button to main menu  Gents Mag 1849 part 1 p.380

button introduction
button list, 2nd qtr 19th century
button previous page
Gentleman's Magazine 1849 part 1 p.380
[under]taking, was affixed into the third pier in the south aisle, on which is engraved the following record:-
"On the 22nd day of June, 1844, a faculty was granted in the consistry court at Carlisle to the Rev. James Lynn, vicar of Crosthwaite, and James Stanger, of Lairthwaite, esquire, for the restoration of the chancel, the roof, and other portions of this church, according to certain plans thereof exhibited, and for the erection of a tomb and sculptured monumental figure of the late Robert Southey, poet laureate, in accordance with which faculty these restorations were completed under the direction of George Gilbert Scott, architect, and the church was re-opened for divine service on the 3rd day of August, 1845, and the monument erected A.D. 1846."
To a grave and recondite antiquary, this description of Crosthwaite church, and the objects of interest connected with it, will appear deficient in that fulness of information which a sedulous research through our national and diocesan archives alone can unfold. It is briefly mentioned in some of those valuable records whose pages illustrate the annals of our older churches. As such documentary evidences however, besides lying beyond the opportunities for research of the writer of these pages, are chiefly of a statistical and financial nature, which, though useful in themselves, would swell this sketch beyond reasonable limits, they are omitted without more than this concise allusion to their existence.
The vicarage house, seated upon an eminence between the church and the town, commands that beautiful view of the Lake of Derwentwater, and the surrounding mountain scenery, with which the poet Gray, who visited this country in 1769, was so much enraptured. "From hence," says he in those delightful letters which were the medium of giving to his fellow-countrymen the first familiar account of the romantic loveliness of a region then so little frequented, "I got to the parsonage a little before sunset. and saw a picture, which if I could transmit it to you, and fix it in all the softness of its colours, would fairly sell for one thousand pounds." The point of view from which Gray beheld this fascinating prospect was from the horsing stone which then and for a long time after stood without the right hand side of the garden gate, in front of the house. It was removed several years ago, much to the regret of Mr. Southey, who often used playfully to reflect on the little sympathetic feeling shown in the destruction of a memorial so intimately associated with the author of "The Elegy."
As this memoir of the venerable parish church of Crosthwaite was in commencement graced with a quotation from one of the most instructive works of that eminent writer whose spirit pervades the scene, and every spot on which the eye can rest is vocal with the associations of his life, so it cannot be more fitly concluded than with another extract borrowed from the same delightful book, after which, it would be sacrilege to add one word more.
"I was walking alone in Howrah looking upon the church and upon Skiddaw behind it, which was then in the glory of a Midsummer sunset. The weight of time and eternity was on my spirit; I had been also thinking of the change in human institutions, a thought naturally connected with any permanent monuments of nature or art. The shadows glide over that mountain, and the clouds collect there, and the sun glorifies it, as they did when the Druids performed their rites within yonder circle of stones, when the Romans and romanised Britons erected altars to Jupiter and Belatucadrus, and when the Danes offered up victims to Thor and Woden. The church too has undergone its changes. The rood loft has disappeared; not a bell rings on Saint Kentigern's Day, and not a trace of the saint remains in his own parish. I was contemplating that church and yonder mountain. Seven centuries have gone by since the church was founded; and there Skiddaw has stood since the foundations of the hills were laid. My years will presently be like a tale that is told. These will remain; the one unchangeable, the other, I trust, never to be changed in its destination and uses, whatever renovations the structure may require."
button continued
gazetteer links
button -- St Kentigern's Church

button to main menu Lakes Guides menu.