button to main menu  Gents Mag 1793 p.1051

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Gentleman's Magazine 1793 p.1051

  obituary
  John Mounsey

The King of Patterdale

Obituary
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[October 21] At Patterdale-hall (Patrickdale). in the parish of Barton, co. Westmorland, in the 92nd year of his age, John Mounsey, esq. commonly called King of Patterdale*; the owners of which place for time immemorial have been honoured with this appellation; a distinctlion which probably arose from some of the property being alloidal, as it is independent, and held of no superior. The royal family have the titles of King, Queen, Prince, Princess, and Dukes. the palace, pleasantly situated at the head of the lake Ulswater, makes but an indifferent appearance; neglect for half a century hath left it almost a ruin. To get money with the late owner was a principle that almost absorbed every other idea. This propensity broke out very early in life, and appeared on every occasion. - The wild mountains, which almost surround the village, afford a beautiful blue Westmorland slate, and lead ore in great abundance; and some of them are covered with wood. of wood and slate he had a large share, most of which was conveyed down the lake in boats; and, when a boy, he could not be restrained by his father from the drudgery of the oar. His brother, the Duke of Stybrow (styled so from Stybrow-crag, a tremendous rocky precipice, bursting out into the lake near the village of Patterdale, was no lover of work; he was a fine jolly fellow; which made the old man, a respectable country-gentlrman, in his mirth observe, "he had three children of very different dispositions: the oldest son
* Some particulars of this extraordinary person may be seen in the agreeable "Ramble," reviewd vol.LXII. p.1114.
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