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diff --git a/43968-0.txt b/43968-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9aec7fc --- /dev/null +++ b/43968-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3934 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43968 *** + + THE + BOOK OF CONISTON + + + BY + + W. G. COLLINGWOOD, M.A., F.S.A., + _Editor to the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and + Archæological Society; + Author of "The Life of John Ruskin," etc._ + + + THIRD EDITION--REVISED AND ENLARGED. + + + + Kendal: + Titus Wilson, Publisher. + 1906. + + + PRESS NOTICES + + OF THE EARLIER EDITIONS. + + + "A capital little guide book."--_Daily News._ + + "It is an interesting little volume."--_Manchester Guardian._ + + "The ideal of a guide book."--_Carlisle Patriot._ + + "An excellent guide."--_Carlisle Journal._ + + "Confidently recommended."--_Ulverston Advertiser._ + + + CONTENTS. + + + Page + I.--THE OLD MAN 1 + + II.--THE LAKE 8 + + III.--THE MOORLANDS AND THEIR ANCIENT + SETTLEMENTS 14 + + 1.--The Blawith and Kirkby Moors 15 + 2.--Bethecar and Monk Coniston Moors 17 + 3.--Banniside and Torver Moors 18 + + IV.--EARLY HISTORY + + Roman period 22 + British period 23 + Anglian period 23 + Norse period 26 + Norman period 28 + + V.--MONK CONISTON 31 + + VI.--THE FLEMINGS OF CONISTON HALL 37 + + VII.--THE CHURCH AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS 46 + + VIII.--CONISTON INDUSTRIES + + Copper 58 + Iron 62 + Slate 65 + Wood 68 + + IX.--OLD CONISTON 71 + + INDEX 87 + + +I.--THE OLD MAN. + + +Our first walk is naturally to climb the Coniston Old Man. By the +easiest route, which fortunately is the most interesting, there is +a path to the top; good as paths go on mountains--that is, plain +to find--and by its very steepness and stoniness all the more of a +change from the town pavement and the hard high road. It is quite +worth while making the ascent on a cloudy day. The loss of the +panorama is amply compensated by the increased grandeur of the +effects of gloom and mystery on the higher crags, and with care +and attention to directions there need be no fear of losing the +way. + +About an hour and a half, not counting rests, is enough for the +climb; and rather more than an hour for the descent. From the +village, for the first ten minutes, we can take two alternative +routes. Leaving the Black Bull on the left, one road goes up past +a wooden bridge which leads to the Old Forge, and by Holywath +Cottage and the gate of Holywath (J. W. H. Barratt, Esq., J.P.) +and the cottages of Silverbank, through a gate opening upon the +fell. Turn to the left, past sandpits in a fragment of moraine +left by the ancient glacier which, at the end of the Ice Age, must +once have filled the copper-mines valley and broken off here, +with toppling pinnacles and blue cavern, just like a glacier in +Switzerland. Note an ice-smoothed rock on the right, showing +basalt in section. Among the crannies of Lang Crags, which tower +above, broken hexagonal pillars of basalt may be found in the +screes, not too large to carry off as specimens. In ten minutes +the miniature Alpine road, high above a deep ravine, leads to the +Gillhead Waterfall and Bridge. + +An alternative start may be made to the right of the Post Office, +and up the lane to left of the Sun Hotel; through the gate at +Dixon Ground, and over a wooden bridge beneath the mineral siding +which forms the actual terminus of the railway. Another wooden +bridge leads only to the grounds of Holywath, but affords a fine +sight of the rocky torrent bed with Coniston limestone exposed on +the Holywath side. The Coniston limestone is a narrow band of dark +blue rock, with black holes in it, made by the weathering-out of +nodules. It lies between the softer blue clay-slates we have left, +which form the lower undulating hills and moorlands, and the hard +volcanic rocks which form the higher crags and mountains. + +The cartroad to the right, over the Gillhead Bridge, leads to the +copper mines and up to Leverswater, from which the Old Man can be +climbed, but by a much longer route. We take the gate and rough +path to the left, after a look at the fine glaciated rocks across +the bridge, apparently fresh from the chisel of the sculpturing +ice; the long grooves betray the direction in which the glacier +slid over them in its fall down the ravine. From a stile over the +wall the copper mines become visible above the flat valley-bottom, +filled with sand from the crushing of the ore. The path leads up +to the back of the Scrow among parsley fern and club moss, and +fifteen minutes from the bridge bring us through a sheepfold to +another stile from which Weatherlam is finely seen on the right, +and on the left the tall cascade from Lowwater. A short ten +minutes more, and we reach the hause (_háls_ or neck) joining the +crag of the Bell (to the left) with the ridge of the Old Man up +which our way winds. + +Here we strike the quarry road leading from the Railway Station +over Banniside Moor, a smoother route, practicable (as ours +is not) for ponies, but longer. Here are slate-sheds, and the +_step_ where the sledges that come down the steep upper road are +slid upon wheels. The sledge-road winds round the trap rocks of +Crowberry haws (the grass-grown old road rejoins it a little +higher) and affords views, looking backwards, of Coniston Hall +and the lake behind. Five minutes above the slate-sheds the road +finally crosses Crowberry haws, and Lowwater Fall comes into +view--a broken gush of foam down a cleft 500 feet from brow to +base. + +A shepherd's track leads to the foot of the fall and to the +Pudding Stone, a huge boulder--not unlike the famous Bowder Stone +of Borrowdale--a fragment from the "hard breccia" cliffs rising +behind it, namely, Raven Tor high above; Grey Crag beneath, +with the disused millrace along its flank; and Kernel Crag, the +lion-like rock over the copper mines. Dr. Gibson, the author of +_The Old Man, or Ravings and Ramblings round Conistone_, writing +half-a-century ago, says:--"On this crag, probably for ages, a +pair of ravens have annually had their nest, and though their +young have again and again been destroyed by the shepherds they +always return to the favourite spot." He goes on to tell that +once, when the parent birds were shot, a couple of strange ravens +attended to the wants of the orphan brood, until they were fit to +forage for themselves. On this suggestion, Dr. John Pagen White +has written his poem in _Lays and Legends of the English Lake +Country_, fancifully describing the raven on Kernel Crag watching +from prehistoric antiquity the changes of the world around it, +through past, present and future, to the crack of doom! + +From the Pudding Stone experienced climbers can find their way up +the ledges of Raven Tor to the top of Lowwater Fall. We follow the +sledge road, and in five minutes reach Saddlestones Quarry, with +its tram-lines and tunnelled level, and continually increasing +platform of "rid" or débris. + +Ten minutes' walk from the quarries brings us to Lowwater, with +glimpses of Windermere in the distance, and Leverswater nearer at +hand under the summit of Weatherlam. It is worth while turning off +to the right hand to see the great blocks of stone that lie in the +margin of the tarn, and at the head of the fall. + +As we climb the zigzags to the highest quarries, over the slate +which stands out in slabs from the sward, the crags of Brimfell +and Buckbarrow opposite seem to rise with us. It is here, on a +cloudy day when the tops are covered, that the finest impressions +of mountain gloom may be found; under the cloud and the precipices +a dark green tarn, savage rocks, and tumbling streams; and out, +beyond, the tossing sea of mountain forms. + +From the platform of the highest quarry, reached in ten minutes +from the tarn, a rough and steep path to the left leads in five +minutes more to the ridge, and the view of the lowland bursts +upon us with the Westmorland and Yorkshire hills in the distance. +Below, as Ruskin wrote when he first climbed here in 1867, "the +two lakes of Coniston and Windermere, lying in the vastest space +of sweet cultivated country I have ever looked over,--a great part +of the view from the Rigi being merely over black pine-forest, +even on the plains." + +Fifteen minutes more take us up this steep arête to the top, 2626 +feet above the sea. + +There used to be three ancient cairns--the "Old Man" himself, his +"Wife" and his "Son":--_man_, the Celtic _maen_, being the local +name for a pile of stones, and the _Old Man_ simply the name of +the cairn, not of the whole mountain. These were destroyed to +build the present landmark. The circle of stones we have passed +marks the place of the Jubilee bonfire of 1887; the flare-lights +of King Edward's coronation were shown from the top of the cairn, +where in the days of fire signals was a regular beacon station. + +The view on a clear day commands Ingleborough to the east, +Snowdon to the south, the Isle of Man to the west, and to the +north, Scafell and Bowfell, Glaramara and Skiddaw, Blencathra +and Helvellyn: and beneath these all the country spread out like +a raised model, with toy hills and lakes and villages. It is so +easy to identify the different points with the help of the map, +that it is hardly necessary to name them in detail. Under the +distant Pennines of Yorkshire lie Windermere, Esthwaite Water, and +Coniston with Monk Coniston Tarns at its head. Southward,--over +Walney Scar, Blind Tarn and Dow Crags close at hand,--are the +shores of Morecambe Bay and the Duddon Estuary, with Black Combe +rising dark against the sea. Westward, across the Duddon Valley, +the steep rocky summits of Harter Fell and Hard Knott. The group +close under our feet to the north includes Brimfell, Woolcrags, +and the Carrs, with Grey Friar on the left and Weatherlam on the +right, and in their hollows Lowwater and Leverswater. To the east +of Helvellyn are Fairfield, Red Screes and Ill Bell, above the +russet sides of Loughrigg and the distant detail of Ambleside. + +At any time it is a fine panorama; but for grandeur of mountain +line Weatherlam is the better standpoint. To walk along the +ridge over springy turf is easy and exhilarating after the toil +of the stony climb; and the excursion is often made. A mile to +the depression of Levers Hause, another mile past Wool Crags and +the Carrs, down Prison Band (the arête running eastward from the +nearer side of the Carrs) to the dip at Swirl Hause; and a third +mile over Blacksail, would bring you to Weatherlam Cairn. And a +red sunset there, with a full moon to light you down the ridge +to Hole Rake and the copper mines and home, is an experience to +remember. + +But for most of us enough is as good as a feast; and Weatherlam +deserves a day to itself, and respectful approach by Tilberthwaite +Gill. This walk leads from the village past Far End up Yewdale, +turning to left at the sign post, and up between Raven Crag, +opposite, and Yewdale Crag. At the next sign post turn up the +path to the left, passing Pennyrigg Quarries, and then keep the +path down into the Gill. The bridges, put up by Mr. Marshall, and +kept in repair by the Lake District Association, lead through the +ravine to the force at its head. Thence Weatherlam can be ascended +either by Steel Edge, the ridge to the left, or breasting the +steep slope from the hollow of the cove. + +From the top of the Old Man we have choice of many descents. By +Levers Hause we can scramble down--it looks perilous but is easy +to a wary walker,--to Leverswater; and thence by a stony road to +the copper mines and civilization. + +By Gaits Hause, a little to the west of the Old Man, we can reach +Gaits Water, and so across Banniside Moor to the village: or we +can take the grassy ridge and conquer Dow Crags with a cheap +victory, which the ardent climber will scorn. He will attack the +crags from below, finding his own way up the great screes that +border the tarn, and attack the couloirs,--those great chasms that +furrow the precipice. Only, he should not go alone. Here and there +the chimney is barred by boulders wedged into its narrow gorge: +which to surmount needs either a "leg up," or risky scrambling and +some nasty jumps to evade them. These chimneys are described with +due detail in the books on rock-climbing, but should not be rashly +attempted by inexperienced tourists. + +The simplest way down is along Little Arrow Edge. The route can be +found, even if clouds blot out bearings and landmarks, thus. In +the cairn on the top of the Old Man there is a kind of doorway. +You leave that doorway square behind you, and walk as straight +as you can forward into the fog--not rapidly enough to go over +the edge by mistake, but confidently. Your natural instincts will +make you trend a trifle to the left, which is right and proper. +It you have a compass, steer south south-east. In five minutes +by the watch you will be well on the grass-grown arête, thinly +set with slate-slabs, but affording easy walking. Keep the grass +on a slightly increasing downward slope; do not go down steep +places either to right or to left, and in ten minutes more you +will strike a ledge or shelf which runs all across the breast of +the Old Man mountain, with a boggy stream running through it--not +straight down the mountain, but across it. If you strike this +shelf at its highest point, where there is no definite stream but +only a narrow bit of bog from which the stream flows, you are +right. If you find the stream flowing to your right hand, bear +more to the left after crossing it. Five minutes more of jolting +down over grass, among rough rocks which can easily be avoided, +and you see Bursting Stone Quarry--into which there is no fear of +falling if you keep your eyes open and note the time. By the watch +you should be twenty minutes--a little more if you have hesitated +or rested--from the top. Long before this the ordinary cloud-cap +has been left aloft, and you see your way, even by moonlight, +without the least difficulty towards the village; but though mist +may settle down, from this quarry a distinct though disused road +leads you safe home. + +In ten minutes from the quarry the road brings you to Booth Tarn, +through some extremely picturesque broken ground, from which under +an ordinary sunset the views of the nearer hills are fine, with +grand foreground. Booth Crag itself stands over the tarn, probably +named from a little bield or shelter in ruins in a nook beneath +it; and where the quarry road comes out upon Banniside Moss, the +Coniston limestone appears, easily recognisable with its pitted +and curved bands, contrasting with the bulkier volcanic breccia +just above. + +Beyond the tarn to the right are the volunteers' rifle-butts with +their flagstaff. Take the path to the left, and in five minutes +reach the gate of the intake, with lovely sunset and moonlight +views of the Bell and the Scrow to the left, and Yewdale beyond; +Red Screes and Ill Bell in the distance. Hence the road is plain, +and twenty minutes more bring you past the Railway Station to +Coniston village. + +To give a good idea of the lie of the land there is nothing +like a raised map. A careful and detailed coloured model of the +neighbourhood (six inches to the mile, with the same vertical +scale, so that the slopes and heights are not exaggerated, but +true to nature) was made in 1882 under the direction of Professor +Ruskin, who presented it to the Coniston Institute, where it has +been placed in the Museum. + + + + +II.--THE LAKE. + + +Coniston Water it is called by the public now-a-days, but its +proper name is Thurston Water. So it is written in all old +documents, maps, and books up to the modern tourist period. In +the deed of 1196 setting forth the boundaries of Furness Fells it +is called _Thorstanes Watter_, and in lawyer's Latin _Turstini +Watra_, which proves that the lake got its title from some early +owner whose Norse name was Thorstein; in Latin, Turstinus; in +English, Thurston. In the same way Ullswater was Ulf's water, and +Thirlmere was Thorolf's mere, renamed in later times from a new +owner Leathes water--though in the end the older title finally +prevailed. + +As a first rough survey it will be convenient to take the steam +gondola, and check off the landmarks seen on her trip, an all too +short half-hour, down to the waterfoot. + +The start is from the pier near the head of the lake, at the +quaint boathouse built seventy years ago, in what was then called +the Gothic style, for the late Mr. John Beever of the Thwaite--the +house on the slope of the Guards Wood above the Waterhead Hotel. +The boathouse stands on a promontory made by Yewdale Beck, which +falls into the lake close at hand, and brings down with every +flood fresh material to build its embankment farther and farther +into the lake. So rapidly is its work done that a boulder is +pointed out, twenty yards inland, which was always surrounded by +water twenty or thirty years ago. + +Another cause helps to hasten their work, for it is in this part +that the waves under the prevailing south-west winds attain their +greatest size and strength. The steamer captain who lives here +says that he has measured waves 65 feet long from crest to crest, +five feet high from trough to crest. These great waves dash back +the stones and gravel brought down by the becks and spread it +northwards, embanking it in a ridge under the water from this +point to Fir Point opposite. Dr. H. R. Mill, by his soundings in +1893, found the deepest part of the little northern reach to be +hardly more than 25 feet; this was close to the actual head of the +water, showing that it is the débris brought down by the Yewdale +and Church Becks which is silting up the bed. + +Looking round this northern reach, which the gondola does not +traverse in her voyage, opposite is Fir Point, with the boathouse +of Low Bank; a little higher up in a bay, the twin boathouses of +Lanehead and Bank Ground; then the landings for Tent Lodge and +Tent Cottage, and the bathing house and boathouse belonging to +Victor Marshall, Esq., of Monk Coniston Hall, in the woods at +the head of the lake. At the true waterhead, where the road from +Hawkshead joins the road round the lake, used to stand the Old +Waterhead Inn. Nearer us are the boathouses at Kirkby Quay, and +the pier of the (new) Waterhead Hotel. + +Leaving the steamer pier we are at once in deep water. The +soundings increase rapidly off the mouth of Church Beck, just +below Mason and Thwaites' boathouse; the bottom, gently shelving +for a few yards out, suddenly goes over a bank, and down at a +steep angle to a depth of 125 feet. On the evening of August +5th, 1896, a boy named George Gill sank there out of reach of +his companion, and was drowned before help could be got. At the +very moment the Parish Council in the village was discussing +regulations for boating and bathing. The sad news brought the +members down to the waterside for a painful object-lesson in the +necessity of life-saving apparatus. By private effort, in the +absence of public authority, life buoys and lines have now been +provided at the boathouses and piers, and it is hoped that all +will co-operate in the proper use of such means in case of need. + +We have now passed the boathouse of Coniston Bank on the left, and +Coniston Hall on the right. Between the two the lake is at its +broadest--nearly half-a-mile. Land's Point on the right narrows +the lake to a third of a mile. Looking back, Yewdale Crag stands +finely over the waterhead; Brantwood is opposite. Between Coniston +Bank and Brantwood (fishermen and boat sailors may note) there is +a shoal nearly rising to the surface in low water--a bank of stiff +clay, about 50 yards off the east shore. On the right hand, in +the second field below Land's Point, the dark-looking bank just +above the foreshore is a mass of slag, the remains of an ancient +bloomery or smelting furnace; and in the next field called the +"Springs," half a mile below Land Point, there is another bloomery +site, marked by a tree-grown hillock. Behind these, plantations +cover the site of the ancient deer park of Coniston Hall. Exactly +opposite the "Springs" bloomery is a promontory formed by Beck +Leven, on which Ruskin's seat marks a favourite point of view +embracing the whole of the waterhead and the crags around. Across +the road from this seat and close to the beck are the slag mounds +of another bloomery. + +We are now crossing the deepest part of the northern basin of the +lake, where Dr. Mill found over 150 feet of water. The bottom +rises, when we pass Hoathwaite boathouse on the right, to little +more than 125 feet, and off Fir Island deepens again, attaining +184 feet half a mile farther down--making this the deepest of +the lakes after Wastwater, Windermere, and Ullswater, as its +5-1/2 miles of length makes it the longest except Windermere and +Ullswater. Its normal level is 143 feet above the sea, though it +rises and falls in drought and damp weather as much as six feet. +Of the form of its bed Dr. Mill says:--"If the water were reduced +to sea level, there would remain two small lakes, the southern +measuring one mile and a half in length, and a quarter of a mile +in breadth, and having a maximum depth of 42 feet; the northern +one, separated by a quarter of a mile, being only 9 feet deep, +three-quarters of a mile long, and perhaps 200 yards wide at the +most. Quite possibly the two might be connected by a channel, and +give a long shallow lake of two and a half miles" (_Bathymetrical +Survey of the English Lakes_, p. 39). This bank or dam between the +two deeps is not caused by filling up from any stream like that at +the steamer pier; it points to the fact, more strikingly seen in +Windermere, that these long lakes, like most of the long valleys, +are not mere troughs or grooves ploughed in the rock, but a series +of basins, partly filled up with glacial débris, and partly joined +together by glacial erosion, which broke and planed away the +dividing barriers. + +Fir Island (formerly from its owner called Knott Island, now +the property of Arthur Severn, Esq., R.I., J.P.) is low and +close to the water's edge, hardly distinguishable except by its +grove of Scotch firs from the rest of the coast. In very dry +weather it becomes a peninsula, but usually a boat can make the +circumnavigation, though there is risk of shipwreck on the sharp +rocks to the landward side. Near it, beyond the road which winds +prettily along the uneven and craggy shore, are the ruins of +Copland's Barn; and above it the great larch woods of the Heald, +on a noble slope of nearly 700 feet from the brow of the fell to +the lake. The western shore is formed by the long and varied slope +of Torver Common, down which runs the Moor Gill. At its foot, +exactly opposite Copland's Barn, is the most extensive of the +bloomeries, with the ruins of an old hearth still to be found. + +At last the continuous skylines are broken. On the left, a steep +dingle runs up among rocks and woods to Parkamoor, a lonely farm +on a bleak brow top; and on the right, the valley of Torver begins +to open out, with glimpses of Dow Crags and the Old Man in a new +aspect, showing their precipices boldly against the sky, and +beneath them Sunny Bank and Oxness at the mouth of Torver Beck. + +Peel Island is now before us, a crag standing romantically out of +the water, and rich with varied foliage. From its western brink +the bed of the lake runs rapidly down to a depth of more than 100 +feet. + +The island itself was for a while known as Montague Island, from +its owner. It was sometimes called the "Gridiron," for it is made +up of a series of bars of rock, so to say, with a long projecting +"calf rock" that stood for the handle. It might as well be called +the ship, with the cockboat astern. But the old original name was +Peel Island, which to a student of place-names indicated that it +once was used as a fortress; and permission being asked from the +agent of the owner, the Duke of Buccleugh, some little excavations +were made, which revealed ancient buildings and walls, with +pottery of an early mediæval type and other remains, which can be +seen in the Coniston Museum. But Peel Island is such a jewel of +natural beauty that antiquarian curiosity hardly justified more +than the most respectful disturbance of its bluebells and heather. + +Below this, the shores become more indented and more picturesque; +the hills around do not fall off into tameness, as at the feet +of some of the lakes. On the right is the Beacon, with its cairn +conspicuous at 835 feet above sea; on the left, Selside rises to +1,015 feet. Opposite is Brown How, or Brown Hall, prettily built +at the water's edge; and on the long nab that stretches half-way +across the lake is the old mansion of Water Park (A. P. Bridson, +Esq.). + +The gondola slows down and rounds to the little pier, on one of +the loveliest bits of all our lakeland scenery. Five minutes' walk +takes you up to the Lakebank Hotel, and from its terrace--still +better from the knoll above it when the surrounding trees are bare +or lopped--the view embraces (beginning from the left) the Beacon, +Dow Crags, the Old Man, and Weatherlam; Helvellyn, with Yewdale +Crag and Raven Crag beneath; Fairfield and Scandale Head, with +Loughrigg below (Red Screes and Ill Bell are not visible), and +the lake's whole length with all its wooded promontories. To the +right, across the water, the village of Nibthwaite, with cottages +nestling under the steep and rocky mountain edge, and ruined quay +which formed, before the railway tapped the traffic of Coniston, +the terminus of its ancient waterway. + +Formerly this lake, like Derwentwater, boasted a floating +island--a mass of weeds and water plants detached from the bottom, +and carrying enough solid matter to make it a kind of natural +raft. In the floods and storms of October, 1846, it was stranded +near Nibthwaite, and remained thenceforward indistinguishable from +the rest of the shore. + +Thurston Water used to be famous for its char, which were thought +to be even finer and better than those of Windermere. Sir Daniel +Fleming of Rydal notes in his account book, under the date +February 19th, 1662 (1663, new style):--"Given unto Adam Fleming +for bringing eleven dozen of charres from Conistone, for four pies +1s. 6d.;" and he used to send presents of Coniston char pies, as +the most acceptable of delicacies, to his distinguished friends in +London. In the middle part of the nineteenth century the turbid +or poisonous matter washed into the lake by the streams from the +copper mines, then in full work, is said to have killed off both +char and trout; but it is an ill-wind that blows nobody good, and +the cessation of copper mining has left the water pure again. The +Angling Association has restocked the lake from Windermere, and is +breeding fish by thousands from spawn in its pond near Coniston +Hall. Both the red char (the larger sort, with red bellies and red +pectoral fins) and the silver char (with silvery backs and orange +bellies) are now caught, and opportunities for fishermen are +increasing with every year. + +Pike, the natural enemies of char and trout, are kept down by +netting, but are often taken with the line; for example, two of +16 lbs. each were caught by Mr. Rylands in August and September, +1897, with yellow phantom and red wagtail. Perch abound, and +afford exciting sport to less ambitious amateurs of the gentle +craft. There are eels, too, and minnows in abundance, and an +occasional stray salmon. Otters are hunted in the summer. Along +the shore a quiet observer may sometimes startle one from his +repose, and in bowery nooks or up the mouths of the becks may note +the blue gleam of the flitting kingfisher. + + + + +III.--THE MOORLANDS AND THEIR ANCIENT SETTLEMENTS. + + +The moors around Coniston are full of curious and interesting +remains--cairns, circles, camps and settlements--of the remotest +age in which this country was inhabited. Lying away from the high +roads they are comparatively little known, but can easily be +reached in the course of a day's walk or on horseback, or else by +cycling--so far as the cycle will go, which is usually within a +short distance of the spots to be sought--and leaving the cycle to +the honesty of the country folk. + +These remains are described by Mr. H. Swainson Cowper, F.S.A., in +"The Ancient Settlements, Cemeteries, and Earthworks of Furness" +(_Archæologia_, vol. liii., 1893, with plans), and some of them +have passing notice in books relating to the district. Their +very rudeness is a source of interest, and the mystery of their +origin offers a fresh field for antiquarian research. To the +unlearned visitor they are no less interesting--if he can throw +his imagination back to wild days of ancient Britain, and repeople +the heather and rocks with Children of the Mist. In their day the +valleys were choked with matted forest or undrained swamp; the +moorlands alone were healthy and habitable; not so bare and bleak +as now, but partly sheltered, in their hollows and watercourses, +by groves of rowan and birch, holly and yew, and the native forest +trees of the north. Around these settlements the wilderness +swarmed with red deer and roe, wild swine and cattle, capercailzie +and moor fowl of every kind--good hunting, with only the wolf pack +to dispute the spoil; for there is no reason to suppose that war, +in our sense of the word, has ever invaded these homesteads and +cattle-garths of primitive hunting and pastoral folk, whose chief +foes were the wild beasts of the fells. Nor should we suppose +that the circles are Druid temples where human sacrifices were +offered. Some are the fences built around graves, and others are +the foundations of round houses like the huts which wood-cutters +still make for their temporary lodging when they are at work in a +coppice. Others may have been sacred places; but let us withhold +our fancies until we have seen the facts. + + +1.--THE BLAWITH AND KIRKBY MOORS. + +The Beacon of Blawith, already noticed, can be climbed in about +half-an-hour from Lakebank Hotel. South of the cairn on the top is +Beacon Tarn, and two miles south-west over the heather (in which +are various unimportant cairns and platforms, perhaps ancient, +but more probably "tries" for slate) rises Blawith Knott, and +beyond, at its foot where four roads meet, the Giant's Grave. The +Giant's Grave can be easily reached by road; 2-1/2 miles from +Woodland Station, or 4 miles (_via_ Blawith and Subberthwaite) +from Lakebank. This walk, as described, is well under 10 miles by +cross roads. The story, still current in the neighbourhood, tells +that in the Heathwaite "British settlement" (half a mile south +of the cross roads) lived a race of giants, of whom the last was +shot with an arrow on the Knott and buried in the grave; and, +on opening it, the Rev. Francis Evans found calcined bones and +charcoal. + +The Heathwaite settlement consists of the foundations of ancient +dwellings, just to the north of Pewit Tarn, and surrounded by +extensive ruined stone walls, and a great number of cairns. Many +of these are mere heaps of stones thrown together by the farmers +to clear the land, in order to mow the bracken which they carry +away for litter. Some of the cairns and walls, however, appear to +be ancient. + +A mile and a half south of this, on the headland to the right-hand +side of the road, just before we reach Burney Farm, is the ruined +enclosure, roughly square, with a party wall across the middle +of it, known as the "Stone Rings." The walls are of a type seen +in the British settlement near High Borrans, Windermere, and at +Urswick Stone Walls--that is to say, flanked by big slabs set on +edge, as though the builders were rudely trying to imitate the +Roman walls of rubble thrown into an outer casing of masonry. + +Following the road for a mile to south-east, shortly before coming +to the Goathwaite Quarries, in the heather on the left may be +found a small ring embankment; and about a mile as the crow flies +south-east of this, across a little valley and only to be reached +by a somewhat roundabout road, is the remnant of what was once a +fine stone circle (quarter of a mile north of Knapperthaw). + +Looking south-west from here we see a pass across Kirkby Moor, to +the left of the rounded summit (over 1,000 feet) opposite. From +the top of that pass, a short mile to the west, is a conspicuous +grey cairn of loose stones, which was opened by Mr. Jopling +(author of _A Sketch of Furness and Cartmel_, 1843), and found to +contain burnt bones in a prehistoric "kist" of flagstones. + +Turning south from this, by a grassy track through the heather, +five minutes' walk brings us to the "Kirk," a ring embankment +on the brink of the gill which encloses the site on two sides, +probably sepulchral, and perhaps connected with the great cairn, +as there are the remains of an avenue of standing stones leading +in that direction. A field near this is called "Kirk Sinkings," +with which compare "Kirk Sunken," the name of the Swinside Circle, +and of other similar sites. _Kirk_ or _Currock_ does not imply +a consecrated spot, but is the common word (surviving from the +"Cumbrian" or Welsh) for stone monuments. + +From this, twenty minutes westward down a steep road through the +picturesque gill brings us to Kirkby Watermill and Church (Norman +door and font, and a tombstone in the chancel which combines the +simple cross with rudimentary effigy). Kirkby Hall, a mile to +the north, is a fine specimen of the ancient manor house. Another +mile northward is Grizebeck, with remains of a ring embankment, +unimportant, behind the cottages. Hence it is a little over two +miles to Foxfield, or three to Broughton; or, omitting Grizebeck, +from Kirkby Church ten minutes' walk brings us down to Kirkby +station. + + +2.--BETHECAR AND MONK CONISTON MOORS. + +South of Lakebank, turning to left down a narrow lane through the +hamlet of Water Yeat, we reach Bouthray (Bouldery) Bridge over the +Crake, and see, half a mile further down, the new Blawith Church +on the site of an old Elizabethan chapel. Opposite it, across +the river by a footbridge, is Low Nibthwaite bobbin mill--in the +eighteenth century an important "forge" where iron was smelted +with charcoal. + +Crossing the bridge, and leaving Arklid Farm on the right, 1-1/2 +mile from Lakebank brings us to Nibthwaite, whence the lakeside +road leads in about 7-1/2 miles to Coniston Church, past Brantwood +and Waterhead; the path to the moors strikes up to the right hand +and across the breast of Selside. Another path leads to the Top of +Selside, 1,015 feet, with Arnsbarrow Tarn and Bell Beck descending +from it, to the south-west, with several good waterfalls. Bethecar +Moor is between Bell Beck and Nibthwaite--fine broken ground, +which seems to have been less inhabited than the other moors, for +no remains except a cairn (1-1/4 mile due west of Waterpark) have +been reported. + +Two miles north of Nibthwaite is Parkamoor, which in the Middle +Ages was a sheep cote belonging to Furness Abbey. Recently, walled +up in an outbuilding, on a deserted farm near at hand, part of a +woman's skeleton was found. There is an obscure story of an old +lady who disappeared after residence at Parkamoor some generations +ago, but nothing has been proved as to the supposed murder; nor is +there any reason to connect this with an alleged ghost at Coniston +Bank, several miles distant. + +Hence the path to the right goes to Satterthwaite, down Farragrain +Gill; northward, a track leads over the Heald, with magnificent +views, to the lonely hill farm of Lawson Park, another Furness +Abbey sheep cote (2-1/2 miles), and down to Lanehead and Coniston +(3-1/4 miles); or by a cart track met 1/4 mile above Lawson Park, +and leading upward and northward, we can traverse Monk Coniston +Moor, and descend to civilisation by the lane that crosses from +Grizedale to Lanehead. Along the ridge which forms the boundary +between Monk Coniston and Hawkshead is High Man (922 feet), where +in a cairn is a stone with the initials "J. W., 1771" and "E. D., +1817," and on the west side of the stone "T. F., 1817"--evidently +a _merestone_ or boundary mark. A circle and other cairns have +been noted near this summit; the circle may be comparatively +modern, the ruins of a hut such as charcoal-burners make for +temporary lodgings in the woods. + +High Cross, where the Coniston, Ambleside, and Hawkshead roads +meet, is close at hand, 2-1/2 miles from Coniston Church. + + +3.--BANNISIDE AND TORVER MOORS. + +Up the road behind the Railway Station, in twenty-five minutes you +reach the gate of Banniside Moor, which we passed in descending +the Old Man. Along the quarry road to the right towards Crowberry +Haws, about a third of a mile from the gate, below you on the +right-hand side is an ancient garth of irregular rectangular +shape, with a circular dwelling in the middle of the highest side. +A small outlying building is just to the south-east. This seems +more modern in type than some of the remains we find in the moors, +but it is difficult to classify and impossible to date. + +Returning to the gate, follow the Walna Scar path over Banniside +to the south-west for ten minutes; 300 yards west of the flagstaff +is a ring-mound on a levelled platform at the edge of Banniside +Mire, formerly a tarn, but now almost peated up. + +Rather more than half a mile south-west of the flagstaff you +strike Torver Beck, after passing many clearing-heaps among the +bracken beds--the subject of Dr. Gibson's dialect sketch of +"Bannasyde Cairns" in _The Folk-speech of Cumberland_. + +Clearings and tries for slate, old limekilns and pitsteads and +sheepfolds and so forth, are traps for the amateur antiquary. +But in many cases, as we have seen, and shall find in the course +of our day's walk, digging has proved that the cairns on these +moors were actually the graves of prehistoric people, or forgotten +sites of ancient habitation. Much remains to be explored; and the +"enclosure" we come to, a few steps down Torver Beck, is a case in +point. + +It is a ruined stone wall forming an irregular quadrangle, through +which a cart-track now runs. Within it is what looks like a hut +circle on the brink of the ravine, from which water could be got +by simply letting a backet down into the stream beneath. Across +the beck, about 100 yards to the south-west, Mr. Cowper notes +another ring-mound "badly preserved, without entrance or trenches." + +Going due south to the footbridge across Tranearth Beck (or the +Black Beck of Torver), and then striking up Hare Crags to the +south-east (about two-thirds of a mile from the last), we come to +a large ring-mound with double ditch, intrenching the top of the +hill. From this, descending to the south-west and crossing the +beck by another footbridge, we strike a path leading north-west in +half a mile to Ashgill Bridge and Quarry. + +Along the ridge of Bleaberry Haws (1/4 mile south-west) is yet +another ring-mound on the edge of a lake basin, now peat moss; and +200 yards farther we find the northern angle of the Bleaberry Haws +dyke, a more important example of the kind seen on Hawkshead Moor. + +Following the dyke to the south-west and turning to the left +where it disappears, we find a circle of seven stones, into which +Mr. Cowper dug, and found a rough pavement of cobble-stones at a +depth of two to three feet resting upon the natural rock. Many +cairns are passed on going a few steps eastward to strike the +main line of the dyke, which runs down into Bull Haw Moss, making +a curious fold or fork at the farther side of the valley, and +then climbing the steep bank and running over the top due south, +until it loses itself among a group of cairns in which Mr. Cowper +found prehistoric interments. The dyke is altogether over a mile +long, partly a stone wall, partly an earthwork. Antiquaries have +been much divided over its possible use and object; the late W. +Jackson, F.S.A., thought it might be a kind of deer trap. The deer +would be driven from the south-west along the moorland valley, and +_cornered_ in the fork of the wall. + +From the southern extremity of the dyke a path leads down to the +road from Broughton Mills to Torver. Two miles south-west along +this road, and between it and Appletreeworth Beck, Dr. Kendall of +Coniston has noticed a similar dyke. The name of a neighbouring +farm, Burnmoor, suggests the recognition of "borrans" or stone +heaps of more than usual importance. In the Burnmoor above Eskdale +are important stone circles. + +Torver Station is rather more than a mile from the point where we +struck this road, and Coniston 2-1/2 miles more by road or rail. + + * * * * * + +Coniston is a good centre for further excursions in search of +moorland antiquities. From Woodland station a day's round might be +made by Broughton Mills to the cairns and enclosures on the south +side of Stickle Pike and above Stonestar; across the Duddon to +the ruins of Ulpha Old Hall, Seathwaite, the home of "Wonderful +Walker" (born at Undercrag, 1709; died at Seathwaite, 1802, in the +67th year of his curacy there); then back by Walna Scar, passing +ancient remains of undetermined age. The first group is found +by turning to the right below the intake wall until a stile is +reached, below which, and beyond, are traces of rude building. On +rejoining the road up Walna Scar, a gate is seen across the beck; +through it and about a quarter of a mile horizontally along the +breast of the hill are extensive ruined walls, and many outlying +remains on a shelf of the mountains about 1,000 feet above the +sea. Hence the way to the top of the Scar is plain, and Coniston +is about an hour's easy walking by a well-marked path from the +summit. + +Swinside Circle is about 4-1/2 miles from Broughton station, and +is little inferior to the great circle near Keswick. On digging it +we found nothing at all; we learnt, however, that the place was +not used for interments or sacrifices, and its origin remains a +mystery. + +Other prehistoric sites within reach of Coniston are Barnscar and +Burnmoor (by the Eskdale railway); Urswick Stone Walls, Foula, +Sunbrick Circle and Appleby Slack, Pennington Castle Hill and +Ellabarrow in Low Furness; and Hugill British Settlement near +Windermere station. + + + + +IV.--EARLY HISTORY. + + +ROMAN PERIOD. + +There are no Roman remains at Coniston; but a great Roman road +passed just to the north of the township from the camp, still +visible, at Ambleside, through Little Langdale, over Wrynose and +Hardknott to the camp at Hardknott Castle, and so down Eskdale +to the port of Ravenglass, where at Walls Castle there are the +site of a camp and the ruin of a Roman villa. It is possible that +a trackway used in Roman times passed through Hawkshead, for +fragments of Roman brick have been found at Hawkshead Hall and +a coin at Colthouse (see Mrs. H. S. Cowper's _Hawkshead and its +Neighbourhood_: Titus Wilson, Kendal, sixpence). + +There is a tradition that the Coniston coppermines were worked +by the Romans; but there is no evidence to prove it. One point +that tends to suggest the possibility of such a belief is that +about the year 85 A.D., soon after Agricola had overcome all +this part of the country, a certain savant, Demetrius of Tarsus, +fellow-townsman of St. Paul and not much his junior, was sent by +the Emperor Domitian to Britain, it would seem for the purpose of +enquiring into its products, especially in metals (Canon Raine, +_York_, p. 17). Two bronze tablets, dedicated by this Demetrius +to the gods Oceanus and Tethys, were found at York, and are now +in the museum there; and on his return from these savage regions +he went to Delphi and told his traveller's tales to Plutarch, who +mentions the fact in his treatise _On the Cessation of Oracles_. +It might be said that these rich copper mines could hardly fail to +attract the notice of the conquerors; of whom their own Tacitus +says, speaking of their disappointment in the pearl fishery of +Britain--"I could more easily believe that the pearls are amiss, +than that we Romans are wanting in 'commercial enterprise.'" +_Avaritia_ is the old cynic's word, in the life of Agricola, chap. +12. + + +BRITISH PERIOD. + +After the Romans left, until the middle of the seventh century +this district remained in the hands of the Cumbri or Welsh, who +probably dwelt in some of the ancient moorland settlements we have +already visited. They have perhaps left traces in the language, +but less than is often asserted. + +Some have thought "Old Man" to be a corruption of the Welsh _Allt +Maen_, "high stone" or "stone of the slope." But even if it be +more reasonably explained as we have suggested, the word "man" +for a stone or cairn is Welsh. Dow Crags are sometimes dignified +into Dhu Crags; but though both "dow" and "crag" have passed into +our dialect, both are of Celtic origin. The mountain crest over +Greenburn called Carrs cannot be explained as Norse _Kjarr_, a +"wood;" but being castle-like rocks, may be from the Welsh _caer_. +There are many "combes" and "tors," "pens" and "benns" (the last +Gaelic, for some of the hill tribes may well have been survivors +of the kindred race of Celts). Of the rivers hereabouts--Kent, +Leven, Duddon, Esk, and perhaps Crake are Celtic. + + +ANGLIAN PERIOD. + +When the Angles or English settled in the country, as they did +in the seventh century, they came in by two routes, which can be +traced by their place-names and their grave monuments. One was +by Stainmoor and the Cumberland coast, round to Ravenglass; and +the other by Craven to the coast of Morecambe Bay. There is no +evidence of their settlement in the Lake District fells, except in +the Keswick neighbourhood, where the story of St. Herbert gives us +a hint that though the fell country might not be fully occupied, +it was not unexplored in the seventh century. The mention of +the murder of Alf and Alfwine, sons of King Alfwald, in 789 at +Wonwaldremere cannot be located at Windermere with any certainty; +but still it is possible that the Angles penetrated to Coniston. + +The Anglian settlements are known by their names--Pennington, +the _tun_ of the Pennings in Furness; Workington, the _tun_ of +the Weorcingas, and so on. Among the mountains there is only +one _ton_--Coniston, or as it was anciently spelt Cuninges-tun, +Koninges-ton. Conishead in Low Furness was Cunninges-heved, the +headland of the King, where perhaps Ecgfrith or his successors +had a customs-house to take toll of the traders crossing the +sands to the iron mines. So Cynings-tun (the y pronounced like a +French u, and making in later English Cunnings-tun) might mean +King's-town; in Norse, Konungs-tun, whence we get the alternative +pronunciations of the modern spelling, Coniston or Cuniston. What +the Norse had to do with it we shall soon see. + +Now it is unlikely that kings lived in so out-of-the-way a place; +but possible that they appropriated the copper mines. The ancient +claim of kings to all minerals is still kept in mind by the word +"royalty." And if the king's miners lived here under his reeve +or officer, their stockaded village would be rightly known as +Cynings-tun, the King's-town. + +It is right to add that some antiquaries make the names beginning +with Coning-or Coni-to mean the Rabbits'-town, Rabbits'-head, +Rabbits'-garth, and so forth, and yet even in Iceland, which was +always republican, there is a Kongsbakki, King's-bank, at which +no king ever lived. In ancient times, as now, sentiment counted +for something in the naming of places; and many names, otherwise +without meaning, may have been simply given by the settler in +remembrance of his old home. We cannot say for certain that +Coniston was not so called by an immigrant of the Viking Age, much +later than the invasion of the Angles; possibly he came from a +place of similar name in Craven or Holderness or elsewhere and +brought the name with him. + +The Welsh appear to have remained under Teutonic (or later, +Scandinavian) masters, and one relic of their tongue seems to +show how they were treated. They seem to have been employed as +shepherds, and they counted their flocks:-- + + Un, dau, tri, y pedwar, y pimp; + Chwech, y saith, y wyth, y nau, y dec; + Un-ar-dec, deu-ar-dec, tri-ar-dec, pedwar-ar-dec, pemthec; + Un-ar-pymthec, deu-ar-pymthec, tri-ar-pymthec, pedwar-ar-pymthec, + ucent; + +or in the ancient equivalent form of these Welsh numerals, which +their masters learned from them, and used ever after in a garbled +form as the right way to count sheep. The Coniston count-out runs-- + + Yan, taen, tedderte, medderte, pimp; + Sethera, lethera, hovera, dovera, dick; + Yan-a-dick, taen-a-dick, tedder-a-dick, medder-a-dick, mimph; + Yan-a-mimph, taen-a-mimph, tedder-a-mimph, medder-a-mimph, + gigget. + +And from these north-country dales the Anglo-Cymric score has +spread, with their roaming sons and daughters, pretty nearly all +the world over. (See the Rev. T. Ellwood's papers on the subject +in Cumb. and West. Antiq. Soc. _Transactions_, vol. iii.) + +During the ninth century the Anglian power declined. Welsh Cumbria +regained some measure of independence with kings or kinglets of +its own, under the dominant over-lordship of the Scottish crown. +But the Anglian settlers still held their tuns, though their +influence and interests so diminished that it was impossible for +them to continue and complete the colonization of Lakeland. It +remained a no-man's-land, a debateable border country, hardly +inhabited and quite uncivilised. + + +NORSE PERIOD. + +Who then settled the dales, cleared the forest, drained the +swamps, and made the wilderness into fields and farms? + +Let us walk to-day through the valleys to the north of the +village, and ask by the way what the country can tell us of its +history. + +Leaving the church we come in a few minutes to Yewdale Beck. Why +"beck?" Nobody here calls it "brook," as in the Saxon south, +nor "burn," as in the Anglian north. In the twelfth century, as +now, the name was "Ywedallbec," showing that it had been named +neither in Anglian nor in Saxon, but by inhabitants who talked the +language of the Vikings. + +The house on the hill before us, above fields sloping to the +flats, is the Thwaite house. _Thveit_ in Iceland, which the +Norsemen colonized, means a field sloping to a flat. On the +wooded hill behind it are enclosures called the high and low +Guards--"yard" would be the Saxon word; _gardhr_ is the Norse, +becoming in our dialect sometimes "garth" and sometimes "gard" or +"guard." + +At the Waterhead the signpost tells us to follow the road to +Hawkshead, anciently Hawkens-heved or Hawkenside--_Hauk's_ or +_Hákon's_ headland or seat. + +Taking the second turn to the left we go up the ravine of Tarn Hows +Gill (_Tjarn-haugs-gil_), and reach a favourite spot for mountain +views. Above and around the moorland lake rise the Langdale Pikes +(_Langidalr_ there is also in Iceland), Lingmoor (_lyng-mor_), +Silver How (_Sölva-haugr_), Loughrigg (_loch-hryggr_), Fairfield +(_fær-fjall_), Red Screes (_raud-skridhur_), and on the left Weatherlam +(_vedhr-hjalmr_) and all the _fells_ and _dales_, _moors_ and _meres_, +which cannot be named without talking Norse. + +Descending to the weir which was built by the late Mr. Marshall, +to throw into one the three Monk Coniston Tarns, as the sheet +of water is still called, a broken path leads us down past the +waterfall of Tom or Tarn Gill, romantically renamed Glen Mary, +and now even "St. Mary's Glen," and out upon the road opposite +Yewtree House, behind which stood the famous old yew blown down +in the storm of 22nd December, 1894. Turning to the right, we +pass Arnside (_Arna-sidha_ or _setr_, Ami's fellside or dairy) +and Oxenfell (_öxna-fell_), and soon look down upon Colwith +(_Koll-vidhr_, "peak-wood" from the peaked rocks rising to the +left above it; or _Kol-vidhr_, wood in which charcoal was made). +We quit the road to Skelwith (_skál-vidhr_, the wood of the scale +or shed) and descend to Colwith Feet (_fit_, meadow on the bank +of a river or lake), and ascend again to Colwith Force (_fors_, +waterfall), and pass the _Tarn to Fell Foot_, an old manor house, +bought in 1707 by Sir Daniel Fleming's youngest son Fletcher, +ancestor of the Flemings of Rayrigg, who placed his coat of arms +over the door (as Mr. George Browne of Troutbeck says--Cumb. and +West. Antiq. Soc. _Transactions_, vol. xi., p. 5). + +Permission is readily given to view the terraced mound behind the +house, in which Dr. Gibson and Mr. H. S. Cowper have recognized a +Thingmount such as the Vikings used for the ceremonies of their +Thing or Parliament. There was one in Dublin, the Thingmote; +the Manx Tynwald is still in use; and the name _Thingvöllr_ +(thing-field) survives at Thingwall in Cheshire, South Lancashire, +and Dumfriesshire. On the steps of the mound the people stood in +their various ranks while the Law-speaker proclaimed from the top +the laws or judgments decreed by the Council. Eastward from the +mount, to make the site complete, a straight path should lead (as +in the Isle of Man) to a temple by a stream or well; and around +should be flat ground enough for the people to camp out, for they +met at midsummer and spent several days in passing laws, trying +suits, talking gossip, driving bargains, and holding games--as if +it were Grasmere Sports and Wakefield Competition, hiring fair and +cattle market, County Council and Assizes, all rolled into one. +These requirements are perfectly met by this site, which is also +in a conveniently central position, with Roman roads and ancient +paths leading to it in all directions through Lakeland. + +From other sources than place-names--from Norse words in the +present dialect as analysed by Mr. Ellwood, we learn that the +Vikings settled here as farmers. The words they have handed +down to their descendants are not fighting words, but farming +words--names of agricultural tools and usages, and the homely +objects of domestic life. + +The Norse settlement appears, therefore, to be an immigration, not +of invaders, but of refugees; and the event which first caused it +was perhaps the raid of King Harald Fairhair, about 880-890, on +the Vikings of the Hebrides, Galloway, and the Isle of Man. + +Gradually they spread from the coast into the fells, until they +had filled all the hill country; and if we set down their first +arrival as about 890, we find that for no less than three hundred +years they were left in possession of the lands they settled, and +in enjoyment of liberty to make their own laws and to rule their +own commonwealth at the Thingmount on which we are standing. + + +NORMAN PERIOD. + +The Norman Conquest, it must be understood, did not touch the +Lake District. William the Conqueror and his men never entered +Cumbria, nor even High Furness. The dales are not surveyed in +_Domesday_, and the few landowners mentioned on the fringe of +the fells are obviously of Norse or Celtic origin--Duvan and +Thorolf, and Ornulf and Orm, Gospatric and Gillemichael. After +William Rufus had seized Carlisle, the territory of Cumbria and +Westmorland was granted to various lords; but the dales were the +_hinterland_ of their claim. In the _Pipe Rolls_ we have full +accounts of the inhabitants and proceedings of the lowlands during +the twelfth century, but not a word about the Lakeland. And in +the disturbed and disputed condition of affairs--the lordship was +even in the hands of the King of Scots from 1135 to 1157--it is +easy to understand that it was worth nobody's while to attempt +the difficult task of reducing to servitude a body of hardy +freeholders, secure in their mountain fastnesses. + +In the later part of the twelfth century, the baron of Kendal and +the abbot of Furness began to take steps towards asserting their +claim. + +Thirty men, for the most part residents in the surrounding +lowlands and already retainers of the abbot and the baron, were +sworn in to survey the debateable ground. Half of these men, to +judge by their names or pedigrees, were of Viking origin. In the +list are Swein, Ravenkell, Frostolf, Siward (Sigurd), Bernulf +(Brynjolf), Ketel, and several Dolfins, Ulfs and Orms, with the +Irish Gospatrick and Gillemichael. Of the other half, several are +Anglo-Saxon and the rest Norman. + +Their starting-point, in beating the boundaries, was Little +Langdale--as if they had met, by old use and wont of the +countryside, at the Thingmount; and they enclosed the district +by Brathay, Windermere, and Leven, eastward; Wrynose and Duddon, +westward; and then halved it by a line, along which we may follow +them, to Tilberthwaite and by Yewdale Beck to Thurston Water. +Thence their division line ran along the shore of the lake to the +Waterhead and down the eastern side, and so along the Crake to +Greenodd. + +The western half was taken by the baron of Kendal to hold of +the abbot by paying a rent of 20s. yearly on the Vigil of the +Assumption (old Lammas Day). The baron also got right of way and +of hunting and hawking through the abbey's lands, thence called +Furness Fells. The valley of Coniston was thus divided into two +separate parts--the eastern side, but including the Guards, was +Monk Coniston; and the western side, including also the lake, +became known from the village church as Church Coniston. + +Though this arrangement was proposed about 1160, it was not +finally settled until 1196; after which the two owners could +proceed to reduce the old Norse freeholders to the condition of +feudal tenants. A charter of John, afterwards king, at the end +of the twelfth century, directs the removal of all tenants in +Furness Fells who have not rendered due fealty to the abbot. By +what threats or promises or actual violence this was accomplished +we have no record; but we can see that it was a slow process, and +we can infer that it was not done by way of extermination. For +the Norse families, with their language and customs, remained +in Coniston. They were a canny race, and knew how to adapt +themselves to circumstances. Throughout Lakeland they evidently +made good terms with the Norman lords, and kept a degree of +independence which was afterwards explained away as the border +tenant-right--but really must have been in its origin nothing +less than a compromise between nominal feudalism and a proud +reminiscence of their Norse allodial practice--the free ownership +of the soil they had taken, and reclaimed, and inhabited for three +centuries of liberty. + + + + +V.--MONK CONISTON. + + +The Furness monks were of the Cistercian order; which is to say, +they were farmers rather than scholars or mere recluses and +devotees. To understand them in the days of their power, we must +put aside all the vulgar nonsense about fat friars or visionary +fakirs, and see them as a company of shareholders or college of +gentlemen from the best landowning families, whose object in their +association was, of course, the service of God in their abbey +church; but, outside of it, the development of agriculture and +industries. They devoted their property and their lives to the +work, getting nothing in return except mere board and lodging, +and--for interest on their capital--the means of grace and the +hope of glory. + +Some of the brothers lived continually at the abbey, fully +occupied in the service of the household, in hospitality to the +poor and to travellers, in teaching the school, in various arts +and crafts, and especially in the office work necessary for the +management of their estates. Their method was to acquire land, +sometimes by purchase or exchange, more often by gift from those +who had entered the community, or had received services from them; +and then to improve these lands, which were generally of the +poorest when they came into the abbey's possession. As the plots +were widely scattered over Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Cumberland, +it must have been no light labour to manage them. For this purpose +a brother was sent to act as steward or bailiff at a grange or +cell on the outlying estate. + +One such manor house of the monks we may see at Hawkshead Old Hall +(see the sixpenny _Guide to Hawkshead_, by Mr. H. S. Cowper). +This was built more than two centuries later than the division of +High Furness; and though there was probably an earlier building, +the list of abbey possessions in 1292 makes no mention of it. The +monks, energetic as they were, had plenty to do in improving their +lands in Low Furness, and made little impression at first upon +the wild woods and moors of the fells, thinly dotted with the old +Norse thwaites and steads. + +On the other hand, they provided almost immediately for the +spiritual needs of their new flock. There was already a chapel at +Hawkshead, which is mentioned in 1200, but no consecrated burial +ground; and if anyone wished for Christian burial, his body had +to be carried on horseback or on a sledge some twenty miles to +Dalton. In 1219 the monks amended this by making Hawkshead Chapel +into a parish church, greatly against the will of the vicar of +Dalton, who was the loser by the reform; and Monk Coniston has +ever since been in the ecclesiastical parish of Hawkshead. + +Church Coniston got no share in this advantage. Up to the time +of Elizabeth, its people had to take their dead to Ulverston. As +you go through the village, just beyond the Baptist Chapel, is a +stream known as Jenkin Syke; and the story goes than a Jenkins +of Yewdale or Tilberthwaite was being carried, uncoffined, on a +sledge to Dalton or Ulverston for burial, but when the procession +reached Torver they found that the body was gone. They tried back, +and discovered it in the beck, which bears the name to this day. + +The first and most obvious use of the fells to the monks was as +a forest of unlimited timber. One purpose for which they wanted +this was for charcoal to smelt the iron ore of the mines in Low +Furness. They needed the waterway of the lake, which was the +baron's, who, in 1240, allowed them to have "one boat competent +to carry what might be necessary upon the lake of Thurstainwater, +and another moderate sized boat for fishing in it, at their will, +with 20 nets," and a similar privilege on Windermere. The baron +bargained that if any of the monks' men damaged his property it +should be "reasonably amended"--as much as to say there was really +nothing of value along the western side of our lake in 1240. + +Now that the monks had the waterway and could get at their +forests, they pushed the industry. By the end of the century +(1292) they could return a considerable income from their +ironworks, while making nothing out of the agriculture of High +Furness. + +There was good hunting, however, and in 1281 the abbot got free +warren in Haukesheved, Satirthwait, Grisedale, Neburthwaite, +(Monk) Kunyngeston, and other parts of the fells--the old +Norse names alone are mentioned. But in 1338 he was allowed +by Government to impark woods in Fournes fells; not to create +deer parks in a cultivated country, for that was not done until +much later, when the bad Abbot Banks in 1516 "of the tenements +of Richard Myellner and others at a place called Gryesdale in +Furness fells made another park" (beside those he had just made +in Low Furness) "to put deer into, which park is about five miles +in compass" (_Pleadings and Depositions_, Duchy of Lancaster, +quoted by Dr. T. K. Fell; Mr. H. S. Cowper supposes this site to +have been Dale Park.) These fourteenth century parks or parrocks +were simply enclosures from the wild woods, and among them were +Waterpark, Parkamoor, and Lawson Park which we have passed. So it +was a century and a half before the monks got their woods cleared +enough to settle their shepherds on the lands given them by the +thirty sworn men's division. + +Even then it was notoriously a wild place. In 1346 (as we gather +from a ballad and pedigrees printed in Whitaker's _Loidis and +Elmete_, 1816, vol. ii., p. 396) it was, like Sherwood and +Inglewood, the resort of outlaws. Adam of Beaumont (near Leeds) +with his brother, and Will Lockwood, Lacy, Dawson and Haigh, came +hither after slaying Sir John Elland in revenge for the murder of +Sir Robert Beaumont. + + In Furness Fells long time they were + Boasting of their misdeed, + In more mischief contriving there + How they might yet proceed. + +They seem to have been here until 1363 or later--a gang of +brigands; which shows how little grip the abbey had so far laid +upon its _hinterland_. + +But gradually new farms were created and held by native families +who acknowledged the abbot as their lord, and provided men for +military duty or for various "boons," such as a day's work in +harvest. These new farms are now known as "grounds." In Monk +Coniston we find Rawlinson, Atkinson, Knipe, Bank, and Holme +Grounds; and in the list of abbey "tenants" of 1532, "from the +Ravenstie upwards" (the path from Dale Park by Ravencrag to +Hawkshead), are Robert Atkyns, Robert Knype, Robert Bank, Rainold +and Robert Holme. The Kirkbys of the Thwaite and the Pennys of +Penny House also signed. Rawlinson is not on this list, but on +that of 1509 giving the "tenants" "from the Ravenstie downwards," +_i. e_., south part of High Furness. The lists do not state that, +for example, the Bankes lived at Bank Ground, but prove that the +families were then in the immediate neighbourhood. + +At Bank Ground are the ruins of a house which was of some +pretentions, judging from carved stones lying there. Local +tradition makes it the site of a religious house, with a healing +well. Dr. Gibson supplies a monk, "Father Brian," and tells a +tradition of a witch living opposite (where the gondola station +is) who came to the monk and confessed that she had sold herself +to the devil. The monk set her a penance, and promised absolution. +So when the devil came to claim his own she fled up Yewdale Beck, +calling on "Father Brian and St. Herbert," and the devil's hoof +stuck fast in the Bannockstone, a rock below the wooden bridge in +Mr. George Fleming's field. The hole is there. Many rocks have +such holes, from the weathering out of nodules. Mediævals may +have called them devil's footprints; moderns often call them +"cup-markings," in equal error. + +It may be that a hermit lived where the Bankes afterwards built +their homestead; it is possible that there was a "cell" for the +abbey's Monk Coniston representative at the Waterhead. But the +final list of abbey estates (1535), while mentioning Watsyde +Parke, Lawson Parke, and Parkamore among granges and parks, puts +"Watterhed et (Monk) Connyngston, £10-19-5-1/4" in the rental of +tenants, as if the farm were then let to a tenant, as Hawkshead +Hall was in 1512. The old Waterhead mansion, however, is known as +Monk Coniston _par excellence_, and behind the modern Gothic front +are ancient rooms with thick walls and massive beams, said by Mr. +Marshall, the owner, to be part of the original monks' house. + +There are few actual relics of this period in the way of +archæological finds, so that the discovery of a tiny key of lead, +with trefles on the ring, cast in a double mould, at Tent Cottage, +where it was found under a stone, is worth remark. Mr. H. S. +Cowper thought it a pilgrim's badge of the fourteenth or fifteenth +century, and the site was one of the "grounds" of the abbey +"tenants." + +The list of "tenants" referred to is in an agreement of 1532 to +prevent "improvement." They had "inclosed common pasture more +largelie than they ought to doe, under the colour of one bargaine +called Bounding of the pasture," and this sort of "improvement" +was thenceforth forbidden. But five years later the abbey was +dissolved, to the great harm and regret of the country side. +Though a bad abbot did, for a time, give trouble by making deer +parks, the abbey rule, on the whole, was good. Monk Coniston made +slow but sure progress, and reached a point beyond which it did +not advance for the next three hundred years. + +What it was like when the abbey gave it up may be gathered from +the report of Henry VIII.'s commissioners:--"There is moche wood +growing in Furneysfelles in the mounteynes there, as Byrk, Holey, +Asshe, Ellers, Lyng, lytell short Okes, and other Undrewood, but +no Tymber of any valewe;" they mention also "Hasells." That there +_had_ been timber is proved by the massive oak beams of many a +farmhouse and old hall, but the forests were all by this time +cleared, and coppice had taken their place. "There is another +yerely profytte comming and growing of the said woods, called +Grenehewe, Bastyng, Bleching, bynding, making of Sadeltrees, +Cartwheles, cuppes, disshes, and many other thynges wrought +by Cowpers and Turners" (the beginning of well-known local +industries) "with making of Coles (charcoal) and pannage of Hoggs." + +After the dissolution the manor remained in the Crown until 1662, +when Charles II. granted it to General Monk, Duke of Albemarle, +whose descendant Elizabeth, daughter of George, Duke of Montague +(whence the other name of Peel Island), married Henry, third Duke +of Buccleugh, whose representative is now lord of the manor. + +Monk Coniston remained separate from Church Coniston, both +ecclesiastically and politically, until the Local Government Act +of 1894 establishing Parish Councils gave occasion for the union +of the two shores of the lake into one civil parish. But Monk +Coniston is still in the ecclesiastical parish of Hawkshead. + + + + +VI.--THE FLEMINGS OF CONISTON HALL. + + +In 1196 the baron of Kendal was Gilbert fitz Roger fitz Reinfrid, +who had got his lordship by marriage with Heloise, granddaughter +of William I. de Lancaster. In her right he claimed Furness as +well. So did the abbey, and the result of this dispute we have +seen in the division of the fells. + +There was a family at Urswick who, to judge by their name, might +have been descendants of the old Norse settlers. Adam fitz Bernulf +held land there of Sir Michael le Fleming about 1150; Orm fitz +Bernulf was one of the thirty sworn men; Stephen of Urswick was +another. Stephen was doubtless christened after the king, who had +founded the abbey; for fashions in names followed royalty then as +now. Gilbert fitz Bernulf was another of the family--a Normanised +Norseman, it would seem. To him Coniston was let or assigned by +Baron Gilbert of Kendal. + +His son Adam was living in 1227. Adam's daughter Elizabeth was his +heiress, and married Sir Richard le Fleming. + +Le Fleming, or _the_ Fleming, meant simply "the man from +Flanders." William Rufus had invited many Flemings to settle as +"buffer" colonies in Cumberland and Wales, and Sir Richard's +ancestor Michael had received Aldingham in Low Furness. Sir +Richard's grandfather, being a younger son, had got a Cumbrian +estate with headquarters at a place called by the Cumbrian-Welsh +Caernarvon. _Ar mhon_ (arfon) means "over against Mona;" in Wales +_Caer-n-arfon_ is "the castle over against Anglesey (Mona);" in +Cumbria the same name had been given to the castle over against +Man (Mona). It was an oblong base-court with a ditch, and a round +artificial hill (later known as Coney-garth or King's-garth, cop) +exactly like the Mote at Aldingham. There Sir Richard's father +lived, and dying was buried at Calder Abbey. + +But when Sir Richard married Elizabeth of Urswick, and got with +her the manors of Urswick, Coniston, Carnforth, and Claughton, +they chose to live at Coniston; and being wealthy, they probably +built a mansion which, rebuilt two hundred years later, became the +Coniston Hall we now see. Their settlement here would be about +1250 or later. + +Sir Richard, being a knight, must have brought his men with him, +and let them have farms near at hand on condition of following +him to the wars. No doubt he turned out the Norse holders of +Heathwaite and Bleathwaite, Little Arrow (Ayrey, "moor") and +Yewdale, or took on them as his men. Billmen and bowmen he would +need, and we find a Bowmanstead in the village. + +These tenants followed his son, Sir John, to Scotland in +1299 to fight Wallace; and got, with him, special protection +and privileges from Edward I. for bravery at the siege of +Caerlaverock. John's son, Sir Rayner, was in favour at Court, and +held the office of King's Steward, _Dapifer_, for these parts, in +the beginning of the fourteenth century. So West says. + +His son, Sir John, had three children. The daughter Joan married +John le Towers of Lowick; his eldest son William died without +children; and so Coniston Hall fell to the younger brother, +Sir John, who lived there in Edward III.'s time, while Adam of +Beaumont and his fellows were outlaws in the fells, and doubtless +shot the Coniston deer. Sir John died in 1353, and was succeeded +by Sir Richard, who married Catharine of Kirkby, and died about +1392. Of his three sons, Sir Thomas, the eldest, succeeded him. He +married (1371) Margaret of Bardsey, then Elayn Laybourn (1390), +and then his deceased wife's sister Isabel (1396). His elder son +was Thomas, for whom in his childhood his father arranged a +marriage with an heiress, Isabel de Lancaster. She brought Rydal +into the family. + +Up to this time the knights "le Fleming" had lived for 150 years +at old Coniston Hall; during Sir Thomas' life (he died about 1481) +the Hall seems to have been rebuilt, so far as can be gathered +from the architecture of the remains. Part of his time he spent at +Rydal, perhaps while rebuilding Coniston Hall. + +After him there are no more knights "le Fleming," but a series of +Squires Fleming, keeping up both the Coniston and Rydal Halls. + +Squire John, son of Sir Thomas, was a retainer of the lord of +Greystoke, a fighting man in the wars of the Roses. He married +Joan Broughton, and his son John in 1484-5 moved to Rydal, leaving +Coniston Hall as dower-house for his stepmother Anne. He died +about 1532. His son Hugh lived at Coniston, and married Jane +Huddleston of Millom Castle. He died in 1557, and his son Anthony +died young; and so his grandson William succeeded him in the last +year of Queen Mary. + +West says:--"This William Fleming resided at Coniston Hall, which +he enlarged and repaired, as some of the carving, bearing the date +and initial letters of his and his lady's name, plainly shows; +he died about 40 Elizabeth (1598), and was buried in Grasmere +Church. The said William Fleming was a gentleman of great pomp and +expence, by which he injured an opulent fortune; but his widow +Agnes (a Bindloss of Borwick) surviving him about 33 years, and +being a lady of extraordinary spirit and conduct, so much improved +and advanced her family affairs, that she not only provided for, +and married well, all her daughters, but also repurchased many +things that had been sold off.... This Agnes established a younger +branch of the family in the person of Daniel, her then second +son. When her son John married and resided at Coniston Hall, +she retired to Rydal Hall, where she died 16 August, 7 Car. I. +(1641)." + +There is a tradition that Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) visited at +Coniston Hall. There used to be an old book with his name in it +and "Fulke Greville is a good boy" scribbled in an antique hand +on a fly-leaf. It is probable that Squire William, the "gentleman +of great pomp," invited many visitors, especially young men of +distinction, for hunting parties in his deer park; and Sidney is +said to have stayed at Brougham Castle, so that he may well have +been, once in a while, in the Lake District. + +Dr. Gibson tells a legend, which he says he collected at Coniston, +of Girt Will o' t' Tarns--"one of the Troutbeck giants." (Hugh +Hird, the chief of them, flourished in this period.) Girt Will +is represented as carrying off "the Lady Eva's" bowermaiden, and +being caught and killed at Caldron Dub on Yewdale Beck (a little +above the sawmills), where his grave was shown, still haunted, +they said. There is no "Lady Eva" in the records, but (allowing +for distortion) there may be a grain of truth in the story, if it +really was a tradition. + +Squire John lived at Coniston. He was twenty-three at his father's +death. His first wife was Alice Duckett of Grayrigg (died 1617); +his second, the widow of Sir Thomas Bold, and daughter of Sir +William Norris of Speke, the famous old timbered hall near +Liverpool. She died at Coniston Hall, and was buried in Coniston +Church, which Squire William had built. His third was Dorothy +Strickland of Sizergh, for whose sake he became a Roman Catholic +at a time when Roman Catholics were persecuted; and consequently, +after being J.P. and High Sheriff, he was heavily fined, and had +to get a special licence to travel five miles from home. He had a +turn for literature; we find in the Rydal letters one enclosing +the latest playbook and (Massinger's new work) the _Virgin Martir_. + +His son William was only fourteen at his father's death in 1643, +and soon afterwards died of smallpox in London. Consequently +the Hall went to his cousin William (son of the Daniel before +mentioned), born there in 1610, and educated at St. John's +College, Cambridge. He was one of Charles I.'s cavaliers, and +suffered severely in pocket for his loyalty. He married Alice +Kirkby in 1632, and died at the hall in 1653. + +His eldest son Daniel, born in 1633, studied at Queen's College, +Oxford, and Gray's Inn. He married, in 1655, Barbara Fletcher of +Hutton (who died 1670), and they had a large family. He was a +cavalier, heavily fined by Cromwell's sequestrators, and living +in retirement until the Restoration, busied in improving his +estates and his mind. He became a famous scholar and antiquary, +corresponding with many learned men, and distinguished, among +other things, for his knowledge of Runic inscriptions. Under +Charles II. he took a very active share in public business; was +knighted at Windsor in 1681, and elected M.P. for Cockermouth, +1685. He died 1701. + +This Sir Daniel finally forsook Coniston for Rydal. In his +lifetime the Hall was held by his bachelor brothers, Roger and +William, lieut.-colonel of cavalry and D.L. for Lancashire. In the +Rydal MSS. there are many letters to and from them; for instance, +Major W. Fleming writes (July 1st, 1674) to the constables of +Coniston about arming the men of Colonel Kirkby's regiment--the +pikemen to have an ashen pike not under sixteen feet in length, +the musketeers to have a well-fixed "musquet" with a barrel not +under three feet in length, and a bore for twelve bullets to the +pound, with "collar of bandeleers" and a good sword and belt. + +Other relatives of the family lived at the Hall, which was kept up +as a sort of general establishment. In September, 1680, Sir Daniel +notes that his bachelor uncle, John Kirkby, "did fall sick Sept. +15, and he died at Coniston Hall, Sept. 28. I had not the happ +to see him dureing his sickness." But Sir Daniel was sometimes +there, and speaking of one visit, he says (December 14th, 1680), +"my tenants there and I did see a blazing starr with a very long +tail--reaching almost to the middle of the sky from the place of +the sun setting--a little after the sun setting, near the place +where the sun did set. Lord, have mercy upon us, pardon all our +sins, and bless the King and these Kingdomes." He got over it by +Christmas, and "paid the Applethwait players for acting here, Dec. +27th 00-05-00" (5s). + +On February 26th, 1681, his mother died at Coniston Hall, and +was buried in Lady Bold's grave, close by her brother, John +Kirkby--"Mr. John Braithwait preaching her funeral sermon upon 1 +Tim. 5, 9, and 10, and applying it very well to her." Her three +sons put up the brass in the church to her memory. + +There was no intention then of letting the Hall go to ruin. Sir +Daniel notes (March 20th, 1688), "This day was laid the foundation +of the great barn at Coniston Hall"--not the new barn to the south +of it, which is a much later building. + +We get a glimpse of the friendly relations of hall and village in +a letter of November 16th, 1689, from George Holmes at Strabane to +the colonel at the Hall, describing the famous siege of Derry, and +adding--"Pray do me the favour to present my humble service to Mr. +Rodger and all the good familie, to the everlasting constable, and +to my noble friend the vitlar." + +Dr. Gibson, about 1845, was told by an aged inhabitant of Haws +Bank that one of the cottages in that hamlet (pulled down to +build Mr. John Bell's house) was formerly an alehouse, and that a +neighbour who died at a great age when the doctor's informant was +a boy, used to relate that he remembered having seen two brothers +of the Fleming family, who were staying at the Hall, go there for +ale, and make a scramble with their change amongst the children +round the door, of whom the relater was one. The names of the +brothers, he stated, were "Major and Roger." + +This must have been in Queen Anne's days, when perhaps Colonel +William and his brother Roger were gone. But of Sir Daniel's sons, +one was Major Michael, M.P. for Westmorland in 1706, died before +George I. (his daughter married Michael Knott, Esq., of Rydal, +whose family afterwards came to Coniston Waterhead); and another +was Roger, afterwards vicar of Brigham. + +So we bring "the good familie" at the Hall down to the second +decade of the eighteenth century, after which they seem to have +deserted Coniston and left it to decay. Fifty years later it was +an ivy-covered ruin. + +A novel by the Rev. W. Gresley, M.A., Prebendary of Lichfield, +called _Coniston Hall: or, The Jacobites_ (1846), professes to +recount the fortunes of "Sir Charles Dalton" of the hall, in +the rising of 1715. But the local colour is inaccurate, and the +circumstances impossible. + +About 1815 it was patched up into a farmhouse; the ruined wing +was left to the ivy, and an inclined way was built up to the old +oriel window of the dining-hall to make it into a barn. Later, +the old oak was carried off. Quite recently the dwelling-house +and the chimneys have been newly cemented, which, necessary as it +was, takes away from the picturesqueness. The main features of +the interior can be traced; we can make out the daïs, the great +fireplace, the carved screen through which doors led to the stairs +going down to buttery and kitchen, and the fine old roof with its +great oak beams. From the middle beam, in which the grooves for +planking are still seen, a wainscot partition was fixed to the +back of the daïs, and behind it was the withdrawing room. There +you see its large fireplace and windows on both sides, and in the +corner is a spiral staircase, leading down to a door opening on +the garden, and up to the loft or solar, in mediæval times the +best bedroom, of which we can see the footing of the flooring +joists up in the wall, and the little window looking east to catch +the morning sun. That was no drawback; folk were early risers when +they had only candles to sit up by. + +In its old state the Hall must have been a fine place on a fine +site; damp, it might be thought, but you note that its dwelling +rooms are not on the ground floor, and in those big fireplaces +you can imagine the roaring fires that were kept when wood was +plentiful. The lake is close at hand for fishing, and along the +shore towards Torver extended the deer park, still a lovely bit +of park scenery. That they kept deer even after the head of the +family had settled at Rydal, Sir Daniel's accounts testify. On +December 22nd, 1659, he notes, "given unto George Fleming's boy +for bringing a doe from Coniston, 2s.;" and on Christmas Day, +"given unto Thomas Brockbanck for killing the doe at Coniston, +1s. 6d." It was not only at Christmas that they indulged in +venison. On July 11th, 1660 (King Charles had just come home, +so cavaliers could feast), George Fleming brought two deer from +Coniston to Rydal, and got 2s.; and on September 11th, 1661, Sir +Daniel treated his brother-in-law, Sir George Fletcher, to a hunt, +and gave the tenants 1s. for drinks, "and next day more for the +hunters to drink, 2s. 6d." It sounds little, but money was more +valuable then, and he did not always kill a deer so cheaply. On +July 27th, 1672, "paid my brother Roger which had spent in killing +the buck at Coniston, 6s. 6d.;" and August 12th, 1677, "delivered +to my son William when he went to Coniston to kill a buck, 5s." + + * * * * * + +The following useful bit of topography is taken from the old copy +kindly lent by Dr. Kendall:-- + +"The ancient bounds of the manor of Coniston, besides the Water or +Lake of Coniston, and certain tenements in Torver, Blawith, and +Woodland thereunto belonging, are in these terms, namely:-- + +"Beginning at Coniston otherwise Thurston Water and so by the +Eastern bank of Yewdale Beck up the same on to the low end of the +close called the Stubbing and so upwards round the said close by +the hedge that parts it from Waters Head Grounds into Yewdale +Beck, and so up Yewdale Beck into the foot of Yewdale Field and so +upwards by the hedge which parts the several Allans[A] belonging +to Yewdale from Furness Fell grounds unto Yewdale Beck and so up +Yewdale Beck unto the foot of a close called Linegards (otherwise +Lang Gards) and so upwards round the said close by the hedge +thereof betwixt it and Holme Ground unto Yewdale Beck and so up +the said beck unto Mickle Gill head, and from thence ascending to +the height of Dry Cove over against Green Burn and from thence by +the Lile Wall to the height between Levers Water and Green Burn +and so to the head of Green Burn and from thence by the Rear or +Ray Cragg[B] and Bounders of Seathwaite unto Gaites Hause and so +by the south side of Gaites Water and so down by Torver Beck to +the foot of Fittess,[C] and so straight over to Brighouse Crag +Yate and from thence to the Moss Yate and so down by a little Syke +unto Brundale Beck and so down to the Broadmyre Beck and so down +the same to Coniston Water aforesaid." + + [A] _Allans_, land bordering water, like _holme_; and supposed to + be from the Celtic _Eilean_, island. + + [B] _Rear_ or _Ray Crag_, like _Rear_ or _Ray Cross_ upon + Stainmoor, from the old Norse _Rá_, "boundary." + + [C] _Fittess_, like _Fitz_ at Keswick, Colwith _Feet_, + Mint's _Feet_, &c., seems to be akin to the Icelandic _Fit_ + (plu. _fitjar_), "meadow near a river or lake;" not found in + Anglo-Saxon. + + + + +VII.--THE CHURCH AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS. + + +There was probably no church at Coniston before the time of Queen +Elizabeth, though services may have been held by the squire's +chaplain. Monk Coniston was, and still is ecclesiastically, in the +parish of Hawkshead. + +Coniston Church was built in 1586 by William Fleming, the +"gentleman of great pomp and expence." It was consecrated and made +parochial by Bishop Chaderton; the original dedication is not +known. In 1650 the Parliamentary enquiry shows that there was no +maintenance but the £1 19s. 10d. which the people raised for their +"reader," Sir Richard Roule--"Sir" meaning "Rev." in those days. +With liberal squires at the Hall, no doubt the "priest," as they +called him, was not badly off, though Colonel Fleming, writing to +his brother (November 27th, 1688), says:--"Tell the constable the +same hearth man (hearth-tax collector) is coming again. Tell him +to be as kind as his conscience will permit to his neighbours, +and play the fool no more. The priest and he doth not know how +happy they are." The income was eked out by the old custom of +"whittlegate," right to have his meals at various houses in turn; +and it is said that the Priest Stile opposite Mount Cottage was so +called because he was so often seen crossing it on the way to his +accustomed seat at the squire's table. + +Until the end of the eighteenth century the curate was also +schoolmaster, and as late as 1761 was nominated to the dual +office by the six men or sidesmen representing the inhabitants. +The patronage was afterwards in the hands of the Braddylls of +Conishead Priory; eventually it passed into the possession of the +Rev. A. Peache, and the living is now in the gift of the Peache +trustees. Its net value is £220. + +The original church, for we do not know that it was rebuilt +between 1586 and 1818, was a small oblong structure with lattice +windows and a western belfry tower. + +In the Coniston Museum there is a mutilated document (found by Mr. +Herbert Bownass among some old deeds) which not only shows the +quaint arrangement of seats in the church separating the sexes, +but also gives what is practically a directory of the parish in +the time of Charles II. + + Coniston A Devision of men's and women's fforms made by the + Church. Minister, six men & churchwardens in the year of our + Lord 1684. + + Imp^s Seats in the Quier: + + In the seat with the Minister, one for Silverbank & one for ffarr + end. + + 2 The next seat above: + + One for Silverbank for Robert Vickers, for Robert Dixon Bridge End + & Jno. Atkinson de Catbank & for Holywarth. + + 3 The second fform above: + + Edward Tyson, Rich. Hodgson, John Holms, Wm. Hobson de Huthw^t, + Wm. Atkinson de Gateside. + + The third fform above: Wm. ffleming jun^r de Littlearrow, Jam. + Robinson, Tho. Cowerd, Park Yeat. + + The fourth fform above: Tho. Dixon de Littlearrow, Mich. Atkinson, + Huthw^t, Geo. Towers, Hows bank. + + The fform next the wall or the highest fform: David Tyson de + Tilb^rthw^t, Wm. ffleming de Catbank, one for ffar end. + + The back fform next Quier door: Jo. ffleming, Low Littlearrow, + Henry Dover de Brow, Wm. Harrison de Holywarth, Wm. Atkinson, + Above beck, Myles Dixon & Robt. Dixon de Tilb^rthwaite. + + The fform above it: Wm. ffleming de Park Yeat, Geo + + The fform under the Pulpit: Jo. Harrison de Bowmansteads + + Men's fforms ith church: ffirst Jo. Dixon, Wm. Dixon, Tho. Dix + ffleming of Bowmansteads. + + The second fform beneath: One seat for ffarr end, Wm. Towers + + The third fform Smartfield, Jo. Tyson, Low House Low Udale, Wm. + Denison + + The ffourth fform: One for Silverbank, Rob. Walker Parks. + + Womens} The Highest ith Church: + fforms} Wm ffleming wife de Upper + Sam^{s}. Henry Dover wife de Brow + Hallgarth and Myles Dixon wi[fe] + + 2 The second fform Beneath: David Tyson wife de Tilberthw^{t} + wife, Dixon Ground, Wm. Dixon, Geo + + 3 The third fform: Outrake, Gill, Howsbank wives, Jo. ffleming + wife, Low Littlearrow, & Park Yeat. + + 4 The ffourth form: Silverbank, ffarr end, Ed. Tyson de Nook, Tho. + Dixon de Littlearrow, Wm. Atkinson, Above beck, their wives. + + 5 The ffifth fform: Smartfield, Wm. Atkinson, Wm. Cowerd, Wm. + Hobson de Huthw^{t}, Jo. Atkinson and Wm. Atkinson, Catbank, their + wives. + + 6 The sixth fform: Jo. Harrison & Tho. ffleming de Bowmanstead, + [----] Dixon ground, Ed. Park, Wm Denison, Upper Udale, their + wives. + + 7 The seventh fform: Myles Dixon, Upper Udale, Rob. Walker & Wm. + Addison, Low Udale, Wm. Walker, Wm. Harrison & Elizabeth Parks. + + To this devision we the Minister, six men and churchwardens have + set our hands the year ffirst written, Anno Dnî 1684 + + Jo. Birkett cur. + Wm. ffleming } + Wm. ffleming } + Christo. Dixon } Sidemen + Wm. Harrison } + Wm. ffleming } + Myles Dixon } + + Mich. Atkinson } Churchwardens + Myles Dixon } + +In 1817 the curate in charge, John Douglas, and the churchwardens, +Joseph Barrow and William Townson, obtained a faculty to rebuild +the church. A sum of £325 was raised by subscription, a further +sum by assessment, and the Incorporated Church Building Society +made a grant of £125. The new church was consecrated by the Bishop +of Chester on November 20th, 1819--Coniston being still within the +diocese of Chester, not yet transferred to that of Carlisle. + +In 1835 a faculty of confirmation was issued from the Consistory +Court of Chester by which pews were assigned to the contributors +of the building fund and other parishioners. In 1849, Dr. Gibson +described the building as "oblong and barn-like, with a few +blunt-arched windows in its dirty yellow walls, and overtopped +at its western extremity by an unsightly black superstructure of +rough stone, which some might call a small square tower badly +proportioned, and others, with apparently equal correctness, the +stump of a large square chimney." + +In 1866 the same writer, in a paper read to the Historic Society +of Lancashire and Cheshire, said:--"The church of Coniston, which +occupies a position central to the village, is a chapel of ease +under Ulverston, with a stipend of £146, recently augmented, +derived from land, houses, bounty, dividends and fees. It was +rebuilt in 1819 on the site of an older edifice. The only part of +the former church that remains is the belfry tower, which, being +out of keeping and small in proportion to the body of the present +building, confers but little ecclesiastical and no architectural +distinction upon it." + +The late Mr. Roger Bownass, in marginal pencillings on this paper, +noted:--"This is an error. The Belfry Tower was wholly rebuilt at +the same time as the church, i.e., in 1818-19; the writer of this +note having seen the old Tower pulled down, and new Foundations +laid; One reason for the Landowners rebuilding the Church (which +they did chiefly at their own expense) being the alleged state of +the old Tower, the Bells of which, the Sexton pretended he durst +not ring for fear he should bring the Tower down about his ears, +though it was so difficult to get it down. So strongly was it +built and cemented together that it had to be cut through nearly, +near its base, before it could be brought down." Mr. Bownass goes +on to say that his father, as one of the guarantees, contributed +nearly £50, "which his widow had to pay, he himself dying before +it was finished, and was the first person carried into the Church +while the shavings, etc., lay on the floor, as the writer, his +son, of 6 years of age, can well remember." + +To resume Dr. Gibson's account:--"The new building is plain +even to meanness; but being now well screened by trees and +flourishing evergreens--and I may state that evergreens grow here +with a luxuriance that I have not seen elsewhere--it is not so +offensive to the eye as formerly. The interior has been greatly +beautified by improvements made in 1857, the cost being defrayed +by subscription. The addition of a reading desk, pulpit, reredos +and altar rail in handsomely carved oak, the painting of what used +to be an unsightly expanse of white ceiling, in imitation of oak +panelling, and the spare but tasteful introduction of tinted glass +into the windows, have made the inside as handsome as it is likely +to be whilst the pews are allowed to remain. The parish register +dates back to 1594. In the vestry is stored a library, chiefly +of works in divinity, sermons, etc., which have been purchased +from time to time with the interest of different sums left by +the Fleming family, commencing with £5 under the will of Roger +Fleming of Coniston, dated February, 1699. In the vestibule of the +southern entrance to the church is kept one of those curious old +chests, made from a solid block of oak, like that containing the +muniments of the Grammar School at Hawkshead. The only contents +of this are a number of slips of paper, each bearing the almost +illegible affidavit of two women that the corpse of each person +interred was shrouded in cloth only made of woollen material. +These worn and fragile evidences of a curious old protective +law--for I infer it could only be enacted to support the landed +interest--serve, if they do nothing else, to explain the line in +Pope which has puzzled many modern readers-- + + Odious!--in woollen!--'twould a saint provoke. + +The following is a copy of one of the most legible of these +fugitive records:-- + + Lancr. P.ociall Cappell de Coniston. + + We Jennet Dickson wife of Thomas Dickson and Isabell Fleming + widow--doe severally make oath that the Corps of Isabel Dickson + widow was buryed March y^e 15^{th} An^o Dmj 1692. And was not putt + in, wrapt or wound up in any Shirt, Shift, Sheet or Shroud, Made + or mingled w^{th} fflax, Hemp, Hair, Gold or Silver, etc: nor in + any coffin lined or faced w^{th} cloath etc: nor in any other + material but sheeps wooll onely According to Act of Parlyment. In + Testimony whereof we y^e s^d Jennet Dickson and Isabel Fleming + have hereunto putt our Hands and Seales the 15^{th} day of March, + An^o Dmj 1692. + + Cap^t et Jur^t coram me Jennet Dickson + Henri Mattinson Cur^t her x m^k + de Torver decimo nono Isabel Fleming + die Martij Anno dom 1693 her x m^k + +So far Dr. Gibson on the "new" church, now the "old" church, and +already of the past. + +On November 17th, 1891, the church was reopened by Bishop Goodwin +after a "restoration" which almost amounted to renovation. The +Rev. C. Chapman, in his pamphlet on _The ancient Parochial Church +of Coniston_, 1888, had already been able to announce that £600 +had been gathered for the Building Fund, beside about the same +amount spent in buying the old schoolhouse and playground in order +to improve the site. But the money did not suffice for entire +rebuilding; the ceiling and pews were removed, a chancel and +vestry added, a clock placed in the tower, the roughcast of the +exterior was cleared away, and stained glass windows have since +been inserted, of which the best is the little west window by +Kempe to the memory of the Beevers of the Thwaite. But few objects +of antiquarian interest remain. The old oak chest with a curious +padlock, the parish registers beginning 1594 and recommencing +1695, the old library, and the little brass on the south wall are +all that is left to record the ancient family of the Hall. The +brass is inscribed:-- + + To the Liveing Memory of ALICE FLEMING of Coningston-Hall in the + County Palatine of Lancaster Widow (late Wife of William Fleming + of Coningston-Hall aforesaid Esq^r; and eldest daughter of Roger + Kirkby of Kirkby in the said County Esq^{re}) and of John Kirkby + Gentleman her second brother was this Monument by her three + sorrowful sons S^r Daniel Fleming Knight Roger Fleming and William + Fleming gentlemen, for their dear Mother and Uncle here erected. + The said John Kirkby (having lived above 30 yeares with his sister + aforesaid, and having given to the Churches and Poor of Kirkby + and Coningston aforesaid 150£) died a Bachelor at Coningston-Hall + aforementioned September 28 A.D. 1680, and was buried near unto + this place the next day: And the said Alice Fleming died also + (having outlived her late Husband above 27 yeares and suruiued + 5 of her 8 children) at Coningston-Hall aforesaid Febry 28 A.D. + 1680, and was buried in this Church, close by her said Brother + Febr 28, 1680, in the same Grave where ye Lady Bold (second wife + of John Fleming Esq^{re} deceased, uncle to ye said William + Fleming Esq^r) had about 55 yeares before been interred. + + Epitaph + + Spectator stay, and view this sacred ground + See it contains such Loue, on Earth scarce found, + A BROTHER and a SISTER, and you see + She seeks to find him in Mortality-- + First he did leave us; then she stay'd & try'd + To live without him, lik'd it not and dy'd + Here they ly buried, whose Religious Zeal + Appeard sincere to Prince, Church, Commonweal; + Kind to their Kindred, Faithful to their Friends, + Clear in their Lives and Chearful to their ends. + They both were Dear to them whose good intent + Makes them both liue in this one Monument. + So Dear in Cordial Loue, tho' th' outward part. + Turne Dust it holds impression to the Heart. + +The churchyard is first mentioned as a burying ground in 1594, and +until 1841 was very small: indeed, the population it had to serve +was small up to the nineteenth century. But by 1841 the population +of the parish had grown, and Lady le Fleming made an addition to +the churchyard. Subsequent additions were made in 1845, 1865, and +1878, the last by the removal of the old Institute, formerly the +Boys' School. This used to stand between the church and the road, +as shown in the photograph exhibited, with other views and relics +of the neighbourhood, in the museum at the Coniston Institute. + +In Coniston Churchyard the centre of general interest is Ruskin's +grave, marked by the tall sculptured cross of gray Tilberthwaite +stone, which stands under the fir trees near the wall separating +the churchyard from the schoolyard. Near it are the white crosses +of the Beevers, and the railed-in space is reserved for the family +of Brantwood. The sculptures on the east face are intended to +suggest Ruskin's earlier writings--the lower panel his juvenile +poems; above, the young artist with a hint of sunrise over Mont +Blanc in the background, for "Modern Painters;" the Lion of +St. Mark, for "Stones of Venice," and the candlestick of the +Tabernacle for "Seven Lamps." On the west face below is the +parable of the labourers in the vineyard--"Unto this Last," then +"Sesame and Lilies," the Angel of Fate with club, key and nail +for "Fors Clavigera," the "Crown of Wild Olive," and St. George, +symbolizing his later work. On the south edge are the Squirrel, +the Robin and the Kingfisher in a scroll of wild rose to suggest +Ruskin's favourite studies in natural history. On the north edge +is a simple interlaced plait. The cross was carved by the late H. +T. Miles of Ulverston from designs by W. G. Collingwood. + +Since the restoration the clergymen have been:-- + + Richard Rawling May, 1676 d. June, 1682 + John Birkett June, 1683 d. Feb., 1716 + John Stoup 1716 d. Oct., 1760 + John Strickland 1761 d. Sep., 1796 + +There seems then to have been an interregnum until William Tyson +is recorded as assistant curate in 1805. The incumbent in 1809 was +Jonas Lindow, who died 1826, under whom officiated as assistant +curates:-- + + John Hodgson, June, 1809. + + John Kendal (occasional). + + Matthew Inman Carter, of Torver (occasional). + + John Douglas, May, 1816, to November, 1821. + + W. T. Sandys, February, 1825 (afterwards incumbent, assisted by P. + Fraser). + + H. Siree, February, 1835, to April, 1837 (assistant or incumbent?). + + J. W. Harden, incumbent, 1837 to November, 1839 (to whom S. + Boutflower, afterwards archdeacon of Carlisle, was assistant). + + Thomas Tolming, incumbent, December, 1839; resigned April, 1870. + + Charles Chapman, incumbent, 1870; died 1905. + + H. E. Wood, curate in charge, 1905 to April, 1906. + + F. T. Wilcox, incumbent, April, 1906. + +The school used to be held in the church, an arrangement common +in this district when the clergyman was also schoolmaster. Later, +a small building was put up, within the area of the present +churchyard; this was turned into a Mechanics' Institute in +1854, as already noted, when new schools were built. The site +of the Boys' School and master's house, with adjacent ground, +was conveyed by a deed dated December 6th, 1853, from Lady Le +Fleming to the incumbent and chapel-wardens of Coniston and +their successors. The buildings were to be erected as approved by +Lady Le Fleming, and the school was always to be conducted on the +principles of the Established Church of England. There is no deed +extant for the Girls' (now the Infants') School. It was probably +built at the same time as the old Boys' School, being similar in +construction, especially in the chimneys (as Mr. Herbert Bownass +notes). Dr. Gibson says in _The Old Man_ (1849) that both schools +had been conducted for the previous three or four years on the +Home and Colonial School system. + +The schoolmasters since the building of the new schools have +been:-- + + Mr. Diddams, 1854-1858. + Mr. Ryder, 1858-1859. + S. K. Thompson, 1859-1864. + W. Brocklebank, 1864-1887. + C. J. Fox, 1887-1891. + John Morris, 1891-1902. + W. J. Rich, 1902. + +The mistress of the Infants' School since 1876 has been Miss Agnes +Walker. + +The Mechanics' Institute in 1877 was found to be inadequate and +inconvenient, and in 1878 a new building was made on the Yewdale +road. This in its turn was outgrown, and in 1896 the committee, +under the presidency of Dr. Kendall, resolved to enlarge it. A +library and reading room, billiard and recreation rooms, room for +meetings and classes, bath, museum, concert hall and caretaker's +house were planned, and built in 1897 with the proceeds of various +exhibitions and bazaars, added to private subscriptions. This +enlarged Institute or village clubhouse was opened by Mrs. Arthur +Severn on April 15th, 1896. + +In 1900 an exhibition of drawings by the late Prof. Ruskin was +held, and visited by over 10,000 people. From the proceeds of +this a room for a museum was added, to supersede the little +room formerly allotted for the purpose; and the Ruskin Museum +was opened in August, 1901, Canon Rawnsley giving the inaugural +address. The collection shown in the Museum is confined under +two headings--"Ruskin" and "Coniston." It comprises (_a_) local +history and antiquities, with a few illustrative specimens +of general antiquities; (_b_) local minerals, to which it is +hoped some day to add other branches of the natural history of +Coniston: of this division Mr. Ruskin laid the foundation by his +gift in 1884 of a collection of minerals and the model of the +neighbourhood; (_c_) Ruskin drawings and relics, given or lent +by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Severn; (_d_) books by and about Ruskin, +with autographs, etc., in illustration; (_e_) engravings after +Ruskin's drawings, and portraits of him; (_f_) copies and prints +from pictures which have formed the subject of his writing. The +collection is still growing, and an enlarged edition of the +Catalogue (3d.) was brought out at Easter, 1906; copies can be +had of the caretaker at the Institute. The Museum is open every +week-day from 10 till dusk, admission one penny in the slot of the +turnstile. Eight to ten thousand pennies have been taken yearly +since the opening. The hon. curator is Mr. Herbert Bownass. + +In the summer an exhibition, usually of pictures, is held during +August and September in the large hall adjoining. Since the new +Museum was built, the room formerly occupied by the collections +has been used as a Ladies' Reading Room; and in 1905 a workshop +for wood carving and other art crafts was added to the premises. +The subscription to the Institute for residents over 16 years of +age is 1s. 3d. a quarter; for boys, 9d.; for visitors 1s. a week, +or 2s. 6d. a month. The management is in the hands of a committee +elected by the members, non-sectarian and non-political; Dr. +Kendall has been president since 1884, and Mr. Edmund Todd hon. +secretary since 1902. + +The Baptist Chapel was built in 1837, the youngest of many chapels +described in a booklet entitled _Old Baptist Meeting-houses in +Furness_, by F. N. Richardson (1904). Tottlebank, the oldest, +was founded in 1669. Sunnybank, in Torver, 1678, and Hawkshead +Hill, founded a few years later, no doubt took the early Baptists +of Coniston; one of whom, William Atkinson of Monk Coniston, +tanner, was fined in 1683 for attending a conventicle. These three +chapels are now open, though Sunnybank and Hawkshead Hill were +closed for some years before 1905. The seventeenth century chapel +at Scroggs, between Broughton and Coniston, was dilapidated in +1842, and is now a cattle shed. The Coniston Chapel ministers +were Mr. Kirkbride, Mr. Myers, and then for twenty-one years from +about 1865 the Rev. George Howells; he was succeeded by Rev. +Arthur Johnson. For nine years before 1904 there was no Baptist +congregation, and the chapel was let to the "Brethren," who built +a place of worship for themselves and opened it 1903. The Baptist +Sunday School had been carried on all the while by Mr. William +Shaw, and on regaining possession of the chapel a congregation was +once more formed with Rev. R. Jardine as pastor. + +A Primitive Methodist Chapel was built in 1859, but some years ago +was converted into a Masonic Hall. A Wesleyan Chapel was built in +1875, but there is no settled minister. + +The Roman Catholic Chapel was built in 1872 by Miss Aglionby of +Wigton; Prof. Ruskin gave a window to this chapel. It was served +for many years by Father Gibson; on his removal he was succeeded +by Father Laverty, at whose death in 1905 Father Bradshaw was +appointed to the cure. + + + +VIII.--CONISTON INDUSTRIES. + + +COPPER. + +That the copper mines were worked by the Romans and the Saxons +is only a surmise. Dr. A. C. Gibson, F.S.A., writing in 1866, +said:--"Recent operations have from time to time disclosed old +workings which have obviously been made at a very early period, +by the primitive method of lighting great fires upon the veins +containing ore and, when sufficiently heated, pouring cold water +upon the rock, and so, by the sudden abstraction of caloric, +rending, cracking and making a circumscribed portion workable by +the rude implements then in use, specimens of which are still +found occasionally in the very ancient parts of the mines, +especially small quadrangular wedges perforated for the reception +of a handle." + +The mines of Cumberland were worked throughout the Middle Ages, +and it is not impossible that these rich veins in the Coniston +Fells were tried for ore; but we have no proof of the local +assertion that they have been worked continuously since the days +of the Romans. On the contrary, there seem to have been only two +periods, of about a century each, during which mining was actively +pushed. In the time of Queen Elizabeth we reach firm ground of +history. + +In 1561 a company was formed by several lords and London merchants +to work the minerals of the kingdom under a patent from the +Crown. They invited two German mining experts, Thomas Thurland +and Daniel Hechstetter, who coming to England opened mines, and +built smelting works at Keswick in 1565; and in spite of strong +local opposition soon made a great success. (Their proceedings +are described in a paper by J. Fisher Crosthwaite, F.S.A., in +_Transactions_ of the now defunct Cumberland Association, viii.) + +They also took over the Coniston mines, and worked them with +energy and profit. They opened out no less than nine new workings +beside the old mine--the New or White Work, Tongue Brow (in +Front of Kernel Crag), Thurlhead, Hencrag, Semy Work, Brimfell, +Gray Crag, the Wide Work, and the Three Kings in Tilberthwaite; +employing about 140 men. The ore was raised at a cost of 2s. 6d. +to 8s. a kibble, each kibble being about a horse load, for it was +carried on pack-horses to Keswick for smelting. To avoid this they +proposed building a smelting house at Coniston, which was, they +said, well supplied with wood and peat, and an iron forge was +already there. It would be easy to boat the manufactured copper +down the water, and ship it at Penny Bridge. + +But in the civil wars the Corporation of "Governors, Assistants, +and Commonalty of the Mines Royal" came to an end. The Parliament +soldiers wrecked the works at Keswick, and operations at Coniston +were stopped. + +After the civil wars, Sir Daniel Fleming was several times +approached on the subject of reopening the mines. He seems to +have been willing. He notes on January 21st, 1658, "given unto +the miller of Conistone for going along with me on to the fell, +1s.;" and on March 22nd, "given to Parce Corratts when hee came +to looke at the blacke lead mine at Conistone, 2/6." This turned +out a disappointment, for on May 2nd, 1665, he says, "given unto +a Newlands man who came to look at the _supposed_ wadd-mine at +Coniston, 5/-." And so nothing seems to have been done. + +In 1684 Roger Fleming at the Hall sent his brother, Sir Daniel, +a report of the mines "which were first wrought by the Dutchmen" +(Keswick Germans) and others discovered more recently. Only three +of the old workmen were living, but from their evidence we get +the details given above. On May 25th, 1686, John Blackwall wrote +from Patterdale to Sir Daniel that he had examined the ground at +Coniston and studied the evidence of the three old miners, and +was prepared with a company to open the mines, if they could agree +upon terms. + +Sir Daniel died in 1701; and the Rev. Thomas Robinson's _Natural +History of Cumberland_, &c., published in 1709, mentions that +copper had been formerly got at Cunningston, by the Germans, +and taken to Keswick, but says nothing about a revival of the +industry. It was, however, prosecuted in a small way throughout +the eighteenth century. A Company of Miners at Ulpha is mentioned +in George Bownass' account for tools in 1772. West says, in 1774, +merely, "the fells of Coniston have produced great quantities +of copper ore," nothing of mining in his time; and the smith's +accounts from 1770 to 1774 do not mention it. There must have +been a revival shortly afterwards. Captain Budworth, about 1790, +tells the story of the devil and the miner, retold by Dr. Gibson +from local tradition, to the effect that Simon the miner found +a paying vein in the crag--it is called Simon Nick to this day, +and the cleft he made is seen yet on the left hand as you go up +to Leverswater; but one night at the Black Bull he boasted of his +luck, and said the fairies, or the devil, were his partners, upon +which he found no more copper, and lost his life soon after in +blasting. + +In 1802 the mines were going. In 1820 the _Lonsdale Magazine_ says +that they had been worked at intervals for many centuries, and had +lately been in the hands of "spirited adventurers," but were then +discontinued. + +About 1835 a new era of prosperity began, in which Mr. John +Barratt became the leader. His skill and energy brought about such +success that in 1849 they employed 400 men, and yielded 250 tons +of ore monthly. In 1855 the monthly wage list amounted to £2,000. +In 1866 Dr. Gibson said:--"For many years their shipments averaged +300 tons per month, and employed from five to six hundred people," +but "the number of hands employed do not now exceed two hundred." + +Up to this time the ore had been boated down the lake, and carted +to Greenodd. Now the Coppermining Company promoted a railway +connecting Coniston with Broughton and the Furness line. It was a +separate concern when it was opened in 1859, but absorbed into the +Furness system in 1862. + +The mines, as they were in his days, are described at length +by Dr. Gibson in _The Old Man, or Ravings and Ramblings around +Conistone_. Alexander Craig Gibson, M.R.C.S., F.S.A., was born at +Harrington, 1813, the son of a ship's captain, who died early. +He was taken by his mother to her home at Lockerbie, and brought +up there; afterwards apprenticed to a surgeon at Whitehaven. In +1844 he came to Coniston as medical officer to the mining company, +and lived for seven years at Yewdale Bridge, where he wrote his +"Ravings and Ramblings" as articles for the _Kendal Mercury_, +afterwards collected into a volume, and subsequently republished +with considerable revision. He left Coniston in January, 1851, and +remained at Hawkshead for some years; then removed southward, and +finally settled at Bebington in Cheshire, where he died in 1874. +A collection of sketches in prose and verse, _The Folk-speech of +Cumberland_, &c. (Coward, Carlisle, 1869; ed. ii., 1872), shows +him to be master of the dialect of the north-west in various +forms--Furness, Cumbrian, and Dumfriesshire; and his book on +Coniston remains a valuable contribution to local anecdote. (I owe +the data of his life to the Rev. T. Ellwood.) + +After the middle of the nineteenth century the copper mines +became less and less profitable, owing to the competition of +foreign imports. During the "eighties," they were only just kept +open, until the Coniston Mining Syndicate, under the energetic +management of Mr. Thomas Warsop, tried to put new life into the +old business. Mr. Warsop attempted to introduce a new system of +smelting, but this smelting house was blown away by the storm of +December 22nd, 1894. He took the watercourse from Leverswater to +work a turbine, which superseded the old waterwheels for pumping, +and also supplied power for boring in the mines, and for crushing +and mixing the material from the old rubbish heaps, with which he +made excellent concrete slabs, much in demand for pavements. But +the development came to an end with Mr. Warsop's removal in 1905, +and when the mines were offered for sale there was no purchaser. + + +IRON. + +In our tour of the lake we have noticed that there are remains of +old iron works along its margin, now difficult to trace. + +In High Furness, the district of which Coniston Lake is the +centre, and the most northern part of Lancashire, there are about +thirty known sites where iron was smelted in the ancient way with +charcoal, producing a _bloom_--the lump of metal made by _blowing_ +in the furnace--whence the name _bloomeries_. Of these sites about +half are in the valley of Coniston, and eight are actually on the +shore of the lake:-- + + Beck-leven (below Brantwood) East side. + Parkamoor Beck (below Fir Island) " + Selside Beck (below Peel Island) " + Moor-gill (above Sunny-bank) West side. + Harrison Coppice (opposite Fir Island) " + Knapping-tree (opposite Fir Island) " + Springs (opposite Beck-leven) " + Waterpark (below Coniston Hall) " + +All these have been bloomeries of a somewhat similar kind, +and on Peel Island some iron works have been carried on of a +rather different type, and perhaps at a different period. Small +bloomeries have also been in blast at Tom-gill (the beck coming +down from the Monk Coniston Tarns, often called Glen Mary), and +at Stable Harvey in Blawith. One is said to be at the limekiln in +Yewdale. There were two bloomeries of the later and larger type at +Coniston Forge (up stream from the church) and at Low Nibthwaite, +and two others further down the Crake, making sixteen in all the +valley now known. There are, of course, many beside in the Lake +District, as in other parts of the country. + +That there were iron works before the Conquest in Furness appears +from the place-name of "Ouregrave" in _Domesday_, which must be +identical with Orgrave. At this place, early in the thirteenth +century, Roger of Orgrave gave Furness Abbey the mine "cum ... +aquæ cursu ad illam scil. mineriam lavandum," a grant confirmed by +his son Hamo in 1235 (_Coucher Book of Furness_, p. 229). About +1230 Thomas le Fleming gave them iron mines in Elliscales. By 1292 +a great part of their income was derived from iron works. + +Canon Atkinson, in his introduction to the _Coucher Book of +Furness_, c. xviii., reckoned that they must have had some forty +hearths to produce the iron they made. When the wood near the +mines was exhausted, it became easier to carry the ore to the +place where charcoal was burned than to bring the charcoal--so +much greater in bulk--to the ore. An acre of forest was not enough +to supply charcoal for smelting two tons of metal, and so the +woods were gradually devastated over a wider and wider area. + +In 1240 the abbey, which owned the eastern side of the lake, +but not the lake itself, got leave from the baron of Kendal to +put boats on the lake of Coniston for fishing and carrying. The +carrying was chiefly of timber for building, but the tops and +branches were no doubt used for charcoal. That on the other shore +the smelting works were creeping up the valley is seen from the +grant, before 1282, of William de Lancaster to Conishead Priory +of the dead wood in Blawith for charcoal to supply the canons' +bloomeries--for it was not only Furness Abbey that dealt in iron; +and, indeed, more bloomeries exist on the side that did not belong +to the abbey than on the shore that did. Thus in the thirteenth +century we infer that smelting went on by Coniston Lake shore well +up the west side. + +On the east side there is a remarkable coincidence between the +sites of Furness Abbey "parks" (or early clearings for sheep +farms) and the bloomeries we find there. Near Selside Beck, where +slag has been found, is Waterpark--anciently Water-side-park, +apparently the earliest of the abbey sheep farms. Above Parkamoor +Beck bloomery is Parkamoor--the sheep farm on the moor. Above +Beck-leven bloomery is Lawson Park, the latest of the Furness +Abbey sheep farms. I think the inference is that when the land was +cleared they put sheep on it, and went up the lake to the next +beck for the site of their bloomery. What we know for certain is +that in early times the valley of Coniston was thickly wooded, but +by the time of the dissolution of the monastery, High Furness had +been nearly denuded of timber. + +After the dissolution of the monastery, the commissioners of Henry +VIII. let part of the woods of Furness Fells to William Sandys +and John Sawrey, to maintain three smithies, or combined smelting +and hammering works, for which the rent was £20. Less than thirty +years later, in 1564-5, these were suppressed, because it was +represented that the woods were being wasted, and the £20 rent +was thenceforward paid to the lord of the manor by the customary +tenants as "bloomsmithy rent." + +The tenants of High Furness were allowed to make iron for +themselves with the loppings and underwood, which may account for +some of the small bloomeries. But by this time an improved and +larger furnace was beginning to come into fashion, and in the +seventeenth century we find that one such existed at Coniston +at the Forge, between the Black Bull and Dixon Ground. It is +mentioned in 1650 by the German miners, and by Sir Daniel Fleming +in 1675. In 1750 it was turning out eighty tons of bar iron a +year, and in 1771 Thomas Tyson is mentioned as the ironmaster +(George Bownass' accounts). This would suffice for the needs of +the neighbourhood, while at the same time the Deerpark, which +we know was stocked in the seventeenth century and probably was +preserved in the sixteenth, would make impossible the carrying +on of smelting at Waterpark bloomery, which is within it, and +at Springs, close to it. The relics from Peel Island, associated +with iron works, seem to be mediæval, and the isolation of a forge +on an island, as at Rampsholme in Derwentwater, implies that +protection was sought, which would hardly be needed in Elizabethan +and later times hereabouts. The conclusion seems to be that many +of the little bloomeries are mediæval; that at Stable Harvey, +perhaps the work of Conishead Priory after the grant of 1282, and +those in Monk Coniston, the work of Furness Abbey. + +The iron ore came from Low Furness, but there was an iron mine at +the Red-dell head under Weatherlam. The Rev. Thomas Robinson, in +his _Natural History of Westmorland and Cumberland_, 1709, says +"Langdale & Cunningston mountains do abound most with iron veins; +which supplies with Ore & keeps constantly going a Furnace in +Langdale, where great plenty of good and malleable iron is made, +not much inferior to that of Dantzick." + + +SLATE. + +Roofing slabs have been found in the ruins of Calder Abbey and the +Well Chapel at Gosforth, both mediæval; in the mansion on Lord's +Island, Derwentwater, destroyed before the end of the seventeenth +century, we found green Borrowdale roofing slates. Purple Skiddaw +roofing slates were also found in the ruins of a seventeenth and +eighteenth century cottage at Causeway Head near Keswick. But +it was not until the eighteenth century that quarrying began to +develop. Mr. H. S. Cowper, in his _History of Hawkshead_, says +that the Swainsons, from about 1720, worked a quarry in the +Coniston flag formation near the Monk Coniston Tarns, and sent +out their flags even as far as Ulverston Church. Fifty years +later George Bownass, the Coniston blacksmith, was the great +purveyor and repairer of tools, and from his ledger the names of +his customers, gathered by Mr. Herbert Bownass, throw light on +the history of the industry in the second half of the eighteenth +century. + +In 1770 appear William Jackson & Co. and Edward Jackson, no +doubt of Tilberthwaite. In 1771, the Company of Slate-getters at +Pennyrigg, Saddlestones, Cove and Hodge Close; Zachias Walker +& Co., at Cove; George Tyson & Co., quarry owners; William +Atkinson & Co., at Scoadcop Quarry; John Masacks & Co., at Cove; +John Atkinson, slate merchant, Torver Fell Quarry; Wm. Fleming +and Thomas Callan, Stang End Quarry; Matthew Carter, Stang End +Quarry; also George Thompson and Wm. Vickers at a quarry with an +unreadable name, and John Johnson, Jonathan Youdale, Wm. Wilson, +Anthony Rigg and Wm. Stopart, slate-getters. In 1772, William +Atkinson, Broadscop Quarry; John Speding & Co., quarry owners; +slate-getters at Bove Beck or Gatecrag Quarries; Wm. Parker, slate +merchant, Langdale; Wm. Fleming, Bessy Crag Quarry; Wm. Johnson, +Pennyrigg Quarry; and John Vickers, Thomas and Rowland Wilson, +John Casson, and George Bownass, slate-getters. + +Of the quarries here mentioned as working 130 years ago Stang End +and Bessy Crag are in Little Langdale, Pennyrigg and Hodge Close +on opposite sides of the Tilberthwaite valley; Cove is on the +flank of the Old Man above Gaitswater; Scoadcop and Broadscop look +like variants of the name Goldscope, the quarry opposite Cove, +and near Blind Tarn, to the right hand as you go up Walna Scar; +Torverfell Quarry may be Ashgill; Saddlestones is the quarry seen +on the way up the Old Man (page 3). + +Father West in 1774 said that "the most considerable slate +quarries in the kingdom" were in the Coniston Fells; the slate was +shipped from Penny Bridge "for differents parts of the kingdom." +In 1780, Green saw the quarry near the top of the Old Man "in +high working condition." W. Rigge & Son of Hawkshead, who worked +some of them, exported 1,100 tons and upward a year, and the +carriage to Penny Bridge was 6s. 10d. to 7s. 10d. a ton. The slate +was shipped at Kirkby Quay upon sailing boats, of which there +were enough upon the water in 1819 to furnish the subject of a +paragraph in Green's _Guide_ describing a scene of "bustle and +animation." + +From papers given by Mr. John Gunson of Ulpha to the Coniston +Museum, we can gather a few particulars of the slate trade in the +early part of the nineteenth century. John Atkinson of Ivytree, +Blawith, in 1803 was interested in the Tilberthwaite Quarries, and +in 1804 applied for leave to redeem the Land Tax on the ground +they covered, the annual sum being £2 13s. 4d. From 1820 we find +John Atkinson & Co. working seven quarries--Ashgill (to the left +hand as you go up Walna Scar) the most important, occupying +usually about a dozen men, and worked at considerable profit until +1830, when it began to show a deficit; Tilberthwaite, after 1820 +giving employment to about seven men, with fair profit until 1826, +when the men seem to have been withdrawn to work a quarry at Wood +in Tilberthwaite for a year and a half; Goldscope, employing from +nine to fifteen men between 1821 and 1826, when the Cove Quarry +seems to have been run with no great profit or energy until 1832; +and Mosshead, on the north-east side of the Old Man, at the head +of Scrow Moss, was worked in 1829 and at a loss. The Outcast +Quarry, near Slater's Bridge (now Little Langdale Quarries), is +mentioned only in 1830. The best workmen were paid 3s. 6d. a day; +lads seem to have started at 6d. There are notes of indentures, +in Atkinson's account-book, from which it seems that apprentices +at the riving and dressing began at 1s. or 1s. 6d., with a yearly +rise to 2s. 6d., before they were out of their time. The profits +were fluctuating--Goldscope in two years (1821-23) produced £1,072 +17s. worth of slates, and paid £719 18s. 10d. in wages; Ashgill in +1826 made £381 less powder, tools, candles, &c.; but these were +good years. The royalties to Lady le Fleming on Cove and Mosshead +for 1827-32 amounted to £33 6s. + +Tilberthwaite was the old possession of the Jacksons. Their +ancestor had come from Gosforth, Cumberland, about 1690, and is +said to have acquired it by marriage from the Walkers, who held +the land in freehold, not, as usual hereabouts, in customary +tenure under a lord of the manor. The Jacksons held most of +Tilberthwaite, Holm Ground, and Yewdale until their estates were +bought by Mr. James Garth Marshall, and it was by marriage with +an Elizabeth Jackson that John Woodburn of Kirkby Quarries came +to have an interest in the slate trade here. His name appears in +John Atkinson's account books after 1832, and he seems to have +taken over the actual working of the quarries. In 1904 the total +output of the Coniston quarries (Cove, High Fellside, Mossrigg and +Klondyke, Parrock, Saddlestone, and Walna Scar) was 3438 tons; +value at the quarries, £12,251. + + +WOOD. + +In spite of local production, iron was not plentiful in the +eighteenth century. Iron nails were too valuable for common use, +though they are found in quantities at the old furnaces on Peel +Island and elsewhere, which must date from an earlier period. +Wooden pegs were substituted in making kists and other furniture, +house roofs, doors and boats. The trade in woodwork of many kinds +flourished in Coniston and its neighbourhood. + +We have already mentioned the sixteenth century "Cowpers and +Turners, with makyng of Coles," and the Baptist tanner of Monk +Coniston in the seventeenth century; his tannery was, no doubt, +that at Bank Ground. Another old tannery was at Dixon Ground in +Church Coniston. Bark peeling and charcoal burning are among the +most ancient and continuous industries; the round huts of the +charcoal burners and their circular pitsteads can be traced, +though overgrown and so nearly obliterated as to resemble +prehistoric remains, in many of the woods, or places which once +were wooded. + +In George Bownass' ledger, already quoted, John Bell & Co. are +named as wood-mongers in 1771, and in 1772 the same smith repaired +the "coal boate" owned by the executors of William Ford. + +In 1820 the old _Lonsdale Magazine_ says that the woods were cut +every fifteen or sixteen years, and brought in the same value as +if the land had been under cultivation. The wood was used for +charcoal in smelting (and later in gunpowder making), for poles, +hoops, and birch besoms; bird-lime was made from the bark of the +holly, and exported to the West Indies. + +As the Lancashire spinning increased there was a great demand for +bobbins, and large quantities of small copse wood went to the +turning mills. There was one near the Forge at Coniston, and a +later bobbin mill farther down stream at Low Beck. Others were +worked at Hawkshead Hill by W. F. Walker, and more recently at +Sunnybank in Torver. But this industry has now died out. + +An agreement in possession of Mr. H. Bownass, dated February 13th, +1798, between John Jackson of Bank Ground, gent. (landlord), and +Robert Townson of the Gill, yeoman (tenant), of the one part, and +T. Mackreth of Bank Ground, tanner, and John Gaskerth of Mattson +Ground, Windermere, woollen manufacturer, of the other, authorises +the building of a watermill for spinning and carding on the land +called the Becks and Lowlands in Church Coniston. The carding mill +near Holywath was owned early in the nineteenth century by Mr. +Gandy of Kendal, and managed by Mrs. Robinson of the Black Bull. + + * * * * * + +The rise of Coniston trade is shown pretty accurately by the +returns of population in this period. In 1801 Church Coniston +contained 338 persons; in 1811, 460; in 1821, 566; and in 1831, +587. At this last date there were 101 houses inhabited and 9 +empty, none building; and there were 102 families of which 25 were +employed in agriculture, 65 in trade, mining, &c., and 12 beside. +In Monk Coniston with Skelwith the population in 1801 was 286; in +1811, 386; in 1821, 426; and in 1831 it had dropped to 397. There +were then 78 houses occupied and 12 empty; 36 families lived by +agriculture, 2 by trade or manufacture, and 41 otherwise. This +means that the village was always the home of the miners and +quarrymen, while "at the back of the water" there was a gradually +increasing settlement of gentlefolk attracted to the place by +its scenery. In the later half of the century the population of +Church Coniston, after reaching 1324 in 1861, fell to 1106 in +1871, 965 in 1881, and 964 in 1891; showing the decline of the +once flourishing industrial enterprises. During the next decade +the slate trade increased, and in 1901 the population had risen +to 1111, whence the new rows of houses which, if not picturesque, +were much needed. It is no longer possible to crowd the cottages +as in mid-Victorian days when, it is said, the miners coming down +from their work took the beds _warm_ from the men on the other +shift. And yet, granting the necessity, one cannot help regretting +the meanness and ugliness of much recent building in the village. +A pleasant exception is the new office for the Bank of Liverpool +at the bridge, which is a clever adaptation of the old cottage, +making a pretty effect without pretentiousness; and perhaps, with +this example, local enterprise may still create--what is far +from impossible--a little town among the mountains worthy of its +environment. + + + + +IX.--OLD CONISTON. + + +The poet Gray, author of _The Elegy in a Country Churchyard_, +in his tour of 1769, and Gilpin, in search of the picturesque, +in 1772, did not seem to hear of Coniston as worth seeing. The +earliest literary description is that of Thomas West, the Scotch +Roman-Catholic priest, who wrote the _Antiquities of Furness_ +in 1774. He illustrated his book with a map "As Survey'd by Wm. +Brasier 1745," in which are marked Coniston Kirk, Hall, Waterhead, +Townend, Thurston Water, Piel I., Nibthwaite, Furnace, Nibthwaite +Grange, Blawith Chap., Waterycot (by obvious error for "yeat"), +Oxenhouse, Torver Kirk, Torver Wood (Hoathwaite), New Brig (the +old pack-horse bridge), White Maidens, Blind Tarn, Goat's Tarn, +Low Water, Lever Water, and so on, giving names in use 150 years +ago. + +West says:--"The village of Coniston consists of scattered houses; +many of them have a most romantic appearance owing to the ground +they stand on being extremely steep." Later editions add:--"Some +are snow white, others grey ... they are all neatly covered +with blue slate, the produce of the mountains, beautified with +ornamental yews, hollies, and tall pines or firs." + +Mrs. Ann Radcliffe, author of the _Mysteries of Udolpho_ and +other romantic novels, came here in 1794 or earlier; and after +describing the Rhine, and all the other lakes, found Thurston Lake +"one of the most interesting, and perhaps the most beautiful," +though she took the Hall for a Priory, and sentimentalised about +the "solemn vesper that once swelled along the lake from these +consecrated walls, and awakened, perhaps, the enthusiasm of the +voyager, while evening stole upon the scene." Conishead, not +Coniston, was the Priory; the confusion between the two has been +often made. + +With fuller knowledge and from no hasty glance, Wordsworth soon +afterwards described the same spot (_Prelude_, VIII.):-- + + A grove there is whose boughs + Stretch from the western marge of Thurston mere + With length of shade so thick that whoso glides + Along the line of low-roofed water, moves + As in a cloister. Once--while in that shade + Loitering I watched the golden beams of light + Flung from the setting sun, as they reposed + In silent beauty on the naked ridge + Of a high eastern hill--thus flowed my thoughts + In a pure stream of words fresh from the heart: + Dear native regions, wheresoe'er shall close + My mortal course, there will I think on you.... + +Need I quote farther the famous outburst of patriotism?--it was +our lake that roused it. And another great enthusiasm was stirred +by our Coniston Fells. + +In 1797 the landscape painter Turner came here as a youth of 23 +on his first tour through the north. After his pilgrimage among +the Yorkshire abbeys, so finely described by Ruskin in _Modern +Painters_, vol. v., the young artist seems to have arrived among +the fells one autumn evening, and sketched the Old Man from the +Half-penny Alehouse. Then--I piece this together from the drawings +and circumstances--he went round to spend the night at the Black +Bull with old Tom Robinson and his wife, the daughter of Wonderful +Walker. She was a wonderful woman herself; had been first a +miner's wife, helping him to rise to a clerkship at the Leadhill +Mines in Dumfriesshire, and on his death returning to Seathwaite; +then, sorely against her old father's will, taking up with Tom, +and settling at Townend to farm; afterwards for many years at the +Black Bull, keeping the inn, managing the carding mill, and acting +as parish officer in her turn; a notable figure, in mob cap and +bedgown and brat; sharp tongued and shrewd of judgment. What +did she make, I wonder, of the sunburnt, broad-shouldered lile +cockney, with his long brown curls, his big nose and eagle eyes, +and his sketch-book, "spying fancies?" Early in the morning he +was out and scrambling up Lang Crags. It was one of the magical, +misty autumnal sunrises we know so well. There had been rain, and +Whitegill was full, thundering down the precipice at his feet. +The fog was breaking away from the valley beneath, and rising in +drifts and swirls among the clefts of Raven Crag, and the woods +of Tilberthwaite. Far away, serene in the morning light, stood +Helvellyn. It was his earliest sight of the mountain glory; the +thrill of emotions never to be forgotten. Going home to London, +he painted his first great mountain subject, afterwards in the +National Gallery--the first picture for which he was moved to +quote poetry in the Academy catalogue, and this from _Paradise +Lost_--"Morning on Coniston Fells:-- + + Ye mists and exhalations that now rise + From hill or streaming lake, dusky or grey, + Till the sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold + In honour to the world's Great Author rise." + +By this time the fashion of visiting the lakes was coming in, +enough to give employment to a guide--Creighton, whom Captain +Budworth, about 1790, described as a self-taught scholar, claiming +descent from a noble family in Scotland, and fond of bragging +about the nobility he had taken up the fells. His son William +was something of a genius; he was found here by John Southern +of Soho drawing a map of the world with home-made mathematical +instruments, but using them with immense skill. Mr. Southern took +him into his drawing office, and young Creighton, by hard study, +became a considerable linguist, astronomer, and cartographer. + +To the old Black Bull, De Quincey came from Oxford in 1806 to see +Wordsworth. Next year William Green, the artist and guide-book +writer, was there, and went up Walna Scar with Robinson. Mrs. +Robinson died in extreme old age, and afterwards Adam Bell was +landlord (1849); in 1855, Edward Barrow. + +The tourist business made more hotels necessary. In 1819 the old +Waterhead Inn was called the New Inn as distinguished from the +Black Bull. It stood at the head of the lake, where now is the +plantation between the letter-box and the sign-post. In Holland's +aquatint view (1792), a rambling farmhouse is shown there, but +not called an inn. This became a favourite stopping place for +tourists. John Ruskin's father was fond of it, and often stayed +there alone or with his family. But John Ruskin, returning in +1867, wrote--"Our old Waterhead Inn, where I was so happy playing +in the boats, _exists_ no more." The present hotel was built by +Mr. Marshall in 1848-49, and tenanted by Mr. Atkinson, afterwards +by Mr. and Mrs. Sly, and now by Mr. Joseph Tyson. + +In 1849 the landlord of the Crown was Isaac Massicks. The Ship, in +1849, was kept by John Aitkin; the Rising Sun, in 1855, by James +Harker. The old Half-penny Alehouse was pulled down in 1848 to +build Lanehead. + +To tell the story of the many "worthies" of Coniston, and to trace +the fortunes of 'statesman families often wandering far into the +world, and winning a fair share of renown, would need a volume +to itself. One or two names we can hardly omit--such as Lieut. +Oldfield of Haws Bank, who piloted the fleet into Copenhagen, and +received his commission from Nelson for that deed; and Sailor +Dixon, who fought under Howe on the first of June and under +Duncan at Camperdown; twice taken prisoner, once retaken and once +escaping from Dunkirk; implicated in the great mutiny of 1797, and +yet acquitted by court martial, he lived at Coniston to the age of +71. + +With these might be mentioned the soldier John Jackson, whose +records of foreign service in the Crimea and elsewhere are still +extant. His cousin, the late Roger Bownass, left many papers of +interest to the student of Old Coniston. The first of his family +came in 1710 from Little Langdale, and bought from William Fleming +of Catbank for thirteen pounds odd the smith's shop at the place +called Chapel Syke, _i.e._, where the Crown Inn bar is now; a +stream rising above the Parsonage used to cross the road there, +whence the name. He bought also the old Catbank Farmhouse and +its land now covered with cottages. His son was about twelve or +fourteen in 1745, and told the writer of the manuscript history of +the family that he remembered taking a cartload of cannon balls, +forged at the smithy, to Kendal for the Duke of Cumberland's army. + +By 1773 a new site was needed for the smithy, and it was moved to +Bridge End, where the Post Office now stands, on land bought from +William Pennington of Kendal, wool comber, by George Bownass, son +of the original blacksmith who by this time had died at the age +of 87. Here a large business was carried on in quarry and edge +tools, employing a number of men and apprentices; and profitable +enough to enable the owner to buy many plots of land round about, +to which his son William, who inherited the business, added +other purchases, and still managed to save £100 a year. William +Bownass died in 1818, and was the first person buried after the +rebuilding of the church; of his seven children, Isaac, of Queen's +College, Cambridge, became a successful schoolmaster, but died at +the age of 28, and Roger, for 45 years postmaster at Coniston, +died in 1889. Old George Bownass, the second of the name, died +a year later than his son William; one of his daughters married +a Coniston man, William Gelderd, who became the first mayor of +Kendal after the passing of the new Municipal Act. + +In the Christmas number, 1864, of the old Liverpool _Porcupine_ +is a short story by Dr. Gibson which, if we read _Bownass_ +for "Forness," _Spedding_ for "Pedder," and _Coniston_ for +"Odinsmere," as the writer certainly intended, becomes a very +vivid and interesting picture of Coniston folk and their +surroundings at the beginning of the last century. It describes +the smith "George Forness" as the well-to-do and industrious +craftsman, in his busy workshop, surrounded by the village gossips +at Candlemas. To him enters "old Matthew Pedder," bound next +morning for Ulverston, to settle accounts. The smith entrusts him +with money to pay his iron bill at Newlands, and save himself +a journey. The next scene shows us a lane through the deerpark +before dawn; Matthew on his half-broken mare attacked by a wastrel +who has overheard the conversation, and now tries his unaccustomed +hand at highway robbery. The mare throws him down, and Matthew +gallops away believing his unknown assailant to be dead. Ten +months later Matthew is called from his house in Tilberthwaite to +the death-bed of Tom Bratton, and comes back subdued and silent. +"What did he want wi' yee?" his family clamoured. "To ex me to +forgive him." "Then it _was_ him 'at tried to rob ye?" "Niver ye +mind wha tried to rob me--neahbody _did_ rob me!" "And what did +ye say till him?" "I ext him to forgive me, and we yan forgev +t'udder." + +The slackness of anything like police in those days is illustrated +by a document in possession of Mr. John Bell, which is an +agreement dated 1791 on the part of leading villagers to form a +sort of Trades Defence Association to preserve their property from +"the Depredation of Highwaymen, Robbers, Housebreakers and other +Offenders." It is signed by Edward Jackson, Isaac Tubman, Geo. +Bownas (the smith), James Robinson, George Dixon, John Gelderd, +David Kirkby, John Dawson, and by Thomas Dixon for Mr. John +Armstrong, each of whom subscribed eighteen pence to found the +association, and resolves in strictly legal form to stand by his +neighbours in all manner of eventualities. + +The smith's ledger, already quoted, gives also a number of +farmer's names in 1770-74, which may be worth recording as a +contribution to the history of Coniston folk. At Littlearrow lived +John Fleming and Wm. Ion; at Spone How (Spoon Hall), Geo. Dixon; +at Heathwaite, John Fleming; at Bowmanstead, T. Dixon and T. +Parke; at Dixon Ground, John Ashburner; at Catbank, Roger Tyson; +at Brow, T. Bainbridge; at Bove Beck, Wm. Dixon; at Far End, Wm. +Parke; at Tarnhouse (Tarn Hows), John Johnson; at "Utree," Geo. +Walker; at Oxenfell, Christopher Huertson; at Tilberthwaite, +John Jackson; at Holme Ground, Wm. Jackson; at Lane End, Henry +Dawson; at Waterhead, Anthony Sawrey; at Hollin Bank, John Suert; +at Bank Ground, John Wilson; at Howhead, Eliz. Harrison; at Town +End (Coniston Bank), Ed. Barrow and Wm. Edrington; at Lowsanparke +(Lawson Park), Wm. Adinson. Other well-known names are Adam Bell +(Black Bull), John Bell, John Geldart, T. Gasketh, G. Knott, David +Kirkby, Matthew Spedding, T. and W. Towers. Many of these names +are still represented in the neighbourhood, but the old 'statesman +holdings have nearly all passed into alien hands. + +A list dated between 1830 and 1840 enumerates the acreage of +fifty-three separate estates in Church Coniston, ranging from +the Hall (Lady le Fleming's), over 397 acres, and Tilberthwaite +(John Jackson's), over 135 acres, to Henry Braithwaite's plot +of 15 perches. But of the whole number only twenty-five, or +less than half, are smaller than ten acres. In 1841 the list of +Parliamentary voters for Church Coniston gives twenty owners of +house and land in their own occupation out of forty-six voters. In +this list, James Garth Marshall of Leeds appears as owner of High +Yewdale, occupied--no longer owned--by a Jackson; but there are +very few non-resident landlords on the list. + +So late as 1849 the directory mentions as 'statesmen owning their +farms in Monk Coniston and Skelwith, Matthew Wilson of Hollin +Bank, John Creighton of Low Park, and William Burns of Hodge +Close; in Church Coniston, William Barrow of Little Arrow, William +Dixon of Dixon Ground, Benjamin Dixon of Spoonhall, James Sanders +of Outhwaite, and William Wilson of Low Beck. + +But after the "discovery" of the lakes, in the last quarter of the +eighteenth century, Coniston began to be the resort of strangers +in search of retirement and scenery. + +In 1801, Colonel George Smith, after losing a fortune in a bank +failure, settled at Townson Ground, and some years later built +Tent Lodge, so called from the tent his family had pitched on the +spot before the house was built, as a kind of "station," as it +was then called, for admiring the view. Here in the tent, they +say, his daughter used to sit, dying of consumption, and looking +her last on the favourite scene. Elizabeth Smith was a girl of +great charm and unusual genius. Born in 1776, at thirteen she had +learnt French, Italian, and mathematics; at fifteen, she taught +herself German; at seventeen, she studied Arabic, Persian, and +Spanish; and at eighteen, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. While living +here she wrote much verse and many translations, of which her +_Book of Job_ was highly commended by scholars; the manuscript in +her handwriting, with a copy of her portrait, may be seen in the +Coniston Museum. She died in 1806, and is buried at Hawkshead. + +After the death of Mrs. Smith, Tent Lodge was bought by Mr. +Marshall, and occupied by Tennyson the poet on his honeymoon. +His favourite point of view is still marked in the wood above +by a seat now hidden among the trees. Later, the Misses Romney, +descendants of the famous painter, lived at Tent Lodge; then it +was taken by the late George Holt, Esq., of Liverpool. + +At Colonel Smith's removal to the Lodge, Tent Cottage, as it is +now called, was taken by Mrs. Fletcher, one of whose daughters +became Lady Richardson and another married Dr. Davy, brother of +Sir Humphrey Davy. Dr. Townson succeeded them at the Cottage; +then Mr. Oxley of the sawmills; then the Gasgarths, on their +removal from the Hall; then Mr. Evennett, agent to Mr. Marshall. +Afterwards it was taken by Mr. Laurence Jermyn Hilliard, secretary +to Mr. Ruskin. Mr. Hilliard died in 1887 just as he was beginning +to be well known as an artist; he is commemorated in a brass +tablet in the church, and some examples of his work are to be seen +in the Museum. Since his death Tent Cottage has been tenanted by +his brother and sister. + +In 1819 Mr. Thomas Woodville bought from Sir D. Fleming a house +called Yewdale Grove at Yewdale Bridge. In 1821 Mr. Binns of +Bristol built the Thwaite House, and let it in 1827 to Mr. +William Beever, a Manchester merchant, who died four years later, +leaving two sons and four daughters, whose memory is very closely +associated with Coniston. John, the eldest son, was a sportsman +and naturalist; the author of a little volume entitled _Practical +Fly-fishing_, published in 1849, and republished 1893, a memoir +of the author (now again out of print). The pond behind the +Thwaite was made by him, and stocked with fish; once a year he +used to catch every member of his water colony, and examine it +to note its growth. The picturesque "Gothic" boat house, now the +gondola house, was built for his use. One of his hobbies was the +improvement of fishing-rods, and Mr. William Bell (afterwards J.P. +of Hawes Bank, who died in 1896) remembered helping Mr. Beever +in this and other carpentering, turning, carving, and mosaic +works, and in the construction of the printing press used for his +sister's little books. John Beever died in 1859, aged 64. His +brother Henry was a Manchester lawyer, and died 1840. + +Of the four ladies of the Thwaite, Miss Anne Beever died in 1858, +and is buried with her brothers at Hawkshead. Miss Margaret (d. +1874), Miss Mary (d. 1883), and Miss Susanna (d. 1893) are buried +at Coniston; their graves are marked by white marble crosses +close to Ruskin's. Indeed, though their local influence and +studies, especially in botany (see, for example, Baxter's _British +Flowering Plants_ and Baker's _Flora of the Lake District_, to +which they contributed, and the Rev. W. Tuckwell's _Tongues in +Trees and Sermons in Stones_, describing their home), give them +a claim to remembrance, their name is most widely known through +Miss Susanna Beever's popular _Frondes Agrestes, readings in +"Modern Painters,"_ and through the correspondence of Ruskin +with Miss Mary and Miss Susanna published as _Hortus Inclusus_. +In his preface to the last he spoke of them as "at once sources +and loadstones of all good to the village in which they had their +home, and to all loving people who cared for the village and its +vale and secluded lake, and whatever remained in them, or around, +of the former peace, beauty, and pride of English Shepherd Land." + +The old Thwaite Cottage, below the house, was tenanted by the +Gaskarths after the death of David Kirkby, Esq., the last of the +former owners, in 1814; and then for many years it was the home +of Miss Harriette S. Rigbye, daughter of Major E. W. Rigbye of +Bank Ground, and an accomplished amateur of landscape painting. +She died in 1894, aged 82, and is buried beside her friends the +Beevers in Coniston Churchyard. The Thwaite Cottage was then let +to Professor J. B. Cohen of the Leeds University, whose works on +organic chemistry are well known. + +The Waterhead estate was bought in the eighteenth century from the +Thompsons by William Ford of Monk Coniston (see Mr. H. S. Cowper's +_History of Hawkshead_, p. xvi.), and came to George Knott (d. +1784) by marriage with a Miss Ford. Mr. Knott was mentioned by +Father West as having "made many beautiful improvements on his +estate." In 1822 a view of the modern "Gothic" front of the +house, now called Monk Coniston Hall, was given in the _Lonsdale +Magazine_. The poet Wordsworth is said to have advised in the +laying out of the gardens. From Mr. Michael Knott the place was +bought by James Garth Marshall, Esq., M.P. for Leeds, whose son, +Victor Marshall, Esq., J.P., still holds it. + +Holywath was built by Mr. John Barratt, the manager of the mines +in their prosperous days, and afterwards held by his daughter, +the wife of Colonel Bousfield. Mr. William Barratt, his cousin, +built Holly How on the site of an old cottage; it was afterwards +tenanted by Mrs. Benson, and is now occupied by Mrs. Kennington. +Mr. William Barratt's son, James W. H. Barratt, Esq., J.P., now +lives at Holywath. + +In 1848 Miss Creighton of Bank Ground built Lanehead, on the site +of the old Half-penny Alehouse, for Dr. Bywater, who tenanted it +for many years. Miss Creighton left the estate to the Rev. H. A. +Starkie; the house was occupied later by Mrs. Melly, and since +1892 by W. G. Collingwood. + +Coniston Bank replaces the old homestead of Townend. It was held +in 1819 by Thomas North, Esq.; in 1849, by Henry Smith, Esq.; in +1855, by Wordsworth Smith, Esq.; subsequently by Major Benson +Harrison, who let it for a time to George W. Goodison, Esq., C.E., +J.P., and then to Thomas Docksey, Esq. In 1897 it was sold to Mrs. +Arthur Severn, who sold it to its present occupant, H. P. Kershaw, +Esq. + +Brantwood, that is to say the nucleus of the present house, was +built at the end of the eighteenth century by Mr. Woodville on +a site bought from the Gaskarths. It was sold to Edward Copley, +Esq., of Doncaster, whose widow died there in 1830. In 1849 it +was in the occupation of Josiah Hudson, Esq., and the early home +of his son, the Rev. Charles Hudson, a founder of the Alpine +Club, and one of the party of young Englishmen who first climbed +Mont Blanc without guides. He joined in the first ascent of the +Matterhorn, 1865, and was killed in the accident on the descent. + +The next resident was an artist, poet, and politician. Mr. William +James Linton was born at Mile-End Road in the east of London in +1812; his father was of Scotch extraction. After apprenticeship +to a wood engraver at Kennington, he worked for the _Illustrated +London News_, and mixed with artists and authors of the Liberal +and advanced party, becoming known as a writer, editor, and +lecturer of much energy on the Radical side. In 1849 he left +London for Miteside in West Cumberland, and in May, 1852, moved +to Brantwood; after a year's tenancy he bought the little house +and estate of ten acres, to which on the enclosure of the common +six acres more were added. At Brantwood he also rented the garden +and field between the house and the lake, and kept cows, sheep, +and poultry; he anticipated Ruskin in clearing part of the land +and cultivating it; in his volume of _Memories_ (Lawrence & +Bullen, 1895) he records the pleasures of his country life, as +well as some of the trials of that period. He had been editing, +and publishing at his own expense, a monthly magazine called +_The English Republic_, and this was taken up again in 1854. +Two young printers and a gardener came to Brantwood and offered +their services, as assistants in this work; and with their help +the magazine was printed in the outhouse, which he decorated +with mottoes, such as "God and the People"--still to be traced +in the roughcast on the wall. But its cost, however economically +produced, was more than he could afford, and the magazine was +dropped in April, 1855, after which he was employed on the +woodcuts for the edition of Tennyson's poems illustrated by +Rossetti, Millais, and other artists of the period. He tells how +Moxon came to call on him and hasten the work, but could not be +received into the house owing to serious illness; and how thankful +he was for a ten-pound note put into his hand by the considerate +publisher as they stood at the gate. At Brantwood Miss Eliza Lynn +came to nurse the first Mrs. Linton in her fatal illness, and +married Mr. Linton in 1858. At Brantwood she wrote her novels +_Lizzie Lorton_, _Sowing the Wind_, and _Grasp your Nettle_; +also _The Lake Country_, published in 1864. Mr. Linton, in 1865, +published _The Ferns of the Lake Country_, but for some years he +had not lived continuously at Brantwood, and in 1866 he went to +America, where he died in 1898. Mrs. Lynn Linton's best known work +was _Joshua Davidson_, written later than her Coniston period; she +died in London in 1898, and was buried at Crosthwaite, Keswick. +Portraits and relics of the Lintons are to be seen in the Museum +at Coniston. + +Another poet, Gerald Massey, lived for a time at Brantwood, and +dated the dedication of a volume of his poems from that address +in May, 1860. He, like Linton, is known for his advocacy of +democratic opinions; indeed, it is said that George Eliot took him +for model in _Felix Holt the Radical_. + +During the later years of Mr. Linton's ownership, Brantwood was +taken for the summer by the Rev. G. W. Kitchin, now Dean of +Durham. In 1871, however, Mr. Linton sold the house to Prof. +Ruskin. + +Ruskin as a child often visited Coniston, and in 1830 at the age +of eleven made his first written mention of the place in a MS. +journal now in the Museum. In his _Iteriad_, a rhymed description +of the tour of that date, he gave the first hint of his wish to +live in the Lake District, and in the winter of 1832-33, at the +age of nearly fourteen, he wrote the well-known verses which stood +first in the earliest collection of his poems:-- + + I weary for the torrent foaming, + For shady holm and hill; + My mind is on the mountain roaming, + My spirit's voice is still. + The crags are lone on Coniston ... + +remembering first and foremost, not Snowdon or Scotland, but +Coniston. In 1837, as an Oxford man, he was here again, making +notes for his earliest prose work, _The Poetry of Architecture_; +and one of the illustrations was a sketch of the Old Hall from +the water, the view which became so familiar afterwards from his +windows at Brantwood. + +Then for a while his interests turned to the cathedrals of France, +the palaces and pictures of Italy, and to the loftier scenery of +the Alps; but curiously enough he did not like the Matterhorn at +first--it was too unlike "Cumberland," he said. In 1847, already +a well-known author, he was looking out for a house in the Lake +District, and staying at Ambleside. But the March weather was +dull, and he had many causes for depression. As he rowed on +Windermere he pined for the light and colour of southern skies. +"The lake," he wrote home, "when it is quite calm, is wonderfully +sad and quiet; no bright colour, no snowy peaks. Black water, as +still as death; lonely, rocky islets; leafless woods, or worse +than leafless; the brown oak foliage hanging dead upon them; gray +sky; far-off, wild, dark, dismal moorlands; no sound except the +rustling of the boat among the reeds." Next year he revisited the +lakes in spring, and wrote soon after about a wild place he had +found:--"Ever since I passed Shap Fells, when a child, I have had +an excessive love for this kind of desolation." + +It was not, however, until 1867 that he revisited the Lakes. He +came to Coniston on August 10th and went up the Old Man, delighted +with the ascent. We have already quoted his description of the +view. + +At last (it was in 1871, at the age of 52, being then Slade +Professor at Oxford) he fell into a dangerous illness, and lay +between life and death at Matlock. He was heard to say and +repeat:--"If only I could lie down beneath the crags of Coniston!" + +Before he was fairly well again he heard through his old friend, +Mr. T. Richmond, that a house and land at Coniston were for +sale. The owner, W. J. Linton, asked £1,500 for the estate, and +he bought it at once. In September he travelled here to see his +bargain and found the cottage, as it then was, in poor condition; +but, as he wrote, some acres "of rock and moor and streamlet, and, +I think, the finest view I know in Cumberland--or Lancashire, with +the sunset visible over the same." + +Next summer the house was ready for him, and thenceforward became +his headquarters. From June, 1889, till his death he never left it +for a night; indeed, the last time he went so far as the village +was on April 7th, 1893, when he attended our Choral Society's +concert. + +It is needless to tell over again the story of his life at +Brantwood; to describe the house that he found a rickety cottage, +and left a mansion and a museum of treasures; the gardens, woods, +and moor he tended; the surroundings of mountain and streamlet, +bird and beast, child-pet and peasant acquaintance, now familiar +to the readers of his later books and of the many books that have +been written about him. But here it must not be left unsaid that +Coniston folk knew him less as the famous author than as the kind +and generous friend; eccentric and not easily understood, but +always to be trusted for help; giving with equal readiness to all +the churches, to the schools and Institute; and to these last +giving not only his money, but his strength and sympathy. It was +he who started the first carving classes, and promoted the linen +industry; he lectured in the village (December, 1883) for local +charities, and--what was perhaps most effective of all--carried +out in practice his principle of employing neighbours rather than +strangers, of giving the tradesfolk and labourers of the valley +a share in his fortunes and interests. And perhaps in his death +he did them almost a greater service. It was in obedience to +his wishes that the offer of a funeral in Westminster Abbey was +refused, and he was laid to rest--January 25th, 1900--"beneath the +crags of Coniston," so linking his name for ever with the place he +loved. + + + + +INDEX. + + + Above beck, 47, 48; + Bovebeck, 77. + + ADDISON of Coniston, 48; + Adinson, 77. + + "Allans," 44, 45. + + Anglian settlement, 23. + + Angling Association, 13. + + Anglo-Cymric score, 25. + + Arnside, 27. + + ASHBURNER of Coniston, 77. + + Ashgill quarry, 19, 66, 67. + + ATKINSON of Coniston, 47-49, 57, 66, 67, 74. + + + BAINBRIDGE of Coniston, 77. + + Bank ground, 9, 34, 77. + + Banniside, 2, 6, 7, 18, 19. + + Baptist chapels, 56, 57. + + BARRATT of Coniston, 1, 60, 80. + + BARROW of Coniston, 49, 74, 77. + + Basalt, 1. + + Beacons, 4, 12, 15. + + "Beck, brook, burn," 26. + + Beck Leven, 10, 62. + + BEEVER of Coniston, 8, 52, 53, 79. + + BELL of Coniston, 42, 68, 74, 76, 77. + + Bethecar, 17. + + BIRKETT, Rev. J., 49, 54. + + Black Bull, 1, 60, 72, 73, 77. + + Blawith, 15, 17, 62, 63. + + Bleaberry haws, 19. + + Bloomeries, 10, 11, 17, 62-65. + + Bloomsmithy rent, 64. + + Boathouses, 8, 9, 10. + + Bobbin mills, 17, 69. + + Bonfires, 4. + + Booth crag and tarn, 7. + + Bounding of pasture, 35. + + Bowmansteads, 38, 48, 76. + + BOWNASS of Coniston, 47, 50, 55, 56, 60, 65, 66, 68, 74-76. + + Brantwood, 10, 81-84. + + Brasses in church, 52, 78. + + British village, 15. + + Brow, 47, 48, 77. + + Brown How, 12. + + BUCCLEUGH, duke of, 12. + + Burnmoor, 20. + + BURNS of Coniston, 77. + + Bursting-stone quarry, 7. + + BYWATER, Dr., 80. + + + Carnarvon, Cumberland, 37. + + Carrs, 5, 23. + + Catbank, 47, 48, 75, 77. + + Chapels at Coniston, 57. + + Chapel Syke, 75. + + CHAPMAN, Rev. C, 51, 54. + + Char, 13. + + Charcoal-burning, 18, 36, 63, 68. + + Church Coniston, 29, 32. + + Church of Coniston, 46-54. + + Circles, stone, 16-21. + + Clergy of Coniston, 54. + + Colwith, 27. + + Comet, 41. + + Conishead Priory land, 63, 65. + + Coniston Bank, 10, 17, 81, _and see_ Townend. + + Coniston, the name, 24. + + COPLEY of Brantwood, 81. + + Coppermines, 2, 13, 22, 58-62. + + COWERD of Coniston, 47, 48. + + COWPER, Mr. H. S., 14, 19, 20, 22, 27, 32, 33, 35, 65, 80. + + CREIGHTON of Coniston, 73, 77, 80. + + Crowberry Haws, 2, 3. + + Crown Hotel, 74, 75. + + "Currock," 16. + + + DAWSON of Coniston, 76, 77. + + Deer-parks, 10, 33, 44, 64. + + Deer-traps, 20. + + DEMETRIUS of Tarsus, 22. + + DENISON of Coniston, 48. + + DE QUINCEY at Coniston, 73. + + Devil's footprints, 34-35. + + DIXON of Coniston, 47-49, 74-77; + Dickson, 51. + + Dixon ground, 2, 48, 76, 77. + + DOUGLAS, Rev. J., 49, 54. + + DOVER of Coniston, 47, 48. + + Dow crags, 5, 6, 23. + + Dykes, ancient, 19, 20. + + + EDRINGTON of Coniston, 77. + + ELLWOOD, Rev. T., 25, 28, 61. + + EVANS, Rev. F., 15. + + + Far end, 5, 47, 48, 77. + + "Feet, fit," 27; + Fittess, 45. + + Fellfoot, 27. + + Fir island, 11. + + Fir point, 9. + + FLEMING, Fletcher, 27. + + ---- Lady le, 53-55, 67, 77. + + ---- of Coniston, 47-49, 51, 66, 75, 76. + + ---- of Coniston Hall, 37-44, 50, 52. + + ---- Sir Daniel, 13, 27, 41, 42, 44, 59, 64. + + ---- Sir Daniel (in 1819), 79. + + ---- Thomas le, 63. + + Floating island, 13. + + FORD of Monk Coniston, 68, 80. + + Forge, 1, 62, 69. + + Furness abbey, 29, 31-36, 63, 65. + + Furness fells, 29, 34, 35. + + + Gaits water, 6, 45; + Goat's tarn, 71. + + GASKERTH of Coniston, 69; + GASKETH, 77; + GASGARTH, 78; + GASKARTH, 81. + + Gateside, 47. + + GELDERD of Coniston, 75, 76; + GELDART, 77. + + German miners, 58-60, 64. + + Ghosts, 17. + + Giant's grave, 15. + + Giants of Troutbeck, 40. + + GIBSON, Dr., 3, 19, 27, 34, 40, 42, 49-51, 55, 58, 60, 61, 75. + + Gill, 48, 69. + + Gillhead bridge, 1, 2. + + Glacial action, 1, 2, 11. + + Glen Mary, 26. + + Goldscope quarries, 66, 67. + + Gondola, 8. + + GREEN, Wm., 66, 67, 73. + + GRESLEY'S novel, _Coniston Hall_, 43. + + Gridiron, 12. + + Grisedale, 33. + + "Grounds," 34. + + Guards, 8, 26. + + + Half-penny alehouse, 72, 74, 80. + + Hall, Coniston, 3, 10, 38-44, 71, 77. + + Hallgarth, 48. + + Hare crags, 19. + + HARRISON of Coniston, 47-49, 77, 81. + + "Hause," 2. + + Hawkshead, 26, 31-33. + + ---- hill, 57. + + Haws bank, 42, 74; + Hows bank, 47, 48. + + Heald, 11, 18. + + Heathwaite, 76. + + High cross, 18. + + HILLIARD, Mr. L. J., 78. + + Hoathwaite, 10; + Huthwait, 47; + Outhwaite, 77. + + HOBSON of Coniston, 47, 48. + + Hodge close, 66, 77. + + HODGSON of Coniston, 47. + + Hollin bank, 77. + + Holly how, 80. + + Holme ground, 45, 77. + + HOLMS of Coniston, 47. + + Holywath, 1, 2, 47, 80. + + How head, 77. + + HUDSON of Brantwood, 81. + + HUERTSON of Coniston, 77. + + Hut-circles, 18, 19. + + + Institute, 53, 55, 56; + _and see_ Museum. + + ION of Coniston, 76. + + Iron industries, 32, 62-65; + _and see_ Bloomeries. + + + JACKSON of Tilberthwaite, 66-69, 74-77. + + Jenkin syke, 22. + + JOHNSON of Coniston, 66, 77. + + + Kendal, barons of, 29, 32, 37. + + KENDALL, Dr., 20, 44, 55, 56. + + Kernel crag, 3. + + Kirkby quay, 9, 66. + + KIRKBY of Coniston, 76, 77. + + "Kirk Sinkings," 16. + + KITCHIN, Dean, 82. + + KNOTT of Monk Coniston, 42, 77, 80. + + + Lakebank hotel, 12. + + Lake of Coniston, 8-13, 29, 32. + + Lanehead, 9, 74, 80. + + Lang crags, 1. + + Lawson park, 18, 33, 35, 64, 77. + + Levers hause, 5,6. + + Levers water, 2-6; + Lever water, 71 + + Limestone, 2, 7. + + Line or Lang gards, 44. + + LINTON of Brantwood, 81, 82, 84. + + Little Arrow, 38, 47, 48, 76, 77. + + Low Bank ground, 9. + + Low house, 48. + + Low water, 2, 3, 5; + Lowwater fall, 3. + + + MACKRETH of Coniston, 69. + + "Man, maen," 4, 23; + High Man, 18. + + Manor of Coniston, 38, 44; + of Monk Coniston, 36. + + MARSHALL of Monk Coniston, 5, 9, 26, 35, 68, 74, 77, 78, 80. + + Meerstone, inscribed, 18. + + MASACKS, MASSICKS of Coniston, 66, 74. + + MASSEY, Gerald, 82. + + Mills, 69, 72. + + Mines, _see_ Copper. + + Model of Coniston, 7. + + Monk Coniston, 29, 31-36. + + ---- ---- hall, 35, 80. + + ---- ---- moor, 18. + + ---- ---- tarns, 4, 26. + + Montague island, 12, 36. + + Moors and their antiquities, 14-20. + + Museum, 7, 12, 53, 55, 56, 67, 78. + + + Nibthwaite, 12, 13, 17, 62; + Neburthwaite, 33. + + Nook, 48. + + Norman settlement, 28-30, 37. + + Norse settlement, 26-28, 30, 37. + + NORTH of Coniston Bank, 81. + + + OLDFIELD, Lieut., 74. + + Old Man, 1-7, 23. + + Otters, 13. + + Outlaws, 33, 34, 38. + + Outrake, 48. + + Oxenfell, 27, 77. + + Oxness, 11. + + + Parkamoor, 17, 33, 35, 62, 64. + + PARK, PARKE of Coniston, 48, 76, 77. + + Park Yeat, 47, 48. + + "Parrocks, parks," 33, 63, 64. + + Partition of Furness, 29. + + Peel island, 11, 12, 62, 65, 68. + + Pennyrigg quarries, 5, 66. + + Pilgrim's badge, 35. + + Population, 69, 70. + + Prehistoric antiquities, 15-21. + + Priest stile, 46. + + Priory, none at Coniston, 72. + + Pudding-stone, 3. + + + Quarries, _see_ Slate. + + + RADCLIFFE, Mrs., at Coniston, 71. + + Railway, 61. + + Raven crag (Yewdale), 5. + + Raven tor (Old Man), 3. + + Rear or Ray crag, 45. + + RIGBYE, Miss, 80. + + Ring mounds, 16-19. + + ROBINSON of Coniston, 47, 69, 72, 74, 76. + + Roman Catholics, 40, 57. + + Roman roads, 22. + + ROULE, Sir R., 46. + + Ruskin cross, 53. + + RUSKIN, John, 4, 7, 10, 56, 57, 74, 83-85. + + + Saddlestones quarry, 3, 66. + + SANDERS of Coniston, 77. + + Satterthwaite, 33. + + SAWREY of Coniston, 77. + + Schools, 46, 54, 55. + + Scrow, 2, 7. + + Selside, 12, 17, 62. + + SEVERN of Brantwood, 11, 55, 56, 81. + + Ship inn, 74. + + SIDNEY, Sir Philip, 40. + + Silverbank, 1, 47, 48. + + Simon Nick, 60. + + Slate quarries, 2, 4, 5, 7, 65-68. + + SLY of Coniston, 74. + + Smartfield, 48. + + SMITH, Elizabeth, 78. + + Smithies, 64. + + SMITH of Coniston Bank, 81. + + SPEDDING of Coniston, 66, 75, 77. + + Spoon hall, 76, 77. + + Springs bloomery, 10, 62, 65. + + Stable Harvey, 62, 65. + + Statesmen, 74-77. + + Stone rings, Burney, 16. + + SUERT of Coniston, 77. + + Sun hotel, 2, 74. + + Sunnybank, 11, 57. + + Swinside circle, 16, 21. + + + Tanneries, 68. + + Tarn hows, Tarnhouse, 77. + + Tarns, _see_ Monk Coniston, Gaitswater, Levers, Lowwater. + + TENNYSON at Coniston, 78. + + Tent cottage, 9, 35, 78. + + Tent lodge, 9, 78. + + Thingmounts, 27-29. + + THOMPSON of Coniston, 66, 80. + + Thurston water, 8, 13, 29, 32, 44, 72. + + "Thwaite," 26. + + Thwaite cottage, 80. + + Thwaite house, 8, 79. + + Tilberthwaite, 47, 48, 67, 77. + + ---- gill, 5; Micklegill, 45. + + TODD, Mr. E., 56. + + Tom or Tarn gill, 26, 62. + + TOWERS of Coniston, 47, 48, 77. + + Townend, 71, 72, 77, 81; _and see_ Coniston bank. + + TOWNSON of Coniston, 49, 69, 78. + + TUBMAN of Coniston, 76. + + TURNER the painter at Coniston, 72. + + TYSON of Coniston, 47, 48, 64, 66, 74, 77. + + + VICKERS of Coniston, 47, 66. + + Volcanic rock, 2, 7. + + + WALKER of Coniston, 48, 66, 67, 77. + + Walna scar, 20, 21. + + WARSOP, Mr., 61, 62. + + Waterhead, 35, 77, 80. + + ---- hotel, 8, 9. + + ---- old inn, 9, 74. + + Waterpark (Coniston), 62, 64. + + ---- (Nibthwaite), 12, 33, 64; Watsyde park, 35. + + Weatherlam, 2, 5, 26. + + Welsh survivals, 23. + + WEST, Father, 38, 39, 66, 71. + + "Whittlegate," 46. + + WILL O' T' TARNS, 40. + + WILSON of Coniston, 66, 77. + + WONDERFUL WALKER, 20, 72. + + Wonwaldremere, 24. + + Wood industries, 68, 69. + + Woods, 36, 64. + + WOODVILLE, Mr. T., 79, 81. + + Woollen, burials in, 51. + + WORDSWORTH at Coniston, 72, 80. + + + Yewdale, 5, 62, 77; + Udale, 48. + + ---- beck, 26, 44. + + ---- crag, 5, 10. + + ---- grove, 79. + + Yewtree, 27; + Utree, 77. + + YOUDALE of Coniston, 66. + + + + + ADVERTISEMENTS. + + + Telegraphic Address:-- + + "SUN HOTEL, CONISTON, LANCS." + + Postal Address:-- + + "SUN HOTEL, CONISTON, R.S.O., LANCS." + + + _Sun_ + + _Hotel_ + + ENGLISH + + LAKE + + DISTRICT. + + + CONISTON. + + Boarding Terms from 6/6 inclusive. + + Hot and Cold Baths. + + Separate Drawing Room for Ladies. + + Public and Private Sitting Rooms. + + Large or small Parties catered for. + + PROPRIETOR - T. SATTERTHWAITE. + + + + TYSON'S + + Waterhead Hotel, + + CONISTON LAKE, LANCASHIRE. + + Headquarters "Automobile Club" of Great Britain & Ireland. + + THIS FIRST-CLASS ESTABLISHMENT is the most delightfully situated + of any Hotel in the Lake District. It is surrounded with beautiful + pleasure grounds and select walks, from which excellent views + of Brantwood, the home of the late Professor Ruskin, and Tent + Lodge, for some time the residence of the late Lord Tennyson, are + obtained; and embraces most interesting Lake and Mountain Views. + + Coniston Churchyard, the burial place of the late John Ruskin, and + the Ruskin Museum, are within a few minutes walk of the Hotel. + + + =Billiards. Lawn Tennis. Private Boats.= + + Fishing. + + A Steam Gondola runs daily on the Lake during the Season. + + _Char a Banc. Open and Close Carriages and Post Horses._ + + =Coaches Daily to AMBLESIDE, GRASMERE, WINDERMERE and LANGDALES.= + + AN OMNIBUS MEETS ALL TRAINS ARRIVING. + + =J. TYSON, Proprietor.= + + + + + JOHN BAXTER, + Painter and Decorator, + + Dealer in Paperhangings, + Glass, Oils, Colours, &c. + + LAKE VIEW, CONISTON, R.S.O. + + All Papers edged by Machine Free of Charge + + ESTIMATES FREE. + + + + + WRITE FOR TITUS WILSON'S + LIST OF LOCAL PUBLICATIONS + + Post Free to any Address. + + 28, Highgate, Kendal. + + + + + _'Fairfield' Temperance Hotel_, + + CAFE AND RESTAURANT, + + + _Opposite the Church._ + + Also a FANCY REPOSITORY with a fine selection of Pictorial Post + Cards, Crest and View China. _Dark Room._ + + + + + JONATHAN BELL, + + Joiner, Builder, + English timber + and Slate Merchant. + + Complete Undertaker. + + Plans made & Estimates given + + for + + every description of Building. + + + HAWS BANK, CONISTON, R.S.O. + + LANCASHIRE. + + + + _Titus Wilson, Printer, Kendal._ + + Transcriber's Notes + + Very few changes have been made to the published text. + + Obvious inconsistencies of punctuation have been resolved. + + Inconsistencies of hyphenation have been retained except those + between text and index which have been resolved. Words in italics + are represented thus; _italic_ while words in bold are represented + thus; =bold=. Many abbreviations are shown with the (usually) + final character superscripted. These are represented by ^. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Book of Coniston, by +William Gershom Collingwood + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43968 *** |