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Page 294:-
An essayist, in the provincial paper of this country, speaking of
this place, says, 'It forms a picture such as the canvas never
presented; it embraces a variety so distributed as no pencil can
ever imitate. No designer in romance ever allotted such a
residence to his fairy inhabitants - I had almost said, no
recluse ever wooed religion in such a blessed retirement.' - 'The
genius of Ovid would have transformed the most favoured of his
heroes into a river, and poured his waters into the channel of
the Liza, there to wander by the verdant bounds of Gillerthwaite
- the sweet reward of patriotism and virtue.'
Gillerthwaite is not, however, an island, though almost as much
contrasted in the landscape as land with water. It is a patch of
enclosed and apparently highly cultivated ground, on a stony
desert of immeasurable extent; for the mountains on each side of
it are the most barren in their aspect, and continue that
appearance till their heads mix with the horizon. There are two
decent farm-houses on the inclosure, and, from the serpentine
tract of the valley, no other habitation of man is visible.
From Gillerthwaite, the road already briefly described (and which
a very little industry might make convenient for most occasions)
leads towards the pride of the valley, once the seat of power and
splendour, of which some faint remains are yet to be traced. The
place here alluded to is How-hall, a mansion formerly of some
note. The estate, by purchase, came into possession of the
Senhouses, and is now the property of Joseph Tiffin Senhouse,
Esq. of Calder-Abbey.- The following inscription, in Saxon
characters, is yet visible over the principal door of How-hall:-
'This house was built, A.D. 1566, by William Patrickson, and
Frances his wife, daughter of Sir Thomas Swinburn, one of the
privy counsellors to King Henry VIII.'
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