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Gentleman's Magazine 1902 part 2 p.427
Branstree and Harter Fell the Normans swarmed, and among the
precipices of Goat Scar came the final tragedy. Forcing
their way up a grassy slack, the invading host reached the
top of Harter Fell and the battle was won. The Saxons had no
other resource but fight, and against the iron-disciplned
troops their valour was of little use. It was a fight to
destruction. with no mercy, and the Normans won at awful
cost. The lost expedition was never found; no trace of a
horse or steel of foreign make was to be discovered in the
Saxon caves, and the Baron of Kendal, who personally
conducted the final siege, had to leave the mystery
unsolved.
Yet on fine summer evenings, when the purple shades are on
the mountain sides, and the glittering mists hang on the
summits, the dalesman has often been surprised to see,
marching between the mist and the dale, sometimes high,
sometimes low, a body of armed horsemen. With scouts in
front, behind, below, above, they sweep along in disciplined
order. They are the Norman band, condemned to walk the fells
till they capture eighty Saxons slain some eight hundred
years ago.
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