button to main menu  Clarke's Survey of the Lakes, 1787

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Page 83:-
By an act of parliament of the 25th Geo. II. it is made a felony to break into any mine or wood, or wad-hole, or black chalk, commonly called black lead, or to steal any from thence. And in the recital, it is said to be discovered in one mountain, or ridge of hills, only in this realm (meaning Borrowdale,) and that it hath been found by experience to be for divers useful purposes, and more particularly in the casting of bomb-shells, round shot and cannon, &c.
  slate
There are likewise several valuable mines of blue slate in Borrowdale, which are of great service to the poor inhabitants, as the wages for working in them are very good.
  Manesty
  salt spring

Leaving Grainge we pass Rigg-Side, an estate lately purchased by Joseph Pocklington, Esq. We next come to Manesty, an estate lately purchased by Rowland Stephenson, Esq. Below this house is Borrowdale-well, a medical water of excellent quality, and was formerly much frequented; it is a never failing cure for cutaneous eruptions in man or beast, by washing only. I attended it several years, (but not of late) on account of rheumatic pains in my left shoulder, about mid-summer, five or six years successively: It so cured me that I have not had the slightest touch of it these twelve years past.
The water is strongly saline, but the want of convenience for lodgers makes it little frequented. It rises out of a dead flat through a spar-rock adjoining to a peat-moss, whereon grows the plant called Gale, which curious plant is found on almost every moss in this country.
The water tastes very like sea-water, is very clear and pellucid; but a kind of moss seems to arise with it, and remain upon the top like a scum. I could wish that some of our medical Gentlemen, who are not employed in inventing or defending useless theories, would describe its qualities; I cannot, as it is out of my line. I therefore speak only what I have seen and experienced.
There is another spaw of the like kind on Newland's-Fell; it lyes on the road-side, at Manesty-Nook, (see plate VI.) at which place we leave Borrowdale freeholds, and enter Newlands manor, which belongs to the Earl of Egremont.
  station, Hardendale Knott
I had like to have forgot a station for the artist, which is a rock at the water-head; I have not a name for it, but it lyes towards the south of, and near Hardendale-Knott: there is a very good view of the Lake; you see Vicar's Island over St Herbert's, the fort on Vicar's Island just on the right, and close to that, on the same side, Dr Brownrigg's white house at the skirts of Skiddow. Keswick is distinctly seen between St Herbert's and the beautiful wooded hills of Cockshot and Castley, Barrow and Wallow-Cragg on the right; the broken earth at Manesty-Nook, with Branley-Park and Fall-Park on the left: Crosthwaite Church makes its appearance distinct from the island and peninsulas, and the back ground is Skiddow, with Saddle-back just peeping on one side of it. The whole forms as grand a view as any that can be seen. Could I here describe the great advantage the landscape-painter would have on a clear sunny day, when now and then. a cloud intervening, spots a part of Skiddow or some other part of this extensive scene, the reader would have a better idea of its beauties.
The back view from this station is also a very good one; the village of Grainge for a fore ground, with several wooded hills close to it, out of which several white rocks just appear: Then comes Grainge-Cragg, a place high enough, with the black mountain over it called Great-end to close the left hand: the right is closed by an Alpine mountain called Gate-Cragg; and on the back several mountains, representing in form an artichoak, exhibiting different shades, as the sun or clouds may chance to fall upon them, are distinctly seen between Grainge-Cragg and Gate-Cragg.
Now
gazetteer links
button -- (black lead mine, Seathwaite)
button -- "Hardendale Knott" -- Hardindale Knott
button -- "Manesty" -- Manesty
button -- "Rigg Side" -- Rigg Side
button -- (salt spring, Borrowdale (2))
button -- "Borrowdale Well" -- (salt spring, Borrowdale)
button -- (station, Hardindale Knott)
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