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start of Cumberland |
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Page 204:-
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Castle Crag.
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upon the Britans, and drew the wall 132 miles from sea to
sea. Officina Mercati means the company of workmen
under Mercatius, whose name with the addition of
Fermius is repeated. The more modern words
Officium Romanorum are now effaced [b]. Q. if not
intended for opisicium Romanorum by some monk. Mr.
Hutchinson [c] copied the whole very differently. On an
eminence about two miles hence is Castle Carrock or
Crag, a square vallum of loose stones, each side 120
paces wide [d].
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Cumrew. Dunwalloght
castle.
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Dunwalloght Castle
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In the parish of Cumrew adjoining to that of Castle
Carrock about a quarter of a mile south-east from the church
are ruins of a large castle or building, situate on a rising
ground very near the bottom of Cumrew fell. This seems to be
Dunwalloght castle mentioned in Dugdale's Baronage,
II. 22. as situate on the marches towards Scotland and
belonging to the Dacres [e].
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Naworth.
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Naworth Castle
roman inscription
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Naworth, "a fair castle called the lord Davers [f],"
is still intire and inhabited, though not by the earl of
Carlisle, whose property it is. It is large, and built round
a square court, overhanging the river Irthing at a great
height, with towers at each corner. Over the south gate and
door are the arms of the Dacres and Howards. The rooms are
numerous, ascended to by 16 staircases, the great hall 25
paces long by nine and a half, with a gallery at one end.
The top and upper end painted on wood in squares with Saxon
kings and heroes brought from Kirk Oswald castle, when it
was demolished [g]. Within this is another room hung with
tapestry, with portraits of Anne of Cleves and the family.
Lord William Howard's bed-room has his arms and motto over
the chimney. His library is a small room in a very secret
place high up in one of the towers well secured by doors and
narrow staircases; not a book added since his time. In it is
a vast case, three feet high, opening into three leaves, on
which are pasted in six great pages an account of the
foundation of Glastonbury abbey by Joseph of Arimathea, and
a long history of saints with their indulgences. The roof is
coarsely carved, the windows high, ascended by three stone
steps. It is said lord William was very studious, and wrote
much; and that once when he was thus employed, a servant
announced the arrival of a prisoner, and asking what was to
be done with him, his master, vexed at the interruption,
peevishly bid him hang him, which order he wished to have
recalled when he found it was executed. He constantly kept a
garrison of 140 men here, and his severity was of great
importance in this lawless tract. his dungeon consists of
three dark apartments below, and one above up a long
staircase all well secured. In the upper a ring to which
criminals were chained, and the marks of many more. The
gallery is 150 feet long. Close by the library is an antient
oratory well secured, the cieling richly ornamented with
coats of arms and carving painted and gilt. On one side a
good painting on wood of the style of Lucas van Leyden, of
the Scourging, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Christ; also
various sculptures in white marble. Here his lordship
enjoyed his religion in privacy. The chapel is below stairs,
the top and part of the sides painted in pannels like the
hall, and with the crests and arms of the family to 1623 and
1644. On the ceiling a man with a genealogical tree, and
under him Pictor MCXII. In the east window a knight
and lady, with three escallops and chequè on their
mantles [h]. This castle is first mentioned 18 Richard II.
It continued in the Dacres till the death of lord George
1569, whose sister married lord William Howard. It was again
repaired by Charles Howard earl of Carlisle, who left the
library in good order. The MSS. were enumerated in the Cat.
Manuscriptorum Ang. & Hib. tom.II. p.14. chiefly
relating to heraldry and English history, but not above one
or two are now here. In the garden walls was fixed a
collection of Roman inscriptions from the neighbourhood
(this being the greatest receptacle in this county except
that at Elenborough hall [i]), which, when Dr. Stukeley was
here, were neglected, and some even cut up to make gateposts
[k]. The remainder were given by the late earl to sir Thomas
Robinson, and are now neglected and abused in the museum at
Rookby, the seat of Bacon Morrit, esq. Among these are
Horsley's Cumb. viii. ix. x. lviii. Others first published
by Horsley, and not traceable since his time, when they were
all much neglected, are Cumb. xii. xiii. xiv. xv. p.255. and
an altar cut through the middle for a gate post, which never
had an inscription. Bishop Gibson has copied Horsley's viii.
ix. at Naworth, though Camden had given it at Burdoswald.
Horsley takes no notice of the other two which he gives. We
have copied from Horsley those in Pl.XIV. fig.2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8.
The following was found April 1744 in a wall of George
Wright's house at Naworth on rebuilding it: not unlike
Horsley's Cumb. xxiv. Pl.XIV, 6.
LEG. VI. VIC.
PIA. FID. F. ...
Legio sexta Victrix
Pia fidelis fecit. [l]
Mr. Smith communicated also another in the south-east wall
of Naworth garden unpublished:
PED
C. L. B[TR]T.
which he read Peditum centum quinquaginta Britanorum
[m].
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Lanercost.
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Lanercost Priory
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"Lenercost, an abbay of black canons, eight miles
from Cairleul, on the notth (sic) side of the river Yrthing
[n]," founded by Robert de Vallibus 1189, as an atonement
for murdering Gill, son of Bueth, at an arbitration about
Gillesland, and valued at £.77. [o] It stands in a
romantic valley, the monastic offices converted into a farm
house, and the hall is a farm. In the ruined choir, whose
arches are round and the pillars circular or polygonal, are
many elegant but damaged tombs of the Dacre family. One of
the tombs is dated 1445. Several bodies have been found
intire in the vault which is open, one with a long white
beard [p]. The nave rests on pointed arches; the west front
has long lancet windows, as were the east, and over them is
a good figure of the patroness Mary Magdalen. The
church-yard gate has a handsome round arch. Sir Thomas Dacre
resided here 1559, and repaired the nave, which is
commemorated by some lines in the east window. Near this
place, at Shaws, a medicinal spring called
Holywell issues out of a rock impregnated with
sulphur, nitre, and vitriol, and good for the spleen, stone,
and
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[b]
Horsl. 267-269.
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[c]
P. 163.
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[d]
Ib.
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[e]
Burn, II. 511.
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[f]
Lel. VI. 72.
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[g]
See before, p.
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[h]
Pennant 1772, p.73*. Hutchinson, 276. Grose.
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[i]
Horsl. 154.
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[k]
It. Cur. II. 58.
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[l]
Gent. Mag. 1744. 340.
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[m]
Ib. 1746. 537.
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[n]
Lel. VI. 71.
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[o]
Tan. 77.
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[p]
Grose. Hutchinson, 267-277. Pennant Ib. 77*.
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cutaneous
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gazetteer links
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-- (castle, Castle Carrock)
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-- "Dunwalloght Castle" -- Dunwalloght Castle
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-- "Holywell" -- Holywell
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-- Lanercost Priory
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-- "Naworth castle" -- Naworth Castle (?)
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-- Naworth
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-- Written Rock of Gelt
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