button to main menu   West's Guide to the Lakes, 1778/1821

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Page 175:-
huge granites [1], pitched in the ground, and at some distance from each other, leading to circles of small stones, and increasing the space between the rows as they approach the circles, where the avenue is about 27 paces wide. They are supposed to have run quite through the village, and terminated in a point. It has long embarrassed the antiquaries what to call this very uncommon monument of ancient date. Mr. Pennant has given a plausible explanation of it from Olaus Magnus, and supposes the row of granites to be the recording stones of a Danish victory obtained on the spot, and the stony circles to be grateful tributes to the memory of consanguineous heroes slain in the action.
There is at a small distance to the east from these stones a spring, called Shap-spaw, in smell and taste like that of Harrowgate, and much frequented by the people of the country for scorbutic complaints, and eruptions of the skin. Leaving this gloomy region of black moors and shapeless mountains behind you, you approach a charming vale, which Mr. Young, in his elegant manner, describes thus:
'After crossing this dreary tract, the first appearance of a good country is most exquisitely fine; about three miles from Kendal, you
[1] Since the inclosure of the common, many of these stones have been destroyed, for the purpose of making fence-walls.
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gazetteer links
button -- (Kemp Howe, Shap)
button -- Kendal to Shap
button -- "Shap Spaw" -- Spa Well
button -- station, Stone Crag

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