Gents Mag 1849 part 2 p.141
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Gentleman's Magazine 1849 part 2 p.141
On musing the fate of this time-stricken memorial of a departed race, a peculiar melancholy takes possession of the heart, and it cannot but be regretted that it was not so repaired to prevent it falling into such decay. Had attention been bestowed on the preservation of its original figure and uniformity, it might, from the strength of its walls, have remained for ages to come an interesting monument of the domestic architecture formerly used in the construction of their mansion-houses by the gentry of note in Westmerland, and still be a place to attract the regard of the reflective antiquary, who, in beholding these vestiges of its fallen grandeur, will haply call to mind the following lines, as applicable to its present state:- Such were the rooms in which of yore Our ancestors were wont to dwell, And still of fashion known no more These ling'ring relics tell. The oaken wainscot richly graced With gay festoons to mimic flowers, The armorial bearings now defaced, All speak of proud and long past hours. The ceiling quaintly carved and groin'd With pendent pediments reversed, A bye-gone age recalls to mind Whose glories song hath oft rehearsed. Its hard fate, however, fell upon it in an age when the stately structures of our ancestors, that reminded posterity of the former importance and condition of things, were looked upon with ignorant contempt, and neglected as unworthy of notice or preservation. Thus it has happened that our venerable edifices, noble relics of those middle ages when the picturesque architecture of England flourished in all the original harmony and strength of character of its most interesting phases, became progressively deteriorated, and eventually destroyed, through the ill-taste or want of care in those who ought to have taken an interest in preserving them; and thus, to use the melodious expression of a gifted Bard,- The house is gone, And, through improvidence, or want of love For ancient faith and honourable things, The spear and shield are vanished, which the knight Hung in his rustic hall. It had many years ago a more desolate and drear appearance, and its melancholy aspect seemed heightened by the mysterious tradition of its human sculls. This famous legend was a tale full of the superstitious notions once so common in country places, and which, - everywhere strengthened by sights and sounds that confounded the limited intelligence of the rustics, to whom even a faint shadow frequently becomes a palpable ghost, and the mere pasing of a churchyard after nightfall, or the remembrance of a nursery story, often filled the dark and lonesome void with spectral illusions, - probably gave rise to the report that the house was haunted. "Airy tongues that syllable men's names" were heard in every blast that moaned along the mountain sides, or rustled through the woods. Strange shapes and fantasies, dim and shadowy objects which required no great effort of imagination to invest with the outlines of form, were presented in the vapoury atmosphere of the lakes and vallies, affecting even the strongest minds as consequently the frightful visits and fearful deeds which the unquiet spirits of the place were said to have performed to terrify and distress the neighbourhood. Gradually have the tales of spirits and apparitions become less frequent and more vague, and fictions such as these have long since grown cold and powerless on the faith of even the simple out-dwellers in the country. Yet the story of the skulls, to whose reputed properties and mysterious movements so much horrific infallibity was once attached, is a legend of the dark ages of ignorance, too whimsical and improbable to deserve being recorded otherwise than as an instance of the never failing credulity of superstition. Wild as this localized tradition may appear, it was a popular tale of immemorial standing, of which however there are other versions with a difference to be picked up, that the skulls belonged to an old man and his wife who, in times long ago, were unjustly put to death for an alleged crime. These ancient persons lived on their own small property adjoining the lands of the Philipsons, whose head coveted to number it among his extensive domains, and long endeavoured by every |
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