button to main menu  Clarke's Survey of the Lakes, 1787

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Page 60:-
Thus far the comments of my ingenious Friend: Let me now add some remarks of my own, and give an account of some things which may have escaped him; either from an imperfect knowledge of the country, or from his being engaged in other pursuits. On the south side of this tremendous mountain, above a place called High-Row, and in some other places, trials have been made for minerals; but at what time, and with what success, even tradition is silent. I went into one of the levels, and found these works had been carried on previous to the invention of gun-powder, as there were marks of picks and wedges, and of no other tools. At the forge below Field-Side there is a subterraneous passage cut through the rock: here, as well as those I have just mentioned, no other tools have been used, except picks and wedges. Cambden, indeed, mentions, that copper mines were wrought in his time in New-Lands: he wrote in 1587, only two hundred years ago, yet not a vestige of tradition concerning any of these works can be traced. The Earl of Derwentwater is said to have drained this country of its inhabitants, many of whom perished, and the rest were afraid to return: yet surely some tradition might be expected; some old woman might tell her grand-children who it was that cut these subterraneous caverns. Another thing I must remark, the silent running of the springs down the rocks on the back of the mountain. It may seem a little paradoxical, that a stream of water should flow silently down a precipice: the solution is easy; the rocks are covered with a soft delicate moss, of various colours, red, yellow, and green; the water flowing over this makes not the least noise: in some places, however, where it has formed for itself subterraneous channels, it makes a very singular and audible sound. These springs are of a remarkably pure and pleasant water, insomuch, that after a severe day's exercise upon the mountains, I have thought it more agreeable than any other liquor.
  Threlkeld
  eccentric clergyman

We now arrived at the village of Threlkeld, a perpetual curacy under Greystock, now worth about L.25 per annum, and once in the possession of a clergyman, not inferior in point of oddity to any of those I have before described. This gentleman, by name Alexander Naughley, was a native of Scotland, but of what part I cannot learn. The cure in his time was very poor, only 8l. 16s.; but as he lived the life of a Diogenes, it was enough. His dress was mean, and even beggarly: he lived alone, without even a servant to do the meanest drudgery for him; his victuals he cooked himself, not very elegantly we may suppose; his bed was straw, with only two blankets. But with all these outward marks of a sloven, no man possessed a greater genius; his wit was ready, his satire keen and undaunted, and his learning extensive: add to this, that he was a facetious and agreeable companion, and though generally fond of the deepest retirement, would have unbended among company, and become the chief promoter of mirth. He had an excellent library, and at his death left behind him several manuscripts on various subjects, and of very great merit. These consisted of a treatise on algebra, conic sections, spherical trigonometry, and other mathematical pieces; he had written several poetical pieces, but most of these he destroyed before his death. His other productions would have shared the same fate, had they not been kept from him by a person to whom he had entrusted them: the state they were found in is scarcely less extraordinary; being wrote upon about sixty loose sheets, tied together with a shoe-maker's waxed thread.
Mr Naughley never was married; but having once some thoughts of entering into that state, he was rejected by the fair one to whom he paid his addresses. Enraged at this disappointment, and to prevent the fair sex from having any farther influence over him, he castrated himself! giving for his reason, "if thy right eye offend thee, &c." in consequence of this operation he grew prodigiously fat, and his voice, (naturally good,) improved much, and continued during his life. He died April 30th 1756, at the age of 76, having served this curacy forty-seven years.
Some anecdotes of him are so extraordinary, that I cannot forbear commiting them to the world. In one of his sermons, speaking about the seeking of honour, he com-
pared
gazetteer links
button -- Blease Gill Trial
button -- Brigham Forge
button -- Goldscope Mine
button -- "Saddleback" -- (Saddleback, Threlkeld (CL13inc)3)
button -- "Threlkeld" -- Threlkeld
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