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title page |
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start of Westmorland |
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Page 162:-
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Arthur's Round Table.
Mayborough.
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Arthur's Round Table
Mayburgh
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passes by a large circular earthwork, single trenched, the
ditch within 29 yards diameter, the two entrances opposite
to each other north-west and south-east. This is called
Arthur's Round Table. A small distance from this to
the south is another such earthwork, consisting only of a
low rampart, and called the Little Round Table. To
the north of the first, on the summit of a small hill, is
Mayborough, a vast circular dike of loose stones, the
height and diameter at bottom stupendous; it slopes on both
sides, and is formed of pebbles. The entrance is on the
east, the area 88 yards diameter. Near the middle is an
upright stone, nine feet eight inches high, and 17 in
circumference in the thickest part. There have been three
more placed so as to form a square with it. Four more stood
at the corners of the entrance, but all these have been long
removed. This may have been a druidical tribunal like
Bryngwyn at Trew Drw in Anglesea [a]. Dr. Stukeley
[b] supposed it a British cursus. Mr. West [c] derives its
name from the British Mysirion,a place of study and
contemplation. Almost opposite to Mayborough, on the
Cumberland side of the Emot, is a vast cairn of round
stones, called Ormsted hill, surrounded by large grit
stones of different sizes, some a yard square, forming a
circle 60 feet diameter [d].
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Emot r.
Ulleswater.
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Eamont, River
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Emot may be called the Ticinus of the two counties of
Westmoreland and Cumberland falling in a clear and rapid
stream out of Ulleswater as the Tesin from Lago Maggiore.
Upon its banks king Athelstan A.D. 926, concluded a treaty
of peace and union with Constantine king of the Scots, Huval
(Howel), king of the Western Britans or Stratcluid Welsh,
and others who found themselves unable to make head against
him. They met, according to Simeon Dunelm. [e] and Hoveden
iv. Id. Jul. in a place called Eamotun, and entered
into a league confirmed by oath [f]. Bishop Gibson has taken
much pains to prove the above monuments, particularly
Mayborough, memorials of this event, whereas they are
plainly British and Druidical. They are both in Barton
parish [g], as also is a considerable part of
Ulleswater, a large mere seven or eight miles in
length, of great depth, well stocked with fish [h].
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Barton.
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Emot runs by Barton, a very large parish, reaching
from the boundaries of Ridal and Ambleside south to the
river Loder north. Here is a freeschool founded 1649 by the
learned D. Gerard Langbaine, provost of Queen's college,
Oxford, a native, as was also Dr. William Lancaster, another
provost and benefactor to this school [23].
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Yanwath.
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Yanwath Hall
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About a mile from Yanwath hall at the end of the wood
opposite Lowther hall is an antient round fortification
called Castle steads [i].
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Isa parlis. Nine
churches.
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grotto, Penrith
St Ninian's Church
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Isa parlis is also called Giant's cave, an odd
rock [k], and consists of two caverns, one circular,
hollowed in a rock, the roof supported by a central pillar
of rough masonry [l]. Its iron gates are pretended to have
been carried to Hornby hall [m]. Opposite to it in a
peninsula is St. Ninians, vulgarly called Nine
churches, the parish church of Brougham. The late rector
of this and Clifton, Mr. Patten, was a correspondent of Dr.
Stukeley and Mr. Gale, and gave them a particular account of
the many antiquities in this neighbourhood. His daughter
Mrs. Bockham, who 1771 kept a farm near Arthur's round
table, told me, that, on her removal from Newcastle she
burnt a great collection of these letters and drawings of
seals, &c.
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Clifton moor.
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Battle of Clifton Moor
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Clifton moor is memorable for a skirmish between the
king's troops under the duke of Cumberland and the rebels
1745, in which about 15 were killed on both sides, and
lieutenant colonel Honeywood of Howgill castle taken up for
dead. Dr. Todd mentions a fountain in this parish near the
banks of the Lowther of christalline limpid water, strongly
impregnated with steel, and vitriol, of great benefit for
scorbutic complaints [n].
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Crosby Ravensworth.
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Crosby Ravensworth
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In Crosby Ravensworth parish is a remarkable heap of
stones called Penhurrock, probably a tumulus [o].
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Meburn.
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Maulds Meaburn
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At Meburn town head, in this parish, was born
Lancelot Addison, who passed many years in travels over
Europe and Africa, was rector of Milkston, c. Wilts,
archdeacon of Coventry, and dean of Lichfield, and died
1703, being father of the celebrated Joseph, Gulston,
governor of Fort St. George, and Lancelot, fellow of
Magdalen college, Oxford, and three daughters [p].
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Rasate.
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antiquities
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At Rasate in Ravenstonedale parish, not far
from Sunbiggin tarn, are two tumuli, in which have
been found many skeletons laid round about the hills, with
the heads all lying upwards towards the hill top, and the
hands on the breasts. In the high street leading from Kirkby
Stephen to Sedbergh near Rawthey bridge is a circle of large
stones supposed a druidical monument. In 1774 was found in
the peat pits near the town, two feet below the surface, a
copper vessel, eight inches diameter at bottom, 14 at top,
and 16 inches in the widest part just under the neck, depth
18 inches, containing about eight gallons and a half, made
of three distinct plates, and much used in fire: being very
slender it has six copper fillets at equal distances
reaching up the sides two inches and a half, and turned over
as much at bottom, which serve to support it, and it has
within two ears with moveable rings, the whole of elegant
workmanship [q].
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Kirkby Lonsdale.
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Kirkby Lonsdale
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Kirkby Lonsdale is a neat well-paved town, the
largest in the county next to Kendal, beautifully situated,
the houses covered with blue slate, the church a large and
decent structure, and opposite to it Abbots hall, an
old hall serving as an inn. The river Lune runs at the foot
of the steep rock, 40 yards perpendicular, on which the town
stands. Underlay, a mansion here about half a mile
distant, commands a view of a rich and fertile vale,
terminated by a range of lofty mountains, the nearest two or
three miles off. Ingleborough with its head in the clouds
farthest to the south. The bridge over the river is built of
freestone of three ribbed arches, the centre arch is 12
yards from the water [r].
Sir Daniel Fleming says he found Humphrey de Bassingburne a
knight of the earl of Westmorland before the Conquest [s].
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[a]
Pennant, 256. See vol.II. 567.
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[b]
II. 43. 45.
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[c]
Guide to the Lakes, p.179.
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[d]
Pennant, 257.
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[e]
p.154.
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[f]
see hereafter in Cumberland.
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[g]
Burn, I. 414.
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[h]
Ib. 404.
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[23]
G.
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[i]
Burn, 413.
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[k]
Stuk. II. 46.
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[l]
Hutchinson, 118.
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[m]
Gibson mentions it in Cumberland, II. 1021.
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[n]
Burn, I. 420.
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[o]
Ib. 501.
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[p]
Ib. 503, 504.
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[q]
Ib. 519.
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[r]
Walker's Tour to the Caves. See this bridge engraved in
Gent. Mag. XXIII. p.355. Burn, I. 244. 247.
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[s]
Burn Ib. 26.
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The
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gazetteer links
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-- Arthur's Round Table
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-- "Bartin" -- Barton
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-- (battle site, Clifton Moor)
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-- "Ormsted Hill" -- Brougham Hall Stone Circle
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-- "Castle Steads" -- Castlesteads
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-- Clifton Wells
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-- Devil's Bridge
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-- "Emot, River" -- Eamont, River
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-- "Isa Parlis" -- Giant's Caves
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-- "Abbots Hall" -- Kings Arms Hotel
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-- "Kirkby Lonsdale" -- Kirkby Lonsdale
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-- "Kirkby Stephen" -- Kirkby Stephen
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-- Maulds Meaburn
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-- "Mayborough" -- Mayburgh
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-- "Penhurrock" -- Penhurrock
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-- Rawthey Bridge Stone Circle
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-- "Rasate" -- Rayseat
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-- (school, Barton)
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-- "St Ninians" -- St Ninian's Church
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-- (tumulus, Rayseat)
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-- "Ulleswater" -- Ullswater
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-- "Underlay" -- Underley Hall
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