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Page 85:-
and I never so much as dreamed of rain till it came
perpendicularly upon my head: I attempted to run from
it, but in vain, no shelter was near; near indeed
must any have been that could have been of the smallest
service, for in a few minutes I was completely drenched as
if I had been laid to steep: patience, therefore, was my
only resource; accordingly, patiently or perhaps
obstinately, I sat myself down and bid it defiance. I
think I need hardly add, that such an attack might prove too
violent for a delicate constitution.
The prospects among these mountains are every where grand,
but as they consist of nothing but rocky and uncultivated
scenes, I scarcely think them worth the excessive labour of
the journey: besides, in travelling from Keswick to
Ambleside you have prospects of the precise same kind; you
see the same number of small lakes, but with advantage of
better roads and higher mountains.
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Goldscope Mine
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It is not amiss, indeed, to take a ride into Newlands, to
see Goldscope, or rather I would call it
Gold-Scalp, and other places, where those once very
valuable mines of copper were. Denton says they were wrought
in King Henry the VIII's time: Nicholson and Burn say they
were discovered in Queen Elizabeth's time by Thomas
Thurland, and Daniel Hetchletter a German of Augsburg, (see
Cambden, p.523.) which occasioned a suit between the Queen
and Thomas then Earl of Northumberland, Lord of the Manor.
In regard of the Queen's prerogative, (there being in these
mines more gold and silver than copper or lead,) they were,
by ancient law, the property of the Queen. Up in the
Defendant's putting in a demurrer in law, it was agreed,
that where the gold and silver extracted out of the copper
or lead was of greater value than the copper or lead, it was
then a Royal mine: But by the act 1st of William, no mine of
copper, tin, lead, or iron shall from henceforth be deemed a
Royal mine, provided that the gold or silver extracted be
disposed of at the King's mint within the Tower of London:
But smuggling of the metal arising to a great height, and
disputes arising, another act was passed the 5th of William,
cap. 6. wherein the owners of mines shall enjoy them;
provided, nevertheless, that the King may have the ore of
any mine, paying to the proprietors for the same, (the
tin-ore within the counties of Devon and Cornwall excepted,)
within thirty days after the ore shall be raised, and before
it be removed, the following prices, viz. For every ton of
copper sixteen pounds, for tin and iron forty shillings a
ton, for every ton of lead nine pounds. Some authors say
that these mines were then so valuable that they served the
whole kingdom, and much of it was also exported. In the
civil wars in 1650 and 1651 the smelting houses were
destroyed, and most of the miners either killed or followed
Oliver Cromwell: afterwards the Dutch, who came with William
Prince of Orange, began the work again, and partly repaired
the mills; the work was very rich, which caused the two acts
before-mentioned to be passed, but the Dutch were driven
from it in 1715, and it is now entirely lost, though Mr
Gilberts has been lately at the expence of clearing the old
level, but without effect.
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Buttermere
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Buttermere is a small chapelry, consisting of about
sixteen or eighteen families, who each of them keep a few
sheep as in Borrowdale, and all the mountainous parts; the
men mostly work at the blue-slate quarries, which here are
carried on to a great extent. This lake of Buttermere has
the best fish in it of any, (Ulswater only excepted,)
viz. charr and trout for potting, but not very
plentiful; here also are some grey-trout, such as in
Ulswater, none other of the lakes have them. The right of
fishing belongs entirely to the Earl of Egremont, the Lord
of the manor.
Buttermere is a chapel of ease under Lorton, though
Lorton is but a chapel of ease under Brigham. Lorton
consists of four townships, viz. Lorton, Brakenthwaite,
Wythop, and Buttermere; each of which townships
send one chapelward unto Lorton, besides their own for
Wythop and Buttermere have each a chapel, Brakenthwaite
none. Nicholson and Burn, in their Cumberland history, p.62,
says, that one Radulphus Lindsay gave to
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the
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gazetteer links
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-- Buttermere
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-- "Buttermere" -- Buttermere
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-- "Goldscope" -- (Goldscope Mine, Above Derwent
(CL13inc)2)
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-- Borrowdale and Buttermere
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