button to main menu  Gents Mag 1849 part 2 p.255

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Gentleman's Magazine 1849 part 2 p.255
enjoyment; and, when the turmoil of political discord then raging called for more energetic exertions, it may be inferred he was found strengthened by a religiously regulated frame of mind, and that dignity of soul which rareley deserts the mentally adorned in seasons of difficulty, to endure the rough and painful doings of the period better than lighter characters and less thoughtful intellects. Deeply read in classical and theological lore, a similarity of tastes rendered him the intimate friend of Thomas Preston of Holkar Hall, a gentleman of ancient descent, and another of those ripe scholars of the seventeenth century whose congeniality of opinion on the momentous questions which then shook the land caused him also to share in the attachment and sufferings for the royal cause. That such were Philipson's cherished pursuits, and such the friendship which subsisted between these loyal men, has lately been pleasingly manifested by an examination of the library at Cartmel, where amid its treasury of ancient wisdom, which were chiefly presented by Mr. Preston, the books hereafter ennumerated are remaining. Most of these seem to have been tokens of the interchange of literary amity, and all but one have the name and signature of their learned donor, with some manuscript notes, and dates in his handwriting, or in that of his friend. There is, however, one among them which demands a more than ordinary portion of regard, from its having belonged to Charles I. when Prince of Wales, an assumption which the royal arms as borne by that Sovereign and his father James I. stamped in gilt characters on the back, renders not improbable, though the initials letters C.P. on the sides of the royal achievement may be held to signify Christopher Philipson, rather than Charles "Prince."
51.     Latin. Clerke's translation of Balthasaris Castilionis Comitis de Curiali sive antico. 1571. Londini. (In one of the fly-leaves of this little vol. is the following MS. note, apparently in Mr. Preston's hand-writing:
    "Mr. Mason's booke, schoolmr of Ambleside, wch, wth divers other small books, I borrd of him, and instead of them hee had my Shakesp. comedies and ye rest of his workes in a large folio vol. lent him by Mr. Philips of Calgarth, of much greater value than all his.")
58.     Latin. Sleidani Opuscula. 1608. Hanoviae. - MS. "Ex dono Chr Philips armiger."
70.     Bilson on the true Difference between Subjection and un-Christian Rebellion. 1586. London. - MS. "Non est mortale quod opto. Chr Philipson possidet. Tho. Preston, ex dono Christo. P. Chr. Philipson Possidet."
157.     Latin. Camden's Britannia. 1590. Francofurti. - MS. "Ex dono Chr Ph. Non est mortale quod opto. Chr Philipson possidet."
189.     Latin. Crackenthorpe's Defensio Ecclesiae Angli. 1625. Londini. - MS. "Ex dono Christophori Philipsoni, armigeri, ad Bibliotheca Cartmeliensis, Anno Dnj. 1648. Thomas Strickland his booke."
205.     Morton on the Mass. 1631. London. - MS. "Mors Christi vita mihi. Chr Philipson."
292.     Fox's Actes and Monumentes. 1610. London. Chr Philipson, 1618." (On the sides and back are the royal arms, stamped and gilt, with the initial letters C. P.)
At the latter end of the seventeenth century John Philipson was lord of Calgarth. In 1688 he married Mary, youngest daughter of Sir Robert Patton, of the city of London, knight, by whom he had four daughters, who, as co-heiresses, sold the hall and remnants of the estates, and they have since fallen through the hands of several intermediate possessors into the ownership of the present proprietor.
In 1705 Sir Christopher Philipson, the last male-heir of the family of Crooke Hall, died, leaving a daughter and heiress named Frances (according to Dr. Burn, in page 155 of his History of Westmerland, though, in page 141, he mentions Elizabeth and Clara, two other daughters, as selling their joint estate to Major Pigeon, a natural son of Charles II.), who, in 1714, sold the heritage of her ancestors to various purchasers, and disposed of the island to a Mr. Braithwaite. After its possession by several subsequent owners, it was, in 1775, sold to a progenitor of the present inheritor, who changed its ancient name to that of Christian's Isle, afterwards altered to Belle Isle by which it is now known. Subsequently the ground, which, from a
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