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start of Cumberland |
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Page 188:-
"stondith from Bolnes three miles and from Cair Luel four or
five, and longid sometime to the Morvilles. Here was 15
years ago the lord Maxwell sore woundid, many slain and
drowned in Edon [z]." This relates to the battle of Sollom
moss 1524.
Burgh belonged to the Lucys and Multons, and passed by the
heiress of the latter to the Dacres of Dacre castle, to the
coheiress of a younger branch of whom this barony was
allotted, and her descendant in the 4th generation Henry
Howard, duke of Norfolk, sold it about 1689 to sir John
Lowther, bart. ancestor of the present possessor [a].
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Dacre.
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Dacre Castle
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At Dacre is the shell of a magnificent castle, once
the seat of the Dacre family, who took their name from
Acres in the Holy Land; but here are no remains of
the monastery, nor does it appear to have subsisted since
the Conquest [b]. Mr. Gale derives the name from the
Cohors Dacorum stationed here. Here are two rivers
Glan, whence Labbé on the Notitia writes it
Ambo Glanna [c]. The family of Dacre ended in George
lord Dacre 1569, whose great great uncle's daughter marrying
sir Richard Fynes, chamberlain to Edward IV. he was created
lord Dacre of the South, and his descendants still enjoy the
title [d].
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Delamayn.
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Dalemain
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Near Dacre is Delamayn, the mansion-house of the
Hassels, held of the barony of Greystock in cornage [e]. The
church is said to have been erected by the Dacres, instead
of a mean one half a mile distant, which probably belonged
to the monastery. In the chancel is a cross-legged knight in
stone, and the windows are full of the arms of Dacre, single
and quartering Vipont and Clifford [f].
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Arthuret. Solom or Solway
moss.
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Solway Moss
flows
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In Arthuret parish was born and buried Archibald
Armstrong, jester to James and Charles I. who was banished
from court for speaking too freely of archbishop Laud's
violent measure, which had exasperated the Scots by forcing
the liturgy on them. Dr. Hugh Todd was rector of this
parish. Within it lies a noted morass, commonly called
Solom moss, from a small village of that name on the
Scotch side. It is famous in history for the defeat of the
Scots in Henry VIII's time by sir Thomas Wharton, of which
see before, p.51. 156. The few Scotch runaways of 1524
perished in this moss, and some peat diggers are said to
have found in it a few years ago the skeleton of a trooper
and his horse in complete armour [g].
Solom or Solway Moss consists of 1600 acres,
raised a little above the cultivated tract, a mass of thin
peaty mud, with a crust too weak in the driest summer to
bear a man's weight. In December 1769 it burst its banks by
the excessive winter rains of three days continuance
preceeding, and the too near approaches of the peat diggers,
which had weakened the crust at a gap about 50 yards wide.
About 300 acres of moss discharged themselves in a black
stream charged with large masses of peat, which surrounded
the cottages, and covered 400 acres of cultivated land. Many
cattle were drowned, but not one human life lost. It filled
the whole valley, leaving behind it great heaps of turf from
3 to 15 and 30 feet, memorials of its height, and at last
reached and fell into the Esk. The surface of the moss was
reduced near 25 feet sunk into a hollow form [h].
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Solway moss.
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In that part called Solway Flow, in the year 1771,
was a memorable out-burst of water, moss, gravel, sand, and
stones, which spread over and destroyed about 600 acres of
fine level fertile ground, and totally altered the face of
that part of the country. The moss had been observed to have
risen imperceptibly for a long time before. It began to move
in the night of November 16, [i] and continued in movement
for three days slowly forward, so that the inhabitants
generally had time to get off their cattle and other
moveables before their houses were burried or rendered
inaccessible. The mouth of the breach was about 20 yards
wide, and when it began to flow was in depth between five
and six yards. By this eruption 28 families were driven from
their habitations, and their grounds rendered totally
useless and seemed irrecoverable by reason of the depth of
covering of the morass and other rubbish to the depth of at
least 15 feet. but by means of hushing upwards of 100 acres
have been cleared; and, by the indefatigable industry of the
owner, it is thought the whole will be recovered, though it
will be attended with great expence. Out of the aforesaid
moss, Dr. Todd says, have frequently been dug human bones,
silver coins of the later ages, earthen pots, iron, and
brass weapons, with oak and fir trees of unusual magnitude
[k].
Near the place called Chapel Flash, stood antiently a
small oratory, in which in 1345, a league between the Scots
and English about fixing the limits of both kingdoms, was,
in a solemn and religious manner, sworn to and confirmed by
commissioners appointed for that purpose. At present nothing
remains of the chapel but the name. [l].
Pelling moss near Garstang in Lancashire had made such an
irruption in the present century, and Chately moss between
Manchester and Warrington in Leland's time [m], with this
difference, that the latter so entirely changed its place as
to leave a fair plain valley in return for the ground it
covered.
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Penrith.
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Penrith
Giant's Grave
St Andrew, Penrith
Penrith Beacon
plague
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"Pereth, a market town by S. 61 miles from Carluel,
where is a strong castle of the king's, and stondeth on a
litle water by force cut out of Peterel. But Pereth standith
not half a mile from the river of Emot and a mile from the
town or castel of Burgham, that longeth to the earls of
Cumberland. In Perith is one parish church and a grey friary
[n]." A castel of the kinges by the town [o]."
Penrith lies in a bottom, the beacon standing on a high hill
as you enter the road above which is the course. A fine
valley opens to the west as you descend from the Carlisle
road into a very long suburb neatly paved. The town is
considerable and handsome, having a very large market. The
church was rebuilt of brick 1720, except the steeple. Here
is a freeschool. On the north side in the church-yard are
two square obelisks, of a single stone each, 11 or 12 feet
high, about 12 inches diameter, and 12 by 8 at the sides,
the highest about 18 inches diameter, with something like a
transverse piece to each, and mortified into a round base.
They are 14 feet asunder, and between them is a grave
inclosed between four semicircular stones of unequal lengths
of five, six, and four and an half, and two feet high,
having on the outsides rude carving and the tops
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[z]
Lel. VII. 69.
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[a]
Burn, II. 218,219.
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[b]
Ib. 378. G. Tan. 73.
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[c]
Gale MS. n.
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[d]
Dugd. II. 23.
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[e]
G. Burn, II. 383.
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[f]
Ib. 382.
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[g]
Pennant's Voy. to the Hebrides, p.67.
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[h]
Ib.
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[i]
Walker's letter to the earl of Bute in Phil. Trans. LXII.
p.123, says December 16. See Gent. Mag. XLI. 568.
XLIX. 65.
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[k]
Burn, II. 473. See also Gent. Mag. XLIX. p.65, with a plan
of the eruption, and XLI. 567.
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[l]
Burn, 474.
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[m]
Lel. VII. 56. See before, p.136.
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[n]
Lel. VII. 71.
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[o]
Ib. 72.
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notched
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gazetteer links
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-- Battle of Solway Moss
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-- "Burgh on Sands" -- Burgh by Sands
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-- "Chapel Flash" -- Chapel Flash
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-- Dacre Castle
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-- "Delamayn" -- Dalemain
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-- "Giant's Grave" -- Giant's Grave
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-- (monastery, Dacre)
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-- Penrith Castle
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-- "Penrith" -- Penrith
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-- (race course, Penrith)
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-- "Solom Moss" -- Solway Moss
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-- St Andrew's Church
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-- St Andrew's Church
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-- St Michael and All Angels Church
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