button to main menu  Camden's Britannia, edn 1789

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Westmorland

Pages 147-167 are Westmorland.
Page 147:-

Westmorland
  CAMDEN

WESTMORLAND.

  [ ]
  Westmorland, extent
  placename, Westmorland

AT the extremity of Lancashire more to the north is another small tract of the Brigantes, called by Latin writers Westmorlandia, by us Westmoreland, and by some later writers Westmaria [a]; bounded on the west and north by Cumberland, on the east by the counties of York and Durham. It has its name in our language from its lying intirely among high mountains (our Apennines extending themselves still further here in breadth), and for the greater part waste; desart tracts capable of little improvement from cultivation being called in the north of England Mores, and West-more-land meaning nothing more with us than a waste country to the West. Let us therefore banish from the school of venerable antiquity that idle dream about king Marius, whom our sleepy historians fancied to have subdued the Picts, and left his name to this county.
  [ ]
  CONCANGIOS. The Forces. Levens. Betham.

The southern part of this county, which is contracted in a narrow space between the river Lone and Winander mere is reckoned very fruitful in the vales, though it has its rough and slippery craggs, and is comprehended under the general name of The Barony of Kendale, or Candale, q.d. the Valley on the Can, a river which runs over rocks through this valley, and gives name to it, on whose western banks is the populous town of Candale [b] or Kirkeby Candale, q.d. the church in the valley on the Can, with two long streets intersecting each other, and eminent for its woollen manufacture, and the industry of its inhabitants, who carry on a great trade in woollen cloth all over England, and esteem it their highest honour that they have had barons and earls of their own. The first of these are descended from Ivo Taleboys, of whose posterity William by leave of Henry II. styled himself William of Lancaster, whose niece [c] and heiress married Gilbert Fitz Roger Fitz Reinfrid, by whose daughters [d] on the death of his son William, the estate passed to Peter Brus second lord of Skelton of that Christian name, and William Lindesay, from whom Ingelram lord of Coucy in France derived his descent by the mother's side as we find in the history of Forness abbey. By a daughter [e] of this Peter Brus, sister and heir of Peter Brus the 3d, this barony came to the Rosses of Werke, and from them this honour devolved by inheritance on the Parrs [f], whose castle overagainst the town is now decaying with age. I find three earls, John duke of Bedford, so created by his brother king Henry V. [g] John [h] duke of Somerset and John de Foix of the illustrious family of Foix in France, whom Henry VI. advanced to this dignity for his faithful services in the French wars [i]; whence it probably comes that some of this family of Foix in France are still called Candale. I know no other claim that Kendal has to antiquity. I once, indeed, imagined that it was the Roman station CONCANGIOS, but time has better informed me. Lower down in the river Can are two falls, down which the water rushes with great noise, one at the little town of Levens, the other more to the south near Betham, which are certain prognostics of weather to the neighbourhood. For, when the northernmost makes a loud noise they expect fair weather, and when the southernmost does the same rain and fogs. These are in the south and narrower part of this county, bounded on the west by the river Winster and that spacious lake beforementioned Winandermere; on the east by the river Lone or Lune [k].
  Ambleside. AMBOGLANA
  Amboglana
At the upper point of Winandermere lies the carcase [i] as it were of an antient city with great ruins of walls and of buildings without the walls still remaining scattered about. It was of an oblong form defended by a fosse and vallum, in length 132 ells and in breadth 80. The British bricks, the mortar mixed with fragments of bricks, the small urns, glass vessels, Roman coins frequently found, round stone like mill-stones, of which piled on one another pillars were formerly made, and the paved roads leading to it plainly bespeak it a Roman work. Its antient name indeed is lost unless as it is at present called Ambleside any one should suppose it the AMBOGLANA of the Notitia.
  Lone r. Lonsdale. Kirkby Lonsdale. Eden r. ITUNA. Pendragon c. Wharton hall. Kirkby Stephen. Musgrave. Heartley c. VERTERAE.
  Lune, River
  Lonsdale

On the east the river Lone serves as a boundary, and gives its name to the adjacent tract of Lonsdale, q. d. the valley on the Lone, whose chief town is Kirkby Lonsdale, to which the neighbouring inhabitants resort to church and market. Above the source of the river Lone or Lune the country extends further, and the hills run out in many windings and turnings, under which are valleys of a great depth in many places hollowed like caverns. The noble river Eden, called by Ptolemy ITUNA, rising in the county of York, first with a slow stream, but by the influx of rivers gradually increased, seeks it way among these hills to the north-west by Pendragon castle, to which time has left nothing but a name and heap of stones; thence by Wharton hall, the seat of the barons Wharton, of whom the first was Thomas, advanced to that title by Henry VIII. and succeeded by his son of the same name, and he by the present lord Philip, a most worthy nobleman. It afterwards runs by St. Stephens, commonly Kirkby Stephen, a noted market town: and two villages of the name Musgrave which give name to the warlike family of Musgrave, of whom t. Edward III. Thomas Musgrave had summons to parliament [m] among the barons; Heartly castle in this neighbourhood was their residence. Here the Eden seems to stop again to unite with other rivulets, on one of which scarce two miles from the Eden stood VER-
[a] William Neuburgh. II. 32.
[b] or Kendale. Holland.
[c] daughter. Mon. Ang. I. 708. Dugd. Bar. I. 421.
[d] Helewise married Peter. (Dugd. Ib. 449.)
[e] Margaret. (Dugd. I. 555.)
[f] Of whom Sir William Parr was made lord Parr by king Henry VIII. H.
[g] 2 Hen.V. (Dugd. Bar. II. 200.)
[h] Beaufort, father of Margaret countess of Richmond. Vincent on Brooke, 477. q. Dug.
[i] Dugd. Bar. II. 228.
[k] The county reaches beyond the present river. (G.)
[l] Of this see before in Lancashire, p.144.
[m] 24 Ed.III.
TERAE,
gazetteer links
button -- Bela Falls
button -- "Eden, River" -- Eden, River
button -- "Musgrave" -- Great Musgrave
button -- "Heartley Castle" -- Hartley Castle
button -- Kendal Castle
button -- "Candale" -- Kendal
button -- "Kendale" -- (Kent Valley)
button -- "Can, River" -- Kent, River
button -- "Kirkby Lonsdale" -- Kirkby Lonsdale
button -- "St Stephen's" -- Kirkby Stephen
button -- Levens Force
button -- "Musgrave" -- Little Musgrave
button -- "Lonsdale" -- Lune Valley
button -- "Pendragon Castle" -- Pendragon Castle
button -- "Amboglana" -- Galava
button -- "Westmorland" -- Westmorland
button -- "Wharton Hall" -- Wharton Hall
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