Hawkshead
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HAWKSHEAD, a market-town and parish in the hundred of Lonsdale, Lancaster, 13 miles from Cartmel, and 277 from London; containing 152 houses and 634 inhabitants. It lies at the extremity of Lancashire near the lake Esthwaite; this lake is 2 miles in length, but of different shapes and breadth, indented with bold promontories, woods, meadows, and corn fields; its vale is exactly between the celebrated lakes of Windermere and Coningstone, and runs in the same direction, but lies much higher. Hawkshead is the principal town in what is called the district of
Furness, or woody fells; the woods are chiefly charred here at the growth of about 15 years, for the uses of the numerous forges and founderies in the neighbourhood. The mountains, although of unpromising appearance, produce plenty of slate and copper ore, and their rugged sides furnish food to great numbers of sheep, whose wool produces both employment and clothing to the poorer inhabitants. There is a free grammar school here for 100 boys. Its market is on Monday, and fairs on Easter-Monday, Monday before Holy-Thursday, Whit-Monday, and October 2. The church is a curacy, in the patronage of the king as duke of Lancaster. |
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