button to main menu  Martineau's Complete Guide to the English Lakes, 1855

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Page 155:-
crags aloft and lambs in the vales, there will be more or fewer, nobler or meaner, birds of prey. We are unable to ascertain positively, amidst conflicting testimony, whether any eagles at all remain in the region. It appears that one has certainly been seen within ten years; and three gentlemen, two of whom are travelled men, and not likely to be mistaken in such a matter, declare that, four years ago, they saw one sweep down from Scandale Fell into Kirkstone Pass, and rest on a crag in the vale, some way above Brothers' Water. There is, however, a preponderance of disbelief of there being now any nest and settlement of eagles among the mountains of Westmorland and Cumberland.
  Stockley Bridge
  black lead mine

The descent upon Stockley bridge is easy; and the bridge itself was, a few years since, a favourite subject for sketches. A more picturesque one we never saw: but it has been spoiled in the repairing.- As he proceeds, the traveller will find no "nuts and acorns" in this "Boredale," nor any remarkable number of swine. But he may see the place,- if he looks up the hill the left,- whence was drawn the modern product that has in modern times, distinguished the dale,- the blacklead of which the Keswick pencils are made. It is understood that the productiveness of the mine has much lessened; and the works are, we believe, often suspended; but, while the best ore brings 30s. per lb., there will be more or less perseverance in seeking it. The heaps of rubbish, high up the mountain, show the spot. In the clay slate of the mountain is a bed of greenstone rock; and "nests" or "sops" or "bellies" of black lead are found in the greenstone.
gazetteer links
button -- (black lead mine, Seathwaite)
button -- Borrowdale
button -- Eagle Crag
button -- Stockley Bridge
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