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Print, uncoloured engraving, Muncaster Castle and
Eskdale, drawn by Joseph Farington, engraved by John Pye,
published by T Cadell and W Davies, Strand, London, 1815.
Plate 26 in The Lakes of Lancashire, Westmorland and
Cumberland ... with text by Thomas Hartwell Horne:-
VIEW OF MUNCASTER CASTLE. / THE Manor of Muncaster is known
to have belonged to the Pennington family as early as the
reign of Henry II. Sir John Pennington, who lived in the
reign of Henry VI., is said to have secreted that unhappy
monarch in his flight from his enemies; and the tradition of
the family is, that on quitting Muncaster he presented his
host with a small glass vessel, still preserved in the
family, and called the Luck of Muncaster, to the
preservation of which a considerable degree of superstition
is attached. This Sir John Pennington is said to have been a
distinguished military character, and to have commanded the
left wing of the English army in an expedition against
Scotland. His grandson, of the same name, was in the battle
of Flodden Field. Another descendant, of the same name, was
Admiral to King Charles I. and much trusted by that monarch
in naval affairs. Sir William Pennington, grandson of the
last-mentioned Sir John, was created a Baronet in 1676. Sir
John Pennington, the fifth Baronet, was, in 1783, created
Lord Muncaster, of the Kingdom of Ireland; he died in 1813,
leaving only one surviving daughter, married to Lord
Lindsay, son of the Earl of Balcarras, when the title of
Muncaster and the Muncaster estates, being settled on male
heirs, devolved to his brother, General Lowther Pennington,
now Lord Muncaster. / Muncaster cstle, which retains the
principal tower of the ancient fortifiied mansion, though it
has lost its original form, was nearly rebuilt by the late
Lord Muncaster. It stands on an eminence, nearly surrounded
by beautiful plantations, and commanding in front a fine
view of the Vale of Esk, flanked on each side, and
terminated in front, by the wildest mountain scenery. In the
house are several family pictures, and a curious portrait of
Thomas Skelton, the fool of Muncaster, who is said to have
lived in the family at the time of the civil wars, and of
whose sayings there are many traditional stories. / The
River Esk, which gives its name to Eskdale, is formed by
some small streams which rise near Bow-fell; it falls into
the sea at Ravenglass, after a course of about thriteen
miles.
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