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Page 63:-
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book 2
chapter 2
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Keswick
Derwent Water
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KESWICK and DERWENTWATER
CHAP. II.
Lake, -- Lord's Island, -- Pocklington's Island, --
Lodore, -- Water-Fall, -- Eve's Cragg, -- Regatta, --
Poetical Descriptions of the Regatta, -- other Curiosities
in the Neighbourhood of the Lake, -- Dr Brownrigg's, --
Sentiments of Different Authors.
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Keswick
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KESWICK is a small town, without any remarkable buildings,
the poor's house excepted, which shall be hereafter
described: it has a pretty good weekly market on Saturday,
and three annual fairs; of these the chief is on the second
day of August, commonly called Morlan, or
Magdalen Fair, being on the day of St Mary Magdalen
old stile. The inhabitants about this time usually expect a
flood; this they predict in these most wonderful poetic
lines,
"Morlan fluid
Ne'er did guid."
This town carried on formerly a very considerable trade in
leather and blankets, which are made here: the leather
business is much declined, but the blanket and linsey
manufactory flourishes at present.
The chief advantage which Keswick possesses is derived from
its romantic situation: This has induced several of the
nobility and gentry , in particular Lord William Gordon, and
Joseph Pocklington, Esq; to purchase lands in the
neighbourhood: it likewise draws, every summer, vast numbers
from all parts of the kingdom to visit the many natural
curiosities in its neighbourhood. As most of the lands
adjacent to the Lake belong to Greenwich-Hospital, it is
impossible for many of those who would wish for purchases to
meet with land: this is the more to be lamented, as the
distance of this place from the metropolis renders these
lands much less valuable to the hospital than they might be;
and from a very natural cause, viz. that where a
multiplicity of hands are to transact any business, there
will ever be a door open to peculation; of which I shall
hereafter give a most glaring instance.
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Crow Park
Lord's Island
oaks
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The road to the Lake lies by Crow-Park, (see plate
VI.) which was covered with wood thirty-five years ago: the
trees were all oak, about 17 yards high, of a most
proportionable thickness, and so equal in height, that when
in full leaf their tops appeared as close and smooth as a
bowling-green: so close indeed did they grow, that many
persons now alive have gone from one side of the wood to the
other among the branches of the trees without ever coming to
the ground. This, with the wood upon Lord's Island,
and several other places, was sold by the governors of
Greenwich Hospital, A.D. 1749, to a Mr Marthas, or Mathews,
of Greenwich, for 7000 pounds: It was advertised to be sold
in London by inch of candle; but these trusty guardians of
public treasure, the governors, contrived to exclude every
bidder, except their minion Mr Mathews above mentioned; thus
this valuable wood was almost literally given away. The
purchaser had ten years allowed to cut down the timber; and
accordingly employed one Joseph Dawson to cut it for him.
Dawson begun his work on the 1st of May 1749, and before the
end of the year returned to his employer L.1800 clear; the
second year he returned nearly the same sum; he then sold
the remainder to the merchants at Whitehaven, but the sum it
sold for has always been kept a profound secret. It is
worthy of remark, that the merchants of Whitehaven thought
themselves so injured by the manner in which Mathew's
purchase was smuggled to him, that they brought their action
against the governors of the Hospital, but were nonsuited.
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After
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gazetteer links
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-- Crow Park
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-- "Keswick" -- Keswick
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