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Priest Pot, Claife
runs into:-    Esthwaite Water
Priest Pot
locality:-   Hawkshead
civil parish:-   Claife (formerly Lancashire)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   tarn
locality type:-   fish pond
coordinates:-   SD35759784
1Km square:-   SD3597
10Km square:-   SD39
altitude:-   216 feet
altitude:-   66m
evidence:-   old map:- OS County Series (Lan 5 2) 
placename:-  Priest Pot
source data:-   Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25 inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948.
evidence:-   descriptive text:- Otley 1823 (5th edn 1834) 
item:-  floating island
source data:-   Guide book, A Concise Description of the English Lakes, the mountains in their vicinity, and the roads by which they may be visited, with remarks on the mineralogy and geology of the district, by Jonathan Otley, published by the author, Keswick, Cumberland now Cumbria, by J Richardson, London, and by Arthur Foster, Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, 1823; published 1823-49, latterly as the Descriptive Guide to the English Lakes.
image OT01P013, button  goto source
Page 13:-  "..."
"On a pond called Priest Pot, near the head of this lake [Esthwaite Water], there is a Floating Island 24 yards in length, and 5 or 6 in breadth; ..."
evidence:-   old text:- Martineau 1855
placename:-  Priest's Pot
source data:-   Guide book, A Complete Guide to the English Lakes, by Harriet Martineau, published by John Garnett, Windermere, Westmorland, and by Whittaker and Co, London, 1855; published 1855-76.
image MNU1P029, button  goto source
Page 29:-  "... A round pond at the northern end of the lake [Esthwaite Water], connected with it by a narrow creek, ... The name of the pond is Priest's Pot: a fact which be explain by a tradition that a priest was drowned there; and others by a supposition of its"
image MNU1P030, button  goto source
Page 30:-  "holding about as much as a thirsty priest would like to drink, if the liquor were sufficiently good. ..."
evidence:-   old photograph:- Bell 1880s-1940s
source data:-   Photograph, black and white, Priest Pot, Claife, and Hawkshead, Lancashire, by Herbert Bell, photographer, Ambleside, Westmorland, 1890s.
image  click to enlarge
HB0581.jpg
internegative at lower right:-  "H. Bell"
stamped on reverse:-  "HERBERT BELL / Photograph / AMBLESIDE"
item:-  Armitt Library : ALPS241
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old print:- Robertson 1911
placename:-  Priest's Pot Pool
source data:-   Print, lithograph? Hawkshead, from a watercolour by Arthur Tucker, published by Chatto and Windus, London, 1911.
image  click to enlarge
RSN116.jpg
Tipped in opposite p.64 of Wordsworthshire by Eric Robertson. 
printed at bottom:-  "HAWKSHEAD / ('Priest's Pot' Pool in foreground; Weatherlam covered with snow)"
signed at painting lower left:-  "Arthur Tucker"
item:-  JandMN : 197.16
Image © see bottom of page
hearsay:-  
 Used as a fish pond by the monks of Furness Abbey.
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