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

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Page 105:-

  book 4
  chapter 1

BOOK FOURTH.


Between KESWICK and AMBLESIDE.


  Keswick to Ambleside
CHAP. I.

Castrigg, observations on - Castles of Cumberland - Some artificials of earth mistaken for forts, which were only the butts of Archers - Account of the famous Cumbrian Archers - St John's Chapel - Customs there - Cambden's Account of the adjacent mountains - Effects of the Water spout of 1749.
  Castlerigg
WE will now leave Keswick, and ascending the hill towards Ambleside, to Brow-top, see two houses delightfully situated, belonging to Mr Dawson and Mr Sewell. This I would have as my Summer-seat. It commands as good a prospect as the much-admired place above called Castlerigg, or Castrigg, and is not so bleak. Mr Gray; when he left Keswick and travelled towards Ambleside, was very much pleased with the view, but did not discover it till he came at the winding turn at Castrigg; if he had looked about him at Brow-top, he had seen more of the Lakes, and the objects would not have appeared so diminutive, as when he was more elevated: his words are, "Mounted on an eminence called Castlerigg, and the sun breaking out, I discovered the most enchanting view I have yet seen of the whole valley behind me. The two lakes, the river, the mountains, all in their glory; so that I had almost a mind to have gone back." There is certainly a most enchanting view, as he says (but of the bird's-eye kind.) Here are seen the mountains of Borrowdale, Newlands, and Skiddow, and if they be (as he says,) viewed in a morning just as the sun-beams fall upon their tops, it makes them appear of a golden hue: below that, the gloomy woods and azure lakes, with Mr Pocklington's white house in the midst of Derwent-Lake; Crossthwaite-church, Mr Brownrigg's Mr Fisher's; the several white cottages spotting the verdant scene, and the smoke arising perpendicular from the town of Keswick in a calm morning. This view even the clown himself cannot but admire, though so accustomed to it; how much more pleasing then to the delicate and cultivated fancy of the learned and curious, who perhaps never before saw such a paradise of natural beauty.
We will now ascend to the top of Castrigg ; some of our modern writers say that it took its name from a castle of the Radcliffs, or Derwentwaters, which stood upon it; and have gone so far as to tell you, that they built a house upon the Island called Lord's with the stones of it; none of them, however, tell whereabouts this castle stood, or find any the least vestiges of one: Besides, they might get stones at one twentieth part of the distance, and as there are no stones that can be wrought with chissels got in this part of the country, it would be no advantage at all that they had been made use of before.
  castles
  Cumberland

I do not find any ancient authors mention a castle here, Speed, who speaks of twenty-five in Cumberland, hath found out every one I ever heard or knew of, except Kirkoswald; how that has escaped him I cannot tell. I shall here put down their names, and, as well as I can, their most ancient owners, and supposed founders.
1. BEWCASTLE. Built by the Romans, and after the Conquest repaired by one Bueth, who gave it his own name, viz, Bueth-castle; he was killed by Robert the
Vallibus
gazetteer links
button -- "Armathwaite Castle" -- Armathwaite Castle
button -- "Askerton Castle" -- Askerton Castle
button -- "Bewcastle" -- Bew Castle
button -- "Caldbeck Castle" -- (castle, Caldbeck)
button -- "Castlecarrock Castle" -- (castle, Castle Carrock)
button -- "Castrigg" -- Castlerigg
button -- "Cockermouth Castle" -- Cockermouth Castle
button -- "Corby Castle" -- Corby Castle
button -- "Daker Castle" -- Dacre Castle
button -- "Drumbugh Castle" -- Drumburgh Castle
button -- "Egremont Castle" -- Egremont Castle
button -- "Greystock Castle" -- (Greystoke Castle, Greystoke (CL13inc)2)
button -- "Hay Castle" -- Hayes Castle
button -- "Highgate Castle" -- High Head Castle
button -- "Hutton Castle" -- Hutton-in-the-Forest
button -- "Kirkoswald Castle" -- Kirkoswald Castle
button -- "Lynstock Castle" -- Linstock Castle
button -- "Millum Castle" -- Millom Castle
button -- "Naworth Castle" -- Naworth Castle (?)
button -- "Pap Castle" -- Pap Castle
button -- "Penrith Castle" -- (Penrith Castle, Penrith (CL13inc)2)
button -- "Rowcliff Castle" -- Rockcliffe Castle
button -- "Castlesteads" -- Camboglanna
button -- "Rose Castle" -- Rose Castle
button -- "Scaleby Castle" -- Scaleby Castle
button -- (station, Castlerigg)
button -- "Wulsty Castle" -- Wolsty Castle
button -- "Workington Castle" -- Workington Hall
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