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It is worth while here to mention some singular customs in
use at funerals in these environs. Notwithstanding some
tenements in this dale are seven miles distant from
Greystock, they are all obliged to bury their dead there:
all the relations of the deceased who reside within twenty
miles, and all the neighbours, attend the funeral. A dinner
is provided for them, and after dinner two pennyworth of
wheaten bread, and a piece of cheese (by way of
viaticum I suppose) is given to each person: the
corpse is then laid upon a bier, and carried upon the
shoulders of those who attend by turns, (a piece of duty
from which even the women are not exempted) till they arrive
at a large stone at Greystock town-head: Here they set the
coffin down, and from hence it is carried to the church,
(which is distant near a mile) by six persons, upon napkins:
during this last part of the procession, the parish-clerk
and people sing a psalm before the body, and walk, (be the
weather as bad as it will) with their hats off. After the
corpse is interred the company retire to the ale-house, here
they are again refreshed with bread and cheese, and ale.
This method is invariably followed, whatever be the quality
of the deceased; an instance of which I saw about three
years ago, when a person of considerable property was thus
carried from Lowside, (see plate V.) during a very deep
snow: scarce any one present had a horse; and though the
deceased was much respected, and left no children, (whose
property might have been diminished by an expensive
funeral,) he would not be prevailed upon to permit an hearse
to be used, or omit any part of the old ceremonial, and this
he expressly commanded before his death.
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Opposite the nine-mile post, on the right hand, is
Southerfell; rather smoother than its neighbours, and
remarkable for an extraordinary phaenomenon, which perhaps
can scarcely be paralleled by history, or reconciled to
probability: such, however, is the evidence we have of it,
that I cannot help relating it, and then my readers must
judge for themselves. I shall give it nearly in the words of
Mr Lancaster of Blakehills, from whom I had the
account; and whose veracity, even were it not supported by
many concurrent testimonies, I could fully rely upon. The
story is as follows:
On the 23d of June 1744, his father's servant, Daniel
Stricket, (who now lives under Skiddow, and is an
auctioneer,) about half past seven in the evening was
walking a little above the house. Looking round him, he saw
a troop of men on horseback riding on
Southerfell-side, (a place so steep that an horse can
scarcely travel on it at all,) in pretty close ranks, and at
a brisk walk. Stricket looked earnestly at them some time
before he durst venture to acquaint any one with what he
saw, as he had the year before made himself ridiculous by a
visionary story, which I beg leave here also to relate: He
was at that time servant to John Wren of Wilton-hill,
the next house to Blakehills, and sitting one evening
after supper * at the door along with his master,
they saw a man with a dog pursuing some horses along
Southerfell-side; and they seemed to run at an amazing pace,
till they got out of sight at the low end of the Fell. This
made them resolve to go next morning to the place to pick up
the shoes which they thought these horses must have lost in
galloping at such a furious rate; they expected likewise to
see prodigious grazes from the feet of these horses on the
steep side of the mountain, and to find the man lying dead,
as they were sure he run so fast that he must kill himself.
Accordingly they went, but, to their great surprise, found
not a shoe, nor even a single vestige of any horse having
been there, so much less did they find the man lying dead as
they expected. This story they some time concealed; at
length, however, they ventured to tell it, and were, (as
might be expected) heartily laughed at. Stricket, conscious
of his former ridiculous error, observed these aerial troops
some time before he ventured to mention what he saw: at
length, fully satisfied that what he saw was real, he
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