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Waterspout,
Brackenthwaite
An authentic Account of a Water-Spout, which mostly fell
upon Brackenthwaite in the County of Cumberland,
on Sept. 19, 1760; by an Eye-witness.
THE village of Brackenthwaite, which is part of a
large valley extending from N. to S. about five miles in
length, and one and a half in breadth, is bounded on the E.
by a ridge of very lofty mountains, running from N. to S.
the southermost of which, Grassmere, is reputed the
highest in England, except Skeddow: its top is
quite level, and exceeding spacious, so as almost to equal
its base; northward of it there are three others, which rise
regularly, and unite in one narrow summit, somewhat lower
than Grassmere; with the extremity of which it is
connected by a narrow inclined plain. Down the gullies,
between these mountains, descend three small brooks,
Lizza, Hopebeck, and Habcorton, in streams
little more than sufficient to turn an ordinary mill; the
first of these enters the plain about the middle; the second
at the most northern part of Brackenthwaite; and the
third farther northward, at the village of Larton. On
the summit, which is common to all the three mountains, and
forms as it were their joint top, seems to have been one of
the breakings, or falls of water, as all the three brooks
were affected by it, nearly all in the same degree. But what
made the mischief produced by the others less condsiderable
than that by the Lizza, was a second spout on the
extremity of the top of Grassmere, the whole of whose
waters fell into its channel. This second was the chief
cause of the damage which ensued in
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