsToN mere. Reach Coninfton or Thurjlain water, a beautiful lake, about (even meafured miles long-, and the greateft breadth three quarters : the greatelt depth from thirty to forty fathoms. At the S. end it is. narrowed by the projection of feveral little headlands running far into the water, and forming between them feveral pretty bays. A little higher up the wideft part commences: from thence it runs quite ftralt to the end, not incurvated as the maps make it. The filli of this water are char and pike : a few years ago the firft were fold for qs. 6d. per dozen, but, thanks to the luxury of the times^ are now railed to eight or nine (hillings. The fcenery about this lake, which is fcarcely mentioned, is extremely noble. The E. and W. fides are bounded by high hills often wooded ; but in gene- ral compofed of grey rock, and coarfe vegetation •, much juniper creeps along the furface, and fome beautiful hollies are finely inter- mixed. At the north weftern extremity the vaft mountains called Coninjion fells, form a magnificent mafs. In the midft is a great bo- fom, retiring inward, which affords great quantities of fine flate. The trade in this article has of late been greatly improved, and the value of the quarries highly encreafed : a work that twenty years ago did not produce to the landlord forty fhillings, at prefent brings in annually as many pounds : and the whole quantity at this time exported yearly from thefe mountains, is about two thoufand tuns. At their feet is a fmall cultivated tract, filled with good farm houfes, and near the water edge is the village and church of Coninjion, Formerly thefe mountains yielded copper ; but of late
the
35
IN SCOTLAND.
the works have been neglected on account of the poverty of the ore.
Leave the fides of the lake, and afcend a fteep hill, furrounded with woods. From the fummit have a fine view of the lake, the ftupendous fells, and a winding chafm beneath fome black and ferrated mountains.
The fields in thofe parts are often fenced with rows of great Hates ; which no horfes will attempt leaping. See at a diftance a piece of Winander mere, and that of Eafithwaite ; defcend the hill, and foon reach the fmall town of Hawk/head, feated in a fertile bottom. In the church is an altar tomb, with the effigies of William Sandys, and Margaret his wife, moll rudely cut in Hone, and done by order of his fon Edwin, Archbifhop of Tork, who was born in a fmall houfe in this neighborhood. Round the tomb is this infcription :
Conditur hoc tumulo, Guilielmus Sandes et uxors
Cui Margareta nomen et omen erat. Armiger ille fuit percharus regibus olim,
Ilia fed exemplar religionis erat. Conjugii fuerant asquali forte beati,
Felices opibus, ftemmate, prole, fide. Quos amor et pietas Iseto conjunxit eodem :
Hos fub fpe vitas continet ilte lapis.
Leave Hawkjhead, and ride by the fide of Urfwick mere, about May
two miles long, and three quarters broad ; on each fide orna- Urswick mere. mented with a pretty elevated peninfula, jutting far into the water. Its fifh are perch, called here bafs, pike, eels, but no trout. The Eels.
eels defcend in multitudes through the river that flows from this
F 2 mere
■36 A T O U R
mere into TVinander, beginning their migration with the firft floods after midfummer ; and ceafe on the firft mows. The inhabitants of the country take great numbers in wheels at that feafon •, when it is their opinion that the eels are going into the fait water ; and that they return in fpring.
The roads are excellent amidft fine woods, with grey rocks patched with mofs rifing above. In one place obferved a Holly park, a tract preferved entirely for fheep, who are fed in winter with the croppings, Wild cats inhabit in too great plenty thefe woods and rocks.
The Lichen Tartareus, or ftone rag, as it is called here, incrufts moft of the ftones : is gathered for the ufe of dyers by the Pea- Ian ts, who fell it at a penny per pound, and can collect two ftone weight of it in a day.
Reach Graithwaite, the feat of Mr. Sandys; and from the cats craig, an eminence near the houfe, have an extenfive view up and down the water of Winander, for feveral miles. The variety of beautiful bays that indent the fhore \ the fine wooded rifings that bound each fide •, and the northern termination of lofty fells patched with lhow, compote a fcene the moft picturefque that can be imagined.
See on the plain part of thefe hills numbers of fpringes for Woodcocks. woodcocks, laid between tufts of heath, with avenues of fmall ftones on each fide, to direct thefe foolifh birds into the fnares, for they will not hop over the pebbles. Multitudes are taken in this manner in the open weather ; and fold on the fpot for fix- teen pence or twenty pence a couple (about 20 years ago at fix- pence
IN SCOTLAND.
pence or feven pence) and fent to the all-devouring capital, by the Kendal ftage.
After breakfaft, take boat at a little neighboring creek, and have a moil advantageous view of this beautiful lake, being fa- vored with a calm day and fine Iky. The length of this water is about twelve miles ; the breadth about a mile ; for the width is unequal from the multitude of pretty bays, that give fuch an ele- gant finuofity to its mores, efpecially thole on the eaft, or the Wejlmoreland fide. The horns of thefe little ports project far, and are finely wooded ; as are all the lelTer hills that fkirt the water.
At a diftance is another feries of hills, lofty, rude, grey and mofTy ; and above them foar the immenfe heights of the fells of Conenjion, the mountains oiWrynofe and Hard- knot, and the conic points of Langden fells ; all except the firft in Cumberland.
The waters are difcharged out of the South end, at Newby- bridge, with a rapid precipitous current, then affume the name of Leven, and after a courfe of two miles fall into the eftuary called the Leven fands. The depth of this lake is various, from four yards and a half to feventy-four, and, excepting near the fides, the bottom is entirely rocky : in fome places are vaft iuba- queous precipices, the rock falling at once perpendicular, for the depth of twenty-yards, within forty of the more ; and the fame depth is preferved acrofs the channel. The fall of the Leven, from the lake to high water mark, is ninety feet; the deepen: part of the lake a hundred and thirty- two beneath that point.
The boatmen directed their courfe Northward, and brought us by the heathy ifle of Lingholm, and the far projecting cape of
Rowlinforfs
37
■"- jT*-"
3*
A TOUR
Rawlinfon's Nab. On the left hand obferve the termination of Lancafhire, juft South of the Stor, a great promontory in Wefi- moreland^ all the remaining Weftern fide is clamed by the firft ; but Wejlmor eland bounds the reft, fo has the faireft clame to call itielf owner of this fuperb water.
On doubling the Stor a new expanfe opened before us j left the little ifle of Crowbolme on the right, traverfed the lake towards the horfe ferry, and a little beyond, the great Holme of thirty acres croffes the water, and conceals the reft. This delicious ifle is bleft with a rich pafturage, is adorned with a pretty grove, and has on it a good houfe.
It has been the fortune of this beautiful retreat often to change matters : the flattering hopes of the charms of retirement have mifled feveral to purchafe it from the laft cheated owner, who after a little time dilcovered, that a conftant enjoyment of the fame objects, delightful as they were, foon fatiated. There muft be fomething more than external charms to make a retreat from the world long endurable ; the qualifications requifite fall to the fhare of a very fewj without them difguft and wearinefs will foon invade their privacy, notwithstanding they courted it with all the paflion and all the romance with which the poet did his mif- trefs *.
Sic ego fecretis poflum bene vivere fylvis,
Qua nulla humano fit via trita pede. Tu mihi curarum requies, tu node vel atra
Lumen, et in folis tu mihi turba locis,
/ • Tibullus iv. 13, 9.
From
IN SCOTLAND, 39
From this ifland began a new and broader extent of water, bounded on the Weft by the bold and lofty face of a fleep hill, patched with the deep green of vaft yews and hollies, that embellifhed its naked flope. This expanfe is varied with feveral very pretty ifles, fome bare, others j uft appear above water, tufted with trees : on the North-Eaft fide is the appearance of much cultivation -, a trad near the village of Boulnefs falls gently to the water edge, and rifes again far up a high and large mountain, beyond which is a grand fkreen of others, the pointed heads of Troutbeck fells, the vaft rounded mafs of Fairfield, and the ftill higher fummit of Rydal.
Land, and dine in
WESTMORELAND,
at Boulnefs, antiently called Winander, giving name to the lake ; and am here treated with moft delicate trout and perch, the fifh of this water. The charr is found here in great plenty> and of a fize fu- Chariu
perior to thofe in Wales. They fpawn about Michaelmas, in the river Brat bay, which, with the Rowthay are the great feeds of the lake, preferring the rocky bottom of the former to the gravelly bottom of the other. The fifherrnen diftinguifti two varieties, the cafe- charr and the gelt-charr, i. e, a fifh which had not fpawned the laft feafon, and efteemed by them the more delicate : this fpawns from the beginning of January to the end of March, and never afcends the river, but fele&s for that purpofe the moft gravelly parts of the lake, and that which abounds moft with fprings.
It
4o
A TOUR
It is taken in greateft plenty from the end of September to the end of November, but at other times is very rarely met with.
The monks of the abby of Furnefs had a grant from William of Lancafter, privileging them to fifli on this water with one boat and twenty nets ± but in cafe any of the fervants belonging to the abby, and fo employed, mifbehaved themfelves, they were to be chaftifed by the Lord of the water ; and in cafe they refufed to fubmit, the abbot was bound to dilcharge them, and make them forfeit their wages for their delinquency*.
Remount my horfe, and continue my journey along the fides of the lake, and from an eminence about half a mile N. of the village of Boulnefs, have a fine view of the water and all it's windings ; and obferve that the lad bend points very far to the Weft/
On advancing towards the end have an auguft profpec~b of the whole range of thefe Northern apennines, exhibiting all the variety of grandeur in the uniform immenfe mafs, the conic fummit, the broken ridge, and the overhanging crag, with the deep chafm-like pafiages far winding along their bafes, rendered more horrible by the blackening fliade of the rocks. Eagles. Among the birds which poffefs this exalted traft, the eagles
are the firft in rank : they breed in many places. If one is killed, the other gets a new mate, and retains it's antient aery. Thofe who take their nefts find in them remains of great numbers of moor game : they are befides very pernicious to the heronries : it is re- narked, in the laying fealbn of the herons, when the eagles terrify
* Dugdak MonaJI. I. 706.
them
IN SCOTLAND.
them from their nefts, that crows, watching the opportunity, will ileal away their eggs.
The red deer which ftill run wild in Martindak foreft, fome- ■times ftraggled into thofe parts.
Reach Amblefide, a fmall town above the extremity of the lake : Amblesidi. the inhabitants of thefe parts are very induftrious -, are much em- ployed in knitting ftockings for Kendal market ; in fpinning wool- len yarn, and in making thread to weave their linfies. The coun- tenances of the people begin to alter ; efpecially in the tender fex •, the face begins to fquare, and the cheek bone begins to rife, as if fymptomatic of my approaching towards North Britain.
Below Amblefide, in a meadow near the river Brathay, is a Ro- man camp, the fuppofed Diclis of the Notitza, where coins, bricks, Dictis* &c. have been often found. The outline of the work is ftill vi- fible, and its extent is four hundred feet one way, and three hun- dred the other : it was the ftation of part of the cohort of the Numerus Nerviorum Diftenjium, and placed very conveniently to command feveral paffes.
At a fmall diftance from Amblefide, fee Rydal, the houfe of Sir May 23.
Michael le Fleming, placed in a moft magnificent fituation ; hav- ing the lake full in front, a rich intervening fore-ground ; and on Rydal-hall. each fide a ftupendous guard of mountains. This family have been fixed in the north ever fince the conqueft, and became owners of Rydal-hall by a marriage with one of the coheirefles, daughter of Sir John de Lancajler, in the time of Hen. IV.
Near the houfe is a lofty rocky brae, cloathed with multitudes of gigantic yews and hollies, that from their fize and antiquity,
G give
4f
'&
A TOUR
give it a mod venerable appearance •, and not far from its foot is Rydal water, about a mile long, beautified with little ifles.
Go through Rydal pafs, or, in the dialed of the country, Rydal haws, or gullet. Ride through Grafs-mere, a fertile vale with a lake clofed at the end by a noble pyramidal mountain. Dunmailwrays. On a high pafs between the hills, obierve a large Carnedd cal- led Dunmail Wrays pries, collected in memory of a defeat, A. D. 946. o-iven to a petty king of Cumberland, of that name, by Ed- mund I. who with the ufual barbarity of the times, put out the eyes of his two fons, and gave his country to Malcolm, king of Scotland, on condition he preferved in peace the northern parts of.
England, The defcent from hence to the vale of Kefwick, nine miles. . Near this place enter
G U M B E R L A N D,
having on the left the long, extended front of Helvellin fells. Molt : of the hills in thefe parts are fine fheep walks, fmooth and well turfed. The fheep are fmall, but the mutton exquifitely tafted, being feldom killed before it is fix or feven years old. The wool is coarfe, but manufactured into ordinary carpets and blankets, . No goats are kept here on account of the damage they would do to the woods. Thiul-water. Arrive within fight of Thirl-water, a moft beautiful but narrow
lake, filling the bottom of a long dale for near four, miles. From an eminence near Bale-head houfe, have a pidturefque view over great part of its extent. About the middle, the land for above
a hundred .
3d
IN SCOTLAND.
43
a hundred yards, approaches and contracts the water to the fke of a little river, over which is a true Alpine bridge * and behind that the water inflantly relumes the former breadth.
Regaining the road, have aftrange and horrible view downwards, into a deep and mifty vale, at this time appearing bottomlefs, and winding far amidft the mountains, darkened by their height, and the thick clouds that hung on their fummits.
In the courfe of the deicent, vifit, under the guidance of Doc- tor Brownrigg (the firft dilcoverer) a fine piece of antiquity of that kind which is attributed to the Druids. An arrangement of great ftones tending to an oval figure, is to be feen near the road fide, about a mile and a half from Kefwick, on the fummit of a Druid temple. pretty broad and high hill, in an arable field called Cafile. The area is thirty-four yards from north to fouth, and near thirty from eaft to weft ; but many of the ftones are fallen down, fome inward, others outward : according to the plan, they are at pre* fent forty in number. At the north end, are two much larger than the reft, ftanding five feet and a half above the foil : be- tween thefe may be fuppofed to have been the principal entrance * oppofite to it, on the S. fide, are others of nearly the fame heioht ; and on the eaft is one near feven feet high. But what diftin- guifhes this from all other Druidical remains of this nature, is a reftangular recefs on the eaft fide of the area, formed of o-reat ftones, like thofe of the oval. Thefe ftructures are confidered in general to have been temples, or places of worfhip : the recefs here mentioned feems to have been allotted for the Druids, the priefts of the place, a fort of Holy of Holies, where they met fe- parated from the vulgar, to perform their rites, their divinations,
G 2 or
44
OUR
or to fit in council, to determine on controverfies, to compromife all differences about limits of land, or about inheritances, or for the tryal of the greater criminals * ; the Druids poffefling both the office of prieft and judge. The caufe that this recefs was placed on the eafl fide, feems to arife from the refpe£b paid by the antient natives of this ifie to that beneficent luminary the fun, not originally an idolatrous refpect, but merely as a fymbol of ths glorious all-feeing Being, its great Creator.
In the fame plate with thefe Druidical remains, is engraven a fpe- cies of fibula cut out of a fiat piece of filver, of a form better to be expreffed by the figure than words. Its breadth is, from one exte- rior fide to the other, four inches. This was difcovered lodged in the mud, on deepening a fifh-pond in Brayton Park in Cumberland, the feat of Sir Wilfrid Law/on, and communicated to me by Doctor Brownrigg. With it was found a large filver hook, of two ounces weight. The length of the fliank from the top to the curva- ture at bottom,, four inches and. three eights. The hook not fo long. Keswick Vale. Arrive near the Elyfium of the North, the vale of Kefwick3.a. circuit between land and water of about twenty miles. From an eminence above, command a fine bird's eye view of the whole of the broad fertile plain, the town of Kefwick, the white church of Crofwhaite, the boafted lake of Verwentwater, and the beginning of that of Bajfenthwaite, with a full fight of the vaft circumja- cent, mountains that guard this delicious fpot.
Dine at Kefwick, a fmall market town : where, and in the neighborhood, are manufactures of carpet*, flannels, linfies and
• Csf. de Bello Gal. lib. vi.
yarn :
IN SCOTLAND. 45
yarn : the laft fold to people from Cockermoutb, who come for it every market day.
Take boat on the celebrated lake of Berwentwater. The form Derwentwater. is irregular, extending from North to South, about three miles and a half; the bread ch one and a half. The greateft depth is twenty feet in a channel, running from end to end, probably formed by the river Derwent, which5 pafTes through, and gives name to the lake.
The views on every fide are very different : here all the poflible variety of Alpine fcenery is exhibited, with all the horror of pre- cipice, broken crag, or over-hanging rock ; or infulated pyramid dal hills, contrafted with others whofe fmooth and verdant fides, fwel ling into aerial heights, at once pleafe and furprize the eye.
The two extremities of the lake afford moil difcordant pro- fpects : the Southern is a compofition of all that is horrible-, an immenfe chafm opens in the midft, whofe entrance is divided by a rude conic hill, once topt with a cattle, the habitation of the tyrant of the rocks; beyond, a feries of broken mountanous crags, now patched with fnow, foar one above the other, overfhadow- ing the dark winding deeps of Borrowdde. In thefe black re- cefTes are lodged variety of minerals, the origin of evil by their, abufe, and placed by nature, not remote from the fountain of it.
Itnm eft in vifcera terra?, Quafque recondiderat/^gvV/^ removerat umttfis, Effodiuntur opes.
But the oppofite or northern view is in all refpeds a ftrong and beautiful contrail: Skiddaw mews its vaft bafe, and bounding all that part of the vale, rifes gently to a height that finks the neigh- boring
46 A T O U R
boring hills •, opens a pleafing front, fmooth and verdant, fmil- • ing over the country like a gentle generous lord, while the fells of Borrowdale frown on it like a hardened tyrant.
Each boundary of the lake feerris to take part with the extre- mities, and emulates their appearance: the fouthern varies in rocks of different forms, from the tremendous precipices of the Lcdfs-Leap, the broken front of the Falcon' 's-Neft, to the more diftant concave curvature of Lowdore, an extent of preci- pitous rock, with trees vegetating from the numerous fifilires, and the foam of a cataract precipitating amidft.
The entrance into Borrowdale divides the fcene, and the northern .fide alters into milder forms ; a fait fpring, once the property of the monks of Furnefs, trickles along the more j hills (the reforc of fhepherds) with downy fronts, and lofty fummits, fucceed ; with woods cloathing their bafes, even to the water's edge.
Not far from hence the environs appear to the navigator of the lake to the greateft advantage, for on every fide mountains clofe the profpect, and form an amphi-theatre almoft matchlefs.
Loch-Lomond in Scotland, and Lough-Lene in Ireland, are pow- erful rivals to the lake in queftion : was a native of either of thofe kingdoms to demand my opinion of their refpective beauties, I muft anfwer as the fubtile Melvil did the vain Elizabeth : That Jhe ■was the fairejl per/on in England j and mine the faireft in Scot- land.
The ifles that decorate this water are few, but finely difpofed, and very diftincl: •, rife with gentle and regular curvatures above the furface, confift of verdant turf, or are planted with various trees. The principal is the Lord's ifiand, about five acres, where the Rat-
■cliff
IN SCOTLAND.
47
cliff family had fome time its refidence ; and from this lake took the Ratclifp title of Derwentwater. The laft ill-fated Earl loft his life and for- FAMILY-
tune by the rebellion of 1715 •, and his eftate, now amounting to twenty thoufand pounds per annum (the mines included) is veiled in truftees for the fupport of Greenwich hofpital.
St. Herbert's iile was noted for the refidence of that faint, the bofom friend of St. Cuthbert , who wifhed, and obtained his wifh of departing this life on the fame day, hour and minute, with that holy man.
The water of Derwentwater is fubjecl: to violent agitations, and often without any apparent caufe, as was the cafe this day ; the weather was calm, yet the waves ran a great height, and the boat was toffed violently with what is called a bottom wind.
Went to Croffthwaite church ; obferved a monument of Sir John May 24.
Ratcliff, and dame Alice his wife, with their effigies on fmall brafs Cross-thwaite
CHURCH
plates: the infcription is in the ftyle of the times, Of your charity pray for the foule of Sir John RadclifF, knight, and for the foule of dame Alice his wife, which Sir John died the 2d day of February, A. D. 1527, on wh of e foule the Lord have mercy. Here are alfo two recumbent alabafter figures of a man and a woman ; he in a gown, with a purfe at his girdle.
This is the church to Kefwick, and has five chapels belonging to it. The livings of this county have been of late years much improved Livings*. by Queen Anne's bounty, and there are none of lefs value than thirty pounds a year. It is not very long fince the mini iter's ftipend was five pounds per annum, a goofe-grafs,. or the right of commoning his goofe i a whittle-gait, or the valuable privilege of ufing his knife
for •
48 A T O U R
for a week at a time at any table in the parifh ; and laftly, a hardened fark> i. e. a fliirt of coarfe linnen.
Saw, at Dofror Brownrigg's, of Ormathwaite, whofe hofpitality I experienced for two days, great variety of the ores of Borrowdale, Black leab. r^h as ieacj} common and fibrous, black-jack, and black-lead or wad. The laft is found in greater quantities and purity in thofe mountains than in other parts of the world. Is the property of a few gentle- men, who, leaft the markets lhould be 'glutted, open the mine only once in feven years, then caufe it to be filled and otherwife fecured from the depredations of the neighboring miners, who will run any rifque to procure fo valuable an article, for the beft fells from eight to twelve ihillings a pound. The legiflature hath alfo guarded their property by making the robbery, felony.
It is of great ufe in making pencils, black lead crucibles for fufing of metals, for calling of bombs and cannon-balls, cleaning arms, for glazing of earthen-ware ; and fome affert that it may be ufed medicinally to eafe the pains of gravel, ftone, flranguary, and colick : it has been fuppofed, but without foundation, to have been the melanteria and pnigitis of Diofcorides : Dr. Merret calls it Nigrica fabrilis, and the people of the country, fallow and wad, from the co- loring quality ; killow, or collow, fignifying the dirt of coal, and wad feems derived from woad, a deep dying plant *.
Till of late years the fuperftition of the Bel-tein was kept up in thefe parts,' and in this rural facrifice it was cuftomary for the per- formers to bring with them boughs of the mountain afh.
* M. S. Letter of Bifhop Nicholjon to Dottor Woodward, Jug. 5, 1713.
Continue
IN SCOTLAND.
49
XAKE.
Continue my journey ; pafs along the vale of Kefivick, and Mast 25.
keep above Bajfenthwaite water, at a fmall cultivated diftance from Bassenthwait* it : this lake is a line expanfe of four miles in length, bounded on one fide by high hills, wooded in many places to their bottoms ; on the other fide by fields and the fkirts of Skiddaw.
Marks of the plough appear on the tops of many of the hills. Tradition fays, that in the reign of King John, the Pope curfed all the lower grounds, and thus obliged the inhabitants to make the hills arable: but I rather believe that John himfelf drove them to this cruel neceffity, for out of refentment of their -declining to follow his ftandards to the borders of Scotland, he cut down their hedges, levelled the ditches, and gave all the cultivated tracts of the North to the beads of chace, on his return from his expedition.
From Mr. Spedyn's of Armethwaite, at the lower extremity of the lake, have a fine view of the whole. Near this place the Derwent quits the lake, palling under Ouze bridge, confifting of three arches. Salmons come up the river from the fea about. Michaelmas, and force their way through both lakes as far as Borrowdale. They had lately been on their return, but the water near the bridge proving too mal- low to permit them to proceed, they were taken by dozens, in very bad order, in the nets that were drawing for trout at the end of the lake.
On a hill near this fpot is a circular Britijh entrenchment; and I was told of others of a fqu are form, at a few miles diftance, at the foot of Caermote ; I fuppofe Roman.
The country now begins to lower, ceafes to be mountanous, but fwells into extenfive rifings. Ride near the Derwent, and pafs through the hamlets of I/el, Blincraik and Redmain ; in a few places
£1 wooded,
5°
A TOUR
wooded, but generally naked, badly cultivated, and inclofed with Bridekirk font, ftone walls. Reach Bridekirk, a village with a fmall church, noted for an antient font, found at Papcafile, with an infcription expl?ined by the learned Prelate Nuholfon, in Camden s Britannia, and engraven in the fecond volume of the works of the fociety of antiquaries. The height, is two feet and an inch •, the form fquare •, on each fide are different fculptures •, on one a crofs, on another a two-headed monfter, with a triple flower falling from one common Hem, hang- ing from its mouth : beneath is a perfon, St. John Baptijl, performing the office of baptifm by the immerfion of a child, our Saviour ; and above the child is a (now) imperfect dove •, on a third fide is a fort of centaur, attacked by a bird and fome animal j and under them the ano-el driving our firfl father out of Eden, while Eve clings clofe to, the tree of life, as if exclaiming,
Oh ! unexpected ftroke, worfe than of death ! Muft I then leave thee, Paradife ? Thus leave Thee, native foil !
And on the fourth fide two birds, with fome ornaments and figures beneath ; and the infcription in runic characters thus decyphered by the Bifliop :
Er Erkard ban men egroclen, and to dis men red zver Taner men Brogten. That is to fay,
Here Ekard was converted, and to this man's example were the Danes brought.
It is certain that the infcription was cut in memory of this remark- able event ; but whether the font was made exprefsly on the occa- fion, or whether it was not of much more antient date (as the anti- quary
IN SCOTLAND.
quary fuppofes) and the infcription put on at the time of this con- verfion, appears to me at this period very uncertain.
Pafs, not far from Bridekirk, through the village of Papcajlle* once a Roman flation, conjectured by Mr. Horjley to have been the Derventione of the geographer of Ravenna ; where many mo- numents of antiquity have been found. In a field on the left, on defcending into the village, are the remains of fome dikes. Reach
Cockermouth, a large town with broad flreets, irregularly built, warned by the Derwent on the weftern fide, and divided in two by the Cocker, and the parts connected by a bridge of a fingle arch. The number of inhabitants are between three and four thoufand : the manufactures are fhalloons, worried {lockings and hats; the lad exported from Glafgow to the Weft-Indies. It is a borough town, and the right of voting is veiled by burgefs tenure in certain houfes : this is alfo the town where the county elections are made.
The caftle is feated on an artificial mount, on a bank above the "Derwent : is fquare, and is ftrengthened with feveral fquare towers : on each fide of the inner gate are two deep dungeons, capable of holding fifty perfons in either ; are vaulted at top, and have only a fmall opening in order to lower through* it the unhappy prifoners into this dire prifon ; and on the outfide of each is a narrow flit with a dope from it *, and down this were (hot the provifions allotted to the wretched inhabitants. In the feudal times death and captivity were almofl fynonymous; but the firft was certainly preferable j which may be one caufe why the battles of antient days were fo bloody,
H 2 This
5i
5*
A TOUR
This caftle was founded by Waldo/, firft lord of Allerdale, and fon of Gofpatrick, earl of Northumberland, cotemporary with William the conqueror •, Waldof refided firft at Papcaftle, which he after- wards demolifhed, and with the materials built that at Cockermoutb, where he and his pofterity long refided ; but feveral arms over the gateway, which Camden fays are thofe of the Multons, Humfranvilles^ Lucies and Perries, evince it to have been in later times in thofe fa- milies. It appears that it was firft granted by Edw. II. to Anthony de Lucie, fon of Thomas de Multon, who had affumed that name by reafon that his mother was daughter and coheirefs to Richard de Lucie -, and afterwards, by marriages, this caftle and its honors de* fcended to the Humfranvilles, and finally to the Perries *. In 1648 it was garrifoned for the King •, and being befieged and taken by the rebels, was burnt, and never afterwards repaired, May z6: Purfue my journey for about four or five miles along a tolerably
fertile country ; and then arrive amidft the collieries : crofs fome barren heaths, with inclofed land on each fide, deftitute both of hedges and woods. Pafs through Dijfinton, a long and dirty town, and foon after, from a great height, at once come in fight of Whitehaven,
and fee the whole at a fingle glaunce, feated in a hollow, open to the fea on the north. It lies in the parifh of St. Bees, whofe vaft pro- montory, noted for the great refort of birds, appears four miles to the fouth -, and in days of old, ftill more noted for its patronefs St. Bega, who tamed fierce bulls, and brought down deep fnows at midr dimmer.
* Dugdalit Baronage, I. 564, &c.
The
IN SCOTLAND.
The town is in a manner a new creation, for the old editions of Camden make no mention of it ; yet the name is in Saxton's maps, its white cliffs being known to feamen. The rife of the place is owino- to the collieries, improved and encouraged by the family of the Lowthers, to their great emolument. About a hundred years ago. there was not one houfe here,, except Sir John Lowtber's, and two others, and only three fmall vefTels : and for the next forty years, the number of houfes encreafed to about twenty. At this time the. town may boaft of being one of the handfomeft in the north of England, built of ftone, and the flreets pointing ftrait to the harbour, with others eroding them at right angles. It is as populous as it is elegant, containing twelve thoufand inhabitants, and has a hundred and ninety great fhips belonging to it, moftly employed in the coal trade.
The tobacco trade is much declined : formerly about twenty thoufand hogmeads were annually imported from Virginia; now fcarce a fourth of that number; Glafgow having ftolen that branch : but to make amends, another is carried on to the Weft-Indies, where hats, printed linens, hams, &c. are fent. The laft week was a me- lancholy and pernicious exportation of a hundred and fifty natives of Great Britain, forced from their natal foil, the low lands of Scot- land, by the raile of rents, to leek an afylum on the other fide of tha Atlantic'
The improvements in the adjacent lands keep pace with thofe in the town : the Brainfty eftate forty years ago was fet for as many pounds i at prefent, by dint of good hufbandry, efpecially liming^ is encreafed to five hundred and feventy-one.
In the town are three churches or chapels : St. James's, is elegantly Churches,
fitted
53
5+
A T O XJ R
fitted up, and has a handibme gallery, which, with the roof, is fup- ported by moft beautiful ranges of pillars. Befides, is a prefbyterian meeting, one of feceders, of anabaptifts, and quakers.
The workhouie is thinly inhabited •, for few of the poor chufe to enter. Thole whom neceflity compels, are mod ufefully employed: with pleafure I obferved old age, idiocy, and even infants of three years of age, contributing to their own fupport, by the pulling of " oakem. Harbour. The harbour is artificial, but a fine and expenfive work, on the
fouth end, guarded by a long pier, where the mips may lie in great fecurity. Another is placed farther out, to break the force of the fea ; and within thefe are two long ftrait tongues, or quays, where the veJfels are lodged : clofe to the more, on the fouth fide, is an- other, covered with what is called here a Steer, having in the lower part a range of fmiths mops, and above an extenfive floor, capable of containing fix thoufand waggon loads of coal, of 4200 lb. each. But this is only ufed as a fort of magazine : for above this are co- vered galleries with rail roads, terminating in large flues, or hurries, placed Hoping over the quay, and thro' thefe the coal is difcharged out of the waggons into the holds of the fhips, rattling down with a noife like thunder. Commonly eight fhips, from a hundred and twenty to a hundred tuns each, have been loaden in one tide-, and on extraordinary occafions twelve. Each load is put on board for ten (hillings : and the waggons, after being emptied, are brought round into the road by a turn frame, and drawn back by a fingle horfe. The greater part of the way from the pits, which lie about three or four miles diltant from the hurries is down hill ; the waggon is fleered by one man, with a fort of rudder to direft it 5 fo that he
can
IN SCOTLAND.
can retard or accelerate the motion by the preflure he gives by it
on the wheel.
Many other works are projected to fecure the port, particularly
another pier on the north fide, which when complete, will render
this haven quite land-locked. It is to be obferved, that in cominp-
in veffels mould carry a full fail till they pafs the pier head,
otherwife they will not be carried far enough in. The greater! part
of the coal is fent to Ireland, where about two hundred and ei°-h--
o
teen thoufand tons are annually exported.
Spring tides rife here twenty-four feet. Neap tides thirteen.
Vifit the collieries, entering at the foot of a hill, not diftant Collieries. from the town, attended by the agent : the entrance was a nar- row paflage, bricked and vaulted, Hoping down with an eafy de^ fcent. Reach the .firft beds of coal which had been worked about a century ago : the roofs are fmooth and fpacious, the pillars of fufficient ftrength to fupport the great fuperftructure, being fif- teen yards fquare, or fixty in circumference ; not above a third of the coal having been worked in this place ; fo that to me the very columns feemed left as refources for fuel in future times, The immenfe caverns that lay between the pillars, exhibited a mod gloomy appearance: I could not help enquiring here after the imaginary inhabitant, the creation of the laborers fancy,
The fwart Fairy of the mine. -
and was ferioufly anfwered by a black fellow at my elbow, that he really had never met with any; but that his grandfather
had
55
A TOUR
had found the little implements and tools belonging to this dimi- nutive race of fubterraneous fpirits *.
The beds of coal are nine or ten feet thick : and dip to the weft one yard in eight. In various parts are great bars of ftone, which cut off the coal: if they bend one way, they influence the coal to rife above one's head •, if another, to fink beneath the feet. Operations of nature paft my fkill to unfold.
•Reach a place where there is a very deep defcent •, the colliers call this Hardknot, from the mountain of that name j and another JVrynofe. At about eighty fathoms depth began to fee the work- ings of the rods of the fire-engine, and the prefent operations of the colliers, who work now in fecurity, for the fire-damps, for- merly fo dangerous, are almoft overcome ; at prefent they are pre- vented by boarded partitions, placed a foot diitant from the fides, which caufes a free circulation of air throughout : but as Hill there are fome places not capable of fuch conveniencies, the colliers, who dare not venture with a candle in -fpots where fire-damps are fuppofed to lurk, have invented a curious machine to ferve the purpofe of lights : it is what they call a fteel-mill, confiding of a fmail wheel and a handle j this they turn with vaft rapidity againft a flint, and the great quantity of fparks emitted, not only ferves
* The Germans believed in two fpecies ; one fierce and malevolent, the other a gentle race, appearing like little old men, drefled like the miners, and not much above two feet high : thefe wander about the drifts and chambers of the work*, feem perpetually employed, yet do nothing ; fome feem to cut the ore, or fling what is cut into vefTels, or turn the windlafs ; but never do any harm to the miners, ex- cept provoked : as the fenfible Jgricola, in this point credulous, relates in his book, dt dnimantibus fubttrraneis,
for
IN SCOTLAND. &
for a candle, but has been found of fuch a nature as not to fet fire to the horrid vapour.
Formerly the damp or fiery vapour was conveyed thro' pipes to the open air, and formed a terrible illumination during night, like the eruptions of a vulcano •, and by its heat water could be boiled : the men who worked in it inhaled inflammable air, and, if they breathed againft a candle, puffed out a fiery ftream ; fo that I make no doubt, was the experiment made, the fame phcenomenon would appear as John Grub * attributed to my illus- trious countryman Pendragon, chief of Britons.
Reached the extremity of this black journey to a place near two miles from the entrance, beneath the fea, where probably mips were then failing over us. Returned up the laborious afcent, and was happy once more to emerge into day-light.
The property of thefe works, as well as the whole town, is in Sir James Lozvtber, who draws from them and his rents of the buildings fixteen thoufand pounds a year; whereas his grandfather only made fifteen hundred. The prefent Baronet has inftituted here a charity of the moft beautiful nature, ufeful, humane and unoftentatious. He always keeps filled a great granary of oats, which he buys from all parts ; but never difpofes of, while the markets are low •, but the moment they rife above five (hillings the Cumberland bufhel, or three Wincbejier meafures, he inftantly opens his ftores to the poor colliers and artificers, and fells it to them at five millings, notwithflanding it might have coil him feven : thus happily difappointing the rapacity of the vulturine monopolizer.
• Dr. Ptre/s Antient Songs, 2d cd. III. 313.
I Leave
58 A T O U R
Leave Whitehaven, and return about two miles on the fame road I came. See under the cliffs a neat little village called Parton,. and a pier, intended for fhipping of coal j a new creation by Sir James Lowther. Moresby. Leave More/by on the left •, a place near the more, mentioned
by Camden, as of great antiquity, a fort of the Romans, and: where feveral infcriptions have been found : he alfo fpeaks of cer- tain caverns, called pitts holes, but the latenefs of the evening prevented me from defcending to vifit them. Ride throuo-h the village of Herrington, pafs over a very naked barren country, and have from fome parts of this evening's journey a full view of the ifle of Man, appearing high and mountanous. Reach Workington.. Workington ; the place where the imprudent Mary Stuart: landed, after her flight from Dundrannan, in Galloway, creduloufly milling to the protedion of the infidious Elizabeth. The town extends from the caftle, the feat of Mr. Curwen, to the fea : it confifts of two clutters, one the more antient near the caftle, the other nearer the church and pier -, and both contain about four or five thoufand inhabitants. They fubfift by the coal trade, which is here confiderable. The Derwent wafhes the fkirts of the town, and difcharges itfelf into the fea about a mile Weft: on each bank near the mouth are piers where the fhips lie, and the coals are conveyed into them from frames occafionally dropping into them from the rail roads. Ninety-feven vefTels of different bur- dens, fome even of two hundred and fifty tuns, belong to this, port.
Obferve to the South, on an eminence near the fea, a fmall tower, called Holme chapel -} faid to have been built as a watch- tower
IN SCOTLAND.
ft
tower to mark the motions of the Scots in their naval in- roads.
Near the town is an iron furnace and foundery -, the ore is brought from Furnefs, and the iron ftone dug near Harrington, A fine water-wheel and its rods, extending near a mile, are very well worth vifiting.
Keep along the fea-fhore to Mary Port, another new creation, May 27.
the property of Humphry Senboufe, Efq; and fo named by him in arysPort.
honor of his lady: the fecond houie was built in only 1750. Now there are above a hundred, peopled by thirteen hundred fouls, ail collected together by the opening of a coal trade on this eftate. For the conveniency of (hipping (there being above feventy of different fizes, from thirty to three hundred tuns bur- den, belonging to the harbour) are wooden piers, with quays, on the river Ellen, where mips lie and receive their lading. Befide the coal trade is fome fkinning bufmefs, and a rope-yard.
At the South end of the town is an eminence called the Mote- Antiqtjitib*. hill, and on it a great artificial mount, whofe bafe is a hundred and fixty yards round, protected by a deep ditch, almoft fur- rounding it, ceafing only where the fteepnefs of the hill rendered fuch a defence unneceifary : this mount is a little hollowed on the top, has been probed in different places to the depth of four or five feet, but was difcovered to confift of no other materials than the common foil which had been flung out of the fofs.
On a hill at the North end of the town are the remains of a large Roman ftation fquare, furrounded with double ditches, and furnilhed with four entrances, commanding a view to Scotland, and round the neighboring country. Antiquaries differ about the
I 2 antient
6o
OUR
antient name; one ftyles it olenacum, another virofidum, and Cam* den, volantium, from the wifh inferibed on a beautiful altar founds here, volentii vivas*. It had been a confideruble place, and had its military roads leading from it to Mtmefa to old. Carlijle, and' towards Ambkfide s and has been a perfect magazine of Roman and;- quities. Tumulus. ^ Not far from this ftation is a Tumulus, fingular in its competi-
tion.;, it is of a rounded form,. and was found, on the feclion madj of it by the late Mr. Senhoufe, to confift of, firft the fod or com- mon turf, then a regular layer of crumbly earth, which at the beginning was thin, encreafing in thicknefs as it reached the top. This was at firft brittle, but foon after, being expofed to the aio acquired a great hardnefs, and a ferruginous look. Beneath this was a bed of ftrong blue clay,, mixed with fern roots, placed on two or three layers of turf, with their gralTy fides together ; and under thefe, as the prefent Mr. Senhoufe informed me, were, found the bones of a heifer and of a colt, with fome wood afhes near them. Netaer^hall. Took the liberty of walking to Nether-ball, formerly Alnehurgh^
hall: where. I foon difcovered Mr. Senhoufe to be polTelTed of the politenefs hereditary * in his family towards travellers of curiofity.. He pointed out to me the feveral antiquities that had been longr preferved in his houfe and. gardens; engraven by Camden, Mr! Horfely, and Mr. Gordon; and permitted one of my fervants tor make drawings of others that had been difcovered fince.
♦ Vide Camden ioi i, Horfely p. 281, tab. No. lxviii. Cumberland. f Vide Camden, p. ioiz, and Gordon's Itin. boreal loo.
Among
IN SCOTLAND. 61
Among f.he latter is the altar found in the rubbifh of a quarry, wh:ch icemed to have been worked by the Romans, in a very exienfive manner : it has no infcription, and appears to have been left unfinished ;. perhaps the workmen were prevented from exe- cuting the whole by the upper part of the hill flipping down over the lower : a circuTucince that ftill frequently happens in quarries worked bener-th the cliffs. On one fide of the altar is a broad dagger, on another a patera.
A fragment of a ftone, with a boar rudely carved, and the- letters o r d.
A large wooden pin,: with a curious polygonal head.
The fpout of a brazen vefTel. Mr. Senhoufe alfo favored me. wkh the. light of fome thin gold plate, found in the fame place : and fhewed me, near his houfe, in Hall-clofe, an entrenchment of. a rectangular form, forty-five yards by thirty-five : probably the. defence of fome antient manfion, fo necefTary in this border county^.
It gave me great pleafure to review the fculptures engraven in Mr. Horfely\ antiquities, and p.referved in the walls of this place.. The following were fixed in the walls of the houfe, by the an- ceftor of Mr. Senhoufe, coeval with Camden. On No. 6$, an altar, appears Hercules with his club, and in one hand the Hefperian apples that he. had. conveyed
ab infomni male cuftcdita dracone.-
what is fingular, is an upright conic bonnet on his head, of the fame kind with that, in which the goddefs, on whom he bellowed-
the
6z A T O U R
the fruit is drefled *. On another fide of the altar is a man armed with a helmet and cloathed with a fagum claufum, or doled frock reaching only to his knees. In one hand is a thick pole ; the other reftino- 0n a wheel, probably denoting his having fucceeded in opening fome great road.
In No. 70, are feen the two victories fupporting a triumphal crown, the viclori^e augufti.
The local goddefs Setlocenia, with long flowing hair, with a veflel in her hand, fills the front of one ftone : and an altar inferib- ed to her is lodged in one of the garden walls.
No. 74 is near the goddefs, a molt rude figure of a cavaiier on his fteed.
In the fame wall with her altar is No. 64, a monumental mu- tilated infeription, fuppofed in honor of Antoninus Pius.
No. 71 the next monument notes the premature death of Julia Mamertina, at the age of twenty years and three months. A rude head expreffes the lady and a fetting fun, the funereal fubject.
A female expreffing modefty with one hand ; the other lifted to her head, ftands beneath an arch, as if about to ■ bathe, and is marked in Horfely, No. 73.
In a garden houfe is No. 62, an altar to Jupiter, by the firft cohort of the Spanijb, whofe tribune was Marcus Menius Agrippa.
Another, No. 66, to Mars Militaris, devoted by the firft co- hort of the Belgic Gauls, commanded by Julius Tutor.
And a third, No. 67, to Jupiter, by Cuius CabaUus Prifcus, a tribune ; but no mention is made of the cohort.
* Monfaucon, Antiq. 1. tab. civ. f. 7.
Since
///
ob
JlNTiq riTiE s .
III.
IN SCOTLAND, £3
Since I vifited this place, Mr. Senhoufe has favored me with an account of other difcoveries, made by the removal of the earth, that covered the reliques of this ftation : the ftreets and foot- ways have been traced paved with ftones from the fhore, or free (tone from the quarries : the laft much worn by ule. Many foundations of houies i the cement ftill very ftrong ; and the plaifter on fome remains of walls, appears to have been painted with what is now pink color ; feveral vaults have been difcovered, one with free- Hone fteps much ufed : fire hearths open before, enclofed with a circular wall behind : from the remains of the fuel it is evident, that the Romans have ufed both wood and pit coal. Bones, and teeth of various animals ; and pieces of horns of flags, many of the latter fawed, have been found here : alfo fhells of oyfters, mufcles, whilks and fnails. Broken earthen-ware and the handle of a large veffel, marked AEL. Fragments of glafs veffels and mirrors ; and two pieces of a painted glafs cup, which evinces the antiquity of that art.
An entire altar found in the fame fearch, is to be added to the preceding : three of the ffdes are plain : the fourth has a hatchet exactly refembling thoie now in ufe, and a broad knife, or rather cleaver,. with which the victims were cut up.
But the mod curious* difcovery is a ftone three feet high, the top formed like a pediment, with a neat fcollop fhell cut in the middle. From each fide the pediment falls a ftrait corded mold- ing-, and between thofe, juft beneath the fcollop, is a mutilated figure, the head being deftroyed ; but from the body which is cloathed with the Sagum, and the bucket which it holds in one
hand
64 A T O G R
hand by the handle *, it appears to have been a Gaul, the only fculpture of the kind found in our ifland.
Continue my ride along the coail, enjoying a mod beautiful profpect of the Solway Firth, the It una aftuarium of Ptolemy^ bounded by the mountains of Galloway, from the hill of Crefel, near Dumfries, to the great and the little Rcfs, not remote from Kirkcudbright.
Keep on the more as far as the village of Allanhy : then turn to the N. Earr, ride over a low barren woodlefs tradt, and difmal moors, feeing on the left <Crefel in Scotland, and on the right Skiddaw, both quite clear ; the lad now appears of an infulting height over its neighbors. Had the weather been mifty it would have had its cap; and probably Crtfel, according to the old pro- verb, would have fympathized :
If ever Skiddanu wears a cap, Crefel wots full well of that.
Wigtojc. Dine 2XWtgton, a -fmall town, with fome manufactures of coarfe
checks. About a mile or two to the right, is old Carlile, fuppofed by Mr. Horfely to have been the olenacum of the notitia.
From Wigton the country continues very flat and barren, to a fmall diltance of Carlile. Near that city a better cultivation takes place, and the fields often appear covered with linnen ma- nufactures : crofs the river Cauda, that runs through the fuburbs, and enter the city at the Irijh ^ate.
* Monfaucon Su/>j>J, ill. p. 3 8, tab. xi.
Carlile
IN SCOTLAND.
Carlile is moft pleafantly fituated ; like Chejier is furrounded Carlilb. with walls, but in very bad repair, and kept very dirty. The caftle is antient, but makes a good appearance at a diftance : The view from it confifts of an extenfive tract of rich meadows, of the river Eden, here forming two branches and infulating the ground : over one is a bridge of four ; over the other one of nine arches. There is befides a profpect of a rich country ; and a diftant view of Cold- fells, Crofs-fells, Skiddaiv, and other mountains.
The caftle was founded by William Rufus, who reftored the. Castle.
city, after it had lain two hundred years in ruins by the Danes. Richard III. made fome additions to it; and Henry VIII. built the citadel, an oblong with three round baftions feated on the Welt fide of the town : in the inner gate of the caftle is ftill remaining the old Portcullis; and. here are fhewn the apartments of Mary Queen of Scots, where fne was lodged for fome time after her landing at Workington ; and after being for a little fpace en- tertained with flattering refpec"l, found herfelf priibner to her jealous rival.
Carlile has two other gates befides the Irifh, viz. the Englijh and the Scotch. The principal ftreet is very fpatious ; in it is a guard- houfe, built by Cromwel, commanding three other ftreets that open into this.
The cathedral, begun by \ Walter, deputy under William Rufus, is Cathsdra;,. very incomplete, Cromwel having pulled down part in 1649 to build barracks : there remains fome portion that was built in the Saxon mode, with round arches, and vafb maffy round pillars, whofe fhafts are only fourteen feet two inches high, and circumference full {zven- teen and a half: the reft is more modern, faid to have been built
K by.
65
66 A T O U R
by Edward III. who had an apartment to lodge in, in his frequent expeditions into Scotland. The arches in this latter building are fharp pointed, the pillars round and cluttered, and the infide of the arches prettily ornamented. Above are two galleries, but with windows only in the upper ; that in the Eaft end lias a magnificent fimplicity, and the painted glafs an uncommon neatnefs, notwith- flanding there is not a fingle figure in it.
The choir was not founded till about the year 1354 ;- the taberna- cle work in it is extremely pretty ; but on the ifles on each fide are fome ftrange legendary paintings of the hiftory of St. Cuthbert and St. Auguftine; one reprefents the Saint vifited by an unclean fpirit, who tempts him in a mod indecent manner, as thefc lines import :
The fpyrit of Fornication to him doth aper ;
And thus he chafteneth hys body with thorne and with bryer.
At the Weft: end of the church is a large plain altar tomb called the blue-Jlone : on this the tenants of the dean and chapter by certain tenures were obliged to pay their rents. Priory. There had been only one religious houfe in this city ; a priory of
black canons founded by Henry I, replaced on the fuppreflion, by a dean and four canons Ocular ; but what the tyrant Henry VIII. had fpared, fuch as the cloifters and other reliques of the priory, fell in after-times victims to fanatic fury ; no remains are to be feen at prefent, except the gateway, and a handfome building called the Fratry, or the lodging-room of the lay brothers, or novices.
Before this pious foundation, St. Cuthbert in 686 fixed here a con- vent
INSCOTLAND. 67
vent of monks, and a nunnery, overthrown in the general defolation of the place by the Danes.
But to trace the antiquity of this city with hiftoric regularity, the History. reader mould learn, that after laying afide all fabulous accounts, the Britains called it Caer Lualid, that it was named by Antonine, or the author of his Itinerary Lugovallium, or the city of Lual on the vallum or wall.
That it was probably a place of note in the feventh century, for Egfrid prefented it to St. Cuthbert with fifteen miles of territory around ; that the Danes entirely deftroyed it in the ninth century, and that it remained in ruins for two hundred years. William Ru- fus, in 1092, in a progrefs he made into thefe parts, was ftruck with the lituation, founded the caflle, rebuilt the town and fortified it as a bulwark againft the Scots : he planted there a large colony from the South, who are laid to be the firft, who introduced tillage in that part of the North.
Henry I, in 1122, gave a fum of money to the .city, and ordered fome additional fortifications. Stephen yielded it to David, King o£ Scotland. After the recovery into the hands of the EngliJJj, it under- went a cruel fiege by William the Lion, in 11 73 , and was again be- fieged by Robert Bruce, in 13 15 ; and in the reign of Richard II. was almoft entirely deftroyed by fire. The greater events from that period are unknown to me, till its reddition to the rebels in «*"45, on November 16th, when its weaknefs made it untenable, even had it not been feized with the epidemic panic of the times. It was retaken by the Duke of Cumberland, on the 30th of December following, and the fmall felf-devoted garrifon madeprifoners on terms thatpreierved
K 2 them
S.6
A TOUR
them (without the fhadow of impeachment of his Highnefs's word) for future juflice.
The town at prefent confifts of two parifhes, St. Cuthberfs and the cathedral, and contains about four thoufand inhabitants ; is handfomely built, and kept very neat. Here is a conliderable manufacture of printed linens and coarfe checks, which bring in near 3000 1. per annum in duties to the crown. It is noted for a great manufacture of whips, which. employs numbers of children j here are alio made mod excellent fi fh- hooks •, but I was told that the mounting them with flies is an art the inhabitants of Langholm are celebrated for. -May. 28. Saw> at Mr' Bernard Burton's, a pleafing fight of twelve little in-
duftrious . girls fpinning at once at a horizontal wheel, which fet twelve bobbins in motion •, yet fo contrived that mould any acci- dent happen to one, the motion of that might be flopped without any impediment to the others.
At Mxs. Cud's I was favored with the fight of a fine head of father Huddlejlon, in black, with a large band and long grey hair, with an uplifted crucifix in his hand, probably taken in the atti- tude in which he lulled the foul of the departing profligate Charles II.
Crofs the little river Petrel, the third that bounds the city, and at
Warwick about .three miles Halt, fee Warwick, or JVarthwick church, remark-
church. able for its tribune or rounded Eait end, with thirteen narrow niches,
ten feet eight high, and fjventeen inches broad, reaching almoft to
the around, and the top of each arched ; in two or three is a frnall
window. The whole church is built with good cut-ftone -, the
length
w
oo
! :c:: chtj
ffERJEJ .LLSo
.
IN SCOTLAND.
length is feventy feet, but it once extended above one and twenty feet farther Weft i there being ftill at that end a good rounded arch, now rilled up.
This church is of great antiquity, but the date of the founda- tion unknown. It was granted in the time of William the con- queror * to the abby of St. Mary's, in York, and then mention'd as a chapel.
Beneath it is a handfome bridge of three arches over the Eden, a beautiful river. Ride for two miles over a rich and well cultivated tract, to Corbie caftle, now a modern houfe, feated on an eminence above the river, which runs through a deep and finely wooded glen ; that part next the houfe judicioufly planned and laid out in walks : in one of them is the votive altar engraven in Mr. Gordon's Itinerary, tab. 43, with tolerable exaftnels, except on the top, for the hollow is triangular, not round.
The fight from this walk of the celebrated cells, and the arch of the antient priory, were fo tempting that I could not refift crofling the river to pay a vifit to thofe curious remains. The laft is the gateway of the religious houfe otWetherel, with its fine elliptic arch : the houfe was once a cell to the abby of St. Mary, in York, given by Ranulph de Me/chines, Earl of Carlile, and maintained a prior and eight monks -f-.
A little farther, in the midft of a vaft precipice, environ'd with woods, are cut, with much labor, ibme deep cells in the live rock : the front ,and entrance (the laft is on one fide) are made of fine cut- ftonej in the front are three windows, and a fire-place: the cells
69
Corbie castle.
Wetherel
CELLS.
DugdaWs Monafi. I, 397.
t Ibid. 389.
are
yo
A TOUR
are three in number, divided by partitions of the native rock, four feet three inches thick : each is twelve feet eight inches deep, and about nine feet fix wide in the lower part, where they are more ex- tenfive than in their beginning : before them, from the door to the end, is a fort of gallery twenty-three feet and a half long, bounded by the front, which hangs at an awful height above the Eden. There are marks of bolts, bars and other fecurities in the windows and door •, and veftiges, which fhew that there had been doors to the cells.
Thefe are called Conftantine's cells, but more commonly the fafe- guard, being luppofed to have been the retreat of the monks of the neighboring priory, during the inroads of the Scots ; no one who fees them will doubt their fecurity, being approachable only by a mod horrible path, amidft woods that grow rather out of precipices than (lopes, impending over the far fubjacent river ; and to encreafe the difficulty, the door is placed at no fmall height from this only accefs, fo that probably the monks afcended by a ladder, which they might draw up to fecure their retreat.
I fearched without fuccefs for the infcription on the fame rock, a little higher up the river. The words, as preferved in the Archaelo- gia *, are
Maxiraus fcripfit Le xx vv cond : cafofius.
The firft line is faid to be a yard diftant from the other, and near, is a coarfe figure of a deer. The meaning is too dark to be explained.
• I. 86.
Return
IN SCOTLAND.
71
Return to Corbie ; and find in the houfe an excellent picture of a Pictures at mufician playing on a bafe-viol -, the work of a Spanijh matter, Corbie.
part of the plunder of Vigo. A large piece of the emperor CharlesV. and his emprefs ; he fitting with a ftern look, as if reprovino- her, and alluding to a cafket on a table before them. She Hands, and has in her countenance a mixture of obftinacy and fear.
On the ftair cafe is a full length of Lord William Howard, third fon of the Duke of Norfolk, known in thele parts by the name of bald Willy. He lived in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and was the terror of the Mofs troopers, ruling with a rod of iron, but by his neceffary feverity, civilized the country.
There are no traces of the old cattle. The manor belonging to it Owners of was granted by Henry II. to Hubert de Vallibus, who configned it to Corbie.
William de Odard lord of Corbie. In the 31 ft of Edw. I. it was held by Thomas de Richemoant ; from him, came to Sir Andrew de Harcla, the unfortunate Earl of Carlile, executed in the time of Edw. II. and on his attainder, to Sir Richard de Salkeld : from his heirs to lord William Howard, then of Naworth, who fettled it upon his fecond fon, in whofe line it ftill continues.
Returned to Carlile, and continue there till the 30th. Crofs the jyjAy .0t
Eden, that flows about ten miles below into the Solway Firth. Pais over near the village of Stanwick, a mile from Carlile. The fite of the Pitts, or more properly Adrian's or Severus's wall, begun by the pICTS wall. ftrft emperor, and completed by the lad, who may with more juftice be faid to have built a wall of (tone, near the place, where Adrian had made his of turf. For that reafon the Britains ftyled it GuaU fever, Gal-fever, and Mur-fever. But at prefent not a trace is to be
difcovered
72
A TOUR
discovered in thefe parts, except a few foundations, now covered with earth, to be feen in a field called Wall-know. From thence iL paffes behind Stan-wick to Hijfopholm bank, an eminence above the. river ; on which are veftiges of fome dikes defcribing a fmall fquare, the fite of a fort to defend the pals ; for the wall reached to the edge of the water, was continued on the oppofite fide, over Soceres meadow, and extended ten or twelve miles farther, till it terminated at Bowl- ne/Sy on the Solway firth. Adrian's wall, or rather rampart, was made on the N. fide of the wall, and is vifible in fome places, but ceafes at or near Bmgh, the Axelodunum of the Notitia. Probably this was aitation for cavalry, for near Hijfop bank is a ftupendous number of horfes bones, expofed by the falling of the cliff. Arthuret. Crofs the Leveny and ride through the village of Arthur et : In the
church-yard is a rude crofs, with a pierced capital, forming the exact figure of the crofs of the. knights of Malta, and it is probable, it was erected by one of that order. In. the fame ground was in- terred the remains of poor Archy Armftrong, jefter, or fool to Ch. I. and by accident, fuitable to his profeffion,. the. day of his funeral was the firft of April. Archy had long fhot his bolt with great applaufe, till it fell unfortunately upon the prelate Laud*, who, with a pride and weaknefs beneath his rank and character, procured an order of council, the king prefent, for the degrading .the fool, by pulling his motly coat over his head, for difcharging him of the king's fervice, and banifhing him the court. Near the village are fome high and
* When the news arrived at court of the tumults in Scotland, occafioned by the attempt to introduce the liturgy (a project of Laud) Arcby unluckily met with the .Archbifhop, and had the preemption to afk his Grace, Who is fool now?
irregular
IN SCOTLAND,
irregular fandy eminences ; probably natural, notwithstanding a contrary opinion has been held, becaufe fome coins and an urn have been found in them.
Reach Netherby, the feat of the Rev. Mr. Graham, placed on a Netherby. rifing ground, warned by the EJk, and commanding an extenfive view ; more pleafing to Mr. Graham, as he fees from it a creation of his own •, lands that eighteen years ago were in a ftate of nature ; the people idle and bad, ftill retaining a fmack of the feudal man- ners : fcarce a hedge to be feen : and a total ignorance prevaled of even coal and lime. His improving fpirit foon wrought a great change in thefe parts : his example inililled into the inhabitants an ip.clination to induftry : and they foon found the difference between floth and its concomitants, dirt and beggary, and a plenty that a right application of the arts of hufbandry brought among them. They lay in the midft of a rich country, yet ftarved in it ; but in a fmall time they found, that inftead of a produce that hardly fup- ported themfelves, they could raiie even fupplies for their neighbors: that much of their land was fo kindly as to bear corn for many years fucceffively without help of manure, and for the more ungrateful foils, that there were lime-ftones to be had, and coal to burn them. The wild tract foon appeared in form of verdant meadows or fruit- ful corn fields : from the firft, they were foon able to fend to diftant places cattle and butter : and their dairies enabled them to fupport a numerous herd of hogs, and carry on a confiderable traffick in bacon : their arable lands, a commerce as far as Lanca- shire in corn.
A tract diflinguifhed for its fertility and beauty, ran in form of a valley for fome fpace in view of Netherby : it has been finely
L reclamed
7*
n
A TOUR
reclamed from its original ftate, prettily divided, well planted with hedges, and well peopled : the ground originally not worth fixpence an acre, was improved to the value of thirty fhillings : a tract completely improved in all refpects, except in houfes, the antient clay-dabbed habitations ftill exifting. I faw it in that fituation in the year 1769 : at this time a melancholy extent of black turbery, the eruption of Solway mofs, having in a few days covered grafs and corn ; leveled the boundaries of almoft every farm ; deftroyed mod of the houfes, and driven the poor inhabi- tants to the utmoft diftrefs, till they found (which was not long) from their landlord every relief that a humane mind could fuggeft. Happily his fortune favored his inclination to do good : for the in- ftant lofs of four hundred pounds a year could prove no check to his benevolence.
Eruption or Qn vifiting the place from whence this difafter had flowed, it was
Solway moss. , - ,
apparently a natural phenomenon, without any thing wonderful or
unprecedented. Pelling mofs, near Garfiang, had made the fame fort
of eruption in the prefent century •, and Chat-mofs, between Man-
chefier and Warrington, in the time of Henry VIII. as Leland expreffes
it, ' brad up within a mile of Morley-haul, and deftroied much
c grounde with mofle thereabout, and deftroid much frefch water
fifhche thereabout, firft corrupting with (linking water Glafe-
' brooke, and fo Glafebrooke carried ftinking water and mofTe into
« Merfey water, and Merfey corruptid carried the roulling mofTe, part
* to the mores of Wales, part to the ifle of Man, and fum into Ire-
1 land; and in the very top of Chately more, where the mofTe was hyeft
4 and brake, is now a fair plaine valley as was in tymes parte, and a
' rylle runnith hit, and peaces of fmaul trees be found in the bottom.'
Solway
IN SCOTLAND.
Solway Mofs confifts of fixteen hundred acres ; lies fome height •above the cultivated tract, and feems to have been nothing but a collection of thin peaty mud : the furface itfelf was always fo near the ftate of a quagmire, that in moft places it was unfafe for any thing heavier than a fportfman to venture on, even in the dried fummer.
The fhell or cruft that kept this liquid within bounds, neareft to the valley, was at firft of fufricient ftrength to contain it : but by the imprudence of the peat-diggers, who were continually working on that fide, at length became fo weakened, as not longer to be able to refill the weight prefling on it : To this may be added, the fluidity of the mofs was greatly increafed by three days rain of unufual vio- lence, which preceded the eruption ; and extended itfelf in a line as far as Newcajik : took in part of Durham, and a fmall portion of Torkjhire, running in a parallel line of about equal breadth ; both fides of which, N. and South, experienced an uncommon drought. It is fingular that the fall of Newcajik bridge and this accident hap- pened within a night of each other.
Late in the night of the 17th of November, of the laft year, a farmer, who lived neareft the mofs, was alarmed with an unufual noife. The cruft had at once given way, and the black deluge was rolling towards his houfe, when he was gone out with a lantern to fee the caufe of his fright : he faw the ftream approach him ; and firft thought that it was his dunghill, that by fome fupernaturai caufe, had been fet in motion ; but foon difcovering the danger, he gave notice to his neighbors with all expedition : but others received no other advice but what this Stygian tide gave them : fome by its noife, many by its entrance into their houfes, and I have been afTured
L 2 that
75
76 A T O U R
that fome were furprized with it even in their beds : thefe paft a horrible night, remaining totally ignorant of their fate, and thecaule of the calamity, till the morning, when their neighbors, with diffi- culty, got them out through the roof. About three hundred acres- of mofs were thus difcharged, and above four hundred of land co- vered : the houfes either overthrown or filled to their roofs ; and the. hedo-es- overwhelmed ; but providentially not a human life loft : feveral cattle were fuffocated \ and thofe which were houfed had a; very fmall chance of efcaping. The cafe of a cow is fo fingular as. to deferve mention. She was the only one out of eight, in the fame, cow-houfe, that was faved, after having ftood fixty hours up to the. neck in mud and water : when ftie was relieved, me did not refufe to> eat, but would not tafte water : nor could even look at it without mewing manifeft figns of horror.
The eruption burft from the place of its difcharge, like a cataract of thick ink •, and continued in a ftream of the fame appearance, in- termixed with great fragments of peat, with their heathy furface •,: then flowed like a tide charged with pieces of wreck, filling the whole valley, running up every little opening, and on its retreat, leaving upon the ihore tremendous heaps of turf, memorials of the heio-ht this dark torrent arrived at. The farther it flowed,, the more room it had to expand, leffening in depth,, till it mixed its ftream with that of the EJk.
The furface of the njofs received a confiderable change : what was before a plain, now funk in the form of a vaft bafon, and the lofs of the contents fo lowered the furface as to give to Nethcrby a new. view of land and trees unfeen before.
Near this mofs was the fhameful reddition in 1542, of the Scotch >
army,.
IN SCOTLAND. 77
army, under the command of Oliver Sinclair, minion of James V. (to Battle op
Sir Thomas Wharton, warden of the marches). The nobility, defpe- Solway M0SS*
rate with rage and pride, when they heard that favorite proclamed
general, preferred an immediate furrender to a handful of enemies,
rather than fight for a King who treated them with fuch contempt.
The Engli/b commander obtained a bloodlefs victory : the whole
Scotch army was taken, or difperfed, and a few fugitives perifhed in
this very mofs : as a confirmation it is faid, that a few years ago
fome peat-diggers difcovered in it. the fkeletons of a trooper and his'
horfe in complete armour.
In my return vifit the antient border-houfe at Kirk-andrews, oppo- fite to Netherby : it confifts of only a fquare tower, with a ground floor, and two apartments above, one over the other : in the firft floor it was ufual to keep the cattle •, in the two lad was lodged the family. In thofe very unhappy times, every one was obliged to keep guard againfb perhaps his neighbor; and fometimes to fhut them- felves up for days together, without any opportunity of tailing the frefh air, but from the battlemented top of their caftelet. Their windows were very fmall ; their door of iron. If the robbers at- tempted to break it open, they were annoyed from above by the flinging of great ftones, or by deluges of fcalding water *.
As late as the reign of our James I. watches were kept along the Border watches.. whole border, and at every ford by day and by night : fetters, watchers, fearchers of the watchers, and overfeers of the watchers were appointed. Befides thefe cautions, the inhabitants of the marches were obliged to keep fuch a number of Jlough dogs, or
* Life of Lord Keeper Guildford, p. 138*
what
78
OUR
Slough-dogs, what we call blood-hounds : for example, ' in thefe parts, beyond 1 the Eft, by the inhabitants there were to be kept above the foot
* of Sark, i dog. Item, by the inhabitants of the infyde of Eft, ' to Richmond Cluch, to be kept at the Moot, i dog. Item, by
* the. inhabitants of the parifli of Arthur et, above Richmond ' Clugh, to be kept at the Barley -head, i dog;. .and fo on through-
* out the border.' The chief officers, bailiffs and conftables throughout the diftrict being directed to fee that the inhabitants kept their quota of dogs, and paid their contributions for their maintenance. Perfons who were aggrieved, or had loft any thing, were allowed to purfue the hot trode with hound and horn, with hue and cry, and all other accuftomed manner of hot purfuit*.
Moss-troopers. The neceffity of all this was very ftrong ; for before the ac- ceffion of James I. to thefe kingdoms, the borders of both were in perpetual feuds : after that happy event, thofe that lived by hoftile excurfions, took to pillaging their neighbors; and about that period got the name of mofs-trooprs, from their living in the moffes of the country.
They were the terror of the limits of both kingdoms ; at one time amounted to fome thoufands, but by the feverity of the laws, and the activity of Lord William Howard, were at length extirpated. The life and manners of one of the plundering chief- GiordieBourne, tains is well exemplified by the confeflion of Giordie Bourne, a noted thief, who fuffered when Robert Cary, Earl of Mcnmouth, was warden of one of thefe marches : he fairly acknowleged,
• Nicholfon's border laws, p. 127. In the Appendix, is to be feen an order for the fecurity of the borders.
4 That
IN SCOTLAND.
79
* That he had lived long enough to do fo many villainies as he
* had done ; that he had layne with above forty mens wives, what
* in England^ what in Scotland-, that he had killed leven Englijh- 6 men with his owne handes, cruelly murthering them ; that he " had fpent his whole time in whooring, drinking, Healing, and
* taking deep revenge for flight offences *.* Return to Netherby. This houfe is placed on the fite of a
Roman flation, the caftra exploratorum of Antoninus, and was well fituated for commanding an extenfive view around. By fignifies a habitation ; thus, there are three camps or ftations, with this termination, not very remote from one another, Netherby, Mid- dleby, and Overby. The firft, like Ellenborough, has been a rich fund of curiofities for the amufement of antiquaries : at prefent the ground they were difcovered in is covered with a good houfe, and ufeful improvements ; yet not long before Leland's time c ther *' hath bene marvelus buyldings, as appere by minus walles, and
* men alyve have fene rynges and ftaples yn the walles as yt had
* bene ftayes or holdes for fhyppes -J- .' There is a tradition that an anchor had been found not remote from Netherby, perhaps under the high land at Arthuret, i. e. Arthur's head, beneath which it appears as if the tide had once flowed.
Every thing has been found here that denotes it to have been a Antiquities at fixed refldence of the Romans ; a fine Hypocauji, or bath was dif- covered a few years ago, and the burial place, now a fhrubbery, was pointed out to me. The various altars, infcriptfons, utenfils,
* Cory's memoirs, 2d. ed. p. 123; '\ Leland's Itin. vii, p. 56. 3d ed.
and
Netherby,
8o A T O U R
end every other antiquity collected on the fpot, are carefully pre* ferved, and lodged in the green houfe, with fome others collected in different parts of the country, which gave me an opportunity of forming the following catalogue, illustrated with fome figures for the amufement of thofe who are fond of this ftudy.
i. The infeription which preierves the memory of the cohort, lieutenant and proprietor, who founded the Bafilica Equejiris equi- tata exercitatoria at this place. This was a fort of public riding fchool, for exercifing the cavalry and infantry, who were to ferve mixed with them. To this explication of Doctor Taylor, Ph. Tranf. vol. i. iii. may be added this fhrewd remark of that gentle- man, that the -dedication of this edifice to the emperor Marcus Aure- Hus Severus Alexander, by thefe words,
Devota numini Majeftatique ejus.
brings under fufpicion the opinion of the emperor's inclination to chriftianky, and averfion to thofe idolatrous compliments, for ac- cording to Lampridius, Dominum fe appellari vetuit. II. An Altar about three feet high, inferibed,
Deo fanfto Cocidio Paternus Maternus Tribonus Coh. i. Nervane ex evocato Palatine V. S. L. M.
This feems to be devoted to the local deity, Cocidius, by fome veteran, who had been difcharged, and promoted. Mr. Horfelj, No. XVII. Cumberland, preferves a fragment inferibed to this deity, by Cohors prima AElia Dacorum*
III. The
IN SCOTLAND, 8l
III. The altar with the Greek infcription, found at Corbridge, in Northumberland, engraven in Archaelogia II. One one fide is a Pa- tera \ on the other, a molt elegant prafericulum. The infcription feems no more than this, yen fee me an altar (dedicated) to Afiarte; Pulcher erefted it. The per was probably a Syrian, who ferv- ing in the Roman army, affumed a Roman name : at left fuch is the opinion of the gentleman I confuited.
IV. The altar found in one of the rooms in the Hypocauft, at Netherby, addreffed,
Dese fanctae Fortune confervatrici Marcus Aurelius Salvius Tribunus, Coh. i. ael. Hifpanorum oo Eq. V. S. L. M. It is to be obferved, that this perfon's name is in the infcription on the Bafilica.
V. A fmall altar Deo Veteri fantto . V. S. L. M.
Mr. Horfely preferves fome inferiptions to Vitires, a local deity : perhaps the fculptor may have in this place inferted the two e's inllead of the i. i.
VI. The altar preferved by Mr. Gordon, inferibed Deo Mo- gonti vitires. Flavian fecund. V. S. L. M.
VIL Another, a fragment Deo Belatuca ... or to Belatu- cadrus, a provincial name for Mars,
VIII. The altar * found near Cambeck, and transferred to Ne- therby, inferibed .... B. V. omnium gentium templum olim vetuftate conlabfum Jul. Pitianus. P. P. reftituit.
IX. The firft fculpture that merits notice is that figured by Mr.
* None of the fealtars or ftones have any remarkable fculpture j therefore no part of them merit engraving, except the pretty veflel on No.lll*
M Horfely,
3s
A TOUR
Horfily, No. 49, Cumberland, and by Mr. Gordon, tab. 37 : they both judly ftyle it the belt of the Roman work of this nature in. Britain; and the fir ft properly makes it a genius, and probably that of the Emperor. The figure is erect, 3 f. 3 inches high,, holding in one hand a patera over an altar •, in the other a cornu* ccpia\ the laft frequently obferved both in fculpture and in medals. On his head is a mural crown: each of theie particulars are to be met with in Monfaucon, torn, i. part. ii. in the figures of tab. cc. The whole length of the ftone is 7 f. 4 inches : in the lower part is a long perpendicular groove, with another fhort and tranfverfe near the middle : in this, I conjecture might have been fixed an iron, forming part of the ftand of a lamp, which was cuftomarily placed burning before the ftatues of deities.
X. A figure in a dole drels, not unlike a carter's frock, or what Monfaucon calls fagum claufum, reaching down to the heels: on one fide is a boar, on the other a wheel, and beneath that an altar : in the left hand of the figure is part of a cornucopia. The figure is evidently Gaulifh, but the hiftory is obfcure : the boar is an emblem of Caledonia : the wheel a known type of Fortune : It is alfo a concomitant of l^uifco, a Saxon or northern deity. As the Roman armies in this kingdom were latterly compofed of dif- ferent GauUJlj and foreign nations, their deities were introduced, and intermixed with thofe of the Romans, a molt fuperftitious people, ready and accuftomed to adopt thole of every country. We need not be furprized at the variety of figures found in this place, where it is evident that liberty of confcience was allowed by there having been fo near a temple of evcty nation, a latitudinarian Ean^ theon.
XI. Is
/•/
73
in.
AlTTIQ VI TJJE S ,
IN SCOTLAND.
XL Is a fecond figure refembling the former, only that a fort of clofe fhort mantle covers the moulders and breaft. It has the wheel, altar and cornucopia ; but beneath the feet appear the cru- pezia, fuch as are beneath thofe of the celebrated ftatue of the dancing Fawn.
XII. Is another figure, in a clofe fagum or faic. By it is a vef- fel, Handing on two long fupports j the figure feems about to fling in what it holds in the right hand : the other leans on what refembles an ear of corn.
XIII. Is a figure fitting in a chair, cloathed in garments much plaited and folded : on the lap are apples or fruits. Neha- lennia, a Zeland goddefs, is reprefented in this attitude *, and her lap thus filled : the habit differs ; but this deity might have been adopted by another nation, who drelTed her according to its own mode.
XIV. Is a curious groupe of three figures, Handing with their backs to a long feat, with elbows. They are habited in a loofe Sate, reaching but little below the knees : that in the middle dif- tinguifhed by a pointed flap, and a vefM filled whether with fruit or corn is not very evident. Thele may perhaps be the De<e Ma- tres of the barbarous nations, and introduced here by feme of the German levies ; there having been found in Britain three altars dedicated to them by the Tungrian cohort. They were local dei- ties, protedtrefTes of certain towns or villages among -f- the Gauls and Germans, by whom they were tranfported into Britain; which is acknowleged in two inferiptions, where they are called tranf-
* Monfaucon II, pt. II, p. 443. f Archtflogia, vol. III.
M 2 marine.
8*
*4 A T O U R
marine. If they were rural deities the contents of the cup is very apt. I may remark that the antients in general were fond of the number Three •, and the Gauls * are known to groupe their dei- ties very frequently in triplets : a number the molt complete, as it regards, beginning, middle, and end.
XV. Another groupe of three very fingular figures j each with a pointed hood, a fort of breaft-plate hanging loofely, and their feet and legs cloathed. In the right hand of each is a ftone.
Thefe feem to have been a rude fpecies of foldiery, who fought with ftones ; but whether Briti/Jo, or foreign barbarians, auxiliary to the Romans, is not certain.
Among the antiquities of other kinds is a very beautiful fmall figure of a female in brafs, whofe drefs folds with peculiar ele- gance. By the rudder in her hand, it feems to have been a For- tune.
A fmall brazen Hermes or 'Terminus : as it is ornamented with feftoons and fruit, it probably was deftined to guard the limits of orchards or gardens.
Two bralTes : one with the head of a female, with a large tur- band-like head-drefs. The other is the head of Jupiter.
A fmall brafs cafe, probably defigned for a thin medal : a filver brotche : a fmall pair of pincers, for the purpofe of extirpating hairs •, a practice much in ufe among the Romans.
A moil elegant urn, found full of afhes : a ftrong veffel of mixed metal, feemingly a mortar : a glafs bead, the ovum angui- num of the Romans, and Glain naidr of the Britons: this has a
* Gordon, tab. xxxvi. xxxix. & Ix.
wire
STRENGTH.
IN SCOTLAND. 85
wire ring through the orifice, which gives reafon to fufpect that
they were ftxung together like beads.
The numbers X. XI. XIII. and XIV. are engraven in the righ- to D
teenth plate of the quarto edition of the Tour ot 1769. T.e re- mainder in the Hid. Vlth. and Vllth. of this volume.
Take a ride to LiddeFs Strength, or the Mote. A flrong en- June u
trenchment two mi>es S. W. ot Netherby, on a deep and lofty clay cliff, above the river L?'ddel, commanding a vaft extent of view : has at one end a very high mount, from whence the country Lidd l's
might be explored to very great advantage : in the middle is the foundation of a fquare building, perhaps the pratorium t This place is fmall, rather of a. circular form, ftrongiy entrenched on the weak fide ; has before it a fort of half moon, with a vaft fofs and dike as a fecurity. From this place to Netherby is the veftige of a road. That this fortrefs had been originally Roman is proba- ble, but fince their time has been applied to the fame ufe by other warders. ' It was, fays Leland, the moted place of a gentilman
cawled Syr Water Seleby, the which was killyd there and the place ' deftroyed yn King Edward the thyrde when the Scottes whent to
Dyrbam*.'
It was taken by ftorm by David the lid. The Governor, Sir Walter, would have compounded for his life by raniome, but the tyrant, after caufing his two fons to be ffrangled before his face, ordered the head of the father, diffracted v/ith grief, to be ffruck offf.
Defcend the hill, and croiTing the Liddel, enter
* Ulandltin, VII. 55. f Stew* j Chronicle* 243.
SCOT-
£6 A T O U R
SCOTLAND,
in Liddefdale, a portion of the county of Dumfries : a mod fer- tile and well-cultivated tract of low arable and pafture land. Keep
Penton-lins. by the river fide for three miles farther to Penton-lins, where is a molt wild but pi&urefque fcene of the river, rapidly flowing along rude rocks, bounded by cliffs, cloathed on each fide by trees. The bottom the water rolls over affumes various forms ; but the moft Angular are beds of flone regularly quadrangular, and divided by a narrow vacant fpace from each other, refembling immenfe mafles of Ludi Helmontii, with their fepta loft. Below thefe, the rocks approach each other, leaving only a deep and narrow channel, with a pretty wooden alpine bridge over a depth of furious water, black and terrible to the fight. The fides of the rock are ftrangely perforated with great and circular hollows, like pots ; the work of the vortiginous motion of the water in great floods.
A farmer I met with here told me, that a pebble, naturally perfo- rated, was an infallible cure, hung over a horfe that was hag-ridden, or troubled with nocturnal fweats.
Cannonsby. Return and pafs through the parifh of Cannon/by, a fmall fer-
tile plain, watered by the Efk ; where fome canons regular of St. Augujline had pitched their piory at left before the year 1296, when William, prior of the convent, fwore allegiance to Edward I*. The parifh is very populous, containing above two thoufand fouls. Much coal and lime-ftone is found here.
* Keittfi Scotch bijkop's, 240.
Moft
IK SCOTLAND.
Mod. part of the houfes are built with clay : the perfon who has building in view, prepares the materials, then fummons his neigh- bors on a fixed day, who come furnifhed with victuals at their own expence, fet chearfully to work, and complete the edifice before night.
Afcend a bank on the fouth fide of this valley, to a vaft heio-ht above it : the fcenery is great and enchanting : on one fide is a view of the river EJk, far beneath, running through a rocky channel, and bounded by immenfe precipices; in various places fuddenly deepening to a vaft profundity ; while in other parts it glides over a bottom covered with moffes, or colored ftones, that reflect through the pure water teints glaucous, green, or fappha- rine : thefe various views are in molt places fully open to fight •, in others fuffer a partial interruption from the trees, that cloath the fteep bank, or moot out from the brinks and fifTures of the precipices ; the trees are in general oak, but often intermixed with the waving boughs of the weeping birch.
Two precipices are particularly diftinguifhed : one called Car- Car-sidel Jtdel : the other Gilnocbie's garden: the laft is faid to have been the retreat of a celebrated outlaw •, but originally had evidently been a fmall Britiflj fortrefs, guarded on one fide by the fteeps of the precipice, on the other by a deep entrenchment.
The ride was extremely diverfified through thick woods, or fmall thickets, with fudden tranfitions from the fhade into rich and well hufbanded fields, bounded on every fide with woods j with views of other woods ftill rifing beyond. No wonder then that the inhabitants of thefe parts yet believe the fairies revel in thefe delightful fcenes.
Crofs^
8/
88 A T O U R
Crofs the £/£, through a ford with a bottom of folic! rock ; having on one fide the water precipitating itfelf down a precipice formino- a fmall cataract, which would afford a fcene not the molt agreeable to a timid mind. The water too was of r.he moft cry- ftalline, or colorlefs clearnefs, no ftream I have ever {een being comparable •, fo that perfons who ford this river are often led into diftreffes, by being deceived as to its depth, for the great tranf- parency gives it an unreal fhallownefs.
This river is inhabited by trouts, parrs, loches, minnows, eels and lampries ; and what is fingular, the chub, which with us loves only the deep and ftill waters bounded by clayey banks.
Hol-house. Qn t]ie oppofite eminence fee Hol-houfe, a defenfible tower like
that at Kirk andrews, and one of the feats of the famous Johnny
*0"trong.RM~ Armjirong, laird of Gilnockie, the moft popular and potent thief of his time, and who laid the whole Englijh borders under con- tribution, but never injured any of his own countrymen. He always was attended with twenty-four gentlemen well mounted : and when James V. went his progrefs in 1528, exprefsly to free the country from marauders of this kind, Gilnockie appeared be- fore him with thirty-fix perfons in his train*, moft gorgeoufly appareled •, and himfelf fo richly dreffed, that the king faid what wants that knave that a king floould have ? his majefty ordered him and his followers to immediate execution, in fpite of the great offers Gilnockie made •, who finding all application for favor, vain, he according to the old ballad, boldly told the king,
* Lindfey, 1 47.
To
IN SCOTLAND.
To feik hot water beneath cold yce,
Surely it is a great folie ; I haif afked grace at a gracelefs face,
But there is nane for my men and me.
I faw a boy, a direct defcendent of this unfortunate brave, who with his whole family are faid to be diftinguifhed for their honefty and quiet difpofition, happily degenerating from their great an- ceftor.
Continue my ride on a fine turnpike road, through beautiful woods, to Mr. Maxwell's of Broomholme, environed with a moft Broomholme. magnificent theatre of trees, cloathing the lofty hills, and the whole furmounted by a barren mountain, by way of contrail:.
The rent of the ground which Mr. Maxwell keeps in his own hands, and that of a farm now disjoined from it, was in the unfettled times of the beginning of the laft century, only five pounds Scotch, or eight millings and four pence Englijh. At prelent Mr. Maxwell's fhare alone would take a hundred pounds fterling annual rent. This is mentioned as an illuftration of the happy change of times, and the increafe of revenues by the fecu- rity the owners now enjoy, by the improvements in agriculture, and the cheapnefs of money to what they were a century and a half ago. Indeed it mould be mentioned that the old rent was paid by a Maxwell to a Maxwell i and perhaps there might be fome fmall matter of favor from the chieftain to his kinfman ; but even ad- mitting fome partiality, the rife of income muft be amazino-.
The road continues equally beautiful, along a fertile glen, bounded by hills, and woods. Come in view of a bridge, with the pleafing motion of a mill wheel ken in perfpective through
N the
89
HSEP.
90 A T O U R
the middle arch : the river was here low, and the bed appeared roughened with tranfverfe waved rocks, extenfively fpread, and fharply broken. Iangholme. Tne town oi Langholme appears in a fmall plain, with the entrance
of three dales, and as many rivers, from which they take their names, entring into it, viz. Wachopdak, Eufdale and EJkdale ; the laft extends thirty or forty miles in length, and the fides as far as I could fee, bounded by hills of imooth and verdant grafs, the fweet food of the fheep, the great ftaple of the country. To give an idea of the confiderable traffic carried on in thefe animals, the reader may be told, that from twenty to thirty-fix thoufand lambs are fold in the feveral fairs that are held at Langholme in the year. To this muft be added, the great profit made of the wool, fold into England for our coarfer manufactures ; of the fheep themfelves fent into the fouth, and even of the cheefe and butter made from the milk of the ewes *.
The truftees for encouraging of improvements give annual premiums to fuch who produce the fineft wool, or breed the beft tups •, a wife meafure in countries emerging from floth and po- verty.
The manufactures of Langholme , are fluffs, ferges, black and white plaids, plains, &c. moflly fold into England.
The cafde is no more than a fquare tower, or border-houfe, once belonging to the Armjlrongs. In my walk to it was fhewn the place where feveral witches had fuffered in the laft century : this reminds me of a very fingular belief that prevaled not many years ago in thefe
• For a fuller account of the management of the &eep of this county, vide the Appendix,-
parts :
IN SCOTLAND.
parts : nothing lefs than that the midwives had power of trans- ferring part of the primaeval curfe bellowed on our great firft mother, from the good wife to her hufband. I faw the reputed off- fpring of fuch a labor ; who kindly came into the world without giving her mother the left uneafmefs, while the poor hufband was roaring with agony in his uncouth and unnatural pains.
The magiftrates of this place are very attentive to the fuppreflion of all exceflive exertions of that unruly member the tono-ue : the Branky an inflrument of punifhment, is always in readinefs ; and I A brank. was favored with the fight ; it is a fort of head-piece, that opens and inclofes the head of the impatient, while an iron, fharp as a chizzel enters the mouth, and fubdues the more dreadful weapon within. This had been ufed a month before, and as it cut the poor female till blood gufhed from each fide of her mouth, it would .be well that the judges in this cafe would, before they exert their power again, confider not only the humanity, but the legality of this practice.
The learned Doctor Plot * has favored the world with a mi- nute defcription, and a figure of the inflrument, and tells us, he looks on it ' as much to be preferred to the ducking Jloot, which * not only endangers the health of the party, but alio gives the c tongue liberty 'twixt every dip ■, to neither of which this is at all 6 lyable.'
Among the various cufloms now obfolete, the moft curious was Handfistjnc,; that of Handfifting, in ufe about a century pafl. In the upper part of EJkdak} at the confluence of the white and the black Eft, was
* Hiji. Staffcrdjbire, 389, tab. xxxii.
N 2 held
91
92
A TOUR
held an annual fair, where multitudes of each fex repaired. The unmarried looked out for mates, made their engagement by joining hands, or by handfijling, went off in pairs, cohabited till the next annual return of the fair, appeared there again, and then were at liberty to declare their approbation or diflike of each other. If each party continued conftant, the handfifting was renewed for life: but if either party diffented, the engagement was void, and both were at full liberty to make a new choice ; but with this provifo, that the inconftant was to take the charge of the offspring of the year of probation. This cuflom feemed to originate from the want of clergy in this county in the days of popery : this tract was the pro- perty of the abby of Melrofs, which through ceconomy difcontinued the vicars that were ufed to difcharge here the clerical offices : inftead, they only made annual vifitations for the purpofes of marrying and baptifing, and the perfon thus fent,. was called Book in bofom, probably from his carrying, by way of readinefs, the book in his bread ; but even this being omitted, the inhabitants became necefiitated at firft to take this method, which they continued from habit to practife long after the reformation had furnifhed them with- clergy.
Perfons of rank, in times long prior to thofe, took the benefit of this cuflom ; for Lindefey*, in his reign of James II. fays, ' That ' James fixth earl of Murray begat upon Ifobel Innes, daughter 6 of the laird of Innes, Alexander Dunbar^ a man of fingular wit and c courage. This Ifabelwzs but handfiji with him, and deceafed be- ' fore the marriage j where-through this Alexander he was worthy
• P. 26, folio ed.
'of
IN SCOTLAND.
93
' of a greater living, than he might fucceed to by the laws and * pra&ifes of this realm.'
Of the fports of thefe parts, that of Curling is a favorite j and one Curlinc. unknown in England : it is an amufement of the winter, and played on the ice, by Aiding from one mark to another, great (tones of forty to feventy pounds weight, of a hemifpherical form, with an iron or wooden handle at top. The object of the player is to lay his ftone as near to the mark as poflible, to guard that of his partner, which had been well laid before, or to ftrike off that of his antagonift.
Return and pafs the march dike, or the Scotch border, and continue at Netherby that night.
Pafs through Longtown, a place remarkable for the great trade June 2.
carried on during the feafon of cranberries j when for four or five markets, from twenty to twenty-five pounds worth, are fold each day at three pence a- quart, and fent in fmall barrds to London.
Crofs the Ejk, on a bridge of five arches, a light ftructure, as mod of the bridges of this country are. Go through the lanes which had been rendered imparTable, at the time of the eruption of the Solway mofs, which took its courfe this way to the Efk. The road was at this time quite cleared j but the fields to the right were quite covered with the black flood.
The fpace between the Efk and the Sark, bounded on the third Debateaelb fide by the March dike, which croffes from one river to the other, feems properly to belong to Scotland ; but having been difputed by both crowns, was ftyled the debateable land. But in the reign of our James I. Sir Richard Graham obtaining from the Earl of Cumberland
(to
LAND.
94
A TOUR
(to whom it was granted by Queen Elizabeth) a leafe of this tracl:, bought it from the needy monarch, and had intereft enough to get it united to the county of Cumberland, it being indifferent to James, then in pofleffionof both kingdoms, to which of them it was annexed.
Ride by the fide of the Roman road, that communicated between Netherby and the camp at Barrens. Crofs a fmall bridge over the Sarky and again enter
SCOTLAND.
On the banks of this rivulet, the EngliJJj under the command of the Earl of Northumberland, and Magnus with a red main, received a great defeat from the Scots, under Douglas duke ofOrmond, and Wal- lace of Craigie. Numbers of the former were drowned in their flight in Solway firth , and lord Piercy taken prifoner, a misfortune owing to his filial piety, in helping his father to a horfe, to enable him * to efcape. Scotch At a little diflance from the bridge, flop at the little village of
Gratna, the refort of all amorous couples, whole union the prudence of parents or guardians prohibits : here the young pair may be inftantly united by a niherman, a joiner, orablackfmith, who marry from two guineas a job, to a dram of whilky : but the price is gene- rally adj ufted by the information of the poftilions from Carlile, who are in pay of one or other of the above worthies , but even the
• Hift. of Douglas's, p. 179.
drivers,
MARRIAGES.
IN SCOTLAND,
drivers, in cafe of neceffity, have been known to undertake the facerdotal office. If the purfuit of friends proves very hot ; and there is not time for the ceremony, the frightened pair are advifed to flip into bed ; are fhewn to the purfuers, who imagining that they are irrecoverably united, retire, and leave them to
confummate their unfinifhed loves.
This place is diftinguifhed from afar by a fmall plantation of firs, the Cyprian grove of the place ; a fort of land-mark for fugitive lovers. As I had a great defire to fee the high-prieft, by ftratagem I fucceeded : he appeared in form of a fifherman, a flout fellow, in a blue coat, rolling round his folemn chops a quid of tobacco of no common fize. One of our party was fuppofed to come to explore the coafl : we queftioned him about his price j which, after eyeing us attentively, he left to our honor. The church of Scotland does what it can to prevent thefe clandeftine matches ; but in vain, for thofe infamous couplers defpife the fulmination of the kirk, and ex- communication is the only penalty it can inflict.
Continue my journey over a woodlefs flat tract, almoft hedgelefs, but productive of excellent oats and barley. Pafs by Rig, a little hamlet, a fort of chapel of eafe to Gratna, in the run-away nuptials. The performer here is an alehoufe-keeper.
On the left is Solway-firth, and a view of Kefwick-fells, between which and Burufwork hill in Scotland, is a flat of -forty miles, and of a great extent in length. The country grows now very un- cultivated, and confifts of large commons. Reach
Annan, in Annandale, another diviflon of Dumfries/hire, a town of Annan,
four or five hundred inhabitants, feated on the river of the fame name.
Veflfels
95
$6 A T O U R
VefTels of about two hundred and fifty tuns can come wiihin half a mile of the town, and of fixty as high as the bridge. This place has fome trade in wine : the annual exports are between twenty and thirty thoufand Winchefter bufhels of corn.
The caftle was entirely demolifhed, by order of parlement, after the accefiion of James VI. to the crown of England^ and only the ditches remain. But Annan was in a manner ruined by Wharton^ Lord Prefident of the marches, who, in the reign of Edward VI. overthrew the church, and burnt the town> the firft having been fortified by the Scots *, under a Lyon of the houfe of Glames.
The Bruces were once Lords of this place, as appears by a ftone at prefent in a wall of a gentleman's garden, taken from the ruins of the caftle, and thus infcribed, Robert de Brus Counte de Carrick et fenteur du val dzAnnand. 1300.
After dinner make an excurfion of five miles to Ruthwell, palling over the Annan on a bridge of five arches, defended by a gateway. The country refembles that I pafTed over in the morning, but at Newby-Neck obferve the ground formed into eminences, fo remark- ably as tooccafion a belief of their being artificial, but are certainly nothing more than the freaks of nature. Antient The church of Ruthwell contains the ruins of a moft curious
obelisk.. monument ; an obelifk once of a great height, now lying in three
pieces, broken by an order of the general affembly in 1644, under pretence of its being an object of fuperftition among the vulgar. When entire it was probably about twenty feet high, exclufive of pedeftal and capital •, making allowances in the meafurement of the
• Jjfcougb's Hift. of the wars of Scot I. and Engl. 321.
prefent
IN SCOTLAND.
prefent pieces for fragments chipped off, when it was deftroyed : it originally confuted of two pieces ; the loweft, now in two, had been fifteen feet long ; the upper had been placed on the other by means of a focket : the form was fquare and taper, but the fides of unequal breadth : the two oppofite on one fide at bottom were eiohteen inches and a half, at top only fifteen •, the narrower fide fixteen at bottom, eleven at top. Two of the narroweft fides are ornamented with vine-leaves, and animals intermixed with runic characters around the margin : on one of the other fides is a very rude fio-ure of our Saviour, with each foot on the head of fome beads : above and each fide him are inferibed in Saxon letters, Jefus Chrijlus— judex equi- tatis, certo fahatoris mundi et an — perhaps as Mr. Gordon * imagines Angelorum — Bejius et Dracones cognoverant inde— — and laftly are the words, fregerunt panem.
Beneath the two animals is a compartment with two ficrures, one bearded, the other not, and above is inferibed, Sanclus Paulus.
On the adverfe fide is our Saviour again, with Mary Magdalene wafhing his feet, and the box of ointment in his hand. The in- fcriptions, as made out by Mr. Gordon, are, Alabafirum unguenti
— — ejus Lachrymis capit rigare pedes, ejus capillis capitis fui terne-
bat et prateriens vidi.
The different fculptures were probably the work of different times and different nations ; the firft that of the chriflian Saxons j the other of the Danes, who either found thofe fides plain ; or defacing the antient carving, replaced it with fome of their own. Tradition fays, that the church was built over this obelifk, long
* It in. 161.
O after
A TOUR
after its erection •, and as it was reported to have been trani- ported here by angels, it was probably fo fecured for the fame reafon as the fanta cafa at Loretto was, leaft it fhould take another flight.
The pedeftal .lies buried beneath the floor of the church : I found fome fragments of the capital, with letters fimilar to the others j and on each oppofite fide an eagle, neatly cut in relief. There was alfo a piece of another, with Saxon letters round the lower part of a human figure, in long veftments, with his foot on a pair of imall globes : this too feemed to have been the top of a crofs.
Scotland has had its vicar of Bray: for in this church-yard is an infeription in memory of Mr. Gazvin Young, and Jean Stewart. his fpoufe. He was ordained minifter in 1617, when the church was prefbyterian : foon after, James VI. eflablifhed a moderate fort of epifcopacy. In 1638, the famous league and covenant took place : the bifhops were depofed, and their power abolifhed : prefbytery then flourifhed in the fullnefs of acrimony. Sectaries of all forts invaded the church in CromweW time, all equally hating, perfecuting, and being periecuted in their turns. In 1660, on the refloration, epifcopacy arrived at its plenitude of power ;. and prefbyterianifm expelled ; and that feci; which in their prof- perity fhewed no mercyr now met with retributory vengeance. Mr. Young maintained his pod amidft all thefe changes, and what is much to his honor, fupported his character : was refpected by all parties for his moderation and learning : lived a tranquil life,, and died in peace, after enjoying his cure fifty-four years.
The
IN SCOTLAND.
The epitaph on him, his wife and family, merits prefervation, if but to fhew the number of his children :
Far from our own, amids our own we ly : Of our dear Bairns, thirty and one us by. anagram. Gwvinus Junius Unius agni ufui Jean Steuart a true faint a true faint Hive it,fo I die it. tho men f anu no, my God did fee it.
This parifli extends along the Sol-way firth, which gains on the land continually, and much is annually waihed away : the tides re- cede far, and leave a vaft fpace of fands dry. The fport of falmon- hunting is almoft our of ufe, there being only one perfon on the coaft who is expert enough to practice the diverfion : the fportfman is mounted on a good horie, and furnifhed with a long fpear : he difcovers the fifti in the fhallow channels formed by EJky purfues it full fpeed, turns it like a gre-hound, and after a long chace leldom fails to transfix it.
The falt-makers of Ruthwell merit mention, as their method feems at prefent quite local. As foon as the warm and dry weather of June comes on, the fun brings up and incrufts the furface of the land with fait : at that time they gather the fand to the depth of an inch, carry it out of the reach of the tide, and lay it in round compact heaps, to prevent the fait from being warned away by the rains : they then make a pit eight feet long and three broad, and the fame depth, and plaifter the infide with clay, that it may
O ?. hold
99
SaLMON'CHACEi
Salt-makers,
ioo A T O U R
hold water *, at the bottom they place a layer of peat and turf, and fill the pit with the collected fand : after that they pour water on it : this filters through the fand, and carries the fait with it into a Idler pit, made at the end of the great one : this they boil in fmall lead pans, and procure a coarfe brown fait, very fit for the purpofes of faking meat or fifh. James VI. in a vifit he made to thefe parts, after his accefiion to the crown of England, took notice of this operation, and for their induftry exempted the poor falt-makers of Ruthwell from all duty on this commodity ; which till the union, was in all the Scotch acts relating to the fait duties, excepted.
In this parifh was lately difcovered a fingular road through a morafs, made of wood, confiding of fplit oak planks, eight feet long, faftened down by long pins or flakes, driven through the boards into the earth. It was found out by digging of peat, and at that time lay fix feet beneath the furface. It pointed towards the lea, and in old times was the road to it ; but no tradition remains of the place it came from.
Return through Annan, and after a ride over a naked tract, reach Springkeld, the feat of Sir William Maxwell: near the houfe is the fite of Bell-cajlle, where the Duke of Albany, brother to James III, and the Earl of Douglas lodged the night before their defeat at Kirk- onnel, a place almoft contiguous. This illuflrious pair had been exiled in. England, and invaded their own country on a plundering fcheme, in a manner unworthy of them. Albany efcaped •, Douglas was taken, and finifhed his life in the convent of Lindores*,
* Hume's Hi ft. of the Douglas's, folio, p. 206.
In
IN SCOTLAND.
IOI
In the burying-ground of Kir konnel is the grave of the fair Ellen Ellen Irvine. Irvine, and that of her lover : me was daughter of the houfe of Kirkonnel; and was beloved by two gentlemen at the fame time j the one vowed to facrifice the fuccefsful rival to his refentment -, and watched an opportunity while the happy pair were fitting on the banks of the Kirtle, that wafhes thefe grounds. Ellen perceived the defperate lover on the oppofite fide, and fondly thinking to fave her favorite, interpofed ; and receiving the wound intended for her be. loved, fell and expired in his arms. He inftantly revenged her death ; then fled into Spain, and ferved for fome time againft the infidels : on his return he vifited the grave of his unfortunate mif- trefs, ftretched himfelf on it, and expiring on the fpot, was interred by her fide. A fword and a crofs are engraven on the tomb-ftone, with hie jacet Adam Fleming : the only memorial of this unhappy- gentleman, except an antient ballad of no great meritj which records the tragical event *.
Excepting a glen near Springkeld, mod of this country is very- naked. It is faid to have been cleared of the woods . by act of parlement, in the time of James VI, in order to deftroy the re- treat of the mofs-troopers, a peft this part of the country was in- famous for : in fact the whole of the borders then was, as Urn- defay expreffes, no other thing but theft, reiff and Jlaughter. They were pofTeflfed by a fet of potent clans, all of Saxon defcent ; and, like true defcendents of IJhmael, their hands were againft every man, and every man's hand againft them. The John/ions, of
•• Which happened either the latter end of the reign of James V. or the beginning of that of Mary,
Lough-
102
T OUR
Lough-wood, in Annandale ; their rivals the Maxwels of Caerlavo- roc the Murrays of Cockpool, Glendomvyns of Glendonwin, Carru- thers of Holmain, Irvines of Bonfhaw, Jardins of Applegarth, and the SSafc of Liddefdale, may be enumerated among the great families.
But befides thefe were a fet of clans and furnames on the whole border, and on the dcbateable ground, who, as my author * fays, were not landed ; many of them diftinguifhed by noms de guerre, in the manner as feveral of our unfortunate brave are at prefent, fuch as Tom Trotter of the hill,, the Goodman Dickfon of Bucktrig, Ralph Bum of the Coit, George Hall, called Pat's Geordie there, the Lairds jok, Wanton Sym, Will of Powdcr-lanpat, Arthur fire the Braes, Gray- Will, Will the Lord, Willie of Gratna hill, Richie Graham the Plump, John Skynbank, Priors John and his bairnes, Heftor of the Harlaw, the grief es and cuts of Harlaw ; thefe and many more, merry men all, of Robin Hood's fraternity, fuperior to the little diftinctions of meum and tuum. June 3. Vifit the Roman flation at Barrens, in the parifli of Mddleby,
feated on a flat, bounded on one fide by the fmall water of Mien, Burrens camp, and on another by a fmall Urn. It was well defended by four ditches and five dikes -, but much of both is carried away by the winter floods in the river that bounded on one fide j a hypocauft had been difcovered here, inferibed ftones dug up, and coins found, fome of them of the lower empire. Oblerved a place formed of iquare ftones, which I was told contained, at the time of the dif-
* Taken from a fragment of a quarto book, printed in 1603, containing names of clans in every fheriffdom, &c. &c.
covery,
IN SCOTLAND, 103
covery, a quantity of grain : I was alfo informed, that there had been a large vault a hundred and twenty feet long, defigned for a granary ; but this has long fince been defiroyed for fake of the materials. Mr. Horfely imagines this to have been the blatuni bulgium of Antonine, being on the North fide of the wall, with a military road between it and Netherby -, and that it was the place where Agricola concluded his fecond year's expedition. As that General was diftinguiflied for his judicious choice of fpots of encampment, fo long after, his fuc- ceflbrs made ufe of this, as appears by a medal of ' Conjlantius Chlorus being found here, for that Emperor lived about two hundred and twenty years after Agricola.
The country now begins to grow very hilly ; but ufefully fo -, the hills being verdant, and formed for excellent fheep-walks : on the fides of one called Burn/work, about two miles from Burrens, are two beautiful camps, united to each other by a rampart, that Burnsworr winds along the fide of the hill •, one camp being on the S. Eaft, the other on the N. Weft: one has the pratorium yet vifible ; and on the North fide are three round tumuli, each joined to it by a dike, projecting to fome diftance from the ramparts ; as if to pro- tect the gate on that quarter, for each of thefe mounts had its little fort : the other camp had two of thefe mounts on one fide and one on each end ; but the veftiges of thefe are very faint : both of thefe camps were fur rounded with a deep ditch, and a ftrong rampart both on the infide and the outfide of the fofs ; and on the very fummit of the hill is a fmall irregular intrenchment, intended as exploratory, for the view from thence is uninterrupted on every part. Thefe camps are very accurately planned by Mr. Gordon, tab. I. p. 16. Thefe alfo were the work of Agricola, and
highly
CAMPS.
104
TOUR
hio-hly probable to be, as Mr. Horfely imagines, the Summer camp of that at Burrens.
.The view from the fummit is extremely extcnfive : the town of Lochmaban, with its lake and ruined caftle, built on a heart-fhaped peninfula ; Queenjbury hill, which gives title to the Duke ; Harts- fell, and the Loders, which difpute for height ; yet a third, the ■Briffels, was this day patched with fnow ; and laftly, Ericftoney which fofters the Annan, the Clyde and the Tweed.
Defcend and pafs through the fmall town of Ecclefechan (ecclefic Fechani) noted for the great monthly markets for cattle.
Near this place, on the eftate of Mr. Irvine, writer, was found an antiquity whofe ufe is rather doubtful : the metal is gold ; the length rather more than feven inches and a half; the weight 2 oz, and a half and 1 5 gs. It is round and very (lender in the middle, at each end grows thicker, and of a conoid form, terminating with a flat circular plate : on the fide of one end are ftamped the words Helenus fecit ; on the other is prick'd ....HIM B. From the flendernefs of the middle part, and the thicknefs of the ends, it might perhaps ferve as a fattening of a garment, by inferting it through holes on each fide, and then twilling together this pliant metal.
Keep along the plain, arrive again on the banks of the Annan, and have a very elegant view of its wooded margent, the bridge, a light ftructure with three arches, one of fifty- two feet, the others of twenty-five, with the turrets of Hoddam caftle a little beyond, over- topping a very pretty grove. Hoddam castle. The caftle confifts of a great fquare tower, with three (lender round turrets : the entry through a door protected by another of
iron
IN SCOTLAND.
iron bars ; near it a fquare hole, by way of dungeon, and a flair- cafe of flone, fuited to the place : but inflead of finding a cap- tive damfel and a fierce warder, met with a courteous laird and his beauteous fpoufe ; and the dungeon not filled with piteous captives, but well flored with generous wines, not condemned to a long imprifonment.
This caftle, or rather flrong border-houfe, was built by John Lord Harries, nick-named John de Reeve, a ftrenuous fupporter of Mary Stuart, who conveyed her fafe from the battle of Lang- fide to his houfe of Terrigles, in Galloway, and from thence to the abby of Dundrannan, and then accompanied her in a fmall vefTel in her fatal flight into England. Soon after, it was furren- dered * to the regent Murray, who appointed the Laird of Drum- lanrig Governor and Lord of the marches. Before the accefiion of James VI, Hoddam was one of the places of defence on the borders •, for i the houfe of Howdam was to be keped with ane * wife ftout man, and to have with him four well-horfed men, " and thir to have two flark footmen fervants to keep their horfes, ' and the principal to have ane flout footman f.
In the walls about this houfe are preferved altars and inferip- tions found in the flation at Barrens : as they do not appear to have fallen under the notice of the curious, an enumeration of them perhaps will not be unacceptable ; therefore fhall be added in the appendix.
Near Hoddam, on an eminence, is a fquare building, called the Tower of repentance. On it is carved the word repentance, with a
* Hollfajbed's hift. Scotl. 393. -J- Border laws, app. 197.
P ferpent
105
io6 A T O U R
ferpent at one end of the word, and a dove at the other, fignify-- ing remorfe and grace. It was built by a Lord Harries, as a fort of atonement for putting to death fome prifoners whom he had made under a promife of quarter.
Proceed over a country full of low hills, fome parts under re- cent cultivation ; others in a heathy ftate of nature. Reach, in a wet cultivated and woody flat, the caftle and houfe of Comlongam, the property of Lord Stormount, and the birth-place of that orna- ment of our ifland, Lord Mansfield.
The caftle confifts of a great fquare tower, now almoft in ruins,, though its walls of near thirteen feet in thicknefs might have pro- mifed to the architect a longer duration. Many fmall rooms are gained out of the very thicknefs of the fides •, and at the bottom of one, after a defcent of numbers of fteps, is the noifome dun- geon, without light or even air-holes, except the trap-door in the floor, contrived for the lowering in of the captives. This for- trefs was founded by one of the anceftors of the Murrays, Earls of Annandak; a title which failed in that name about the time of the reftoration. June 4. Ride along the fhore by the end of Lockermofs, a morafs of
about ten miles in length, and three in breadth, with the little water of Locker running through it. This tract, from recent fur- vey, appears to have been overflowed by the fea, which confirms the tradition relating to fuch an event. This invafion of the tides was certainly but temporary, for from the numbers of trees, roots, and other vegetable marks found there, it is evident that this morafs was, in ibme very diftant period, an extenfive foreft. JMear a place called Kilblain I met with one of the antient canoes
of
IN SCOTLAND.
of the primeval inhabitants of the country, when it was proba- ble in the fame ftate of nature as Virginia, when firft difcovered by Captain Philip Amidas. The length of this little veffel was eight feet eight, of the cavity fix feet feven ; the breadth two feet ; depth eleven inches ; and at one end were the remains of three pegs for the paddle : the hollow was made with fire, in the very manner that the Indians of America formed their canoes, ac- cording to the faithful reprefentation by Thomas Harriot *, in De~ Bry's publication of his drawings. Another of the fame kind was found in 1736, with its paddle, in the fame morafs : the lafl was feven feet long, and dilated to a confiderable breadth at one end ; fo that in early ages neceffity dictated the fame inventions to the moil remote regions f. Thefe were long prior to our vi- tilia navigia j and were in ufe in feveral antient nations : the Greeks called them Movo^vAcc and a-n<x(py : fome held three perlbns, others only one j: ; and of this kind feems to have been that now men- tioned. Thofe ufed by the Germans \\ were of a vaft fize, capable of holding thirty men ; and the Gauls on the Rhone had the fame fpecies of boats, but were indifferent about their fhape, and con- tent if they would but float, and carry a large burden §.
At Mr. Dickfon's, of Lockerwood, faw a curiofity of another
• A fervant of Sir Walter Raleigh, fent to Virginia to make drawings and ob- servations.
f My ingenious friend Mr. Stuart tells me, that the Greeks ftill make ufe of canoes of this kind, to crofs fmall arms of the fea; and that they ftill ftyle them Movo%v\*, from being formed of one piece of wood.
X Polyani Stratagem. Lib. v. c. 23. p. 509. Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii. c. 107. || Plinii Hill. Nat. xvi. c. 40. § Livii lib. xxi. c. 26.
P 2 nature,
ioI A T O U R
nature, found in the neighborhood : a round pot of mixed metal, not unlike a fmall fhallovv mortar, with two rings on one fide, and two handles on the other.
Over Lockermofs is a road remarkable for its origin : a (Iranger, a great number of years ago, fold fome goods to certain mer- chants at Dumfries upon credit : he difappeared, and neither he nor his heirs ever clamed the money : the merchants in expecta- tion of the demand very honeftly put out the fum to intereft ... and after a lapfe of more than forty years, the town of Dumfries obtained a gift of it, and applied the fame towards making this ; ufeful road. Another is now in execution by the military, which is alfo to pafs over Lockermofs, and is intended to facilitate the communication between North Britain and Ireland, by way of Port Patric.
In this morning's ride, pafs by a fqnare inclofure of the fize of half an acre, moated round. This was a place of refuge ; for in family difputes, iuch was truly necefiary, and here any perfon who came, remained in inviolable fecurity.
See the ifle of Caerlaveroc, with a border houfe in the middle, built by a Maxwell. This place is far from the fea j but ftyled an ifle becaufe moated.
Vifit War Maw, a fmall hill with a round Britijh camp, fur- rounded with two fofTes on the top ; and on the fouth fide the faint veftiges of a Roman camp, now much ploughed up. The profpect from this eminence is fine, of the firth, the difcharge of the river Nith or Nid, the Nobius of Ptolemy ; and a long extent of the hills of Gallozvay.
The-
IN SCOTLAND.
The Roman encampment on this hill might probably be the Uxelum of Ptolemy, efpecially if we are to derive that word from the Briti/Jj, Uchel, high : for the fite of the fortrefs of Caerla- weroc, is on fuch a flat as by no means to admit of that epithet, or to be allowed to have been the antient Uxelum as Mr. Horfely conjectures.
The caftle has undergone its different fieges : the firft that ap- pears in hi (lory and the moft celebrated was in the year 1300, when Edward I. fat down before it in perfon. Enraged at the generous regard the Scots fhewed for their liberty, and the unremitted efforts made by their hero Wallace, to free his country from a foreign yoke, the Englijh monarch fummoned his barons, and all the nobility who held of him by military tenure to attend with their forces at Carlile, on the fcaft of St. John the Baptijl. On that occafion, as the poet of the expedition relates, there appeared,
foiiFant et vint et fept banieres *.
each of which, with the arms of the baron, are illuminated in a beautiful manner ; and in the catalogue are the names f of the moft puiffant peers of this kingdom, with a little euloge on each : as a fpecimen, is given that on Robert Clifford, in whom it may be fuppofed valour and beauty were combined :
* I am indebted to Marmaduke Tunfiall, Efq; for the M. S. account of this fiege, finely copied from the original, in the Mufeum; which appears to have been com- pofed in very old and bad French, foon after the event it celebrates,
f Appendix*
SI
109
no
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Si Je eftoie une pucellette, Je le douroie cuer et cors, Tant eft de lui bons li recors.
The poet then defcribes the caftle and its fituation with great exactnefs ; and gives it the very fame form and fite it has at prefent : fo that I cannot help thinking that it was never fo entirely deftroyed, but that fome of the old towers yet remain.
Kaerlaverok cafteaus eftoit
Si fort ki fiege ne doubtoit ;
Ainz ki li rois illicec venift,
Car rendre ni le convenift.
James mais kil fuft a fon droit,
Garniz quant befogns en vendroit
De gens de engins et de vitaille,
Com uns efcus eftoit de taille,
Car ni ot ke trois coftez entour,
Et en che/cune angle une tour.
Mes ki le une eftoit jumilee,
Tant hauti et tant longue et tant lei,
Ke par defouz eftoit la porte
A Pont tournis, bien faite et forte,
Et autres defenfes afles, &c.
It is worth obferving, that it was taken by force of engines, and the Englijh as late as the time in queftion ufed much the fame method of attack as the Greeks and Romans did : for they drove .the enemy from the walls by mowers of ftones, flung from en- gines fimilar to the Catapulu of the antients j and they ufed alfo arietes or battering rams.
Entr$
IN SCOTLAND, „,
Entre les aflaus efmaia,
Ffrere Robert ki envoia
Meinte piere par Rohinet;
Juq au foir des le matinet
Le jour devant cefte ne avoit,
De autre part ancore i levoit
Trois autres engins moult plus grans
Et il penibles et engrans,
Ke le chattel du tout confondi
Tant il receut mo't piere enfonde.
Def chocs et hang's ateint fent
A fes coups rien ne fe deffent.
On the furrender Edward behaved with more moderation than was ufual to him : for his laurels were wont to be blighted with deeds unworthy of his heroifm : but in this cafe the poor reliques of the garrifon experienced his clemency,
Lors fon iffirent ce eft la fome
Ke de uns ke de autret foiflant home
A grant merveille refguardes
Mes tenus furent et guardez
Tant ke li Roys en ordena
Ki vie et membre leur donna
Et a chafm robe nouuele
Lors fu joieufe la nouuli.
A toute li oft du chattel pris
Ki tant eftoit de noble pris.
It appears that the king immediately mounted his colors on the caftle ; and appointed three barons of the firft reputation to take charge of it,
Puis
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Puis fill le Roy porter amont
Sa banniere et la feynt Eymont
La faint Georgt et la faint Ed-wart
Et o celes par droit efwart
La Scgrave & le Herifort
Et cele au Seigneur di Cliffort
A ki le chafteaus fut donnes.
Notwithftanding the care Edward took to fecure this place, it was retaken by the Scots the following year; but very foon after was repofTefied * by the EngUfi^ after a very long fiege. It ap- pears that the Scots again recovered it, for in one of the invafions of the former, the gallant owner, Sir Eujlace Maxwell fupported a fiege in it of fome weeks, and obliged the enemy to retire ; but confidering that it might fall into the hands of the Engli/b, and become noxious to his country, generoufly difmantled it, and for that piece of difinterefted fervice was properly rewarded by his prince, who iemitted to him and his heirs for ever, the aHnual pecuniary acknowlegements they paid to the crown for the caflle and lands of Caerlaveroc -f-. It was again rebuilt; but in 1355 (being then in poiTeflion of the Englijh) was taken by Roger Kirk- patric, and leveled to the ground j\ Notwithftanding thefe re- peated misfortunes, it was once more reftored ; and once more ruined, by the Earl of Sujfex in 1570 ||. From this time the
* Maitland's Hift. Scot. II. 460.
f Crawford's Peerage of Scotland, 370.
J Major de geftis Scotorum, 248. more probably rendered defencelefs.
|| Camden's annals in Kennet, II. 429. It appears to me that the prefent are the antient towers, fo exactly do they anfwer to the old poetic defcription ; but that the owners, till the year 1638, neglected it as a fortrefs, yet inhabited it as a manfion.
Lords
IN SCOTLAND.
Uords of the place feem for fome interval to have been difcou- raged from any attempt towards refloring a fortrefs fo diftinguifhed by its misfortunes; for Camden in 1607, fpeaks of it as only a weak houfe belonging to the barons of Maxwell : yet once more Robert firft Earl of Nithfdale, in 1638, ventured to re-eftablifh the ftrong hold of the family : (till it was ill-fated •, for in the courfe of Cromwel's ufurpation, it was furrendered on terms ill preferv- ed ; and a receit was given for the furniture by one Finch ; in which among other particulars is mention of eighty beds, a proof of the hofpitality or the fplendor of the place. The form of the prefent caftle is triangular ; at two of the corners had been a round tower, but one is now demolifhed ; and on each fide the gateway, which forms the third angle, are two rounders. Over the arch is the creft of the Maxwells (placed there when the caftle was laft repair'd) with the date, and this motto, I bid ye fair, meaning Wardlaw^ the hill where the gibbet flood ; for in feudal times, it .feems to have been much in ufe.
The caftle yard is triangular : one fide which feems to have been the refidence of the family, is very elegantly built ; has three ftories, with very handfome window cafes : on the pediment of the lower are coats of arms •, over the fecond legendary tales ; over the third, T think C-vidian fables, all neatly cut in ftone. The op- posite fide is plain. In front is a handfome door cafe, leading to the great hall, which is ninety-one feet by twenty-fix. The whole internal length of that fide a hundred and twenty-three.
The Maxwells, Lords of Caerlaveroc, are of great antiquity: but their hiftory mixed with all the misfortune and all the dif-
Q^. grace
113
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orace fo frequent in ill-governed times. They and the Johnficm had perpetual feuds : in 1593 the clans had a conflict at the Holy- nefs of Dryfe; the chieftain of the Maxwells, and many of his ions, were (lain. John, a furviving fon, takes his revenge : a meetino- between him and Johnjlon, a predeceffor of the Marquifs of Annandale, was appointed in order to compromife all differences : both met, attended only by a fingle friend to each ; the friends quarrel -, the Laird of Lockerwood goes to part them, but is fhot through the back by the other chieftain •, who defervedly met his fate on the fcaffold a few years after. His forfeiture was taken off*, and his brother not only reftored but created Earl of Nithf- dale : in 1715 the title was loft by the conviction of the Earl of that day -, who efcaped out of the tower the night before execu- tion, by the difguife of a female drefs. The eftate by virtue of entail was preferved to the heirs.
Continue my ride along the coaft to the mouth of the Nith, which empties itfelf into the vaft efluary, where the tide flows in fo fail on the level fands that a man well mounted would find dif- ficulty to efcape, if furprifed by it. The view of the oppofite fide of Creffel, and the other Gallozvay hills, is very beautiful, Newby abby. and the coaft appeared well wooded. In a bottom lies Newby abby, founded by Devorgilla, daughter to Alan, Lord of Galloway, and wife to John Baliol, Lord of Cajlle-Bemard, who died and was buried here : his lady embalmed his heart, and placed it in a cafe of ivory, bound with filver, near the high