|
|
|
|
|
|
|
title page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
previous page
next page |
|
|
|
Page 45:-
BOOK SECOND.
|
book 2
chapter 1
|
|
|
Penrith to Keswick
|
|
ROAD to KESWICK.
CHAP. I.
Stainton, -- Remarkable Family, -- Old Sepulchral
Remains, -- Singular Antique, -- Sketch of the History of
the Knights Templars, -- View of Greystock Castle, --
Account of the Noble Family of Howard, -- Penruddock, --
Motherby, -- Roman Antiquities, -- Head of the River
Petterel, -- Stone-Carron, -- Ancient Diversions, --
Specimen of the Language, -- Mell-Fell, -- Funeral Customs,
-- Strange Phaenomenon, -- Terrible Inundation, --
Saddleback-Fell, -- Threlkeld, -- An Eccentric Clergyman, --
Druids Temple, -- Castles, -- River Greata, -- Remains of
Buildings on the Banks of the River.
|
Stainton
Bristo Family
|
|
HAVING seen every thing worthy of notice in the environs of
Ulswater, we next proceed towards Keswick, and its
neighbouring Lakes. Setting out from Penrith, we pass the
Castle, and a small road that turns off towards Greystock,
(one of the seats of the Duke of Norfolk,) and arrive at the
pleasant village of Stainton: here we see rural wealth and
tranquillity displayed in the liveliest colours; the houses
are remarkably clean and well built; and if incomes more
than adequate to the expenditure of the possessors can be
called riches, the inhabitants of Stainton may be styled
wealthy. The lands belonging to this village are so
remarkable for their fertility, that in the Spring of the
year 1785, having occasion to go to London, I did not see
any where, (either in Durham, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, or
Essex,) the corn in such forwardness as it was here. There
is now living in Stainton one John Bristo, an healthy man,
of the great age of ninety-four; eight years ago his family
stood as follows:
|
|
| The Master of the
family, | aged
86 |
| The Mistress, | 85 |
| A female
servant, | 79 |
| An Horse, | 33 |
| A Dog, | 17 |
| Total, | 300 |
|
|
His wife lived to the age of eighty-eight, and his servant
died two years ago, aged eighty-six, after serving him
sixty-four years. It is further remarkable, that after the
first four years of her service, she gave him notice that
she intended to leave him, and continued to do so regularly
every half years afterwards; at length she actually did
leave him, and died within two months after her departure.
This venerable villager is remarkably strong built and
boney, and has always enjoyed so good a state of health,
that he never paid any thing to either surgeon or physician:
he is, farther, remarkable for his pacific disposition;
never having paid, or caused any one to pay any thing for
law. Though naturally silent and diffident, he is, to this
day, an eminent promoter of mirth; and will take his glass
regularly among chearful company till a moderate hour, when
he always retires. He never wore a coat, or any other
article of dress, which was not spun in his own family, and
the cloth manufactured by a neighbour: his cloathes were
also made of the wool of his own sheep, and were either dyed
by a neighbour, or what is here called
Skiddow-Gras[s] [Skiddow-Grey], viz. black and
white wool mixed. His wife was every way his counterpart;
and he
|
|
has
|
|
erratum from p.194
for Skiddow-Grass, read Skiddow-Grey.
|
|
|
|
gazetteer links
|
|
|
-- "Stainton" -- Stainton
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
next page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
