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Gentleman's Magazine 1791 p.1080
(p.991) about King Arthur and his round table,
I shall beg leave to add, that the seat of this fabulous
monarch was at Carlisle, and that Tarn
Wadling, a spacious lake near Armanthwaite, is
frequently mentioned in our old poetical romances concerning
him. It is said, I think, that there is a city at the bottom
of it. The origin of these local traditions is to be
attributed to the Cambrian Britons, who kept possession of
this part of the country long after the Saxons, and even
Normans, were in possession of the rest. One seldom hears of
King Arthur but in or near Wales, Cornwall, or Cumberland.
The ballad, which I suspect your correspondent had not
direct from Percy's Reliques, is incorrectly printed;
but it is neither very antient nor very rare. He has taken
it, I am persuaded, from Clarke's Survey of the
Lakes. It is always candid, however, to cite the true
authority, though it may not happen to be the most
respectable.
Eamont (or Eimot) is a slight corruption of
the Saxon Ea-muth, i.e. the water's mouth, meaning
Ulleswater, whence this river flows. A Saxon name for
a river is so uncommon a circumstance, that I should be glad
to know whether its irruption might not have taken place
subsequently to the settlement of that people.
... ...
Yours, &c.
DEIRENSIS.
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