button to main menu   West's Guide to the Lakes, 1778/1821

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Page 217:-
[Peel-]castle on the isle of Foudry, which lies off its southern extremity. The town is built on the slope, and at the foot of the castle-hill, more than twice the bigness of Aukland, with many new buildings of neat white stone, but a little disorderly in their position, and 'ad libitum', like Kendal; many also extend below on the quays, by the river side, where a number of ships were moored, some of them three-masted vessels, decked out with their colours in honour of the fair. Here is a good bridge of four arches over the Lune, that runs, when the tide is out, in two steams, divided by a bed of gravel, which is not covered but in spring tides; below the town it widens to near the breadth of the Thames at London, and meets the sea at five or six miles distance to south-west.
Oct. 11. I crossed the river and walked over a peninsula three miles, to the village of Poulton, which stands on the beach. An old fisherman mending his nets (while I enquired about the danger of passing those sands) told me, in his dialect, a moving story, how a brother of the trade, a Cockler, as he styled him, driving a little cart with two daughters (women grown) in it, and his wife on horseback following, set out one day to cross the seven mile sands, as they had frequently been used to do; (for nobody in the village knew them better than the old man did) when they were about half-way over, a thick fog rose, and as they advanced they found the water much deeper than they expected; the old man was puzzled; he stopped, and said he would go a little way to find some mark he was acquainted with; they staid a while for him, but in vain; they called aloud, but no reply; at last the young woman pressed the mother to think where they were, and go on; she would not leave the place; she wandered about forlorn and amazed; she would not quit her horse and get into the cart with them; they determined after much time wasted, to turn back, and give themselves up to the guidance of their horses. The old woman was soon washed off, and perished; the poor girls clung close to their cart, and
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gazetteer links
button -- "Isle of Foudry & Foudry, Isle of" -- Foulney Island
button -- Lancaster Sands
button -- "Lancaster" -- Lancaster
button -- Lune, River
button -- "Peel Castle" -- Piel Castle
button -- "Poulton" -- PoultonPoulton (?)
button -- Skerton Bridge

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