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diff --git a/43968.txt b/43968.txt deleted file mode 100644 index d112f76..0000000 --- a/43968.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4328 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Book of Coniston, by William Gershom Collingwood - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: The Book of Coniston - -Author: William Gershom Collingwood - -Release Date: October 17, 2013 [EBook #43968] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF CONISTON *** - - - - -Produced by Les Galloway, sp1nd and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - THE - BOOK OF CONISTON - - - BY - - W. G. COLLINGWOOD, M.A., F.S.A., - _Editor to the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and - Archaeological 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 (_hals_ 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 debris. - -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 arete 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 arete 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 arete, 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 debris 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 debris, 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 mediaeval 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" -(_Archaeologia_, 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 -_Hakon'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 (_Soelva-haugr_), Loughrigg (_loch-hryggr_), Fairfield -(_faer-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 (_oexna-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 (_skal-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 _Thingvoellr_ -(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. Mediaevals 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, L10-19-5-1/4" 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 -archaeological 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 dais, 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 dais, 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 mediaeval 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 _Ra_, "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 L1 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 L220. - -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 Dni 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 L325 was raised by subscription, a further -sum by assessment, and the Incorporated Church Building Society -made a grant of L125. 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 L146, 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 L50, "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 L5 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 L600 -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 150L) 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 L2,000. -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 ... -aquae 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 L20. Less than thirty -years later, in 1564-5, these were suppressed, because it was -represented that the woods were being wasted, and the L20 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 mediaeval, 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 mediaeval; 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 mediaeval; 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 L2 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 L1,072 -17s. worth of slates, and paid L719 18s. 10d. in wages; Ashgill in -1826 made L381 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 L33 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, L12,251. - - -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 L100 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 L1,500 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. 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