"On the 22nd day of June, 1844, a faculty was granted in the consistry court at Carlisle to the Rev. James Lynn, vicar of Crosthwaite, and James Stanger, of Lairthwaite, esquire, for the restoration of the chancel, the roof, and other portions of this church, according to certain plans thereof exhibited, and for the erection of a tomb and sculptured monumental figure of the late Robert Southey, poet laureate, in accordance with which faculty these restorations were completed under the direction of George Gilbert Scott, architect, and the church was re-opened for divine service on the 3rd day of August, 1845, and the monument erected A.D. 1846."

"I was walking alone in Howrah looking upon the church and upon Skiddaw behind it, which was then in the glory of a Midsummer sunset. The weight of time and eternity was on my spirit; I had been also thinking of the change in human institutions, a thought naturally connected with any permanent monuments of nature or art. The shadows glide over that mountain, and the clouds collect there, and the sun glorifies it, as they did when the Druids performed their rites within yonder circle of stones, when the Romans and romanised Britons erected altars to Jupiter and Belatucadrus, and when the Danes offered up victims to Thor and Woden. The church too has undergone its changes. The rood loft has disappeared; not a bell rings on Saint Kentigern's Day, and not a trace of the saint remains in his own parish. I was contemplating that church and yonder mountain. Seven centuries have gone by since the church was founded; and there Skiddaw has stood since the foundations of the hills were laid. My years will presently be like a tale that is told. These will remain; the one unchangeable, the other, I trust, never to be changed in its destination and uses, whatever renovations the structure may require."