button to main menu  Martineau's Complete Guide to the English Lakes, 1855

button title page
button previous page button next page
Page 34:-
Troutbeck hills, as any one may see who will climb the mountain called, for this reason, High Street. What a sight it must have been - the pioneers felling the trees, and paving the way, and the soldiers following, with their armour and weapons gleaming in the sun, while the trembling natives cowered in the forest below,- listening now to the blows of the workmen, and now to the warlike music of the troops, marching up from Kendal! After Romans and Saxons were gone, the valley was a great park, and the inhabitants were virtually serfs, in danger of the gallows, (which had a hill to itself, named after it to this day) at the will and pleasure of the one great man. In course of time,- that is, a good many centuries ago,- the valley was disparked, and divided among the inhabitants,- only one very large estate being left,- the new park, containing 2,000 acres. This was the estate given by Charles I, to Huddlestone Phillipson, for his services in the civil wars. The valley now contains a string of hamlets,- Town End, Town Head, High Green, Crag, and High Fold; and its farmsteads and outbuildings show some of the most curious specimens of ancient edifices that are to be seen in the district. Josiah Brown, whom we mentioned in connexion with Orrest Head, found nearly his match in oddity in this vale. A "rum fellow" in Troutbeck had a prodigious bull; and so had Josiah: and what must they do but meet half-way, and have a bull-fight; the terms being that the winner should have the fallen animal. Josiah actually came riding his bull. The battle was tremendous and the Troutbeck animal went down before Josiah's, and
gazetteer links
button -- Crag
button -- (Gallows Howe, Troutbeck)
button -- High Fold
button -- High Green
button -- High Street
button -- (Town End, Troutbeck)
button -- Town Head
button -- Troutbeck Park
button -- Troutbeck
button next page

button to main menu Lakes Guides menu.