LAYS AND LEGENDS
OF THE
ENGLISH LAKE COUNTRY.
Lays and Legends
OF THE
English Lake Country.
WITH COPIOUS NOTES.
BY
JOHN PAGEN WHITE, F.R.C.S.
When I was beardless, young, and blate,
E'en then a wish, I mind its power,
A wish that to my latest hour
Shall strongly heave my breast;
That I for poor auld Cumbria's sake,
Some usefu' plan or beuk could make,
Or sing a sang at least."
LONDON: JOHN RUSSELL SMITH.
CARLISLE: G. & T. COWARD.
MDCCCLXXIII.
INTRODUCTION.
In submitting this Book to the Public, I havethought it best to give it precisely as it was left inmanuscript by my late Brother. His sudden deathin 1868 prevented the final revision which he stillcontemplated.
The Notes may by some be thought unnecessarilylong, and in many instances they undoubtedly arevery discursive. Much labour, however, was expendedin their composition, in the hope, not merelyof giving a new interest to localities and incidentsalready familiar to the resident, but also of affordingthe numerous visitors to the charming regionwhich forms the theme of the Volume, an amount ofinformation supplementary to the mere outline which,only, it is the province of a Guide Book, howeverexcellent, to supply.
The Work occupied for years the leisure hours ofa busy professional life; and the feelings with whichthe Author entered upon and continued it, are bestexpressed in those lines of Burns chosen by himselffor the motto.
July 1st, 1873.
PREFACE.
The English Lake District may be said, in generalterms, to extend from Cross-Fell and the SolwayFirth, on the east and north, to the waters of Morecambeand the Irish Sea; or, more accurately, to becomprised within an irregular circle, varying fromforty to fifty miles in diameter, of which the centreis the mountain Helvellyn, and within which areincluded a great portion of Cumberland and Westmorlandand the northern extremity of Lancashire.
After the conquest of England by the Normans,the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, theancient inheritance of the Scottish Kings, as well asthe county of Northumberland, were placed byWilliam under the English crown. But the regionsthus alienated were not allowed to remain in theundisturbed possession of the strangers. For a longperiod they were disquieted by the attempts whichfrom time to time were made by successive kings ofScotland to re-establish their supremacy over them.[viii]Supporting their pretensions by force of arms, theycarried war into the disputed territory, and conductedit with a rancour and cruelty whi