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TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

CUMBERLAND ASSOCIATION

FOR THE

Advancement of Literature

and Scvence.
PART IV.—1878-79.

EDITED By THE ReEv: Ji. CLIFTON WARD;

Associate of the Royal School of Mines; Fellow
of the Royal Microscopical, Geological,
and Mineralogical Societies.

PRICE TO MEMBERS, ONE SHILLING.
NON-MEMBERS, TWO SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE,

CARLISLE:
G. AND \T. COWARD, PRINTERS, 75, SCOTCH’ STREET.
1879.

TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

CUMBERLAND ASSOCIATION

FOR THE

Advancement of Literature
and Scuence.

PART IV.—1878-79.

EDITED BY -THE Rev. J. CLIFTON WARD,

G.

Associate of the Royal School of Mines; Fellow
of the Royal Microscopical, Geological,
and Mineralogical Societies.

PRICE TO MEMBERS, ONE SHILLING.
Non-MEMBERS, Two SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE,

CARLISLE :

AND T. COWARD, PRINTERS, 75, SCOTCH STREET.
1879.

ag ie cat is

EDITOR’S PREFACE.

Each year our Volume of “Transactions” has increased in
bulk and varied interest, and it might be well for the Members
of the several affiliated Societies to bear in mind, while writing
their Papers for the evening meetings, that possibly such Papers
may be recommended for publication by their own Committee,
and approved by the Association Council. Remembering this,
authors will be anxious to write so that the MSS. may pass
on into the printer's hands without delay, always writing o” one —
side of the paper only.

Each author may have Fifty copies of his own Paper done
up in a separate cover, with the title printed outside, on pay-
ment at the rate of One Penny per copy for every ten pages.

The List of Birds found in Cumberland, given at the end of
the volume, is compiled partly from a list furnished by Mr. George
Dawson, of Carlisle, and partly from the MS. catalogue of the
Keswick Museum. Mr. Dawson’s list should have been published
a year ago, had it not been thought better to defer its publication
a little until the catalogues might be rolled into one.

C!O N*M Es.

RULES :
List oF OFFICERS
REPORTS FROM THE Assoorarep, Socrerres
AnnvaL Report AND TREASURER’S ACCOUNT oe as
ORIGINAL PAPERS COMMUNICATED TO THE SOCIETIES DURING THE
SEssion 1878-79, AND SELECTED BY THE ASSOCIATION
CounciL FoR PUBLICATION :—
“‘The Formation of Cumberland.” seh R. $. , Fee
F.$.A., (Carlisle) ail
“‘The Hiuaiony and Ballads of the Border.” ‘By R. A
Allison, M.A. (Longtown) tgs
‘The History and Customs of the Mens of ihe
Marquis and Richmond Fees in the Barony of
Kendal and of the Manor of Hawkshead.” ue
W. Hopes Heelis, (Ambleside) ..
‘*Notes on the Whitehaven Rural Saiitnty Diistatole zs
By James Syme, Med. Off. of Health, (Whitehaven)
‘* Restoration of Ancient Buildings.” By the Rt. Hon.
G. C. Bentinck, Qu bieharen):--
‘*Our Summer Visitors.” By T. Dackwntle (Carlisle)
‘With the Dipper.” By Wm. Duckworth, (Carlisle)
‘The Entomology of the District.” res gprs Dawson,
(Carlisle) ie
“*The Stability of Rowing ae Sailing Bente: ” By fe
Rev. E.FM. Reynolds, (Ambleside) a
“‘TheGreat Lake, Lagoon, or Bay of Triton.” By
B. A. Irving, M.A., (Ambleside)
‘The Old Maryport finenaes and its ia in the
History of Iron Manufacture.” Bey John Addison,
C.E., (Maryport) :
‘The Drama and Dramatists.” By EL ‘Fletcher,
(Whitehaven) :
** Flax and Flax- Wiarkenas By Ww. Wala, (White
haven) :
**English Music.” By J. Mise ncaa (Whitehaven)! 5
‘‘The Hon. Charles Radcliffe, and his connection ite
the Rebellions of 1715 and 1745.” By J. F.
Crosthwaite, (Keswick) Pe a oes
** Robert Pomihers ” By the Very Rev. A. P. Stanley,
D.D., F.R.S., Dean of Wostesinster, (Keswick) .
“List of ree Birds in the Carlisle and Resid
Museums,” by George Dawson Cone and the
Rev. J. Clifton Ward, F.G.S.

33
61

89
lll

129
153
171

185
189

201

227
243
257
279
297

321

331

R Vetere

OF THE

Cumberland Association for the Advancement of
Piterature and Science.

1.—That the Association be called the ‘* CUMBERLAND
ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF LITERATURE AND

SCIENCE.”

2.—The Association shall consist of all members of the following
Societies, Whitehaven Scientific Association, Keswick Literary
and Scientific Society, Cockermouth Literary and Scientific Society,
Workington Scientific and Literary Association, Maryport Literary
and Scientific Society, Longtown Literary and Scientific Society,
Carlisle Scientific Society and Naturalists’ Field Club, Ambleside
and District Literary and Scientific Society, Silloth and Holme
Cultram Literary and Scientific Society, and of the members of
such other Societies as shall be duly affiliated. Also of persons
not belonging to any of the affiliated Societies, if nominated by
two members of the Council; this latter class of members shall

pay the sum of 5s. annually.

3.—The Association shall be governed by a Council, consisting
ofa President, Vice-Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer, and of ordinary

members, two to be elected by each affiliated Society.

4.—The President, Secretary, and Treasurer shall be elected

annually at the Annual Meeting, and be capable of re-election.

5.—The Vice-Presidents shall consist of the Presidents of the
various affiliated Societies; and the delegates of the various Societies

shall be elected annually by their respective Societies.

6.—An Annual Meeting of the Association shall be held at such
time and place as may be decided upon at the previous Annual
Meeting, or (failing such appointment) as may be arranged by the

Council.

7.—At each Annual Meeting, after the delivery of the Presi-
dent’s Address, and the reading of the Reports from the affiliated
Societies, the objects of the Association may be furthered by
Lectures, Papers, Addresses, Discussions, Conversaziones, &c.
The Council shall have the power of obtaining the assistance of

persons who are not members of the Association.

8.—The Council may publish at the expense of the Association
such portions of its own or any of the affiliated Societies’ communi-
cations as may be deemed advisable, subject to the consent of the

author.

9.—The Council shall endeavour to promote co-operation among
existing Societies, and may assist in the formation of new ones; it
may also aid in the establishment of classes in connection with

any of the associated Societies.

10.—Affiliated Societies shall contribute towards the general
funds of the Association the sum of Sixpence for each member.

11.—The Rules can only be altered by a majority of two-thirds

of the members present at an Annual Meeting. Any member

7

desiring to alter the rules must send a copy of the proposed alter-
ations to the Secretary, at least two weeks before the meeting is
held.

12.—Past Presidents of the Association shall be permanent
members of the Council, and be described as Past Presidents.

13.—The travelling expenses of all who assist in carrying out the
programmes of the various affiliated Societies shall be defrayed by
the Society assisted.

The Fifth ANNUAL MEETING will be held at Maryport in
the month of May next, and due notice of the arrangements for

the same will be issued to all members of the Association.

Members willing to bring forward Papers on subjects of
original investigation or of local interest should send in the titles

of the same to the Secretary.

OFFICERS FOR THE SESSION, 1879-80,

:0:

President.
Tur Hon. P. S. WynpHAm, M.P.

Past Presidents.

Tur Lorp BisHoP oF CARLISLE.
Tue LATE J, FuetcHEer, Esq., M.P., F.R.S.

Vice Presidents.

A, Krreuty, Esq., F.C.S. (Whitehaven. )

Rev. Canon Barrerspy, M.A. (Keswick.)

Wm. Fuercuer, Esq., M.P., F.G.S. (Cockermouth. )

G. J. Snexus, Esq., Assoc. R.S.M., F.C.S. (Workington. )
J. Appison, Esq., C.E. (Maryport. )

Rev. A. O‘Connor (Longtown. )

Tur Lorp BisHoP oF CARLISLE (Carlisle. )

Rozert Crewpson, Esq. (Ambleside.)

Rev. W. Horne, M.A. (Silloth and Holme Cultram.)

Council.
T. F. I‘Awnson, M.D. £
R. Russert, C.E., F.G.S. Whitehaven.

Auex. A. H. Knient, M.D. ;
Witiram Woop Keswick. -

Hever: Donen, Se D. Cockermouth.

J H , M.D. :
gg aes Workington.

Rev. J. S. Crate )

J. A. Goupre \ Maryport.
JoHN WILSON :

A. WILKIE Longtown.

Henry Barnes, M.D. ;
R. 8. Fercuson, M.A. F.S.A. { Carlisle.

Rev. H. S. CaLenprr, M.A. ;
JAMES BENTLEY Ambleside.

Mg asa M.D. Silloth and Holme Cultram.

Hon. Treasurer and Secretary.
Rev. J. CLirron Warp, Assoc. R,S.M., F.G.S., &c

Reports from the Associated Societies.

WHITEHAVEN SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION,

HOWGILL STREET.

12th SESSION, 1878-79.

President R. Russewz, C.E., F.G.S,

Vice-President A. Kircury, F.C.S.

Past-Presidents.

T. F. PAnson, M.D W. H. Kircury,
W. Jackson, J.P., F.S.A H. A. Fuetcuer, F.R.A.S.
Aveustus HELDER. JAMES Barrp.
Committee.
E. Asiett, M.D. J. D. Kenpauu, M.E., F.G.S.
JOSEPH ADAIR. J. W. Montcomery, F.C.S.
JOHN JACKSON.

R. PickEerRiNG, C.E.
J. Vivian, C.E.

Hon. Curators,

Botanical J. ADAIR.

Zoological ee iat oti eliglt WABERIE!

Geological R. PIcKERING.

Mineralogical §** ** “°° R. RussEtz,

Archeological ... 1.0.0 1. as a ¥ ieee
Treasurer J. S. HELLoN.
Hon, Librarian... H. Apatr.
Hon. Secretaries B. Taytor.

W. W. NELson,

10

The following MEETINGS were held during the Session :—

Oct. 22.—CoNVERSAZIONE.—The PRESIDENTS ADDRESS.

Nov. 5.—T. THomerson.—History, Art, and Science, as illustrated by
Froude, Ruskin, and Tyndall.

Nov. 19.—J. Syme, Med. Off. of Health.—Notes on the Whitehaven Rural
Sanitary District.

Dec. 3.—C. MaccetasHan.—Subsidence of the Earth’s Crust, from Internal
Causes, and the Formation of Eagoons and other Sea-born Islands.
(Illustrated. )

Dec. 17.—G. H. Lipprett, M.E.—The Whitehaven Colleries. (Abstract
of a Paper read before the Ohesterfield and Derbyshire Inst. of
M.C. and M. Engineers.)

» W. TAnson, M.B.—Frog Life.

Jan. 7.—J. E. Taytor, F.LS., F.G.S.—Geographical Distribution of
Animals and Plants.

Jan. 21.—E. FLercHer.—The Drama and Dramatists.

Feb. 4.—The Right Hon. G. C. Bentinck, M.P.—The Principles on which
the Restoration of Ancient Buildings should be conducted.

Feb. 10.—Prof. W. ©. Wuiutamson, F.R.S., Professor of Nat. His.,
Owen’s College, Manchester.—The Lowest _and Microscopic Forms
of Plant-Life.

Feb. 18.—W. Wuitson.—The Archeology of Flax and Flax-workers,

Mar. 4.—D. Joy, President of the Barrow Naturalist’s Field Club.—The
Study of the Mechanical Forces as applied in Nature, a means
teen their improved application for the ends of civilization.

Mar. 18.—Rev. A. Narrn.—Sketch of Socrates: a Parallel between his
Methods and some Modern Scientific Forms of Investigation.

April 1.—W. W. Netson. — Wordsworth: considered chiefly as a
Philosophical Poet.

April 15.—J. Macqurren.—English Music. [Illustrations by W. Mc.Gowan
and others.

April 29.—Business Mzetine, Election of Officers, &c.

At.the close of the Session 1878-79, the Committee have to
express their satisfaction at the success which has attended the
meetings, and to tender their thanks for the manner in which they
have been supported by the members in carrying on the work,
which it is the humble aim of the Association to accomplish.

Since the last Annual Meeting, considerable alteration has
been made in the constitution of this Association. At that
meeting, a draft of proposed new Rules, as approved of by the
Committee, was submitted to the members for consideration. At
a Special General Meeting, held on the 25th day of June, 1878,
these Rules, after considerable discussion, were passed without any

11

material amendments. The principal reason for altering the then

existing Rules, was to obtain the advantage of the Act 6 and 7
Vict., cap. 36. The new Rules have been submitted to the
Registrar, and approved of by him; so that the property of the
Association now receives the full benefit of the relief which the
legislature intended to confer on science by the passing of this Act.
The insertion of Rules 5 and 7 isimportant. These Rules introduce
two classes of members into the Association ; and while members
retain all the original rights which membership conferred, the
associate members have had some additional advantages granted
to them in consideration of the increased subscription which they
pay. Although these Rules were in force since the date of the
General Meeting at which they were passed, in reality they did not
come into operation until the 1st of January, 1879. A circular,
with blank form attached, was. issued to all the members on the
28th of December, 1878, requesting intending associate members
to fill up the form and return it to the Secretaries. The response
to this circular was very satisfactory; and the Committee have
every reason to be highly gratified with the result. The Associate
Members at present are 82 in number.

The Conversazione, with which the Session commenced, was
well attended, and showed most conclusively that the interest
which the members and their friends have in the welfare of the
Association has not diminished in the slightest degree. The
meeting was held in the Town Hall, and the programme was
successfully carried through. The President delivered an address,
treating partly of the necessity of science being taught in our
schools and educational colleges; and partly of some of the
recent discoveries in science. The Vice-President gave a very
successful illustration of the telephone and the microphone. Mr.
J. M. K. Main also gave a short description of his patent safety
cage, a working model of which was exhibited in the room.

To the ladies who presided over the refreshment table, to the
. other members and friends of the Association who kindly sent
articles for exhibition, and to those who assisted in carrying out
the programme, the success of the Conversazione is in a great
measure due.

12

The Committee would suggest to members, that they might
make these opening meetings still more interesting and instructive,
by lending articles for exhibition.

The Papers which have been read before the Association
during the Session have been of a varied description.

There were thirteen Meetings, exclusive of the Conversazione,
and the Annual Business Meeting.

Twelve Papers have been read, and two Lectures, by
professional gentlemen, given at these meetings. Six of the papers,
and both lectures, were on subjects connected with science ; four
were of a literary character; and two more or less of an archzo-
logical nature. ‘The average attendance has been generally good,
in fact, more numerous than in any previous year. It must,
therefore, have been pleasing to those gentlemen, who have devoted
time and labour in the preparation of papers, to see that their
work was appreciated.

Two of the Papers dealt with local subjects—‘ Notes on the
Whitehaven Rural Sanitary District,” by Mr. J. Syme, Medical
Officer of Health, and ‘‘ Whitehaven Colleries,” by G. H. Liddell.

The Lecture in connection with the Cumberland Association,
was given by Mr. J. E. Taylor, F.G.S. The attendance was not
quite so numerous as on the first occasion when he lectured in
Whitehaven.

The paper by the Rt. Hon. G. C. Bentinck, M.P., which he
was prevented from reading during the Session of 1877-78, was
read on the 4th of February. In the course of replying to the vote
of thanks accorded to him, Mr. Bentinck made some further re-
marks of a most interesting character, in elucidation of his views
on the Restoration of Ancient Buildings.

The Lecture by Prof. Williamson, F.R.S., was an extra lecture.
The funds of the Association would scarcely have warranted
the cost in connection with this lecture during the present year.
Thanks, however, to the assistance received from various members,
a considerable proportion of the expense was guaranteed by private
‘subscription: an example which might be followed with advantage

13

in future Sessions. This lecture was given in the Association’s
Rooms, Howsgill Street, and the attendance was very large.

The Session was brought to a successful conclusion by the
paper on “English Music.” The illustrations were given with -
much effect by several ladies and gentlemen who assisted Mr. J.
Mc.Queen. The room was filled with a large and appreciative
audience. The success attending the effort made to place before
the Association some very valuable knowledge relating to English
Music, was most satisfactory.

Donations to the Museum have been received from Messrs.
Russell, Scoular, Dalton, and Dobson. The Curators have to
thank those gentlemen by whom articles have been presented ;
and they trust that presentations to the Museum by members of
the Association, may become still more frequent.

A Botanical Section has lately been formed. This section
numbers 15 members. Mr. J. Adair is President, and Mr. J. D.
Kendall, Secretary of the section. The work which the section
has undertaken to perform during the summer, is to study the
flowering plants of the neighbourhood, and to collect and form a
herbarium of all the plants of the district. The country around
Whitehaven has been laid out in districts, and the work has com-
menced in earnest.

The Library has been largely added to during the year; and
the Librarian reports that it is in a very satisfactory and flourishing
condition.

The Members and Associate Members of the Association
at present number 289. Thirty-four new members have been
elected during the year ; and there has been a nett increase of 21
in the number of members since 1877-78.

The Committee have to thank many members for special
assistance rendered during the Session,—assistance which they
valued most highly. To those gentlemen who communicated
papers they are specially indebted—in short, they have to express
their gratitude for the general support which has been ungrudingly
given by every one.

They have also to acknowledge their obligation to the gentle-

14

men connected with the local press, for the reports of the
proceedings which have from time to time been inserted in the
various weekly publications.

KESWICK LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

10rH SESSION, 1878-9.

President ... aa ee .. Rey. Canon Batrersspy, M.A,

Vice-President Reet o aa ap cis hae, ... J. FISHER CROSTHWAITE

Secretary ... ne i wits cr ... WiLLt1aM Woop

Treasurer ... aa sale aos Se ... EDWIN JACKSON
Committee.

Rey. G. L. B. Wixpie. Rey. J. Cuirron Warp, F.G.S.

Rev. ALFRED Howson. A. A. H. Kyieut, M.D.

Rev. Wm. CoLviLye. Peter HARRISON,

E. J. GRayson. JOHN POsTLETHWAITE.

JOHN BIRKETT.

ORDINARY MEETINGS,
Held in the Keswick Library at 7-80 p.m.

Oct. 14,—THEe PrestpENtT—Opening Address.
Noy. 11.—Isaac Lowruran.—Notes on Norway.
Nov. 18.—J. R. Anperson, B.A.—Days in Greece.

Dec. 2.—J. RicHarpson, St. John’s—Sports and Pastimes in the Lake
Country.

Dec. 16.—Open night for Debate or Short Papers.

Jan. 6.—W. Kuinsry Dover.—Pre-historic, Sepulchral, and other
Remains in the Lake District.

Jan. 20.—Grorce E. Lowra1an.—Shakspeare.
Feb. 17.—Rev. G. L. B. Wiitp1c—The Protectorate of Cromwell.
Feb. 24.—Joun PostLerHwa1TrE—Gold Mining.

Mch. 10.—Rev. J. E. Savtt—Notices of Registers, Terriers, &c., of Threl-
keld and Neighbourhood.

Mch, 17.—J. F. Crostawarre—The Hon. Charles Radcliffe, and his
connection with the Rebellions of 1715 and 1745.

Mch. 24.—Rev. J. Ciirron Warp, F.G.S.—Notes on recent Snow and Ice
Phenomena in the Lake District.

April 7.—H. Mayson—Notes from my Log Book.

15

LECTURES.
Held in the Lecture Hall of the Keswick Library, at 8 p.m.

Oct. 21.—The Hon. P. 8S. WynpHAm, M.P.—The Preservation of Ancient
Buildings.

Nov. 4,—Joun Hotmes, Esq., Leeds—On the Remains of Pre-historic Man,
especially illustrative of such remains in Keswick and Neighbour-
hood.

Nov. 25.—T. F. I‘Anson, Esq., M.D.—Bones and Muscles.
Dec. 9.—A. A. H. Knicut, Esq., M.D.—The Circulatory System.
Dec. 23.—H. Barnes, Esq., M.D.—The Nervous System.

Jan, 15.—J. E. Taytor, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S.—Flowers: their Shapes,
Perfumes, and Colours.

Feb. 3.—Rev. T. J. Cooprr, M.A.—Tennyson.
Mch. 3.—Rev. J. T. Pottocx, M.A.—Pope.
Mch.31.—Very Rev. A. P. Stantey, D.D.—Southey.

The Committee, in presenting their report, congratulate the
members upon the numerical and financial state of the Society in
the Session now being brought toaclose. There are 152 members
at 3s. 6d., as against 145 last year ; and there are also 10 members
under age, who pay 2s.6d. each. Several members have been lost
through removals, etc.; but there is an increase of seven over last
year. Total members now on the books, 162. The list has been
carefully revised by crossing off the names of those who have left
the neighbourhood, or withdrawn from the Society, so that the
Committee can safely reckon upon the list as it now stands.
These 162 members include 22 new ones who have joined since
the last annual meeting.

There have been nine Lectures during the Session, and twelve
Ordinary Meetings.

The Lectures consisted of a course of three on Animal Physi-
ology, particularly the human subject; two Antiquarian, two
Literary, one on Flowers, and one on Pompeii.

The Papers at the Ordinary Meetings were—two Biographical,
three Notices of Travel, two Historical, two Scientific, and three
Archeological and Antiquarian.

The attendance at the Lectures and Meetings has not been so
good as the Committee would be glad to see, or the interest and
importance of the subjects should command. Although the price of

16

admission to lectures charged to non-members is so low as 1d., it is
to be regretted that so very few of the inhabitants have attended ;
still, there has been more money taken for admissions than there
was last Session. The cost for Lectures has been a few shillings
in excess for this Session.

There were only two Excursions or Field Days last summer,
the first to Thirlmere and Castle Rock, St. John’s, attended by
twenty-two persons; the second to Grasmere and Langdale,
including the Elterwater Slate Quarries, which was attended by
thirty-seven members and friends. The Committee are glad to
report that these Excursions bore their own costs, not a single
penny being taken from the funds of the Society. The other two
Excursions intended to have been made, viz. to Maryport and
Threlkeld, did not come off, because at about the dates they were
fixed for, the Bazaar and many other attractions were offered in
Keswick.

As you will doubtless be aware, the Committee became the
purchasers of Flintoft’s Model of the Lake District, and subse-
quently effected an arrangement with Messrs. Mayson by which
the Museum and Model were let to them on a satisfactory lease,
thus securing a very fair annual income for Museum purposes.
The Model was bought for £160—-the purchase money being
realized from the Bazaar, as mentioned hereafter.

The Bazaar which was held for the joint benefit of the
Museum and the School of Art realized 4460, which was equally
divided between the two institutions, being #230 for each. This
enabled the Committee to pay off the cost of the Model, and also
some outstanding accounts, for fitting up the Museum. Within the
last month, the Model, which had got into rather bad condition,
has been repaired, restored, and re-coloured by Mr. Barnes. The
Museum was opened free to the public for several days about
Christmas and the beginning of the year, and is now permanently
opened and under the care of Mr. Jenkinson.

With reference to the Lecture on “Robert Southey” by
Dean Stanley, your Committee decided to give the whole nett
proceeds towards liquidating the debt upon the Library, caused

17

by certain alterations made upon the premises for sanitary
improvements. Those necessary alterations cost something over
447, towards which the Library Committee had raised £19 10s.,
leaving a debt of more than £27; this had hung like a dead '
weight upon the Library for nearly three years, when it occurred
to your Committee to devote the income from the Dean’s Lecture
to the purpose already stated. They were the more readily
induced to do this by the consideration that no injustice was done
to the Literary Society, because that Lecture formed no part of the
published Programme of the Session, but was entirely extra. It
will be satisfactory to members of this Society to know that the
sum of £16 1s. 6d. has been realized from the Lecture, and
handed over to the Library ; and it is confidently hoped that this,
with the addition of the proceeds of the Concert of last Thursday
evening, so liberally voted by the Choral Society for the same
purpose, will set the Library on a sure footing.

It will be remembered that at the last Annual Meeting it was
resolved to reduce the subscription from 5s. to 3s. 6d. The Com-
mittee are glad to say that even with that reduction a very fair
balance in favour of the Society has been brought forward.

The entire Income has been __... 434 12 5
Expenditure ze fas be 24. bebe 1
Balance to the good a4) we 410 6 4

The Committee have the pleasure to report that they have
settled all claims upon the Society up to the last day of their
remaining in office.

18

COCKERMOUTH LITERARY & SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

8raH SESSION, 1878-9.

President... ... ' The late Isaac Frercner, Esq., M.P., F.R.S.

Vice-Presidents,

Rev. E. Green, M.A.
Henry Dopeson, Esq., M.D., F.R.A.S., F.MLS.
JosEPH Brown, Esq.

Committee.

Mr. T. M. Harris. Mr. E. L. Waveu.

Mr. J. H. PickErIne. Mr. H. R. WynpHaAm.

Mr. J. Smpson. Mr. W. YoupDALe.
Treasurer Hae Be ae ee aa Mr. GRAHAM,
Secretary che a ce oe .. Rev, W. WILLIAMS

LECTURES

Were delivered during the Session, as follows :—

Oct. 17.—The Poetry of Edmund Spencer. By the Rev. C. H. Gem,
Vicar of Torpenhow.

Oct. 31.—How Cumberland was formed. By R. 8. FeEreuson, Esq.,
F.S.A., Carlisle.

Nov. 14.—Geological Time. Py the Rev. E. Green, M.A.
Nov. 28.—Styles in Art. By J. A. WHEATLEY, Esq., Carlisle.
Dec. 9.—The Colonies of Great Britain. By W. Fiercuer, Esq., F.G.S.

Jan. 9.—The Geographical Distribution of Animals and Plants. By J. E.
Taytor, Esq., F.L.S., F.

Jan, 23.—The Ground beneath us, aa how we investigate its structure.
By the Rev. J. Cuirron Warp, F.G.S.

Feb. 6.—The Poetry of Tennyson. By the Rev. T. J. Cooprmr, M.A.,
Vicar of St. Cuthbert’s, Carlisle.

Feb. 20.—Constantinople. By the Rev. R. Younc, M.A., Incumbent of
Teviothead.

Mch. 6.—Botany. By the Rev. Canon Carr, M.A., Vicar of Dalston.
Close of Session, Business, and Election of Officers.

Ten Lectures have been delivered before this Society during
the past Session; two were on Poetry, one on Art, four were
Scientific, one Archzological, and two specially on foreign
countries, .

19

The attendance of members was by no means so good and
regular as it should have been, and the Committee would be glad
to see a more /vely interest taken in the work of the Society.

On the 28th of June, 1878, the members of the Society visited .
Sale and Wythop Fells, under the leadership of J. C. Ward, Esq.,
F.G.S.

The Society mourns the loss of its late President, I. Fletcher,
Esq., M.P., F.R.S., feeling that it loses in him a man most qualified
for such a post, and one whose place it will not be easy to supply.

WORKINGTON SCIENTIFIC & LITERARY SOCIETY.

5th SESSION, 1878-79.

President... “ie Sic es “ G. J. Syetus, Esq.
Vice-President a as Re ne ... Dr. Dovanas
Treasurer... se am Sat 400 W. Witson, Esq.
Committee.
Mr. H. Bowes. Mr. E. J. Burrows.
Mr. G. F. Downar. Mr. F. E. Woop.

Dr. HicHET.

The following Programme has been carried out :—

Nov. 6.—J. C. Warp, Esq., F.G.S.—Ocean Life.
Noy. 20.—Rev. C. H. Gem, M.A.—Tom Hood.
Dec. 4.—J. A. WueEatiry, Esq.—American Humourists.

Jany. 8.—J. E. Taytor, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c.—Earthquakes and
Volcanoes,

Jany.22.—A. THorniry, Esq.—Air.

Feb. 5.—Rev. J. J. THorntey.—Charles Kingsley.

Feb. 19.—J. Roginson, Esq.—The Literature of Spain.

Mch. 5—A. Krrcutn, Esq., F.C.S.—Chemistry of a piece of Sugar.

In presenting this, the fifth annual Report, the Committee
are glad to be able to state that there has, during the year, been
an increase in the membership—the capitation grant having been
paid for 83 as against 70 for last year. They, however, regret that

20

the ordinary attendance at lectures is not yet what it ought to be;
nor is there that active co-operation which the Committee would
like to see actuate each individual member. They are not,
_ however, without hope, that in the future, as the claims of the
Association become more widely known, and its advantages felt,
that a greater interest will be developed. The Committee would,
however, be glad of any suggestions which would help them, so
to speak, to popularise the Society, and enable them to draw into
its membership the artisans and young tradesmen of the town, a
class which, at present, do not seem inclined to take advantage of
such an Institution.

The Session was opened on 16th October, by the President’s
Address and Conversazione, held in the Assembly Rooms, which
was very well attended, and at which several articles of interest
were exhibited. The Committee feel indebted to those gentlemen
who so kindly gave the benefit of their valuable assistance, as well
as to those who lent articles for exhibition.

The financial position will be seen from the Treasurer’s
Balance Sheet, to be very satisfactory ; and in retiring from office,
the Committee earnestly hope that the future career of the Society
may be one of ever increasing prosperity.

MARYPORT LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

3rD SESSION, 1878-9.

President aaa be ner aa BEE Dr. CRERAR.
Vice-President ... ee AG J. Apptson, Esq., J.P., C.E.

Past Presidents.
Rev. A. Oatzs, | J. Woop, Esq.

Hon. Secretaries.
Mr. J. B, Batiey. | _ Mr. L. Aparr.

Treasurer Jed i a ei ... Mr, J. Roprnson

21

Committee.
Rey. J. 8S. Craic. Mr. A. HInNE.
Mr. F. WALKER. Mr. W. Hive.
Mr. P. MactntTyre. Mr. R. Aparr.

Mr. J. Hopcson.

ORDINARY MEETINGS.

Oct. 15.—The Days and Doings of John Knox. Rev. A. Oares.

Nov. 5.—Socrates : the Story of his Times—his Life and Death. Rev. J.S.
Cralc.

Noy. 26.—The Conquest of Pennsylvania. Mr. L. Aparr.

Dec. 10.—Debate : Capital Punishment—Is it Justifiable? Mr. J. B.
Barey v. Mr. G. Prior.

Dec. 17.—The Old Furnaces and their connections. Mr. J. ADDISON,
J.P., C.E

Jan. 21.—Recollections of Modern Maryport. Mr. R. Apar.
Feb. 4,—Debate: Compulsory Vaccination. Dr. Crerarv. Mr. R. ADAIR,
Feb. 18.—Oliver Cromwell. Mr. J. ARMSTRONG.

Mch, 4.—Karly and Recent History of the Iron Manufacture. Mr. J. R.
CoRNER.

Mch. 18.--David Livingstone. Mr. P. J. Stewart.

Mch. 25.—The Telephone and Microphone. Mr. T. SHERWooD.
Apnil 1.—Some of the Properties of Heat. Mr. J. B. Bartey.
April 14,—Revision of Rules, Election of Office-Bearers, &c.

PUBLIC LECTURES.

Oct. 2.—Science and Art in their relation to Houses, Furniture, Dress,
and Domestic Art. J. C, Buckmaster, Esq., B.A

Oct. 29.—On Light. A. Kircutn, Esq., F.C.S.
Noy. 19.—On Light. A. Kircury, Esq., F.C.S.

Jan. 10.—Geographical Distribution of Plants and Animals. J. E. Taynor,
Esq., Ph.D., F.L.S., F.G.S., Editor of ‘‘Science Gossip.”

Jan. 14,—The Writings of Charles Dickens. J. HETHERINGTON, Esq.,
F.R.G.S.

Jan. 28.—On Sound. Rey. J. Ciirron Warp, F.G.S.
April 8,.—The Phonograph, Telephone, and Microphone. H. GraHam, Esq.

In presenting their third annual Report, the Committee has
great pleasure in again recording a substantial increase in the
number of members. Last year there were 81 ordinary members,
including five ladies ; but this year there are 102 ordinary members,
including nineteen ladies. Five gentlemen were unanimously
elected Honorary Members, viz :—

22

Rev. J. Cuirron Warp, F.G.S.
J..Ee-Tavior. Esq, Ph. Dy ELS, ‘E.G.s.
J. C. Buckmaster, Esq., B.A.

J. HETHERINGTON, Esq., F.R.G.S.

A. Kitcuin, Esq., F.C.S.

In the two previous Sessions the evening for the Meetings
was Friday ; but this has been altered to Tuesday during the past
Session, and the change was a very beneficial one.

The attendance at all the Meetings was greatly above the
average; and the plan of having two classes of Lectures—Public
and Ordinary—works well. To the former the admission was free
to all, whilst to the latter, friends of members were admitted on
payment of sixpence. This plan has given such great satisfaction,
that it is to be continued during the coming Session.

The Programme—a much longer one than last Session—was
faithfully carried out ; and the great interest taken in the majority
of the Papers was shown by the intelligent discussions which
followed them—such discussions being much above the average.

The exhibition of the Phonograph by Mr. Graham of London
was very successful.

The Zransactions have again been given free to the members.

LONGTOWN LITERARY & SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

2nd SESSION, 1878-79.

President... ays sie as ... Rey, A. O'Connor.
Vice-President a a tie .. R. A. Axzison, Esq.
Secretary and Treasurer sas nied .. Mr. J. WILSON.

Committec.

Dr. GRAHAM. Mr. E. J. MusGRAVE,
My. J. Ria. Mr. W. Lirttez.
Mr. J. PEEL. | Mr. A. WILKIE.

23

PUBLIC LECTURES.

Oct. 15.—R. A. Autisoy, Esq.—The History and Ballads of the Border.

Nov. 19.—Rev. Canon Drxon, M.A.—Pegasus: the Story of an Old
Horse—being a Lecture on Poetry.

Dec. 10.—R. Russett, Esq., C.E., F.G.S.—Pompeii.

Jan. 13.—J. E. Tayuor, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S.—An Hour by a Pond Side.
Feb. 11.—Tuos. Wurretaw, Esq.—The Appeal to Time.

Mch. 11.—Reyv. J. Cuirron Warp, F.G.S.—The Ear.

ORDINARY MEETINGS.

Oct. 22.—Discussion on Mr. Allison’s Lecture.

», 29.—Rev. A. O‘Connor.—Architecture.
Nov. 5.—Readings.

», 12.—Mr. J. Ketty.—Physiology.

3, 26.—Discussion,
Dec. 3.—Readings.

3, 17.—Discussion.

», 24,.—Mr, Jonny Witson.—Dr. Richardson’s Hygeia reviewed.

», 3l.—Mr. Joun Towns.—Electro-Magnetism and the Telephone.
Jan. 7.—Readings.

», 2l1.—Discussion.

», 28.—Mr. M‘Conocure.—Elocution,
Feb. 4.—Readings.

-», 18.—Discussion.

», 23.—Mr. J. F. Geppes.—A Vindication of the Character of Mary
Queen of Scots.

Mch. 4.—Mr. WILKI©.—Oliver Goldsmith,
5, 20.—Readings,

Apl. 1.—Mr. W. E. Rosertsoy.—Natal and Zululand.
», 8.—Discussion and Business.

The past Session has been very successful. The Public
Lectures have been most instructive ; and the Committee desires
to express its sincere thanks to the gentlemen who have so freely
come forward to lecture.

The Ordinary Meetings have been fairly well attended, and an
increasing interest has been manifested in all the operations of the
Society. The discussion of each public lecture at the Ordinary
Meeting following its delivery, has been especially interesting, and
has enabled the members to examine in detail many particulars of
the subjects of the lectures that were necessarily but briefly touched

24

by the lecturers. The intermixture of select readings with original
papers and discussions, gave a varied interest to the meetings,
which increased rather than diminished towards the end of the
Session.

The Society joined the Carlisle Society in a Field Day at
Penton, and spent a very pleasant Summer afternoon in that
beautiful locality, which was rendered more interesting by the
papers upon local subjects, that were read by J. Clifton Ward,
Esq.; R. S. Ferguson, Esq.; and Mr. Geo. Dawson.

The number of members ‘this year has been 37 against 42
last year. The income from members’ subscriptions and admission
to lectures has covered all expenses, and leaves a small balance in
the hands of the Treasurer.

CARLISLE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY AND FIELD
NATURALISTS’ CLUB.

2np SESSION, 1878-9.

President... .. The Right Rev. the Lorp BisHop oF CARLISLE.
Vice-Presidents.

Rosert Fereuson, Esq., M.P.
8. J. Brynine, Esq.

Treasurer... se os wes .. BR. S. Fereuson, Esq.
Curator ae oa ste se .. BR. S. Ferauson, Esq.
Secretary... os Be rec He Mr. JoHn SINCLAIR

Committee.

Dr. MacLaren. Mr. R. M. Hit.
Dr. BARNEs. Mr. Gro. Dawson.
Mr. C. J. FERGUSON. Mr. W. DuckworrTH.
Mr. W. I. R. Crowper. Mr. JoHN JACKSON.
Mr. Baxter SMITH. Mr. W. B. Dopp.

Mr. J. B. Watson. Mr. T. DuckwortTu.

25

PUBLIC LECTURES.

Oct. 21,—TuHe Presipent.—Inaugural Address.

Nov. 7.—Dr. Cartyie.—On the Fungi and Mushrooms of the District,
with Specimens.

Dec. 3.—R. S. Fercuson, Esq., M.A., F.S.A.—The Formation of Cum-
berland.

Jan, 14.—J. E. Taytor, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S.—-Flowers : their Shapes,
Perfumes, and Colours.

Feb. 4.—Rev. J. Crirron Warp, F.G.S.—The Old Volcanoes of Cum-
berland.

Mch, 4.—J. Hepwortu, Esq., Assoc. Inst. C.E.—Coal Gas: its History,
Manufacture, and Economical Use.

April 1.—R. J. Batu, ‘Esq., F.R.A.S.—The Sun: its Position in the
Universe, Physical Condition, &c., &c.

ORDINARY MEETINGS.

. Nov. 19.—Mr. Jos. LowrH1an.—The Old Herbals.

Dec. 17.—Mr. Gro. Dawson.—The Butterflies of the District. (To be
continued. )

Jan. 21.—Mr. THomas DuckwortH.—Our Summer Visitors.

Feb. 4,—Mr. Joun Srnctair.—A Week in Paris.

March 18.—Mr. Wu. DuckwortH.—With the Dipper (Cynclus acquaticus ).
April 22.—Mr. Jas. Foster.—Flora Medica Cumbria.

The Committee of the above Society have pleasure in
presenting their second annual Report, and have again to
congratulate themselves upon the success which has attended
their past Session.

During the past season the Committee have distributed
gratuitously one hundred and sixty copies of the Zvansactions of
the Cumberland Association,—and will continue the distribution,
as the subscriptions are received from the members.

New members continue to be enrolled. Several important
additions have been made to the Museum, including some fine
Roman carved slabs, and a fine geological collection, rich in
Cumberland and Westmorland fossils, formed by the late Professor
Harkness, F.R.S., and presented to the Museum by his sister, Mrs.
Pearson, of Penrith—to be always kept separate as the *‘ Harkness
Collection.” This collection has not yet been arranged for
exhibition, but will probably be thrown open to the public in the
course of the summer.

3

AMBLESIDE AND DISTRICT LITERARY AND
SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

2np SESSION, 1878-9.

President.
RoBERT CREWDSON, Esq.

Vice-Presidents.

Rev. H. S. CALLENDER. | Rev. E. M. REyNoLps.
Secretary.
Mr. C. W. SmIru.
Treasurer.
Mr. W. LisTER.
Delegates.
Rev. H. 8. CALLENDER. | Mr. C. W. Smiru.
Committee.
Mr. W. Barton. Mr. W. FLercHer.
Mr. T. Bevu, Junr. Mr. G. GatEy.
Mr. J. BENTLEY. Dr. A. JOHNSTON.

Mr. H. Boyte. Mr. F. M. T. JoNngEs.
Mr, J. FLEMING. Mr. W. T. KENDALL.

PUBLIC LECTURES.

Oct. 25.—J. Oxrirron Warp, Esq., F.G.S.—The Ear.
Nov. 22,—R. A. Atiison, Esq., M.A.—Dante and his times.
Dec. 20.—Caprain Stokrs.—Ocean Life.

Jan. 16 (Thursday)—J. E. Taynor, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.8.—An Hour by a
Pond Side.

Jan. 31.—B. A. Irvine, Esq., M.A.—The Bay of Triton.
Feb. 14.—Waynman Dixon, Esq., C.E.—The Pyramids of Ghizeh.
Mar. 14.—W. M. Kine, Esq., M.R.C.S.—The Phongraph.

ORDINARY MEETINGS.

Oct. 17.—(Thursday)—ConvERSAZIONE.

Nov. 1.—Rev. E. M. Reynoups, Vice-President.—he Stability of Rowing
and Sailing Boats.

Nov. 15.—Grorce Garey, Esq.—Debate: That Trial by Jury should be
Abolished.

Noy. 29.—Rev. H. 8S. CatienpEr, Vice-President.—The Rainfall of the
Lake District.

27

Dec. 13.—W. Hopes Hees, Esq.—The History and Customs of the
Manors of the Marquis and Richmond Fees in the Barony of
Kendal and of the Manor of Hawkshead.

Jan. 10.—Hursert FLetcHEer, Esq.—What can a Paternal Government do
for the Collier ?

Jan. 24.—Mr. G. H. Joycz.—Spenser.

Feb. 7.—FREDERIC Clowxs, Hsq., M.R.C.S.—A Popular Account of the
Physiological Action of Alcohol.

Feb. 21.—R. Crewpson, Esq.—The relation between Poetry and the Fine
Arts of Sculpture and Painting.

Mar. 7.—Mr. T. Wurxryson.—Sound: The Phenomena of Acoustics,
illustrated by a few practical experiments.

Mar. 21.—Rev. E. M. Reynoxtps.—Debate: It may be questioned whether
Civilization has much increased the happiness of mankind.

April 4,—Readings from Classical Authors.

The Committee, in presenting this its second annual Report,
is glad to notice that, both numerically and financially, the con-
dition of the Society is very satisfactory. There are 203 members,
18 of whom are under age. Thirty-eight members have been
elected during the last Session.

On June zoth, the Society, in connection with the Keswick
Society, made a geological excursion into Great Langdale. The
Rey. J. Clifton Ward conducted the company, numbering 102. An
underground slate quarry, and the Dungeon Ghyll, were visited.

The attendance at the Ordinary Meetings and Lectures has
been very fair. Both Dr. Taylor and Waynman Dixon, Esq., had
a large audiance. The Conversazione was a decided success.
During the evening Lt.-Col. Rhodes read a paper on “the Coffee
Tree, and its mode of Culture ;” and G. Healey, Esq., presided
at the microscopes.

The company was much interested in the large collection of
objects kindly lent for exhibition.

bo
iv 2)

Annual Report of Association Secretary,

In presenting my Annual Report, as Secretary, and Balance
Sheet, as Treasurer, for the past Association year, I cannot but
feel that there is rather less progress to announce this year than
last. Instead of three new Societies affiliated, there is but one,
the Silloth Society, now only springing into life, but promising
well for next winter session, and contemplating a field-day very
shortly. .

The total increase of membership is not very great, being
about one hundred, or rather more.

As in previous years, co-operation among all existing Societies
has been fully maintained, and the lecture courses have benefited
accordingly.

Dr. Taylor, as Public Lecturer, seems to have ~given great
satisfaction to the affiliated Societies. The total cost to each of
the eight Societies was only £2 16s. 6d., a sum of £9 9s. having
been voted towards the general expense, out of the Association
funds.

We are again indebted to Messrs. Coward for the careful
attention and great interest shown by them in the publication of
the Zvansactions. Part III., though containing twenty pages
more than the last issued, has been supplied to the Societies and
Association members at the low price of 15.

The Balance Sheet shows a balance of £19 1s. 2d.; but
this would have been somewhat reduced if the Workington Annual
Meeting had been carried out in its entirety. The expenses con-

29

nected with Sir G. Airy’s lecture at Cockermouth last year were
great, the chief item being the transport of a large globe from the
south of England, and an accident which happened to it on its
return. The greater part of this expense, however, was most
generously borne by our late and much-lamented President, the
sum of £5 15s. being alone left for the Association to defray.

I cannot close my Report without one word of tribute to our
late President. There are few, if any, in Cumberland who so
entered into the work and aim of the Association as he; and his
advice and encouragement were ever given me with much willing-
ness and cheerfulness. We have, in losing him from amongst us,
lost both a friend and an able support.

30

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31

NOTE.

The Annual Meeting which was to have been held at
Workington on April 29th, did not take place, owing to the
lamented death of the President, I. Fletcher, Esq., M.P., F.R.S.
It was felt on all sides that, out of respect for the late President,
no General Meeting should be convened other than for business
purposes. Such a business meeting was held, and a letter of
condolence voted to Mrs. Fletcher in her deep trouble.

The next Annual Meeting will be held at Maryport, in
the Spring of 1880, under the presidency of the Hon. P. S.
Wyndham, M.P.

ORIGINAL PAPERS COMMUNICATED
TO THE SOCIETIES DURING THE SESSION 1878-79,
AND SELECTED BY THE
ASSOCIATION COUNCIL FOR PUBLICATION,

33

THE FORMATION OF CUMBERLAND.
(Read at Cockermouth and Carlisle. )

By R. S. FERGUSON, M.A., LL.M., F.S.A.

[This lecture is the abbreviation of several papers intended as the intro-
ductory chapters of the writer’s forthcoming History of Cumberland. In those
papers the writer has given the name (with references) of every author cited or
consulted by him. In compressing them into an hour's lecture (the publication
of which the writer did not anticipate or desire), the writer, for clearness and
brevity, omitted such names and references. The lecture is now published, as
delivered, at request of the Carlisle Scientific Society and Naturalists’ Field
Club. ]

I propose to-night to try and give you some idea of who
dwelt in this county of Cumberland before it had that name;
what those people have to do-with us, who dwell in it now; and
how our county came to be separated from others and have a
name of its own.

To begin at the beginning, I dare say some of you have heard,
in this very room, Mr. Clifton Ward describe tersely and clearly,
as he well can, the geological changes that this district has gone
through ; you may have, as I, heard him describe how, as in a
vision, his mind’s eye saw those successive changes, and how
this country was once united by dry land to the Continent of
Europe, across which, as across a bridge, came various animals of
forms strange to us--the mammoth, the woolly elephant, the hairy
rhinoceros, the cave hyena, the cave bear, and with them possibly
Man.

Thus would begin in these Islands what is called “The Stone
Age,” or period when man was ignorant of the use of metal, and
his only implements for war, for the chase, or for domestic use,
were of Stone, bone, or shell. The men of the Stone age have left no
histories behind them: for what we know of them we are indebted

34

to the Spade, and not to the Pen. The Stone Age has been
subdivided into two ages, the earlier or Paleolithic Age, when
man did not know how to grind or polish a stone, but only how to
rudely chip it toa sharp edge. The remains of the Paleolithic
man are found in caves, and in river drift: none have been found in
this district. Mr. Clifton Ward has mentioned one, a stone celt, as
found near Keswick ; and the Carlisle Museum has two; but I
fancy they are most probably unfinished implements of the later
Stone Age. As to how long it is since the Paleolithic Man lived,
I decline to go into the question: dates varying from 60,000 years
ago to 600,000 years ago have been assigned to him: it is main-
tained by some that a period of glaciers has intervened since he
roamed about this district. We will to-night have nothing more
to do with him. He seems to have been clean wiped out, and
some of the very features of the country completely changed since
he lived.

But the Neolithic Man, the man of the later Stone Age, who
could polish and grind a stone, saw this country much as we see
it—the position of his graves tells us that. He, too, has left no
histories behind him; but the Spade in the hands of Sir R. Colt-
Hoare, of Dr. Thurnam, and of Canon Greenwell, has been the
key which has unlocked the secrets buried in his graves. The
researches of Canon Greenwell have been mainly in the Yorkshire
Wolds, in Durham, Westmorland, Cumberland, and Northumber-
land. ‘Time forbids me from doing more than giving you the
results of these researches: for the evidence you must yourselves
consult the proper works, the chief of which are Zvan’s Ancient
Stone Implements, Thurnam’s Crania Britannica, and Greenwell
and Rolleston’s British Barrows.

The Neolithic Man in these districts was of short stature,
with a long head (technically called dolicho-cephalic. His facial
angle, as measured from his skull, and other evidence, afforded by
it, show him to have probably had a mild and pleasant countenance.
The remains of the animals on which he lived show that he led a
pastoral, semi-agricultural existence, eking out his subsistence by
the chase, rather of birds than bigger animals. He had for domestic

35

animals only the Bos /ongifrons, a species of ox: it is doubtful if he
had the goat ; he had not the dog. He ground his grain with stones,
and the sand and grit got into the meal, and wore his teeth down
to the gum. He had toothache badly, as the condition of his
jaws shows. Dr. Thurnam thinks he was a cannibal: Canon
Greenwell and Professor Rolleston repudiate the slander. When
he died, the man of the long head was buried in a long mound or
barrow. (Recollect that long heads and long barrows go together:
round heads and round barrows.) That long barrow was also the
place of sepulchre for his wife, or wives, and children. With him
were deposited certain earthen vessels, and implements of stone
and bone, apparently made new for the occasion. This may prove
that he had some belief in a future state, in which he would require
these things.

Several of these long barrows are to be found in Cumberland:
there is a fine one at Gilsland ; another, called Sampson’s Bratful,
on Stockdale Moor. Stone implements have been found at many
places in Cumberland—e.g. Keswick, Carlisle, Castle Carrock,
Great Salkeld, Hallguards, Birdoswald, Irthington, Kirkoswald,
Lazonby Fell, Melmerby, Ousby Moor, Penrith Beacon, Plumpton,
Red Dial, Wigton, Solway Moss, &c.

Thus we possess proof that Cumberland was once inhabited
by a dolicho cephalic race, which knew not the use of metal.

How long these dolicho-cephalic men dwelt in this district is
hard to tell. Canon Greenwell won’t hazard a conjecture as to
when they began; but they were intruded upon by another race, and
possibly somewhere about the year 1000 before Christ. The new
comer was a round-headed, or drachy-cephalic man, who buried his
dead in round barrows. Compared with the long-headed man, the
round-headed man was a very ugly customer. His bones prove
him to have been bigger (his average stature over 5ft. 8in.), thicker,
and more muscular: he had broad jaws, turned up nose, high
cheek bones, wide mouth, and eyes deep sunk under beetling
brows that overhung them like a pent house—the superciliary
ridges on his skull tell us that. He had arms and implements of
bronze. He had learnt to domesticate the goat and the dog, as

36

well as the Bos dongifrons, the only animal which the long-headed
man had succeeded in taming. He soon asserted his supremacy
over the long-heads—he did not annihilate them. In the round
barrows of the round-heads both long and round skulls appear ;
and in the later round barrows the skulls begin to appear occasion-
ally of an intermediate shape: this shows that the round-headed
man with the bronze weapons probably enslaved the long-headed
man with the stone weapons, and took the long-headed women for
his wives. The language of the round-headed man swallowed up
the language of the long-headed.

This was the Bronze Age, when man had advanced to the
knowledge of weapons and implements made of bronze: these did
not wholly supersede stone weapons and implements, for the poor
man would continue to use the cheaper articles.

Many relics of this round-headed man of the Bronze Age
have been found in Cumberland ; and his round barrows exist in
many places in Cumberland and Westmorland: Canon Greenwell
has opened ones at Castle Carrock, in this county, and at Kirkby
Stephen, Warcop, Asby, Crosby Garrett, Crosby Ravensworth, and
Orton, in Westmorland. Many still remain untouched, so far
as known, in Cumberland, on Burnsmoor, on Ulpha Fell,
Seatallan, Bewcastle, and many other places.

Both these races of men have left other traces behind them
than their graves; but I have only mentioned their graves,
because the graves yield us the most information. The stone
circles, common in these two counties, are now found to be the
remnants of destroyed burial places, probably first raised in the
Bronze period, but afterwards used by later comers. Other remains
they have left—traces of their dwelling places: these it is difficult
to assign to their proper period, for race after race would succes-
sively seize on the same spots for their dwellings. No doubt the
round-headed man with the bronze weapons, after enslaving the
long-headed man, and appropriating his women, would not hesitate
to steal his home.

By the kindness of Mr. Clifton Ward, I have here a very
interesting map of the Lake District, on which he has marked in

37

red the various pre-historic remains he has found in the Lake
District—both long and round barrows, huts, and stone circles.*
Many others exist on the east fells of this County. ‘The Rev. Mr.
Howchin, of Haltwhistle, has found flint implements in great
numbers on the fells near Brampton and Haltwhistle.

More than one wave of these round-heads came in from the
Continent, landing in Yorkshire, and spreading thence across the
Wolds. It is probable that some of the later comers brought with
them the knowledge of iron ; but the Iron Age had hardly begun
in Britain when the Romans arrived upon the scene,

With the arrival of the Romans ends the Pre-historic Era, as
far as we are concerned ; and the Historic Era is one as to which,
at first, we are but imperfectly informed. We should bear in mind
that the southern part of England was in a more advanced and
civilized state than our Hyberborean regions: the south had some
sort of commerce, and a coinage, which was an imitation of the
gold Stater of Philip of Macedonia. But no pre-Roman coinage
has ever been found in the north of England.

With the advent of the Romans, commences, as I have said,
the Historic period ; but the histories give us very little
information as to the people the Romans found in possession.
A few lines in Tacitus, a few lines in Czxsar, and still fewer
in Strabo, are all we have to help us, and these passages
have been tortured and turned about in every possible way
by the ethnologists. Unfortunately neither Tacitus, nor Strabo,
nor Czesar ever thought of describing the shapes of the skulls
of the people the Romans found in Britain, and they have
thus left ethnologists a very nice nut to crack. I must give you
rather the results that have been arrived at, than the manner in
which those results have been arrived at.

When the Romans arrived in Britain some 1800 years ago,
they found that it was inhabited by people of two types of
complexion,—the one fair and the other dark.

* This map is in the Keswick Museum; see Moles on Archeological

Remains in the Lake District, by J. Clifton Ward: Transactions of Cumber-
land and Westmorland Archzological Society, Vol. III., p. 241.

38

Tacitus says—The Caledonians were red-haired and large
limbed, like the Germans. The Silures were curly-haired and
dark complexioned, like the people of Spain. The Britons were
like the Gauls.

The Gauls and the Germans were much alike, always
described as tall, with massive limbs, fair skins, fierce blue eyes,
and hair the colour of which ranges from yellow to red.

Thus, although we have three names assigned to the people
of Britain—Britons, Caledonians, and Silures—there were only two
stocks, a dark stock and a light stock, and the dark stock was
predominant in the west of Britain, and the fair in the north and
east. You will notice the distribution : it seems as if the dark stock
had been driven westward by the invasion of the fair stock from
the Continent.

Both these stocks, dark and fair, spoke one language, but
there were two dialects of it—Cymric spoken in Britain, Gaelic in
Ireland.

By this time I think you will probably have jumped to the
conclusion from what I have told you before—that the dark stock
are identical with the long-headed small men of the Stone Age;
the fair stock with the round-headed bigger men of the Bronze Age.
That I believe is so, and that the larger, stronger, fair stock, with
the bronze weapons, had absorbed or driven into corners, their
long-headed, dark predecessors, and that the language of the fair
men had supplanted the language of the dark men.

These two dark and fair stocks, whom the Romans found in
Britain, together make the Celts (though the name Celt is often
confined to the conquering fair stock), and the one language which
they-spoke is the Celtic, with its two great dialectical divisions,
the Cymric (or Welsh), and the Gaelic (or Irish). These linguistic
divisions have nothing to do with the divisions into fair and dark.
The abolished language of the dark stock had been Euskarian.

Professor Huxley has a theory that the whole of Western
Europe was once inhabited by a dark stock—Melanochroi, or
dark whites, he calls them—and that they were gradually superseded
by a fair stock—Xanthochroi, or fair whites—who came from the

39

east. These the Professor considers to be separate races of men,
in the biological sense of the word race.

The remnants of the dark race—the Melanochroi—are to be
found in the Basques of Spain, who still speak their original
language, the Euskarian. The Melanochroi, or dark stock, are
the long-headed men with the stone weapons, who first inhabited
this country. The Xanthochroi, or fair stock, are the men with the
round heads and bronze weapons, who superseded them. They
together form the Celts, whom the Romans found here.

To return to the Celts. Of these Celts there were several
tribes, one of which—the Brigantes—inhabited, probably sparsely,
the mountainous and woody districts now known as Yorkshire,
Lancashire, Westmorland, Cumberland, and Northumberland.
From Cesar we learn that the Britons, of whom the Brigantes
were a tribe, were little given to cultivating the soil, but lived on
milk and flesh, and clothed themselves in skins. They stained
themselves with a blue dye made from woad, to give themselves a
more terrible appearance in battle; they wore their hair long, and
shaved all but the upper lip. They are described as being tall
and stout, but clumsy. They were polygamists ;* were ignorant
of the use of money ; and wandered to and fro, driving their herds
and ‘flocks from pasture to pasture, but throwing up temporary
dwelling places for security for themselves and their cattle.

To look in modern Cumberland for the cities of the Brigantes
is waste of time: they probably had no cities, but a few collections
of miserable wigwams, and no roads but mere forest tracks, In
fact, they were the fiercest and least civilized of the Celts,

They are said to have been divided into tribes—the Voluntii,
the Sestuntii, the Jugantes, and the Cangi—the latter on the Irish
sea; the Sestuntii in Cumberland and Westmorland ; the Voluntii
in Lancashire ;—but this is a very obscure point.

I have endeavoured to tell you who the Romans found in
possession of Briton, particularly in possession of what is now
Cumberland and Westmorland.

I shall not go into the history of the Roman Conquest of

* Not polyandrists, or polygynists—but both at once.

40

Briton, except so far as pertains to the history of this district.
The main facts of the Roman Conquest are probably known to
you all: Julius Czesar paid this island a visit or two, and the
British chieftains in Kent began in some fashion to imitate
Roman civilization. Aulus Plautius in A.D. 43 took up a
permanent footing in Britain; and Ostorius Scapula (A.D. 50),
conquered the S.E. of Britain up to a line from the Avon to the
Severn, z.¢. from Norfolk to the Land’s End. Then came Petilius
Cerealis ; and then the real conqueror of Britain, Julius Agricola,
who landed in Britain to take the chief command in A.D. 78, and
held it until 84, during which time he reduced all Britain, up to the
Friths of Forth and Clyde, to the condition of a Roman Province.

I have in a paper which is printed in the Transactions of a
local Antiquarian Society, gone fully into the circumstances of
- Agricola’s Conquest of this part-of Britain.* It is foreign to my
object to go fully into that question to-night. I shall give you my
results.

The real Conqueror of Briton was Agricola, who came from
Rome to take the chief command in Britain in A.D. 78, and held
it until A.D. 84, during which time he reduced all Britain up to
the Friths of Forth and Clyde to the condition of a Roman
province. His first proceeding was to put to the sword the Ordo-
vices, or inhabitants of North Wales, who had been troublesome :
he then reduced to entire submission the Isle of Anglesey. The
winter of 78-9 he spent in quarters among the Ordovices in North
Wales. When the warm weather of 79 came, he drew together his
forces again, and started off on a second campaign, and this time
to the Northwards. Where he went the zoth chapter of his life
by Tacitus tells us in the words ‘““#stwaria ac silvas ipse pretentare,'s
words that can only apply to the estuaries of Lancashire and of
Cumberland, to the estuaries of the Dee, of the Mersey, of the
Ribble, to the sands of Cartmel and of Ulverstone, and of the
Solway Frith. We know that the country bordering on these

* 4n Altempt at a Survey of Roman Cumberland and Westmorland, with
remarks on Agricola’s line of March, by R. S. Ferguson. Transactions of
Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archeological Society. Vol.
III. pp. 64, 182. Vol. IV. p. 15.

41

estuaries was well and thickly wooded even so late as the time of
Charles II. The use of the word @sturia shows that Agricola
crossed the rivers just mentioned as near the sea as possible, and
I think that he proceeded north by the coast of Cumberland, and
by a road and chain of forts which will be discussed in detail
presently. This I fancy that he did that he might be supported
by his fleet, and might also avoid the trackless woods and
wild mountains of the interior: indeed, the passes into Cumber-
land and Westmorland from the south are few and hard to force,
defended as they would be, by swarms of Britons, who would have
every advantage of shelter and knowledge of the country. At the
end of this year’s campaign, he encircled the territory by a chain
of forts. Tacitus, in his account of the third campaign, defines for
us the limits of the second year’s conquest. ‘“ Tertius expeditionum
annus novas gentes aperuit,’ showing that in the second year
Agricola did not get beyond the Brigantes, whose communities
inhabited Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumberland, Westmorland, and
Durham, and who were well known to the Romans, having been
in Yorkshire defeated and subdued by Petilius Cerealis. Thus
Agricola, in his second campaign, marched round the Cumberland
coast, subduing the country up to the Solway and the Tyne, and
establishing the chain of forts which stretched round the Cumbrian
coast, and from the Solway to the Tyne, and whose ruins still
excite curiosity and admiration.

In his third year, Agricola marched as far as the Frith of Tay,
and in his fourth year (A.D. 81) he drew a line of forts from the
Frith of Forth to the Frith of Clyde; while in the two following
years he made further use of his fleet, and campaigned north of his
upper line of forts, north of which line, however, the Romans never
made any permanent conquests.

Thus much for what Tacitus tells us.

I will now endeavour to show you on the map the line of
march which I believe Agricola to have taken, and to be the first,
and oldest Roman road in Cumberland.

This Roman road starts from Lancaster, crosses the Lancaster
branch of the Morecambe estuary to Pigeon Cote Lane, near

: 4

42

Wyke, in Cartmell ; passes Flookburgh, where part of this Roman
road still remains ; thence crosses the Ulverston estuary, and goes
by Mount Barrow and Lindal to Dalton, near to the second of
which places its pavement was discovered. Thence the road
crosses the Duddon Sands, and enters Cumberland somewhere
near Millom. We pick it up again between Whitbeck and Bootle:
it ls known as the High Street, says Hutchinson in his Cumber-
land, “‘as lying on an old Roman road.” Denton further says of
Bootle, “next to Whitbeck in the Common High Street, and
towards the West, is Butle.” The very names “ High Street”
and “Common Street,” generally denote an old Roman road.
In Selker’s Bay, near Bootle, a legend says that some Roman
galleys lie sunk, and not far off is an encampment, called Eskmeals,
where Roman coins and altars have been found. Muncaster, in
its name, denotes a Roman camp. Roman inscriptions have been
found at Ravenglass.

At Moresby, and again at Ellenborough, and from Ellen-
borough coastwise to Bowness, all antiquaries are agreed there has
been aroad. Further traces of this great Roman road are to be
found in the raised road in the Parish of Holme Cultram, known
as Causeway Head, which points directly to Bowness, though the
estuaries of Waver and Wampool intervene. These estuaries
appear to have been solid ground until the sea broke in, in the
14th century. From Bowness to Carlisle a Roman road ran along
the Wall, and was there, no doubt, long before the Wall, a
from the march of Agricola.

Thus we get a Roman road running round the district now
known as the County of Cumberland, from Duddon Sands on the
S.W. to the boundaries of Northumberland on the N.E. Now this
road, before entering Cumberland, was a road by no means suitable
for the march of troops, and passage of baggage, being only open
over the great estuaries at certain hours, and those variable ones,
puzzling, no doubt, to the Romans, who were accustomed to a
tideless sea. When possession of the country was obtained, they
sought a safer road, and found it by Kendal, Ambleside, and
Keswick, to the large station, whose ruins exist near the Red Dial,

43

Wigton, and which is known as Old Carlisle: thus the coast road
by the sands, by Whitbeck and Bootle would become of secondary
importance.

My idea is that Agricola conquered the district by marching
round its coast, and forming a great coast road, which was more
or less, afterwards, abandoned for a short cut, which avoided the
estuaries, and conducted to Old Carlisle, near the Red Dial.

I suppose that in the earlier Roman days in Britain, when a
legion lay in garrison in Chester, Old Carlisle, near the Red Dial 3
and not Carlisle (Zuguvallum), was the Roman head quarters in
this district, which would be only transferred to Luguvallum or
Carlisle, when York became the capital of Roman Britain,
when the great road from York to Carlisle was made, and
when the military subordination to Chester was done away with.
And in the names of Carlisle and Old Carlisle, there appears
to be some traditional confirmation of this theory. That Old
Carlisle was an important place is shown by the vastness of its
ruins: in the last century they covered many acres. Stukeley
writes of it—“ The fairest show of buildings I ever saw.”

I have told you that Agricola started from Chester; you will
see that by this great military road Old Carlisle was in direct
communication with Chester, where, in the earlier days of the
Roman rule in Britain, a Roman legion was quartered. During
the later portion of the Roman rule, no legion lay at Chester.
Britain was under the command of two great officers, the Comes
littoris Saxonici per Britanniam, who ruled in the south, and the
Dux Britanniarum, who lay with a Roman legion at York, from
whence he bore command over the great Wall, drawn from Tyne
to Solway, and its many garrisons. To bring him into military
communication with the western portion of the Wall, a military
toad was made following the natural passage from the great plain
of York, by the pass of Stainmoor, down the valley of the Eden
into the Cumberland plain, and thence to Carlisle. This great
road ran from York over Stainmoor by Bowes, Brough, Brougham,
Old Penrith, Carlisle, and Netherby. On the completion of this

44

road, Carlisle would supersede Old Carlisle as the principal local
place of military importance.

This great military road was crossed at Kirkby Thore, by
another, which left the Roman Road between Manchester and
Kendal, at a point in Lancashire, and ran north by Alston, and Bew-
castle. It is known as the Maiden Way, zc. Mai-dun—the great
ridge, having been raised two or three feet above the adjacent
ground.

In addition to these four roads, viz. the coast road, the road
from Chester to Old Carlisle, the road from York to Carlisle, and
the Maiden Way, a perfect mesh of roads covered the district, and
for these roads I must refer you to my paper in the Transactions
of the Cumberland and Westmorland Archzological and Anti-
quarian Society.*

To give to the Roman stations in Cumberland their ancient
names, is a puzzle which has foiled the most eminent of antiquaries.
All we can say, with certainty, is that Old Penrith is Voreda,
Carlisle is Luguvallum, Ellenborough is Axelodunum, Papcastle is
Aballaba, and Moresby may be Congavata, or Gabrosentis.

Of the history of these stations we know very little : inscribed
stones have preserved to us a few names, have proved that the
garrisons had their wives and families with them; that they had
their amphitheatres, their baths, and some degree of luxury and
culture. The spade tells us that most of these stations have been ~
burnt and rebuilt more than once; that in the waning of the
Roman power the garrisons were reduced, the camps contracted,
and their gates built up to enable the thinned defenders still to
make head against their foes.

But the Roman went at last, after ruling here for some three
hundred and fifty years ; just about three times as long as we have
ruled in India.

Firm as was the Roman hold on Britain, it has left behind it
little but the names of its towns, and of its camps; the traces of its
magnificent and well planned roads, and the debris of its luxuries
and of its wants.

* Vol, III. p. 64.

45

To the Romans, however, we owe the introduction of the
sheep, and of the edible snail ; of the vine and the cherry-tree ; in
fact, of nearly all our fruit trees, except the gooseberry, the currant,
and the raspberry, which were introduced later. To the Romans
we, in the north, probably owe the establishment of the three great
cattle fairs of Stagshaw-bank, of Brough Hill, and of Rosley ; but
no vestige of the Roman tongue can be found in the English
language, but what is known to come through other channels.

The Roman Wall itself is a monument of ages which have
utterly passed away: a monument which might almost be said to
have been already an antiquity when the first Englishman gazed
on it in wonder. Whatever part the great Wall played in history
in days when strife within this island was still a strife between Celt
and Roman, it has played no part since English history began ;
it has not even, like many meaner works, served as a political
boundary. The wall is the monument of a past which has utterly
vanished ; a monument of the fortunes of those who came before
us in the possession of the land which is now ours.

But if the Roman Wall was so early played out, and made a
mere piece of antiquity for Englishmen to wonder at, it has been
quite otherwise with that great network of roads which the Romans
made in this island ; for I believe that until the four-in-hand mail
and the yellow post chaise were superseded by the iron horse, the
main arteries of traffic followed by those mails and post chaises
were identical with those routes along which the Roman armies
marched, as for instance—the posting road from York to Carlisle.

I believe that a great number of our local cross country roads
are laid on Roman bottoms, and follow Roman lines. Until 1750,
the packhorse traffic between Carlisle and Newcastle followed the
old Roman road known as the Carelgate, or Stonegate. The
packhorse traffic from Kendal to the north went over High Street,
an undoubted Roman road.

Naturally, from their proximity to a district bitterly hostile to
Roman rule, the Roman garrisons on the Wall were maintained to
the latest period of the Roman dominion: it is doubtful if they
were then withdrawn. The legions themselves were withdrawn,

46

but it seems likely that the auxiliary troops, long stationary in the
same localities, often in the same forts, ultimately remained among
a people with whom they must have to a great extent become
amalgamated. Long as these foreign mercenaries remained here,
I cannot say that ethnologists can trace any influence made by
them on the modern Cumberland peasant,—a fact due rather to
long lapse of time, than to any excessive morality inculcated on
Roman troops.

Whatever became of these troops, they were but of little
effect against the invasions of the Picts and the Scots, the latter of
whom harried the ex-Roman province, as well from their old seats
in Ireland, as from their new seats in Galloway, and the west of
Scotland. A still more formidable race of pirates infested the
eastern and southern shores of Britain, known to the Roman as
Saxons, and whose depredations had long ere now compelled the
Romans to appoint a Warden (or Comes) of the March or shore
exposed to the Saxon attack. These pirates were the English, a
name which included three Teutonic tribes dwelling in what we
know as Sleswick, namely the Jutes, to the north of the present
Jutland ; the Angles, or English proper, just below them ; and the
Saxons, on the Elbe,—the latter the best known to the Romans,
who included all three under that name; while the three leagued
tribes bore among themselves the name of Englishmen,—a name
unknown to the Romans, but destined to be as famous and as
glorious as ever was the name of Roman!

These English invaders bestowed the name of Weelas, or
Welsh, that is, strangers, upon the people whom they found in
Britain. You will understand that I shall use the names
“Britons” and “Welsh” for the rest of this evening as meaning
the same people.

The English Conquest of Britain commenced about forty
years after the departure of the Romans. The Romanised Britons,
left to themselves, and unable to protect themselves against the
Picts and Scots, hired a parcel of English adventurers from
Jutland, under Hengist and Horsa, who, in A.D. 449, established
themselves in the Isle of Thanet.

47

Into the details of the English Conquest of Southern Britain
I cannot now go.

Of the Conquest of Mid-Britain and North Britain, very little
is known, The Estuary of the Humber was the chief gate by
which they found admission: some turned southwards, and
founded the kingdom of Mercia, becoming known as marchmen
between the English and Britons ; those who turned north founded
the kingdom of Deira, and met further to the north another English
kingdom, that of Bernicia, founded by Ida, who, in 547, had
planted his kingdom on the rock of Bamborough. The great
forest between ‘Tyne and Tees, was the March or Debateable
Land between Deira and Bernicia, but these two kingdoms were
united by Aithelfrith, and formed into the great English kingdom
of Northumbria, which stretched from the Humber as far north as
the Forth—you recollect that the east of the present kingdom of
Scotland up to the Forth was, and is, English ground, though now
incorporated into Scotland. Aithelfrith was a great conqueror. In
603 he defeated the Scots at a place called Dzegsastan, which some
think to be Dalston, near Carlisle; others Dawston in Liddlesdale.
In 607 he completed the English Conquest of Britain by the
capture of Chester, and, by so doing, he separated the Britons, of
what is now Wales, from the Britons to the north of them.

The English Conquest was marked by great atrocity: the
wealthier Britons fled across the seas; the poorer took refuge in
the mountains and the forests, until hunger drove them out to be
cut down. So far as the English Conquest extended over
Britain, it was a complete dispossession; the language of the
Britons disappeared, as did their Christianity: the one was
superseded by the English tongue, the latter by the religion of
Woden and of Thor.

The English Conquest covered the eastern part of Britain.
At the end of the Sixth Century we can make out, among a number
of obscure and small principalities, seven English kingdoms, of
which some continuous history can be got.

1. Kent, a Jutish kingdom. 2. Essex; 3. Sussex; 4. Wessex;
all Saxon, as their names denote. 5. East Anglia; 6, North-

48

umbria; 7. Mercia; all Angles, or English. Northumbria included
the Lothians, and the ground on which the English city of Edin-
burgh stands.

In the western and more mountainous parts, the Britons held
their ground: there was a British or Welsh kingdom of West
Wales, which took in Cornwall, Devon, and part of Somerset, up
to the river Axe. All the land west of the Severn formed
a second British or Welsh kingdom,—that of North Wales,
which included what we now call North and South Wales.
To the north was a third British or Welsh kingdom,—that of
Strathclyde, which took in Galloway, and the rest of the S.W. of
Scotland, with modern Cumberland and Westmorland down to the
river Dee—thus extending from the Clyde to the Dee, until Chester
was taken by £thelfrith, in 607.

The British or Welsh kingdom of Strathclyde, which thus
extended from the Clyde to the Dee, was separated from the
English Northumbria, which extended from the Forth to the
Humber, by the range of mountains running down the country
and forming its backbone—the great Pennine range.

Above the Clyde and the Forth were the Picts and the Scots,
which latter had exuded into Galloway from their seats in Ireland.

If you ask me what was going on in Strathclyde during the
English Conquest, I can only say I do not know: one of our
greatest living historians told me he could see nothing through the
darkness that hung over Strathclyde. Probably Strathclyde was
just a collection of petty British or Welsh states, under different
rulers, having a kingdom of Strathclyde proper, with its capital at
Alcluid, or Dumbarton, whose ruler probably had a shadowy
superiority over the others. Sir Francis Palgrave names the chief
of these states as follows:—Reged, in the south of Scotland ;
Strathclyde, or Clydesdale ; and Cumbria, in the south.

Mr. Freeman calls the whole Strathclyde, and that name for
long overshadowed and absorbed the others ; but you must bear
in mind the double meaning of the term, the extended and the
restricted one.

The people who dwelt in this great British or Welsh kingdom

49

were called Cumbri, a designation we first meet with in the
Chronicle of Ethelwerd—at a much later date though than this.
The Saxon Chronicle says, that in 875 the Danes made frequent
attacks on the “ Pehtas” and on “ Streecled Weelas.” Ethelwerd
translates this passage into Latin, as ‘“ Pihtis Cumbrisque.” Here
we have the frst mention in history of our name.

Whether it is a corruption of Cambri, i. e. Welsh, or whether
it comes from the ¢zms, or valleys, with which our country is
intersected, it is hard to say. The cwms are common enough—
as the poet says in the song of “Sally Gray” :—

There’s Cumwhitton,. Cumwhinton, Cumranton,
Cumrangen, Cumrew, and Cumcatch,

And mony mair cums i’ the county,
But nin with Cumdivock can match.

The English Conquest of Britain therefore left this great
British or Welsh kingdom, extending first from the Dee to the
Clyde, consisting of small petty states—Reged, Strathclyde, and
Cumbria, of which sometimes one got the superiority, sometimes
another ; and the name of the one having the upper hand for the
time got applied to the whole,—just as England is used as an
equivalent for Great Britain and Ireland, because the seat of
government is in England.

The Britons of Strathclyde, or Cumbria, occupy a tolerably
large space on the map, but a very small one in history—their
annals have entirely perished, and nothing authentic remains con-
cerning them, except a very few passages, wholly consisting ot
incidental notices relating to their subjection and their misfortunes.

Romance would furnish much more: for it was in Cumbria
that Rhydere, or Roderic, the Magnificent, is represented to have
reigned, and Merlin to have prophesied. Arthur held his court in
Merry Carlisle ; and Peredur, the Prince of Sunshine, whose name
we find amongst the princes of Strathclyde, is one of the great
heroes of the Mabinogion, or tales of youth, long preserved among
the Cymric. These fantastic personages, however, are of importance
in one point of view, because they show what we might otherwise
ignore, that from the Ribble, in Lancashire, or thereabouts, up to

9)

50

the Clyde, there existed a dense population, composed of Britons,
who preserved their national language and customs, agreeing in all
respects with the Welsh of the present day. So that even in the
11th century the ancient Britons, or Welsh, inhabited the greater
part of the western coast of the island, however much they had
been compelled to submit to the political supremacy of the
English invaders.

I have said that the English Conquest of Britain ended with
the capture, in 607, of Chester, by A‘thelfrith, King of Northumbria.
After that event, the character of the warfare between English and
Briton changed : it died down into a warfare against the separate
British provinces, West Wales, North Wales, and Cumbria, which
went on until the victories of that Edward the First who died-on
Burgh Marsh.

To return to Atthelfrith. Athelfrith, before his death in
617, reduced the petty states of Cumbria to some sort of tributary
position, and in the reign of Edwine, King of Northumbria, and
Overlord of Britain, they were so much so, as to be sometimes
included in the name of Northumbria.

The district was very extensively colonised by English settlers
from Northumberland: their settlements may be known by the
termination “ton.” They entered by the great roads the Romans
had left, and séttled right and left of these roads. One division
came along the Roman Wall and its road, and settled at Walton
and Brampton, and turned southwards to Plumpton, and Hutton,
and Newton, and filled the great central fertile plain of Cumber-
land to that extent, that it acquired the name of Inglewood, the
wood of the Angles or English. Another lot streamed in by the
Maiden Way: we find them at Alston, in Cumberland; and at
Dufton, Marton, Bolton, Orton, Clifton, Helton, and Brampton,
in Westmorland. In the west of Cumberland they got to Wigton,
Aikton, and Oulton; in fact they absorbed the most fertile and
most accessible part of Cumberland—that great plain which
extends from Penrith, widening northwards as the mountains open
out, and sweeping round westwards by the Solway. The
mountains were left to the old inhabitants,

51

It is not then surprising that Ecgfrid, King of Northumbria,
who reigned from 670 to 685, absorbed Carlisle and a large
district round it into Northumbria; in fact he made Cardisle and
the district round it English ground, though not part of the kingdom
of England, and he handed it to S. Cuthbert,—for the English
invaders had been converted from the religion of Woden and of
Thor to Christianity.. How that was done: how the heathenism
of Northumbria was attacked—/rst, from the south by Paulinus,
the missionary of the Roman Church ; secondly, by Aidan and by
Boisil, the missionaries of the Celtic Church ; how Wilfrid of York
and Benedict Biscop on the one hand, and Colman on the other,
struggled for the supremacy of their churches, and how the Roman
Church at the Synod of Whitby won a victory, which enabled her
to appoint Theodore of Tarsus Metropolitan of England, are
matters of the deepest interest to us, but belong rather to North-
umbrian history than to our subject to-night, and I must reluctantly
forbear to meddle with a topic so alluring.

S. Cuthbert at once visited Carlisle, and found that Ecgfrith
had gone thence on an expedition against the Picts. A day or
two after Cuthbert’s arrival, as some of the citizens were taking
him round for the purpose of showing him the walls of the city,
and a fountain or well, of marvellous workmanship, constructed by
the Romans, he suddenly became disturbed in spirit, and leaning
on his staff he bent down his face sadly to the ground, and again
raising himself up, he lifted his eyes to heaven, and groaning
deeply, he muttered “‘ Perhaps at this very moment the hazard of
the battle is over.” When questioned by the bystanders, he
would say no more than, “Do you not see how marvellously
disturbed the air is! and who among mortals is sufficient to search
out the judgment of God!” Next day, a Sunday, he preached,
and the burden of his discourse was, “Watch and Pray, Watch
and Pray,” which his hearers misapplied to the expected recurrence
of a plague, which had recently ravaged the district. In a few
days came a solitary fugitive, who announced that ‘‘the Picts had
turned desperately to bay as the English army entered Fife, and

52

that Ecgfrith and the flower of his nobles lay a ghastly ring of
corpses on the far off moorland of Nechtansmere.”

Enquiry revealed the fact that the king fell on the very day,
and at the very hour at which S. Cuthbert bent over the old
Roman fountain in Carlisle.

On the moorland of Nechtansmere, there fell for ever with
King Ecgfrith, in 685, the Northumbrian supremacy over England.
Mercia at once struck for independence: Galloway rose, and
chased the Northumbrian Bishop Trumwine out of Whitherne,
which stands, Bede says, “ by the arm of the sea,” ie. the Solway
‘“‘which parts the lands of the English and Scots,”—proof that in
685, if not long before, the district now known as Cumberland, had
become ENGLISH GROUND, but not part of the kingdom of
England. But it still remained subject to the fallen Northumbria,
which had vitality enough to capture, in 756, Alcluid, and thus all
Strathclyde, except Galloway, became tributary to Northumbria,
which was too weak to retain its rule. The inhabitants of
Strathclyde thus got left to themselves for a century or so, during
which their country was the scene of much confused fighting, in
which English, Scots, Norsemen, and Danes all took part.

The weakness of Northumbria allowed that kingdom to fall
an easy prey to a new race of invaders—the Danes. Between
867 and 869 they conquered Northumbria, and dismembered it:
Deira, now Yorkshire, they seized and occupied; Bernicia they
made a tributary. Halfdene was the Danish leader, who, in 876,
occupied Deira, and he extended his ravages into modern Cumber-
land. He laid Carlisle in ruins, so that for two hundred years it
laid waste, and large oaks grew on its site. He and Guthrun, his
successor, dismembered Northumberland. Great part of England
became subject to Danish rule, and known as the Danislagh.

On the dismemberment of Northumbria by the Danes,
Carlisle and the district around it, or Carliol, fell to neither
English nor Danish rule. It turns up incorporated with Strathclyde
proper, and with Galloway under the name of Cumbria. One
Grig, king or regent of Scotland, i.e, of the Scots and the

——

53

Picts is said to have brought this about by force of arms, and
patriotic Scottish writers blow him out into Gregorius Magnus,
King of Scotland, conqueror of England, Ireland, and the
Danislagh. Marriage with a British Princess, rather than conquest,
or perhaps the two combined, must have been the causes of ©
Grig’s success. After Grig’s death, we find there was some
relationship between the Kings of Scotland and Strathclyde (or |
Cumbria).

Meanwhile the English and the Danes had been fighting with
great vigor. Alfred the Great had commenced the attempt to
reduce to English rule the territory known as the Danislagh, where
Danish laws and customs prevailed. Edward the Elder, King of
the English, continued the wartare, and, in 924, he wrested
Manchester from the Danes, whereon the whole of the North laid
itself at his feet ;—not only Northumbria, including the Lothians,
but the Scots and Picts of Scotland ; and the Britons of Cumbria
choose him to be “ FATHER and OveRLorD.” The Britons of
North Wales had done so before, and thus Edward, King of the
English, became Overlord, or Emperor of the Britons and the
Scots.

This transaction is called the Commendation to England of
Scotland and Strathclyde. Uts date is 924 A.D. Fierce has been
the war of pens that has raged over this transaction. Scottish
historians can ill brook to own that, in 924, Scotland declared
itself vassal to England, and their energies have been directed to
the whittling away of its importance. But it was the foundation of
all the claims made by Edward I. to Scotland.

At the time it was of but little practical importance : the
Overlord, Edward the Elder, died almost immediately. War at
once broke out all over the North, and lasted, spite of a peace
made at Dacre in Cumberland, until Ethelstan, king of the
English, in 939, defeated Constantine, king of Scotland, and
Eugenius, or Owen, king of Cumbria, at the battle of Bruanburgh.
Eugenius, or Owen, whichever may be his name, fell in this battle,
whose site is unknown.

In 945 Dunmail, “the last king of rocky Cumbria,” fell out

b4

with his Overlord, Eadmund the Magnificent, king of the English,

who at once fell upon Cumbria, laid the whole of it waste, and

and handed it over to Malcolm, king of Scotland, on condition

that he should be his ally by land and sea. Tradition says that

the decisive battle between the English and the Britons of Cumbria

took place at Dunmail Raise, and that King Dunmail fell there.
The poet says :—

They buried on the mountain side

King Dunmail, where he fought and died ;
But mount, and mere, and moor again
Shall see King Dunmail come again.

Mantled and mailed, repose his bones,
Twelve cubits deep beneath the stones ;
But many a fathom deeper down

In Grisedale’s tarn, lies Dunmail’s crown.

.

But Dunmail, mantled, crowned, and mailed,
Again shall Cumbria’s King be hailed :

And o’er his hills and valleys reign,

When Eildon’s heights are field and plain.*

Alas for the poet and for the legend! King Dunmail escaped, and
died peaceably at Rome thirty years afterwards.

To briefly review these events, which are of great political
importance in our history. King Dunmail was, by virtue of the
Commendation of 925, vassal to King Eadmund. He revolted
against his Overlord, who took his kingdom from him, and granted
it in 945 to Malcolm I., king of Scotland, as a feudal benefice in
the strictest sense. Cumbria thus became a /ief of the Crown of
England, but not a fief held within the kingdom of England: it was
without that kingdom, and had always been so.

From this time Cumbria continued in the possession of the
royal line of Scotland, held as a fief under the English king, either
by the king of Scotland himself, or by a near relation—usually by
his proximate heir.

Nothing is recorded of it for many years, except that in the

* Lays and Legends of the English Lake Country. By J. Pagen White. p. 255.

55

year A.D. 1000, it was laid waste by the English. At this time it
was the chief rendezvous of the Danes in Britain: it is doubtful
whether the English attack was on the native Cumbrians, or on the
Danish settlers. This vendezvous-ing of the Danes in Cumbria
would be the time when they made extensive settlements in the
district now Cumberland and Westmorland, which may yet be
known by the termination “by.” There are some sixty-three of
these. Like the “tons,” the English “tons,” they occupy the best
of the country, running in a circle from Appleby on the S.E. along
the Cumbrian plain to Allonby on the Solway, and cropping up
again at Ponsonby.

In addition to this Danish colonization, was an extensive one
from Norway, utterly unrecorded in history, but proved beyond
possibility of cavil by the researches of my cousin, the well known
Scandinavian scholar, Mr. Ferguson, M.P.

The place names of the district prove it—above one hundred
end in the Norse termination of “thwaite”; nearly as many (I am
not certain of the number) end in the Norse termination “garth,”
or “guards,” or “gard.” These names lie, not in the plain, but in
the high ground avoided by the Danish dys and the English ozs.
The ¢hwaites occupy higher ground, as a rule, than the guards.
They lie thickest towards the west of the district, thus showing the
Norsemen to have entered from the west. They came from their
depét in the Isle of Man, which they had seized. There exists a
striking similarity between the placenames in that Island, and in
West Cumberland.

Amid all these settlers and invaders—English, Danes, and
Norse—the Britons, or Welsh of Strathclyde, Reged, and Cumbria
gradually melted into the surrounding population, and their lan-
guage ceased to be discernible as that of a separate race. But
that was a slow process: their language is thought to have lingered
in secluded places until the Reformation, when it was possibly
destroyed by the ministrations of the Protestant clergy. A few
British local traditions still remain among us. Pendragon Castle
reminds the traveller of the fabled Ather, or Uther. Some of the
mountains which adorn the landscape, retain the appellations given

56

to them by the original population, and Skiddaw and Helvellyn
now rise as the sepulchral monuments of a race which has passed
away.

My next task—I will be brief—is to shew how from the
kingdom of Cumbria, the southern portion, the lordship of Carlisle
was cut off; but first I must mention a very important and
authentic document, which sets forth the exact limits of the
kingdom of Cumbria previous to the dismemberment.

When Edward I. put forth his claims to a paramount
superiority over the realm of Scotland, based on the Commend-
ation of 925, he directed the various religious houses throughout
the kingdom to furnish him with all the information in their
possession, historical or documentary, bearing on the ancient
relations between England and Scotland. Amongst the returns
from the monastery of Carlisle is the following important statement
as to the boundaries of Cumbria, at the period in question :—
“That district was called Cumbria which is now included in the
bishoprics of Carlisle, Glasgow, and Whitherne, together with the
country between the bishopric of Carlisle and the river Duddon.”

I need not remind you the bishopric of Carlisle, as it stood
prior to the death of Bishop Percy, in 1856, is meant—and also
that it includes part of what is now Westmorland.

About the middle of the 1oth century, the English had put
an end to the kingdom of Northumberland, and entrusted its
government to a series of Earls, of whom Siward is the best
known. Siward was appointed by Edward the Confessor, and he
defeated and slew Macbeth, king of Scotland, the murderer of
Duncan, king of Scotland. Malcolm, son of the murdered
monarch, was king of Cumbria. Either this Malcolm, or
his son of the same name, was placed by Siward on the
throne of Scotland, and as Malcolm Caenmore long retained
both Cumbria and Strathclyde in his hands. During his
reign, however, the district of Carlisle, that is all the Cumbrian
territory south of the Solway (which you will not forget includes a
great piece of Westmorland) was severed from the rest of Mal.
colm’s dominions. The date of this is uncertain, but it would

od
of

appear to be 1070, in which year, as we learn from Simon of
Durham, Gospatric, Earl of Northumberland, over-ran that district,
in revenge for the devastation of Teesdale by the Scots. His son
Dolphin, was put in possession of the territory thus wrenched
from Malcolm’s dominions, from Cumbria.

The next authentic information we have from the Saxon
Chronicle, under date A.D. 1092:—“The King, (é¢ William
Rufus) went northwards with a large army to Carlisle, where he
repaired the City, built the Castle, and drove out Dolphin, who
had previously governed the Country, and having placed a garrison
in the Castle, he returned south, and sent a great number of
English husbandmen thither with horses and cattle, that they might
settle there and cultivate the lands.”

Thus the present boundaries between England and Scotland
were established, and the district whose history we are dealing
with to-night became for the first time part of the English kingdom,
and England assumed her present geographical limits.

William Rufus retained the district round Carlisle in his
own hands, but in the time of his successor, Henry I., we find
Ranulph de Meschines in possession of it as the Earl of Carlisle,
or Carleolum. Ranulph de Meschines married Lucia, the daughter
of Ivo Tailboise, and widow of Roger de Romara. Through her
father Lucia was seized of the great possessions known as Amoun-
derness, which included the Barony of Kendal, the S.W. corner of
what is now Cumberland, all Lancashire north of the Ribble, and
the wapentake of Ewcross, in Yorkshire.

This magnificent property Ranulph de Meschines, by his
marriage with Lucia de Romara, added to his Earldom of Carlisle,
as well as estates in Lincolnshire, which don’t concern us. This
was much to the detriment of William de Romara, son of Lucia

by her first husband. °

In the year 1118, Richard, Earl of Chester, perished in the
White Ship with the unlucky Prince William, the only son of
Henry I., and his possessions and Earldom fell to the Crown.
Ranulph de Meschines became Earl of Chester, and exchanged
his northern possessions, as well those of the Earldom of Carlisle,

d8

as those he got by Lucia de Romara, for the Earldom of Chester.
The Crown pacified Lucia’s son William by handing over to
him all his mother’s possessions, except the Barony of Kendal, and
the land between it and the Earldom of Carlisle.

Now the Crown had discovered that the policy of entrusting
the defence of its borders and marches to great Earls, who enjoyed
jura regalia was a very bad policy for the Crown, who found these
great Earls hard to control. Thus it came to pass that no new
Earl of Carlisle, or Carleolum, was appointed; and so no county
palatinate of Carleolum, an zmperium in imperio, with its own barons
and courts, like those of Durham and Cheshire, has come down to
us. The Earldom of Carleolum, the Barony of Kendal, and the
strip that intervened between them, were handed over to sheriffs,
to rule over, and divided into the two counties of Carliol
and Westmorland ; and these counties are accounted for by their
sheriffs in the Pipe Roll of the 31 Henry I. (A.D. 1130) under
these names.

To form these two counties the Earldom of Carleolum
was split into two. The Barony of Appleby, now the East and
West Wards of Westmorland, was taken from the Earldom of
Carliol, and added to the Barony of Kendal, and formed into the
County of Westmorland.

What remained of the Earldom of Carliol was, with small
additions, which brought its southern boundary to the Duddon,
formed into the County of Carleolum, which in the Pipe Rolls of
23 Henry II. (1177) first appears as the “County of Cumberland,”
and that designation it has ever since retained.

To sum up. The English invasion of Britain left a kingdom
of Strathclyde or Cumbria, which once stretched from the Dee to
the Clyde, but which got somewhat contracted in its southern
borders. | Gospatric, Earl of Northumberland, tore away the .
southern portion of this kingdom, and Dolphin, his son, got the
portion so torn away. William Rufus turned out Dolphin, and
Henry I. gave it as the Earldom of Carleolum to Ranulph de
Meschines. Ranulph de Meschines surrendered the Earldom, and

59

it was, with some English additions, split into the two counties of
Cumberland and Westmorland.

As for the inhabitants of Cumberland, Who are they ?

The pree-Aryan long-headed men, with stone weapons, who
spoke Euskarian, were superseded by round-headed Aryans, with
bronze weapons, who spoke Celtic. To them came as conquerors
the Romans, who for three hundred and fifty years held the land
in thrall by means of a motley garrison drawn from almost every
nation known to the ancients, but which has left no trace that
the ethnologist or the philologist can seize. The works of the
Romans alone defy the obliterating influence of man.

Then followed another Aryan invasion—a Teutonic one this
—the English invasion; then the Danes and the Norsemen. To
these elements of population there was added in the days of the
sons of William the Conqueror a Low-Dutch element, English and
Flemish settlers, and a few great Norman barons. All these later
settlers and invaders, from the round-headed man with the bronze
weapons, were of the fair stock, or Xanthochroi. Out of all this
mixture have come the Cumbrians of to-day.

Very careful tables have been drawn up by very careful
observers, as to the proportions in which the dark and fair stocks
are mixed. I have here one for Cumberland and Westmorland.*

The town of Cockermouth has only a slight mixture of the
dark stock ; its index of nigrescence of hair is—1. ‘That of the
farmers at Carlisle fair is next lowest—1. But the citizens of
Carlisle are the blackest in the two counties, for their index of
nigrescence is 11°8. Throughout Cumberland and Westmorland
the percentage of light eyes is 67 per cent., of intermediate 12
_ per cent., of dark 21 per cent.

Ethnologists describe the Cumbrians of to-day as a tall, light-
-complexioned, long-faced, handsome, but clumsy race, with long
arms like apes—much given to wrestling.

But a local judge has said :—

* From the Crania Britannica, Vol. i: pp. 215, et seq.

60

We help yen anudder ; we welcome the stranger,
Oursels and our country we'll iver defend ;

We pay bits of taxes as weel as we’re yable,

And pray like true Britons, the war hed an end.

Then Cummerlan’ lads, and ye lish rwosy lasses,
If some caw ye clownish, ye needn’t think sheame ;
Be merry and wise, enjoy innocent pleasures,

And aye seek for health and contentment at heame. *

’

* Anderson's Ballads, ‘‘Canny auld Cummerlan’.”’ p. 136, vol. ii., ed. of 1820.

4

61

THE HISTORY AND BALLADS OF THE BORDER.
By R. A. ALLISON.

(Read at Longtown.)

When you look northward from your little town, or the high
ground in its vicinity, your eye catches, as the most prominent
object in the landscape, the westernmost summits of the gently
rounded heights of that range of hill country, which sweeps across
from the eastern coast, right away to, and along the shores of the
Solway Frith. These hills constitute in the main what we call the
district of the Border—a district which recalls to our minds by its
very name, some of the most stirring scenes in our national and
local history. The Border land—the land of Tweed and Teviot—
of Liddell and Annan, and Esk and Kirtle—what memories are
not connected with every one of its hills and dales and streams?
There every field has its battle, and every rivulet its song, and how
we still love to visit its old towers and keeps, and dream of the
romance and chivalry of the past! They speak to us of a grandly
exciting time, when the chieftain’s foot was often in the stirrup, and
the midnight foray was man’s ordinary pastime. Their very names
are instinct with a charm and a poetry, which can never be dis-
sociated from them; and of no man in the world, I suppose, than
the Borderer, are Goldsmith’s lines more true, however far he may
have travelled in search of that wealth which Scotchmen proverbi-

j ally do not despise. Still he says—

Where’er I roam, whatever lands I see,
My heart untravelled, fondly turns to thee.

The names of his native hills and dales are often on his tongue,

62

for they are musical for ever in the Ballads of the Borders—as
musical as the melody of the streams that flow beside them, and
form so striking a feature in the landscape. The waters and the
dales of Annan and Esk and Liddell—of Kirtle and of Yarrow—
the Kershope Foot—the Langholm holm—the Cannobie Lee—
these are full of memories of joy and sorrow—-they tell us of the
sunshine of the past, and of tales, too, of sorrow and suffering such
as we hope they may never see again. Well, I think we are near
enough to this famous district to make it not altogether uninteresting
to us.

We have reason here to know something of the Border; and
when we look at the rounded outlines of its blue hills, with their ever
varying effects of light and shade, of sun and cloud and mist—we
may remember that thence came the men, who for centuries kept
this district in terror and alarm, and we can picture the hills lit up
with the fires, that were. the signals of their coming. Those days,
happily, are past and gone—let us now remember rather that from
that district, and out of the wild and stirring life of its indwellers,
has come some of the sweetest Minstrelsy we know, that has linked
the name of the Border with a magic charm, which the most
unimaginative of us cannot refuse to feel. Other hills and moun-
tains are loftier far, and fuller of grander and more striking scenes,
but none speak to us with a more tender, more real, more human
voice, than those of the district of which I am to speak to-night.
I need hardly say how different—how much more modern are the
associations connected with the mountains of our own lake district,
to those which crowd upon our memories at the sight of their
humbler neighbours, the Border fells.

And you will observe in the first place, the historical
associations connected with it are precisely such as the name it
bears would lead us to expect. For centuries it was the scene of
the struggles of hostile races engaged in that popular modern
pastime—the search for a scientific frontier. The rules of the
game seem to have been very much the same then as they are

now—
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can,

63

Here they seemed to find a frontier. Nature herself seemed to
have stamped on its dreary moors and wastes a character of wild-
ness and desolation, which fitted it to be the barrier between their
contending hates. I need not remind you here, where it seems to
me we are always so much better able than elsewhere, to realize
and bring back to our minds the great power and vast resources of
the Roman rule in Britain, and the firm hold it had upon the
country, where we still have in our midst their camps, and mounds,
and ditches, preserved by their wild and inaccessible position from
the destroying influence of the peaceful plough, so strangely perfect
and complete—their roads still to be traced in their onward
unswerving course, that turns aside neither from steep hill nor
treacherous morass—with all the wealth of altars and other relics
that they have yielded, and are still yielding, to_our antiquaries’
research—I need not remind you, how these early conquerors
erected their first and chief barrier just on the edge of this Border
district, from Tynemouth to Bowness. It was a great military
outpost, from behind which their soldiers might sally forth to fresh
_ conquests against the wild tribes that lay in the hills beyond, whom
they never wholly subjugated and subdued, and to which they
might retire again in times, when danger threatened. And when at
the beginning of the fifth century they left this country—as it
turned out, never to return—they left behind them the native
British tribes, the Cymri, whose name still lives, I suppose, in the
title given to our county—Cumberland, the land of the Cymri—to
carry on the struggle for their native soil against the Picts of the
north, and other invaders, such as the Angles and their kindred
Saxons, from the east and south. It was, I doubt not, a wild unsettled
time, such as the Border has often seen, but a time of which we
know but little. But one name is then connected with the district
which, though not the topic of any of our more familiar Ballads,
has inspired, and still inspires, the song of many a famous poet.
_ Itis here, as is generally believed—and many arguments may be
adduced for the belief—it is here that the exploits of the famous
King Arthur were performed—the king, whose achievements fill
the poetry o the middle ages, and whose memory lives again in

64

modern days in the series of poems, in which our Poet Laureate
has illustrated his career. It was to this period of our early
history that Milton turned, when he was meditating the intended
work, which he hoped posterity would not let die. The circum-
stances of Milton’s days, however—the rude revolution which
burst over the country in the middle of the seventeenth century,
in the end gave another issue to his thoughts, and—

The British theme, the old
Romantic tale, by Milton left unsung,

was left to others to adorn. And so much, at one time or
another, by myth, and poem, and tradition, has it been adorned,
that Arthur’s very existence has at times been doubted. We need
not do this. He was, there seems every reason to believe, a great
leader of the native Britons in this district of Strathclyde in the
sixth century ; he became to them the champion of their race, the
assertor of their liberties, and has lived on in the grateful memories
of his countrymen, as a type of the highest ideal of excellence to
which personal prowess and worth—in spite of some great faults
and some great errors—can attain. ‘The old world,” says one of
the chroniclers, ‘knows not his peer, nor will the future show us
his equal: he alone towers above all other kings—better than the
past ones, and greater than those that are to be. “Rex guondam rexque
Juturus—the king that was and yet shall be again—according to the
legendary inscription on his tomb—he was treasured up in the
recollections of a long posterity, with all the love and fondness
which people feel for the leaders, who in critical moments have
placed themselves at their head. Well, though history—for he
lived before the days of historical records—does not fix for us in
definite terms the date and the scenes of his great adventures, yet
nowhere, as has recently been shown by Mr. Stuart Glennie, in his
Arthurian Localities, so much as in this Border district, has he left
his mark indelibly in the names of the lecalities, with which he
must have been connected. In this respect it is truly Arthur-land
—the land through which he swept with his famous battles,
bringing peace and deliverance to the people whom he led—peace

65

and deliverance to the poor Britons of the Border, who loved their
wild hills and wooded dales, and fought for them with a
tenacity as great, as has ever been displayed by their successors, on
other occasions in later days. I need not remind you that at
Penrith we have King Arthur’s table—of his connection with Tarn
Wadling, which has now disappeared—or how, according to an

early song—
A long while

He sojourned in merrie Carlisle.

But beyond this it has been recently contended by one* who has
explored the whole district from this to Edinburgh, with its Arthur’s
Seat,. for traces of his hero—that his last great battle was fought on
the rising ground of Arthuret, to the south of Longtown; that the
Solway itself, as you may remember when next you listen to the
lapping of its waters on the shore—the Solway itself was ‘the
level lake,” into the waters of which, beneath the glories of the
winter moon, the famous brand of the dying king, Excalibur, was
thrown, and from which rose the mystic arm, that brandished it
thrice, ere it disappeared, in token of the ultimate triumph of the
genius of the Celtic race.

Conjectural as this may be, the real connection of King
Arthur with the district, I think, we need not doubt. And other
struggles succeeded when he had past away. And now we have
the contests of religion added to those of race: we find a Christian
party contending against a pagan one, and as the result of a
great and famous battle on the Liddell, ‘‘ which for generations,”
we are told, “saddened the song of the Cymri,” we have a
Christian bishop, S. Kentigern, known too, as S. Mungo the
beloved—the young and zealous Christian missionary—appointed
to bear rule over the district from Glasgow to beyond Carlisle
He, too, has left his traces amongst us. The three great miracles
he performed, you will find borne on the arms of the great com-
mercial city of Glasgow, and amongst ourselves we have churches,
and those the oldest in the district, as at Irthington and Cros-

* Mr. Stuart Glennie in his ‘ Arthurian Localities,” and also
Professor Veitch in his History of the Scottish Border,

6

66

thwaite, dedicated in his name. An interesting story is told by
the chroniclers, how the new bishop in his wanderings by Tweed-
side, met Merlin, the famous seer of the age—who had been
among the defeated pagan party at the battle—how he met him,
and pressed upon him, but in vain, the claims of the new faith he
had come to preach. Merlin, like many others, clung to his old
gods, to the old superstitions in which he had been reared. He
turned again to his native hills and dales for solace, and at length
found his grave by Tweed, beneath an aged thorn tree, still, says
Sir W. Scott, in his Scottish Minstrelsy, to be seen. There

Is Merlin prisoner till the judgment day.

St. Kentigern himself was a follower of the great Scotch Saint
Columba; and the influence of that great teacher never reached
much further south than it did in the 6th and 7th centuries. It was
rolled back in the end by that other tide of teaching which came
from Rome with St. Augustine; but the Border was the barrier
once again, and so you have in these early events the germ of the
distinction, that to-day exists between Presbyterian Scotland and
Episcopal England.

It would be quite impossible for any but a profound antiquary
—and I have no pretension to be such—to steer you through the
various conflicting struggles between the different races and nation-
alities, which strove together on the Border from the 7th to the
roth century. I don’t know that even they always make it very
clear, even to each other, for antiquaries, I have observed, like
doctors, sometimes differ. But it is not difficult to give you an
idea of what was happening, to shew you how, out of this seething
mass in constant contention and ever varying strife, sprang the
Borderers as we find them in later days, having in them, and their
habits, and their language, many traces of the old Cymric race,
who had been the original possessors of the soil, but among whom
had been introduced a large mixture of those other elements, which
have united to form our English people. We are, as some one
‘said the other day, a piebald mixture of peoples, and the Borderers
are no exemption to the rule. We have the Anglo Saxon—what

67

is called the Teutonic element in our race, largely intermingling
with our native stock ; and then, and especially at the period of
which we are speaking now, we find another body of strangers
invading the district and settling in it, it would seem, in consider-
able numbers—I mean the Danes and Norse, belonging to the Scan-
dinavian races, from the north of Europe—the great free-booters
of the time, whose name was known and feared on every coast.
In 875 the Danes took and destroyed Carlisle; and though the
history of their battles is dim and dark and vague, as all history
is in such early days, yet they have left behind them their mark in
characters which none can dispute, in the names of many localities
on the Borders, and the language of those who dwell there. And
if we may believe Mr. Worsaz, in his Danes in England, it is not
only in these respects that the connection may be noted, but in our
personal appearance too. . “In the northern parts of England,” he
says, “I saw, and especially in the rural districts, faces exactly
resembling those at home. Had I met the same persons in
Denmark or in Norway, it would never have entered my mind
that they were foreigners.” However this may be, nothing
certainly is more sure, than that in the names of the localities we
know so well to-day, we have the traces of the different peoples
who, at one time or another, have been here, and amongst
them of the Danes. As we might almost expect, the names of
some of the most marked objects in our scenery, of our principal
rivers, of our chiefest town, of our highest hills, take us back to the
old British period, and the original dwellers on the soil. To them
belong Annan, and Esk, and Lyne, and Eden, and Caldew, among
our streams; the Cheviots among our hills; and Carlisle of our larger
towns. Car in Carlisle, is said to be Caer, a fort ; and is found also
in the family name of Kerr, or Carr—one of the few that can be
referred to British origin. But then we have alsomany names and
_ words in use which remind of the Anglo Saxon element in our
composition. The very common suffix, 4on—a town, as you have

it in so many of our villages—-this is one of its contributions to the

nomenclature of the district. And to the same source we owe such
words as /ee, for a plain—croft—water—ford—cleugh, a rugged

68

ascent, as you have it in C/ewghside—and many others too numerous
toname. But not less clearly have the Danes, too, left their mark
behind them here. Whenever you find—instead of the om, or
town, I just now mentioned—whenever you find dy, or dye, you
know that there the Dane has been. And so to them, too, are
due some of the most distinctive words in our common dialect—
such words as fe// and 77g, for a hill; wath fora ford; and hope for
avalley, scaur or scar, dale. When you use bairn for child ; when
they say they will gaz a person in the sense of make him do it; when
they speak of fremd folk, of a dyke, of a gowk, of a kirn, of a midden,
of a sark, of a ned, of reek*—in all these they are using words we owe
to our Danish forefathers, who landed and settled in this district a
thousand years ago, and seemed likely at one moment to destroy
even the little of Christianity and civilization to which we had then
attained. Sometimes in the name of a place you have two
languages—the traces of two different possessors combined. The
second comer finding a place already named, added to it from
his own dialect some further name appropriate to the locality.
Springkell, for instance, is such a case—for 4e// is merely Danish for
a spring. Scarbank is possibly another. In Dormanstead, both
man and stead mean place—the one Old British, the other Anglo
Saxon. Some think that among the different peoples, which have
thus in succession settled here, it is to the Danes more than the
others that we owe that poetic taste and skill, which have found
their outlet in the Border Ballads. But I don’t know why we
should assign their origin to one race rather than another. In
every early race there is a tendency found more or less among
them all, to throw into a rhythmic form that clings more easily to
the memory, the stirring events of a restless and adventurous life,
and that vividness—that intense reality—that graphic force we
admire and love in them, is due to the conditions under which
their authors lived—the conditions of an age when every man felt
from day to day that his life was in his harid—when he waged a
continual struggle with the powers of Nature or the craft of man

* These are taken from a long list given by Professor Veitch, in the work
already referred to.

St |

69

—when he had neither time, nor inclination, nor inducement, to
utter anything but that which he strongly and intensely felt. “ Early
poets,” says Sir Walter Scott, “almost uniformly display a bold,
rude original cast of genius and expression. They have walked at
free will, and with unconstrained steps along the wilds of Parnassus,
while their followers move with constrained gestures and forced
attitudes to avoid placing their feet, where their predecessors have
stepped before them.” Such ballads are the very outcome of the
people’s life, they breathe their spirit, record the incidents that
most thrilled their hearts, and the sentiments and emotions that
inspired them. And there is no reason to believe that the old
Cymri, who stand out upon the threshold of our history,
who loved their native hills, and dales, and streams, and
fought for them so stoutly against the various invaders that sought
to dispossess them, had less of those sentiments and emotions than
other early races, or were less able to throw them into the sort of
rude rhythms, that were then their only literature.

At the close of the 11th century, the Normans, as you know
established themselves in this country. They brought with them,
both in Church and State, more developed ideas of law and
government, and organization, than had been known before. Many
Norman families settled here amongst us in the north; but I fear
they did little to tranquilize the Border, and possibly only
introduced another element of disturbance. It was still to remain
for centuries to come, what it is described by an old chronicle of
the day—‘“‘a certain district lying between England and Scotland”
—claimed by both, the claim acknowledged by neither—fit nursing
ground for the men

Who stole the beeves to make their broth,
From England and from Scotland both.

At Carlisle we know the old Castle was erected to frown upon
Northern invaders ; and by its side rose the Cathedral, to be the
seat of the new Bishopric, which was soon to be established. But
past them both, a long tide of invasion, from the one side and the
other, must have flowed. Cumberland was Scottish almost as much

70
as English soil. It is not included in the famous Domesday Book,
the inventory of the possessions of the English Crown. To under-
stand the whole period, you must set yourselves free, as has been
said by Mr. Freeman,* from the bondage of the modern map and
modern nomenclature. Ifyou use the words England and Scotland
at all in reference to the district, you must remember that they do
not represent what they represent in modern days—that they
represent rather two forces which were struggling together for the
mastery, of which the converging point was the Border line. The
northern counties were the cause of standing feud between English
and Scottish kings. Sometimes the south, of what is now Scotland,
was annexed to England; sometimes the north of England was
seized by the rival claimant. Cumberland for a considerable time
was held by them as a fief, for which they did homage to the
English Crown. David, the king of Scotland—one of the few
monarchs who has been called, and deserves to be called a saint
—to whom she owes so many of her famous churches and abbeys—
to whom, perhaps, we owe some of our own religious foundations
on this side-of the Border—whose liberality to the Church made
him, his successor said, ‘“‘a sore saint to the crown”—he held
English Cumberland (for there was then a Scotch Cumberland as
well) in the r2th century. His son Henry did the same. A little
later it was ceded altogether by the Treaty of Carlisle to the
Scottish Crown: only, however, to be surrendered back again some
ten years after. It came pretty much to this: it was always claimed
by the stronger party for the time. Like any other property in
dispute, it was not a pleasant place to dwell in. All the wild
and predatory habits of those who dwelt in it, were encouraged
and fed by the uncertain shifting condition of things, in which they
found themselves. At the death of the first holder of the see, in
1156, it was impossible to find a successor: no one cared to be.
bishop of Carlisle ; and nearly seventy years elapsed before any
bishop could be got who would reside within the diocese. What
temporalities there were, were held and enjoyed by foreigners.

* Cf, Historical Essays, First Series, p. 57.

There was ample reason, I dare say, for the “nolo Episcopari” in

this case. There was room enough, no doubt, for the teachings of
the ministers of peace; but extremely little to be extracted in
return in way of salaries. We read to-day of the woes and
sufferings of the subject races in the Turkish Empire: you may
find a not inapt parallel to them in the history of your own district
six or seven hundred years ago. In the warfare carried on,
churches were violated, and neither sex nor age, I fear, was
spared. Again and again, from the page of the old chroniclers,
ascends the cry of sorrow and distress. One can imagine the lines
to have been penned with trembling fingers. Thus, in 1215, in
the chronicle of Lanercost, we read of Alexander, king of Scotland,
entering England with his army, and wasting all the county as far
as Carlisle with fire and sword. They then turned aside to the
monastery of Holm Cultram, stripped it bare of all that it possessed,
and took from a poor monk, who was at the time sick in the
hospital, the few scanty rags that covered him, And there were
no special correspondents in those days, to spread the news
of these barbarities. Force and violence reigned supreme.
Bishops, when they were found, were as often in the saddle as the
sanctuary. John Halton, who was bishop a little later, in the
days of Edward I., seems rather to have discharged the duties
of commander-in-chief of the Northern forces, or colonel of a Depot-
centre. He was constable of Carlisle Castle, and charged with its
repair. His letters, many of which remain, are filled with the
details of constantly recurring wars. He has often to beg that his
diocese may be exempted from payment of the tithes demanded by
the Church of Rome. Some parishes are to pay two-thirds—Scaleby
figures among these—others, as Arthuret, are exempted altogether,
by reason of the hostile inroad of the Scots. What could be derived
from parishes where frequently there was nothing left to tithe? It
was the aim of Edward I. to improve this terrible condition of
affairs ; to consolidate the two kingdoms under one crown; and to
do with Scotland as he had done with Wales. An opportunity in
the earlier years of his reign presented itself for doing so, in the
circumstance that, on the death of Alexander, the crown descended

72

to his granddaughter Margaret, the daughter of the king of Norway:
Edward proposed to marry his eldest son to the young Queen, and
so unite the kingdoms. But unfortunately his plans were frustrated
by the death of Margaret, and three wild and stormy centuries
were to intervene ere the Rose and the Thistle could be intertwined.
Foiled thus in his attempts at a peaceable solution of the question,
you know how Edward afterwards endeavoured to effect his object
by war ; how the independence of the country was asserted among
others by William Wallace (himself a Borderer), with all the
courage, and, I am afraid also, with all the wildness and vindictive-
ness of the Borderer’s character; and how, at last, the English king
died on Burgh Marsh on the eve of another expedition ; how, on
his tomb in the Abbey Church of Westminster you find the
inscription, “ Malleus Scottorum”—the hammer of the Scotch.
Perhaps, looking back to-day, it would have been well for both
countries if his object had been achieved. Scotland would have
escaped the disasters which followed in after days at Pinkie, and
Solway Moss, and Flodden; and many an Englishman would not
have bled on the field of Bannockburn.

The continued struggles between the successors of Edward
and the Scots, embittered yet more, as we might expect, the
relations between the countries ; and this embitterment was
naturally most strongly felt upon the Borders. Hate and resistance
to the Southron—this was their rallying cry; and it was this, and
often this only, that formed their bond of union with their Scottish
monarch, of whom, in other respects, they claimed and exercised
a considerable measure of independence. They were most
useful, no doubt, when there was war between North and South;
but at other times they were neither agreeable nor profitable as
subjects. They claimed to be, and to a considerable extent they
were, their own masters, and almost as troublesome to their own
kings as they were to anybody else. They had won their
possessions by the sword, and by the sword they kept them—

Like as I won them, sae will I keep them,
Contrair a’ kings in Christentie,

says the outlaw Murray in the ballad, and he only echoed the

~F
us

general feeling upon the subject. Every now and again, when they
had grown more unruly than their wont—when there was among
them some reiver more notorious than the rest, the Scottish
monarch of the day swept down upon his stronghold, and made
him an example to his fellows. One of the most signal instances
is that of the execution of Armstrong, the laird of Gilnockie, by
James V., in 1530: you have it related in the Ballads. The
Armstrongs were the most lawless of all the Border depredators ;
and all along the Liddell stream may still be seen the ruins of
their strongholds. James V., who long lived in Scottish memory as
the king, who made the rush bush keep the cow, in his endeavours
to maintain order, undertook an expedition through the Border
district. John Armstrong, of Gilnockie, was induced—the ballad
says, at the invitation of the king himself,

“The king he writes a luving letter,”

to appear before him. He came with his followers in all the rude
pomp of border chivalry.
The Elliotts and Armstrongs did convene—
They were a gallant company,

We'll ride and meet our lawful king,
And bring him safe to Gilnockie.

Make rabbits, and capon, ready then,
And venison in great plentie ;

We'll welcome here our royal king,
And bring him safe to Gilnockie.

When Johnnie came before the king,
Wi’ a’ his men sae braw to see,
The king he movit his bonnet to him,
He weened he was a king as well as he.

This shows the sort of subjects they were in their own and ordinary
estimation. But no sooner had Johnnie and his companions
alighted, than the king ordered the whole party to instant execution.
The ballad recounts the pleas that were put in for mercy, and they
give us a good idea of the wealth of a Border laird. First of all
he offers the king “four and twenty milk white steeds,” all foaled
in the same year ; then—

74

‘* Four and twenty ganging mills,
That gang thro’ a the year to me.”

with good red wheat to fill them; then, he promises that

‘* Four and twenty sisters’ sons
Shall all for thee fight, tho’ a’ should flee;
All between here and Newcastle town,
Shall pay their yearly rent to thee.”

Nothing apparently touches him more keenly than that the king
should consider him a traitor or dishonest—

‘Ve lie, ye lie, now king,” he says,
‘*Altho’ a king and a prince ye be ;
For I’ve loved nothing in my life,
I well dare say it—but honestie.”

Save, and there are, I regret to say, one or two exceptions to our
friend’s honesty—I suppose to prove the rule—

Save a fast horse and a fair woman,
Twa bonny dogs to kill a deir:

But England should have found me meal and malt,
If I had lived this hundred year.

She should have found me meal and malt,
And beef, and mutton, in a’ plentie ;

But niver a Scotch wife could have said
That e’er I skaithed her a puir flee.

Armstrong’s notions of honesty were those common among his
fellow reivers: as we understand it, they blotted it from their
list of virtues ; and when one remembers that these men lived only
three hundred years ago, and looks round and finds oneself in an
era of magistrates’ courts, and rural policemen, and sanitary
authorities, and school boards, one begins to understand what
progress is, and how slowly, how gradually it is won. All Arm-
strong’s pleas, however, were made in vain: having exhausted all
his eloquence, he bitterly exclaims—
To seek het water beneath cauld ice,
Surely it is a great folie ;

I have asked, grace at a graceless face,
But there is nane to my men and me!

Se

And then he sadly turns to bid a last adieu to his

Bonny Gilnock hall,
Where, on Esk side thou standest stout.

Miss Wordsworth, in her “Tour in Scotland” in the early years
of the present century, tells us that her brother and herself were
directed by Sir W. Scott, to look for the stumps of the trees where
the reivers were hanged, still standing between Hawick and
Langholm : at all events, you may still see the ruins of his old
tower ; and when you visit it, remember the fate of Armstrong of
Gilnockie.

Such was a good specimen of the old mosstrooper, and his
not unusual end; of the men who, during the 14th, 15th, and 16th
centuries were the terror and dismay of every peaceable man and
woman to the north and south of the district in which they lived
—the men whom Sir Walter has painted in his “Lay of the last
Minstrel” in William. of Deloraine—

A stark mosstrooping Scot was he

As e’er couched Border lance by knee ;
Through Solway sands, through Tarras moss,
Blindfold he knew the paths to cross ;
By wily turns, by desperate bounds,
Had baffled Percy’s best bloodhounds.
In Esk and Liddell fords were none,
But he would ride them one by one ;—
Alike to him were time or tide,
December’s snow or July’s pride ;—
Alike to him were tide or time,
Moonless midnight, or matin prime :

‘Steady of heart and stout of hand
As e’er drove prey from Cumberland.

Of these men there is little but the memory left, and we cannot
regret that they belonged to a period that is past and gone—that
they have left only to their descendants something of their
steadiness of heart, and something of their stoutness of hand, to be
used, as we believe, for more useful and more honourable ends.
We have, indeed (and they form one of the most characteristic
features of our Border scenery) we have many a ruined tower or
peel, and associated with it

Some old rude tale that suiteth well
The ruins wild and hoary—

the strongholds into which they retreated with their herds and
flocks when threatened by attack, and from which they sallied,
when the larder was empty, to prey upon the flocks and herds of
their more industrious neighbours. Perched on some hill, or rising
ground—on the edge of a precipice or the banks of a torrent, they
rise with their grey walls usually three stories high. Into the lowest of
these, in the hour of danger, the cattle were driven for security ; the
second and third accommodated the family and its dependants, in a
fashion that, I fear, would have made the hair of a modern sanitary
officer stand on end, if any sanitary officer would ever have dared to
present himself upon his errand. On the top of the towers hung
the iron grating, which held the beacon fire, that was used to warn
against invasion, and to gather the Border clans together, which
passed on from tower to tower with incredible rapidity the warning
note. From these towers they issued, ‘ knowing,” Camden says,
“no measure of law but the length of their sword,” whenever
the dish of spurs was served upon the table, as a signal that the
larder was empty ; or when, as the mother of one of the Grahams
said on a like occasion—“‘Ride, Rowley, the hough’s in the pot”—to
prey upon their southern neighbours with that characteristic regard
for honesty, which we have already seen animating Armstrong of
Gilnockie. It was the way they lived. Ina marriage contract of
the period between a Scott and Elliott, it is arranged that the father-
in-law should keep the bride, to receive in return the products of the
first Michaelmas moon. You remember, I dare say, the story of Wat
of Harden, the ancestor of Scott. On one occasion, when the village
herd was driving out the cattle to pasture, the old laird heard him call
loudly to drive out Harden’s cow, ‘“ Harden’s cow!” echoed the
affronted chief, “is it come to that pass?—by my faith they shall
soon say Harden’s kye!” and, sounding his bugle, summoned his
followers, and next day returned with a noble herd. His des-
cendant made a spirited ballad of the incident, of which I quote
three stanzas :—

77

‘Ca’ out the kye,” quo’ the village herd,
As he stood on the knowe ;

‘Ca’ this ane’s nine, and that ane’s ten,
And bauld Lord William’s cow.”

** Ah! by my sooth !” quoth William then,
** And stands it that way now !

When knave and chur] have nine and ten,
That the Lord has but his cow?

‘*T swear by the light of the Michaelmas moon,
And the might of Mary high,
And by the edge of my broad sword brown,
They shall soon say Harden’s Aye!”
A good many of their depredations were doubtless committed in
this district, and as our friends here naturally looked upon the
matter from a different point of view, we are not surprised to learn
that many a one must have taken his last look at the blue Border
hills from this neighbourhood: and whoever may have given to
the neighbouring city its title of ‘“‘merrie Carlisle,” it could scarcely,
I think, have been the mosstrooping Scots, whose heads so often
adorned its gates and walls.

In the Ballads, as in a mirror, the picture of those times
is painted for us with, as Lockhart says, “their stern deep passions
—their daring adventures and cruel tragedies—their rude wild
humour, interrupted by hardly a blot of what deserves to be called
vulgarity.” They are of different characters: some describe
the great struggles that took place between the rival races, national
encounters like the famous Hunting of the Cheviot, which ever
moved Sir Philip Sidney like the sound of a trumpet ; others the
foray, such as that which Wat of Harden made ; and others again,
the more homely tender incidents of domestic life. For wild and
dangerous as their occupations were—rough and rude as their
mode of living was—stern and cruel as the incidents of their career
too often were—yet there was, too, another side to it, a tender,
pathetic, gentle, softer side, which has also found its appropriate
echo in Border song. There on the one hand on the Borders,

Amid the Cheviot mountain’s blue,

struggling with the mists and blasts and storms of their native hills,

78

—an uncongenial climate and a sterile soil—struggling, too, against
the invasions of the Southron, again and again renewed, some of
the most prized and valuable characteristics of the sterner side of
the Scottish character took their rise. There, at least, in part, was
nourished and grew strong, the indomitable spirit, the unflinching
courage, the stern individuality and stubborn independence that,
at a critical moment in our history, saved England from the
Stuarts, and, in the face of thumbscrew and of rack, made Scotland
the most Protestant country in the world. There was born that
instinct for self-rule—that sense of politicalZindependence which
characterize none more than the people of the Border. And
these sentiments amongst us these Ballads are calculated to
maintain. There was truth in the saying—‘ Give me the
making of a nation’s ballads, and you may make its laws,” and
certainly, if ever there should again arise amongst us a condition
of affairs, that threatened the liberties of this country, in no
way would the instinct for freedom and independence be more
likely to be awakened than by the memories that our Ballads
would recall. They breathe the very air of freedom, and are
instinct with the spirit of independence. But in them too, as I
said, on the other hand, is also found that vein of tender and
pathetic sentiment, that note of sweetness and sadness, which
lingers round the Border hills and streams, making sacred the very
names of Yarrow, and Annan, and Kirtle, and Liddell, and has
stirred, and purified, and inspired the heart of many a dweller in
the district. Wan water, says one of them—

Wan water, from the Border hills,
Dear voice from the old years,

Thy distant music lulls and stills,
And moves to quiet tears.

We cannot unlock the charm: we cannot, we do not wish to
analyze it, but we know that it is there—we know that

Here was poetic impulse given,
By the green hills and clear blue heaven,

a

You remember, I dare say, how Wordsworth, in his poem of
Yarrow Unvisited, asks contemptuously—

What’s Yarrow, but a river bare,
That glides the dark hills under?
There are a thousand such elsewhere,
As worthy of our wonder.
and yet how, in after years, when visiting the scene, he was compelled
to confess there was something he had not found elsewhere—
something the memory of which he would fain keep with him—
To dwell with me, to heighten joy,
And cheer my mind in sorrow.
And so with the whole district. There is a nameless charm about
‘it. It is this which has made it

Meet nurse for a poetic child ;

and to have given birth to Scott and Burns, and fed their youthful
fancies, is alone a distinction such as no other district in the world
can claim. How entirely this was the case with Scott we know;
and how of their yearly rambles in Liddesdale Mr. Shortreed, his
companion, said: ‘‘ He was making himself all the time, and didn’t
know till years had passed, perhaps.” And while from these
Border scenes he thus drew in his inspiration, he poured over
them in return, with all the power of genius, a flood of interest
which will never die—which has made these old memories the
possession, not of a district, but of the world.

But I must illustrate this pathetic side of the old Ballads,
springing, as it does, from the sadness of the past history of the
district, linking every object in Nature with some tale of sorrow,
by one or two examples. Where could you find painted a more
touching picture of sorrow and lonely mourning than in the lament
of the widow of one of the old rievers, William Cokeburne, who
had been executed before the gate of his own tower, near S. Mary’s
Loch, by James IV. or V._ I dare say you know it—

I sewed his sheet, making my mane,
I watched the corpse myself alane ;
I watched his body night and day,
No living creature came that way.

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I took his body on my back,

And whiles I gaed, and whiles I sate :
I digg’d a grave and laid him in,

And happ’d him in the sod sae green.

But think ye nae my heart was sair,
When I laid the moul on his yellow hair !
O think ye nae my heart was wae,

When I turned about away to gae!

Nae living man I’ll love again,
Since that my lovely knight is slain !
Wi a lock of his yellow hair

I'll bind my heart for ever mair!

Or if you wanted another instance of the passionate devotion with
which love can cling to its departed object, you have one surely
in the well-known ballad of the ‘“ Dowie Dens o’ Yarrow”—in
which a lady finds the body of her lover, Walter Scott, who has
been surprised in the glen and foully murdered by his enemies—
She kissed his cheek—she kaimed his hair,
She washed his wounds all thorough ;

She kissed him till her cheeks were red,
On the dowie houms of Yarrow.

Her father comes to her—

‘“Now haud your tongue, my daughter dear,
For a’ this hauds but sorrow ;

I'll wed ye to a better lord
Than him ye lost on Yarrow.”

‘*O haud your tongue, my father dear,
Ye mind me but of sorrow :

A fairer rose did never bloom,
Than now lies cropped on Yarrow.”

Whether the lady always remained in the same mind the story
does not relate. In another beautiful ballad again, we have a tale
of the high courage with which true love can fill a woman’s soul.
The ballad is called. “The Gay Goss Hawk.” You will find it in
Scott’s collection. A knight in the north loves a lady in the south
countrie—perhaps here in Cumberland—but, unfortunately, the
’ course of their love does not run smooth, and he is not allowed to
see her, He accordingly sends his hawk with a letter “under its

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pinions gray,” and bids it carry it to his sweetheart in the south,
to whom the bird is thus directed—

O well shall ye my true love ken,
As soon as her ye see,

For of a’ the flowers of fair England,
The fairest flower is she.

The red that’s on my true love’s cheek
Is like blood-drops on the snaw,

The white that is on her breast bare,
Like the down of the white sea-maw.

And ever at my love’s bower door,
There grows a flowering birk,
And ye maun sit and sing thereon,

As she gangs to the kirk.

The bird goes on its errand—

And first he sings a low, low note,
And syne he sang a clear,

And aye the o’erword of the song
Was—your love can no win here.

The lady listens and understands, I need hardly say—I fear her
thoughts wandered a little during the service—but, unfortunately,
she has a step-mother, who by no means gives her the encourage-
ment she would have liked. She adopts a stratagem to deceive
her. She drinks a sleeping potion, and lies apparently dead,
having first obtained a promise from her father that if she dies she
shall be buried in the north countrie, and allowed to be laid out.
the night before the burial in S. Mary’s Kirk. Her step-mother,
however, suspects her, and subjects her to a rigid test—

Then spake her cruel step-mother,
‘*Take ye the burning lead,

And drap a drap on her bosom,
To see if she be dead.”

They took a drap of boiling lead,
And drapp’d it on her breast ;

‘© Alas! alas !”’ her father cried,
‘*She’s dead without a priest !”

7

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She neither chattered with her teeth,
Nor shivered with her chin,
*¢ Alas! alas!” her father cried,
‘There is nae breath within !”
And so they carry her away to her distant tomb, and she is laid
for the night in the church of S. Mary, according to her father’s
promise, and all is ready for the burial of the fair but unhappy
young stranger from the distant southern land, when suddenly her
lover appears upon the scene, and at his touch—
She brightened like the lily flower,
Till her pale colours gone,
With rosy cheek and ruby lip,
She smiles her love upon.
I hope there are ladies in the nineteenth century—though I don’t
think their courage will be put to as severe a test—as true, as
constant, and of as high a spirit ; as we hope, or else these ladies
would be thrown away, that there are lovers as constant as he who
mourned for Helen of Kirkconnell upon the braes of Kirtle—
Oh, Helen, fair beyond compare,
T’ll make a garland of thy hair,
Shall bind my heart for ever mair,
Until the day I die.
The period and the people that gave birth to songs and ballads
like these, were full, we are sure, of sad and pathetic incidents
enough. There were partings, often for ever, from mothers, and
wives, and sisters, and children—and sad waitings and watchings
for the loved ones that would never return again—sorrowings like
those after the fatal field of Flodden, so strikingly described in the
verses of the famous, though modern, ballad written by a lady of
an old Border family—‘‘ The Flowers of the Forest.”
Dool and wae for the order sent our lads to the Border, —
The English for once by guile wan the day ;

The Flowers of the Forest that fought aye the foremost,
The prime of the land are cold in the clay.

We'll hear na mair lilting at the ewes milking—
Women and bairns are heartless and wae !
Sighing and moaning in ilka green loaning,
The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wide away.

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One of the latest and most stirring deeds in the tale of this
Border History, and one, too, so immediately connected with this
district, that I ought not to omit it, is that related in the ballad
of Kinmont Willie, an incident that took place in the close of the
16th century, in the days of Queen Elizabeth. William Armstrong,
of Kinmont—said to be a descendant of our friend of Gilnockie—
was a noted Border chieftain, and not with the best of reputations.
A pamphleteer of the day arguing against subscribing the oath of
supremacy, in 1584, asks ironically, “‘Who shall take order with
vice and wickedness? The court and bishops? As well ask
Mautin Elliot and Will of Kinmont to take order with stealing
upon the Borders!” This Will of Kinmont had been seized by
Mr. Sakeld—“the fause Sakelde,” as the ballad styles him—the
deputy of Lord Scrope, who was then the Warden of the Marshes—
at a meeting which had been held, as usual, for the purpose of
settling mutual disputes, on the banks of the river Liddell, near
the Kershope Foot. He was carried offin spite of all remonstrance
as to the illegality of the seizure, and lodged in the castle of
Carlisle, where no doubt he would soon have been “justified,” to
use the term that was in vogue on the other side of the Border—
i.é. hanged first and tried after—a sort of justification which has
perhaps escaped the notice of our theologians. The news was
carried to Buccleugh, who was vested with the office of Warden on
the Scottish side. He was vastly indignant.

And have they ta’en him, Kinmount Willie,
Against the truce of Border tide,
And forgotten that the bold Buccleugh
Is keeper here on the Scottish side?
He accordingly assembles his followers an hour before the sunset,
at the rendezvous of the Woodhouselee, “carrying ladders long
and hie,” and leads them straight to Carlisle town—
Then on we held to Carlisle town,
At Staneshaw bank the Eden we crossed ;

The water was great and mickle of spait,
But never a man or a horse we lost.

The dark and stormy night—the ascent of the Castle wall

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under cover of the darkness, from the side of ‘‘the Sacray, a plaine
place under the towne and castell”—the breaking of the prison
bars, and the confusion of the garrison numbering 1o0oo men—the
release of the astonished prisoner on the very eve of his execution,
carried in his irons shoulder-high on the back of one of the band
—the alarm that followed—the tolling of the city bells and the
beating of the drums—and the recrossing of the flooded Eden in
the grey dawn of an autumn morning—all these are graphically
touched, and make a striking picture.
Buccleugh has turned to Eden waters,
F’en where it flowed from bank to brim ;

And he has plunged in wi’ a’ his band
And safely swam them through the stream.

Lord Scrope, in amazement, standing on the bank exclaims—

He is either himsel’ a devil from hell,
Or else his mother a witch maun be:
I wouldna hae ridden that wan water
For a’ the gowd in Christantie.
We may imagine the glee of the little party when they reached
their own neighbourhood again, passing through Longtown at the
break of day, and the stir the incident would cause. Queen
Elizabeth was deeply incensed at the conduct of Buccleugh, and
not very easily pacified. Some time after, when he was presented
to her, she demanded of him how he dared undertake an enterprise
so desperate and presumptuous. ‘‘ What is it,” he replied, “that
a man dares not do?” ‘With ten thousand such men,” said the
Queen, “our brother of Scotland could shake the firmest throne
in Europe!” She little thought that ere half a century had passed,
the crown the Scotchmen would shake, would be her own, in the
hands of her successors.

Some years later the Queen died, and James VI. of Scotland,
succeeding to the throne, made the two countries one. Renewed
efforts were made to pacify the Border. You remember the remark
of James when a favourite cow he had taken with him to London
found its way back to Fife: nothing, he said, surprised him so
much as its being able to pass without interruption through the

ede te ed eee

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Debateable Land. He exerted himself, accordingly, to introduce
greater security of life and property. We are told how the Border
churches, many, no doubt, in ruins and decay, were restored.
Stringent laws were enacted, and officers appointed for the settling
of disputes. The use of horses and arms, save to those unsuspected
of felony and theft, was interdicted. Trained bloodhounds
were to be kept in the various Border parishes, for the pursuit
of depredators: and when arrested, ‘“Jeddart Justice,”—a
phrase which comes to us from the period—was the order of
the day. No one was more active in putting in force the law
against the mosstroopers than Lord William Howard, or
Belted Will. He seems to have been a student, as ‘well as,
or perhaps more than a soldier. On one occasion when he was
occupied with an interesting book, a prisoner was brought in: he
was asked what was to be done with him. ‘Hang him!” was the
reply. Shortly after, he asked that he should be brought in for
examination, and found his hasty order had been carried out.
The story is told in Hutchinson, but accords rather with the
character that popular tradition has assigned to ‘“‘ Bauld Willie,” than
that, which more recent inquiries have shown to be the true one.
Some families proved so troublesome, that nothing short of exter-
mination promised success. They were to be stamped out.
Among these we find the Grahams, who seem to have made
themselves unusually notorious, and to have been regarded as
pests for whom there was no cure but one—exportation. A con-
siderable number of them were accordingly transported to Ireland,
along with some other families, “because,” the king’s order runs,
“they do all, but especially the Grames, confess themselves to be
no meet persons to live in these countries, and also to the intent
their lands may be inhabited by others of good and honest conver-
sation.” Let us be glad that a few “very respectable” families of
the name were found worthy to remain to reckon among their
posterity your own neighbour, one of the crowning glories of
Cumberland—the great statesman who was at his death the
member for Carlisle. The Bill for the exportation of the Grahams
was paid by a tax levied on the different parishes—a tax to which

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I see my own parish contributed 19s. 4d. But in spite of efforts
again and again renewed, a century elapsed before there was
anything of real peace and quiet on the Borders. On every
opportunity the old spirit broke forth. Thus at the Restoration of
Charles II., in 1662, we are told the Scots and mosstroopers have

again revived their old custom of robbing and murdering the

English, and often had the inhabitants need to say, with the old
ballad,
Lord, send us peace into this realm,
That every man may live on his own.

It was only by slow degrees that the old roving habits were
replaced by a more civilized and peaceable condition of affairs,
and far down into the 18th century we find the traces of the
predatory mode of life that had so long prevailed. Nicolson,
writing towards the close of it, finds the last trace in the custom of
aman and woman stealing away each other—a pleasant form of
larceny—amid the hot pursuit of friends, and getting married by
the forger of iron links, whose temple was at Gretna Green: and
even this species of larceny has now been put down by the hand
of the law.

I have thus endeavoured, most imperfectly, I know, to trace
some of the scenes that are connected with the Borders, and to say
something of the Ballads in which their later history is enshrined.
I have brought you through a period when here

From age to age
Contending nations strove with mutual rage,

to a day when we loiter through the district for a summer holiday,
and all around see signs that now

Here guardian peace—here smiling culture reigns,

And endless Plenty clothes the fertile plains.
Such has been the result of Progress on the Borders. Mr. Ruskin
remarks somewhere that the scenery most fruitful of literary
intellect is not the absolutely mountainous nor the perfectly flat :
it is the mixture of hill and vale, where there is demand at once
for man’s energy and man’s endurance, and yet room also for ideas

_ *

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of rest and repose. This, no doubt, in conjunction with the
stirring events of which, by its position, it has been the scene—
and Mr. Ruskin adds, the peculiar beauty of the sound of the
Scottish streamlets, unmatched, he says, for the mystery and
sweetness of their murmurs, and whispers, and low fall—is the
reason why, in this limited Border district, there has been produced
such a rich crop of poetic fancies, as are to be found in these
famous ballads. They are beautiful in themselves; but how much
more may we prize them, when we remember that to them and to
the district which produced them, we owe the inspiration that
kindled the genius of Scott; that there is hardly a scene, an
incident, or a character in all his poems and romances of which the
first suggestion may not be traced to some old verse in the Border
Minstrelsy, or some locality in the district. We know how, to his
latest days, he remembered the spot, where first, as a child, he read
Percy’s Reliques of Ancient Poetry*—the first collection of Ballads
given to the world—how he scraped together, he says, a few
shillings and bought a copy of the beloved volumes—“nor do I
believe,” he adds, ‘“‘I ever read a book half so frequently or with
half the enthusiasm.” And we know, too, how in later days, in

every incident of life, the old lines sprang unbidden to his memory
_ to describe his feelings and emotions, and the joy with which, in

the closing scene of all, he returned to his loved district, wishing
that he might, like his own Minstrel in his latest hours,

Still feel the breeze down Etterick break.

And here too, no less, amid these hills and dales, was fed and

grew strong the spirit of Burns; here was reared the hardy

peasantry from whom he sprang, and to the homeliest incidents
of whose lives—their Saturday nights—their merrymakings and
their sorrows—he has given an immortality such as genius alone
can give, which will be green as long as the world endures. To
Scott and Burns we might easily add many another name. Here
Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, and Allan Ramsay, and Leyden, and
Cunningham, gathered the inspiration for the songs that have

* Dr. Percy was at one time Dean of Carlisle.

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made their names a household word. All these we owe to the
Border and its Ballads—to those old songs which have been given
to us direct from a people’s heart—and to the long and weary
strifes and struggles in the district, to which that heart belonged. Is
there any other locality that can boast of a more valuable, a more
characteristic gift to literature? And amid the conventionalism and
sickly sentimentality of much that is written inthis r9thcentury ; amid
artificial poetry and sensational novels, we may still turn with
refreshment to the quaint simplicity and native vigour of our old
Minstrelsy, and find there something to stir, without corrupting, our
imagination, something to ennoble the character, and to help to
raise a race of Borderers as stout of hand and as strong of heart as
those who have gone before us—just as amid the breezy hills and
dales and streams from which it sprang, we may gather fresh
strength and new vigour for the work of life.

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THE BARONY OF KENDAL AND MANOR OF
HAWKSHEAD.

(HISTORY AND CUSTOMS OF THE MANORS OF THE
MARQUIS AND RICHMOND FEES.)

By W. HOPES HEELIS.
a Read at Ambleside. )

THE FEUDAL SYSTEM.

In years long ago, before that conquering (or, as some will
have it, plundering) hero came over from Normandy and landed
at Pevensey Bay, in that year of our Lord which is so well known
now, in these our days of School Boards and Government
Inspectors, Englishmen knew little or nothing of the feudal
laws ; but with, or rather by the Conqueror, they were introduced
into this kingdom in all their completeness and power. On
taking a view of the feudal system, the first thing that attracts
our attention is the king, held to be the sole proprietor of all
the lands within his dominions: from whom all subjects derived
their possessions, and, in return, consecrated even their lives to his
service. There he sat enthroned, the source and fountain, as it
were, of honour: from whom all marks of distinction and titles of
dignity flowed—at his footstool the most powerful peers, on bended
knees and with folded hands, did homage and swore fealty to him
as their sovereign and liege lord. A feudal kingdom was, in its
origin, altogether military, and may be likened to the encampment
of a great army, the possession of the land being the pay the

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soldiers received for personal service. To the king, or general,
part of the conquered lands were allotted; while the remainder,
under the names of Jdeneficia or fiefs, was divided among his
principal officers. As the common safety required that these
officers should, upon all occasions, be ready to appear in arms for
the common defence, and should continue obedient to the general
or king, they bound themselves to take the field when called upon
to do so, and to serve him with a number of men or vassals, in
proportion to the extent of their territory. This was the origin of
baronies. ‘These great officers again parcelled out their lands
among their followers, and annexed the same or somewhat similar
conditions, to the grants they made. This was the origin of
manors. Large baronies often consisted of various manors, and
this is especially apparent in the Barony of Kendal and Lordship
or Liberty of Furness, which respectively comprised many manors.
The lords of the manors subgranted or let the same in parcels of
various extent to their tenants or vassals, either for military or more
menial services, or at certain rents. When the Crown, at first
elective, became hereditary, the fiefs or baronies, at first granted
during pleasure, also descended from father and son, and so became
perpetual ; and, by a natural consequence, more and more powerful
became the barons, and so in proportion the authority of the
king became more limited. In the same manner the tenants of
the various manors gradually acquired a right to hold their lands
in perpetuity instead of only so long as it pleased their lord.

The king’s demesne, or the portion of land which he retained
in his own hands, was that from which he drew subsistence for his
court, and revenue for the ordinary expenses of his government :
whereas the taxes payable by a vassal were originally only three—
one when his eldest son was made a knight, another when his
eldest daughter was married, and the third to ransom him when
made a prisoner. There were also some other waifs and strays
which came to his exchequer in the shape of wardships, marriages,
&c., of his own vassals. When very hard up, his subjects perhaps
granted him what was called a “benevolence,” something like a
parent paying the gambling debts or tailor’s bills of his son, and so

J

— =

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giving him a fresh start in the world of credit. A feudal king was
not, therefore, by any means, a rich or independent man; and, as
for mercenary troops, he had none, but was dependent upon the
vassals and sub-vassals of the barons for his army. Forty days
was the extent of service which could be demanded at any one
time ; and the more warlike a people were the more independent
they became ; for, being both soldiers and subjects, civil privileges
and immunities were the consequences of their victories and the
rewards of their exploits. The barons thus, as I said before,
gradually became more and more powerful; and though at first
kings appear to have been the supreme judges of the people, and
heard in person all causes and controversies, the nobles gradually
were entrusted with the administration of justice within their
baronies, probably, it is thought, at first only temporary grants on
account of the number of suits increasing, but ultimately converted
into rights which became hereditary. Here we have, I think, the
origin not only of Courts Baron, but also of Courts Leet, where
justice was dispensed in all cases, civil and criminal, by the baron
or judges appointed by him. Almost every question in which a
person residing on the lands of a noble was interested was decided
by the noble himself, or by judges appointed by him. I shall
have subsequently to elaborate somewhat upon what I have said
concerning the feudal king and his vassals, when I come to treat of
the different tenures and customs, and therefore will now proceed
to give a short history of the manors I have ventured to make the
subject of this paper.

THE BARONS OF KENDAL.

The Barony of Kendal was originally a very extensive one.
It comprised the whole of the Kendal and Lonsdale Wards in the
County of Westmorland, and some parts of the neighbouring
County of Lancaster. It was given by William the Conqueror to
Ivo de Tailbois, brother to the Earl of Anjou, who married Elgiva,
daughter of the Saxon King Ethelred. From him the barony
descended by regular and direct succession to William de Tailbois,
the fifth baron, who was Governor of Lancaster Castle, from which

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circumstance he took the surname of “Lancaster” instead of
Tailbois, in the reign of Henry I. This William de Tailbois had
issue William de Lancaster II., who appears to have been a some-
what pugnacious individual, for he gave thirty marks to King
Henry II. for permission to fight a duel with Gospatric, the son of
Orme, some relation of his. I don’t know what the result of the
duel was, but am pretty certain that they would come to closer
quarters than thirty-five paces, the distance Frenchmen appear to
think near enough now-a-days to exchange shots and satisfy
honour, even on a foggy morning in November. This William de
Lancaster II. left one daughter, Helwise, who married Gilbert, son
of Roger Fitz-Reinfred, to whom Richard I., in 1189, granted the
Forest of Westmorland, Kendal, and Furness, together with a
weekly market on Saturdays at Kendal. This William de
Lancaster was also, to his credit be it said, one of those bold barons
who opposed King John. Gilbert Fitz-Reinfred died in 1219,
leaving one son and three daughters. His son William, who also
took the name of Lancaster, married Agnes de Brus, but, dying
without issue, the barony descended to his two surviving sisters,
Helwise and Alice, the former of whom got as her share that
portion of it which is now comprised in the Marquis and Lumley
Fees, and the latter what is now called the Richmond Fee. Helwise
married Peter de Brus, and had one son, Peter, and four daughters.
This son Peter de Brus at his mother’s death succeeded to one
half of the barony, now comprised in the Marquis and Lumley
Fees ; and on his death, in 1278, his estates passed to his four
sisters, Margaret, Agnes, Lucy, and Laderina. Margaret married
Robert de Ross or Roos, and had as her share Kendal Castle, and
all that belonged to her deceased brother, in demesnes, villages,
rents, and services of freemen or others, except the vill of Kent-
‘mere, which was assigned to Laderina. Agnes took no share of
the Westmorland estates, but Lucy, the third sister, got what is
now called the Lumley Fee, and which comprised the Manors of
Helsington, Crosthwaite, and Lyth, and a fourth-part of the town
of Kendal, with the turbary of Sampool.

Robert and Margaret de Ross or Roos left heirs, and this

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portion of the barony descended in direct succession through two
or three generations of De Rooses to (in 1390) an infant daughter
of John de Roos, who afterwards became the wife of Sir William
de Parr, from whom it descended to Sir Thomas Parr, Master of
the Wards and Comptroller to King Henry VIII.

I need hardly tell you that Catherine, the eldest daughter of
this Sir William de Parr, after being first married to Edward
Borough, or Burgh, secondly to John Neville, Lord Latimer,
became, on her third matrimonial venture, the sixth wife of Bluff
King Hal, and having seen him quietly disposed of, married for
her fourth husband Thomas Lord Seymour, of Dudley. Besides
Catherine and her sister Anne, Sir Thomas Parr had a son, William
Parr, who was created Lord Parr and Ross of Kendal, in 1538,
and in 1547 Marquis of Northampton, upon his receiving which
latter title the portion of the Barony of Kendal belonging to him
acquired the name or title of the “ Marquis Fee,” and retains it to
the present day. This William Parr, Marquis of Northampton,
died in 1570 without issue, in consequence of which the Fee
reverted to the Crown, then held by Queen Elizabeth.

Turning to the other portion of the barony, which fell to
the lot of Helwise’s sister Alice, on the death of her brother
William de Lancaster, son of Gilbert de Reinfred, Alice married
William de Lindesay, and they had a son, Walter, from whom the
Fee descended in direct succession to his great granddaughter
Christian de Lindesay, who married Ingelram de Guienes, Lord de
Courcy, in France. Their eldest son, William, was born in
France, and, according to the law of those times, could not inherit
land in England; and as their second son, Ingelram, born in
England, died without issue, the estate escheated to the Crown.
William, who, as I said before, was born in France, had two sons,
Ingelram the eldest, and William the youngest; and the then
King of England (Edward III.) gave the fee to William, the
youngest son; but he, William, also died without issue, and the
Fee again escheated to the Crown. King Edward III. then
granted it for life to John de Coupland, of Coupland, in North-
umberland, and Joan his wife, during their lives, This John de

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Coupland was the valiant De Coupland who in the battle with the
Scots at Neville’s Cross, near Durham, when assailed by David II.,
King of Scotland, with blows repeated until he even dashed his
teeth out, in the hope of either provoking him to slay or be
slain by him, forbore to retaliate, and obliged the king to live and
become his prisoner. For this deed King Edward rewarded
Coupland with a pension of 4500 a year (a large sum in those
days) until he could give him an equivalent in land; and seeing
that the battle was fought in the year 1346, and the grant of the
barony was made in 1347, it may, I think, fairly be assumed that
such grant was made in return for the above services. The last
William had, as before stated, an elder brother Ingelram, and this
Ingelram had a son of the same name, Lord of Courcy in France,
who married Isabel, daughter of Edward III., and to him the king
granted the reversion of the English estates, after the death of John
de Coupland and Joan his wife and the heirs of his body, except
the reversion of a moiety of the Manor of Ulverston, which he gave
to Furness Abbey. This Ingelram de Courcy had one daughter,
Philippa, who married Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, from whom,
in the reign of Richard II., she was divorced for what in those
days I presume was considered a sufficient reason, namely, the
want of children. She died in 1411, and the Fee again reverted
to the Crown for want of heirs. Henry IV. next granted it to
John, Duke of Bedford; and Henry VI., in 1443, granted it to
John de Beauford, Duke of Somerset, and his heirs male. This
John, Duke of Somerset, was grandson of John of Gaunt, Duke of
Lancaster, and son of Edward III. He died the same year the
grant was made to him, without leaving issue male, and the estate
consequently again reverted to the Crown; whereupon the king
granted it by letters patent to Margaret, a daughter and heiress of
the said Duke, and widow of the Earl of Richmond, under the
title of Countess of Richmond, though at the time she was the
wife of Henry Stafford, son of Humphrey, the then the Duke of
Buckingham. In consequence of this grant to the Countess of
Richmond, this portion of the barony received the name of the
Richmond Fee, which it retains to the present day.

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95

I have now traced the two Fees from their origin to the
respective persons from whom they received their distinctive
names, namely, the Marquis Fee from the Marquis of Northampton
in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Queen Mary ; and the Richmond
Fee from the Countess of Richmond in the reign of Henry VI.
Margaret, Countess of Richmond, was mother of Henry VII., and
on her death the Richmond Fee came to him as her heir-at-law,
and consequently again became the property of the Crown.
Henry VIII. granted it to his natural son, the Duke of Richmond
and Somerset, on whose death without issue it again reverted to
the Crown. The Marquis Fee, as I have told you before, came
into the hands of the Crown not long afterwards, and both Fees
subsequently appear to have usually passed together by temporary
grants to different persons, until after the death of Catherine,
Queen of Charles II., when they were leased to a member of the
Lowther family, in which family they have remained ever since,
and now through purchase by one of the late lords, belong to the
present Lord Lonsdale in fee.

RENTS OF THE MARQUIS FEE.

In 1596 a rental of the Marquis and Richmond Fees was
made for Queen Elizabeth, when it was ascertained that the yearly
rents of the Marquis Fee consisted of—

| Pie hy:

Burgage rents in Kendal - - - - Ce iy Dae
Customary and other dry rents—

Kendal and its vicinity - - - - Ares Ox) 96
Grasmere - - - - - Sa Tle Ge
Langdale - = - - - - 5 14 11
Underbarrow - - - - - Moser er
Staveley and Hugill - - - - - 9 3 7
Nethergraveship - . - - i BLO Gras
Scalthwaiterigg - - - - RE eee:
eM ee Chr ee Cm a Alay Se one aes
Hutton-1-the-Hay - - - - - 8 18 24
Strickland Roger - - - - “iy LE EAL TE
Greenhead - - . - - - Io 16 Io
Hugill - - = > 5 é z Se ag)
Crosthwaite — - - . - - . ollriy ig

Amounting in all to - - 4134 10 43

96

RENTS OF THE RICHMOND FEE.

In the Richmond Fee customary and dry rents were payable
by—

sas
Grasmere - - - - - eee et ae
Langdale - - - - - - 9.12 §t
Loughrigg - - - - . - a 16° 5
Ambleside - - - - - - 2617 0
Undermillbeck - - - : -\\ AS Sige
Troutbeck - - : - - ee ae
Applethwaite - - - - 24 10 I0f
Fishery and Ferry of wiidernere - - 6-0" "6
Crosthwaite and Lyth~ - . - -* 59 «ae
New Hutton - - - - - - 10 9g gf
Casterton - - = SEZ) 3Que
Strickland Ketel and Fielsington - - 3. T0"Te
Thornton, Westhouse, and Masinghill =. £214 ;10
Amounting in the whole to Alyi 4 10}

From this it will be seen that in Grasmere and Langdale there are
lands held of both the Marquis and Richmond Fees, and this
accounts for a discovery which a brother chip of mine mentioned
to me the other day as having somewhat surprised him, namely,
that in examining some deeds, he found there is land in Easdale,
Grasmere, held of the Marquis Fee. I must now direct your
attention to

THE MANOR OF HAWKSHEAD,

The first settled population of High and Low Furness appear
to have been Anglo-Saxons. In the Doomsday Book, High
Furness is called Hougun; and, when this survey was made, the
lordship or liberty of Furness was in the hands of the Crown,
Roger de Poictou, to whom it was given not long after the
Conquest, having forfeited it by reason of some treasonable or
disloyal act. It was subsequently granted to Stephen, Earl of
Boulogne, and afterwards King of England, by whom it (with the
exception of the lands of Michael le Fleming) was given and
granted for the purpose of founding the Monastery of Furness.
The charter by which this grant was made is dated in the year

oF

1127, and the following is a translation :—‘ In the name of the
Blessed Trinity, in honour of St. Mary of Furness, I, Stephen, Earl
of Boulogne and Moreton, consulting God and providing for the
safety of my own soul, and the soul of my wife, the Countess
Matilda, the soul of my lord and uncle Henry, King of England
and Duke of Normandy, and for the souls of all the faithful, living
as well as dead, in the year of our Lord 1127 of the Roman
Indiction, and the 5th and 18th of the Epact, considering every
day the uncertainty of life, that the roses and flowers of Kings,
Emperors, and Dukes, and the crowns and palms of all the great
wither and decay, and that all things with an uninterrupted course
tend to dissolution and death: I therefore return, give, and grant
to God and St. Mary of Furness, all Furness and Walney, with the
privilege of hunting, with Dalton, and all my lordships of Furness,
with the men and everything thereto belonging that is in woods
and open grounds, in land and in water, and Ulverston, and Roger
Braithwaite, with all that belongs to him, my fisheries at Lancaster
and Little Guoring and all land thereof; with sac and soc, toll and
theam, infangtheof and everything within Furness, except the lands
of Michael le Fleming, with this view and upon this condition :—
That in Furness an order of regular monks be by divine permission
established.” Sac and soc was the privilege enjoyed by the lord of
a manor of holding courts, trying causes. Zheam was the power
of having servants and slaves. Jnfangtheof was the right to judge
any thief taken within the lordship. It was not long after this
grant was made that a question arose between the monks and
William de Lancaster, the fifth Baron of Kendal and first of
Lancaster, as to the boundary between Furness Fells and the
Barony of Kendal, which is stated to have been referred to thirty
sworn men. The agreement come to by them was confirmed by
the king, and, with the charter of ratification, is still extant. By
it the boundary is declared to be “by the Waterfall from Wringe-
hills (or Wrynose Hill) in Little Langdale, and from thence into
Eller or Helterwater, and from thence to Braza or Brathey, and
where the said waters run into Windermere or Winendermere, and
so down the said mere to Leven sands to the sea,” For something
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like four hundred years the monastery of Furness flourished. The
Abbots, as may be concluded from the original charter, were
temporal as well as spiritual princes, ruling, with an almost absolute
sway, over their vassals and large domains. But with the reign of
Henry VIII. a great change came, as you all know, and on April
gth, 1537, Furness Abbey, with all its estates, was surrendered to
the King. They remained in the hands of the Crown until 1662,
when the manor of Hawkshead, with other manors belonging to
the lordship of Furness, was granted by Charles II. to the Duke
of Albemarle and his heirs. By marriage it came to the family
of the Montagues, from whom it has descended to the Duke of
Buccleuch, the present lord. I must now beg your attention to
the question of

TENURES.

From what I have before said, you will have gathered that
there arose out of feudalism the maxim that all lands in the
kingdom were originally granted by the kings, and held immediately
or mediately of them, as lords paramount, in consideration of
certain services to be rendered by the holder. Those who held
immediately of the king were called tenants 77 capi?e, (or in chief,)
which was the most honourable tenure. These tenants granted
portions to inferior persons, who were called lords with regard to
inferior holders, who were styled “tenants paravail,” because they
were supposed to make avail, or profit, of the land. In fact they
were the tenant farmers. The lands were called either “feuds
proper,” which were purely military, or “improper,” such as those
which were sold for an equivalent, or granted free, or in consider-
ation of any certain service. The two great divisions or distinctions
of property were those of frank tenements, or freehold, and
villenage. .

FREEHOLD.

Frank tenements were those which were held by knight’s
service or free soccage. Knight’s service was, as may be supposed,
considered the most honourable, and was rendered in return for a

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grant of a quantity of land called a knight’s fee, which in extent
was twelve plough lands, or as much as could be reasonably
ploughed in one year by twelve ploughs. By some it was said to
be eight hundred acres, and by others six hundred and eighty. Its
value in those days was about #20 per annum; and the fee was
granted by solemn and public delivery of the land itself by the
lord to the vassal, and perfected by homage and fealty. Now, I
dare say some of you would like to know in what homage and
fealty consisted. Lord Lyttleton tells us that homage is the most
honourable service of reverence that a frank tenant may do to his
lord, and this is how he described homage to have been done by
aman: “He should be ungirt and his head uncovered, and his
lord shall sit and the tenant shall kneel before him on both his
knees, and hold his hands jointly together between the hands of
his lord and say thus:—‘I become your man from this day forth, of
life and limb and earthly worship, and unto you shall be true and
faithful, and bear to you faith for the tenements that I claim to hold
of you, saving the faith that I owe to our sovereign lord the king,’
and then the lord so sitting shall kiss him.” But in the case of a
lady doing homage, she only said :—“I do you homage, and to
you shall be faithful and true, and faith to you shall bear for
the tenements I hold of you, saving the faith I owe to our
sovereign lord the king.” But here no kiss was administered.
When a freeholder did fealty, he held his hand upon the book
and said, ‘“‘ Know ye this, my lord, that I shall be faithful and
true to you, and that I shall lawfully do to you the customs
and services which I ought to do at the times assigned, so
help me God and his saints,” and he then kissed the book; but
he did not kneel. There was also this great difference between
homage and fealty, homage could not be done to any but to the
lord himself, but the steward or bailiff could take fealty for the
lord. Other services were afterwards added by the lord very
similar to those which they in their turn had to render to the king.

The first were aids, three in number :—To ransom the lord’s
person if taken prisoner; to make his eldest son a knight,

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attended with great pomp and expenses, when fifteen years of
age; and to marry the eldest daughter by giving her a portion.

The second service was relief, a fine payable by the heir to
the lord.

Third. Primer seisin, or the lord’s right to a year’s profits from
the heir, if of age.

Fourth. Wardship, or the right of the lord to the custody of
the heir during minority, without having to account for the profits,
and subject only to the infant’s bare maintenance.

Fifth. Fines or sums payable to the lord on the sale of
property.

Sixth, Escheat, which was a species of reversion : for, if the
tenant died without heirs of his blood, or if he had committed
treason or felony, the mutual bond between the lord and such
tenant was dissolved ; and, the tenure being determined, the land
resulted back to the lord who gave it.

Grand-serjeanty was another species of frank-tenure, by which
the tenant was bound, instead of serving the king generally in the
wars, to do him some special, certain, and honorary service.
Cornage was a species of grand-serjeanty, the service of which was
to sound a horn when the Scots or other enemies came over the
Border. All these military tenures were abolished by Statute of 12
Charles II., and turned into free or common socage, derived from
the Latin soca, meaning plough service, and now commonly called
freehold. But by this Act the tenures in frankalmoign, copyhold,
customary freehold, and the honorary services (without the slavish
part) of grand-serjeanty are preserved. And this brings us to the
second of the two great classes into which lay tenements were
divided, viz :—

VILLENAGE.

And I must beg you to understand, however distasteful it may
be, that copyholds and customary freeholds were of this tenure.
Yes, landed proprietors here were formerly all villeins of greater or
less magnitude. Now villenage was divided into pure villenage
and privileged villenage. Pure villenage was the origin of our

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copyhold tenures, or tenure by copy of court roll; whereas
privileged villenage, sometimes called ‘‘villein socage,” was a
_higher species of copyhold, held according to custom, and not
according to the mere will of the lord. To this latter tenure
(villein socage) the lands of the manors we are interested in belong.
In a manor the lord kept so much of the land in his own occu-
pation as was necessary for the use of his family, distributing the
remainder among sundry tenants, who held it by one of two
different tenures, one called bookland (the origin probably of
customary freeholds), which was held by deeds and certain rents
and free services, and the other folkland (from which copyhold
sprang), not held by deed, but distributed among the common
people at the lord’s pleasure, who might resume occupation of such
lands whenever he chose to do so. The tenants were serfs and
villeins, and the females neifes. They are said at one time to have
been as much slaves as the Spartan helots, the boors of Denmark,
or the traals of Sweden.

MANORIAL RIGHTS AND COURTS.

The two material incidents of a manor were demesne and
services. Some parts of the manor remained uncultivated, and
were called the lord’s waste, and were common both to the lord
and tenants, as we still find in the extensive commons which
surround the enclosed lands in this neighbourhood. The lord of
a manor was also empowered to hold a court called a Court Baron.
This court is said by some authorities to be an inseparable
ingredient of a manor, and in each of the manors that are the
subjects of this paper, we find one held. The Courts Baron for the
Manor of Hawkshead are held regularly once a year, in the month
of November; but I am sorry to say those of the Marquis and
Richmond Fees are held very irregularly. At the Court Baron the
tenants pay their rents and fines, present their deeds, and obtain
their admittances, and have the evidence of their title to their lands
entered upon the rolls of the Court. A Court Leet was the King’s
Court granted by charter to the lords of certain hundreds and
manors, but not, like the Court Baron, an inseparable incident of

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a manor. Its original intention was to view the frank pledges of
the freemen, the preservation of the peace, and the chastisement
of small offenders. All freeholders within the limits were obliged
to attend these courts. It was also the custom at these courts to
present by the jury all crimes which had happened within their
jurisdiction. There is no Court Leet either here or at Hawkshead,
but there is one at Kendal and another at Dalton. The Court of
Pie Poudre, or Pie Powder, as it is commonly called, was so named
either from the dusty feet of the suitors, or because justice was
done so quickly that the dust had not time to fall from their feet,
and was a court incident to every fair and market. If I remember
right, you had power to hold one at Ambleside on the occasion of
your annual fairs. The owner of the market tolls was the judge,
and his jurisdiction extended to all commercial injuries done in
that very fair or market, so that the injury must be done, com-
plained of, heard and determined within the compass of one and
the same day, unless the fair continued longer.

CUSTOMARY FREEHOLDS.

And now as to customs which are the very essence, as it were
of customary freeholds. A custom is an unwritten law established
by long usage. The difference between a custom and prescription
is that the former is local, as prevailing in a certain county,
hundred, manor, &c., and the latter personal, being applicable to
a certain person and his ancestors, or to a body politic and their
predecessors. A prescription presupposes a grant as the origin of
it, but a custom does not. A custom to be legal must have been
used time out of mind, and four properties are essential to its
existence, viz., a reasonable commencement, to be certain, to have
continuance, and not to be against the king’s prerogative. Now,
the first custom to which I shall draw your attention is the mode
of conveying property in these manors. Freehold land is conveyed
to a man and his heirs by a single deed, which deed in itself is
evidence of his title, and shews that he has, what lawyers call, the
legal estate in him. Copyholds are first surrendered to the lord of
the manor, and then re-granted by him to the purchaser, who then

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holds by the copy of the court roll, it alone being evidence of his
title. But customary freehold is first conveyed by a deed of grant,
very similar to a deed conveying freeholds, only it must be stated
therein that the purchaser will hold the lands intended to be con-
veyed according to the custom of the manor, and pay and perform
all rents, dues, suits, services, &c., therefore due and of right
accustomed. But this deed does not complete a purchaser’s title
so as to vest the legal estate in him. Something more is necessary.
He must take his deed and present it at the Court Baron, or to the
steward out of court, who enters it upon the rolls, and gives the
purchaser what is called an admittance, that is, a document by
which he admits him to be a tenant of the manor. For this a fine
(two years’ ancient rent in the manor of Hawkshead, and three in
the Marquis and Richmond Fees) is payable to the lord, together
with certain fees to the steward. These fines are payable either
upon the death of the lord or on a change of tenant. Besides
these customary rents and fines, the lord is entitled to all mines
and minerals, save that the tenant can get stone and materials for
buildings, &c., upon his own land, but not for sale. The lords of
these manors are also entitled to all rights and privileges of chase
and free warren, hunting, hawking, fowling, and of chasing and
killing game and beasts of chase and free warren. If any of you
have enfranchised your customary property, and refer to -your
enfranchisement deed, you will perhaps be astonished to find that
the lord even at the present day reserves these rights; and you
would doubtless be still more astonished if some fine morning
you found Lord Lonsdale exercising them in a good old-fashioned
lordly way.

GREENHUE RENT.

On referring to an old manuscript, I find that at one time a
good deal was thought about the woods in the Marquis and Rich-
mond Fees, as well as about the repairing and building of houses
therewith. The author says that within the Barony of Kendal
woods are thus distinguished, viz., into woods of warrant and
underwood, the latter commonly consisting of hazels, willows,

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alders, thorns, and the like. Woods of warrant are oak, ash,
holling, crabtree, and, in some places, birch and white thorn, and
they are so called, because, albeit those woods grow upon the
tenants’ ground, and they (the tenants) commonly took thereof
necessary house bote, hedge bote, plow bote, and cart bote, yet at
one time they could not even do this without warrant or license
from the lord, or delivery of the lord’s bailiff, servant, or other
officer. They, in fact, had no interest or property in any woods
whatsoever, but only under a certain duty or acknowledgement,
which is called greenhue rent. This greenhue rent is payable in
all the manors which are the subject of this paper, and is generally
about 1d. or 2d.a tenement. By the payment of this rent the
tenants are entitled to cut such underwoods as grow within their
own tenements, and also to lop woods of warrant. But if the
tenant lopped such woods unreasonably, he was a trespasser to
the lord, and liable to be fined at the lord’s court. Unreasonable
lopping was, either when the branches were cut off too near the
bole, or when the master branch or top of the tree was cut off, and
so made the tree liable to decay. It was also considered
unreasonable lopping if such lopping was done either when the
sap was ascending or descending, because, in either case, it was
likely to cause decay. It was the custom to administer the
following oath to the tenants at each Court Baron :—“ You shall
swear that neither you, nor any of you, nor any to your use or
knowledge, hath grubbed, felled, or cut down any wood of
warrant, as oak, ash, holly, or crabtree, within this lordship with-
out license of the lord or delivery of his officer.” What one of the
old bailiffs (could he appear in the flesh again) would think of our
plantations now-a-days, with their ever increasing variety of firs,
pines, &c., I cannot tell, but I imagine he would be pretty con-
siderably non-plussed, especially if he happened to come across an
Araucaria imbricata, or “monkey puzzle.”

Then, as regards houses, the lord was not bound to find his
tenant all kinds of wood for building, nor yet for all sorts of
buildings, but only for a “convenient” dwelling-house, barn, byre
or cowhouse, and principally for the ease or rigging tree, spars,

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105

ribs, and laths for the roofs. The lord was not bound to provide
wood, if the tenant would build larger houses than were necessary ;
for, as the author says, “it were an unreasonable custom that the
lord should find his tenant timber for building for his pleasure or
vainglory.” In the Manor of Hawkshead, until a few years ago,
there was a singular rent payable, called “bloomsmithy rent.” It
originated as follows :—There were three iron forges or “bloomaries”
in the Manor of Hawkshead, the ore being brought from Low
Furness to be smelted with charcoal made from the woods of High
Furness. ~The tenants of the manor complained that their woods
were being destroyed by the increasing use of charcoal, and, in the
seventh year of the reign of Elizabeth, the forges were suppressed,
on the tenants of the manor agreeing amongst themselves to pay
the rent of 20/7, The amount was assessed rateably over the
various properties, and this was the origin of the “bloomsmithy
rents” which we find mentioned in most old deeds. The Duke
of Buccleuch, a few years ago, gave the tenants the option of
buying them out, which I think all took advantage of, so that they
are now extinguished.

MILITARY SERVICE.

In these manors, besides the certain rents, the tenants were
liable to a military service, which makes me think that, though of
villein tenure, it was the most exalted species of that tenure which
existed in these manors. In fact they were big villeins. By this
service every tenant in the Barony, from the age of sixteen to sixty,
was obliged “at all times, in their most defensible array for the
wars, to be ready to serve their prince upon horseback and upon
foot at the West Borders of England against Scotland, on their
own proper costs and charges, and so be ready night and day at
the command of the Lord Warden of the said West Marches,
always for the time being being warned thereunto by beacon fires,

_ post, or proclamation, and there to continue during the said Lord

Warden’s pleasure.” In Furness a like service was required ; but
Piel was also a vulnerable place, and there the tenants were bound
to muster in the common defence against pirates, as well as on the

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Western Marches against the Scots, and that this service was no
sinecure we may rest assured, for in the old ballad of “ Flodden
Field” we read :—
Most lively lads in Lonsdale bred,
With weapons of unwieldy weight,

All such as Tatham Fells had bred,
Went under Stanley’s streamers bright.

From Silverdale to Kent sand side,
Whose soil is sown with cockle shells ;
From Cartmel eke and Connyside,
With fellows fierce from Furness Fells.

SUCCESSION FINES.

There were other customs which have gradually died out, and,
as a reference to them would extend my paper beyond its proper
limit, I proceed to those which are more important, by reason of
their being in force and governing the holdings of the tenants at
the present time. And first as regards descent. In the Marquis
and Richmond fees, the property descends, on the death of a
tenant, to the eldest son; and, if only daughters survive, then to
the eldest of them. ‘This is not precisely the same in the Manor
of Hawkshead, for, though the tenement descends to the eldest
son, if there is one, should there be only daughters, it does not go
necessarily to the eldest amongst the daughters, but the eldest
unmarried daughter takes the whole, paying to her younger sister,
if only one, twenty years’ ancient rent: if more than one, forty
years’ ancient rent to be equally divided amongst them. In the
Manors of the Marquis and Richmond fees, you are not allowed
by the custom to entail property. Therefore, if one leaves his
property to his son and the heirs male or female of his body, the
property will go to the son absolutely, the entail being disregarded.
But this is not the case in Hawkshead. In many manors, the lord
upon the death of a tenant is entitled to what is called a “ heriot,”
which consists of the best chattel the tenant is possessed of at the
time of his death, be it horse, ox, calf, or pig. Of the manors we
are now considering, in that of Hawkshead there is no heriot
payable. But in the Marquis and Richmond fees, the lord is

PN.

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entitled to one when a tenant dies and leaves a widow. The
widow, on payment of the heriot (now a fixed money payment of
410), is entitled to hold all the land which her husband died
possessed of, so long as she remains his chaste widow and un-
married ; and the husband cannot, by his will, deprive the widow
of this her widow right, or “free bench,” as it is technically called,
if she elects to take it. How this custom arose I cannot say, for
it is not a usual one in tenures of this nature, though we find it in
Borough English, a burgage tenure. As you will observe, this is
very different from the dower which a widow is entitled to out of
her deceased husband’s freehold, and which you all know, I dare
say, is only one-third, which is also the proportion a widow gets in
the Manor of Hawkshead for her “free bench.” Here again,
then, the ladies will say they are gainers by the feudal laws and
customs, but they forget the men were villeins, and if they gave
an inch they took an ell; for what do you think a husband can
do with his wife’s customary property if he chooses? Well, he has
nothing else to do but present the certificate of his marriage to the
steward, pay his fees, and be admitted tenant of his wife’s estate,
not for life only, but absolutely and completely, so that he can sell,
mortgage, will, or do what he likes with it. This is a peculiar
custom, and is not found in the Manor of Hawkshead, and differs
from that of freehold very much, for, by the latter, a husband
during the marriage has no right to dispose of his wife’s freeholds
without her consent, and after her death can only hold them by
what is called the “courtesy of England,” for his own life, and
that again only in the event of a child being born alive.

THE RIGHT OF COMMON.

In all the manors we find commons or waste lands generally
unstinted, or, as people are in the habit of saying, unlimited. You
will often hear a person say that he has, in right of his estate, an
unlimited right of common on such and such a fell. This is all
nonsense. His common right is limited by the custom to such a

number of sheep as his enclosed land will keep during the winter
months.

108
THE COUNCIL OF STAVELEY.

As the barons of old had to stand up for their rights, so had
the tenants occasionally. We find that in the reign of James L.,
one of his schemes for raising money was that of taking all the
Crown lands of Cumberland and Westmorland into his own hands,
on the plea “that as Border service had then ceased by the union
of the two kingdoms in his own royal person, the estates were
determined likewise which the tenants held by that service.” And
a long struggle ensued between lords and tenants, the latter
declaring to defend each other, “ even by force, if no other course
should be effectual,” in accordance with articles which they had
sworn to at their meeting held at Staveley, under colour of viewing
a bridge. For this and other unlawful assemblies, some of the
leaders were arraigned before the Star Chamber, but acquitted,
and had their estates confirmed to them, as being held, not by
Border service alone, but by the general military tenure by which
all other tenants zz capile were obliged. Soon afterwards many of
the tenants made compositions with their lords for reducing this
to a fine certain, and others purchased them in freehold. With
regard to

THE CUSTOMARY TENANTS OF HAWKSHEAD,

they, on the dissolution of the Monastery, do not appear to have
had a very good time of it until the reign of Elizabeth, for, though
several commissions had been issued immediately after the sup-
pression of the Monastery to settle the affairs of Furness, and in
particular with the customary tenants, yet the rights, privileges,
and customs were not ascertained before the time of Elizabeth, in
the twenty-seventh year of whose reign a code of customs and
bye-laws was drawn up by a special jury of tenants, and approved
by the Queen.

THE DECAY OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM.

When the feudal baron first raised his standard, he lived
amongst his vassals: he was their patron, and defended them;
but at length, by the various changes of property, and the central-

109

ization of Parliament, the baron became separated from his
dependants, and his protection became more fictitious than real.
Voluntary associations of the people were formed, and thus the
force of the feudal connection became weakened. Commerce
arose, and by it the efforts of man expanded immensely. Inform-
ation gained from foreign intercourse gave rise to new thoughts,
new wants, and new pleasures. Trade became the great function
of the day, and, as it were, a new power, by which the chains of
feudalism were broken ; and, though some of its elements remain
still, they remain only in a very modified form.

111

NOTES ON THE WHITEHAVEN RURAL*SANITARY
DISTRICT.

By JAMES SYME, Mep. OFr. oF HEALTH,

(Read at Whitehaven. )

In selecting my subject, I was impelled to do so upon the
suggestion of your President, and also by the knowledge of the
many requirements which every day become to my eyes more
apparent, in the district over which I have the honour to. have the
medical supervision. It is my purpose, in the first place, to give
a short digest of the laws which ought to govern the sanitary
condition of every district, in order to obviate those malarious
diseases which are sure to make their appearance if the observance
of what is laid down by the best authorities be not strictly adhered
to. Effective sewerage, a good water supply, proper ventilation,
and the absence of over-crowding, may be selected as the four
corner-stones upon which to build the edifice. It is an old
proverb, and a very true one, that “cleanliness is next to godli-
ness.” It has been amongst the oldest and most universal of
medical experiences, that people living among filth, and within
direct reach of its polluting influence, succumb to various diseases,
which, under opposite conditions, are comparatively, or even
absolutely, unknown. The experience of modern times has shown

_ that by various indirect channels, filth can operate far more subtly,

and also far more widely and more fatally, than ancient science
anticipated. An important suggestion with regard to the nature of
the operations by which filth, attacking the human body, is able to
disorder or destroy it, is that the chief morbific agencies in filth are

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other than those chemically identified—stinking gaseous products
of organic decomposition, which force themselves upon popular
attention: A popular authority, writing upon this point, says:
“Exposure to the sufficiently concentrated fumes of organic
decomposition (as for instance in an unventilated old cesspool, or
long-blocked sewer), may, no doubt, prove immediately fatal, by
reason of some large quantity of sulphide of ammonium, or other like
poisonous or foetid gas, which the sufferer suddenly inhales ; and
far smaller doses of these foetid gases, as breathed with extreme
dilution in ordinary stinking atmospheres, both give immediate
headache and general discomfort to sensitive persons temporarily
exposed to them, and also appear to keep in a somewhat vaguely
depressed state of health, many who habitually breathe them.”
Upon these points I am able to speak from painful experience.
After having been temporarily exposed to an insanitary locality in
the course of my inspection, however much the impure gases may
be impregnated with ozone, I almost invariably suffer daily for
some time from diarrhoea, and a depressed state of health. People
of a sensitive temperament are most susceptible to the influence of
these impurities, and much more likely to be attacked by them
than those of an opposite nature. The same thing will apply
equally to infective water as to infective air. In the former, just
as in the latter, the zymotic malignity is but indirectly and most
imperfectly suggested to us by qualities which strike the common
sense, or by matters which chemical analysis can specify. As the
sense of smell possessed by man, will cause him to turn away with
disgust from certain emanations, so will it, and common taste and
sight, cause him to be repelled by certain waters. As the chemist can
show certain foulness in the one, so also can he show certain foulness
in the other. People under the influence of filth, suffer not only
from that influence, but also from other removable causes of disease ;
and, in endeavouring to estimate exactly the injury which is derived
from filth, those additional influences should, as far as practicable,
be matter of separate account. On one hand a filthy neighbour-
hood may be so poor, that mere privation is an appreciable cause
of disease in it, On the other, the population may be so badly

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housed, or so overcrowded in their dwellings, that this has to be
counted as causing disease. In another case, some particular
collective occupation, injurious to the adults and adolescents who
follow it, may be creating disease additional to that which the
filth produces. Another case may be cited, where swarms of
young children, whose mothers are engaged away from home, or
who are given to drunken, idle habits, may be suffering from
disease induced by neglect and mismanagement. In filthy urban
districts, where the foul air incarcerated in courts, and alleys, and
narrow streets, can act with most force in regard to masses of
population, the population always shows increased mortality, under
several titles of disease. This miscellaneous increase of mortality
affects probably all ages, more or less; but a distinctively large
proportion of it attaches to the children. Apparently the mere
influence of the filth (apart from other influences), will be causing
the infants and young children to die at twice, or thrice, or even
four times their standard rate of mortality ; and this disproportion,
which becomes more striking, when the chief epidemics of ordinary
childhood, such as measles, whooping-cough, and scarlatina, are
left out of the comparison, seems to mark the young and tender
lives as finer tests of foul air, than are the elder, and what I might
call acclimatised population.

Besides nuisances being produced by the presence of putres-
cent refuse-matter, there are also diseases which are abundantly
caused by air which is fouled ix other ways. Overcrowding, for
instance, is a fruitful source of evil. In dwellings which are
inhabited beyond their means of ventilation, the foulness of the air
due to the non-removal of the volatile refuse thrown off by the
human body, becomes strictly a nuisance, and comes within’ the
scope of sanitary law, quite as much as the non-removal of solid
or liquid refuse. In filthy districts, one special class of diseases
seems to stand in relief, viz. diarrhoeal. These diseases, in relation
to filth, deserve very special attention, first, on their own account,
as they are extremely large causes of death; and, secondly, because
an exact knowledge of their method of production is likely to throw
comparative light upon the pathology of obscure filth diseases,

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Cholera and Enteric fever are also to be attributed to excremental
or other obnoxious infection.

I might refer to a few of the chief forms whereby we are apt
to get filth about us. There are many houses and groups of
houses—-and I have a considerable share of them in my own
district—where general slovenliness in everything which relates to
the removal of refuse-matter, is the local habit; where within a
short distance of the door of each house, or in spaces common to
many houses, refuse, which house life, and some sorts of trade life,
produce, lies for an indefinite period, undergoing foetid decompo-
sition. Excrement of man and beast, garbage of all sorts, and
ponded slop water, lying bare upon the common surface. With
this state of things, be it on a large or a small scale, the chief
sorts of danger to life arise. One is, that volatile effluvia from the
refuse, pollute the surrounding air, and everything which it
contains; the other is—the liquid parts of the refuse pass, by
soaking or filtering, into the surrounding soil, and there to mingle
with whatever water the soil may produce, and in certain cases
thus to occasion the deadliest pollution of any wells or springs
which may be situate in their neighbourhood. It is a recognized fact,
that accumulations of this sort do not only affect the places where
they are collected, but can transmit their infective power through
certain channels to a great distance. Houses, for instance, which
have unguarded drainage-communication with sewers or cesspools,
may receive the same deleterious air through such channels, just
the same as if the excrement stood rotting within their walls.
Private or public water reservoirs, or water conduits, giving
accidental admission to filth, will carry the infection of the filth
wheresoever their outflow reaches. It has repeatedly come
within my own knowledge that an individual house, with every
apparent cleanliness, has received the contagion of fever from
some drain inlet, or from deposits of filth at a distance. One
of the most salubrious villages in West Cumberland produced
ample proof of this only a few weeks ago, where scarlatina broke
out in a somewhat virulent form. In looking for the cause, it
was discovered that, some distance from the houses where the

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fever existed, there were several privies in a very objectionable
condition. These, combined with an abominable filthy slaughter-
house adjoining, produced such a smell in that immediate
neighbourhood, as to repel the greatest case-hardened sanitarian
that ever lived. There is no doubt that the effluvia from such
places, in a diluted state, found its way into the houses where the
fever broke out. At least, upon careful examination, I formed that
opinion. And thus, also, it has not unfrequently happened that
households, whilst themselves without sanitary reproach, have
received the contagion of fever through some filth affecting the
water-supply which they have in use. Another source of filth is
often derived from the absence of sewers, where people assume
that sewers may properly be dispensed with where water-closets
are not in use ; and that for the mere slopwaters, the open wayside
gutters, which are meant for rain-water only, will suffice. Thisisa very
great mistake: because, at its worst, it is a very condensed form of
sewage, and even at its best is such as cannot, without nuisance,
be allowed to accumulate by the roadside. Defects in existing
sewers are not an unproductive source of nuisance. The indispens-
able conditions of success in a sewer are—first, that the flow of
sewage to its outfall shall be as perfect as possible, continuous,
and scouring ; not ponded and leaking, and depositing ; and also
that the sewer shall have perfect ventilation. Sewers with radically
-ill-construction, are virtually but cesspools, and should without
delay be abolished. There is also a very great danger to the
public health, particularly to the middle classes of society, by the
recklessness with which house-drains, receiving pipes from water-
closets, sinks, cisterns, baths, etc., in the interior of houses, and
often actually in bed-rooms, or the adjoining dressing-rooms, are
brought in communication with the sewers. Amongst architects
and builders, there seems to have been very imperfect recognition
of the danger which this arrangement involves. The intention,
and where realised, the distinctive merit of a system of water-closets
is, that in removing excremental matters from a house, it does so
with promptitude, and in a perfect and complete manmer, not
having any intervals of delay, nor leaving any residue of filth, nor

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diffusing any during its operation ; and where the water system is
not in use, these objects ought still, as far as possible, to be secured.
In the absence of water-closets, any reasonable alternative system
ought to include the following :—First, proper catchment apparatus ;
and second, proper arrangement for scavenge. Under the head
of one or more of the causes named, will be found the true explan-
ation of outbreaks and prevalence of entero-zymotic disease in
different districts of this county.

There is another well established fact, that filth infection may
be transmitted even on a large scale from district to district in
particular articles of food, and especially in the article of milk.
In proof of this, I shall quote an extract from the report of Dr.
Simon, Medical Officer of the Privy Council and Local Govern-
ment Board, which says: “In 1870, Dr. Ballard, now of this
department, but who at that time was working with high character
as Officer of Health for the parish of Islington, was able to show
that an outbreak of Enteric fever, which had attacked in ten weeks
seventy families, and one hundred and seventy-five persons in part
of his district, coincided with the use of milk supplied from a
particular dairy, where, shortly before the outbreak, there had been
cases of Enteric fever, and where, apparently, the infected house
drainage must have had easy access to an underground water-tank
upon the premises. There could be little doubt as to what in this
epidemic had been the infectant. Since Dr. Ballard’s connection
with this department, it has twice happened to him to be able very
clearly to trace the same method of infection at work in consider-
able outbreaks of Enteric fever, which he has been investigating—
one in 1872 at Armley, in the Borough of Leeds, and the other in
1873 at Moseley and Balsall Heath, near Birmingham.”

It is, therefore, quite clear that, while we are subject at
almost any moment to breathe contaminated atmosphere, or
partake of water impregnated with deleterious matter, we are at the
same time liable to be brought in contact with similar impurities in
our daily food. In my own district, there are many farmsteads
where a pump or well is situate in the yard adjoining the manure

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heap, and which must unquestionably be the receptacle for a
certain portion of the liquid coming therefrom.

I have in all cases of this sort where I apprehend any danger,
advised the abandonment of such wells for domestic purposes.
During a dry season like the past, where many places were
destitute of water altogether of a usable character, it is a matter of
impossibility to prevent people using what available water they have
at their command, nothwithstanding that they may be fully
convinced of its impurity. A striking instance of this came under
my notice only a few months ago. My attention was called to a
block of buildings situate at Newtown, Frizington, and amongst
other insanitary arrangements, I found that a sewer from N ewtown,
situate upon a higher level, passed within a very short distance of
the well which was used by the inhabitants of those houses. The
people living in them, informed me that they were compelled to
use this water, as they had no other; and at times they said it was
quite obnoxious to both taste and smell. This is not an isolated
case in the Whitehaven Rural Sanitary District, and a better state
of things can only be looked forward to when the Authority will
make up their minds to have a plentiful supply of good water
furnished to every place within their jurisdiction.

There have been cases of Typhoid fever within my district,
which have been clearly traceable to well- poisoning——Harrington,
Parton, and Frizington, may be noted as places where this has
been experienced, not only by myself, but by other medical men.
Some people advocate the use of disinfectants, for the purpose of
purifying such places, but I have little faith in that creed.
Districts which have been allowed to become filthy, cannot
off-hand be made wholesome by disinfectants. To chemically
disinfect any neglected neighbourhood; to follow the body and
branches of filth with really effective chemical treatment; to
thoroughly destroy or counteract it in muck heaps, cesspools, ash-
pits, sewers, and drains, and where percolating into wells, and
exhaling into houses, cannot, I apprehend, be proposed as
physically possible. This opinion as to the very limited degree in
which chemistry can prevail against arrears of uncleanliness, does

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not at all discredit the appeals which are constantly, and very
properly, made to chemistry, for help in quite’a different sphere of
operation, namely, with regard to the management of individual
cases of infectious disease, and to the immediate disinfection of
everything which comes from and surrounds the patients—the
cleansing of dark, narrow passages by the means of whitewashing
with hot lime and carbolic acid, chloride of lime, or other such
disinfectants. The thorough flushing of the sewers may also do much
to alleviate the condition of the poor people living in the neighbour-
hood. It has been found that, under a visitation of Enteric fever
from filth infection, any attempts at going through the ceremony
of applying vague chemical libations or powderings, has proved
futile. If our Local Authorities wish to reduce the vast amount of
preventible disease, which has its type in Enteric fever, or other
diseases zetiologically akin to it, and in relation to which, each
individual case which occurs ought to have an important local
significance, the one essential condition is cleanliness. That Local
Sanitary Authorities, acting upon this principle, and with a full
determination to enforce it in their respective districts, can, within
a few years, reduce by tens of thousands the annual mortality
of England, is at least as certain as that the causes pointed out
are the means of producing the diseases alluded to.

It will be seen from the foregoing disjointed remarks, that my
aim has been to point out what I consider to be the proper mode
of carrying out the work of a properly governed sanitary district.
As I stated at the outset, there must be effective sewerage, a good
water supply, proper ventilation, and the absence of overcrowding.
In the Whitehaven Rural Sanitary District, I am sorry to say that
almost throughout its whole breadth and length, there is a marked
absence of all these.

There is another matter of a general character to which I
would also advert. At present, the means of learning the existence
of infectious diseases in my extensive district, are so defective,
that I am quite unable to take adequate steps to prevent the spread
of such diseases, and by offosing the beginnings, to cut short an
epidemic. It is my duty, according to my instructions, “on

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receiving information of the outbreak of any contagious, infectious,
or epidemic disease of a dangerous character, to visit the spot
without delay, and inquire into the causes and circumstances of

- such outbreak, and advise the persons competent to act, as to the

measures which may appear to me to be required to prevent the
extension of the disease, and, so far as I may be authorized, assist
in the execution of the same.” Unfortunately, however, at present
there being no compulsory registration of disease, and no one to
inform me of such outbreak, it very often happens that the first
information I receive is from the district registrar, when there has
been a death. Any interference then is, of course, of very little
use. It is my opinion that some steps should be taken by
Parliament, in order that the Medical Officer of Health shall be
immediately informed of the occurrence of any infectious disease;
and this is the more necessary, for it is the first cases which are of
the most importance. Then is the time for isolating the patient,
and using the various means within our power for disinfection.
As Dr. Simon states in one of his annual reports that ‘the first
isolated cases of epidemic diseases almost invariably, if not checked
by sanitary precautions, are the forerunners of a general outbreak ;
and in matters of sanitation, as in all others, any measure to be
really effective, must be precautionary.”

I now purpose to give you some particulars as to the real
state of affairs, in a sanitary point of view, within my district.
Commencing at Egremont, which may be considered head quarters,
I have not a very bright picture to place before you, although its
condition has been wonderfully improved of late. The supply of
water up to a few months ago was almost infinitesimal in comparison
to the population... In fact, during the dry weather last summer,
many people were absolutely without water, within a distance of
from half a mile toa mile. Could it expected that poor people
—perhaps a wife with a swarm of little children to care for at
home—would, or even could, carry, water such a distance, for
sanitary purposes. I have no doubt, in fact I am aware of it, that
many of the people living at the high end of the town, could
scarcely find time to convey the water for domestic purposes from

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Bookwell to their residences. It was a very general remark
amongst many of them, that “dinner was no sooner over, than
they had to go and get the water for the tea.” With many poor
people, the difficulty is in getting the tea for the water, but in this
instance the water was the most essential element. To some
extent this difficulty has been overcome. The Authority has
provided a temporary supply from Howbank, through the kindness
of Mr. Hartley. Some stand-pipes have been erected in the main
street, and so far there has been a plentiful supply. It must,
however, consist solely of surface drainage. And although the
water is apparently of considerable purity, I am afraid that its
subjection to the analyst would produce a considerable amount of
vegetable matter. The source is from the hill-side immediately
below Howbank, and the reservoir, or collecting ponds, are at the
bottom of it. From thence the water is conveyed direct in iron
pipes to the town. There are no filter beds provided, so that the
water comes to the outlets in the same condition as it is found at
its source. This supply has proved a great boon to the public for
domestic purposes ; but I am afraid it has not been advantageous
in a sanitary point of view, and I will show why.

The main street of Egremont may be taken for granted to be
about three-quarters of a mile in length: five stand-pipes have been
erected in that distance, so that in round numbers the space
between each may be put down at seven hundred and twenty
yards. This is to all intents and purposes a prohibition of the use
of water for sanitary purposes. It is not within the scope of
human nature to carry water such a distance to wash down the
back-yards and scour the gutters. In order to secure a supply for
such a purpose, by means of which-the inhabitants can fully cleanse
not only themselves, but also their surroundings, they must have
the water brought on to the premises, so that by the simple turning
of a tap, a proper flushing and scouring can at intervals remove
the accumulated filth into its proper channel. For the present,
the temporary supply is looked upon as a blessing.

There is also a very defective mode of sewerage in existence
here, many of the houses getting rid of their slop water by open

7
4
J
;

gutters, which are in several cases in a very offensive state. I
observe that at a meeting of the ratepayers held a short time ago,
it was determined to oppose the general water scheme suggested
by Dr. Fox and myself. At another meeting, it was resolved to
take the necessary steps for forming a Local Board. ‘That a better
supply of water than the present is most urgent, cannot be denied;
and as the opposition offered to it was conspicuously exhibited by
those who never experienced the want of water, I cannot give
much credit to the result as representing the general feeling of the
parish. The formation of a Local Board would certainly prove
advantageous in many respects, because under the supervision of
the Board in London, they would be compelled to carry out a
proper system of sanitary improvements ; but at the same time the
ratepayers would be compelled to pay for them. I consider that
all the benefits which would be derived from a Local Board, could
be obtained without having recourse to the expensive machinery
attached to the adoption of sanitary measures under the Local
Government Board. Although Egremont may at present be con-
sidered to have some pretensions to urban dimensions, it would
be well for the ratepayers to consider whether the adoption of
selfgovernment, and being placed in the. proud position of
managing their own affairs, would not be rather an expensive mode
of gratifying their ambition. With a better supply of water, some
improvements in the sewerage, and the covering up of a portion of
the beck which runs through the town, all that is at present
desirable would be obtained, and the cost comparatively small.

In advocating a general supply of good water, it must be self-
evident to those who have enjoyed it, that not only does modern
science and civilization demand, but common humanity cries aloud
for it. Take for instance the town of Whitehaven (and perhaps
Dr. Lumb will pardon me for this digression in trespassing upon
his preserves) ; it is a well known fact, that prior to the introduction
of water from Ennerdale lake, and the adoption of a proper system
of sewerage, it was looked upon as the blackest spot on the map of
England, so far as its mortality was concerned. At the present
time, according to a recent report of the medical officer, the death-

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rate was amongst the lowest in England. How has this state of
things been brought about? Simply by the introduction of a
couple of the most prominent laws which govern the sanitation of
our towns and cities, viz., efficient sewerage, and abundance of
good water. Where both are used as they ought to be, preventible
diseases will seldom or never be heard of. Overcrowding, or bad
ventilation, may prove a source of disease; but in a town like
Whitehaven, both these evils will be difficult wholly to eradicate,
although I see from Dr. Lumb’s reports, that the governing body
are sparing neither trouble nor expense to protect the inhabitants
of crowded localities against themselves.

Perhaps the next most important place in my district is Cleator.
Here most of the property is owned by Messrs. Lindow and
Mr. Ainsworth, and to their credit be it said, the place is tolerably
well sewered, and there is a plentiful supply of good water.
Messrs. Lindow get their supply from Dent, and Mr. Ainsworth gets
his from the Cleator Moor water works. The sewage finds its way
into the rivers Ehen and Keekle. The consequence is, that at
Cleator there is very little to complain of, and the rate of mortality
is one of the lowest in the district. I must again step out of my
bounds into the district of Cleator Moor. Here a medical officer
is appointed to look after it, so that in that capacity I have not the
power to make any inspection. But as medical officer for the
parish, my attention was called to a case of typhoid fever there. -
In company with some of the Guardians, I visited the place, and
in looking for the cause, I found a very dirty yard covered with all
sorts of garbage and refuse immediately adjoining the house where
the case occurred. The drain was also stopped, and the place
emitted such a combination of fever-producing effluvia, that no
doubt was left on my mind as to the cause of the disease. It will
thus be seen that, even where efficient sewerage and plenty of
water are placed at the disposal of the people, occasionally both
are painfully, and in some cases fatally, neglected. The filthy
habits which are too often to be found existing amongst our pauper
population, are, doubtless, prominent elements in the procreation
of the class of diseases alluded to.

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Passing from Cleator Moor to Keekle Terrace, we find that
the inhabitants there, like sensible people, have availed themselves
of the Whitehaven mains for their water supply, consequently they
are in possession of one great essential element in the maintenance
of a clean bill ofhealth. The sewerage, however, is defective, and
requires attention. The same remarks will apply to Hensingham
as to Keekle Terrace. Three small places in the neighbourhood
of Hensingham have given me great concern for some time past,
viz :—High and Low Harris, and Scilly Banks. The inhabitants
of each place are certainly numerically small, and the situation places
them in the happy position of being able to breathe an atmosphere
of unquestionable purity, but unfortunately, their water supply is not
only of the most meagre description, but is also of the most
offensive character. In fact, the well by the road side at Low
Harris, which is the only supply there, is simply poison in a diluted
form. I am glad to be able to state that steps are being taken by
the Whitehaven Trust to supply these places, so that one great
source of danger will be swept away.

On going down to Parton, we find that the people there are
supplied through water-pipes in the street, which are furnished from
a reservoir above the village. The source some time ago was
objectionable, as it was liable to all sorts of contaminations.
During wet weather, the water was totally unfit for domestic
purposes—its colour clearly indicating its contact with impurities.
That source, however, has been abandoned, and a couple of springs
which were pointed out, have been adopted, and the supply may
now be said to be fairly good.

At Lowca, a small village has sprung into existence within a
short period, and is almost wholly unprovided with water and
sewerage. At the adjoining village of Distington, there are a few
public wells by the road-side, which are used by both men and
beasts; a pump or two, situate in objectionable proximity to
manure heaps and other filth ; while the beck, which is a receptacle
for all kinds of filth, also provides the people with water.

Harrington also stands in much want of a supply of pure
water ; and I was glad to see that it had been suggested at a

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meeting of the ratepayers, that they should procure a supply from
Cockermouth. Any objection which a parish may entertain to a
general supply throughout the Union, and any suggestion for a
better and more economical one from another source, are deserving
of every consideration by the Local Authority. A more efficient
method of sewerage is also wanted here, but until plenty of water is
procured, sewerage improvements would be perfectly futile.

Albert Terrace and Park View, near Whitehaven, with the
houses adjoining, have had my attention called to them repeatedly.
They are entirely destitute of water within a less distance than a
quarter of a mile, and what they can procure, even at that distance,
is simply surface drainage from cultivated land, which is certain to
be impregnated with decayed vegetable matter. Now that the
Whitehaven mains are to be extended to Low Harris, I hope to
hear that the owners of property at Albert Terrace, etc., will take
the necessary steps for extending them down the hill.

At Bransty there is a plentiful supply of water; but the slovenly
manner in which the inhabitants remove the contents of their
ashpits and privies is very objectionable. Suitable ash depots,
such as are in use at Albert Terrace, ought to: be provided.

On the south side of the town, a small hamlet called Arrow-
thwaite, stands on the top of the hill overhanging the valley. This
place has all the advantages which pure air can afford; but,
unfortunately, up to within a short time ago, was entirely zthout
water, sewerage, or closet accommodation. Waiter has, however, been
introduced from Whitehaven, and a marked improvement has been
the result.

Proceeding to Sandwith, we find that all the evils arising from
an insanitary state of affairs are in existence. ‘The water supply
is defective ; the sewerage is in the same condition; and a sweeping
reform is much needed.

The classical village of St. Bees is about on a par with many
of the places I have named. ‘There are several wells, which are
accredited with being of profound purity; but I am afraid that,
considering the source from whence they come, the people who
use them are doing so under a delusion. Most of the houses are

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sewered, but owing to the scarcity of water, the sewers are of very
little service, and their existence is thus a greater nuisance, perhaps,
than their absence would be.

Coulderton and Middletown are much in want of water during
dry weather, and the inhabitants have often to go all the way to
Kellhead, a distance of nearly a mile, before they can either infuse
a cup of tea or dilute a glass of grog.

These are inconveniences which all classes of the community
feel, and feel acutely. The small amount which would be added
to the rates in obtaining a good supply of water to these places,
which are in such a condition, would, apart entirely from sanitary
motives, well repay them for the outlay.

Braystones is considered a salubrious climate, but here again
the well water, with one or two exceptions, is impure. The sewer-
age is also defective.

Seascale, which has been talked of as becoming one of the
most popular bathing places in the North of England, is perhaps
one of the worst watered places in the district. The Furness
Railway Company have bought some building land near the
Railway Station, and rumour points to it becoming a favourite
resort for visitors. With its present supply of water, however, it is
quite impossible to attract the attention of those who can afford to
go further a-field, where they can derive the advantages not only
of good sea-bathing, but also of proper sanitary arrangements.

Gosforth requires both water and sewerage.

At Netherwasdale there are several shallow wells, which, if
deepened, and protected from being fouled by surface drainage and
_ washings, would furnish a good supply. Their contiguity in some

instances to midden-steads and cesspools is a very great source of
| danger. Ina district like this, where there is abundance of good
water close at hand, the people ought to have a pure supply.

Calderbridge, with the river from which it derives its name
running through it, has a plentiful supply of water; but at this
point the river water cannot be said to be fit for domestic purposes.
Its other sanitary arrangements are very bad, To their defective

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condition, I was able to trace an outbreak of scarlet fever only a
few months ago.

Beckermont people still persist in drinking, and otherwise
using the water which I believe is, to some extent, drained out of
the churchyard, and the longer they use it the better they seem to
like it. Whether the water does come from the churchyard or not,
it is quite clear that it is in most objectionable proximity to the
sepulchres of the departed dead, and a shade of suspicion that
the water comes from the source I have pointed out ought to make
the use of it revolting.

Haile, Wilton, and Carleton are much in the same condition
as the other small villages I have named. The last-named
place is specially unprovided with water, and there is no sewerage.

Frizington has had a temporary supply of water furnished
through stand-pipes in the street; but here again there is no
proper system of sewerage.

At Asby, Arlecdon, Rowrah, Kirkland, and Eskett, a perfect
water famine prevails, and the same may be said of Bigrigg,
Moor Row, and Scalegill. The three latter places are, I under-
stand, in treaty with the Cleator Moor Local Board for a supply.

These notes have been made from a personal inspection, and
a searching examination into the wants of the different places I
have alluded to. In advocating a general water scheme for the

whole Union, it must be apparent to every one that there is a.

glaring deficiency in most of the places I have called attention to.
It will also be admitted that the sewerage arrangements are in a
deplorable state, and that a system of drainage into our local
streams should take place. Some people may object to the rivers
being converted into sewers. I hold that they are the natural
outlets for them. As for the objection which is often adduced,
that sewage is injurious to fish, I can only say that I don’t believe
it, as I have often had opportunities of watching fish feeding in
rivers close to the outlet of sewers. A very convincing fact came
before my notice a few months ago, when an enquiry took place
at Liverpool before Mr Frank Buckland and another Fishery

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127

Commissioner, touching the decrease of the fish in the Mersey,
and along the adjoining shores, when it was given in evidence by
fishermen of over twenty years’ experience, that the sewage of the
town was not deleterious to the fish, but that the chemical works
adjoining, discharging their refuse into the river, proved a very
destructive element. Of course, these remarks apply to fresh
sewage only, which I consider is beneficial ; but at the same time,
I have every reason to believe that fermented sewage is fatal to
piscine life.

My remarks will, I fear, have proved somewhat dry material
for some of you; and to others they may have been wanting in
that sweet flavour which ought to pervade a paper put before an
assemblage of ladies and gentlemen in pursuit of scientific know-
ledge. I can only say that the fault is not mine, as the subject
was suggested when I was requested to read the paper. Something
more congenial to the mind of a medical man I could have
preferred, as the task of holding up the shortcomings of your
neighbours to public criticism is by no means a pleasant one.
What I have stated is given in unequivocal language, and in the
words of a great sanitary authority, I may say, “I feel that if the
new sanitary organization of the country is to fulfil its purpose,
the administrators, local and central, must begin by fully recog-
nizing the real state of the case, and with consciousness that,
in many instances, they will have to introduce for the first time, as
into savage life, the rudiments of sanitary civilization.”

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THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH THE
RESTORATION OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS SHOULD
BE CONDUCTED.

By THE Rt. Hon. G. C. BENTINCK, M.P., JupGE Apvoc. Grn,
(Read at Whitehaven.)

The restoration of architectural buildings is a matter entirely
different from the architecture itself. I can only regret that
circumstances over which I had no control prevented me from
delivering the paper last year, as I had intended ; because then I
could have spoken freely upon the subject, and could have given
you ideas which you would believe, no doubt, as I believe them,
to be my own. But since that time the subject of the restoration
of architectural buildings has so occupied the mind of the artistic
world and the public, that floods of literature have been poured
forth—literature which is due not only to some of the highest and
most distinguished names upon the roll of the artistic profession,
but also to gentlemen who are not professionally artists, but interest
themselves in such subjects. Therefore, I am very much afraid
what will come from me will almost appear second-hand. At all
events, it will have this disadvantage, that I shall be obliged to
recapitulate to you (not, I hope, at any great length) the position
in which the question now finds itself, beginning with the campaign
opened last year with a duel between the late Sir Gilbert Scott and
Mr. Stevenson, and which wound up before they went into winter
quarters with what was called the battle of St. Alban’s—the
controversy which has taken place as to how and in what manner

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the new cathedral of St. Alban’s is to be restored. It is from that
point I proceed to start.

In opening this paper I feel that I need hardly detain
you at any length upon the origin and development of “ Restor-
ation,” for those amongst you who are conversant with the
mere elements of the question will be aware that its primary
cause was due to the so-called Gothic revival—which took place
some thirty-five years ago, and which spread like wildfire through
Europe amongst the clergy and laity of all denominations. Nor
was such a result in any way surprising; for after the dormant
state in which ecclesiastical affairs had remained for at least three-
quarters of a century, it was only natural that a period of bustle
and commotion should follow, and the reasonable hope of Art was
that when the time for change came, it might be brought about by
a true spirit of regeneration ; but, unfortunately, the actual reaction
was caused, not by calm and logical conviction, but by prejudice
and passion; not by thought and knowledge, but by contracted
views and ascetic enthusiasm ; and thus the new movement, bereft
of any wise controlling power, burst all limits of restraint, and
carried devastation and destruction throughout the length and
breadth of its course. It is the fashion amongst the later writers
on this subject to ascribe to the clergy the chief blame for the
origin of that mischief, which is now admitted by all parties in the
controversy to have been done either in a greater or less degree.
It is not my province to absolve the clergy from any offences which
they may have committed, but in common fairness I must honestly
say that if they have erred in an architectural sense, they may
claim most illustrious and powerful laymen as accomplices, for in
the very earliest days, when the frenzy for restoration began to
make head, two most capital crimes against ancient buildings were
committed by legislators and lawyers.

I will state to you briefly the facts upon which I rely to prove
the truth of this allegation. When the Palace of Westminster had
to be rebuilt, after the fire of 1833, the taste of the Lords and
Commons determined to adopt a style of architecture in imitation
of the Gothic of the Tudor age. An architect of great abilities

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was appointed to execute the ungrateful task ; and whatever may
have been his shortcomings, his bitterest foes must allow that he
fooled his employers to the top of their bent. It would now be
irrelevant to attempt any detailed criticism of this vast structure ;
but while I admit the ingenuity and resource of the architect, and
agree with Mr. Ferguson that it is the most successful attempt
which has been made in our time to apply medizval architecture
to civil purposes, I must protest that the whole building is simply
an adaptation of other men’s ideas without one detail which has
any pretension to originality. The fittings, furniture, and other
accessories are standing examples to posterity what they ought to
avoid, Everything is ground down to the lowest level of manufac-
ture, and yet everything is to match. The effigies of the. Royal
personages of the present age are disguised in the costume of the
Henrys. The roofs, walls, and floors are covered with inscriptions
which no human intelligence can decipher, and which seem to be
intended by the architect as a satire upon the ignorance and
credulity of those who insisted upon such an undertaking.

Similar follies are common enough in these days, and are
perhaps excusable, but the inexcusable was the wanton destruction
of the ancient chapel of St. Stephen’s, and its conversion into a
feeble, commonplace, “perpendicular Gothic ” waiting hall, further
degraded by the introduction of white marble statues of departed
statesmen in the costume of their respective ages ; and these by
contorted limbs and rueful countenances plainly express their
disgust at being exhibited in situations so entirely inappropriate.
Let me here add, though I break my chronology, the particulars
of another atrocity which, during the last ten years, has been
committed within these time-honoured precincts. Underneath
St. Stephen’s Chapel there exists a crypt, which, although for a
time in use as the Speaker’s state dining-room, still retained
important remains of its former self. It was a dark sequestered
spot, and might easily have escaped the chisel and paint brush of
the destroyers. But, unfortunately, the First Commissioner of
Works under Lord Palmerston’s Government was ‘“‘a man of taste,”
and he induced the House of Commons to vote a large sum for

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the so-called restoration of the crypt. Itis true that a few Members
of Parliament condemned these proceedings, and protested against
them—but their efforts were in vain. The omnipotent power of
“taste” overwhelmed their opposition, and by an enormous majority
of voices this inestimable relic was handed over to the pupils of
South Kensington and decorating tradesmen, and by them painted,
polished, burnished, furnished, gilded, glazed, and tiled, so that
every ancient feature was successfully obliterated, and the new
chapel placed upon an artistic level with Madame Tussaud’s
Museum or the transformation scene of a Christmas pantomime.
And yet even now the members of the House of Commons do not
repent these enormities; on the contrary, they seem to approve
them,.for scarcely a day during their Session passes but that con-
stituents and friends are conducted to this dimly illuminated vault,
where they are told that it is one of the prettiest sights in London,
and well worth its extravagant cost. The blaze of modern manu-
facture absorbs the wonder of these open-mouthed visitors, but it
never occurs to them to consider whether the new lamp is of more
value than the old.

While Parliament was thus employed, the heads of the legal
profession were following their bad example. The old Temple
Church was one of the most interesting monuments our country
possessed. Its restoration was decreed, and carried into effect in
the most barbarous fashion possible. The exterior is now entirely
new, and the interior scraped, polished, painted, and glazed, so
that it is utterly impossible to discover any detail that a Knight
Templar ever beheld ; the interesting monuments, the records of
various ages, have been removed to inaccessible and even ridiculous
positions, and, in short, what has been done amply justifies a
remark made some years ago by an able critic, “that if the
Benchers must needs have a showy and luxurious chapel, they
should have built one for themselves, and have left the old Templars
and their historic church quietly alone.” f

While the Legislature and the lawyers were thus playing ducks
and drakes with the monuments under their charge, it is not
surprising that the prevailing epidemic should rage with unlimited

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fury amongst the clergy. Next to building a new church in the
approved style of the day, their passion was to restore the edifices
under their control, and the Anglican ecclesiastics having, for the
most part, no artistic education, and neither the patience nor the
humility to learn, and inspired, moreover, only by sentiment and
narrow ideas, thus fell an easy prey to speculating architects,
decorators, and furniture dealers ; and under the influence of these
interested guides, a crusade was preached against all art subsequent
to the time of the Edwards; and much that was good and true
within and without the churches was rooted out, in order to sub-
stitute the wares of the ecclesiastical toy-shops.

“It is essential that I should briefly place before you the actual
outcome of this superstition, because literally it was nothing else,
and for this purpose will quote an extract from an article written
in October, 1877, by Mr. Colvin, Slade Professor of Art in the
University of Cambridge, who puts the salient points in language
infinitely better than any I can command. Professor Colvin
writes, with reference to Church restoration, that the average
practice is something like this: First, the seating of the church is
taken up; the church is partly lined with oak panelling, enriched
in the chancel with fluted pilasters and Corinthian capitals and
elaborate pediments ; and if there is a carved oak pulpit of the
same date and style, and a communion table of old carved oak,
all these fittings must go—they are pagan, they are barbarous, fit
only to be broken up or sold. Then, the whole floor comes up;
the funeral stones are thrown aside and broken, the brasses are
removed and put against the wall in some out-of-the-way part of
the aisle. There are monuments in memory of village celebrities
and the ancestors of local magnets, chiefly in the form of tablets
let into the walls, some of the chancel, some of the aisle. From
the chancel they are cleared out altogether ; in the aisle, perhaps
one or two are left ; and if there is a mutilated recumbent effigy of
the period allowed as “ancient,” it is preserved for repiecing and
repainting. The windows are filled with white glass, interspersed
with a few scraps of old coloured, saved at the Reformation, and
with a few coats of arms and other simple transparencies added

134

later: this glazing is all cleared away. Then, as to the fabric of
the building itself, a second aisle will be thrown out; or the nave
lengthened by one or two bays, so as to swallow up the old
chancel, and a wholly new chancel will be added. This new work
will be added in Early English, Middle Pointed, or Decorated,
with ‘characteristic’ features designed by the architect in accord-
ance, more or less, with some portion of the old building which he
takes for his clue; but very seldom in Perpendicular, which is
understood to have been but a debased development, of the Gothic
style. [Perhaps I might mention to those not intimately acquainted
with these things, that Perpendicular Gothic was the architecture
of the Gothic order which prevailed in this country during the 15th
and the latter part of the 14th century.] As, however, the Perpen-
dicular period was one of the most active in English architecture,
many portions of the building are sure to date from it; the flat-
pitched roof, succeeding an earlier steep-gabled one—the east
window, most likely—the clerestory openings, it may be—one or
both aisles, or at any rate most of their window tracery ; and to all
these portions small tenderness will be shown. The flat roof is
altogether removed, and a new steep roof, groined and ribbed or
barrel-vaulted, is substituted, a new “opentimbered roof” of
stained deal, usually as paltry in design as in material ; the Perpen-
dicular tracery in the openings, on the least excuse of decay or
even without it, is replaced by new geometrical tracery. Externally,
the walls, if they have been plastered, are stripped of their plaster,
the stonework or brickwork is scraped and repointed, the coigns
renewed, a porch, very likely, of quaint local design is removed, a
pretty wooden belfry with a quaint weathercock, is replaced by
one of the Gothic design ; the whole outside is made to look trim,
complete, uniform, ‘correct.’ Internally, a similar stripping and
scraping goes on; coats of whitewash, layers of lath and plaster,
are removed, in order that the stone or brickwork may be exposed
and repointed. In the process, fragments of overlaid features, of
primitive and succeeding dates, come to light ; if any one of these
features work into the new plan, an imitation of the whole feature
is set up, with the fragment incorporated in the imitation, in the

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place to which the original belonged. Finally, the fabric, with all
the evidences of its later history removed, though with a few of
those of its earlier history, in fortunate cases, recovered—
transformed here into a fabric—avowedly new, there into one
professedly the model of its former self—is made ready for its new
fittings, and receives them in the shape of open seating, machine-
carved, in stained deal, with Gothic finials ; a new pulpit, carved
in a proper Gothic taste, of Bath or Caen stone; subscription
windows in stained glass of the most approved modern medizval
design ; a smooth laid floor, with richly patterned tiles for the
chancel ; new Gothic altar-rails in brass ; a fine reredos, if sub
scribers have again been liberal, of marble or alabaster and mosaic
in place of the old Ten Commandments ; a new altar and rich
embroidered altar-cloth ; new iron gas-fittings, save the mark of
Gothic colouring and design, and all the rest of the proper
and approved appointments.”

These observations may be taken to sum up the leading
allegations of an indictment against that destructive restoration
which became so general when the success of the Gothic revival
was established, that Sir Gilbert Scott, the acknowledged chief of
the Anglo-Goths, the creator, in fact, of the modern Frankenstein
which has since appalled and bewildered its constructors, published
from time to time a series of manifestoes—the first dated as far
back as 1841—against the course of Vandalism, which had, as he
said, justly made the very word “restoration” a byeword and a

_ reproach, and had robbed England of a large portion of her

“antiquities.” I could refer to many extracts from Sir Gilbert
Scott’s writings, all expressing, at great length, the same censures
and same sentiments at various periods, but I will give you a few
extracts, sufficient only to establish my point. I have already cited
the passage of 1841, and here is another :—“I have long and most
painfully felt that the modern system of radical restoration is doing
more towards the destruction of ancient art than the ravings of
fanaticism, or the follies of churchwardens have succeeded in
effecting. The existence and authenticity of these invaluable relics
is invaded on both sides.” Then, in 1873, he says :—“ Our old

136

buildings too often—nay, in a majority, I fear, of cases—fall into
the hands of men who have neither knowledge nor respect for
them, while, even amongst those who possess the requisite know-
ledge, there has too often existed a lack of veneration, a disposition
to sit in judgment on the works of their teachers, a rage for alter-
ation.” In 1874, in his opening address to the Royal Institute of
British Architects, and referring to Mr. Ruskin, Sir G. Scott
writes :—“ If he (Mr. Ruskin) travels in France, he finds restor-
ation so rampant that nothing which shows much of the hand of
time is considered worthy of continued existence, but must be
re-worked or renewed, cleverly, artistically, and learnedly perhaps,
but nevertheless it is zew work taking the place of the o/d work,
or the old work retooled till scarce a vestige of the surface on
which the old men wrought so lovingly is allowed to remain. If
he goes into Italy, much the same meets his eye. In his own
Venice the “Fondaco dei Turchi,” the most venerable secular
Byzantine work, is rebuilt. At Assisi he would find the works of
Cimabue and Giotto in the hands of the restorer. In Belgium he
would find ancient buildings chipped over and made to look like
new ; or, as is the case with the wonderful church of the Domini-
cans, at Ghent, deliberately destroyed.” And so forth. Then, in
1874—four years ago only—Sir Gilbert Scott expressed himself
thus :—“Taking a review of the results of this sad history, one
may say that a certain proportion of our churches have been
carefully dealt with ; another proportion treated with fair intention
but less success ; but that, as I fear, the majority are almost utterly
_despoiled, and nine-tenths, if not all, of their interest swept away.”
And again:—“ We receive, from time to time, appeals to our
committee for the conservation of ancient monuments against
vandalisms which one would think incredible ; and only within the
last few days I have heard of one clergyman selling to a grocer
one of the old chained-up books which he thought would disfigure
his ‘restored’ church ; and of another expelling a famous series of
brasses to secure the uniformity of encaustic tile floor; while one
hears of noblemen of the highest names who make over the
nomination of architects for the restoration of the churches on

137

their estates as a piece of patronage which is the perquisite of
their agents.” These are some of the many passages in Sir Gilbert
Scott’s writings, which I could read to you, but time compels me
to quit this branch of the subject.

These were brave words, no doubt; but whether Sir Gilbert
Scott was not strong enough to resist the pressure and temptations
which his lucrative professional engagements brought upon him, or
whether he was of an irresolute and vacillating disposition, it is
absolutely certain that he failed to practice the doctrines which he
preached with such energy and fervour, for his deplorable restor-
ations of many of our cathedrals (Salisbury to wit), and of the
innumerable parochial and other valuable churches, date subse-
quently to these fruitless protests.

Again, the brutal war which has been waged by Mr. Butterfield
and others against Sir Christopher Wren’s original and beautiful
churches in the City of London was initiated by Sir Gilbert Scott,
who long after he had so unreservedly denounced the evils of
radical restoration, led the attack by his transformation of the
elegant Church of St. Michael, Cornhill, daubing the interior with
glaring and vulgar paint, filling the windows with clumsy and
inappropriate tracery, and disfiguring the bold and noble tower—
one of the most happy inventions of modern genius—with an
ill-shaped and ill-executed Gothic porch which has no meaning
whatever, except, perhaps, to prove how idle it is for the pigmy to

measure himself with the giant.
> Reyerting to Sir Gilbert Scott’s injudicious meddling with
medizval monuments, I would observe that such of us who have
been connected from our youth with Westminster and its famous
Abbey, or who are intimately acquainted with the details of that
unsurpassed structure, can never cease to regret the day when Sir
Gilbert Scott became its surveyor, and was permitted to run riot
at the expense of the governing collegiate body, whose blind
confidence in their architect far exceeded their knowledge of his
art. Happily, not much has been done ; but with the exception,
perhaps, of the rebuilding of the Chapterhouse, all that has been
done is bad. Externally, the south transept has been renovated

138

in a style so cumbrous that the enormous stone pinnacles or
pyramids, raised to an undue and useless height, entirely destroy
the proportions of the south side of the church, whether the point
of view be taken near or far. In fact, what we see now positively
makes us regret the loss of the former simple and unpretending
design which was erected some years before Sir Christopher Wren
was the Abbey surveyor, and which was only quaint and not
positively ugly. The interior alterations are of about the same

average artistic value. The new altar screen, with its four lanky, lean, _

staring statues, and ill-proportioned cedar altar table in Roman-
esque detail, are decidedly inferior in design to its predecessor ;
but the maximum of absurdity has been attained in Henry VII.
Chapel, where, on the site of the old high altar, a new altar table
has been set up, resting upon legs formed of gilt wood pilasters,
which are copies of the metal’ pilasters in Torrigiano’s tomb of
Henry VII., but which, when applied to a purpose other than their
legitimate use, are, as a matter of course, ridiculous.

Last, but not least, in this Catalogue of Westminster mishaps,
comes the restoration of the historical Jerusalem Chamber, the
ancient parlour of the? abbots of Westminster, where the upper
walls and ceilings are covered with childish painting and tawdry

decoration, and the apartment heated by a flaunting and glaring -_

pseudo-Gothic apparatus, which would disgrace any Pimlico
lodging-house. Moreover, at the time of his death Sir Gilbert
Scott was combining and confederating with the Dean of Canter-
bury to get rid of the well-known choir stalls of Canterbury
Cathedral, attributed, and I believe truly, to Grinling Gibbons.
The Dean, who is but little skilled in architecture, considered
these stalls not Gothic enough for his taste, so he threw over the
Cathedral surveyor and some of his capitular colleagues who
wanted to leave well alone, and"summoned Sir Gilbert Scott ; but
Sir Gilbert, instead of protesting against the ‘Decanal act of
Vandalism, became, notwithstanding all his sentimental writings,
an accomplice before the fact, and induced the Dean and Chapter
to adopt an extravagant scheme of his own, whereby he proposed
to let loose a barbarian horde of painters, glaziers, and scrubbers,

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139

to replace excellent original pure English stalls by a poor imitation

of what his lively imagination persuaded him had existed in the
same place at the beginning of the 14th century.

From my own personal knowledge I am able to add that in
1874, when a scheme, which was prepared by Mr. Burgess, for the
complete destruction of the interior of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and
the substitution of a vulgar and feeble design of his own, Sir
Gilbert Scott was not only a consenting party to the project, but
also its active supporter, and gave his voice in that sense whenever
a vote was taken in the committee. Indeed, at the last moment,
when the force of public opinion was being brought to bear to
rescind a decision, in accordance with the views of the clerical
element of the committee, to commence the work at once, Sir
Gilbert Scott was whipped up to swell the ranks of the destructive
faction, and responded to the call. When, therefore, the recognized
leader of the modern Gothic, “ our greatest church restorer,” as Sir

Edmund Beckett styles him in his “ Book on Building,” was doing

these things, and encouraging by his example men of less experience
and ability than himself to the like, it is not surprising that the
lovers of genuine art should at last be aroused to arrest the progress
of mischief, and concentrate their forces upon some coign of
vantage whence an effectual resistance might be offered.
Tewkesbury Abbey was the straw that broke the camel’s back,
and gave the first signal for action. Mr. William Morris having
seen in the newspapers that this noble building was about to be
handed over for sacrifice to Sir Gilbert Scott, addressed a strong
remonstrance to the Atheneum newspaper, and suggested that an
association should at once be set on foot to keep a watch on old
monuments, and for their general protection. The publication of
this letter led to a meeting which was held on the 22nd March, °
1877, and which was attended by a number of highly influential

gentlemen, and then and there the Society for the Protection of

Ancient Buildings first saw the light, with the object specified in
the prospectus of the Society, which is too long for me to read,
but which I have taken care shall be accessible to all. The new
Society grew rapidly both in strength and numbers. Its proceed-

140

ings became so important that it raised a controversy within the
solemn precincts of the R. I. B. A. itself, where the campaign was
opened by a paper read by Mr. Stevenson, a distinguished architect,
on 28th May last. The subject was continued on the ri1th June,
by Sir Gilbert Scott, who read at great length a reply to Mr.
Stevenson. After the reading of this last paper, a discussion
followed, conducted by those who were called upon by the
President. I do not propose to give you any extracts from Mr.
Stevenson’s and Mr. Gilbert Scott’s interesting discourses, because
they are in print, and you can read them for yourselves. But I
will briefly observe that Mr Stevenson holds the extreme view
that we should leave our churches alone, keep them in repair, keep
out the wet, underpin a sinking wall, or build a buttress and keep
the wall from sinking. ‘ Why,” Mr. Stevenson asks, “ should not
our children have the chance of seeing what an old English church
used to be like, with its high oak pews and galleries, and old
monuments left on the walls, as all churches used to be forty years
ago, such a church as David Copperfield used to go to? Would
such, even allowing the old three-decker pulpit to remain, be quite
incompatible with Christian worship? Why this haste to destroy
it? It is because they feel that unless the work is done speedily
the feeling may be changed, and people may discover that in
purging England of her characteristic old churches, they have
made a mistake.” Sir Gilbert Scott, on the other hand, in his
reply, adopted a tone of great moderation, and based his observ-
ations entirely upon the principle of what he called conservative
restoration, and had not the works then actually in progress under
his hand been so entirely contradictory to the opinions he expressed,
I, for one, could not have disagreed with him. But the pith of
the whole controversy is to be found in the discussion which
followed the reading of the papers, and it is upon what was then
said by the Fellows and visitors present, and notably by Mr.
Street, Mr. Stevenson, Mr. Poynter, and Sir Edmund Beckett,
that I shall found the practical portion of the task I have under-
taken, which is to explain to you my views with regard to the

141

principles to be observed in the restoration of churches and other
buildings.

Now, the impression which the early stage of the debate at
the Institue left upon my mind, was that of a heavy cannonade
between professional gentlemen who were very angry with one
another, and who were only restrained from personalities, and
perhaps something worse, by the grave and respectable character
of the assembly in which they found themselves at the time;
but when the intensity of the firing had somewhat slackened, one
of the most experienced and well-abused restorers, Mr. Street,
R.A., made a long speech, with which I, though I seldom find
myself in agreement with him on architectural topics, could find
but little fault. Mr. Street stated his views upon the proper mode
of restoration to be as follows :—1st. That the walls, columns, and
arches of a building should be thoroughly repaired. 2nd. That
the walls should be kept plastered wherever an old surface of
plaster was found. 3rd. That screens, stalls, and other old artistic
work, removed by ignorant persons, should, if practicable, be put
back in their original places. 4th. That though he saw no objec-
tion to the restoration of stone work originally executed by
common masons, he would never sanction the restoration of
anything which was the work or had the mark of an individual
artist. ‘All such work as the restoration of walls, painting on
walls, carvings, sculpture, and the like, he thought ought never to
be touched or altered at all. It was precious because it embodied
the handiwork and thought of a single artist, and lost all its interest
and value in restoration.”

Now, these propositions coinciding substantially with my own
ideas, when I was called upon by the President, without any
previous notice, to address the Institute, very briefly I ventured to
give an opinion, “that while it was perfectly justifiable to sweep
away what was utterly bad and devoid of any artistic merit, what
was original and good ought always to be preserved ;” and in
illustration of my position, I referred to the much-vexed question
of the Canterbury Cathedral stalls, to which I have already called
your attention, I was shortly afterwards followed by My. Poynter,

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R.A., who carries—as from his high reputation he deservedly
should—great weight amongst the modern school, and he was
good enough to say: “ Perhaps the best thing that has been said
on the subject this evening fell from Mr. Bentinck [here is the
report, that you may satisfy yourselves that I am reading what was
actually said], who said that whether an anachronism should be
preserved or swept away depended entirely on whether it was in
itself a good or a bad work of art. But, unfortunately, to decide
between what is good and what is bad is the question, and it is
here that the difficulty lies. On this matter of the Canterbury
stalls, for instance, there are evidently two opinions. I myself
decidedly hold Mr. Bentinck’s view, that they should be preserved.
The reason why the new Society sets its face against a restoration,
is because they fear that the enthusiasm of the restorer might
remove that which is in itself valuable, although it may be an
anachronism in regard to style.”

Now, if discussion had stopped here, the principles asserted
by Mr. Street and Mr. Poynter, as experts, and by myself, as a
humble inexpert, might have been taken to command the assent
of the majority of those present; but immediately after Mr.
Poynter had concluded, Sir Edmund Beckett—well known as a
voluminous writer on architecture—entered the arena. His observ-
ations will not, I think, add to his reputation as a critic, but for
my present purpose it is fortunate he made them, because I am
now enabled to place before you with tolerable clearness the main
issue which arises out of this vo and anéi restoration controversy,
and which, in my view, should control the action of those who
have the power of the purse. Sir Edmund Beckett said: “I am
not so familiar with Canterbury Cathedral as Mr. Bentinck, but I
should not advocate the keeping of Italian work in a Gothic build-
ing unless it was something very exceptionally good. Mr. Bentinck
said he would lay down the principle of keeping everything
‘that was good ;’ but when you turn this principle into practice
we have to answer the question—What is good? That is just
where people differ; and this shows the folly of attempting to
settle these things by principles.” And further on Sir Edmund

143

Beckett said: ‘The work of restoration” (he was alluding to
St. Alban’s Cathedral) ‘cannot be done without a great deal of
actual rebuilding and imitating old work as well as we can, which
I boldly avow is the proper mode of restoring work which is
partially decayed, so that the old and new may look continuous
and complete. I utterly deride all the nonsense that is talked
about the baseness of imitation and copying, In such cases it is
the only proper mode of restoration.”

Now, to begin with, you will perceive Sir Edmund Beckett
denies you can settle by any principle ‘what is good.” Any
attempt to do so he says is “foolish.” But I differ from him, and
I think I can state a principle which will stand any test that
common sense can reasonably suggest. It may be difficult, no
_ doubt, in any high condition of refinement, either of art or manu-
facture, to lay down dogmatically “what is good” or otherwise;
but when an art is either lost, or has fallen to the depths of
degradation to which architecture and decoration have descended
in our time—not only in England, but all over Europe; when our
churches are daily dealt with after the manner of Salisbury
Cathedral, and our domestic buildings decorated in the fashion
lately adopted at the Carlton Club ; when we consider the “fiasco”
of the late Exhibition of Paris as regards original productions,
then “what is good” becomes a relative rather than a positive
term, and may be fairly held to apply not to the labour of common
workmen, but to “every original work of every individual artist”
from the earliest time down to the present day. This is the prin-
ciple which I endeavoured to assert at the meeting of the R.ILB.A.,
and to illustrate by a reference to the case of the Canterbury stalls,
already explained toyou. And now I submit with some confidence
that this principle, approved as-it was in the main by both Mr.
Street and Mr. Poynter, is not foolish, but sensible. The most
important proposition laid down by Sir Edmund Beckett, and
most germane to the subject before us, is, however, really contained
in the last paragraph which I have quoted from his speech, where
he says, “The proper mode of restoring work partially decayed is
by imitating the old work as well as we can, so that the old and

144

new may look continuous and complete, and that the alleged
baseness of imitation and copying was all nonsense.”

This proposition embodies in substance the ideas of the |
ultra-restorationists, amongst whom I must include, after what
has been alleged and proved, Sir Gilbert Scott and his followers,
and it admits that the real may be levelled down to the unreal, the
true to the sham, and justifies any amount of tampering with
precious but decayed monuments of art, provided always that they
are manipulated into continuous and complete harmony with the
coarse and inanimate manufactures of the modern Gothic workman.
If these doctrines are to prevail, the activity and energy of modern
painters and decorators will be subject to no restraining force.
Once teach them that it is lawful to make old and new work
continuous and complete, and that the baseness of imitation and
copying is all nonsense, they will continue to cut, pare, daub, and
destroy so unmercifully that the few churches which have hitherto
escaped their hands will speedily share the fate of their fellows.
Besides, if the principle is admissible with regard to architectural
details and sculpture, it must also apply to painting ; and then we
may well enquire, where is the mischief to stop ?

Mr. Poynter was, to my mind, very satisfactory and quite
unanswerable when he said, “where a church exists from
medieval times without any paintings, I hold strongly that any
attempt to supply them as they would have done in the 13th or
14th centuries would be quite out of place, simply because
it is impossible to reproduce the spirit in which these paintings
were done. The architect may produce a very good imitation, but
he cannot produce the same thing. It would be an attempt to
put into a church something which has no reality ;” and thus Mr.
Poynter not only disposed of Sir E. Beckett, but hit an obvious
blot in Sir G. Scott’s system, which in ail principal cases, as, for
instance, Salisbury Cathedral, involved a large amount of painting,
executed not by artists, but by workmen employed under contracts
entered into with decorating firms.

A circumstance, which occurred to me in my youth, and
which I will venture to relate to you, led me long ago towards the

145

impression I now strongly entertain, that this fashion of imitating
and copying imperfect things is altogether based upon a false idea.
Thirty years since I was a good deal in Rome, and there I made
the acquaintance of the Jesuit fathers who then had the care of the
“Collegio Romano.” One of the Society, Padre Macchi, was a
distinguished and learned antiquarian, and he invited me to
accompany him to the catacombs of St. Agnese, which had then
lately been discovered, and which contained the most interesting
relics of early Christian art then extant. On the road we passed
the villa of the well-known banker, Prince Alexander Torlonia, who
was, I believe, really of Jewish extraction, but who had lately been
ennobled by the Pope, and had married a lady of the historical
family of Colonna. This villa had been fitted up and adorned
with all modern means and appliances which wealth could supply,
and amongst other ornamental work the Prince had erected in the
grounds miniature copies of some of the best known ruins in
Rome, such as the Colosseum, Temple of Peace, &c. As we
drove by, one of my Jesuit friends called my attention to these
things, saying with a satirical smile, ‘Guardi, Signore, I’Antichita
Moderna’—that is, “Observe, sir, the modern antiquity,” and his
companion, referring to the Prince, quietly muttered “Stupido,”
a word I need not translate. With this criticism I then cordially
agreed, and I agree with itnow. Rely upon this, that whether the
scene be in Italy or England, and whether the subject be Roman
ruins or Gothic remains, imitation is base in both cases, and the
wholesale fabrication of medieval shams, so common with the
“greatest church restorer,” merits the identical censure which was
pronounced by my Jesuit friends upon Prince Torlonia for doing
what he thought very clever, but which was exactly the reverse.
Now, it is to oppose these pernicious notions that the efforts
of the anti-restoration party are mainly directed. There are, as
must be the case in so wide a field of ideas, “ anti-restorationists”
and “anti-restorationists.” There are those who think with Mr.
Stevenson that nothing ought to be done “beyond mere upholding”;
others there are who concur with Mr. Street, that, while removals
and changes, either whole or partial, are in many cases justifiable,
1]

146

and even desirable, yet that no work of an individual artist ought
ever to be touched at all.

And, again, a third opinion exists, which I will explain more
fully before I conclude. But first let me lead you to the results
which must ensue if either the plan of Mr. Stevenson or that of
Mr. Street be adopted without considerable modification. If Mr.
Stevenson wins the day, notwithstanding that I entirely go with
him in his effort to exorcise the demon of restoration, and agree
that the picture he has so ably drawn of the ravages committed by
his opponents is not over-coloured in any material particular ; yet
to hold that ourselves and our posterity must for all time submit to
contemplate the barbarism which ignorant hands have perpetrated
in our old churches in times past without emotion, and either to
sit in high pews while our church services are performed in three-
deckers, or retire for all time, is a proposition to which I, for one,
cannot assent; and on the last point, for this additional reason,
because the architect who, to the best of my belief, both Mr.
Stevenson, and I myself, recognise to be the greatest England
ever produced (I allude to Sir Christopher Wren), was as strongly
opposed to the erection of pews as any church architect of the
present day. His opinion is contained in a short but interesting
paragraph from his suggestions to the Commissioners for Building
New Churches, under the Act of Parliament of 1708, and written
when he was seventy-six years of age. ‘A church should not be
so filled with pews but that the poor may have room enough to
stand and sit in the alleys, for to them equally is the gospel
preached. It were to be wished there were to be no pews, but
benches ; but there is no stemming the tide of profit and the
advantage of pew-keepers, especially since by pews in the chapel
of ease the minister is chiefly supported.” Thus it is clear that if
Sir Christopher had been a free agent, he would have rejected
pews, and it is morally certain that he abhorred three-deckers,
because I do not think there is any one church of his (at least that
I have seen) where this inconvenient deformity was part of the
original design.

Far preferable to this well-intentioned but narrow view is the

147

view of Mr. Street, though I do not stop to enquire whether, like
Sir Gilbert Scott, he has transgressed the rules concerning restor-
ation which he has himself laid down, though Sir Edmund Beckett
accuses him of plaster-skinning and other enormities and crimes.
But taking his dictum as it stands to mean that no artistic work
should be touched at all, it is certainly a safe standpoint, and,
besides, I suppose no reasonable being, except Mr. Stevenson,
would quarrel with Mr. Street for his desire to replace in their
original situations objects of interest and beauty improperly re-
moved.

But two questions arise, first, whether this limited theory of
restoration is sufficient to meet and satisfy the aims and the argu-
ments of the the restorationists, and, secondly, whether it is
absolutely unlawful, as Mr. Street appears to contend, to touch
original carving, sculpture, and painting at all. Now, I boldly
answer both these questions in the negative, and state my own
idea to be that, while all donxa-fide work, by all artists, whether
known or unknown, and of whatever age, whether Saxon, Edwardian,
or Georgian, should be left in its original condition as much as
possible : still, occasions do arise when restoration is absolutely
necessary either for preservation or general effect. For instance,
in the damp climate of England, and the trying atmosphere of
London, pictures, gilding, and sculpture must from time to time be
cleaned. There really is no alternative. And when the operation
has to be performed, the duty of the local authority is to see that
nothing more is done than the requirements of the case demand,
Works of art also often require restoration, not by way of renova-
tion, but by replacement of some feature which may be missing,
and thus the general effect is entirely marred. Thus, for example,
it is not wrong, in my opinion, to give back a nose or a hand to a
statue which may have been deprived, either wilfully or accidentally,
of these useful and ornamental members. This practice was pursued
wholesale by the great men of the 16th century, including Michael
Angelo ; and provided the addition be made by artists, and not by
contractors, I can see no objection. But in a matter like this it is
impossible to draw any hard and fast line as to where to begin and

148

where to end. Every case must stand on its own merits. My
principle is that, where a work is not too far perished by injury or
decay, important features that are wanting may frequently be
replaced. Thus, for instance, it would be preposterous to meddle
with the Elgin Marbles or the Venus de Milo; but if the Apollo
Belvedere, in the Vatican, or the Clytie, in the British Museum,
lost his or her nose, it would be right to supply a new one. To
define, perhaps, the exact theory, is difficult, but the practice is as
easy as ABC. I could multiply instances, but I will not weary
you further.

I can only hope I have sufficiently performed my undertaking
so as to render what I have said intelligible. Embracing the
cause, and accepting, as I do, the main principles of the Anti-
restoration Society, I cannot side with the extreme party, but I
desire that, in preserving the treasures of art which our forefathers
have left us, the voices of reason, common-sense, moderation, and
expediency should have a full hearing—these treasures of bygone
days are unfortunately not immortal—like all human creations,
they must and will decay ; but when the time for restoration comes,
let that restoration be conservative in the true sense of the word.
Let it preserve, but at the same time progress—not seek its
inspiration from the imperfect efforts of darker ages, but from the
purer sources flowing from the 15th and 16th centuries, when, for
the space of a century or more, a race of giants trod all the paths
of art, and left to future generations the records of their genius,
and unless a man learns both to appreciate and understand
them, it is certain he can never do satisfactory work either as an
artist or as a critic.

A vote of thanks to Mr. Bentinck was proposed by the
President, who discussed the principles laid down by the author at
some length. He was followed by Mr. H. A. Fletcher and Dr.
T Anson.*

Mr. Bentinck, in replying to the points raised in the discussion,
said: Mr. Russell, ladies and gentlemen,—I have to return you

* A part of the discussion that followed the Lecture is here given, for the
sake of the Lecturer’s reply.

149

my most grateful thanks for the very kind manner in which you
have been good enough to receive the vote which has been put to
you. Before I address the few sentences which will have reference
to that point, I should like to say just a word in reply to the
observations that have fallen from Mr. Russell. Now, Mr. Russell
has divided the parties to this controversy into three sections. He
said there are—first, those who would not have any restoration at
all ; then, those who wish to restore the buildings as far as possible
to their original condition; and then those who would only keep
the good and reject the bad. He places me in the last category.
And then he said, as has been said before by some of the highly
instructed persons to whom I have referred, that it was a matter of
great difficulty to decide what was good and what bad. Now, I
am afraid I did not make myself sufficiently clear on that particular
point ; therefore I will repeat myself,—because I quite understand
the difficulty Mr. Russell has found and others find in this
particular matter. But I said before, and I repeat it now, that the
question of What is good? is a relative term; and I comprise
within the term of “ What is good” everything that has ever been
executed by individual artists from the earliest times until now.
Anything, for example, there is of Saxon ornament, or Saxon
architecture, should not be destroyed: I would keep it; because
it has an individual character.

If you go to St. Bees, you will find there, amongst the few
things that remain at St. Bees Church (most of the older have
disappeared), but among the few things that remain, there is a very
curious, ancient doorway, quite of the early part of the twelfth
century. That you cannot call a work of art; but it is a curiosity;
and that being the work of an individual artist and the expression
of a particular time—that is a thing I would not, under any
circumstances, sweep away, any more than I would sweep away
what I consider to be an excellent work of art of its class—the
pulpit of St. James’ Church, Whitehaven. ‘That is a thing that
ought not to be swept away; for it is the expression of an
individual artist and a particular time. The very stalls of Gibbons,
which Sir Gilbert Scott was proposing to take away out of Canter-

150

bury Cathedral, are an example. Canterbury Cathedral suftered
very much during the Great Rebellion. It was used as a stable
for cavalry horses, and the whole of the choir fittings were
practically destroyed. Then afterwards it was fitted up in very
beautiful style, partly I think at the expense of Queen Mary the
Second, and partly at the expense of Archbishop Tenison, who in
particular presented the Archbishop’s throne, which certainly was
the work of Gibbons, because the Chapter hold his receipt for the
modest sum of £10, which was his remuneration for the work.
But the barbarous task of a Bishop of this Diocese (Bishop Percy),
who was Dean of Canterbury, first destroyed the sides of the choir
and the superb organ case (of which a print may be seen in Dart).
Then in my recollection the Archbishop's throne was pulled down,
‘to make way for a piece of modern stone rubbish supplied by a
carver from Belguim, who was supposed to do the thing cheap; and
then lately Sir Gilbert Scott proposed to take away the choir stalls,
the last remains of the good work, and to substitute his “modern
antiquity.” And besides all this, in the choir of Canterbury
Cathedral, which was built by the Norman William of Sens, the
Corinthian features were not, after all, such an anachronism.
However, I don’t wish to trouble you with going over the ground
I have already travelled. I only want to make my meaning clear,
and take leave to repeat that I would comprise in the term ‘What
is good!” everything that is the expression and the work of an
individual artist. My friend Dr. ’Anson has been speaking in
parables. (Laughter.) I could not quite follow his meaning.

But there is one building in Whitehaven which is certainly
not a beautiful building—in fact, it is very bad, and without any
feature of merit. That is the Old Church of St. Nicholas. It is
a hopeless building: really, you can do nothing with it at all.
(Laughter.) But I can illustrate my position by something in that
church. Notwithstanding it is, as I say, a hopeless building, I
think it does contain something which, in my opinion, is good, and
that is, the carving on the old Lowther pew. That is not a great
work, nor a fine work ; but it is a very interesting work, because it
is the expression of the north country carvers who lived at that

151

time, and whose works had merit. Well, supposing you were
. going to pull down the church or to re-arrange it—supposing you
could take away the galleries and do anything that was satisfactory
to the modern idea, nothing in the world ought to make you take
away that carving. I wouldn’t say keep it upon that pew ; because
the pew is inconvenient—not at all satisfactory to those who
occupy it, nor to those who sit around it. The pew might be
taken away, but the carving should not be taken from the church.
I would put that in the category of what is good. In the same
way, if there was such a thing as a Danish door in a church I
would keep that—as a curiosity.

I don’t attempt, for my present purpose in the present state of
things—in the present confusion and chaos which architecture is
in, all over the world—England, of course, included—I wouldn’t
attempt to distinguish between degrees of artistic merit, and say,
“This is good,” and “That is bad.” No; if this belongs to a
period, and is the work of an individual artist, as Mr. Street says,
there I would keep it. Now, I think that is a very liberal view of
the point, and I hope you are in accord with that. As to anyone
being able to restore or make things like what they were, that is
impossible. If Westminster Abbey were pulled down to-morrow
you could not build it up again. It is an agglomeration, as every
other Cathedral is an agglomeration, of different periods and
different men’s ideas; so that it would be quite impossible to
recreate them. You cannot reproduce, as Mr. Poynter said, a
thing that has ceased to exist in art ; and all these imitations, as I
humbly conceive, are entirely based on wrong principles and false
ideas, and I dispose of them by the story I have alluded to of the
modern antiquity. Having read you a very long paper, and made
an exceedingly dull speech, the hour being late, I have to return
you my best thanks once more for the manner in which you have
received the vote which has been proposed to you from the chair,

153

OUR SUMMER VISITORS.

By T. DUCKWORTH.

(Read at Carlisle. )

The paper which I intend to read to you to-night, is a short
account of a few of the birds that visit us in Spring and Summer,
and leave again in the Autumn; noting their habits, nidification,
etc., as taken from personal observation. I may as well state here,
that my brother and I have kept a diary for a number of years,
noting the arrival and departure of our Summer Visitors, and also
the flowering of plants ; so that in this paper the dates given are
taken from the average.

Curr Cuarr (Sylvia hippolais ).

The first visitor which I shall introduce to you this evening is
the Chiff Chaff, or Lesser Pettichaps. ‘This little bird, the least
willow wren of Bewick, or the Sy/via hippolais of English naturalists,
is one of the first to arrive of our visitors, and I like well to hear
its cheerful note. I have heard it as early as the 26th of March,
but as a general rule, from the 6th to the roth of April, and
it leaves us about the 28th of September. Its monotonous song of
chiff chaff, chaff chiff, may be heard in our woodlands, groves, and
plantations :

‘* Chiff chaff, chivey chavey,
On the ear it comes again ;

Faint and low, yet soft and pleasant,
Is the gentle strain.”

154

This it repeats all through the summer and well into the autumn.
We know, too, by this welcome sound, that the spring is fast
ripening into summer, and that the season of sunshine and flowers,
and all things bright and beautiful, will soon be here again. You may
hear it in Wetheral and Corby woods, and at Kingmoor, Newbiggin,
and Gelt, although it is not so widely distributed as its cousin, the
willow wren. For one nest of the Chiff Chaff in this district, you
may find a dozen of the willow wren. It commences nesting in
May, building an oval domed nest, which is composed of coarse
dry grass externally, lined inside with fine fibre and feathers, and
is generally placed on or near the ground, in a low bush, or in a
thick tuft of grass, and often amidst the long and intertwining
weeds and mingled herbage of a bank. The eggs, six or seven in
number, are white, speckled at the larger end with purplish red,
and sometimes speckled nearly all over. It feeds upon insects—
caterpillars, aphides, and flies; and I have also seen it capture
insects on the wing, The length of the male is about four inches
and a half. Bill, dark drown; the edges and base of the lower
mandible pale yellowish red. There is a pale yellowish brown
mark over the eye, more or less obscure; and between the eyes
and the bill the space is grey; a narrow circle of grey surrounds
the eyes. Head, crown, back of neck, and nape, greenish ash
colour, or brownish olive, the green almost disappearing in the
breeding season ; chin, throat, and breast, pale dull yellowish white,
the yellow colour chiefly in indistinct streaks. Back greenish ash
colour, or brownish olive, the edges of the feathers paler than the
remainder. The under surface of the wings is grey; greater and

lesser wing coverts also greenish ash. The tail, which is rather -
long, is blackish grey, the feathers bordered with olive green; the _

side feathers have whitish edges; upper tail coverts brownish
white, tinged with yellow.

WiLLow WREN (Sylvia trochilus ).
The next bird on my list is the Willow Wren (Sylvia
trochilus ), locally called in this district when I was a boy, “The
Miller’s Thumb.”

a ee ee ee

Saatoe Z, =

el

‘* Thou fairy bird, how I love to trace
The rapid flight of thy tiny race ;
For the wild bee does not wave its wing
More lightly than thine, thou fairy thing.”

Who has not had his attention arrested on some fine spring
morning, by the gleesome trill of this warbler (whose song, speaking
as a musician, I should call a slurred descending chromatic scale,
ending with a final flourish diminuendo), and has not stopped to
listen to it? It is an inhabitant of more northern countries, and
Mr. Hewitson, in his “British Oology,” mentions the delight he
experienced on hearing its soft sweet note whilst seated within the
Arctic circle, upon one of the bleak isles of Norway. This warbler
makes its appearance in this district about the 13th of April, and
leaves us about the 25th of September. The male bird when
commencing his song, ruffles up the feathers of his throat, which
gives him rather a peculiar appearance ; and I have often noticed,
that he sings sweetest and loudest during the time the female is
sitting ; it also sings whilst on the wing.

Just above the Hyssop Holm well, there was a nest last year
near the bank top, and close to the public footpath ; and I am also
happy to state, that it brought up its young in safety, in spite of its
being in such a public situation. I have watched it feeding its
young many a time, standing a few yards off ; and one morning I
timed its visits to the nest, and I found it fed them on an average
once every two minutes. It was curious to watch the cunning
manner in which the old bird approached the nest to feed them,
especially when any person was coming nigh: it would drop from
the tree that overhung the nest, and alight on a little bush a dozen
yards off, or so, and then run along the grass to the nest, feed its
young, run back again, and always in a different direction, the
whole proceeding not lasting many seconds. Its actions are very
lively, and I have seen it catch insects on the wing with the same
address as that of the flycatcher. Its food appears to be purely
insectivorous, as I have watched it through the field-glass, and I
never observed it seize anything but insects, caterpillars, etc. I
should consider it one of the gardener’s best friends, as far as my

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observation has gone. When the young are hatched, if you
approach too near its nest, it becomes very fussy and uneasy,
calling in a plaintive querulous manner; although I remember
when a boy taking a female off the nest even when she was hatch-
ing, and putting her on again, without her appearing the least
disturbed.

The Willow Wren builds in May a domed nest, composed of
dry grass, and lined with feathers. It lays seven white eggs,
spotted with red,—although I have seen some very curious
varieties. The situation of the nest varies: sometimes on the
ground, sometimes on hedge banks; once I found one in a bush,
and another in an old tin pan at the bottom of a hedge. The
length of the male bird is about five inches. Bill, dusky brown,
the under mandible pale yellowish brown at the base, its edges
dusky orange ; those of the upper one paler; over it is a light-
coloured yellow streak, fading off backwards into white ; under the
eye is also an obscure yellow streak,—-the yellow colour fades with
the advance of summer. Head, on the sides, pale olive colour, or
greenish grey, with a tinge of yellow; on the crown, back of the
neck, and nape, dull olive green; the neck on the sides is pale
olivaceous ; chin and throat greyish white, streaked with yellow;
breast silvery white, with a strong tinge of yellow, which fades
towards the autumn ; back dull pale olive green, fading into greyish
later in the summer; and the greater and lesser wing coverts
greyish brown. The tail is of a greyish brown colour, the feathers
edged extensively with a yellowish green, though underneath it is
greyish brown; upper tail coverts dull olive green, under tail
coverts whitish, strongly tinged with yellow. The female is a little
larger than the male, and her colours not so bright ; length, a little
over five inches,

SEDGE WARBLER (Sadicaria phragmitis ).

The next visitor claiming our attention is the Sedge Warbler
(Salicaria phragmitis). It visits us about the 26th of April, and
leaves about the first week in October, staying rather later than the

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greater number of our warblers. Like most of the true warblers, it
is insectivorous, and the tall aquatic plants are its game preserves.
There it finds in abundance sprawling water beetles, and spiders,
and dancing gnats, and dragon flies gleaming in the sun like
winged emeralds,--and feeds away right merrily. It is a sweet
songster, to my fancy, singing all day long nearly, and easily made
to sing by simply throwing a stone into the bushes. Many a time
when fishing by night, have I disturbed the Sedge Warbler, and set
him off singing : first a few sharp discordant notes of alarm, and
then breaking forth into full song, imitating various birds to per-
fection. Its singing is very singular as it sounds from the bushes
at the water side at night, and the angler at that lone hour listens
with wonder and delight to the pleasant music. I once heard it
imitate the chirrup of the house sparrow to such perfection, that I
thought it was one, till I got a full view of the bird. I should call
it a polyglot amongst the warblers ; and, according to an article in
“Science Gossip,” it is called in Ireland the Irish nightingale.

It does not, as its name implies, always breed among the
sedges, as in the dry sandy lanes round Swine Hill, behind the
County Asylum, I have often found its nests, and also on King-
moor. I once found one in Botcherby lane, leading down to the
water side, at the top of a tall hawthorn hedge. I may also remark
a curious piece of nest building, in some hawthorn bushes at Eden
side. I discovered a nest with six eggs in it, and through the
centre of the nest a sharp thorn projected, about three-quarters of
an inch in length, and the eggs were beautifully placed around it.
How the bird contrived to deposit her eggs without injuring
herself, has been a puzzle to me; and as I was never able to
inspect the nest again that season, I cannot say whether the young
were hatched successfully or not.

The Sedge Warbler is a very common bird in this district, and
_ you may hear three or four any fine summer evening in walking
over Etterby scaur. I knew of several nests last season on the
scaur, within a short distance of each other. The nest is generally
built in low bushes, sedges, etc.; it is composed of dry stalks of
grass, sometimes mixed with a little moss, and lined with fine

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grass, and sometimes a little hair. The number of eggs is from
five to seven, of a pale olive colour, sometimes streaked at the
large end with one or two black lines; at times it is gregarious
in its nesting. My friend Mr. Lancaster and I, while on a
botanical excursion last summer, discovered eight nests of the
Sedge Warbler within a few yards of each other. The length of
the male is about four inches and three-quarters. The upper bill,
broad at the base, is brownish black; the lower, pale reddish
brown ; a pale brown streak runs from it to the eye, and a short
way down the side of the neck. Iris, brown; over it is a broad
yellowish white band, proceeding from the base of the bill. Head,
on the crown brownish black, the edges of the feathers streaked
with light brown ; neck, on the sides, yellowish brown, on the back
and nape reddish brown, tinged with grey, the middle of each
feather being dark brown; chin and throat, nearly white. Breast,
brownish white, strongly tinged with yellowish brown on the sides.
Back, above, reddish brown. Greater and lesser wing coverts, pale
dusky reddish brown. The tail, which extends three-quarters of
an inch beyond the closed wings, and is rather long, straight, and
slightly rounded, is dusky brown; upper tail coverts, reddish brown;
under tail coverts, yellowish brown. The female resembles the
male, but is slightly larger, and the stripe on the eye is less
distinct.

Tue BiackcaP (Curruca atricapilla ).

‘** The Blackcap, she builds in a bramble bush,

And a snug little nest she makes ;

And sweetly her mate singeth near her—hush !
To those musical trills and shakes ! :

He has caught from the blackbird his rich mellow tone,
From the skylark his melody shrill ;

And the notes of the woodlark, the thrush, and his own,
He varies and blends at his will.”

This splendid songster, the sweetest of the warbler family (with
the exception of the nightingale), arrives in this district about the
23rd of April, and departs the latter end of September. It is of
shy habits, frequenting groves, the borders of woods, parks, plant-

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ations, and orchards, where it conceals itself amongst the foliage.
The song of this bird is very rich, sprightly, warbling and delicate;
it sings not only by day, but sometimes during the hours of dark-
ness. Besides singing its own song, the Blackcap imitates that of
other birds, and, as I can personally testify, so admirably as to
deceive the ear of the listener. Its song is generally given from
some commanding perch, or if the tree be not very high, from the
_ top twig; or from the top of some large bush. While the bird -is
trilling, in which it excels every songster of the grove in rapidity
and clearness, and in the swells and cadences which it gives to the
-same trill, the throat has a strong convulsive motion, and the whole
bird appears to be worked into a state of great excitement. It has
the wildest and most witching notes of all our warblers ; it has not
the ineffably sweet chaunt of the garden warbler, but its notes take
us by surprise, and the changes, especially the trills, are finer than
those of any other bird. One of its notes is a particularly long
soft shake, which sinks gradually into the lowest strain, though
every note is perfectly distinct, till, just as it is dying away, the
cadence again rises, and swells into a full burst of loud and joyful
melody. On our first field day down the Gelt last summer, while
Mr. Clifton Ward was delivering a short lecture on the sandstone,
there was a Blackcap carolling most beautifully on a tree hard by.
I don’t know whether anybody else noticed it or not, but its song
tang splendidly in my ears.

A little above Rose bridge, up the Caldew, there is a dense
overgrown thicket of black-thorn bushes, where a few Blackcaps
sing and breed. I recommend any person wishing to hear the
song of the Blackcap to go there, and I am sure they will not
regret it. I remember a few years ago coming from Sebergham
down by the river side one fine summer evening, stopping for a

_ couple of hours entranced, listening to their enchanting melody.

The nest is studiously concealed, and I have known the bird
desert it after I had inspected it. It builds amongst the thick
intertwining bushes of the black thorn, or amidst dense brambles.
It is a well built structure, composed externally of coarse dry stems
of grasses, and the deserted cocoons of insects; internally it is

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lined with fine fibre and hair. The eggs, from four to five in
number, are of a yellowish brown, with marks of ash grey, and
spotted with brown; but I have seen some varieties of a pale
pinkish colour. It has the habit of slipping off the nest in the
most quiet manner, and scuttling amongst the herbage like a mouse:
it reminds me very much of the grasshopper warbler in this respect.
I have seen the male feed the female when sitting on the nest.
The length of the male is about six inches ; bill, dark horn colour;
paler beneath, the edges yellowish grey; iris,dark brown. Head, onthe
crown, black ; its sides, the neck, on the back, and nape, ash colour ;
chin, throat, and breast, ash coloured,—but the breast is white on
the lower part tinged with yellowish grey. Back, of a brownish
ash colour. The female resembles the male, but her plumage is
more tinged with brown. Head, on the sides, gray with a greenish
tinge ; on the crown, reddish brown, reaching further back than in
the male; nape, grey, with a greenish tinge. Back, yellowish
brown, approaching to white on the centre, and darker on the sides
and across the breast.

GARDEN WARBLER ( Curruca hortensis ).

The Garden Warbler, or Greater Pettichaps, arrives in our
district about the 28th of April, a little later than the blackcap, and
departs about the 26th or 29th of September. It is not so
generally distributed as the blackcap, but more localised. Its
retiring manners prevent it from being so well known. When its
song is heard, it is not given from a commanding perch like the
blackcap, but from the close cover; and as the cover is in full
bloom all the time it is with us, it is not so often seen even by
those who search for it. It prefers woody districts, large gardens,
groves and orchards, and the outskirts of woods. Insects
constitute its principal food; and I have seen the bird capture
them on the wing, although in the season they are not particular,
but add currants, ripe cherries, and elder-berries to their bill of fare.
The bird is very sprightly in all its movements, and flits about with
peculiar gracefulness, I have watched these birds many a time

J faye

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flying from bush to bush, gambolling with each other, and giving
chase to insects. The song of the Garden Warbler is a very sweet
one; and its notes are perhaps the softest of any that have equal
compass—-but they are delightful flute-like notes ; and the whistling
part of the song, which is about as full and mellow as that of the
blackbird, has an unbroken swell, which is at once very character-
istic and peculiar. Any of my hearers who care to hear the song
of this bird, may easily do so by taking an early train to Wetheral,
any fine summer morning, and in the bits of plantation near to the
Station, by the water-side, may hear them to perfection. It builds
early in May. Its nest is very similar to the blackcap, but built
nearer to the ground in low bushes ; it is composed of dry grasses,
lined with fine fibrous roots, and sometimes hair, and the edges
are fastened with dry cocoons of insects’ and spiders’ webs. The
eggs, from four to five in number, are of a yellowish white, spotted
with light ash grey and olive brown. The length of the male bird
is about six inches. Bill, dusky brown, the base and edges of the
lower mandible yellow; the inside of the mouth orange. Iris,
dark brown, a small space round it being whitish. Head, on the
sides, pale brownish; on the crown, the neck, on the back, and
the nape, light greyish brown with a faint tinge of olive; the neck
on the sides is brownish grey ; chin and throat yellowish white, the
lower part of the latter and upper part of the breast tinged with
reddish brown, as are the sides, the remainder yellowish white,
almost white below. Tail straight, the feathers narrow, and dusky
brown in colour; under tail coverts pale greyish brown, the
margins white. The female closely resembles the male both in
size and appearance, but is lighter in colour on the upper part,
and_more uniformly greyish brown beneath.

WHITETHROAT (Curruca cinerea ).

Dear old Peggy, or Nanny Whitethroat, as we used to call it
in our happy school-boy days. It is indelibly impressed on my
memory as being one of the first bird’s nests I ever discovered.
T see it now in my mind’s eye as I saw it upwards of twenty years

12

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ago. The Whitethroat is one of the best known, most numerous,

and most generally distributed of all our warblers. It arrives with

us at the same time as the sedge warbler, and departs about the

26th of September. Who has not observed the Whitethroat, in

walking down some of our old-fashioned lonnings, sitting on the

top branch of some hawthorn or bramble bush, and swaying him-

self too and fro? Who has not heard his chattering call-note of
alarm, and seen him flying from spray to spray, singing all the

time, with the feathers on the top of his head all raised up? It is

a lively, animated bird, always in action; and though its song is

hurried and garrulous, its notes are very agreeable. It rises from

the twig on which it was perched, and performs a sort of undulating
dance, on quivering wings, in the air, returning at the close of its
song to its former resting place. According to Mr. Sweet, the song
of this warbler differs much in quality in different individuals ; and
with respect to this bird, he says :—“It is one of the most
delightful and pleasing birds that can be imagined. If kept in a
large cage with other birds, it is full of antics, flying and frisking
about, and erecting its crest, singing all the time, so that nothing
can be more amusing. It is quite as hardy as the blackcap, and
if a good one be procured, it is little inferior in song, but in this
they vary considerably, the wild ones, as well as those in a cage.
I have one now in my possession, one that I have had about
eleven years, in good health, and singing as well as ever; and
certainly no song need be louder, sweeter, or more varied. It is
of the same temper as the nightingale, never suffering itself to be
outdone. It will, indeed, sing for hours together against the
nightingale: when the nightingale raises its voice, it does the same,
and tries its utmost to get above it. Sometimes in the midst of its
song it will run up to the nightingale, and stretch out its neck as if
in defiance, staring it in the face; if the nightingale attempts to
peck it away, it is in an instant flying round the aviary, singing all
the time.” The food of this bird consists of insects, aphides,
caterpillars, &c.; also currants, cherries, and elder-berries. The
nest is generally placed in some low bush, or among brambles or
brushwood, and sometimes among nettles, and from this circum-

163

stance it is called in some districts the nettle creeper. It is
composed externally of dried stems of grasses and leaves, and
lined inside with fine roots and hair. The eggs are generally five
in number, of a greyish or greenish white, speckled with ash grey
and brown. The length of the male bird is about five inches
and ahalf. Bill, bluish brown, the base of the under mandible
yellowish brown, and the corners of the mouth yellowish green;
between it and the eye is a tinge of grey; iris, bronze yellow; eye-
lids, olive brown; over the eye is a streak of yellowish white. Head,
on the crown, slate grey; neck, on the sides, pale brownish grey ;
on the back and nape lighter greyish brown than the head; chin
and throat, silvery white. Back, reddish brown, but tinged with
olive in its lower part ; breast, above, pale dull white, tinged with
rose colour, and on the sides shaded off to yellowish white, and into
greyish white below. The female is of duller hue altogether, and
is nearly without the rose tint on the breast.

Cuckoo ( Cuculus canorus ).

‘* How sweet the first sound of the Cuckoo’s note,
Where is the magic pleasure of the sound ?
How do we recall the very tree,

Or bush near which we stood, when in the air
The unexpected note—Cuckoo ! again,

And yet again, came down the budding vale!
It is the voice of Spring among the trees ;

It tells of lengthening days, of coming blooms ;
It is the symphony of many a song.”

The Cuckoo is first heard in this district about April 24th,
and last heard about 28th of June. The old saying is :—

In April, come he will ;

In May, he sings all day ;
In June, he alters his tune ;
In July, he prepares to fly ;
In August, go he must.

There is another old rhyme, which runs thus ;—

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When the Cackoo comes to the bare thorn,
Sell your cow, and buy your corn ;

But when she comes to the full bit,
Sell your corn, and buy your sheep.

The great charm of the Cuckoo’s monotonous cry lies in its
associations. In itself it is not melodious, although Lisle Bowers
avers it may be strictly harmonious. He tells us that it is in exact
accordance with the diatonic scale, of which the two notes com-
posing the cry are the fifth and third. In the 7th volume of the
Transactions of the Linnean Society, is the following memorandum:
-“The Cuckoo begins early in the season with the interval of a
minor third, the bird then proceeds to a major third, next to a
fourth, then a fifth, after which his voice breaks, without attaining
a minor sixth.” It is added that the circumstance had been
observed long before—certainly as far back as the publication of
Heywood’s Epigrams, in 1587. It therefore presents no discord
to the ear; nor would it, I believe, if it were not so accordant with
musical notation, because it generally comes to us mellowed by
distance, and brings to the mind a flood of recollected and
anticipated pleasures, like those described in the above poetry by
Graham, as well as in the writings of other poets. But be that as
it may, the cry of the Cuckoo is extremely pleasant to most ears
when first heard ; and all through the season to the time of his
departure, we love to listen to the far away dreamy kind of call,
for it seems like an invitation to follow some ivisible leader,
through green woods and flowery vales, and into scenes of
quietude and peace.

The Cuckoo is about fourteen inches in length,—the tail
measuring seven inches, and the bill about one inch. The general
colour of the plumage is dark ashey grey above, and white beneath,
with grey undulating lines across; the pinion feathers are dark
brown, with white spots on the upper web, and the tail feathers are
black, with oval white spots. A beautiful iridescent reflection
plays over the darker parts, such as the head, throat, back, etc.
The effect of these combinations of sober tints is extremely
pleasing ; and the long slender form and gliding motion of the

165

bird, so perfectly easy and graceful, contribute to the agreeable
impression which it makes upon the beholder. More frequently,
however, is this mysterious visitor—as the bird has been called—
heard than seen. Gliding about along the hedgerows, and by the
skirts of leafy woods and copses, more often in shadow than in
sunshine, it escapes the notice of any but a watchful and keen-
sighted observer. Well might Wordsworth exclaim—

*©Q Cuckoo! shall I call thee bird,
Or but a wandering voice?”

for the dreamy utterance of its cry, brokenly floating up from the
wooded hollow near at hand, or coming from afar upon the summer
air, sounds more like the voice of a spirit than of a bird. If we
attempt to follow the sound to the spot from whence it emanates
we shall probably hear it as though in mockery coming from some
quite opposite direction. There seems to be hardly any part of
the country which they do not visit ; for while some remain in the
southern counties, others settle in the remotest islands of the north;
and although they are met with in the most cultivated districts
they also frequent the valleys of the wildest of our hilly and moun-
tainous districts. I have heard them frequently in the wild hills
and mountains of North Wales. We generally first hear them on
Kingmoor, Todhills, and Wragmire mosses. The Cuckoo seems
to be purely insectivorous, although some writers affirm that it
sucks birds’ eggs. I have never seen it do so, therefore I can’t
say; but I once watched one on Wragmire moss feeding for a
length of time, and when I went to examine what it had been
_ feeding on, I found the shattered cocoons of some insects. The
_ stomach of the Cuckoo has often been observed to be densely
coated internally with hairs, which the microscope proved to belong
to the larva of the tiger moth (Arctia caja). We know it builds
“no nest of its own, but drops its eggs in that of other birds,

The Cuckoo seems, according to some observers, to lay more
than one egg—some say five; and if so, must place them in
_ different nests ; and to do this, it appears to use its bill when the

nest is so placed that it cannot get at it otherwise. On one

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occasion, a Cuckoo was seen anxiously watching a pair of wagtails
building their nest; this did not seem to go on so fast as was
necessary, for the Cuckoo laid its egg before the nest was finished.
The same observer saw one enter a wagtail’s nest, take an egg out,
and leave its own in. Mr. Harper, of Norwich, shot a Cuckoo
with an egg in its beak, searching on the ground for a nest to
deposit it in. This bird had another egg in the ovarium, of the
same size, but without the calcareous covering.

Recently the apparent carelessness of the female Cuckoo for
her young has found an apologist in a correspondent to ‘Science
Gossip,” who declares he has repeatedly watched the mother
occasionally visit the nest in which she laid an egg, and even
the young Cuckoo, when hatched.

All the eggs of the Cuckoo which I have found have been in
nests of the meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis), although I have
known eggs taken from the hedge accentor, robin, and wagtail’s
nests ; and my brother once took one from the nest of the black-
headed bunting. The egg is small in proportion to the size of
the bird, being generally not much larger than that of its foster
parent, its average length being from 10 to r1-r2ths of an inch,
its greatest diameter from 8 to 9-12ths, its colour greyish white, or
reddish white, speckled with ash grey or greyish brown.

It is very certain that, in spite of the attention that has been
paid to the Cuckoo by ornithologists, there are few of our native
birds with which we are less acquainted. Mudie says: “Still, we
may safely conclude that the absolvement of the Cuckoo from nest
building and rearing young, which are the severest labours of other
birds, is meant to answer, and does answer, some very important
purpose in the economy of nature, and that purpose can be accom-
plished only by employing in some other way that portion of time
in the Cuckoo, which in other birds is devoted to nidification and
nursing.” That is the grand point to be ascertained. It can be
ascertained only by observation of the most careful nature; and
till it is ascertained, the history of the Cuckoo—unquestionably
the most curious bird that visits this island—must remain imperfect

and mysterious.

ee ee

167

I here append a Danish reason why the Cuckoo builds no
nest. When in early spring-time the voice of the Cuckoo is heard
in the woods, every village girl kisses her hand, and asks the
question, “Cuckoo, Cuckoo, when shall I be married?” and the
old people, borne down with old age and its concomitant troubles,
enquire, ‘Cuckoo, when shall I be released from this world’s
cares?” The bird in answer, continues singing “Cuckoo” as many
times as years will elapse before the object of their desires will
come to pass. But as some old people live to an advanced age,
and many girls die old maids, the poor bird has so much to do in
answering questions put to her, that the building season goes by—
she has no time to make her nest, but lays her eggs in that of
others.

PIED FLYCATCHER (Musicapa atricapilla).

This bird, the last visitor which I shall bring forward this
evening, is one which very few of you will have had the pleasure
of seeing. The Rey. F. O. Morris, in his work on “British Birds,”
says, “This rare and local bird I, like many ornithologists, have
never seen alive, being scattered sparingly through Cumberland
and Westmoreland.” The precise locality of this bird I will not
give, for fear of collectors exterminating it.

My brother and I, while sitting in a wood one day on the
banks of one of our rivers, the first week in May, had our attention
agreeably attracted by the arrival of a flock of Pied Flycatchers.
There were twenty or thirty in all, and all males. They alighted
on a grove of alder trees, and they seemed very much spent, as if
they had come a long journey; indeed, we could have caught
some of them, if we had been so inclined. A few days later the
females arrived, and pairing commenced immediately. The date
of arrival of this bird is very uncertain. I have seen them here
on April 2oth, and as far into May.

The male has a decided, sweet little song; and the lively

effect of the well-defined black and white plumage of the male,
and the confiding manner of both sexes, endear them to the

168

naturalist. I know of no bird which is so utterly fearless of man
as the Pied Flycatcher ; they actually built before us when only a
few yards distant. You have only to keep quiet, and they go on
with their nesting operations quite unconcernedly. ‘There were a
number of nests in a very short space of ground, and all of them
were built in the holes of trees, from three to fifteen feet up. I was
much amused with the pertinacity of a blue tit, who disputed the
occupancy of a nesting hole with the flycatcher. There were two
entrances to the hole, and it was very amusing to see the flycatcher
pop in at one hole, and the blue tit chase him out at the other,
reminding one very much of the clown and pantaloon business in
the Christmas pantomimes. We used to go and examine their
nesting holes, and the females in some instances sat on the nests
without laying any eggs for above a week. Some of the females
allowed us to lift them off their nests and put them back again
without appearing the least alarmed. The nest is composed of dry
grass, leaves, fine roots, and a few hairs ; the number of eggs being
from five to six, of a uniform light pale blue colour,—indeed, some
of them were nearly white ; they much resemble the eggs of the
redstart, only they are a shade less, and of more elegant form.
Macgillvray says: “The manners and habits of the pied flycatcher
have considerable affinity to those of the redstart ; they come about
the same time, associate together, and often build in the same
holes, for which they contend. On one occasion we found a~
female redstart on the nest of a pied flycatcher containing two
eggs; and at another time when both these species had nests
within a few inches of each other, upon the redstart’s being
removed, the female redstart took forcible possession of the fly-
catcher’s nest, incubated the eggs, and brought up the young.”

I may here state, that I have the pleasure of knowing that
in several nests of this bird, the young have been brought up
during the last two years without molestation. ‘Thus we may hope
that this rare and local bird will be encouraged to frequent the
district.

It is an-exceedingly handsome bird. The upper part of the
body is glossy black ; a part of the forehead, a patch on each wing,

169

the outer web of the two tail feathers on each side, and all the
lower parts of the body, are white. The female is more sober in
her attire, being greyish brown above, and brownish white
beneath.

Here I close my humble account of a few of our Spring and
Summer Visitors, whose natural music fills our meadows, hedge-
rows, groves, and woods with their bright merry songs, charming
the ear, and thus rendering doubly delightful, scenes on which the
eye gazes with rapture, and which lead the well ordered mind to
the heartfelt worship of the Almighty Creator whose wisdom is
so wondrously displayed in the works of His hand. We seldom
consider how much the face of nature is enlivened and made
cheerful by the songs and varied movements of the birds about
which I have just spoken ; and to the lover of natural scenery, the
number and variety of its birds ought to render still more dear his
native and beloved county. If any remarks that I have made
to-night may be the means of inducing any to study in the wide
field of nature, my end will have been fully accomplished.

WLR et BE: .D TPE,

(Cinclus aquaticus. )

By WILLIAM DUCKWORTH.

(Read at Carlisle, )

It may seem rather a bold undertaking to make the Dipper
the subject of a paper; to me, however, it speaks of many happy
days spent in wandering by the banks of our beautiful rivers, or
even picking my steps along the bottom of our mountain brooks.
For if you want to see the Dipper at home, you must be prepared
for some rough and tiresome walking,—walking in which occasion-
ally you have to use hands and arms, as well as legs and feet.

This bird, since my first acquaintance with it, many years ago,
has always been a great favourite with me; and the notes made
about it year after year, are now, owing to the formation of this
Society, for the first time put into order; and though I may add
nothing new to its already written history, yet at the same time, I
may dispel some illusions about it which exist in some of our
histories of British Birds.

The Dipper is considered generally to belong to the Thrush
family, but is rather an aberrant form. Mudie gives it a genus to
itself; Morris places it between the starlings and the thrushes. It
is found in Europe from Siberia southwards to Spain, and has been
seen in Asia. In our own country it may be found from the
Hebrides to Devonshire,—of course only frequenting those parts

of the country that are suitable to its habits.

Surrounded as we are, locally, by clear and quick running
streams through rocky and wooded banks, we are at once in the
very haunts of the Dipper, and so have every opportunity of
studying its habits.

There is not a river running by our Ancient City—Eden,
Petteril, Caldew, and, with a few exceptions, their tributaries—but
what on their banks and in their waters the Dipper finds a home
and food.

The Dipper cannot boast of a very elegant figure, being some-
thing like the starling, but more perhaps like the wren in shape—
short and stumpy. ‘The length of the bird, from the tip of the bill
to the end of the tail, is about seven inches and a half, and it
weighs something like two ounces and a half. The plumage, which
is always neat and trim, is very sober in color, consisting principally
of brown, white, and grey. Head and neck dark brown, dark grey
back and sides, shading into black ; throat and upper part of the
breast pure white, lower part of the breast chesnut brown. ‘The
pure white of the throat and breast is a very conspicuous object
as the bird is seen sitting quietly on some water-surrounded stone
along the river side; and you can often tell the Dipper by this
characteristic when a great way off before you can see the outline
of the bird. From the fact of the Dipper having so many popular
names—and I have gathered a number of these—we may draw
conclusions at once that the bird has something more than usually
interesting about it. For, as a rule, I find that popular names are
not applied to birds, insects, or plants, unless they have some
specific habits, powers, or virtues above their kindred. The
meaning of the scientific name of the bird, Ciuclus aquaticus, is
from Cinclus, a bird that has .a habit of moving its tail; and
aquaticus pertaining to water. Cinclus is known generally as the
Dipper; but in some districts it goes by the name of Bessie
Ducker, or Peggy Ducker, or to give the name its right value, I
should pronounce it Dooker; in others it is known by the names
of Water Crow, Water Piet, and Water Ouzel; or by Ducks and
Ducker. In some parts of Scotland it is the Water Pipit, in others
the Kingfisher, which is also an Irish name for it. So if you are

enquiring about Cixc/us of any of your country friends, and can’t
make them understand by one name, try another.

Those who have only an acquaintance with the Dipper
through the medium of a stuffed specimen and a glass case, can
have no idea of the energetic and interesting little fellow he is in
his native streams ; and many happy hours have I spent in
listening to his sweet and merry warble, or watching him busily
seeking his dinner at the bottom of some shallow stream. For a
rare fisher is Czmc/us, and we are afraid that our fresh-water snails,
the larvee of the Ephemera or water-flies, and water-beetles, have a
hard time of it when he is about.

The question of his poaching on salmon ova has, we think,
been entirely settled in his favour; and my own observations have
always tended to prove that his food consisted of molluscs, the
larvze of water-flies, etc. Mr. Frank Buckland, among others, says
this is so, and that ‘‘it is as foolish to shoot a swallow skimming

_ over a turnip field, as a Water Crow on a salmon bed.” This is
strong evidence from one who, we are afraid, would have little
mercy on salmon poachers in any form. The late J. K. Lord, a
well known naturalist, also gives the following evidence in his

_ favor. ‘Believe me, it is not with any felonious intent that the Dipper
visits the spawning beds. He would not give a chirp to breakfast

_ on the daintiest fish eggs that speckled trout or silver salmon ever

laid. Fat larve, plump and savoury water beetles, and delicate
young fresh water molluscs, are his delight; and he knows well
the weakness such robbers have for new laid eggs, and like a
sensible bird, goes where the eggs are, to find the robbers—an

_ obedience to instinct that often costs him his life. I have opened

_ the stomachs of dozens of Dippers when collecting for the purposes
of Natural history, and never in a single instance did I discover

_ other than the remains of insects and fresh-water shells.” Again,

at a meeting of the Zoological Society in February, in 1863, the

_ Water Ouzel was fairly put upon his trial as a destroyer of fish-

spawn. The first verdict was “Not proven.” This being in the

- form of a Scotch verdict, an English Water Ouzel was entitled to

enter a demurrer, I am, therefore, not surprised to learn that a

i

174

distinguished ornithologist objected to it, and that the jury
ultimately returned their verdict thus:—‘‘Water Ouzel /wdly —
acquitted of the charge of eating fish spawn.”

I have gone rather deeply into this, as the poor Dipper still
suffers for a crime of which he is innocent, and I should like to see
justice done to him.

With us the Dipper is one of our earliest breeders, and about
the time when the Pilewort (Ranunculus Ficaria) first breaks into
bloom, gemming the still withered hedge-side with its bright green
heart-shaped leaves and yellow starlike flowers, you may make your
first journey in quest of the Dipper’s home. The nest seems large
for the size of the bird, is domed in construction, with an entrance
from the side, and is. generally composed of moss, with a lining of
dried oak leaves. I have known two instances in which this plan was
deviated from ;—one where a tuft of dried grass had been seized
upon to form the outer covering, and another in which some
withered fronds of a fern had been applied to the same purpose.
Some writers give the nest as being lined with feathers ; in some
scores of nests I have examined, I have never found this the case.

The Dipper displays great acuteness in the selection of its
nesting site, seldom nesting on a clay or gravel bank, but generally
choosing a rock, whose base is washed by the stream, or the roots
of an overhanging tree. Generally the nest is not easy of access,
unless the water is low, and here the Dipper is sometimes at fault,
for building, early as it does, when the rivers are mostly bank full,
what are then safe places, become less so in the drier summer
months. Often before the young are fledged, the water falls so
much that there is a dry pathway between rock and river.

The height of the nest above the water varies considerably: I
have seen it so near the stream as to be only two feet above low water
mark ; and again, as high as fifteen or sixteen feet above the water,
with a clear plunge into a pool perhaps as deep. It would have
been an amusing sight to see the young Dippers emerge out of one
of these high placed nests on their first essay into the outer world. -
About the time when they are ready for flight, and you chance to

175

disturb them, they have a ridiculous habit of plopping out of the
nest head over heels, and dropping plump into the water.

The building of the nest, in which both birds assist, is com-
pleted in about a fortnight. When this is going on, you may now
and then chance to see them at work; though most of it, I fancy,
is done early in the morning. But if you are favoured witha view,
it is an instructive sight to see them struggling under clumps of
moss, almost as big as themselves, one of them often waiting with
a piece of moss in its beak until the other is finished; or perhaps
you see one flying past you with a dried oak leaf in its mouth,
which somehow reminds you of the old nursery tale of the ‘Babes
in the Wood.”

The nest is often placed in curious situations: I have seen it

underneath bridges, by the side of a waterfall, and once under a
ledge of wall by the side of a mill wheel, which did not seem to
disturb the birds in the least. I once met with a curious incident
in the nesting of the Dipper. I was wending my way by the side
of a fell beck, beneath the shadow of Lade Pot, in Westmorland,
one wet June day four years ago, in quest of a nest of the wild
duck. Coming to a part of the valley where it suddenly narrowed,

_ leaving only a rocky channel for the water to find its way through,
I noticed a pair of Dippers, evidently by their cries and motions in
distress. On arriving at the spot, I soon found the ‘cause of their
_lamentations. The nest had been placed in a slight cavity on a
ledge of rock, the rock from above the ledge where the nest was
placed sloped considerably backwards, and was covered with loose
_ shingle from the bank above. Owing, I suppose, to the wet
: weather, one of these pieces of shingle had slid down over the nest,
_ and, resting on the ledge, had completely stopped the entrance.
_ Carefully removing the obstruction, I straightened the nest up a bit,
and found it contained two eggs unbroken. On removing to some
distance, the pair of Dippers came back, and one of them, after a
¥ short scrutiny, entered the nest, and finding, I suppose, all right,
_ they went off with their usual Chit! Chit! down stream.

To the inexperienced eye, the nest of the Dipper is not good

_ to find, readily passing itself off for a clump of moss attached to

we. an < _ -. ni,

176

the rock, unless on getting well below it, the entrance attracts the
attention. Ona level with the nest, or above it, the entrance is
not seen, the moss at the upper edge of the hole hanging over it
more or less, and forming a kind of penthouse; in fact, I have
seen the hole completely hidden by a piece of loose moss like a
curtain, which had to be lifted every time the birds went in or out.
The same thing is occasionally seen in the nest of the long-tailed
tit (Parus caudatus ), another dome builder.

It is wonderful in many cases how the Dipper’s nest sticks to
the slight ledge of rock on which it is built, and how the birds
manage to rear a family under the circumstances, as I have seen it
impossible to insert the hand into some of these nests and withdraw
it again without bringing the nest away with it; and when once
you have pulled it down, you cannot replace it. Yet in sucha
precarious dwelling four or five young Dippers will be brought up
and get fledged, and leave the nest standing, often on a ledge of
rock not more than two inches in depth. The sites of other nests
of the Dipper seem to be inaptly chosen, being continually saturated
with water, either dripping from the rocks above, or being within
reach of the spray froma water-fall; and some eggs taken from one
of these nests were deeply stained by lying on the wet oak leaves.
However, the most surprising part of the business is, that in these
damp houses, the laying of eggs, incubation, and rearing of young,
goes on as if they were the most comfortable little cabins imagin-.
able. Evidently Mrs. Cinclus is entirely unacquainted with many
ills that human flesh is heir to.

Most of our Natural History authors make it out that the
nest of the Dipper is very difficult to find, and can only be found
by watching the birds in and out. This is not the case, I think ;
and when once you have seen one, and its situation, you will not
waste time by looking for it in unlikely positions.

There is a saying among fisherman that “once a skelly
(chub) hole, always a skelly hole ;” and something of the same
might be applied to the nesting of the Dipper, ‘“ once a Dipper’s
nest, always a Dipper’s nest.” So when you have found one, you
may rely upon its being there year after year, under ordinary

177

_ circumstances, as regularly as spring comes round. We have an
account in the life of Dr. Heysham, a distinguished local naturalist,
of his walking ten miles to see a Dipper’s nest; and if I am right
in fixing the /oca/e,a Dipper breeds annually in the same place yet.
And it will be at least fifty years ago since Dr. Heysham first saw
it. Indeed, I can almost imagine the birds building in the same
situation when Mercatius, the Roman centurion, sixteen hundred
_ years ago left his name
“Crag written
Above the streaming Gelt,”’

as near to the inscription Cinclus has yearly built his house for a
long period.
| The earliest date in my notes of the finding of the Dipper’s
nest, is February 27th ; nest completed all but the lining of oak
leaves. This nest must have been started about the middle of
February, as from first to last the building occupies about a fort-
night. This nest was unfortunately washed away by a flood on
the 9th of March, so I could not follow it through. At different
_ places, in different years, I have known the nest as follows :—
— March 17th, four eggs; March 25th, building; March zoth, four
eggs ; April 6th, young ones, about a week old. This last nest
_ must have been started about the third week in February—that is
allowing a week for the age of the young ones, two weeks for
incubation, one for egg laying, and two for building.
April, however, appears to be their favourite month, as the
entries in my note books show most nests to have been found
‘during that month. Sometimes as many as ten in a single day’s

t

brood is not fledged till the middle of May. However, the dates
Ihave given you above, I can guarantee as quite correct.

The latest date I have noticed for finding these nests is July
) The eggs are pure white; and I may mention that the full
‘complement is five ; some writers say six, seven, and even eight;
; 13

178

but these numbers I have never seen. From these five eggs four
young birds are generally hatched ; and, as a rule, the birds breed
twice in the season, not more.

The young birds are fed by the parents for some time after
leaving the nest, and a prettier sight is hardly to be seen anywhere.
The baby Dippers are ranged in a row on some stone or rock, rising
from the bed of the river in mid stream, while the parent birds
are busily hunting the stream below, returning after each successful
raid to the resting place, where a flutter of little wings, and a
gaping of big mouths, welcome their arrival, the said mouths
being carefully supplied each in their turn.

In breeding time, they seem to have the water parcelled out,
so much to each pair; and in following the course of some of our
smaller rivers, you may keep the Dipper flying on before you in
short flights, from one resting place to another, till you get it a
certain distance up or down stream, where it turns either by flying
high over your head, or, if there is a bend in the river, by crossing
the angle,—while at the same time it utters its single call-note,
resembling the word Chit! Chit! If you repeat the experiment
time after time, you will always find it turn much about the same
place. Generally before alighting it drops into the water and
scrambles up the stone. Always after a flight, and before taking
another, it makes a sort of rustic bow by a jerk of the head and
tail.

During the late frost, while the Dipper’s relations on land,—
the thrushes and blackbirds,—were in many cases starved to death
for want of food, the Dipper’s larder was kept well and constantly
supplied, as the streams where he seeks his food were the only
places not frozen over. And it was great fun, when the thermometer
was showing thirteen degrees of frost, to see Cinclus disporting
himself in and out of the water, often beneath the ice, with as much
spirit and abandon as he would show on a hot dayin July. Yet at
the same time, he had to remove from the higher reaches of the
river, his natural habitat, to the lower, and even got down Eden as
far as Cargo, where one or two were shot for rare birds, being
quite unknown in that locality.

179

Of late years the bird has become a great deal commoner than
it used to be, owing, I believe, to the introduction of the Gun Tax,
a measure which has done more for the preservation of our small
birds than any other Act ever passed. There is no occasion to
walk ten miles now to see a Dipper’s nest ; and last year it bred
nearer to the city than I had ever known, and what is better still,
to the best of my belief, bred in safety, since the last time I saw
_ the nest it was full of fine young ones. I may here remark that it
is the same with many of our native birds—by native birds I mean
those that stay with us all the year round—as it is with the Dipper.
_ Birds that some years ago were comparatively rare, are now
common ; and I think if the Gun Tax was doubled, we should
have them commoner still.

The song of the Dipper is to be heard almost all the year ;
indeed, I think I have heard it in every month except November.
The song is low, mellow, and pipe like in tone; but at the same
q time you hear it distinctly above the rush of the stream and the
_ roar of the waterfall. The position of the bird in singing is very
graceful, as it bends forward and jerks its tail, every now and then
stopping to arrange its feathers. It often sings during the warm
Soft nights of summer.

We come now to the most interesting part of the subject, that
_ is, the Dipper’s power of walking underneath the water; a faculty
_ possessed by no other known bird, and one which has given rise to
much controversy amongst naturalists. Many of them aver that it
‘As possessed of no such power. Before giving you my own ex-

180

thorough believer in it. G. H. Adams says “it is simply absurd to
believe what Buffon and others said about it—that it could walk
without effort at the bottom of a stream, as though on dry land.”
Montague describes the appearance of the bird when under water
as “tumbling about in a very extraordinary manner, with its head
downward, as if picking up something, and at the same time using
great exertions with both legs and wings.” Yarrell says, “when
searching for food it does not proceed very far under water, but
soon reappears in the immediate neighbourhood of where it sank,
when it either dives again, or rises on the wing, to drop somewhere
else in the stream.” He had no faith in the bird’s walking at the
bottom of the water; but as he never saw the Dipper alive, and
only judged from the anatomy of it, I am afraid his evidence is too
much theory for us to accept. Sir William Jardine, who writes a
very beautiful article on the Water Ouzel, provokingly says nothing
of its walking powers. Macgillvray also disbelieved in this faculty
of the Dippers, as did Charles Waterton, who is worth quoting
more fully on the subject: ‘‘This is the bird which has given rise
to so much controversy, and whose supposed subaquatic pranks
have set the laws of gravity at defiance, by breaking through the
general mandate, which has ordained that things lighter than water
shall rise towards its surface, and things which are heavier shall
sink beneath it. If the Water Ouzel can walk on the ground at
the bottom of the water, then indeed, we may exclaim with the
poet :—

‘All Nature’s laws will tumble and decay,
And e’en the world itself will lose its way.’

And further on he affirms that the observer’s eyes are deceived,
and give him false information, when in tracing the bird’s down-
ward course underneath the water he fancies he sees it walking.
Morris, on the other hand, writes: ‘That this bird has the
power of walking at the bottom of the water, is an established fact.
The argument against its being able to do so is, that to the
reasoning powers of some persons it does not seem possible. Its
feet are admirably adapted for holding on to the stones over which

181

it makes its way, and for stemming at the same time the force of
the current ; for that no effort is required to keep its place below
the surface, is what no one has said.” Mudie, who, as usual,
theorises a good deal, says on the subject: “The difference of
___ specific gravity between the bird and the water is indeed so trifling,
that very little effort suffices to move it in any direction, upwards,
___ downwards, or laterally.” At the same time I much doubt whether
Mudie ever saw the Dipper in its native haunts, as his descrip-
tion of it is a great deal more fanciful than truthful.

The late Mr. J. K. Lord in an article in ‘Science Gossip” on
the Belted Kingfisher, remarked that it did not swim or walk at
the bottom of the water, as the Dipper did. This brought a letter
from a correspondent, who was much surprised that Mr. Lord still
believed in what he thought was an exploded doctrine ; and who
backed up his letter by quoting Charles Waterton’s arguments, and
advised Mr. Lord to read Waterton’s essays on Natural History, and
then he (Mr. Lord) would not tell amateur naturalists the absurd
story that the Dipper could walk underneath the water.

This brought answers from several correspondents who had
seen the Dipper perform this seemingly impossible feat. One of
them quoted the opinion of the late Charles St. John a most
accurate observer, who said, “though the fact has often been
doubted, it certainly runs and scratches up the stones while at the
bottom in search of food.” These letters brought another from
_ correspondent No. 1, who said his argument had not been answered,
and proceeded to give three reasons against the so-called walking :—
Ist. It is well known that the bodies of all birds float in the water.
2nd. He was convinced that birds are obliged to make great
exertions with their wings and feet, in order to reach the bottom,
_ 3rd. When they reach the bottom, the force which carried them
there ceases to act, consequently they must rise again. These
arguments clearly proved to correspondent No. 1 that the so-called
walking was impossible. Another correspondent, in reply to this,
_ wrote :—“ Can birds walk under water? The question has as yet
_ been evaded, rather than answered. It is easy to heap up argu-
‘ments showing that it cannot be done. Many such theories have

182

been constructed, which a strong indisputable fact has knocked to
pieces.” And as a small contribution towards the controversy he
quoted the following sentence from Rennie: “The amphibious
nature of those winged beetles which can walk at the bottom of
water, is matched, if not outrivalled by the Water Ouzel, which we
have repeatedly seen walk deliberately under water, and continue
its pace for many yards, as if it had been on land. As this little
bird lives on water insects, its amphibious powers are indispens-
able.”

In hopes of ending the controversy, the editor of “Science
Gossip” quoted a paper which had been read before the Dublin
Natural History Society, on this very subject, and the author,
among others, read the following notes made on the spot :—‘‘Nov.
29th, 1850. Bohernabreena. Wounded a Water Ouzel, which, as
I had observed them all to do, immediately made for shore. On
my going to seize him, he darted into the water, running slap in;
waded in after him. Under water he looks quite glossy, but does
not seem increased in bulk, the glossiness probably arising from
the oiled plumage, or else from its peculiar texture. When I first
got up with the bird, he was perfectly stationary at the bottom, of
using any exertion to remain there. (This remark applies to two
other birds wounded later on in the day, which also took to the
water.) The bird next got under a big stone, and when I poked
him out on one side, he ran to the other; after the lapse of a
minute or so he put his head out of the water to breathe, always
keeping the stone between him and me. Finding that I was still
chasing him, he took to the stream, and went under water faster than
I could follow him; he seemed to move now altogether by means of
his feet, his wings hanging down behind his tail. At times he
swam in midwater, using his wings; crossing the current several
times, and seeming but little incommoded by it. When at last
caught, he was found to be merely winged.”

I have abbreviated the above paragraph slightly, but have not
altered its meaning. Coming now to my own experience of the
matter, it has several times fallen to my lot to witness the Dipper
walking at the bottom of the stream. The first time I saw the

183

feat actually done, was one fine morning in early spring seven
years ago. I was leaning on the parapet of a small bridge crossing
a burn in Northumberland, when who should march from under-
neath the bridge but Master Cinclus, very busy indeed in catering
for the wants of the inner bird, too busy to see me taking notes of
his doings, some fifteen or sixteen feet above him. He searched
that burn very carefully downwards—shallows, pools, and streams,
taking all in, till a bend in its course hid him from my view.
Sometimes he was immersed clean over-head, other times with but
part of his back out, and again having his feet but barely
covered, yet at the same time never offering to seek his food on
the dry gravel bed.

Another time, on a bright June day, two years ago, I was
lying on the top of a steep precipitous rock overhanging a favourite
fishing stream of the Dipper’s in Croglin Water, a tributary of the

_ Eden, surrounded by the rosy waxen flowers of the bilberry, inter-
mingled with the light green fronds of the oak fern, and with a
_ cushion of moss beneath, making such a couch as Sylvia might
have envied. As if to gratify my wishes (I was lying in wait for
_ him), Cinclus dropped right into the water beneath, there some
six to nine inches deep, and commenced working his way up
stream, knocking the pebbles right and left for about two yards
q before rising again to the surface.
F Another time, and again the scene changes, nel I am making
_ my way homewards through the Rose Holmes, by the river Caldew,
on one of those dull raw November days which seem to hang so
heavily on one’s spirits, when my attention was attracted by a
Dipper dipping, as is his wont, on a large stone in the middle of
the shallow stream. On watching him a short time, I found he
p was busy making short excursions into the water on all sides of
returning after each trip to his favourite resting place on the
Stone, and doing a little at the arrangement of his plumage before
starting afresh. Taking advantage of the few seconds he was

184

Thus in the three instances I have given you of this power of
walking underneath the water, at three different times of the year,
one is down stream, another up, and a third across; and only in
the upward motion have I seen any use made of the wings. So in
spite of Charles Waterton, I am inclined to believe my own eyes,

and register it as a fact, that the Dipper actually walks at the

bottom of the water.

What power the bird has to enable it to do this, whether
an inherent one of which we know nothing, or an adherent one of
which we know something—that is, his powerful feet and claws—
is still to be found out.

I had intended when first starting with this paper to have
introduced a few other birds which are to be found with the
Dipper, but a bird one loves is hard to leave; and I have found
so much to say about the Dipper, that I am afraid it would have
been taxing your patience too much to have made the article
longer ; or with the birds I might have told you of the strange
wild flowers, the beautiful and rare ferns, the curious mosses and
lichens, which have fallen under my notice in wandering along the
bottom of our fell becks,—treasures of which he whose feet ever
keep to the dusty highway, knows nothing.

I will close with one little tribute to the Dipper from a
Devonshire poet, who in describing such scenery as I have not
dared to attempt to pourtray, says :—

“The bird
Is here, the solitary bird that makes
The rock his sole companion. Leafy vale,
Green bowers, and hedgerows fair, and gardens rich,
With bud and bloom, delight him not ; he bends
No spray, nor roams the wilderness of boughs
Where love and song detain a million wings
Through all the summer morn, the summer eve ;
He has no fellowship with waving woods,
He joins not in their merry minstrelsy,
But flits from ledge to ledge, and through the day
Sings to the high-toned waterfall, that speaks
To him in strains he loves and lists
For ever.”

é an

Se det teen Pee

La

185

THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE. DISTRICT.

By GEORGE DAWSON.
(Read at Carlisle. )

We have in this locality as great a variety of Butterflies as
exists in any part of England. I have taken thirty different
species—some of the rarest that the British list contains—and I
will speak of them in their order as arranged in the list of the late
Mr. H. Doubleday, giving the locality where found, and the time
of their appearance.

Leucophasia Sinapis (Wood White).—Taken in a wood (since
cut down) at Orton, about the middle of May.

Pieris Brassicae (Large White), Pieris Rapae (Small White),
Pieris Napi (Green Veined White).—All these three species are
very common. The White butterfly is to be found from the end
of April to the end of September, and each species has two broods.
These butterflies are great pests in the garden, eating freely
cabbages, lettuces, and other vegetables.

Anthocaris Cardamines (Orange Tip).—Another early butter-
fly; common everywhere from April to the end of June. The
male alone has the bright orange tip to the upper wing. The
under wings of both male and female are beautiful, being marked
with green below. The larva feeds on the Hedge Garlic.

Lehodocera Rhamni (Brimstone).—This species is plentiful in
the south of England, but almost unknown here. I took one
specimen in the lane leading from the low Wigton road to Little
Orton ; it was much worn, but I sent it (alive) to Mr. E. Newman,
who stated that it was the first he had heard of from Cumberland.

Colias Edusa (Clouded Yellow).—This beautiful species is very
plentiful in some seasons, and in others scarce to be found. In

186

the summer of 1877 there were many all over England. The two
I now exhibit were taken at Bellevue and near Sandsfield, in the
month of August. They were about from the end of June till the
end of September. I have only seen one specimen this season—
at Little Orton, in July—and have taken one of the variety of
edusa called Helice; it was much shattered and not worth setting.

Argynnis Aglaia (Dark Green Fritillary).—I have found large
numbers of this butterfly on the sandhills at Silloth; also at Orton,
Newby Cross, and Newbiggin. They are not readily taken on the
wing, but may be captured when settled on beds of the common
thistle. July and August.

Argynnis Selene (Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary).—This is a
very common species at Orton, Newby Cross, and the Newbiggin
woods from the middle of June till the end of August. I have
one very fine variety, taken at Orton, which, instead of being a
rich brown, is of a dingy white colour.

Melitea Artemis (Greasy Fritillary).—Less common in other
parts of England than here. I have bred large numbers from the
larvee collected at Orton and Newby Cross, and sent thousands of
the larvze to different parts of England and Ireland. The collectors
in Ireland are trying to establish them there, and so far have been
successful. The eggs are laid in the month of July in the Devil’s
Bit Scabious ; in about fourteen days they are hatched, feed for a
short time, and then spin a light silky sort of cocoon, in which
they pass the winter, crawling out in the early part of April, and
being full-grown by the middle of May; they are in the pupa state
about fourteen days.

Vanessa Urticae (Small Tortoiseshell Vanessa), Vanessa Lo
(Peacock), Vanessa Atalanta (Red Admiral).—All these are very
common around Carlisle ; the larvee feeding on the stinging-nettle.
For a few years the Peacock was not seen here, but I brought a
large brood of the larvae from Durham, and turned them out on a
bed of nettles near Prior Wood, and since then the butterfly has
been plentiful in this neighbourhood.

Vanessa Antiopa (Camberwell Beauty).—I once took a female
of this species at Orton, a very poor specimen, but Mr. E.

187

Newman said it was the first he had heard of being found in
Cumberland ; since then, however, I have seen another in the
collection of Mr. J. W. Harris, of Derwent Bank, Broughton, who
_ captured it near his house on the slopes of the railway.

Pyramus Cardui (Painted Lady).—This species I find all
over Cumberland. The larve feed on the common field thistle ;
they are easily found, for they draw the leaves together to form a
shelter. The butterfly is on the wing from the middle of June till
the end of September ; it lives over the winter, and in the spring is
to be found about the thistles depositing its eggs.

Erebia Cassiope (Mountain Ringlet).—I hunted through the
Lake District for many years before I was successful in capturing
this rare species, but at last, on the top of one of the highest
mountains, near the Vale of Newlands, I found the long looked for
prize. I never heard of anyone being able to rear the butterfly
from the egg or larva condition. I have had some hundreds of
the eggs, and sent them to different entomologists, but none of
them have been able to reara single specimen. The eggs are laid
in July, and hatched in about fourteen days ; the young feed for a
short time, and then go down to the grass roots.

& Satyrus Megera (Wall Brown), Satyrus Semele (Grayling),

__ Satyrus Janira (Meadow Brown), Satyrus Hyperanthus (Ringlet).—
All these are to be found on Kingmoor, Todhills, at Orton, Newby
Cross, and in Newbiggin woods. They are on the wing from
June to the end of August. The Grayling is most plentiful at
Silloth, but very hard to distinguish from the sand on which they
settle. I have taken great numbers all along the coast between
Silloth and Allonby. There are many varieties of the Ringlet
species, the variation occurring on their under side.

Chortobius Davus (March Ringlet), Chortobius Pamphilus
(Small Heath).—The former of these I have only found in two
localities, Orton (over wet peaty ground) and Newby Cross (on a
piece of common at the Dalston end of the woods). The second
species I have taken in low lying mosses, and on Great Gable ;

_ they are on the wing from the end of May to the end of August.
Theda Rubi (Green Hair Streak), Thecla Quercus (Purple Hair

188

Streak).—The Green Hair Streak I have only found at Orton, and
on that part of the moss near to Little Orton; they are on the
wing in May, and can be taken until the end of June. I have
taken the Purple Hair Streak at Thurstonfield, Orton, Newby-
Cross, Dalston Hall and Newbiggin woods. The best mode of
taking them is by beating the branches of the oak trees. The pupz
can be obtained by digging at the roots of the oak trees in the first
and second week in July; they are short and stout, of a bright
shining brown colour. They are on the wing from the end of July
till the end of August.

Polyommatus Phlaeas (Small Copper).—This is one of the
commonest species we have here abouts, and I have found it in
every locality in which I have collected ; it is very fond of settling
down on a heap of stones, or on the bare ground. These butter-
flies are on the wing from April to September.

Lycaena Alexis (Common Blue), Lycaena Alsus (Small Blue).—
The former is very plentiful on Kingmoor and all common grounds.
The Smaller Blue I have found on the railway slopes near
Wreay, at Coweran Cut near Howmill, and on the banks of the
Eden near Warwick Hall. Both species are on the wing from the
end of May to the end of July, and I think we have two broods of
the common Blues.

Thanaos Tages (Dingy Skipper).—This is a very common
species, and it occurs in large numbers on Kingmoor and Tod-
hills, at Orton, Newby Cross, and Newbiggin. On the wing from
May till the end of August.

Hesperia Sylvanus (Large Skipper), Hesperia Comma (Spotted
Skipper.)—Both of these I have taken at Thurstonfield, Orton,
and Newby Cross. They are the most active of butterflies on the
wing, and more resemble some of our moths flying from flower to
flower; and when a wind is blowing, one’s eye can scarcely follow
them. The Large Skipper is on the wing from the end of May
till the end of July. The Spotted Skipper is the most rare here,
and is soonest found amongst a few Oak trees that grow on the
west side of the wood at Newby Cross ; it is on the wing from the
middle of July to the end of August.

189

THE STABILITY OF ROWING AND SAILING
BOATS.

By THE Rev. E. M. REYNOLDS.

(Read at Ambleside. )

There is a great deal of pleasure in sailing and rowing on our
lakes, and there is also a little danger. The consciousness of this
danger makes many people nervous, and robs them of their enjoy-
ment ; others altogether disregard it, and run with a light heart
risks which it is scarcely justifiable to encounter for the sake of
pleasure alone. The object of this paper is to give a little inform-
ation as to the safety of boats (for safety and stability are almost
convertible terms), which may re-assure the timid, and, on the other
hand, induce caution when caution is needed.
/ The Stability of Boats is by no means a difficult subject. The
~ calculations by which the stability of any particular vessel is
ascertained are, it is true, long and laborious, but the principles
on which they depend are simple, and may be mastered without
, much trouble by any one of ordinary intelligence. Our rough
notions of the stability of bodies on shore are immediately applic-
able to the stability of bodies afloat. A broad base and considerable
_ Weight are the essential qualities which give stability to bodies on
‘shore, and breadth and weight are the main elements of the
Stability of a boat. The laws which govern the stability of bodies
are in fact the same under all circumstances ; and in order to a
sufficient understanding of our subject, nothing further is required
_ than that we should master the ideas conveyed by the terms Centre
_ of Gravity, Couple, Arm of a Couple,—terms belonging to the

190

rudiments of Mechanics,—and should know what is meant by the
Centre of Buoyancy of a vessel. A few other terms are commonly
employed in treating of sailing vessels, such as Centre of Lateral
Resistance, Centre of Pressure, Metacentre ; these will present no
difficulty when the first are clearly understood.

As to the term Centre of Gravity, it is one used in common
conversation, and usually correctly enough, if not with exact
accuracy. It is currently defined thus: ‘‘The Centre of Gravity
of a body is the point on which the body will balance in all
positions”; or we may say that it is the point at which the whole
mass of the body may be supposed to be collected, or the whole
weight of the body supposed to act. In speaking of the Centre of
Gravity ofa boat, I must beunderstood to mean the Centre of Gravity
of the boat including all that she carries, the masts, sails, crew,
and everything on board. It is obvious that in a light boat the
position of the Centre of Gravity will be considerably affected by
the movements of those on board, that, for instance, if they all
stand up, it will be materially raised; whereas in a heavily
ballasted boat it will be but slightly deranged.

The term Couple is less generally used, and may require a
little explanation. A Couple consists of two equal forces acting
in opposite directions, but not through one point. (See Fig. 1.)
In working a press, the forces applied at the two ends of the lever
or handle constitute a couple. The effect of a couple is simply to
turn the body on which it acts round, not to move it forwards in

space. And conversely in Mechanics every motion of rotation, °

every motion by which a body revolves without advancing or
receding, is conceived of as the effect of a couple.

The power of a couple depends on two things : the intensity
of the forces, and the distance between their lines of action. This
will be evident at once to any one who has ever tried to turn a
press. The distance between the lines of action must be measured
from one line to the other along a straight line perpendicular to
both, as AB in Figure 1. It is called in Mechanics the Arm of
the Couple; and in all questions of the stability of boats, the arm of
the righting couple is an element of the first importance,

=r.) <4

ty

191

The stability of floating bodies depends entirely on the action
of couples. Take a block of wood and hold it in water in the
position represented in Figure 2: it will not stay in this position
unless held, and, if released, will turn about without moving from
its place till the upper and lower sides become horizontal. The
forces which act upon it constitute in fact a couple. What are
these forces? There are but two of them: its own weight acting
vertically downwards through its centre of gravity ; and the pressure
of the water upon it, which is equal to the weight of the water
displaced, and acts upwards through the centre of gravity of the
water displaced. Itis necessary to be very clear about these forces.
The first is familiar to us from hourly experience. The second
may be less generally understood; it is, however, a main
principle of hydrostatics, and may either be deduced as a
conclusion of pure reason, or established directly from experiment,
that the resultant pressure on the immersed surface of any body
is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced, and acts vertically
upwards through the centre of gravity of the fluid displaced. This
centre of gravity of the fluid displaced is, in the case of vessels,
called the Centre of Buoyancy, a term of constant use. Returning
to our block of wood, we may now say that it is acted on by
two equal and opposite forces, its own weight acting downwards
through its centre of gravity, and the resultant pressure of the water
upon it acting upwards through its centre of buoyancy. It is to be
observed that the position of the centre of gravity of the block is
_always the same, but that of the centre of buoyancy will be changed
with every motion of the block. One position of the centre of

_ buoyancy should especially be noted: when the block is at rest,
_ the centre of buoyancy will be found to be directly under the

centre of gravity, so that the two forces now act in the same line,
though in contrary directions, and completely neutralize each other.
To apply these notions exactly to the case of boats is some-
what difficult, as it requires long and careful calculation to find
the centre of gravity of a boat, and for every position of the

centre of buoyancy a fresh calculation must be made.

Approximate results sufficient for practical purposes may,

192

however, be easily obtained. As it is not my purpose in this paper
to ascertain absolutely the stability of any one boat, but merely to
compare the stability of different forms of boats, I shall allow
myself a great simplification. I shall treat the centre of gravity
and centre of buoyancy of the midship section of a boat as if these
were the centres of the whole boat. The other sections in each
boat will present generally the same characteristics as the midship
section, so that for purposes of comparison this method will be
sufficiently accurate. The centre of gravity I shall take by
estimation, after a consideration of the position of the different
weights, the centre of budyancy I shall deduce from the form of
the immersed part of the section.

RowiInc Boats.

Figure 3 represents a section of a well designed family
rowing boat. G is the centre of gravity, the boat being supposed
fairly loaded ; C the centre of buoyancy, the boat having from any
cause received such a heel as is represented in the figure. AB is
the arm of the righting couple. The power of the couple tending
to right the boat will depend on the weight of the boat and the
length of AB ; and, the weight of the boat remaining constant,
the length of AB may engage our whole attention. Let us consider
what is the effect on AB of heeling the boat gradually over. When
the boat is upright, the position of C is, as I have said, directly
under that of G, and AB vanishes. When the boat receives a
slight heel, say to starboard, C moves out a little also to starboard.
G dof not alter its position in the boat, but the vertical line
through it falls a little to starboard of its original position, yet not
so much as to pass through C._ A righting couple is thus produced,
and it is evident that the length of the arm AB depends on the
difference of the rate of shifting out to starboard of C, and of the
vertical line through G. In all reasonably stable boats, C moves
out much faster than the vertical line through G; hence as the
boat hee’s over, the arm of the righting couple is lengthened, and
its power increased. This process, however, will not continue for
ever, Whena boat is very much inclined, the outward motion of C

Sf se eee Ce Pee, ei ee oe
af e

193

will be reduced, and the vertical line through G will begin to move
out faster than C ; the righting arm will then be diminished by any
further heeling. The angle at which this takes place depends on
: the form of the boat, and the position of her centre of gravity,
| and varies in common types of boats as much as from 10° to 50°.
Such a section as that represented in our figure, gives a boat
___ ofgreat stability. At a moderate heel, C will move rapidly out, and
. the stability will, if G be kept low, continue to increase till the gun-
wale touches thewater. The excellence of the design depends on two
, things, a broad flat floor, and a moderately high side, nearly vertical
from the water upwards. The advantage of a high side is obvious,
since it allows the boat to heel over without swamping. The
flat floor gives the best results as to stability. Compare Figs. 4
and 5. They represent sections, the one of a boat with a perfectly
flat floor, the other of a deeper boat with a nearly triangular section.
The displacement, and therefore the weight, is the same for both.
The centres of gravity are put about where they would be if each
boat had its usual complement of people on board, all sitting
‘down. The centres of buoyancy have been ascertained with
sufficient accuracy, each boat being heeled over to an angle of ten
degrees. The figures therefore afford data for a comparison of the
stability of the boats under ordinary circumstances, and the com-
parison will be complete if we simply measure the arms of the
righting couples. Now it will be found that the arm of the couple
tending to right the flat floored boat is rather more than three
times as long as the arm of the righting couple for the sharp
_ floored boat. Hence the flat floored model is more than three
times as stable as the other, the centre of gravity having such a
position as it would commonly occupy. But this is not all its
_ advantage. If a mast were set up in the boat, or if any of the
_crew were to stand up, the centre of gravity would be raised.
If it were raised as far as the point M, so as to be vertically
above the centre of buoyancy, the stability of the boat would
vanish; and if it were raised any further, the boat would
F capsize of her own accord. Now, referring to Figs. 4 and 5, it
will be seen that M is very high for the flat floored boat, and
‘ 14

194

comparatively low for the other. It is in fact quite conceivable
that if all the crew stood up, the centre of gravity might be raised
as far as M in the case of the sharp-bottomed boat, when an
accident would be inevitable ; on the contrary, nothing but hoisting
a weight up the mast could raise the centre of gravity of the flat
floored boat as far as M. If the centre of gravity of the flat
floored boat were raised as much as would be sufficient to capsize
the other, the stability of the boat would only be diminished by
one third, it would still be twice as great as that of the other boat
with all her crew sitting down.

The point M is of great importance in these investigations, so
much so that it has received a special name, and is called the
Metacentre. It is defined as the point where the vertical line
through the centre of buoyancy cuts the original vertical line
through the centre of gravity. Its position will change with every
change in the inclination of the boat, but in many common types
of boat this change is very small, so that within certain limits M
may be taken as a fixed point. We may say then that stability is
secured by a high metacentre, or by a broad flat floor which will
give a high metacentre. We shall see that it may also be secured
by a heavy weight carried low; but in many vessels and boats
such a weight would be inconvenient, in which case the broad flat
floor is the only safe form. Trading steamers are always built
with a flat floor, and so are life boats ; the figure in fact represents
very fairly the ordinary midship section of a life boat. On these
lakes the sharp floor is a very common fault. It should be noted
and avoided. With a large party, including ladies and children,
especial care should be taken to choose a flat floored boat, not
much under five feet broad. Such a boat, if not overloaded, may
be considered absolutely safe. I may remark, though it has
nothing to do with stability, that very nervous people, and persons
with a turn for practical joking, should not be invited to join the
party, and also that a captain should be chosen before leaving
shore—a precaution which should never on any account be
neglected.

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195

LIGHTER Rowinc Boats.

Light boats constructed for speed alone have usuallya nearly cir-
cular section (see Fig. 6). This,makes the calculation of their stability
very simple, since it is evident at once to any one with a very slight
knowledge of mathematics, that the metacentre in the case of a
circular section will not change its position, but remain fixed at the
centre of the circle, to whatever angle the boat be heeled. In
racing skiffs intended for a single person the metacentre will be
but a few inches, say three or four, above the water line, In such
boats the centre of gravity will commonly be above the metacentre,
and the boats will,have no stability at all. It is in fact a very
difficult feat of balancing to sit still in a boat of this kind holding
the oars out of water; and any one unused to race rowing who
should venture to get into such a boat, would be immediately
upset. In the larger racing boats the metacentre is naturally
higher, and, as the centre of gravity is not raised in the same
degree, they have a little stability. It is, however, but little ; and
in such boats the greatest precaution is necessary, and very strict
discipline is commonly observed. No one moves without orders ;
on getting in, the men‘are handed to their places one by one, and
each sits down before the next steps in, the same,care being used
in getting out of the boat. The lighter boats in use on these lakes
have a good deal more stability than regular racing boats, but still
they are crank, and not,‘in my judgment, safe in the hands of
careless or inexperienced people. Some of them are the more
dangerous because the defect of the sharp floor renders them less
_ stable than from their size and weight they appear. Safety in
light boats can only be secured by care and skill, and in very light
boats only by the strict observance of the racing precautions. The
sad accidents which occur from time to time on our lakes afford a
strong and melancholy proof of the necessity of care. Ladies and
q children should never be taken in light boats, nor infirm or very
_ Clumsy people, nor large dogs ; in"many light boats it is unwise to
7 attempt to change seats, a thing never in any boat to be done
__without care.

196

SAILING BOATs.

Sailing boats have to encounter a different class of risk from
rowing boats, and must be constructed on altogether different
principles. A rowing boat should always be kept on an even keel;
a sailing boat is not usually doing her best till she lies over about
thirty degrees. She is intended to sail at about this angle, and to
withstand the capsizing power of the wind.

In a fresh breeze the wind moves at the rate of about fifteen
miles an hour, and exerts a pressure of about one pound on every
square foot of surface directly exposed to it. This pressure
becomes very much greater in a gale, increasing with the square
of the velocity of the wind. It is said to have reached on some
occasions to one hundred pounds per square foot; but the
observations are a little doubtful. One pound, as I said, to the
foot is about the pressure in a good breeze. The Windermere
yachts spread about 1000 square feet of canvas, more or less; so
that if these sails were held firmly in a plane perpendicular to the
wind, there would be a pressure upon them of nearly half a ton.
Practically, the motion of the boat and the inclination of the sails
diminish the pressure very considerably. Of what remains, a part
goes to drive the boat, and a part,—the greater part when the boat
is on the wind,—to heel her over. The heeling of the boat, like
every motion of rotation, is caused by the action of a couple, the
one force being, as I have said, the pressure of the wind, the other
the lateral resistance of the water. Just as in every body there is
a point at which the whole weight of the body may be supposed
to act, so in every surface there is a point at which the whole of
any uniform pressure on that surface may be supposed to be
applied. In the case of the sails of a boat this point is called the
Centre of Pressure; in the case of the surface of the hull exposed
to the lateral pressure of the water, it is called the Centre of
Lateral Resistance. The couple which tends to heel the boat over
consists then of the force of the wind acting at the Centre of Pressure
of the sails, and the resistance of the water acting at the Centre of
Lateral Resistance (see Fig. 7). The calculation of these centres

197

involves very serious difficulties of principle which, however, affect
the determination of their position forward and aft, rather than
their height, with which we are now concerned. We may assume
that in most of the Windermere yachts the centre of pressure is
from fifteen to twenty feet above the centre of lateral resistance.
Hence the heeling power of the wind may reach to nearly half a
ton, acting at the end of an arm fifteen or twenty feet long. We
evidently require a strong righting couple to counteract a power
like this.

It will not be sufficient for safety that the righting power of
the boat should be ultimately greater than any heeling power that
can ordinarily be brought to bear upon her; there must be a
considerable margin. ‘That the righting power should be at last
overcome by the heeling power is not the only, or indeed the chief,
danger,—which arises from what we may call angular momentum.
When a boat is nearly on an even keel, the arm of the righting
couple is short, and if she then be struck by a squall of moderate
strength, she will heel over. In doing so she will acquire an
angular motion, and.this motion will not be at once checked when
the arm of the righting couple is so lengthened by her heeling over
as to make the righting force equal to the heeling force. Just asa
pendulum when let go will swing past the position of equilibrium,
so will a boat pass the position in which the righting and heeling
forces would be equal. It is this which makes sudden squalls
striking a boat when nearly upright so dangerous, it is this which
constitutes a part of the danger of that moment when a boat has
just gone about, when of necessity she comes into an upright

position. On lakes like ours, where with the utmost care a steers-

man must in the long run be occasionally taken a little by surprise,
there is no safety but in thoroughly sound principles of construc-
tion.

Now the chief safeguard against capsizing is this, that the
action of the boat in heeling over tends of itself very materially to
diminish the pressure on the sails. The law of this diminution is

_ hot quite settled, but according to what seems the most probable

‘theory, and fairly borne out in practice, we should have the

198

following very noticeable results. When a boat heels over 30
degrees, the pressure is diminished by about %, when she heels
over 45 degrees, by about 24, when she heels over 60 degrees,
by about 7%, of its original amount. Hence a boat should have a
_ fairly high side, and be well decked in, so that she may heel over
to a high angle without swamping. Besides, her stability should
go on increasing up to 50 degrees or 60 degrees, so that the
resistance may be strengthened as the attack is weakened. A good
power of recovery when heeled over to a high angle is the essential
element of safety. A well designed boat has this power, and an
ill designed boat, or a row boat with sails up has not. The one is
almost absolutely safe with reasonable care ; the greatest skill and
watchfulness cannot quite ensure this safety to the others.

The stability suited to a sailing boat, that which goes on
increasing up to a high angle of heel, can only be given by a heavy
weight carried low. Racing yachts are so ballasted that the
centre of gravity is but very little above the centre of buoyancy ;
in some yachts, and as I should judge, in most of the Windermere
racers, it is actually below it. Referring to our first rough con-
ception of stability in connection with Fig. 3, we shall see that if
G be originally as low as C, the vertical line through G will not
move towards C as the vessel heels over; and if G be lower than
C, the vertical line through G will recede from C rather than
approach it. Hence the chief cause which puts a stop to the
increase of stability at high angles will be removed if G be by
efficient ballasting got well down. In this way a stability increasing
up to 50 degrees or 60 degrees may be obtained without prejudice
to speed, and this is more than enough for all practical require-
ments. It is seldom advantageous to sail a boat at a greater
angle than 30 degrees, and between 30 degrees and 60 degrees _
there is a wide margin to cover all accidental risks.

In a flat floored boat the ballast can never be got down very
far below the water line, so that the centre of gravity cannot be
low, especially if, as is the case in regular sailing boats, a consider- —
able weight in mast, spars, sails, and rigging be carried at some —
height above the water. Hence the flat floor, the best form for ,

coos FL ~

199

rowing boats, is not fitted for boats intended to carry a press of sail,
or to navigate squally waters. There are many types of boats with
somewhat flat floors, but it will require close attention to the
disposition of the weights to obtain in any of them an increase of
stability after 25 degrees, while in some 12 degrees or 14 degrees
is the limit of the maximum of stability. In other words, a force
sufficient to heel these boats over 12 degrees, 14 degrees, or 25
degrees, would, if it continued to act, infallibly capsize them.
Such boats could never lie over in a squall till the wind emptied
from their sails, and then recover: they have usually great initial
stability, but power of recovery they have none. It would be too
much to say that these boats are unsafe under sail, since our
smaller fishing boats and shore boats generally are of this type ;
but it is to be observed that these are very lightly masted, that
they never carry a press of sail, that they are seldom exposed to
such squalls as are common on our lakes, and that they are in the
hands of men bred and born to the work, Under these conditions
they enjoy a tolerable immunity from accident, but they are not
suited to our waters, Some years ago centre-board boats of the
original American pattern were introduced on Windermere, very
broad, with a midship section shewing a very flat floor, and having
little or no ballast. They were cheap, fast, and exceedingly handy,
but their lack of power of recovery caused them to be viewed with
disfavour. The Yacht Club excluded them from the races, and they
have now disappeared, though a few centre-boarders ofa better type
are still seen. Even these are scarcely, in my judgment, fit to go
through much heavy weather in the hands of amateurs. For this
there is nothing but a heavy weight of lead carried at least four or
five feet below the water,

With a well designed boat, good gear, and competent manage-
ment, there is nothing to excite apprehension in sailing on
Windermere. It is no more dangerous than driving in a carriage.
A boat not fit to go through squalls, bad gear, and carelessness,
involve serious risk. Yet considering how often and how recklessly
the conditions of safety are disregarded, the accidents are wonder-
fully few.

.
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201

THE GREAT LAKE, LAGOON, OR BAY OF TRITON.

By Be Ae TRING, Moon,

(Read at Ambleside. )

At the very dawn of history we find the continental shores of
that sea which surrounds Cyprus, viz. Phoenicia and Cilicia, filled
with a race of mariners, who for full one thousand years managed
the carrying trade of the then known world.

With a sea-board by no means remarkable for good harbours,
or sheltered roadsteads, the dwellers in Tyre and Sidon had the
largest merchant navy in the Mediterranean. They under-
took the most distant voyages. They indisputably frequented
the stormy seas of our own Cornwall to the west, whilst in the
east they were known in Indian seas as far as Ceylon. It is
probable that they penetrated into the Baltic in the north, whilst it

-is certain that in the persons of some of their colonists they circum-
navigated Africa.

Their colonies were found scattered over the whole Mediter-
ranean, in positions chosen with a most far-sighted judgment.
Almost invariably they selected peninsulas, or small islands
adjacent to the mainland—inaccessible to an enemy by land,
easily defended by sea.

Of these by far the greatest and most remarkable was Carthage.
Situated near the modern Tunis, exactly opposite Sicily, she so
rapidly grew in power and prosperity, as totally to eclipse, in the
west at any rate, the glory of the mother country.

She in her turn sent out colonies still further west, and

founded cities, whose sites are even now occupied by important

202

towns. Such was Carthagena, at present the naval arsenal and
station for the Spanish Mediterranean fleet. Such were Cadiz, the
largest Spanish port on the Atlantic, and Port Mahon in Minorca.
All these were Carthaginian settlements, and their present import-
ance still attests the clever foresight of their ancient founders.

But it is to Carthage itself that I would specially direct
attention. Like all Phoenician colonies, she was situated on

something of the nature of a peninsula—on a promontory, standing ©

far out into the centre of the Mediterranean. And when we have
named this, we have named all her apparent advantages for
commerce. Her country was the present regency of Tunis, and
perhaps a part of Algeria—a land by no means extraordinarily
gifted with productions to interchange with those of other regions.
At the present moment its exports are less than any other country
on the north coast of Africa. Something may be due to bad
government, but a deficiency of water prevents any extensive
agriculture, and the Sahara, a bare and almost pathless desert of
four thousand miles, to the south cuts her off from the centre of
the continent.

For a large commercial town to exist, there must be some
important inland region which supplies its productions and super-
fluities to be interchanged against those of other lands. In the
case of Carthage this law would appear to fail. Yet in very
ancient times, Carthage was indisputably rich and prosperous. She
waged long wars with Greeks for the possession of Sicily—wars, in
which were fought battles of first-rate importance—wars, in which
were engaged fleets so large, as could only be furnished by a state,
not only of great maritime power, but also of great internal
resources.

She afterwards waged three long wars extending over one
hundred and fifteen years with Rome, then mistress of all south of
the Alps, i.e. of what is now the modern Italy, for the supremacy
of the western world. She was mistress of the European Peninsula,
the present Spain and Portugal, and much of the south of France.
She held Sardinia, Corsica, Malta, and the Balearic Islands, and
only submitted to Rome after a struggle, illustrated by numberless

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203

important and terrible battles, in which it was more than once on
the cards, that Rome herself might perish, and Carthage become
the leading state of the west, and the Mediterranean a Carthaginian
lake. Then the civilization of the west would have been Phcenician
in place of Roman, and we ourselves deriving the ground-work of
our thought, language, and habits from a Carthaginian, instead
of a Latin source.

The fiat of Cato, however—de/enda est Carthago—Carthage
must be destroyed—won its way. She succumbed before the
arms of the younger Scipio, and both the Roman and the Greek
historian, who have given us the particulars of her fall, and have
narrated the cold-blooded treachery and cruelty displayed by her
conqueror, incidentally give us also an extraordinarily grand idea
of her size, prosperity, and magnificence.

She perished utterly. Yet such were the unrivalled advantages
of her situation, such»the resources of her inland country, that in
less than thirty years Carthage was refounded by the Romans
themselves. Again she rose to be one of the most important
towns in the Roman empire; and lastly, when that empire was
tottering to its fall beneath the assaults of the Barbarians of the
north, by a strange destiny Carthage became the capital of the
Vandals, and their ruler, Genseric, captured and sacked imperial
Rome itself. From this time Carthage gradually decreased in
importance, until in our own day, a few ruins, an aqueduct, and a
series of magnificent vaulted reservoirs, are all that remain of this
ancient splendour—all that remain of a city whose walls were
twenty miles in circumference, and whose population numbered
700,000. ‘Tunis, its modern representative, though the largest
and most important of the towns on the Barbary coast, is never-
theless a city of but very third-rate importance.

To myself at any rate, it had ever been a matter of difficulty,
on considering its modern condition, to account for the ancient
prosperity of this region. Carthage, as a colony of Tyre, it is true,
had some crumbs of that Indian commerce which has encouraged
the enterprise and increased the riches of every nation which has
conducted it, from the Tyrians to the English. But what could

204

this effect against the resources of a large, prosperous, and united
country like Italy? Venice, some one will suggest, possessed a
similar power. But Venice was powerful in the resources of war,
not only from her possession of money, but also and mainly by her
possessions on the mainland—the rich plains of Lombardy, and
the countries to the north of the Adriatic, which were as much
Italian and Venetian as Venice herself. Nor again, let me remark,
did Venice alone ever engage in long wars with a powerful and
warlike empire. Whereas Carthage was seemingly a single city,
with a territory of no great size, on the edge of a huge desert, yet
wielding an influence in the history of the world, such as only
belongs to great states, backed by the resources of an extensive
and rich country. Surely this is a problem in history requiring
solution. !

Again, in the history of the Punic wars, and especially of the
second or Hannibalian war, we are astonished at the extensive use
made by the Carthaginians of e/ephants. Yet north of the Sahara
no elephants are now found, and though they have been recently
recommended for the prosecution of African discovery, no elephants
of that continent are anywhere, or as far as we know have anywhere
at any time been domesticated. Whence then did the Carthaginians
obtain these monsters ?

It is true that the Syrian kings, the successors of Alexander,

whose empire extended to India, made use of these animals, and

these were undoubtedly brought overland from regions beyond the
Indus. It is within the bounds of possibility that those of Carthage
may have come from the same region to Tyre, and may have been
transported thence by sea to Africa. As, however, before the
Greek conquest of Asia, we never hear of their employment either
in Persia, or Babylonia, or Syria, countries through which they
must have passed to reach Tyre, nor again in the great Persian
wars against Greece, it is highly improbable that any reached
Carthage by this route. Whilst lastly, from the constitution of the
elephant, and the large amount of food and water which it requires,
it is unable to cross a desert of very limited extent, much less the
immense Sahara.

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205

We are reduced then to the assumption that there was once a
time when the elephant was found in North Africa. How this
tallies with what must have been the ancient condition of the
country, we shall presently see.

I will now direct attention to a totally different subject—a
puzzle in Mythology. There was a Greek goddess, Athene or
Pallas Athene, probably meaning the Virgin Athene, Pallas being
a title of respect. She was, like Minerva among the Romans, the
goddess of wisdom. All arts and science, especially those con-
nected with law, order, and government—all that conduced to the
welfare of man—all skill in what was held to be noble, were
attributed to her. As skill in war was, and unfortunately is still,
of vital importance to man, though not loving war for its own sake,
she was still looked upon as the author of all that in war was
prudent, and likely to be followed with favourable results, and so
she was represented as a Virgin Armed. To pourtray her exact
character, and reconcile all its peculiarities, would occupy too
much of our time. We may, however, sum up all in one word.
She was regarded by the Greeks as the author of what we call
civilization, and if we can discover her origin, we shall know to
what source the Greeks attributed their earliest civilization.

According to a well-known story given us by Hesiod, the
oldest author who has treated of these matters, Metis, or Thought,
was the first wife of Zeus, or the Bright one, the Greek god. When
Metis was pregnant with Athene, Zeus swallowed her up, and he

himself gave birth to Athene, who sprang from his head. A myth,
_ which has the obvious meaning, that civilization sprang from God,

or as St. James puts it, “Every good gift, and every perfect gift is
from above, and cometh down from the Father of Light.”

But where did Zeus, or the Father of Light, according to
Greek notions, produce civilisation? The oldest epithets of

Athene were Trito, Tritonis, Tritogenia, or Tritoginis. Such
is she called by Hesiod at her birth, that is the one born at,

or from, or of Triton. Various are the explanations of this term,
which was quite as unintelligible to ancient authors as to ourselves.
That she was born at a place called Triton, was the usual

206

conjecture. But the position of this place was a matter of doubt.
Some pointed to a paltry stream in Bzotia, in Greece; some to
other localities. The most common explanation referred the
epithet to a river or lake, with which the ancients were very
imperfectly acquainted, in the centre of Libya,—their name for
the continent of Africa. That is, the civilization of Greece, and
thereby of the West and ourselves, had its origin in Africa. A
very strange idea, yet perhaps not altogether devoid of foundation.

Now turn to another difficulty, semi-mythological. Long
before the age of Homer, and the siege of Troy, fifty of the great
Greek chieftains had undertaken the first bold maritime adventure
on record—called from Argo, the name of their ship, the Argo-
nautic Expedition. The different accounts of their route are
perfectly irreconcileable with our present geographical knowledge,
or in fact with one another. They give us, however, what were
the earliest notions of the Greeks as to the geography of the world,
and the earliest of the many accounts of this voyage represent the
sailors of the good ship Argo, as returning into the Mediterranean
from the West of Africa by carrying their ship on their shoulders
across Libya, until they came to Lake Triton, when they sailed
into the. Mediterranean, and so homewards to Greece. Strange,
yet after all, perchance true!

The next notice which we have of the geographical knowledge
of the ancients is found in the narrative of the adventures of
Ulysses, as given by Homer in the Odyssey. In relating his
wanderings, Homer has no doubt intended to display all the
knowledge of his day in reference to distant lands. The farthest
region to which he sends his hero, a voyage of full ten days from
Cape Matapan, the southern extremity of Greece, is to a coast
whose inhabitants lived on J/ofos, or the fruit of the jujube tree.
Here his companions land for water. Three of his sailors open
negotiations with the natives. These they find a mild, hospitable
people, in character not unlike the South Sea Islanders—themselves
also a race of vegetarians. The three sailors, wearied with the ten
days’ storm, attempt to desert, and join the natives, and are with
difficulty driven on board again by ourhero, For fear the rest should

207

follow their example, and prefer the sweet lotos—doubly grateful, as
was natural, to sailors long afloat—and residence among a mild and
happy people, like a prudent captain, Ulysses leaves the seductive
coast.

Such is the simple narrative of Homer, neither improbable nor
inconsistent with our notions of what under the circumstances
would be likely to occur. From this, however, future poets,
Thomson and our own poet-laureate among the rest, have elabor-
ated descriptions of a fairy-like land,

“In which it seemed always afternoon,”
and where

‘Branches they bore of that enchanted stem,
Laden with fruit and flower, whereof they gave
To each, but whoso did receive of them,
And taste, to-him the gushing of the wave
j Far, far, away did seem to mourn and rave
On alien shores ; and if his fellow spake,
His voice was thin, as voices from the grave ;
And deep asleep he seemed, yet all awake,
3 And music in his ears his beating heart did make.”

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tr

_ And so forth. Most beautiful poetry, but not one word of which,
_ as far as I see, is to be found in Homer, but like the German’s
camel, has been elaborated by poets from the depths of their inner
consciousness. And pray let this be said with all due deference
__and respect to the poet’s testy and amusing, but @ propos warning :—

A ‘Vex not thou the poet’s mind

. With thy shallow wit :

; Vex not thou the poet’s mind,

Z For thou canst not fathom it.”

& ,

‘, After an interval of nearly a thousand years, we find another

, poet, Virgil, in close imitation of Homer, conducting his hero,
#Eneas, in a voyage almost the exact counterpart of that of Ulysses.
_ Afneas visits the Syrtes, the region of the Lotophagi, but finds
_ there nothing but storm and tempest and quicksand. Instead of
2 Tennyson’s “melancholy, mild-eyed Lotos-eaters,” he is met by a
_ Tace rich and prosperous, but inhospitable to strangers, and his

208

description of this region, though not altogether in accordance
with, yet more approximates to, the character of the district at the
present day.

He represents it, however, as very rich, and in this he is
upheld by other contemporary writers. About the time of the
Christian era to be a Libyan land-owner, was to be rich to a
proverb. Italy, like England at the present day, did not grow
sufficient corn for its own subsistence. The Roman province of
Africa, the modern Tunis, was its granary, and more especially the
granary of Rome. That this was the case is incontrovertible.
The land was covered with wealthy cities, and was an important
factor in every civil war. In short, we may say that it was the
battle of Thapsus and the conquest of this region, which gave
Rome its first emperor.

For ages Europeans have been prevented through the fanati-
cism of the Moslems from going far from the shore, but recent
explorations lead us to suppose that the country is covered in an
extraordinary degree with the ruins of great cities, of which,
probably, not more than a fourth have been visited or are known.

Davis, the explorer of Carthage, in the course of a not very
protracted journey, found everywhere the remains of what must
have been magnificent cities. He speaks of passing as many as
twenty ruined villages, mostly Roman, but nameless, in the course
of a single day. At Mokthar, a few days’ journey from Tunis, are
the remains of a large city, six miles in circumference, with suburbs
of larger extent, and the ruins of triumphal arches, mausoleums,
walls, gates, etc., and the whole plain studded with the evidence of
a vast city.

In estimating from their ruins the population of ancient towns,
we must bear in mind that the remains usually only represent the
public buildings, and the houses of a few of the richest inhabitants.
The great mass of the people lived in mud hovels, and even mere
booths, and many no doubt, as at present in Naples, in the open
air. Consequently when we find a plain of several miles in extent,
covered with ruins, we have before us evidence of the existence of
a population much greater than at first sight might be imagined.

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209

At Hydra again, and Thala, and Sbaitla, Davis found the
same indications of byegone population and prosperity. At
Sbaitla, when taken in the 7th century by the Mahometans, each
cavalry-soldier received 3000 gold dinars, or above £1000, as his
share of the plunder.

At Eljem, there is a Roman amphitheatre, almost equal in
size to that at Verona, but grander in appearance, and only sur-
passed, if surpassed at all, by the Coliseum at Rome.

It would occupy too much time to cite examples, but the
whole of Davis’s work produces on the mind the impression, that
Africa Proper, or the Regency of Tunis, was at one time a region
perfectly teeming with wealth and population, and Tristram in his
work on the Sahara does not hesitate to call it “the sepulchre of
buried nations.”

Lastly, as we come to modern times, the idea of wealth and
prosperity attached to these regions gradually fades away. An
Opposite idea takes its place. They are regarded as sterile and
poor, suffering from drought and proximity to the Sahara, and
though so near to Europe, are far removed from its civilization.

Now to summarize the facts at which we have arrived.

Firstly, Along the coast of Africa, opposite to Sicily, there
existed in very ancient times an opulent city, the mother of many
important colonies. That now, though one half of what formed
her dominions, viz., the country sloping to the Mediterranean;
is in the main a poor and wretched country, and the other half, viz.
that sloping towards the south, is little better than a barren desert,
yet there is-reason to suppose that the whole in olden times teemed
with riches and plenty.

That in consequence, she was enabled to contend for many
years for the mastery of the world with Italy, then no mere geo-
graphical expression, but united under a government remarkably
warlike, firm, and centralized. That though she ultimately
succumbed, and was utterly destroyed, yet apparently in conse-
quence of the unrivalled character of her country, she soon rose
from her ashes. That this country became afterwards the granary
of Italy, and more especially of Rome, at the height of her power,

15

210

That she became remarkable for the number and wealth of her
cities, that afterwards in Christian times she contained six hundred
bishoprics. That, notwithstanding the scantiness and poverty of
her present population, there are everywhere, at this very moment,
ruins, which bear witness to the truth of the accounts of, and
references to, her former greatness and fertility.

Secondly. That the Carthaginians were famed for the use of
elephants, and that there is reason for supposing they found them
in their own country, though at present its physical character
precludes their existence as wild animals north of the Sahara.

Thirdly. That the Greeks attributed the origin of knowledge
and civilization to some region in the interior of Africa.

Fourthly, That in the earliest account of maritime discovery,
the history of the Argonautic expedition, we find the fifty heroes
taking a strange course also through the interior of Africa, and
apparently quite inconsistent with our present geographical
knowledge.

Fifthly. We find that Homer in order to display his acquaint-
ance with regions, mysterious, though not absolutely unknown to his
fellow-countrymen—which were probably as mysterious to them, as
was the Spanish Main to the contemporaries of Drake, or the
interior of New Guinea to ourselves—carries his hero into a region,
where he finds a people living on vegetable diet, and presenting
all the characteristics of such a race.

Lastly. Without quoting examples, I may say, that there are
in classical authors a large number of references to the district on
the Lesser Syrtis, seemingly at discord with our present knowledge,
and which to myself, at any rate, were once totally inexplicable.

To all these, however, I am inclined to think that I found the
key this summer in the Paris Exhibition.

As I was leaving it for the last time, I happened to ramble
into a little court, which the Ministry of Public Instruction had
devoted to some curiosities of travel. Here was a very roughly
executed model by Capt. Roudaire to show the feasibility of
covering the whole of the country south of Tunis, and part of
Algeria, for three hundred miles in length and forty in breadth,

211

with water, ie. for forming a new gulf in the Mediterranean,
containing an area somewhat greater than the Irish Sea. In
considering his views of what was once, and what again might be
the condition of this district, there flashed upon my mind the
explanation of the difficulties which have been enumerated.

Along the whole northern coast of Africa, from Cape Bon to
the Straits of Gibraltar, runs a range of mountains of varying height.
In the regency of Tunis, bearing the name of the Auress Mountains,
they rise with snowy peaks, for some part of the year, to the height
of 6000 feet. Crossing Algeria with diminished elevation, they
finally reach their grandest proportions in Morocco, and under the
name of the Atlas Mountains, attain 12,000 feet, and are covered
with perpetual snow. It is with their eastern extremity that our
business lies. Until.in an hour, happy for itself and humanity,
Algeria was occupied by the French, this region was unknown.
Beyond the Auress Mountains was the desert, and there were
marked upon ancient maps vague traces of lakes with the name
Lacus Tritonidis attached, and probably a note of interrogation
followed, to indicate that the site was entirely uncertain.

Now, however, all can be traversed in safety, and the French
authority is in the main willingly acknowledged as far south as
Touggourt and Wady Souf, and military posts, and farms, dependent
in some cases for their existence on Artesian Wells, are found at
Chegga and El Feid, and other places south of the Auress Moun-
tains, and Biskra is rapidly becoming a sort of Arab Paris.

Nowhere are the contrasts of nature more striking than in
this southern part of the French province of Constantina. There
meet at the Auress Mountains, the Mons Aurasius of the Romans,
the Djebel Auress of the Arabs,—two worlds which are total
opposites. On the one side are snowy peaks, broad mountain
pastures, forests, streams of water, picturesque villages, vying with
each other in the riches and fertility of their gardens. On the
other side, to the south, is a plain parched by a burning sun, an
horizon without limit; hot, rugged mountain sides with broken
precipices and deep ravines, without vegetation, strangely harmo-
nizing with the aridity beyond. Here and there, within the near

212

view, are a few oases inhabited by the descendants of the ancient
Berbers, the Kabyles, among whom are found in abundance men

with fair complexions and blue eyes, a laborious, sedentary people,

fond of agriculture, and with a love for the soil and their homes.
Further south the eye is struck by a deep depression of the ground.
Beyond, the extreme view is bounded by the Sahara, with its
nomad Arab tribes.

In the depression the eye is arrested by a vast dazzling gleam
of light from the Chott Mel-rir.

The name Chott is applied by the natives to shallow lakes,
full of saline matter, where the water only remains for a certain
portion of the year. At other times the plain is covered with a
thick coating of salt, and presents for all the world the appearance
of a vast field of white jelly, or of camphor, as a Frenchman
describes it. It then conceals in places deep holes and quicksands,
where an unwary step might lead to certain death.

These chotts are extremely numerous, and are all more or
less connected with one another, and extend in an unbroken line
from Chegga, where the river Djedi falls into the Chott Mel-rir,
to within a few miles of the Gulf otf Gabes in the Mediterranean.
The three largest are the Chott Mel-rir, the Chott Rharsa, and
Chott Djerid. The first of these is the least dangerous, and
portions of it are easily crossed. The third, or most Easterly, the
Chott Djerid, has peculiar perils. It presents many of the
characteristics of a lake covered with ice. The covering, however,
being a shell of salt of uncertain thickness. In some places this
would appear to rest upon the ground, in others upon water, in
others upon quicksand ; whilst there are at times places where the
water is withdrawn, and the shell of salt suspended in the air. At
other times a violent wind will disturb it with the oscillations of
slow waves. In short, its behaviour is in this respect exactly like
that of our own lakes when covered with ice. One or two caravan
routes across this Chott have been known for many years, but
whoever wanders to the right or left of the recognised track,
exposes himself to very great risk, and even the frequented routes
are not devoid of danger. (See the Map.)

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213

In one of the vols. of the Scientific Exploration of Algeria (a
work published by the French Government), a tale is told of a
caravan of one thousand camels crossing the Chott, when one of
the animals wandered a little from the way, and, as is their wont,
was followed by all behind, and all successively disappeared in a
sort of quicksand. And Moula-Ahmed, the authority for this
story, states that when he crossed it, a surface of one hundred and
fifty feet in breadth suddenly gave way, engulfing the men and
camels who happened to be upon it, and none of whom escaped.

Such are the Chotts, obviously the relics of an ancient sea,
from the shallow parts of which the water has already vanished,
and whose less shallow parés are now in process of being dried up.

The deep hollow in which these chotts lie, soon attracted the
attention of the French after they became masters of Algiers, and
the question arose, was it beneath the level of the Mediterranean ?
Many facts pointed to the probability of this being the case; and
at last the French Government, in 1876, entrusted to Captain
Roudaire, who had drawn public attention to this subject, and its
importance, in an able and interesting article in the Revue des
Deux Mondes, in 1874., the determination of this problem: and it
was the model of this district, based upon the levels he had just
taken, which drew my attention to the matter this last summer.

In his report to the Ministry of Public Instruction, he gives a
most instructive account of the methods by which he conducted
and verified his levels, and the difficulties with which his
observations were beset, owing to the extraordinary and ever
varying atmospheric movements taking place in the heated air of
the desert, and which are familiar to us as the cause of mirage.
Suffice it to say, that he found the Chott Djerid separated from the
Gulf of Gabes by an isthmus about twenty-five miles across, the
highest part of which was about one hundred and thirty feet above
the sea. That the surface of the Chott Djerid was about sixty
feet above the Mediterranean. That the isthmus of Kriz in its
highest part was about one hundred and thirty feet above the
Mediterranean. That the surface of the Chott Rharsa was about
sixty feet de/ow the Mediterranean, as were the numerous Chotts

214

between it and the Mel-rir. And, lastly, that the Chott Mel-rir
was about one hundred and fifty feet delow the level of the
Mediterranean. That if the various isthmuses were pierced—
beginning with the Isthmus of Kriz—though the Chott Djerid
would be diminished in area, the great Chotts Rharsa and
Mel-rir, and the numerous smaller Chotts would be vastly increased;
and an izland sea, of the dimensions represented, would result
therefrom.

The success of the Suez Canal has of late drawn the attention
of Frenchmen to this subject. Though to my mind sufficient
observations to settle the practicability of the scheme, and specially
soundings in the Chott Djerid have not yet been made, and its
feasibility as yet by no means demonstrated, I shall hope to make
it appear probable that the Chotts are the remains of such an inland
sea which did once exist.

In a byegone age, either by some sudden convulsion of nature
(and it has been remarked that the Isthmus of Melah lies along the
volcanic axis, passing through the mountains. of Corsica and Sar-
dinia), or, as is more probable, by a gradual upheaval, the isthmus
of Melah was raised, and the communication with the Mediterranean,
and so with the main ocean, closed. Then followed the usual process.
Rapid evaporation under a sun but 34° from the Equator, annually
removed more water than was supplied by the inflowing rivers.
The salts of the sea were left behind, and the remaining water,
being supersaturated, the excess of mineral matter has been
confusedly deposited, and a condition of things produced, such as
we now see.

If, however, we study attentively the notices which ancient
authors have left us of the history and geography of this part of
Africa, we shall acquire the conviction that this basin not only did
once, but did within historic times, communicate with the Mediter-
ranean, and form an inner gulf, which, in conjunction with that
which is now called Gulf of Gabes, or the Lesser Syrtis, was known
under the name of the Great Lake, Lagoon, or Bay of Triton, and
that the separation between the two finally took place about the
commencement of the Christian Era.

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215

Herodotus, who wrote about 456 years B.C., is the first
author who has given any geographical details about the Great
Bay or Lake of Triton. In describing it, he uses a word which
may mean either an interior lake, or a lake belonging to the sea,
otherwise called a lagoon—a word most appropriate to the object
to which it is applied. He describes this gulf as extending E. and
W. Where it leaves the main sea, on its South coast, he fixes
apparently the country of the Lotos-eaters. Then come the

Machlyes, also eating the Lotos, but not to so great an extent. These,
he says, inhabit the shore as far as the great river Triton, which
empties itself into the Lake in which is the Island of Phla.

He further relates how Jason and the Argonauts were driven
by a tempest from Cape Matapan into the shallows of the Gulf of
Triton, and that the God Triton shewed them the means of escape.
__ From this passage,it is obvious that the Gulf of Triton
communicated with the sea, in fact, was so much a portion of it,
that Herodotus makes no mention of the Lesser Syrtis (a name
which arose afterwards) but considers the whole of the Lesser
Syrtis and the sea to the river Triton as one gulf, to which he gives
the name of the Great Lake, or Lagoon of Triton.

“The next geographical account of this region is given by
Scylax, or whoever was the author of the work called the Circum-
navigation of the Mediterranean, and who probably wrote about
200 B.C. He mentions in the Lesser Syrtis two islands—that of
Brachion, on which grows the lotos, and the island Circinna.
These are obviously the present Djerba and Karkennah. He then
proceeds :—Towards the interior is found the Great Bay of Triton,
which forms the extremity of the Little Syrtis and Lake Triton,
with the Isle of Triton, and also the mouth of a river of the same
name. The entrance to the lake is narrow, and an island is seen
at low tide, and then vessels are often not able to enter. The lake
is of considerable extent, and its shore inhabited by an African
race, whose chief city lies on the Western coast.

Like Herodotus, Scylax speaks of the Little Syrtis and the
Lake of Triton under the general name of the Great Bay of Triton.
‘But in the interval between Herodotus and Scylax, say two or

216

three centuries, the communication had become narrower, and not
always deep enough for ships, and the two portions of the sea had
already received separate names—The Lesser Syrtis and the Bay
of Triton.

The next geographer who has described this region, is
Pomponius Mela, 43 A.D. “The Gulf of Syrtis,” says he, ‘is
dangerous not only on account of its shallows, but also on account
of the ebb and flow of the sea. Beyond this Gulf is Lake Pallas,
or the Great Lake of Triton, which receives the waters of the river
Triton.”

In another passage he tells us, that at a considerable distance
from the shore, towards the interior of the country, there are barren
plains, where are found skeletons of fishes, shells, oyster-shells,
rounded pebbles, such as are found in the sea, anchors still
attached to rocks, and other similar marks, which prove that the
sea in former times extended thither.

From these passages we must infer that in the interval of two
hundred years since Scylax, the Lake and the Gulf had ceased to
have any longer a communication ; and, as no mention is made of
the Isle of Triton, we may conclude that the waters were lowered
by evaporation, and the Isle of Triton, as an island, no longer
existed.

After the interval of a century, we come to the great.

Geographer and Mathematician, Ptolemy. His account of this
district is too long and too dry for quotation, but there results from
it this—that Ptolemy knew, not of one, but of several lakes, but
makes no mention of any communication with thesea. He places,
however, the mouth of the river Triton on the Little Syrtis, about
the place, where in former times, had been the entrance into the
Bay of Triton.

From these passages there arise the following inferences.
That at the time of Herodotus, there is a deep gulf with a large
opening into the sea, and it, and the Little Syrtis, are known by
the name of the Great Bay of Triton. At the head of this Bay is
the river Triton, and in it the island Phla.

Two hundred years later, at the time of Scylax, the Little

shin

Syrtis and Lake Triton are still united by a channel, which is
already becoming more narrow, and the island of Phla, under the
name of Triton, still exists.

In the time of Pomponius Mela, two hundred years later still,
or about the Christian era, the communication between the Lake
and the Lesser Syrtis has already disappeared. The Lake Triton
is beyond the Syrtis and inland; and travellers find, far removed
from the sea, shells and pebbles*and other evidence of its recent
existence.

Then we come to the time of Ptolemy. The waters have
continued to settle. They have definitely fixed themselves in the
deeper depressions of the ancient bed. The primitive basin is
sub-divided into several lakes, and Ptolemy places the embouchure
of the river Triton at the point, where was the former means of

communication.

When to these ancient testimonies we add well-attested and
wide-spread traditions among the Arabs and other races dwelling
on the banks of the present Chotts, that these have had at one
_ time communication with the sea, we can scarcely fail to identify
| in them (the Chotts) the ancient Bay of Triton.

The French government have had a series of levels run from

__- Algiers and Bona to Biskra, and thence along the Chotts to the
Gulf of Gabes. Captain Roudaire, the engineer employed, has
reported most carefully upon the possibility and means of again
_ Opening communication with the Mediterranean, and so re-
_ producing a sea of some three hundred miles long and forty
miles broad, and upon the consequences which the submersion of
4 q the Chotts would produce on the climate and welfare of Algeria,
and in a greater degree upon that of Tunis.

These, without discussing the practicability of the reproduction
BA of this ancient inland sea, we will consider, inasmuch as they will
help us to realize the condition of things in this region in those
_ ancient times, of which we have accounts so very inexplicable.
r _ We have before us a phenomenon, which we know from geological
* sources to have happened repeatedly in byegone ages—which has
_ €yerywhere, and especially in some parts of our own country, left

= a

218

us vast beds of salt. I mean the gradual drying up and disappear-
ance of a sea, which in this case had a superficial extent somewhat
greater than that of the Irish Sea. And if the French finally
decide, as is not improbable, to re-open the old communication
with the Mediterranean, we shall be enabled to study the reverse,
but an equally interesting problem, viz. the effects, climatic or
otherwise, arising from the formation of a new sea.

It may be stated that the engineers of the Suez Canal Co.
calculate that the requisite canals and earthworks may be con-
structed for a million and a half of our money—a sum perfectly
insignificant when compared with the enormous advantages which
would accrue to Algeria alone by its southern slope being placed
in convenient communication with the rest of the world by sea,
not to speak of other and perhaps more important benefits. I may
add that M. Lesseps is in favour of the scheme.

The formation of the Suez Canal, and the filling of the lakes
in connection with it, have already had a marked effect on the
climate of the Isthmus. Formerly it hardly rained in twenty years,
“now,” says M. Lesseps, “we are obliged to import tiles from
France to cover our houses, and this year (1874) we have had a
considerable amount of rain.”

There is a large evaporation from the lakes in communication
with the Canal, due to the warm winds from the south. These
laden with moisture, as they rise, meet with a cold current from
the north, and rain naturally results.

Exactly the same process will occur at the restored Bay of
Triton. The sirocco, and the hot winds from the Sahara, will
blow over a sea between fifty and sixty times the size of the Suez
Canal and all its lakes put together. An enormous evaporation
will take place. Laden with moisture, these winds will at once
meet with the lofty barrier of the Auress Mountains, the upper
peaks of which are covered with snow for a certain part of the year,
and running E. and W., are placed like a vast condenser athwart
their path. Rapid condensation and copious rains will take place.
The rivers on the southern slope of the Auress Mountains which
are now paltry streamlets, finally lost in the sand, will become

-

219

respectable streams, and with increasing volume will fall into the
restored gulf.

The southern slope of these mountains, i.e. one half the
Regency of Tunis, and a large portion of Algeria, now a desert,
with here and there an oasis due to a natural spring or Artesian

_ Well, will enjoy a certain, perhaps a plentiful rainfall, and be
covered with vegetation.

This southern slope, with an inclination so gentle in many
places as to form an immense plain, consists of an alluvium of
remarkable fertility, which only requires water to produce many
crops in the year.

Nor would the south wind alone bear off the evaporation from

_ this vast sheet of water. The other winds would also remove their
_ share; and while that from the south fertilized the north, the
eastern winds would carry moisture up the Valley of the Djedi, far
away to the west. Here it would be condensed by the high ground
of Algeria and Morocco. The River Djeddi, the ancient river
Triton, would again acquire respectable dimensions, and drain an
important and fertile valley, which is filled with a rich hard alluvial
soil, in many parts of which barley is even now cultivated without
_ artificial watering.* Whilst far away to the south, the oasis of
_ Souf, and the country south of Chott Djerid and Tabaga Moun-
_ tains, would be refreshed by an occasional shower. In this again,
~ we take no account of the water which will disappear by subter-
“ranean channels. This will no doubt be very considerable, and
will go to render fruitful spots impossible to specify, and thus con-
tribute, often in some unseen way, to the general fertility.
At the present moment in parts of Algeria and Tunis, it is no
_ unusual thing for the labours of months to be destroyed in a few
hours by the sirocco, or southern wind. With such fierce furnace-
ike heat does it leave the Sahara, that all tender vegetation
: uccumbs before it—all moisture is absorbed, and it leaves the
district it has traversed blasted, as though by absolute fire. And
_ yet this same wind, when in spring it reaches France and Spain,
_ laden with moisture from the Mediterranean, causes all vegetation

* Tristram’s Sahara, p. 341.

220

to be developed in a marvellous fashion. It is obvious that in
crossing the restored Bay of Triton, some ‘forty miles in breadth,
its evil influence, though perhaps not always absolutely destroyed,
will be considerably modified.

The new sea, again, will form a means of communication
between regions south of the Atlas and the rest of the world.
This, and security for life and property, will be the only things
needful for the agriculture and industry of these regions to attain
a very high degree of prosperity. The Valley of Djeddi, and all
the south of Algeria and Tunis, will find itself in easy communi-
cation with the Mediterranean. What a new impulse will be given
to the industry of this so long neglected country! Its inhabitants
are born merchants, and in the pursuits of commerce traverse the
Sahara, as far as Timbuctoo and the Niger; and even now, with
everything against them, the exportation and importation between
the Soudan and the coast of the Mediterranean is reckoned at
more than £2,000,000, of which English goods form no unim-
portant part. The whole of this trade takes place by means of
camels, and is exposed on its route to all sorts of dangers, and
many arbitrary exactions, and the greater part of it would converge
towards the new sea, along the shores of which busy and important
cities would of necessity again arise.

Thus may we speculate upon the changes likely to result from
a revival of the Bay of Triton, and thereby realize the condition of
this great depression, when connected with the Mediterranean.
The restoration of this communication is a French idea. Mr.
Mackenzie, and a body of Englishmen, have drawn attention,
however, to another supposed depression to the S.W., which they
presume extends into the Sahara to an unknown distance. By an
opening on the west coast, opposite to the Canary Islands, through
which at present flows the River Juby, Mr. Mackenzie imagines it
possible to submerge by a canal of a few miles in length, a vast
area, and so produce in the very centre of the vast continent, the
same amelioration of climate, fertility, commerce, and civilization,
as in Algeria and Tunis would result from the formation of the
Bay of Triton. An expedition has been sent to study this problem,

221

and has returned, I believe, without effecting anything—without
> taking any levels, or really having made any scientific investigation,
as to whether the assumed depression really exists or no.

: The presence, however, of beds of salt in the Sahara, indicate
_ that portions of it at any rate have been submerged, and there may
5 perhaps have been a time at the very dawn of history, when a
; - large portion of the Northern Sahara was Sea, and when one of
| its gulfs was separated by no great interval from the Bay of Triton.
If such were the case, the mildness and equability of the regions
around this Bay would be still further increased. The violent hot
winds from the Sahara would not then have existed, but there

“must have resulted a climate like that of th

€ Azores or Canary
Islands.

That which now forms the Regency of Tunis and Algeria was
then a peninsula, a little narrower than Italy towards the south,
and fanned on every side by mild sea-breezes. The sea to the
South, the Bay of Triton, was probably full of islands covered with
verdure, with the rugged summits of the Auress Mountains
bounding the northern horizon, the whole enjoying an unrivalled
climate, and presenting, perchance, a scene of beauty without an
€qual in the northern hemisphere.

Here lived an intelligent race, who are described by Scylax as
being, notwithstanding their yellowish colour, fine, handsome men,

et
an

nd who may probably be identified with the Kabyles, still one of
the nobler African races. Here they obtained without any hard

Struggle, by agriculture, the necessaries of life, and had leisure and
inclination to cultivate its refinement.

It is in regions like these,
and inventive has had the fort
he soil, not spontaneously,

where a race naturally intelligent
une to be settled in places where

but with some expenditure of labour,
produces all that is necessary for life, that civilization has usually
lad its first origin. Such was the case in India,
vilization was to be found in the basin of the
there existed conditions such as we ha
fas the case with Western Asia,

he basin of the Euphrates and t

whose earliest
Ganges, where
ve described. Such, too,
where civilization radiated from
he Tigris. Such was notably the

222

case in Egypt, where a clever race, availing themselves of the Nile
inundation, with slight labour supplied themselves not only with —
the necessaries, but with the superfluities of life.
We may reasonably suppose then that the same was the case
in the Bay of Triton. Its various races very early finding the
mere requirements of existence easy of attainment, provided
themselves with superfluities. These they exchanged for the
productions of the islands and regions in connection with their —
bay. As a consequence of this foreign intercourse, there arose a
refinement and taste, regarded as wonderful in that age, and among
their barbarous neighbours. This with some diffidence I venture
to suggest, as a not altogether unreasonable explanation of the
oldest epithet applied to Pallas Athene, the goddess of wisdom, of —
Tritogeneia, or the goddess born on the Great Bay of Triton;
and that in this one epithet lingers still the evidence of—the sole
witness to—that prehistoric civilization. .
Again, we may imagine that whilst the geographical conditions
of this region were such as we have described, i.e. whilst the Great
Bay of Triton penetrated behind the Auress Mountains, and
perchance the Sahara was occupied in part by a great gulf from
the Atlantic, that the Argonauts penetrated into that ocean.
Thence entering the Sahara Sea they discovered a point where
it was only separated from the Bay of Triton by a narrow isthmus.
That across this isthmus they carried their ship. Such a proceeding
was, in ancient times, quite as common as a fortage in Canada, when
an expedition to avoid rapids, or pass from one river-basin to
another, carries its canoe and stores often for very long distances.
The Argonauts after crossing the isthmus, would then sail down
the Bay of Triton into the open Mediterranean, and so finally
regain their native land.
Though this explanation will no doubt be regarded as fanciful,
it is not altogether destitute of interest. There still stands forth
the broad fact, that here is part of a tale—the oldest tale—of
maritime adventure,—looked upon for twenty centuries as geo
graphically absurd, now shewn by modern discoveries to be quite
within the range of what is possible,

*

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-.
J
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4.
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223

A hundred years later and we come to Homer, whose geo-
graphical knowledge in this direction only extended to the mouth
of the Bay of Triton. There, as we have seen, he places a
vegetarian people, so far civilised that they presented the
phenomenon, strange to our poet, of not considering all foreigners
as enemies, and were, on the contrary, absolutely kind to travellers.
Hither then he brings his hero, Ulysses, and though his trans-
lators—and those who have commented upon his poems—have long
held this part of the Odyssey to be mere fictions of a poet’s fancy,
yet, view it in the light of sober reality, and observe how his
description exactly tallies with that of such a region as we know
must have here existed.

“For nine days,” says Ulysses, “I was borne by the wild winds
across the deep. On the tenth we reached the land of the Lotos-
eaters, who live on a vegetable diet. There we drew up our ships
upon the shore, and provided ourselves with water, and my
comrades partook of their mid-day meal beside their ships. Then
I sent two of my men, and a third acting as herald, to gain
acquaintance with the natives. These receive them hospitably,

_ and give them lotos-berries to eat ; and,” says Homer, “after they
__ had eaten the sweet fruit of the lotos, they were unwilling to report

themselves or come back, but wished to live there with the lotos-

_ eaters, and give up all thoughts of return home.”

How many an English sailor, after weeks of hard sea-biscuit

_ and putrid water, landing on an island in the Pacific among
_ friendly natives, and tasting the bread-fruit, has longed to do the

same. But Ulysses would have no beach combers : he took the three,

q and by main force drove them on board, and put them in bonds,
But the rest, he says, I ordered at once hurriedly to embark, lest
_ any of them should eat the lotos, and neglect to return.

Little, I trow, could our Poet Laureate, some twenty-five or
thirty years ago, when he wrote the Lotos-eaters, know of the Bay

of Triton and its pre-historic condition, yet, by a strange chance,
his dream-like picture conveys to the mind probably no untrue

idea of what must indisputably have been the climate in this sea-

_enfolded region,

224

<¢ AJ] round the coast the languid air did swoon,
Breathing like one that had a troubled dream.
They saw the gleaming river seaward flow
From the inner land : far off, three mountain tops, —
Three silent pinnacles of aged snow, —
Stood, sun-set flushed ; and, dewed with showery drops,
Up clomb the shadowy pine above the woven copse.
The charmed sun-set lingered low adown
In the red west : through mountain clefts, the vale
Was seen far inland, and the yellow down
Bordered with palm, and many a winding vale,
And meadow, set with slender galingale.”

Again such a climate, not unlike that of Ceylon, would be
admirably adapted for herds of elephants. And there can be
little doubt that it was from the forests of his native land that
Hannibal obtained those monsters with which he crossed the Alps,
and which spread dismay among the Roman legionaries.

Now, too, we are in a position to understand the secret of the
power of Carthage. She ruled over a peninsula, not unlike that of
Italy, but more productive, and far more varied in its productions.
Not only was she situated in the very centre of the Mediterranean,
in a position unrivalled for commanding the commerce of that sea,
i.e. of the then known world, but she had the superfluities of her
own rich and extensive country to change against those of distant
regions. Besides all this, she was mistress of this inland sea, the
Great Lagoon of Triton, and shall we say, too, of the great
Saharian Sea? Any way, the whole trade between central Africa
and the Mediterranean was in her hands—this trade, still
important, which the French at this very moment—this very year—
are using every effort to divert to Algeria, was in ancient times
probably more extensive still.

When we reflect upon these things, the mystery regarding the —
secret source of the power of Carthage vanishes, and we see nothing
improbable in her long struggle with Rome. On the contrary, we
begin to feel astonished, that a country of such great resources, SO
long the mistress of more than one sea, should have finally suc-
cumbed to the arms of Rome. We note, however, the invariable
principle that the sons of the North have ever lorded it over the

South, i

le pees po, ee

225

Again, in the present Bay of Gabes, the Lesser Syrtis of the
ancients, the tides are probably higher than in any other portion
of the Mediterranean. Beyond this, there is no reason for con-
sidering it more stormy than other parts of that sea.

The Romans, however, had a different idea. They
unanimously held that its navigation was the most dangerous
within their knowledge,—dangerous for its terrible storms, and
more especially dangerous for its quicksands.

The Aineid of Virgil is in part an imitation of the Iliad, and
in part of the Odyssey; and the route taken by Aineas in his
wanderings is, in the main, that taken by Ulysses. Like Homer,
Virgil brings his hero to the mouth of the Bay of Triton, the
country of the Lotos-eaters ; but, strange to say, unlike Homer, he
represents his hero as there wrecked on a stormy coast, whose
inhabitants were no longer the kindly Lotos-eaters, who received
Ulysses and his crew, but savage and inhospitable to strangers,
In this, doubtless, Virgil reflects the ideas and knowledge of his
own age ; and this divergence between the two poems can be only
explained by considering what we know must have been the con-
_ dition of the Bay of Triton in his time. It still formed a part, and
_ probably the most frequented part, of the Lesser Syrtis. The desic-

cation of the gulf we have seen had been for some time in process,
and, presuming that the Saharian Sea was already in the main dried
_ up, the Bay of Triton, in many places shallow and with broad sandy
_ shores, must frequently have been lashed with typhoons, taking
_ their rise, as they do now, in the heated regions of the Sahara, and
_ like the hurricanes of the Gulf of Mexico, destroying all before
them. In a shallow, sandy sea, they would rouse huge waves,
_ which would lash up the deep-lying sand, producing a wild turmoil
_ of sea, and sand, and foam, and wind, such as we have on our own
_ Goodwins, such as is graphically described by Virgil, and such as
F even modern ships could hardly withstand.
From the passages quoted, we may reasonably suppose that
% it was about the time of the Christian era that the Bay of Triton
_ began to be finally separated from the Mediterranean. There
- would then commence the process of desiccation. The neigh-
16

226

bouring regions, hitherto too mild and too moist for the production
of most cereals, now became adapted for this purpose. With this
event, the rapid increase of population in Italy happened to
synchronize. The wants of Rome led to the growth of vast
quantities of corn. Rich Italians, and more especially the nobility
of Rome, bought up huge tracts of public land, and vast numbers
of slaves—a commodity which the wide-spread wars of the Romans
had rendered cheap. With these they stocked enormous farms,
working them under hard task-masters, and sending as the fruits of
their labour cargoes of corn to Rome.

There existed a condition of things very similar to that in the
cotton plantations of the Southern States of America, before the war
between the North and South, and one as profitable to these great
Roman landowners as it was to the so-called “chivalry” of the
Carolinas.

Under this system, however, as in the Southern States, a large
amount of money was poured into the country, which itself rapidly
increased in population. Its cities which had hitherto consisted of
collections of mud cottages and mere booths, or, as the Latins
called them, magalia, began to be adorned with buildings con-
structed in stone, in accordance with the rules of Roman and
Greek Architecture. And it is to this period that the towns belong,
whose ruins excite the astonishment of recent travellers.

At some date, not long after the Mahometan Conquest, the
Bay of Triton finally lost all communication with the Mediterranean.
The surface for evaporation became less and less ; the southern
slopes of the Auress Mountains were, in consequence, gradually
dried up, and ultimately became a desert, with but here and there
an oasis. Meanwhile frequent droughts extended too to the
Northern or Mediterranean slopes, and flights of locusts, the
offspring of the new desert, damaged the crops. The population
decreased, and when to this we add the bad government of the
Mahometan Conquerors, we can satisfactorily account for the
present condition of these regions, and for their change from
ancient greatness to modern insignificance.

227

THE OLD MARYPORT FURNACE, AND ITS PLACE
IN THE HISTORY OF IRON MANUFACTURE.

By JOHN ADDISON.

(Read at Maryport. )

In preparing the following paper, I soon observed that a mere
history of the old Maryport Furnace would be so short, and
possibly of so little interest, except to those connected directly or
indirectly with the smelting of iron, that it would be well, in order
_ to interest the members generally, to give some particulars of the
development and progress of the Iron Manufacture from ancient
q times up to the year 1752, when the old furnace was commenced.
9 Also to call attention to the marvellous progress made in the art
_ since 1783, when that furnace stopped working for want of the
constant and uniform power which the steam engine has subse-
- quently supplied, and which is necessary for maintaining a steady
and unfailing blast; for the lack also of that extended scientific
knowledge then so greatly needed, but which has since been
_ brought to bear with such successful results on the construction
_ of furnaces of suitable size and form for the work required of them:
progress made by the application of Chemistry to the analysis
_ of the ore, limestone, and fuel, fixing and regulating from time to
_ time the relative proportions, so as to secure the most economical
- results,

228

Referring to the existence of Iron in Nature, I may observe
that it has been discovered in the distant heavens; the sun and
certain stars contain it; the sun being surrounded by a solar
atmosphere estimated at from 500 to 1000 miles in depth, which
spectroscopic analysis has proved to contain iron in addition to
twenty-one other metals. It is known also to exist in the blood
which circulates in the body of man, giving health and vigour to
his energies.

The fall of meteoric iron is much more frequent than is
generally believed. Hardly a year passes without some instances
occurring. On the morning of 12th November, 1799, thousands
of shooting stars, mingled with large meteors, illuminated the
heavens for many hours over the whole continent of America.
From Brazil to Labrador, the display extended to Greenland and
even Germany. During many hours on the morning of the 13th
November, 1832, prodigious multitudes of shooting stars and
meteors fell at Mocha, on the Red Sea, in the Atlantic, in Switzer-
land, and at many places in England.

But by far the most splendid meteoric shower on record
occurred in November, 1833, lasting for ten hours. It extended
from Majara and the northern lakes of America to the south of
Jamaica, and from 61° of longitude in the Atlantic to 100° of
longitude in Central Mexico. Shooting stars and meteors of the
apparent size of Jupiter, Venus, and even of the Moon, darted in
myriads towards the horizon as if every star in the heavens had
started from its sphere.

The Emperor Jehangire had a sword forged from a mass of
meteoric iron which fell in 1620 at Jahlinder, in the Punjab.

Sixteen instances of the fall of meteoric stones in the British
Isles are well authenticated. Four instances have been recorded
of persons being killed by falling meteors.

Iron in its native form is chiefly found in meteoric stones ;
doubtless from these the earliest implements of iron were forged.

I must not omit to refer to the remarkable discovery of altars
by Mr. H, P. Senhouse, near to the Roman Camp at Maryport,

in the summer of 1870, and which had been buried there since
the year 120, or about 1750 years, one of which claims special
attention in this paper. It was dedicated to Vulcan by Helstrius
Novellus, who commanded the first cohort of Spaniards—
Helstrius Novellus Praefectus Numini Volcani Solvit. Helstrius
Novellus the prefect (erects this altar in Aischarge of a vow) to the
deity Vulcan.

“For the first time in Britain,” says Dr. Bruce, “we meet
with a dedication to the blacksmith’s god, Vulcan.” Can we
admit this altar as evidence that the Romans worked iron at or
near our Roman Camp? Following out this idea, I may add
that Vulcan had a son called Olénus. The name given by the
Romans to their Camp at Maryport was Olenacum. Was the
Camp called after the river Alne, or the Alne after the son of
Vulcan? Though wishful to maintain the honour of the god
of iron-workers, I will not press the solution of this query, but call
attention to it as a curious coincidence.

Vulcan, I must tell the uninitiated, was the patron god of
all artists who worked in iron and metals. The most ancient
festival in honour of Vulcan seems to have been the Furnaria,
Vulcan being the god of furnaces. His forges were supposed to
be under Mount Etna, in the Island of Sicily, as well as in every
part of the earth where there were volcanoes. How puny is
the conception of our largest furnaces compared with those of
the brawny forgers of Jupiter’s thunder-bolts !

With our present knowledge of meteors, we can understand
the ancients conceiving fiery missiles descending on to the earth
to be the same that their god Vulcan had discharged from
volcanoes into the heavens. These celestial visitors, however,
numerous as they were, would have been totally inadequate to
_ meet the present requirements of man. Fortunately for us, iron
_ ores, widely distributed, and unlimited in quantity, are embedded
_ in the earth.

In many coal-fields the occurrence of rich beds of iron ore in

230

the strata of shale that alternate with the beds of coal, has
rendered the adjacent districts in our day remarkable as the site
of most important ironworks, while the limestone necessary for
a flux frequently occurs at no great distance.

But what interests us more particularly in this county, is that
remarkable deposit called Red Hematite, found in such abundance
in the Cleator and Ulverstone districts. This rich deposit con-
tains from sixty to seventy per cent. of iron by weight. Of several
varieties, two may be referred to. The first of these is Specular
Iron, of bright metallic lustre; it occurs in large and beautiful
crystalline masses in the Island of Elba, where it has been worked
for 2000 years. It is likewise found in many other parts of the
world. The other variety is Kidney Ore, the origin of which is still
a curious problem, as its deposits occur sometimes in apparently
regular beds. Its characteristic form is in large kidney-shaped
nodules, with a fine radiated structure, a shape, however, only
assumed in the cavities of massive deposits.

This Peroxide of Iron occurs in the Cleator district along the
lines of great faults and in caverns in the limestone, fifteen, thirty,
and even one hundred and sixty feet in thickness, while at Ulver-
stone it is deposited as if in pools or lakes formed in the underlying
rock.

I will now refer to the early history of iron as one of the useful
arts. Sir C. Lyell, in his “Antiquity of Man,” says, “It is difficult
to obtain any positive dates, even for the more recent transition
between the Iron and Bronze ages. We find, however, that
‘Hesiod, writing about 850 years B.C., speaks of a time when
Bronze had not been superseded by Iron; and Homer mentions
Tron but rarely, while he makes frequent reference to weapons and
implements of Bronze.”

Most opportunely has Dr. Schliemann, the celebrated ex-
plorer of the Ruins of Troy, furnished very interesting information
on this point. The following is an extract from Zhe Times of
November, 1878, containing an extract from his speech on the
subject :—“ By far the most interesting object he ever found in his

231

excavations at Troy is, he considers, a dagger of steel four inches
long. The blade, which is double-edged and in the form of an
arrow, is in a perfect state of preservation, which Dr. Schliemann
attributes to the antiseptic power of the red wood ashes mixed with
charcoal in which he found it embedded, in the large mansion
close to the gate, twenty-eight feet below Ps surface. He says:—
‘This is the first object of iron found by nie here, nay, until now I
had found no trace of iron in any one of the four prehistoric cities
the ruins and dédr7s of which succeed each other here, neither had
I found a trace of that metal at Mycenz. Homer freely mentions
iron, to which he applies three times (Il. vi., 48; x., 3793 Xi, 133)
the epithet fo/wmétos, that is to say a metal obtained with much
labour, and, as Mr. Gladstone observed in his preface to my
Mycene’ :—‘ The poet always mentions it as a rare and valuable
substance used where great hardness was required, and for objects
comparatively small and portable; except, indeed, in the case of
the gates of Tartaros (Il. viii, 15), where he could dispose of as
much material as he pleased. The aggregate quantity then was
small ; and the instruments were likely to be carried away on the
abandonment or destruction of acity. Its absence may, therefore,
be accounted for, in part by its value, but also, and more especially,
because it so readily corrodes.’ ‘For all the rest I perfectly agree
with Mr. Gladstone, but I certainly do not accept his opinion that
iron embedded in ancient #éér7s can possibly corrode and disappear
without leaving a trace of its existence. But if iron was so rare
and precious at the time of Homer, how much rarer and more
precious must it then not have been at the time of Ilium’s catas-
trophe, which appears, by the objects of human industry I find
here, to have preceded the poet by a long number of centuries?

‘The Greek word for iron (sidéros) can leave no doubt that the

first iron which was used was meteoric iron, and, as Mr. Birch, of
the British Museum, assures me, this is confirmed by the ancient
Egyptian name for that metal.’”

Mushet tells us that, “The discovery of iron in terrestrial ore
was probably first made during the conversion of wood into char-
coal, used by the ancients for domestic purposes, through portions

232

of ore getting mixed with it; in the course of ages by laborious
perseverance it would be discovered that, not only high temperature
was necessary, but that ore thus heated should not be directly
exposed to the action of that air which was the source of temper-
ature.”

This would lead to the practice of keeping the ore surrounded
as much as possible with fuel, while the process of conversion was
going forward; hence would arise the first attempt at a furnace.
In time, after the construction of furnaces had developed to a
condition of. comparative efficiency, bellows, which might have
been previously used for forging iron only, might be applied to its
manufacture, these gradually developing to the powerful blowing
machines of the present day.

I fear there does not now exist a clue by which the rise and
progress of this art can, with certainty, be traced ; an art which has
given man the mastery over all other metals and minerals, and
has conferred on him the unrivalled dominion of the universe.
Greatly delighted must the early worker in iron have been,
when, through patience and perseverance, he acquired reliable
rules of process by which he could obtain uniform results, and
discovered the powerful effects of air directed on the burning fuel in
raising the temperature, resulting in the earliest form of furnace.

Though we cannot precisely say what was the peculiar
form of the iron furnaces, or air bloomeries, of the Greeks
and Romans, yet we may form some idea from what is now
practised by other nations in the infancy of the art. In the
interior of Africa, a low conical furnace is used, which seems
an easy and natural structure for a rude age. Small
openings at the lower end of the cone to admit the air, and
a larger orifice at the top, would, with charcoal, be sufficient
to give a considerable degree of heat. The furnace would, in the
first instance, be filled with layers of charcoal and iron ore
alternately, and the fire applied to the openings in the lower
extremity of the furnace; the heat might be regulated by narrowing
or increasing those apertures, and a renewal of the fuel, when
necessary, be easily effected by the funnel at the top.

>

—

233

In other countries, furnaces of varying size and structure
have been devised, but acknowledge the same principle as those
now used on the burning sands of Africa.

The invention of bellows, and their eventual application to
the air bloomery, gave rise to the blast bloomery, and occasioned
a great revolution and improvement in the fabrication of iron,
tending materially to increase the pence and to improve the
quality.

In time, foot-blasts and hand-blasts, or bellows would be
abandoned ; oxen would cease to be used, and a more effectual
moving power, found on the banks of adjacent streams. Water-
wheels, giving motion to large bellows and hammers, would
succeed the crude and infantile efforts of a ruder age; so long as
there was water in the brook, the operation of blowing continued ;
when this supply ceased, smelting was at an end for the season,
and the labourers dispersed, some to the mines, others to the
woods, to prepare materials for another blast.

A decided advantage was obtained by increasing the size of the
furnace—it is probable that this enlargement would be pushed to
the extreme long before any adequate improvement took place in
the blowing machine. The soft and limited quantity of the blast
would be found insufficient to penetrate the column of iron-making
materials after the furnace had been made three or four times the
height of the old blast bloomery.

The combustion becoming languid, the furnace was narrowed

' towards the bottom, in order that the materials might be held in

partial suspension,—this suspending medium being then and since
called the ‘‘bosh.”

The charcoal blast furnace of the present age attained a
height of thirty feet, the diameter enlarged to eight or nine feet at
the boshes, and the whole capacity equal in some instances to
nine hundred or one thousand cubical feet. The first successful
experiments for making pig iron from coke, were, of course, per-
formed in the pre-existing charcoal furnace of this size.

The employment of coke rendered it necessary, in order to
effect economy in the production of iron, to increase the furnaces

234

in capacity to two, three, four, five, and six thousand cubic feet.
In later years these were followed by furnaces equal to ten
thousand cubic feet without the maximum effect even then
being obtained.

The oldest casting met with by Mr. Mushet in Dean Forest
is dated 1620. The first iron guns cast in England were in
1547, by a person in London of the name of Owen, who, in

1535, had succeeded for the first time in making guns from brass —

or bronze.

The opinion that the blast furnace for the production of cast
or pig iron was an English invention has received corroboration
from various circumstances.

The fact of Owen casting iron guns in 1547, would indicate a
knowledge of the re-melting of iron, and is a considerable confir-
mation of the previous existence of the blast furnace, and of its
productions in the shape of castings of various sorts, a great variety
of which would most likely be first fabricated before commencing
upon pieces of ordnance. It is fair also to presume that pig iron
would be well known, and applied for the purpose of making bar
iron, long before it became a staple article in the manipulations of
the foundry.

Mr. Hill, of the Plymouth Iron Works, gave to Mr. Mushet
a perfect casting, on which are inscribed the Arms of England,
with the initials E.R., bearing date 1553,—being the last year of
the reign of Edward the Sixth.

We have now come down to that, to us, interesting period of
iron manufacture, extending from the year 1752 to 1783, when the
old furnace at Maryport was built and worked as a commercial
speculation. All honor to the names of those who entered on the
enterprise, sanguine, no doubt, of great results, but doomed
eventually to disappointment ; all honour also to the man who had
intelligence to read the future, and also the liberality to afford them
on very reasonable terms the necessary land, buildings, and other
facilities for starting their venture. Viewing, as we now do, the
great iron industries established at Maryport of late years, one
cannot fail to be impressed with the apparent prescience of the

235

Mr. Humphrey Senhouse of that day,* revived in and emulated by
his family a century afterwards, as evinced by the establishment of
extensive iron-works of late years.

I have been kindly allowed to examine the documents at
Nether Hall, bearing on the history of the old furnace, namely :—
A lease granted in 1752 by Humphrey Senhouse, Esq., of
Netherhall, to—James Postlethwaite, of Cartmel ; William Lewth-
waite, of Kirkby Hall; William Postlethwaite, of Kirkby ; Thomas
Hartley, of Whitehaven; John Gale, of Whitehaven ; Edward
Tubman, of Whitehaven; Edmund Gibson, of Whitehaven; of
buildings, quarries, and land, on which to erect furnaces and
forges, with power to deepen the river Ellen between the works
and the harbour, for a term of fifty years, at the yearly rent of
452 tos. od.

In a letter from Mr. John Smith to Mr. Senhouse, dated May,
1787, reference is made to the deficiency of water for working the
blast in certain seasons,

In,a letter dated November, 1783, from Mr. John Barnes to
Mr. Senhouse, reference is made to the desire of the Furnace, Co.
to sell him the lease, on account of the embarrassed state of the
concern. In the following January, Mr. Senhouse agreed to

* Epitaph in Maryport Church.

HUMPHREY SENHOUSE,
Of Nether Hall, Esquire,
Died July 12th, 1770,

Aged 65.

It is needless to record
on a perishable Tablet
The many eminent virtues
which adorned his character.
The Town of Maryport,
Founded and Flourishing
Through his auspicious patronage,
May haply prove
Till time shall be no more
A striking monument
in honor of his memory.

236

purchase the lease, together with all the machinery and other
materials, for 4600.

In the inventory of the property and materials, the following
particulars are given: — “ The buildings belonging to the
furnace are very extensive, large, and convenient, being
three large coal houses, which will contain charcoal or coke
sufficient for a year’s blast; three commodious houses for the -
storing of iron ores; three dwelling houses for workmen; a
large and convenient casting house, with a very good furnace,
both adjoining to the blast furnace, by which the foundry
branch may be carried on to the greatest extent; seven-
teen ovens for charring coals, built on an improved plan, and
which make a cinder superior to any other method; and a neat
well-built dwelling house, most agreeably situated, and very
convenient for the works.”

The old Maryport furnace, when erected, would be considered
a large and costly structure,—the pride of its owners; now its
venerable features and dilapidated pyramidal form look down on
us as from a past generation, usefully encouraging us by the
evidence of its past efforts, and warning us to avoid its defects.

The base of the furnace measures, outside, thirty feet square ;
the height, thirty six-feet; to the top of the chimney portion, seven
feet more. The present inside diameter of the bottom is eight
feet; at seven feet above the bottom, the diameter at the bosh is
twelve feet six inches. It is built of solid masonry of red sand-
stone, lined with brick.

The defective principle on which it was built (square instead
of round) is shewn by the large cracks at the side, caused by the
destructive action of heating and cooling, which could not be
uniform in such a structure.

The papers I have just referred to, afford evidence that
the working of the furnace was occasionally stopped for want
of water to turn the wheel which worked the blast cylinders.
This uncertain supply of water in summer would be a constant
source of anxiety to the owners, from which future iron masters
were relieved by the invention of the steam engine. Indeed, I am

237

inclined to believe that the ultimate failure of the enterprise was
occasioned by the uncertainty of the water supply, as may be
inferred from the Netherhall documents.

Nevertheless, at one time the furnace appears to have been
worked with some degree of success ; for it is stated in the History
and Antiquities of Cumberland, by Joseph Nicolson and Richard
Burn, published 1777, page 162, “ ao hes a furnace for casting
iron-ware, which carries on a considerable trade.”

The coke was no doubt made in the adjacent ovens from coal
raised at the neighbouring colleries, at ‘“‘The Gill” and “Senhouse
Moor,” in the vicinity of Mr. Boyd’s new house.

I have discovered no evidence of the smelting being effected
with charcoal.

In the agreement of January, 1784, it is stated that there
was at the works iron ore from Whitrigg, Crossgates, Inmangill,
and Whitehaven. I have heard it stated that ore was carried to the
works on ponies’ backs ; this, however, is doubtful. I believe that
the principal part was brought in small craft by sea, and taken at
flood-tide up the river and discharged close to the works, and that,
by similar means, iron was shipped to coast towns, and probably to
Treland.

My venerable neighbour, Captain Benn, informed me lately
that the grandfather of his son-in-law, Robert Brown, brought iron
stone from Palnackie (Water of Urr), Kirkcudbrightshire, in a very
little vessel, which went up the Ellen close to the works to
discharge.

About fifteen years ago, I called the attention of the late Mr.
Senhouse to an old pig of iron which I observed to be fixed as the
sill of an opening into the old furnace yard. Shortly afterwards
it was removed to Netherhall. On the pig were cast the letters
H.S., 1769. The iron which had set in the furnace bottom when
the works were stopped, lies like a huge meteor at the angle of
the wall near to the Furnace Mill. The ground near the furnace
contains a quantity of slag.

Mr. Barwise (Clerk of the Trustee Board), informs me that
his father, who rented from Mr, Senhouse the adjoining field, knew

238

an old sailor who, for some time, converted one of the old coke
ovens into a dwelling. The boys of a later date occupied them
on holidays as play-houses in stormy weather.

I am told that seventy years ago, coke was made at the ovens
for the purpose of drying damaged corn, previous to its being
ground at the adjacent mill.

Since 1783 immense progress has been made in all that
appertains to the smelting and manufacture of iron. Now furnaces
are built circular of comparatively thin brick work, and surrounded
entirely by strong iron plates; the inner lining being of refractory
fire brick, separated from the outer portion of the wall by a narrow
space filled with sand. Recent ones have been built as high as
from eighty to one hundred feet.

A bell or cone is used for closing the mouth of the furnace, so
as to save the “waste gases;” these are conveyed by pipes from
openings just under the cone, and are used to raise steam and heat
the blast, which afterwards passes to the blast pipe surrounding
the hearth with its tuyere branches.

In the period embracing 1750, blast furnaces produced on an
average three hundred tons of pig iron annually, while the largest
constructed of late years yields 24,000 tons in the same time ; in
fact, the produce of a single modern furnace is equal to nearly one
and a half times the crude iron made in this country one hundred
and twenty years ago.

The cubic contents of the furnace of 1854 were 5,079 cubic
feet; that of 1863, 16,000 cubic feet; and 1870, 30,000 cubic
feet. The cost of two furnaces of the last description was
456,331:

In the year 1827, a height of furnace of fifty feet, and a
capacity of from 4,000 to 6,000 cubic feet, fulfilled all the require-
ments deemed necessary by the iron smelters.

About the year in question, a manager of Gas Works, Mr. J.
B. Neilson, of Glasgow, conceived the idea that, by heating the
air before it entered the blast furnace, an increased intensity of
temperature would ensue. The conception formed the subject
of a patent, since so extensively known as the “Hot Blast,”

239

and which, at the period of its introduction, constituted one of
the most remarkable events in the history of the iron trade.
It is now, however, asserted by some manufacturers, that
experience has proved that Neilson’s invention mainly served to
remedy a defect in furnaces of his time, viz :—want of capacity,
which defect, when removed, was as efficacious in saving fuel as
the hot blast itself, i.e. a ton of iron, with cold blast, could be made
in a furnace seventy one feet high, with“s small a consumption
of fuel as was required when hot blast was applied to a furnace
fifty-three feet in height,—in each case identically the same materials
being used. The “fifty-three feet” hot blast furnace has been proved
to turn out a larger make of iron than that blown with cold air
(probably two hundred tons per week, against one hundred and
twenty tons) ; but on the other hand, the larger furnace, without
any apparatus to maintain, or fuel to expend for heating the air,
is able to do its work as efficiently in point of fuel consumed in
the furnace as the other, assisted by the more complicated
appendage suggested by Neilson.

This problem of the most economical and effective mode of
constructing and working blast furnaces, is one on which opinions
still vary, but the importance of it may be shewn by the following
figures given by Mr. Lowthian Bell :—

Furnace of Cubic feet - 6,000 12,000 16,000 26,000 41,000.
Weekly make, tons - 220° “aG0''* eno '' B4oo |") 550,
Weekly make per 1,000¢. ft. 37 23 22 16 ra

The effect of a large furnace of 41,000 cubic feet producing
less in proportion than one of 16,000 cubic feet, is that the charge
for interest on outlay is about one hundred to sixty-six in favor of
the latter, but if including more expensive engines, heating stoves,
etc., the proportion would be one hundred to ninety-two.

In addition to what has just been stated, it must also be borne
in mind that the phenomena connected with the operations of the
blast furnace are liable to be affected by so many disturbing
causes, namely, quality of fuel, of limestone, and of iron ore,
efficiency of the heating apparatus, the size of the tuyeres, and the

240

heat and intensity of the blast, that much caution is required in
arriving at any fixed opinion on the nature of a process so com-
plicated as that of iron smelting.

I may here observe that the cubic capacity of the old Maryport
furnace is about 2700 feet, and of the furnaces erected of late
years at Maryport by the Solway Iron Co., 13,000 cubic feet.

Estimating the produce of the old furnace at 500 tons per
annum, and of each of the Solway Co.’s furnaces at only 500 tons
per week, or 26,000 tons per annum, and applying that figure to
the ten furnaces at Maryport, we may estimate the whole of the
present furnaces as capable of producing 260,000 tons of pig iron
per annum, or 520 times more than the old furnace—a quantity
which if converted into a continuous length of ordinary railway
bars would reach from Maryport to the centre of the earth.

I will now give some information relative to the quantity of
pig iron produced in the country during the period that the old
furnace was in operation, compared with the produce of subsequent
years, kindly sent to me by Mr. R. Hunt, F.R.S., Keeper of the
Mining Records at the Museum of Practical Geology.

The quantity of pig iron made in England and Wales and
Scotland in the following years, will serve to show the progress
which has been made between 1740 and 1854, the first year in
which statistics were collected by the Mining Record Office, and
the year 1876 :—

TONS
1740 Charcoal Pig Iron” - - - 17,350
1788 Charcoal Pig Iron 13,100 \ ;
» Coke Pig Iron 48,200 61,300

»» Charcoal and Coke Furnaces in Scotland —_7,000

otek caene and Wales fee \ ot Gea
1806 Great Britain - - - - 258,206
1830 * S - - 678,417
1839 9 - - - - 1,248,781
1847 » : : ; - 1,999,608
1852 26 - - - - 2,701,000
1854 ” : : 5 - 3,069,838

1876 * : - = 6,555:977

Se ee

241

In 1854 the produce of Pig Iron in Cumberland and Lancashire
was 20,000 tons; in 1876 it had risen to 989,871 tons.

The reason we have been able to spin, weave, and manufacture
all staple articles of commerce cheaper and better than any other
country, is mainly owing to our abundant supply of coal, and the
cheapness and low cost at which we produce pig iron.

In no other article of manufacture is oxfality of such vital and
universal importance as that of iron; furnishing as it does the
artillery and small arms of our Army and Navy, steam boilers,
girder bridges, columns, beams, roofs, chains, etc., and entering
more or less extensively into the construction of everything upon
which life is dependent for safety. The best pig iron is chiefly
made from the best iron ore and iron stone; and the best and
purest iron ore in Great Britain is found in the Cleator and Furness
districts.

It is now well understood that the use of these Hematite
ores, mixed with other ores, impart greater strength, greater power
of resistance to sudden shocks or strains, and will produce more
dense, solid, and sound metal than any other ore of iron. Their
purity and easy fusibility render them especially advantageous in
furnaces where more refractory and less pure mineral is used.

» Hematite pig iron has a special value as being suited to themanu-
facture of Bessemer steel, which material has effected a revolution,
or has caused a bound in the progress of engineering science as great
almost as that caused by the supersession of timber by malleable
iron in the construction of many works. Steam boilers are being
made of steel. Ships are being built of steel, as they cause less
displacement than ships built of iron, steel being especially

_ valuable in the case of river craft in tropical countries. Bessemer

steel rails are being adopted almost invariably by Railway Com-
panies, adding to the safety and comfort of travellers, and to the
economy of maintaining the permanent way.

A very grand work is about to be constructed across the Forth

_by Mr. Thomas Bouch, the eminent engineer (a Thursby man). This

work, an enormous viaduct, is of such dimensions that the weight and
relative strength of the material employed, are important elements
17

242

for consideration. The spans of the girders being so large, and
steel being so much stronger in proportion to its weight than iron,
the former material has been selected; the confidence of the
engineer in the success of his undertaking being thereby confirmed.
One of the most interesting associations connected with the
history of the old. Maryport furnace is the fact that the period during
which it was in operation was made resplendent by the genius of the
great men who were then directing their energies to the advance-
ment of Science and Practical Mechanics bearing on the develop-
ment of manufactures. In the front rank stood James Watt, aided
and encouraged by Drs. Black, Priestly, Dalton, and Darwin.
Truly may we say in the words of Watt’s epitaph—“They enlarged
the resources of their country, and increased the power of man.”

THE DRAMA AND DRAMATISTS.

By E. FLETCHER.

(Read at Whitehaven. )

The subject of the Drama and Dramatists is a vast and
comprehensive one, embracing as it does the whole of the British
drama from its earliest stage to the present time. Midst the gloom
and darkness that prevailed in the earlier centuries of our history,
little is known concerning those poets who first took pen in hand to
frame the English drama.

In England the Miracle Play, or Mystery, acted in churches
and convents, either by the clergy themselves, or by their direction,
was the earliest form of the English drama. The only knowledge
of Bible history possessed by the rude and ignorant masses of the
people during the latter centuries of the Middle Ages was got from
q these plays. The subjects chosen were such as the Creation, the
a Fall, the Deluge, the Crucifixion,—and were dramatized with little
_ regard to the sacred and awful nature of the themes. Profane
and terrible were these mistaken teachings. Three platforms, one
_ above another, formed a triple stage ; the topmost represented the
_ Heaven of Heavens, and was occupied by a group of actors who
a personated the Almighty and His angels; below stood those who
* played the parts of the redeemed ; upon the lowest platform which
_ imitated the world, the deeds of men were represented, and not far

244

from the side of the lowest station, there smoked a fiery furnace,
which stood for Hell. The comic element was not forgotten, and
of all beings, who should the priests of the church choose to be
the first comedian but the Prince of Darkness; he it was who,
according to the vulgar notion, equipped with horns and tail,
created the fun which kept the yokels in laughter and good temper.
It is not known when these plays commenced, but from the year
1268 to 1577, Miracle Plays were acted in Chester and other large
towns and cities throughout the country.

Gradually the Miracle Plays changed into the Moralities,
which form the second stage in the development of the English
drama. Here, instead of Scripture characters, we find sentiment
and abstract ideas, such as Mercy, Justice, and Truth, first
introduced, which led to the composition of an improved drama.
It was about the year 1540, during the reign of Henry VIII., that
acting became a distinct profession ; both Miracle and Moral plays
having previously been represented by clergymen, school-boys, or
by some members of a corporate body, and only brought forward
at the time of some great festivity.

As the introduction of allegorical characters had been an
improvement upon the Scriptural plays, so was the introduction of
historical characters an improvement upon the former. While
speaking of the Mystery plays, few people would imagine that we ©
owe the origin of the street entertainment of Punch and Judy
(before which almost every man, woman, or child has stopped to
laugh away an idle half hour), to the remains of an old Mystery
play, upon the trial of our Saviour. Punch is so called from the
name of the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, and Judy is a
corruption from Judas Iscariot, the traitor apostle who sacrificed
the life of our great Redeemer.

It was soon found that a real human being with a human
name, was better calculated to waken the sympathies of an
audience. The substitution of these instead of symbolical char-

245

acters, took place during the earlier part of the 16th century; and

' with this, aided by the Greek dramatic literature, which now began

to be studied, the genuine English drama took its rise.

“Ralph Doyster Doyster, a dramatic picture of London Life,”
written by Nicholas Udall, master of Westminster school about the
year 1550 is, as far as is known, the first English comedy. Next
comes “Gammer Gurton’s Needle,” a comedy written by John Still,
bishop of Bath and Wells, a humourous but somewhat coarse writer
of that period. It is to be observed that both these plays were
written by clergymen. As specimens of something between the
Moral plays and the then modern drama, the interludes of John
Heywood may be mentioned. He was a wit and musician at the
court of King Henry VIII. MHeywood’s dramatic compositions
embraced all the fun of the broadest farce, coupled with no small
amount of skill and talent. One of these productions called “The
four P.’s,” turns upon a dispute between a Palmer, a Pedlar, a
Pardoner, and a Poticary, as to who shall tell the grossest false-
hood, when the Palmer incidentally states he never saw a woman
out of patience in his life, which takes the rest off their guard, and
they immediately yield him the palm.

The regular drama from the first was divided into two parts,
Comedy and Tragedy. ‘Tragedy is of later origin than Comedy,
being taken from the elevated portions of the Moral plays, and
from the pure models of Greece and Rome. The earliest
known tragedy is that of “Ferrex and Porrex,” composed by
Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset, and it was played before Queen
Elizabeth by the students of the Inner Temple in January, 1561.

By a sudden and enormous stride the English drama reached
the magnificent creations of Shakespere in a few years after the
productions of its earliest perfect specimens. Not half a century
after John Heywood amused the court of King Henry VIII,
Queen Elizabeth and her Maids of Honour assembled to witness the
misfortunes of old John Falstaff, or to admire the greatest tragedies

246

the world has ever seen. It might be mentioned, that as all the
dramas were written to be acted before Queen Elizabeth, it is not
to be wondered at that many compliments were put inte the mouths
of the actors to please the dictatorial and somewhat vain queen.

There were several dramatists before the advent of Shakespere,
of more or less note; and in almost every instance these men
possessed a classical education. George Peele, John Lyly, Robert
Greewe, had studied at the Universities, and evidently had imbibed
their love for dramatic composition from the Greek and Latin
poets.

Christopher Marlowe, a fiery and imaginative spirit, who
appeared a little before the time of Shakespeare, wrote “The Jew
of Malta,” “Edward the Second,” and other plays, but was doomed
to pale in brightness before the greatest master of the age, William
Shakespere.

The writings of Marlowe had evidently prepared the way for
Shakespere. They had adorned the stage with more variety of
character and action, with deeper passion and with truer poetry
than had been known before. Above all, they had familiarized
the public ear to the use of blank verse. The last improvement
was the greatest, for even Shakespere would have been fettered if
he had been compelled to write in rhyme.

The Elizabethan age was a glorious one for the drama.
Shakespere, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, Beaumont and
Fletcher, burst upon the world with their mighty lines. It was the
age of chivalry, of honour, and romance, and as such was reflected
in the -writings of the dramatist. The stage has ever been the
reflex of the hour: so we have left to us in the comedies of Shake-
spere and Jonson, the quaint conceits and peculiar humours which
inhabited the brains and formed the manners of the courtiers of
those days. We see that till the advent of Shakespeare there was
scarcely any drama in England. It was he who took the ancient
stories of the time, and with wit, fire, grace, and imagery, gave life

5 Si es

247

and being to the English drama. It is my intention to illustrate
by some short passages from the different dramatists, each separate
era in the history of the stage. [The author read Shakespere’s
comparison of the world to a stage. As you like it—Act 2
scene vii. |

Ben Jonson generally has assigned to him the second place
in dramatic literature, although many writers advocate the more

_Shakesperian style of Beaumont and Fletcher. Like Shakespeare,
Jonson was an actor, and therefore naturally understood better the
requirements most needed in building up a play. Ben Jonson is
more famed for comedy than tragedy. [As a specimen of his
quaint humour and conceit, the author read a short extract from
“Every Man in his Humour,” where one Bobadil, a braggadocia
fellow, tells you his plan how to save the expense of an army. |

The chief fault of the comedies of the Elizabethan age is their
coarseness, but that was the habit of the time; and when we reflect
that the beautiful creations of Portia, Imogene, Juliet, and Rosalind,
were not acted by females, but by young men and boys, it may go
some little way to palliate their grossness.

Up to this time the authors of each drama had to beg, cap in
hand, permission from some noble lord or patron of the drama, to
dedicate their plays to him; and the recompense each generally
received was a gratuity doled out according to the fulsome adulation

addressed in the dedication. Poets and dramatists at all times
have been unfortunate, and even the mighty Shakespere,
although his dramas were always accepted and found favour in his

_ day, became rich and opulent, not by his works, or by his acting

(for he was but a third rate performer), but by his share in the

_ proprietorship of the Globe theatre, which was a profitable concern,

_and placed him and his fellows above the reach of want. In

Shakespere’s time many of his brother actors wielded the dramatic

pen, but all their works were eclipsed by his more magic hand.
Following Queen Elizabeth, the reign of James I. produced

248

only one famous dramatist, Philip Massinger, an unfortunate
author, whose days were spent in obscurity and poverty. He
wrote the play of “A New Way to Pay Old Debts.” The
principal character, Sir Giles Overreach, being a satire upon a
famous Judge of the Star Chamber, one Sir George Mompesson,
an old and griping usurer. This dramatist was singularly gifted,
and wrote with-delicacy, force, and expression. He died in
London, and was buried at Covent Garden, where a stone, for
more than a century, recorded that here lies Philip Massinger, “a
stranger.” John Ford was another writer of this age, as was
Thomas Heywood, who wrote upwards of two hundred plays, very
few of which have remained to the present day. Speaking of the
men and boys who represented the female characters, it is some-
what amusing to us who have so many talented ladies to represent
the beautiful creations of the dramatist, to find that, in the time of
Charles I., the curtain could not be allowed to rise because Juliet
had not shaved, or Portia had to remove a heavy beard. The old
dramatists, too, had other things to fight against than men playing
women’s parts,—the theatres were generally platforms run up in
Inn yards, where the galleries around formed the boxes and dress
circle. In Gloucester and Worcester, several old-fashioned Inns
are still remaining, where tradition states that Shakespere had
played his part. In London the first licensed theatre, the Black-
friars, was not erected till 1576, and then the stage portion alone
was covered, leaving the audience part exposed to the rain and
cold.

It must have been a hard thing for the dramatist in those days
to have seen his plays acted for the first time—it being customary
for the gay gallants to sit upon the stage (which was then strewn
with rushes), during the performance, and join in freely with the
actor commenting upon the ability or weakness of the conception
of the author.

The want of scenery and other adjuncts must have militated

249

severely against the success of aplay. Shakespere, in his comedy.
of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” explains the scanty shifts the
performers had to make in those days—by the peculiar devices of
Bottom the Weaver and his Athenian associates in their perform-
ance before Duke Theseus at Athens. The sum paid for a play
at this time was from 410 to £20—a slight difference from the
present time, when Bouccicault, for a cleverly constructed Irish
drama, devoid of all literary merit, makes his thousands of pounds !
and Byron, the author of “ Our Boys,” will not, it is asserted, put
pen to paper for a new comedy under 4 300, which must be paid
for whether bad or good, successful or otherwise.

The courts of James I. and Charles I. were enlivened by a
peculiar theatrical entertainment, called a Masque, which has
derived particular interest from the genius of Ben Jonson and John
Milton. The origin of the Masque is looked for in the revels and
shows which, during the 14th and 15th centuries, were presented
at court and at the Universities. Masques were generally prepared
for some remarkable event, such as a coronation or a marriage, and
frequently acted by the highest nobles in the land. After the
death of James I., the Civil War between Charles and his Parlia-
ment broke up the theatres, so that the pen of the dramatist lay
idle. It was but natural to suppose that the actors, who were
sunned by the bounty and graced by the smiles of royalty, should
lean to the side of the Cavaliers. They mostly became Royalist
soldiers, and played out their parts upon the battle fields of
England. During the Commonwealth, all theatres were closed ;
the grim and sober Puritan erring as much on the one side as the
gay and spendthrift Cavaliers upon the other. That the drama
should be an eyesore to the Puritans was a matter of course, as it
was then reflecting back the vices of the Court. But with the
rejection of the drama, in the mind of the Puritan every simple
game, sport, or pastime was a sin, even to the bringing in of a

250

boar’s head at a feast, or to a dance on the village green. Still
the love of the drama lay deeply imbedded in the hearts of the
English people. John Milton, poet and Puritan as he was, writes
most heartily of his admiration for the stage.

England then passed through a fiery furnace only to find in
the accession of Charles II. more licentiousness and more
immorality than has ever disgraced the pages of our history. The
Court at Whitehall gave the tone to English society ; and dramas
generally are but the reflections of what society thinks and does.
The vices of the Court were mirrored by the poets and dramatists
of that day, who manufactured grossness and immorality for the
wicked men and women who thronged around an idle and ~
dissolute king.

The plays of the poet Dryden are nearly all tainted with the
poisonous atmosphere of the time, while those of Wycherly are the
most diseased specimens which remain to the present day. It is
to be regretted that many dramatists courted fame,—not by the
midnight lamp in the student’s cell, but in the festivities of the
great Metropolis, sharpening their wits against superior brains, and,
if unsuccessful, falling one by one into a wasted life. It must be
remembered that every poet more or less tries to write a play. It
has ever been a favourite style of composition. The creation of
character, the freedom of thought, the satires on the times, and to.
hear from the actor’s lips the conceptions of the dramatist, have
generally been the ambition of poets. Few young writers think,
when they sit down to write a play, of its positive necessities, of the
- unities of time and place; and I think it may be asserted, of all
the rubbish written in novels and in books, there cannot be more
presented than is offered to the public in the shape of plays. On
one occasion a play was sent to me for perusal, and when I opened
the manuscript, I found the story commenced in the infernal
regions, with a dialogue between three evil spirits, when to them

251

entered Sesostris, King of Egypt, who, after some slight conver-
sation, rang a bell and called “John the Waiter,” who entered at
that moment. How the would-be dramatist could reconcile the
presence of Sesostris, an ancient King of Egypt, and our modern
“John the Waiter” at the same time, was too much for me. I
laid the drama down and did not enquire further.

It must be remembered that up to the year 1622,
there were but few books, and those must have been most
expensive. The ignorant masses must have gained their little
learning from the drama. It was not till the Civil War that
newspapers regularly made their appearance, which, of course, soon
helped to enlighten the minds of many groping in the dark. From
the dissolute writers of Charles II., we have little to record till
Addison came, who wrote the tragedy of “Cato,” a fine declamatory
poem, but without the life and fire of true dramatic poetry ; like
a fine piece of sculpture compared to a living human being.

Nicholas Rowe, the author of the drama of “Jane Shore,”
lived at this time. He is to be remembered as having first written
the “Life of Shakespere,” and to him we are indebted for the
little knowledge we possess of our poet’s history. Allan Ramsey,
who wrote the pastoral drama of “The Gentle Shepherd,” and
Gay, the dramatist of “The Beggar’s Opera,” closely followed at
this period. No great genius came upon the scene from this date
till poor Oliver Goldsmith took the town by storm with “She
Stoops to Conquer.” This gave a new turn to the drama, and was
followed by other witty comedies in the same style by Brindley
Sheridan, George Colman, Holcroft, and others, whose works—
“The School for Scandal,” ‘The Rivals,”. “The Heir at Law,”
—are ever likely to keep the stage. They are pictures of life as it
then was, and bring back to us the fashions and manners of our
forefathers. :

Going a little further back, Samuel Johnson wrote a prologue

252

for David Garrick at the opening of Drury Lane theatre, which
gives in epitome the falling off of the great writers for the stage
since the time of Shakespere :—

‘* When learning’s triumph o’er her barbarous foes
First reared the stage, immortal Shakespere rose ;
Each change of many coloured life he knew,
Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new.
Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign,

And panting Time toiled after him in vain ;
His powerful strokes presiding truth imprest,
And unresisted passion stormed the breast.
Then Jonson came, instructed from the school,
To please in method, and invent by rule ;
His studious patience and laborious art,

ee

By regular approach, essayed the heart.
Cold approbation gave the lingering bays—
For those who durst not venture, scarce could praise.
A mortal born, he met the general doom,
But left, like Egypt’s kings, a lasting tomb. .
The wits of Charles found easier ways to fame, |
Nor wished for Jonson’s art, or Shakespeare’s fame ; 4
Themselves they studied, as they felt they writ,— .
Intrigue was plot, obscenity was wit ;
Vice always found a sympathetic friend, ;
They pleased their age and did not aim to mend.
Yet bards like these aspired to lasting praise,
And proudly hoped to pimp in future days. i
Their cause was general, their supports were strong, :
Their slaves were willing, and their reign was long, .
Till shame regained the post that sense betrayed, j
And virtue called oblivion to her aid. n
Hard is his lot that here by fortune placed,
To watch the wild vicissitude of taste ;
With every meteor of caprice must play,
And chase the new blown bubbles of the day.
Oh ! let not censure term our fate our choice,—
The stage but echoes back the public voice ;
The drama’s laws, the drama’s patrons give,
For we that live to please, must please to live.” rs

i Guar & ~r

— ee ee ee eee ee ee eee

sis

4
J

253

George Colman, the author of “The Jealous Wife,” and his
son of the same name, added to our national drama the comedies
of “The Heir at Law,” “John Bull,” and “The Poor Gentleman,”
all of which plays are still represented.

It is a singular fact that a great many clergymen have written
for the stage, and amongst them may be cited—_John Home, the
author of the tragedy of “Douglas,” who was persecuted with
such fierceness by the Presbytery at Edinbro’, that he had to flee
the country; Dr. Young, who wrote “The Revenge;” Dean
Milman, of St. Paul’s, who wrote “ Fazio ;” the Rev. Mr. Maturin,
who wrote the tragedy of “ Bertram,” and hundreds of others.

It should be mentioned that at all times as the habits and
customs of society improved, so did the drama at all periods
reflect the progress of the age.

John Tobin, the author of “The Honeymoon,” deserves a
passing word for his admirable word-painting in his description to
his wife of the dress he would have her appear in. The story, it
may be remembered, is taken from Shakespere’s “Taming of the
Shrew.” The Duke says :—

‘*T should like well to see you
In the dress I last presented you.”

She says, “The blue one?” to which he replies,

“*No love, the white. Thus modestly attired,

A half blown rose stuck in thy braided hair,

With no more diamonds than those eyes are made of,
No deeper rubies than compose thy lips,

Nor pearls more precious than inhabit them ;

With the pure red and white which that same Hand
Which blends the rainbow, mingles, in thy cheeks,
Thy well proportioned form (think not I flatter)

In graceful motion to harmonious sounds,

And thy free tresses dancing in the wind,

Thow'lt fix as much observance as chaste dames

Can meet without a blush.”

254

The expression Aranza gives, when telling his wife he would wish
her to be as Heaven made her, “With the pure red and white
which that same Hand that blends the rainbow mingles in thy
cheeks,” is, I think, singularly felicitous.

Sheridan Knowles is the next famous dramatist of modern
times, or rather of the present century ; but his style is not original,
being moulded upon that of Philip Massinger, one of the best of
our Elizabethan poets. His language is graceful and forcible, but
at times the meaning of the sentences and the plots of his plays
are somewhat obscure. “William Tell,” “ Virginius,” and “The
Hunchback,” are the most popular of his plays. Selections from
them may be found in every ‘‘ Guide to Elocution.”

Bulwer Lytton, though somewhat high flown in sentiment, has
done good service to the drama by his noble play of “ Richlieu,”
the comedy of “ Money,” and the ever popular “ Lady of Lyons.”

Society has altered much during the last decade. The taste
generally is 7o¢ to see the Elizabethan or the legitimate drama, but
to see reflected the manners, habits, and customs of this matter-of-
fact age; and for that reason few men are to be found writing
plays with any poetic skill, but rather attempting to string so many
incidents together, either to excite interest or to cause a laugh.

With rare exceptions, the poetical drama of the present day
may be said to have died out, although Westland Marston, and
Mr. Wills, the author of ‘Charles I.” and “ Jane Shore,” still live to
prove that polished and graceful poetical writing may be appreci-
ated by us even in these degenerate days.

It is only natural that taste should change, and that T. W.
Robertson, Albery, and Henry Byron in their comedies, such as
“Society,” ‘Caste,” “The Two Roses,” and “ Our Boys,” should
be preferred to the creations of our elder dramatists. As the
glorious writers of the Elizabethan era reflected the age in which
they lived, so do our modern writers mirror the faults and foibles

255

_ of the present time; and if the fine imagery and glowing thoughts
are not presented in our modern dramas, it is because they are not
_ wanted ; and what we may lack in graceful metaphor and polished
phrase, we doubtless gain in delicacy and good taste.

I will conclude this paper with the remark that the English
_ Drama, the offspring of Civilization and of Art, containing the
culled flowers from the choicest gardens of our poets, will ever
4 remain deeply engraved in the hearts of the English people, and
be appreciated as long as our language is spoken.

apace ard Hee les

ficYe Tees
t 4 7 agi seh are
ky evett eye AS icy et oe ass Laer

dip heal? ee NAT ne ~h
me te = 4 t

FLAX AND FLAX-WORKERS.

BA Wie aWelv a5 OUN

(Read at Whitehaven. )

. I do not think it necessary to make an apology for reading a
paper on trade at a Scientific Institution, inasmuch as it would, I
presume, be readily admitted that scientific pursuits and scientific

_ discoveries were valuable in proportion to their ministering to the
necessities and enjoyments of life. He who would form a correct
estimate of the benefits resulting to mankind from the industries of
the United kingdom, must not omit the Linen Trade. The linen
trade is of national importance. There is also considerable artistic
skill displayed in the production of a material which, for personal
wear and many domestic purposes, is at once the most cleanly,
healthful, and agreeable of all the home-made fabrics in use
amongst us.

When looked at under the microscope, the flax fibre is seen

_ to be cylindrical, bright, smooth, and transparent. The cotton

fibre is, on the other hand, surrounded by a multitude of exceed-

ingly minute edges. This may explain the reason why linen and
cotton cloths act so differently upon the health of those who wear
them.

In point of national importance, the linen trade holds a

‘prominent place amongst the industries of the world: some

millions of persons in the United Kingdom are employed in the

‘manufacture of linen. It is stated that about one-third of the

population of Ireland are, in one way or other, connected with the

18

258

cultivation of flax, and its manufacture into linen. A trade which
finds employment for so large a portion of the population of the
country, is of great importance; and, therefore, any cause which
seriously interferes with its freedom, is felt to be a great national
calamity.*

As to the artistic skill displayed in the linen industries, I do
not exaggerate when I state that art manufacture has not in any
department attained to greater perfection than it has in the pictorial
designs of our high-class figured damasks. Ona plain ground of
highly bleached linen cloth, white as snow, figures of fruits,
flowers, animals, and birds are formed,—not in mere outline, but
they stand out as perfect in form, feature, and detail, as a piece of
finely executed statuary in bas-relief, by a first-class artist. The
Jacquard Loom, on which those fine damasks are woven, is
perhaps the most complicated and perfect piece of machinery ever
invented. By a simple arrangement of the thread, the most minute
details in the form and plumage of a bird can be produced.

Great improvement has of late been made in the manufacture
of Jute Hemp, which is the lowest in value and durability of all the
hemp and flax fibres. In the low, swampy grounds of Southern
India, jute is indigenous, and grows to the height of from ten to

fourteen feet. Jute is now imported into this country in great

. quantities. The coarsest descriptions are chiefly used for common
bags. It is even currently reported that sail-cloth is also made from
it ;—I hope that this is only idle gossip. The safety of many a
ship depends upon the sails consisting of a much better and
stronger material than jute cloth. The finer portions of jute have
such a bright glossy appearance, that they can be made to
resemble silk. I have seen a good imitation of a silk hat said to
have been made from jute; the cost was only four shillings. I
could see very little difference between the silk hat I was wearing
and the hat made from jute fibre. It is also well known that silks
in the web are sometimes wefted with jute yarn. A lady in Liver-
* Tn addition to the flax grown in the country, about 80,000 tons of flax

are imported annually. The export trade amounts to 410,000,000 annually.
The value of the whole trade is estimated at upwards of 440,000,000 annually.

,

Pe rn Oe ae.

259

pool, in looking at some silks, enquired whether the piece she was
looking at was all silk? “No,” said the shopman, “it is mixed
with something as good as silk, called jute.” “I know what jute

is,” said the lady; “silks made of jute will not suit me.”

A new description of cloth made from jute is produced at the
Barrow Mills, for which a prize medal was awarded at the late
exhibition in Paris. I wrote to the manager asking for some
information respecting the jute cloth, and for samples. They have
been kind enough to send as many webs as would enable me to
start a small retail shop.*

I must now address myself to the antiquity of flax and flax-
workers, in as few words as a subject embracing such a wide field
will admit of.

The linen manufacture appears to have had its origin among
the Egyptians. The flax plant was indigenous in Egypt. From
the statement made in the Book of Exodus, we may infer that flax
was extensively cultivated in Egypt in the time of Moses. Flax is
first named in the account given of the plagues in Egypt. It is
stated, that “the flax and barley were smitten,” for “the barley was
in the ear, and the flax was bolled.” Then, that “the wheat and
the rye were not smitten, for they were not grown up.” From this we
learn that, 3,000 years ago, there were two crops annually in Egypt,
as there are at the present day—a winter crop and a summer

crop. The heat of summer, which was favourable for the growth of

wheat, was too hot for flax and barley. The last named were the
winter crops, and were smitten by the storm of hail which occurred
at this season of the year.

Such was the fertility of the land, that Egypt became not only
the greatest wheat producing, but also the largest flax growing
country in the world, and the great emporium of the linen trade.
Specimens of linen have been discovered in Egypt which are said

_ to be fully 4,000 years old. We learn from late researches,
_ especially by Sir J. G. Wilkinson, that flax was grown, spun,
P. bleached, and woven long prior to the existence of any historical
_ record. The processes of manufacture have been admirably

* The samples were exhibited in the lecture room.

260

depicted by the skilful hand of the artist on those imperishable
tablets found on the walls of the ancient palaces and temples.
There are representations of the various implements employed, and
the people in the act of sowing the seed, pulling the plant,
carrying water to fill the wooden vats for the purpose of steeping
the flax, dressing and spinning it into yarn, and weaving the yarn
into cloth, distinctly pourtrayed with a minuteness of detail, and
beauty of colouring, said to be truly astonishing. ‘The walls of the
curious grottoes and sepulchres dug out of the limestone rock are
covered with paintings as fresh and brilliant as when first executed.
Ranges of hills for miles in upper Egypt are filled with chambers
for the dead.

It is worthy of note, that very little improvement had been
made in the process of preparing the flax, and spinning it by hand,
up to the middle of last century. Several spindles have been
found, one of them with linen thread on it, very similar to those
which were in use just before spinning by machinery was invented.

The linen trade in Egypt must have been considerable at a
very early period. Both the living and the dead were clothed with
linen. Asan article of clothing in hot Eastern countries especially,
linen cloth is of all others the cleanest, coolest, and most agree-
able. It was the ordinary dress of the ancient Egyptians. The
priests were forbidden to wear vestments of any other material.
Independently of what was required to be made into articles of
dress, the numerous wrappers required for enveloping mummies
both of men and animals, show how large a quantity must have
been kept ready for the constant home demand. The linen taken
from one mummy weighed twenty-nine pounds, and measured
upwards of three hundred yards, being wound up in forty thick-
nesses of cloth, varying from the finest muslin to the coarsest
sail-cloth.

Almost every museum in Europe of any pretensions contains
one or more of these highly dried human specimens. For many
centuries the caverns of Egypt have been mines of wealth to the
Arabs living in the neighbourhood, the bodies being used by them
as fuel for cooking their victuals, and the wrappers made into

en. vee, eee

a
: 261
clothes for themselves, or sold for the purpose of being made into
paper. Some idea may be formed of the vast accumulation of
linen in the mummy pits and sepulchres of Egypt, when it was at
one time a speculation even in Europe, whether it should not be
collected for the purpose of paper making. The manufacture and
sale of linen were amongst the most respectable and lucrative
branches of Egyptian commerce.
1 The export trade must have been very considerable, all the
‘ neighbouring countries being supplied from Egypt. We learn
from that most ancient and authentic history, the Bible, that
Solomon made a navy of ships. These ships traded once in three
years to Egypt, along the coasts of the Red Sea. Amongst the
imports brought by these ships was the fine linen of Egypt, and
linen yarn. The king’s merchant received the linen yarn at a
price, so that there must also have been manufacturing establish-
ments, where the linen yarn was woven into cloth and finished
ready for use. There is a remarkable passage in I Chron. iv. 21,
“the families of the house of them that wrought fine linen,” the
literal translation of which is said to be, “The partnerships of the
manufactory of fine linen.” ‘The prophet Hosea twice mentions
linen as one of the chief materials used for clothing in his time.
The perfection to which the Egyptians had attained in weaving
and in all the processes connected with the manufacture of fine
linen, was such that they have not been surpassed even in modern
times. Some specimens have been found so fine, that the very finest
productions of the looms at the present day can scarcely compare
with them. The very finest cambric or lawn looks coarse beside
the specimens of the Egyptian looms. The perfection of the
threads of the Egyptian linen is equally surprising. The knots
_ and breaks seen in our finest cambric cannot be observed in the
Egyptian linen, which was so fine and transparent that it obtained
the name of woven air. Every detail of the figure which it
enveloped could be seen with perfect clearness. When laid on
the grass and wetted with the dew, it became invisible.
In dyeing the Egyptians had attained to great perfection. In
‘Thebes alone two thousand workmen were employed in dyeing in

262

scarlet and purple. Many of the cloths present various patterns
worked in colour by the loom. The colour is rich enough to vie
with the Babylonian cloth embroidered with the needle. The
manner in which these tapestries were wrought is now unknown.
The coloured dresses worn by ladies of rank, and with which also
the deities were clothed, are said to resemble modern chintzes in
the style of their patterns. What the rich silks of China and
France, or the beautiful lace of Belgium are to us, so the fine linen
and embroidered work of Egypt were among contemporary nations.
The more luxurious the habits of the people, the more these
articles were valued and used.

All the perfection in the making and finishing of the fine
linens of Egypt, and in the production of embroidered work, has
passed away many ages ago. The glory of Egyptian artistic skill,

the handiwork of skilled artisans who lived from three to four .

thousand years ago, lies buried in the mummy pits, or amidst the
ruins of the splendid palaces, temples, and tombs. War and
oppression—the grinding oppression of irresponsible rulers—have
crushed the spirit out of the people, and deprived them of all
motives for industry. Under the dominion of the Turk there was
scant security for life and property, and Egypt as a nation has sunk
down into the lowest depths of weakness and degradation.

After what has been said in reference to Egypt, a few words
may be added on the linen made and used in Palestine. The
Israelites on quitting Egypt carried with them a vast quantity of
valuable articles, as is clearly shown by the varied and extensive
offerings of the people for the furnishings of the tabernacle,
amongst which was blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen,
and goat’s hair. They had also learnt the art of weaving, and of
constructing looms and all other implements and machinery for
the production of the articles required for the tabernacle, and
other purposes. It is related that ‘all the women who were wise
hearted (among the Israelites) did spin with their hands, and
brought that which they had spun (an offering unto the Lord), of
blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen of the weaver.”

Linen would thus appear to have entered largely into the

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magnificent furniture and fittings of the tabernacle, and almost
‘wholly to have composed the clothing and gorgeous robes of
the priests, both on ordinary and state occasions. Aaron, when
he entered the holy place, was required to wash his flesh in water,
to put on the holy linen coat, to have the linen breeches upon his
flesh, to be girded with a linen girdle, and to be attired with the
linen mitre. These were holy garments.

Garments woven in one piece throughout, so as to need no
making, were held in high repute ; hence the Jews have a tradition
that no needle was employed in the clothing of the high priest,
each piece of which was of one continued texture ; this idea throws
light on the description of the coat of Jesus. The coat was without
seam, woven from the top throughout. In this the ancients surpass
the modern manufacturers.

After the furnishings of the tabernacle in the wilderness, the
furnishings of Solomon’s splendid temple, and the robes for the
priests when ministering by course there, appear to have been
marvels of art in spinning, weaving, dyeing, and embroidering, and
shew the great progress which the Israelites had attained in linen
manufacture. The descendants of Abraham were a distinct people,
separated by national peculiarities from the rest of mankind; and
their trade, manufacture, and commerce -partook of the same
localized character.

After the Jews came the Phcenicians, a people who occupied
the sea coast at the head of the Mediterranean sea. Their chief
cities were Sidon and Tyre. Sidon, which is said to have been
_ founded 2000 years B.C., was a great naval port. The oaks of
- Bashan, the fir trees of Senir, and the cedars of Lebanon, afforded
an almost inexhaustible supply of wood for ship building, and for
other purposes. Tyre, which was founded about 1200 years B.C.,
soon rose to greatness and wealth. Her traders were called the
_ Merchant princes of the world. ‘Tyre was long celebrated for its
dyed fabrics, especially purple. Linen dyed of this colour was
_ greatly esteemed among all the neighbouring nations, and formed
an important item in the commerce of Tyre. Ships from Tyre

264

traded in the Red Sea, and far south along the east coast of Africa,
as well as on the coast of the Mediterranean, and passing through
the straits of Gibraltar, came as far north as the coasts of Great
Britain and Ireland. Rawlinson, writing on Pheenicia, says: “The
commercial spirit of the Phoenicians was largely exemplified by the
fact of their establishing colonies along the coasts of the Mediter-
ranean, which were rapidly covered with settlements and cities
where factories were established.” At this time Phcenicia had no
serious commercial rival. The trade of the world was in her hands.
Industry and enterprise reaped their usual harvest of success. The
Pheenicians grew in wealth, and their towns became great and
magnificent cities. Amongst them, and the most celebrated of
them, were the cities of Carthage and Cadiz. Amongst the imports
into Carthage were fine flax, sails and cables for ships, yarns and
fine linens from Egypt, purple and scarlet ; tapestry and rich stuff
from Tyre. These goods were used at home, or again exported
to the western parts of the then known world, where they were
exchanged for iron, tin, lead, copper, and other products of these
lands. From the large importation of linen yarn, it may be inferred
that the manufacture of linen was carried on to a large extent in
this city. Carthage rose to be the chief centre of the trade of the
world ; but the Carthaginians in the course of time, enervated by
their luxurious habits, fell an easy prey to the Romans,

The linen trade of ancient Greece and Rome is worthy of a
passing notice. Neither country, however, was very favourable for
an extensive trade in manufacturing industries. War was more
congenial to the tastes of their petty tribes, than the industrial
pursuits of trade and commerce. Greece being hilly, was more
suited for the production of wool than flax. Colonies from
Egypt and Pheenicia settling in Greece, however, gave an impetus
to the linen manufacture. Spinning and weaving soon became
distinct trades, carried on by separate classes of persons. Pliny
states that, “amongst the finest and most elegant fabrics of Greece,
were those manufactured in the city of Patrae,” where the women
being twice as numerous as the men, would alone appear to have
worked in the factories, and from which the greater number of the

265

inhabitants derived their livelihood. In addition to these public
works, there were very considerable domestic establishments,
especially in the country, where the spinning wheel and the loom
formed a part of the household goods. When a gentleman first
commenced housekeeping, or got a new set of domestic servants,
he delivered into the keeping of the proper persons his kneading
troughs, kitchen utensils, cards, looms, spinning wheels, etc. Thus
Homer speaks of the implements of war, looms, spinning wheels,
embroidering frames, being mixed up together in Greek houses.
When the house or palace was sufficiently large to admit of it,
a separate portion was devoted to spinning. The work was
principally carried on by female slaves, under the superintendence
of the mistress of the house; but the noblest in the land did not
think it beneath their dignity to join in the labour. When Alex-
ander the Great presented to the captive Persian queen, flax and
wool, she said in an agony of grief and tears, that they reminded
her of happier days. The conqueror misunderstanding her
feelings, and desiring to remove the notion that he was imposing
any servile task, observed, “This garment which you see me wear,
is not only the gift, but the work of my mother and sisters.”

As much dignity is supposed to belong to ample drapery, the
ladies in some Grecian cities took care not to be sparing of their
stuff. Their dresses had long trains displaying numerous folds
purposely produced at the extremity by a band passed round the
edge. These garments were generally of linen. Snow white
slippers made of fine linen, and wrought with needle work, were
also worn. Such seems to have been the fashion 2500 years ago.

The Greeks were famous for the beautiful patterns woven in
their cloths. The patterns were variegated with stripes, lozenges,
and the figures of birds and other animals. Flowers and stars of
the most beautiful and brilliant colours were interwoven into their
textures, and others were richly embroidered. In some parts of
Greece, especially in some of the numerous Greek islands, a very
fine quality of flax was grown, the fabric from which, whether snow-
white or purple, would have rivalled the finest cambric. The
texture was of the most delicate description, and semi-transparent,

266

This fine linen was so valuable that it sold for its weight in gold.
It is related that an ambassador from a king of Persia to India, on
his return home presented his master with a cocoa nut set in
jewels, containing a muslin turban thirty yards in length, and so
exceedingly fine as scarcely to be felt by the touch.

After the rise of the Roman power, Greece gradually lost its
influence, until its states became provinces of Rome. Gibbon
says, “that after the age of Justinian, the Eastern Empire began
to decay, and but for its trade and manufactures, it would have
sunk faster than it did.”

The ancient Romans were more celebrated for military than
for manufacturing and commercial pursuits. At an early period of
their history, they had colonies in various parts of Europe and
Asia, from whence they drew their supplies of many of the
necessaries and luxuries of life. The colonies provided them with
the bulk of the fabrics they required—Spain, Gaul, Germany, as
well as Egypt. Phoenicia and Greece sent the productions of their
looms to Rome, and found a ready market for them there. Rome,
however, had also its weaving establishments, conducted by a
distinct class of people. Hired women used to weave in the open
air. It had also its domestic manufacture, in which the mistress
and her maidens both performed their part. Spinning and weaving
were considered honourable employments, and formed the chief
occupation of females in every rank. The family loom long stood
in the public apartment of the mansion, and there the lady of the
house sat and toiled, surrotnded by her maidens.

The Roman Emperors encouraged the trade, and were at great
pains to procure the best artificers of all kinds, particularly the best
manufacturers of woollen and linen cloth. These they formed
into corporations, with various privileges, and settled them in the
most convenient places of the several provinces of the empire.

Pliny supplies many particulars of the Roman trade; and he
wrote his account of it in the reign of Vespasian, when Rome was
in its most flourishing state.

Augustus, even when all simplicity of manner had expired with
the Republic, affected still to bring up the females of his family

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267

upon the antique model, and wore no garments but such as were
manufactured in his own house. Centuries after the age of
Augustus, Rome, enervated by luxury, torn and rent by internal
factions, fell an easy prey to the barbarous hordes of Northern
Europe, who had no taste for dress, art, or refinement; and a
period of barbarism overspread the Roman Empire, which is most
appropriately called the Dark Ages, during which there is little or
no record of art or industry, trade or commerce. The linen manu-
facture shared in the universal wreck and ruin.

We now come to review the linen trade in modern times,
under new, and, in some respects, more favourable conditions.
Religious intolerance, which in modern times persecuted to the
death, or drove into exile the best and most industrious citizens,
for no other reason than that they would not bow their necks to
the yoke imposed on the faithful by their rulers; mistaken
legislation, some times by restrictive measures, at others by
attempting to regulate by Act of Parliament a trade which would
have thriven better if left to itself; and last, though not least, the
ignorant and suicidal conduct of workmen in attempting to destroy
machinery, and combining to impose unreasonable conditions on
their employers, and by neglecting work, when work was abundant
and orders unfulfilled—all tended to interfere with the freedom and
progress of the trade.

The Conquest of England by William of Normandy (1066),
gave an impulse to the manufactures of this country. Great
numbers of weavers came over in his army, and others followed on
invitation of the Conqueror. This influx of workmen was soon
afterwards greatly increased by the sea overflowing and permanently
inundating a large portion of Flanders, which forced many of the
Flemings to take refuge in England. The skill of the Flemings
in weaving was so great, that an ancient historian remarks, “that
it seemed to be a peculiar gift bestowed on them by nature.”
During this reign, the weavers in all the great towns in England
were incorporated into Guilds, and had certain privileges conferred
on them by Royal Charter, in return for which they paid certain
fines into the exchequer. The linen made in England at this

268

time, was, however, very coarse. All the finer kinds were then,
and for long afterwards, imported from the Continent. The ladies
of this period, we are told, wore loose flowing garments, chiefly
made of linen. Amongst persons of distinction, a kind of stocking,
consisting of strips of woollen or linen cloth, wrapped round the
leg like bandages, began to be worn. Linen also began to come
into use for underclothing. It was deemed not only pleasant, but
necessary, as a remedy against cutaneous diseases, which were
then very prevalent.

Until the middle of the sixteenth century, the Netherlands
was, however, the chief manufacturing and commercial country in
Europe. Antwerp was the most opulent city in Europe, and the
great trading mart from whence large quantities of linen were
exported to all the neighbouring countries. It was in one of the
towns, Cambray (whence the name, cambric), that the finest linen
was made. Sixty thousand webs, valued at £240,000, were made
annually. The prosperity of the Netherlands was not of long
continuance. The religious persecution instituted against the
inhabitants by the bigoted Philip II. of Spain, and the sacking of
Antwerp by the Duke of Alva, the Regent, had the effect of
driving great numbers of skilled weavers into England, who con-
tributed largely to the progress and improvement of the manu-
factures in this country.

Under Louis XVIIL, religious persecution drove 600,000 of
the best citizens out of France. Large numbers of weavers and
other skilled workmen settled in England, bringing with them
their industrious and peaceful habits, and their skilled labour. At
this time, many silk weavers settled in Spittalfields, from whom
sprung the flourishing silk trade of that district. Thus England
again benefited by the injury inflicted upon the inhabitants of a
foreign country by the ignorant bigotry of their ruler.

The 17th century was prolific in Acts of Parliament having
for their object the encouraging of the growth of flax, and the
manufacture of linen both in England and Ireland. The
importation of these articles was strictly prohibited ; and at one
time the wearing of French cambric was punishable with heavy

269

penalties. The trade with France was considered by the Parlia-
ment then assembled as detrimental to this kingdom.

It was not, however, until towards the close of the last century,
when the inventions in spinning machinery by Hargreaves, Ark-
wright, Kendrew, and Porthouse, were coupled with the improve-
ments in the steam engine by Watt and Bolton, that the three
great industries in this country—woollen, cotton, and linen—
suddenly began to develop, and although the linen industry is
by far the smallest of the three, yet it is now so extensive as to
be estimated at about forty millions of annual value.

In 1787, John Kendrew, spectacle maker, and Thomas Port-
house, clockmaker, of Darlington, invented machinery for flax
spinning, and for some time after it was carried on at Darlington,
in a small building called the Low Mill. The difficulties the
inventors had to encounter, and the smallness of their means, were
such that they never succeeded to any great extent in flax spinning.
Great improvements were soon effected on the original machines
in Leeds, and that town speedily became the head quarters of flax
spinning in England. The Marshalls, of Leeds, now entered upon
their prosperous career in the new trade, and by ability and
perseverance, soon became the largest flax spinners in the world.
Fifty thousand acres of land would be required to grow the flax
they import annually. To this family Leeds is indebted for much
of its present prosperity. The great flax mill erected by the
Marshalls is one of the most striking buildings in Leeds. It covers
more than two acres of ground; and it is supposed that 80,000
persons might stand inthe spinning room. The whole process,
after the heckling of the flax, is performed in it. The flax goes in
in bundles and the linen out in bales.

If I am rightly informed, there occurred in the early days of
the Marshalls’ spinning, one of those interruptions to their trade
by the bad conduct of the workmen, especially the flax dressers,
which produced important results. The masters were so annoyed

_ and hindered by the strikes, and by the men neglecting their work
when work was much wanted, that they turned their attention to
the invention of machines for dressing flax. When the flax dressers

270

neglected their work, or struck for higher wages, the whole process
was brought to a standstill. Spinning and weaving machines were
stopped for want of material; hands thrown out of employment ;
and masters could not fulfil the orders for goods. Flax-dressing
machines were then invented, by means of which six girls can do
as much work as ten or twelve men could perform by hand.
Since their invention, these machines have been much improved.
The flax dresser’s labour was therefore no longer required, while
the employers could execute more work, and even a better quality
of work, by the machine than was done by hand labour. Flax-
dressing was a hard and unhealthy employment ; and in this case
good may be said to have come out of evil. Man is better fitted
to be employed making and superintending the working of
machines than to be working as a machine himself.

Ireland is the largest linen producing country in the world.
There are now nearly one million spindles in Ireland. Each
spindle will produce as much yarn as ten or twelve persons could
spin by hand. It would therefore require double the population
of Ireland at the present time to produce as much work, suppose
all were employed in hand spinning. ‘There are besides, upwards
of 20,000 power-looms, each loom capable of doing as much work
as four or five men, and in some kinds of work one woman can

attend two looms. ‘The linen trade has thus far overstepped the ~

capabilities of the country, so far as hand labour is concerned ;
and yet there are foolish people who exclaim against the increase
of machinery, and sigh for the good old times of Queen Bess.

Very little of an authentic character is known respecting the

cultivation of flax, and of the linen manufacture in Ireland in
ancient times. ‘Tradition credits a colony of Phcenicians, who are
said to have settled in Ireland before the Christian era, with
having taught the native Irish the art of flax culture, and the after
process of manufacture. There can, however, have been very
little linen made or exported before the latter end of the 17th
century.. In 1673, England imported from France linen of the
value of upwards of half a million, which she would not have done
if Ireland could have supplied it. About the year 1680, the linen

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271

trade began to flourish amongst the Scotch in the North of Ireland,
where it still flourishes as the great staple trade of the country.

In the reign of Charles II., the woollen manufacture had
made great progress in Ireland, especially in the south and west.
This roused the jealousy of the English manufacturers, and they
got an Act passed in the British Parliament prohibiting any export
of wool from Ireland, excepting to England and Wales. Not
content with this, in 1698 both houses of Parliament addressed
King William III., representing, ‘that in consequence of labour
being cheaper in Ireland than in England, the progress of the
woollen manufacture in the former was such as to prejudice that
of the latter country, and that it would be for the public advantage
were the woollen trade discouraged and the linen manufacture
established in its stead.” His Majesty replied: “I shall do all
that in me lies to discourage the woollen manufacture in Ireland,
and to encourage the linen manufacture, and to promote the trade
of England.”

The Parliament of 1698 recommended to the King a kind of
compromise with Ireland, whereby England should exclusively
enjoy the woollen and Ireland the linen manufacture. Ireland
accepted the terms, abandoned the woollen manufacture, and even
imposed heavy duties on the exportation of woollen cloth. The
effect of this was ruinous to the woollen trade. Several thousand
manufacturers left the kingdom. Some of the southern and
western districts were almost depopulated, and the whole kingdom
reduced to the utmost poverty and distress. It is to be feared
religious bigots and intolerance had much to do with the suppres-
sion of the woollen manufacture, and establishing that of linen in
its stead. The woollen trade had been carried on in a great
measure in the south and west of Ireland, while the chief seat of
the linen manufacture was in the north. I fear this will bear no
other construction but that Protestant linens were encouraged,
whereas Popish woollens were suppressed.

In an Act of the British Parliament in the year 1704, the
preamble commences thus: “ Forasmuch as the Protestant interest
in Ireland ought to be supported by giving the utmost encourage-

272

ment to the linen manufactures of that kingdom,”—and thus a
real Irish grievance was perpetrated. Fortunately for Ireland
about this period the linen manufacture began to enter upon a
prosperous career.

In 1699, Louis Crommelin, a wealthy French refugee, and a
number of other refugees, settled in the north of Ireland. The
Huguenots had in their native land been chiefly employed in the
manufacture of silk, and the finer fabrics of linen. They com-
menced similar manufactures in the land of their adoption, and
imparted to those around them the skill and energy which they
had been wont to exercise in France. About this date, an Act
had been passed by the Cromwellian Parliament prohibiting the
importation of French linen. Consequently the demand for such
goods had largely increased in Ireland and Great Britain.

Louis Crommelin, on arriving in Ireland, was at once chosen
as the leader of his brother exiles. In that position he exercised
a powerful influence over the future fortunes of the linen trade.
The looms on which the weavers of Ulster then wove their linen
webs were of a very primitive construction, and very ineffective in
their operations. Crommelin brought over with him a number
of Dutch looms. These he greatly improved; and also made
great improvements in the spinning wheels. He also invested
10,000 from his own private resources. This King William III.
repaid by a grant of #800 per annum as interest on the
capital for twelve years. In addition to this grant, Crommelin was
also allowed an annuity of “100, and £120 to three assistants,
each of whom had a particular district to attend to. At one
period of the season he watched over the culture of flax, at another
he inspected the spinning and weaving departments, and through
the summer his visits were frequently made to the bleach fields.

The death of William III. deprived Ireland of one of its most
liberal patrons. Soon after the accession of Queen Anne to the
throne, the imperial treasury refused the annual grant to Louis
Crommelin. This was a most disgraceful proceeding and breach
of faith, as the annuity could not be called a Royal pension, but a
sum paid as interest on the capital which Crommelin had invested

=

273

for a public purpose. The money had been scattered throughout
Ulster in the shape of looms, spinning wheels, machines for
scutching, flax and bleaching apparatus, all of which had been lent
to weavers, spinners, farmers, and owners of small bleachfields,
not more than one half the value of which was ever repaid. It
must have been highly gratitying, however, to the founder of the
improved system of linen manufacture, to watch the growing
success of his projects, and to see the rapid changes which greater
profits and higher wages had produced in the circumstances of
manufacturers and weavers; also to receive from the Board of
Trustees appointed by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at this
time, the following notice: “Louis Crommelin and the Huguenot
Colony have been greatly instrumental in improving and pro-
pagating the flaxen manufacture in the north of this kingdom, and
the perfection to which the same is brought in that part of the
country has been greatly owing to the skill and industry of the said
Crommelin.”

Lord Strafford, who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at this
time (1736), did all in his power to discourage the woollen trade,
but used every means he thought fit to promote and improve the
linen trade, and to assist in developing it. He spent out of his

' own means £50,000. His first movement was directed to the

improvement of flax in the field. For this purpose he imported
seed from Holland, and brought over Dutchmen to instruct the
Irish farmers in the best mode of growing the crop. He sold the
seed which he imported to the farmers at cost price; and by his
persevering exertions, he succeeded in bringing the flax from an
average of twelve inches in length to three feet. The yarn now
spun was also much more regular, and the cloth in every respect
better. The prejudices of an ignorant class, not only against the
Englishman’s rule, but also against the ideas he entertained, which
were so contrary to: long established usage, and, moreover, the
high handed imperious way in which he attempted to carry out his
improvements, stirred up opposition and bitter strife amongst the
native population which, to a great extent, frustrated his otherwise
well intentioned measures. Had he adopted conciliatory measures,
19

274

and his agents been careful to use moderation in their efforts to
overcome the deeply-rooted prejudices of the people, he would
doubtless have succeeded to a much greater extent in bettering
their condition, and improving still more the linen industry. One
ot his proclamations to the people engaged in the linen manufac-
ture, was to the effect that, ‘“‘any farmer, weaver, or linen draper,
who manufactured flax fibre by any other mode than that which
he prescribed, should be punished by the severest penalties the law
could inflict.” In the carrying out of that most despotic order, the
grossest outrages were committed by the Government agents. The
poor people complained that they were commanded to work the
flax into yarn and cloth by ways in which they were unskilled, and
yet every case that could be discovered, where the arbitrary law
had not been kept to the letter, was punished by forfeiture, fines,
and imprisonment.

After the accession of Charles II., a more prudent system of
patronage was bestowed on the linen manufacturer. Premiums
were offered for the finest webs. Every six months exhibitions
were got up, and the sum of £10 awarded to the producer of the
best cloth, £6 for the second, and £4 for the third. At that
period the total value of all linens exported from Ireland only
amounted to £10,000, while the exports of woollen goods amounted
to £110,000 annually.

The creation of the Board of Trustees in 1711 formed an
important landmark in the history of the linen trade in Ireland.
Whatever opinions may be entertained at the present day regarding
the wisdom of granting subsidies, or State aid, towards developing
industrial operations, it will scarcely be denied that at this particular
period in the history of the linen manufacture, the fostering care
of the State was a wise and judicious measure. In about sixty years,
the Board had distributed over a million and a quarter sterling ;
and about 1777 they were disbursing some £33,000 per annum.
Thus by monetary assistance to men of ability who required capital
to carry on their business, Irish linen soon equalled that produced
on the continent. And before the Board passed out of existence,
the linen trade of Ireland had been brought to such an important

275

position, that the linen fabrics of that country were fast displacing
all others in the markets of the world.

Another very important power vested in this Board related to.
the appointment of persons to examine all cloth before being
offered for sale; to measure each web, and to stamp it with a
seal. A penalty of £5 was inflicted for selling unsealed linen.
At first the Act met with violent opposition on the part of the
weavers. Mobs assembled, and various outrages were committed,
in order to force drapers and others not to recognize the sealing of.
the goods. This was a foolish opposition on the part of the
weavers, against regulations which were intended for their own
protection. Before the appointment of Seal Masters by the Board
of Trustees, the weavers were entirely at the mercy of the buyers,
many of whom used no just standard of measurement. Very often
when a proper yard-stick was not at hand, they would cut a stick
out of the nearest hedge, which was often an inch or two longer
than the statute measure. In measuring, also, it was stated that
by sleight of hand they could often take from half to a whole yard
above the just measure.

The export and home trades were at this time injured very
much by the weavers making up inferior linen with a good outside
look ; often too short in measure, and damaged throughout. They.
were thus ruining the trade. The Board now appointed Juries to
examine the cloth, which was reported to be unmerchantable,
although passed by some of the Seal Masters, who took bribes, and
became parties to a general system of fraud. On the 16th March,
1784, the Juries condemned three hundred and forty-three pieces
as tender and unmerchantable. Each piece was ordered to be cut,
to prevent its being exported. The Seal Masters who passed these
damaged goods were heavily fined. The precautions thus taken
to prevent the exportation of bad cloth were wise and judicious,
and did much towards maintaining the first class reputation which
Trish linens had enjoyed in the markets of the world. It was high
time that strong measures were adopted to save the trade. The
exports had fallen off one-fourth in two years. The consequence
was, that three-fourths, and in some places more than this propor-
tion, of the looms throughout the north were silent.

276

Political agitation, too, had a very prejudicial effect. The
country had no doubt been sadly misgoverned, and the people had
much to complain of. But the means they took to redress their
grievances brought great misery upon themselves, and was ruinous
to the trade of the country. When the Irish volunteers marched
to their famous meeting at the Rotunda, it is stated that
becoming somewhat profane, they decorated the muzzles of the
guns accompanying the procession with the motto, ‘‘O Lord, open
thou our lips, and our mouths shall show forth thy praise.” This
agitation culminated in the battle of Ballynahinch, where the poor
Irish were scattered like sheep before the regular troops sent to
oppose them. Monroe, the commanding officer of the rebels, was
betrayed in his hiding place, and shortly after tried, condemned,
and hung. This was followed by the rising of 1798. After this
was suppressed, the country became more peaceful. Needful
reforms were introduced, and trade revived.

With the introduction of machinery in the first quarter of this
century, Ireland has progressed with rapid strides, and she now
stands at the head of the linen trade of the world. The Messrs.
Mulholland, of Belfast, commenced mill spinning in 1830. Their
large mill contained 20,000 spindles. Since then some of the
factories contain as many as 60,000 spindles, capable of turning
off upwards of twenty-five million yards of yarn per day. Wages
in the meantime have gone up from one hundred to two hundred
per cent., and the population of Belfast has increased from 50,000
to 175,000 in 1871.

A very few words only must be added on the linen trade of
Scotland. The Messrs. Baxter, of Dundee, have done for that
town and district, what the Mulhollands did for Belfast, and the
Marshalls for Leeds, in making those towns the great linen
producing districts of the world. The consumption of flax and
hemp in Dundee at the present time is about 70,000 tons per
annum, and the value about two and a half millians sterling. The
value of the yarn spun amounts to about three and three-quarter
millions. And the total value of linen and hemp fabrics produced
in Dundee is about five millions sterling. The population exceeds

——————

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100,000, and half of the inhabitants are employed in the staple
trade of the town.

I will only add one interesting item in connection with the
Scotch linen trade, and then conclude this paper with a few
practical remarks. In 1760, David Sands of Kerriemure, a famous
weaver, invented a mode of weaving double cloth. He wove and
finished shirts without seam, in the loom. Not only did he weave
the cloth, but he hemmed and stitched them, wrought button-holes,
put on buttons, and also put ruffles on the breast, in the loom.
These wonderful productions were exhibited among his acquaint-
ances. One was sent to the King, one to the Duke of Athol, and
one to the Board of Trustees. Their ingenious maker died shortly
after having accomplished this extraordinary work, poor in purse,
but rich in local fame. This wonderful art was lost with the death
of the inventor, and has not since been re-discovered, so that the
ancient weaver still bears the palm in this respect. These shirts
would resemble the Messianic garment, which was wove without
seam from top to bottom.

The very few practical remarks with which I conclude this
paper, will relate to the impolicy of high protective duties on
home-made fabrics. Of this we have a striking example in France.
Before the year 1842, one-third of the imports into France consisted
of linens and linen yarns, the latter chiefly from Ireland. In that
year, and in 1845, the French Government, to encourage their
own manufacture, imposed heavy duties on imported yarn and
cloth. The consequence was, that the trade with France in this
article was suddenly stopped, or nearly so. Another consequence
followed injurious to France, but highly beneficial to England and
Ireland, for France lost a great part of her foreign trade in linen
cloth. This trade now passed into the hands of the English and
Irish spinners, who instead of exporting their yarns, bleached,
wove, and made them ready for the markets which France used to
supply. The French Government has seen the impolicy of their
restrictive measures on the trade, and in their Commercial Treaty
with England in 1860, they adopted a more liberal tariff,—since
which the doctrine of Protection has gradually lost ground, not

278

only in France, but also in Italy, Spain, and Austria. In Germany
Protection is now in the ascendant. Since the last and still more
liberal French tariff in 1874, the imports and exports into France
have increased two-fold, in each of the three great manufacturing
industries—woollen, cotton, and linen. Indeed, the increased
trade in France after the liberal tariff in 1860, is said to have been
the chief cause why France bore so well the strain of the terrible
Franco-Prussian war.

France committed the same error on other articles of produce,
such as sugar, for example. They are now paying about two
millions of money in the shape of bounties on exporting sugar, the
consequence of which is, that their heavily taxed people are still
more heavily taxed for the benefit of a few sugar refiners, who can
now afford to send their sugar to this country at cost price, their
profit being the bounty money they receive on their exports. We
get the benefit in having refined sugars cheaper than we otherwise
could have; the French nation, and a few of our sugar refiners,
being the sufferers. This, however, is an error to which the
French Government is about to apply a remedy.

The prosperity of the linen trade in the future seems to depend
to some extent on the supply of raw material. Ireland is the great
flax-producing country for the United Kingdom. Last year there
were 132,000 acres of land under the flax crop in Ireland, whilst
twelve years ago there were nearly three times as many; so that
large spinners have become apprehensive of a short supply of
material for linen manufacture, and the committee of the Flax
Association in Belfast for promoting the growth of flax, has been
turning its attention to India and the colonies as future flax-
producing countries.

Another word in conclusion. With plenty of raw material,
and hands to work it, there would appear to be no limit to the
future extension of the linen trade. When the millions of bare
backs-in Africa, and half-clad ones in Central Asia, are clothed in
linen—being the most suitable clothing for the climates in which
they live—the linen industries will be found to have gone on
growing and increasing.

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ENGLISH MUSIC.
By J. MACQUEEN.

(Read at Whitehaven.)

I shall endeavour to-night to give you a brief sketch of the
progress of English Music from the earliest times, and to show that
at no period could England be truly called an unmusical nation.
We are not now what we should be. Our choirs and choral
societies depend upon the few instead of the many; and it was
the hope that I might call your attention to our vast and beautiful
stores of native music, and lead you to encourage the practice of
it, which induced me to undertake a task for which I felt I was but
feebly prepared.

The field of English Music is too wide to be travelled over in
one evening, and I shall therefore confine my attention mainly to
one corner of it, but a very interesting and productive one—that

of the Secular Vocal Music. Our Cathedral Music is, I believe,

unequalled by that of any other nation, whether we regard skill of
construction, or devotional spirit and feeling. In all other depart-
ments of musical composition, England may hold up her head
without a blush ; and the more we become intimate with the works
of our national composers, the greater will be our wonder and

_ regret that they are not better known.

Do not be alarmed if I take you back nearly two thousand
years, when our land was a wild waste wood and swamp alternating,
the inhabitants, for the most part, wild barbarians, eking out as
they best could a precarious existence. We shall not tarry long
among them; our school-days have told us enough about those

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dreadful old British Bards, with their wicker cages and human
victims. All that I wish to point out, is the supreme influence
which they possessed over the people. Barbarians, as the Britons
were, the influence of music upon them was great. The love of
music is a natural instinct ; and no tribe, however rude, is destitute
of music. They hear it in the winds and waters, in the woods
and plains, and kindred chords vibrate within them, which must
perforce find expression in voice or instrument.

These Bards, like the Scalds, “or polishers of language” of
the Danish tribes, were not only the poets and musicians of the
period, but the moralisers and theologians: their duty was not
only to amuse, but to instruct. What their music was we cannot
tell; rude, no doubt, but scarcely ruder than their audience.
Whatever it was, it helped to nerve the courage of their warriors,
and aided them in a long and stubborn conflict with the rulers of
the world.

Leaving them, we will travel onward nearly eight hundred
years, to the period of the Heptarchy, when Britain became
England, and when our history as a nation really begins.

All the Teutonic nations—whether Angles, Saxons, Danes, or
Norse—were eminently musical. The music of the battle-field,
and that of the feast, were equally dear to them; and their
monarchs patronized it after a very royal fashion. With these
Teuton tribes came the Minstrels, or Gleemen, who composed and

sang to the music of the harp effusions recounting the valiant*

deeds of their heroes. Differing from the British Bard and the
Danish Scald, their only aim was to divert and entertain ; and their
ministrelsy was often accompanied with mimicry and feats of
strength, or sleight of hand. No feast was complete without their
presence ; they were ever welcomed in cottage or palace, and
rarely left without a handsome reward. As long as the old
spirit of chivalry remained, their popularity continued ; but at the
close of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, they had fallen so low in public
estimation, that a Statute included them among ‘the rogues,
vagabonds, and sturdy beggars,” and dealt with them accordingly.
This woeful falling off in popularity, was owing, no doubt, partly

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to the improved taste of the people, and partly to the natural
tendency of the minstrel to get coarser in his poetry, and more
personal in his mimicry.

At the time of their invasion of Britain, these tribes were
heathens; but about one hundred and fifty years after, their
conversion was begun by Gregory, then Bishop of Rome, a
skilful musician, who arranged and improved the ancient music,
still called from him “Gregorian.” This music was introduced
into Europe from Antioch in Syria, about A.D. 380, and many
regard it as the femains of the music used in the Temple at
Jerusalem. Gregory knew well the effect of music on these sturdy
Northmen, and sent over a well-trained choir with his missionary,
Augustine. We have an account of his first meeting with
Ethelbert, King of Kent :—“ First appeared a verger bearing a
silver cross; then came Augustine, followed by a monk with a
painting representing the figure of our Lord, the brethren
following in procession ; then under an oak was discovered Ethel-
bert, his army and wise men all around him. Then the choir
began chanting in unison one of those deeply solemn litanies,
heard for the first time in our country.” No doubt the im-
pression of the music on these heathen warriors would be deep and
lasting ; for with a full choir of male voices, the “Gregorians”
are very effective. Many years’ practice of them failed, however, to
make me a convert to pure Gregorianism.

This music, and indeed all the music down to the end of the
15th century, was written without bars ; and hundreds of volumes

contained neither flat nor sharp. Let us hope that the performers

instinctively supplied them where required !

The Gregorian, or tuneless, and the Minstrel music, were both
encouraged and cultivated by the monks, who, with all their short-
comings, were the great benefactors of their day. Many went to
Rome to qualify themselves as musical instructors ; and Italian
musicians often came to live in England, acting as teachers of
music, and organisers of choirs. From all we can learn, the
practice of music was nearly universal in England. Bede, the
venerable monk and historian of his times, relates an incident in

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the life of our earliest English poet, Ccoedman, and nothing could
better show the state of the musical education of the time. The
poet, deeply engaged in other studies, had neglected his musical
practice, and being in company, where, as usual, the harp was
passed round for each guest to play and sing in turn, he left the
party, ashamed to appear deficient in what was deemed necessary
to complete the education of a gentleman.

Adhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury, contemporary with Bede,
found that the people who attended service, left directly the
musical portion was finished, without waiting for the “‘Exhortation”
—a practice not unknown in our Cathedrals. So in the guise of a
minstrel, he took up his post on the bridge, and by playing and
singing popular poetry, was able to attract their attention, and
gradually bring them to a better state of mind. Adhelm might
have been profitably employed in our own day.

Then we have Dunstan, a very able man, far in advance of
his times,—a skilful mechanic, an enthusiastic student, and lover
of music. He was a builder of organs, and gave instruments to
various monasteries. Like many more in the olden time, who rose

superior to their fellows, he was accused of magic: he had con-

structed, by the aid of the devil it was affirmed, a harp that not
only moved automatically, but played without human assistance,
outdoing the modern contrivances of Maskelyne and Cook!

We all know how Alfred the Great gained admission into the
Danish Camp under the guise of a harper. Fifty years later, a
Danish warrior returned the compliment, and visited the camp of
Athelstan. He was heartily welcomed; and after entertaining
them with his minstrel arts, left the camp with a liberal reward for
his music. No sooner had he quitted the lines, than with a
warrior’s disdain of pelf, or with a consciousness of having obtained
the meed under false pretences, he threw away the money. One of
Athelstan’s warriors witnessed the act, and perhaps the recollection
of Alfred’s expedition aroused their suspicion; at any rate, they
took precautions which prevented the Danes from taking advantage
of the fraud.

It would be easy to multiply examples of this kind, but

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283

these few will he enough to show how universally music was
esteemed and practised by our early ancestors. We will pass on
to the Norman period.

The Normans, or Northmen, left their dreary home in the
Vigten Islands, on the Norwegian coast, under Rollo, or Roland,
in the year 912, and took possession of a part of Northern France,
Neustria, which they named Normandy. At the time of their
invasion of England, one hundred and fifty years after, they had
adopted the French language, and were the most renowned
warriors in Europe. They brought with them the music of the
Troubadours, or Trouveres (inventors, as we have poets or
makers). ‘The home of the Troubadour was in the warmer climes
of Southern France, but the chill air of the north did not hush their
harps or voices. The man who struck the first blow in the battle
of Hastings, was the minstrel Taillefer,—a warrior of great stature
and prowess, as well as askilful harper. He led the van, recounting
the deeds of Roland and Charlemagne. As he neared the foe, he
threw away jhis harp, brandished his axe, and rushing into the
fight—bravely fell.

Every baron in those days had his minstrel, who kept the
world well informed of the good deeds and qualities of his patron.
We may be sure that a fair share of flattery was well-bestowed and
amply remunerated. The characters of these old Norman knights,
as painted by their minstrels, are far too highly coloured: the
lights are all there, but the shadows are wanting.

There was now in England another division in the music :—
1. The music of the court and nobility; 2. The popular music.
In all high places everything was Norman—the language, the
laws, and the music. The English people, however, clung
tenaciously to their own customs, and not in vain; for when the

fusion of the two races became complete (about the time of

Edward III.) the English language and music came again to the
front, though both were slightly tinged with Norman.

The Normans introduced the ‘ Cantus mensurabiles,” or
measured music, invented at Cologne shortly before their invasion
of England. In this, each note denoted, as now, its duration,

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the semi-breve being the shortest. At first the breve was the
shortest note, hence its name; then came the semi-breve; then
followed the minim, or minimum. In the development of musical
notes, we moderns have, for the present, arrived at a minimum at
the quarter demi-semi-quaver; though Beethoven has actually
written half-quarter demi-semi-quavers. In the practice of old
music it is well to remember this, or by taking it too slowly we
rob it of all spirit and animation.

From the 11th to the 15th century the materials at our
disposal are but scanty, but we get occasional glimpses of the state
of musical culture in England. The Norman monarchs encouraged
it; William I. assigned broad lands in Gloucestershire to his
minstrel; and Matilda, the English queen of Henry I., screwed
more than her due share of rents from her tenants in order to pay
for her music. The same patronage was bestowed by the
Plantagenet monarchs. Richard Cceur de Lion, a distinguished
patron of minstrelsy, was both poet and musician—a type of
the true minstrel. A few of his poems are still extant, among
them, the one by which the minstrel Blondel is recorded to have
discovered his captive master. In Edward I.’s time, a raid was
made against the Welsh Bards, who, like the Druids, stirred up
the people to repel the invasion of their country. Henry IV.
imitated Edward’s example, but the Welsh Bards still remained, for
as late as Queen Elizabeth’s reign, we find that they were wont to
assemble the people on the mountain sides, and there relate the
heroic deeds of their ancestors. The Welsh still hold their
own, and are making praiseworthy efforts to encourage the
practice of their national music. We need mention no more
examples of royal patronage ; we find that our line of kings, from
Alfred downwards, have liberally patronized music. Even the
dull and heavy Hanoverian, who cordially hated “bainting and
boetry,” had a liking for music; and our present Royal Family
is distinguished for musical ability.

Turning from the monarchs to the monks, the same love for
music is apparent. The monasteries were, as formerly, the homes
of musical culture, as they were the schools, the studios, the inns,

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285

and hospitals of their time. The monks were in duty bound to
practise the Gregorian music, but, as we might expect, their
affection was not limited to that tuneless variety.

About the year 1200, two itinerant priests knocked for
admission at the gate of a monastery, and the monks thinking that
the wanderers would be able to entertain them in the evening with
minstrel arts, gave them a hearty welcome. When, however, they
found that the needy ecclesiastics could at the best only administer
spiritual consolation, they beat them and turned them out.
Knowing as we do the character of the monks for hospitality, there
is little doubt that these two misguided wayfarers paid the penalty
of neglecting an important part of their education.

We can have, perhaps, no better proof of the estimation in
which music was held in the middle ages, than the price paid for
its performance. When Henry V. went to France, fifteen minstrels
accompanied him: the pay of each being 12d. per day. Now
this 12d. would represent twelve to fifteen shillings of our money.
Even at the end of the Plantagenet period, a fat goose could be
bought for fourpence ; a fat sheep for one shilling and fourpence ;
an ox for twelve shillings; and one hundred eggs cost only sixpence.
On his return from France, after the glorious victory of Agincourt,
Henry made a triumphal entry into London, but would allow no
music to be used,—perhaps he had seen a copy of the words,
highly spiced as it would be with flattery, or, let us hope that the
omission was prompted by the humility of a true hero.

In the next reign (Henry VI.), at the Feast of the Holy Cross
at Abingdon, twelve priests received fourpence each, while the
twelve minstrels had each (with diet and horse-meat) two shillings
and fourpence,—a very marked difference. About ten years later,
eight priests and half-a-dozen minstrels were hired from Coventry,
and here we find that people then, as now, were willing to pay a
good price for their amusement, for the priest got a net two
shillings, while the minstrel was paid four shillings, and was
bountifully entertained in the “Camera picta.” Nota bad night’s
work for a minstrel !

286

It is interesting to observe, that in nearly all the instances
recorded of eminent minstrels, they were of the “north countree.”
The Border land was then one constant scene of warfare, and the
minstrel played well his part in fanning the martial flame. Far
removed from the culture and refinement of the court, the minstrel,
like many a time-honoured custom, found in the north a fitting
home, when elsewhere he was neglected and despised. These few
examples will be enough.to shew that music was largely cultivated
and highly esteemed in England. The other nations of Europe
were not behind our own in this respect, and especially the
Flemings, from whom Italy received its first great musical impulse.

A French proverb of the time briefly describes the vocal
peculiarities of the leading nations :—

The French pipe, or sing (cantant. )

The English carol (judzlant. )

The Spaniards wail (Alangunt. )

The Germans howl («/ulant. )

The Italians quaver, as a goat (caprizant. )

As might be expected, very little of the actual notation of our
early English music has come down to us, except the Gregorian.
Printing was not invented till 1449, and its influence was not felt
to any great extent till after the Wars of the Roses. The earliest
part-song extant owes its preservation to the fact of its having been
adapted to the words of a Latin hymn. It is a Canon for four
equal voices, composed about the year 1250, and is entitled :—

«« Summer is a comynge on,
Loud sing cuckoo.”

The theme is a very appropriate one after our long winter; and it
will, I am sure, be a relief and pleasure to us all, if our minstrels
will now give us a musical rendering of it.

We have now arrived at the Tudor Period, when our modern
history begins. The cruel wars were over; the influence of
printing was beginning to be felt; and a new world was opened
out for English commerce and enterprize. Under these favourable

Ae a nce et

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287

auspices, and with a line of monarchs eminently devoted to music,
there was a rapid development of music, as of literature, reaching
its meridian under Queen Elizabeth.

The first Tudor king, Henry VII., though musical, was a
miser ; and not even music is proof against the blighting influence
of an undue love of money. Little was to be expected from him,
for every available penny went to increase his hoard; but he left
his heir with a thorough musical education, and ample means of
displaying his musical tastes, and right royally he dispensed both
money and music. The musical establishment of the Chapel
Royal, founded by Edward IV., now comprised one hundred and
fourteen persons, and cost £2,000 a year. Henry was himself
both poet and musical composer ; and a fine old Anthem of his—
“© Lord, the Maker of all things ”—is still occasionally heard in
our Cathedrals, being included in Dr. Boyce’s collection.

Henry placed his son Edward under the care of Tye, a noted
organist and composer; and the young prince was fond of dis-
playing the musical skill he had acquired. In a play by Rowley,
there is a dialogue between prince Edward and Dr. Tye, in which
Edward says :—

‘<T oft have heard my father merrily speak

In your high praise, and thus his highness saith :

‘England one God, one truth, one doctor hath

For musicke’s art, and that is Dr. Tye.’”
One or two other composers deserve mention. Marbeck,
organist of Windsor, was a favourer of the Reformed opinions,
and an incident in his life shows Henry VIII.’s_ respect
for music. Marbeck, with three companions, was condemned to
the stake, but for once the love of music overcame the promptings
of the despot in those dark days of tyranny, for with the remark,
“Poor Marbeck! it would be well for thine accusers if they

_ employed their time no worse !”—he reprieved him. I regret to

add that his companions did not share in his good fortune, but were
ruthlessly burnt. Marbeck lived to see the Reformation established,

-and published ‘‘The Book of Common Prayer, noted,” besides
_ other works on religious history and controversy.

288

Another famous composer, who devoted his talents entirely to
Cathedral music, of which he has been called the patriarch, was
Thomas Tallis, organist to Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and
Elizabeth. Some of his music is to be found in Boyce’s collection,
and his ‘ Responses,” for which he was much indebted to
Marbeck, are still commonly used.

In those days every one who moved in polite society, even
though a prince, was expected to be able to take a part in a
motett, or madrigal; if he could not, he probably felt as greatly
ashamed as our old poet Ccedmon, nearly 1,000 years before.
Indeed, we have instances recorded, and I hope that ere long
history will again repeat itself.

In a humorous court-play performed at the court of Henry
VIIL., the country hero thus quaintly implores instruction in the
coveted art :—

‘*Wolde to Heav’n it would please you some day,
A Ballad Boke before me for to lay,

And lerne me for to synge re, mi, fa, sol,

And, when I fail, bobbe me on the noll,”

We need not dwell on Mary’s reign : she kept up the royal
musical establishments ; but the constant demands made upon her
purse by her husband, Philip, prevented her from patronizing
music as her father had done. She was fond of music, and played
well; let us hope that her many melancholy days were relieved by
the voice of harmony.

Before entering on the Elizabethan period, our musical
illustrators will give us ‘‘The Spanish Lady,” written at this time,
and founded on an incident in the Spanish wars.

We now come to the Elizabethan period, where the difficulty
lies in selection. Music, like literature, was at its zenith. What
Shakespeare, Spenser, and Ben Jonson were to literature, Tye,
Tallis, Farrant, Byrd, Morley, Gibbons, and others were to music.
To them we are indebted for a collection of musical compositions
of every variety that has never been excelled, if equalled, by any
nation upon earth. Italy, through Palestrina, Festa, and others
was pouring forth a flood of compositions, but our native pro-

289

ductions will be a favourable comparison with the best of them.
In the brief glance we shall take of the growth of our modern
music, it will be convenient to make three divisions :—

1. The Madrigal period.

2. The Ballad period.

3. The Opera and Glee period.

As to the Madrigal, it is not easy to give a good definition of
it; and the derivation of the word has been hotly contested. The
most probable is “‘ 4a Madre,” the first line of hymns addressed
to the Virgin Mary, but afterwards to the “ A/adre galante,”. or
Queen of Love. The name at first applied to the words would be
easily transferred to the music. This form of composition was in-

_vented by the Flemings in the middle of the 14th century, and was
adopted and perfected by the Italians and English. It was composed
for three or more voices, often five, and usually consists of a simple
melody, broadly harmonized; but there are many varieties, varying
from the style of the motett to that of the more modern glee.
I can give you a definition or description, by Thomas Morley,

_ an eminent composer of them. “No point is to be long stayed

upon, but once or twice driven through all the parts, and sometimes

_ inverted, and so to the close, and then taking another. And that
kind of handling of points is most esteemed when two parts go one

: way and two another, and mostly in roths and 3rds. Likewise

the more variety of points be showed, the more the Madrigal is
esteemed; and, withal, you must bring in fine bindings (i. e.
syncopations), and strange closes, as your ditty shall move you.”

Taking it for granted that you zow have a clear notion of what
a Madrigal is, we will take as a specimen a very simple but
beautiful one by Edwardes, “In going to my lonely bed.” The
Madrigals which I have selected belong to the later period, when
they were gradually merging into the glee: the earlier ones are far
- more elaborate, constructed on the strictest principles of harmony,
with skilful embellishments of counter-point. Many differ little
from the AZotete.
The best Madrigals were composed during the reign of
Elizabeth. Between 1594 and 1599—only five years—books of
20

290

Madrigals were composed and published by Morley, Weelkes,
Wilbye, Benet, Ward, and Orlando Gibbons; other writers were
Byrd, Dowland, Ford, and Edwardes. One collection, styled the
“Triumphs of Oriana,” is interesting from the fact that John Milton,
the father of the poet, was a contributor.

One or two of these composers deserve more than a passing
notice. Wm. Byrd, after being a chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral,
and pupil of Tallis, was appointed organist of Lincoln Cathedral
in 1554. A few years after he became one of the Gentlemen of
the Chapel Royal, the duty being to play the organ in turn, and on
ether days to help the choir. Byrd and Tallis received from
Queen Elizabeth a patent, conferring a monopoly of printing
music and selling ruled paper. Many volumes issued from their
press. This practice of granting monopolies was very common,
and afforded the parsimonious Queen a ready way of rewarding
a favourite courtier or meritorious person; but the effect was to
more than double the price of every article in common use. Byrd
held his monopoly till his death. As a composer he had great
merits ; and his anthems breathe the spirit of devotion. I know
of none finer than one commencing “ Bow thine ear, O Lord.”
He wrote many Motetts and Madrigals,and contributed largely to
Queen Elizabeth’s Virginal Book, now in the British Museum,
while his famous Canon, “Von Vobis Domine” will, for ages,
keep his memory fresh.

The next who claims our attention is Thomas Morley, the
pupil of Byrd. Morley was the first author of a regular treatise on
music, entitled, ‘‘ Plaine and easy introduction to practical music,»
which continued in use for one hundred and fifty years, and is still
perused with interest and advantage by the musical student. He
wrote five tunes for the Virginal Book, and composed a great
number of Madrigals, among which are—“ April is my mistress’
face ;” “ Fire, fire my heart;” “Now is the month of Maying.”

The latest of the pure Madrigal writers, and perhaps our
greatest composer before Purcell, was Orlando Gibbons. For
richness and purity of harmony, as well as for scientific skill and
effect, he is beyond all praise. At the age of twenty-three he
became organist of the Chapel Royal, where he composed those

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beautiful anthems and services still heard with pleasure in our
Cathedrals. On the recommendation of his friend, the learned
Camden, the Oxford university conferred upon him a Doctor’s
degree. He composed the music for the marriage of Charles I.
and Henrietta Maria of France, but during his official attendance
at that ceremony, took small-pox, to which he fell a victim.

Of his many Madrigals, we may name :—“ Dainty Sweet Bird;”
“The Silver Swan ;” “‘O that the learned poets.” We must not
dwell longer on the Madrigal period. No music is better calculated
to improve the performer, or give pleasure to the audience ; and it
has always seemed to me a great pity that these fine old Madrigals
lie so neglected. We have had a long “‘ /talian craze,” and while
we have been looking abroad for our musical delights, we have
overlooked the treasures which lie at our feet. Fashion has a good
deal to do with this, and as an illustration, I will give you an
anecdote recorded of Malibran, the great prima donna.

Malibran was once at a party where a discussion arose as to
the merits of English music. The greater part of those present
declared that none but foreign music was good, whilst Malibran
maintained that no foreign music could exceed in beauty many of
the Scotch, Irish, Welsh, and English airs—but without convincing
her hearers. Later in the evening she volunteered a new Spanish
_ ballad, and after a light prelude, commenced, adagio :—

‘* Maria trayga un caldero,
De aqua Llama levante,

Maria pon tu caldero
Ayamos nuestro te.”

She finished—of course the plauditsresounded——forwith her glorious
voice even the multiplication table would have been delightful, and
the air was triumphantly quoted as a fresh instance of the beauty
and superiority of foreign productions. Malibran then offered to
repeat it, with an English version of the words, and in quickened
time produced, to their utter consternation, “ Polly put the kettle
on.” As Mark Twain would add—there’s a moral in that.

One word before we quit the Madrigal. Instrumental accom-
_ paniments are inadmissible except as a help to weak and unsteady

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performers, and then the instrument should be lightly touched.
There was once a dog who grew weaker and weaker every day, till
at length he was forced to lean against a wall before he could
bark. Well, the accompaniment is the wall: we all need our wall
at times. Our farewell specimen of the Madrigal will be one by
Ford, “Since first I saw your face.”

During the earlier Stuart reigns music continued to flourish.
The first Stuart king, “the wisest fool in Christendom,” inherited
a share of the musical talent of his unfortunate but accomplished
mother, Mary, Queen of Scots. Charles I. was a great patron of
music, and played well on the bass viol. One of his intimate
friends was William Lawes, a composer of merit, who fell in the
civil war, when the only arts in fashion were those of cant and of
killing. Music in public was forbidden ; organs were demolished ;
organists and choirs turned adrift. In Divine Service only unison
singing was permitted—‘“ the minister or other fit person was to
read the psalm line by line, before the singing thereof;’ andin New
England, for more than one hundred years, they only allowed five
lines.

But even in these perilous times the voice of music, though
subdued, was not entirely hushed. Music was diligently practised
in private, and the compositions of Henry Lawes, a brother of
William, were highly esteemed. Milton has immortalized him in
a fine sonnet. Cromwell himself gave concerts in his own house,
and paid £100 a year for the musical education of his daughter.
Milton was an enthusiast in music, and none but a well-attuned
ear could have poured forth the flood of harmony in prose and
verse which he did. His father, as we have seen, was a composer
of madrigals, and young Milton, almost from infancy, was able to
read music. As he grew older, he became an accomplished
player on the organ, and that instrument was one of his greatest
delights when “ Nature at one entrance” was “quite shut out.”

We now take the Ballad period, one of the most interesting—
for the Ballad appeals to every ear and heart. We will begin with
a specimen in which the “trimmer” so common in those days, is
well pourtrayed—“ The Vicar of Bray.” It is familiar to us all, but

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will bear repetition. [The song was then sung as an example of
Ballad music. ]

The music of a nation, and especially its ballads, is a reflex
of the character of its people, and is modified not only by
peculiarities of race, but by the climate and physical features of the
country. Through the melodies of the northern nations, the home
of storm and cold, there breathes an air of plaintiveness. Take up
a collection of English, Scotch, Welsh, or Irish airs,—how many
have a pathetic, almost wailing tone, like the echo of the moaning
wind, though now and then, of course, we come upon a stirring
martial song, or one brimful of humour. In the warmer vine-clad
regions of southern Europe, a spirit of gaiety pervades the music,
and song and dance go hand-in-hand.

With the Restoration the old ballads came in again in all
thew freshness, for the “merry monarch” could not bear music
that he could not beat time to. The pure-voiced madrigal
was heard but rarely, for it could not live in the murky atmosphere
of vice and revelry which surrounded the Court.

Many of the old ballads had doubtless perished, for it was not
till the reign of Elizabeth that the practice of collecting them into
a book began. Prior to that time they were written or printed on
loose sheets, which were often found pasted on the walls: of
the cottage. What with the turbulence of the times, and the
domestic condition of the lower classes, there is little wonder that
so few have been spared. There is no doubt that among other
uses, they helped to mitigate the harsh manners of the middle
ages, while, in more modern times, their influence has often been
remarkable. With “ Lillibullero,” a few trivial verses adapted to
an old Irish air, Wharton boasted that he had sung King James
out of the kingdom.

As intellectual culture advanced, the rude ballads lost their
attraction, and became mere objects of curiosity—relics of the
past—showing the manners and modes of thought which prevailed
in bygone ages. As such they were collected by poetical and
musical antiquaries, and many were published by the ballad-
mongers in penny books called “Garlands.” As examples of the

294

traditional ballad may be mentioned—“ The Bailiff’s Daughter of
Islington,” “ Barbara Allen,” “ Early one Morning,” “Sally in our
Alley,” ‘“‘There was a Jolly Miller,” and “The Three Ravens.”
No date can be assigned to these; they have been borne to our
own day on the breath of many a generation, and their merit is
proved by their vitality.

When once we know a ballad, it becomes as it were a part of
our existence, an inheritance of which we cannot be deprived.
Oliver Goldsmith, a man of musical taste, who worked his way in
France by means of his flute, says :—“‘The music of the finest
masters was but as dissonance to what I felt when our old dairy-
maid sang me into tears with ‘Johnny Armstrong’s Good-night,’
or the cruelty of Barbara Allen.”

We onlyfneed to name Shakspeare to recall a host of fragments
of ballads, and trivial as many of the words are, they have engaged
the attention of our best composers. To take one example in the
“Winter’s Tale.” Autolycus, a rogue, who among other wares
traded in ballads, meets a clown and two shepherdesses, Mopsa
and Dorcas. Mopsa begs the clown to buy some ballads.

‘*T love a ballad in print o’ life,”
she says; and then adds with Arcadian simplicity,

«For then we are sure they are true.”

After one or two have been selected, Autolycus produces another,
adding,
- “This is a passing merry one, and goes to the tune of ‘Two Maids
Wooing a Man’: there’s scarce a maid westward but she sings it.”
Mopsa: ‘‘ We can both sing it: if thou’lt bear a part thou shalt hear :
tis in three parts.”
Dorcas: ‘‘ We had the tune on’t a month ago.”

AvuToLycus: ‘‘I can bear my part you must know, it is my occupation ;
have at it with you.”

And then they “have at it,” no doubt to their great gratification.
Leaving the time of Shakspeare, when we were indeed a musical
nation, and reverting to the period of the Restoration, we meet
with Tom D’Urfey, a great favourite of Charles II. The king

295

would often lean on his shoulder, and the pair would hum together
the favourite ballads of the hour. His book, now scarce, is
entitled, ‘‘ Wit and Mirth, or Pills to purge Melancholy: being a
collection’ of the beft merry ballads and fongs new and old, fitted
to all humours, having each their proper time for either the voice
or the inftrument.” D’Urfey was a man of no mean ability, a poet
and musician, and a very convivial companion: he lived on till
1719, and died poor and forgotten. Like the dramas and ballads
of the time, his work is disfigured by the then prevailing immorality.

TD)’ Urfey wrote new words to many old tunes, very often in
the Scottish dialect. And here we may notice that the Scotch
poets have for the most part composed their verses for old tunes,
Scotch or English, and wisely, too, for they leave them in the best
of company, and with every prospect of a very prolonged life. But
by doing this they have levied black-mail on our English melodies,
and carried them bodily over the border. Take for instance, “Ye
banks and braes,” written by Burns to an old English tune, ‘‘Lost
is my quiet”; “Jock o’ Hazeldean,” by Sir W. Scott, to another
English tune, “In January last.” The tune to “Auld Robin Grey”
was written by an English clergyman, the Rev. William Leeves.
Many have had their words Scotticized, as, “Oh, Nancy, will you
go with me,” which is improved in the new version. The tune
was written by Thomas Carter, an organist, and so skilful a player
on the harpsichord, that he could readily and correctly play any
piece of music placed upside down before him.

In later times, the practice of imitating Scotch verses was
renewed ; tunes were composed for these dialect verses, and many
of these have come to be regarded as Scotch. “The Blue-bells of
Scotland” is by Mrs. Jordan, a noted actress; “ Within a mile of
Edinboro’ town,” by James Hook, an able musician, and father of
the witty Theodore Hook. He composed also the tune to the
“Lass of Richmond Hill.” I feel that I am treading on delicate
ground, but if it can be proved in open court, that the tunes afore-
said, and others, are of English birth, the Scotch, who have an
abundance of unrivalled melodies of their own, will willingly give
up their claim to the few that have straggled over the border. But

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we will now sing one which our northern neighbours have not
appropriated, “The Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington.”

In conclusion, it may be well to notice the instruments for
which music was composed at this time: they were the lute, the
virginals, the spinet, and the harpsichord. The last three were
constructed on the principle of the piano, but all were inferior to
it. It was impossible on either of them to obtain gradations of
tone, piano or forte, or a sustained note. The harpsichord had
two strings to each note, the spinet, a weaker brother, had but one.
Dr. Burney describes the note as a scratch, with a sound at the
end of it ; the scratch being produced by a quill which struck the
wire.

We have in the British Museum the Yirginal Book of Queen
Elizabeth: the music written by the best composers of her time,
is not at all easy of execution: many pieces would tax the skill of
good modern players. Indeed, it must have required marvellous
dexterity in those days, for in their method of fingering, the use of
the thumb and the little finger of each hand was strictly forbidden,
and this restriction remained till 1718, when Purcell, Bach, and
others introduced the modern fingering.

Time will not permit us to enter upon the next period, when
Purcell, Dr. Arne, Dibdin, Shield, and a host of other composers,
ably sustained the reputation of English music; but in order to
leave a vocal impression, after our mention of the musical instru-
ments, we will trespass over the boundary, and take two examples
of the Glee.

[“O happy fair,” by Shield, and “Hark! the lark,”
by Dr. Cooke, were sung by a choir consisting of Mrs. Russell, the
Misses Knowles, Parker, and Barnish ; and Messrs. W. Mc.Gowan,
and Feldtmann, who as a choir, or individually, also sang the
previous illustrations. |

ai

THE HON. CHARLES RADCLIFFE,
AND HIS CONNECTION WITH THE REBELLIONS
OF 1715 AND 1745.

BY Ja Fo CROSTHWAITE.

(Read at Keswick. )

In selecting a subject for a paper on the present occasion, I
have been led to take up the story of the unfortunate Charles
Radcliffe, chiefly because of his connection with the Vale of
Derwentwater. I think it should be an object with a society like
this, to rescue from oblivion the memory of any who have been
conspicuous, and who have played a part in the great drama of life,
whether they have been fortunate or unfortunate. Few men are
born to be truly great, and those few have many admirers, and
command a host of brilliant biographers. But there are in all
times men of ordinary ability and sterling integrity, who pass
through life doing their lesser part, who nevertheless deserve to be
remembered, and from whose lives the bulk of mankind may
derive much valuable instruction. And this may be the case, even
if the’individual has been mistaken, or unfortunate, or, in the eye
of the law, even criminal. His life may stand out as a beacon to
warn the unwary of the rocks upon which he has wrecked his
fortunes, and wasted what might have been otherwise a noble and
an honourable career. It is in this view that I have chosen for my
motto the words of Pope:

“THE PROPER STUDY OF MANKIND IS MAN.”

CHARLES RADCLIFFE, the youngest son of the Second Earl
of Derwentwater, and brother of the amiable young nobleman on
whose melancholy fate I read a paper five years ago, was born in
England on the 3rd September, 1693. Of his early iife, little more
is known than what was then incidentally noticed whilst tracing
the brief career of his noble brother, and the progress of the bold
enterprise which ended so fatally for the house of Derwentwater.

The chief part of his youth seems to have been spent in
France. Of his education, we have very few particulars, but he
does not seem to have shown any fondness for study. He was
brought up in the tenets of the Church of Rome, and became
attached from his boyhood to the cause of the House of Stuart,
among whose adherents his warmest friendships were formed. He
appears to have continued to reside abroad until a short time
before the rising in 1715, when he returned to his parental home
for the purpose (as he pleaded on his trial,) of visiting his brother
the Earl; but, unfortunately for himself, in time to aid in that
attempt to restore the exiled prince to his throne. He had then
completed the twenty-second year of his age. He was possessed
of considerable abilities, and many generous and heroic virtues,
and had given earnest of that daring spirit which so greatly distin-
guished him in after life. His character was marked by gallant
bravery, and he was foremost in every feat of daring. A writer
well acquainted with him, records that he was “full of spirit and
courage, bold and daring, even to rashness, and was generally the
first to offer himself to go upon the most hazardous enterprises:
He seemed to set no value upon his life where honour was to be
won, or service to be performed. This intrepid behaviour, which
he was forward to manifest upon all occasions, endeared him very
much to the chiefs of the rebels, and therefore the Earl gave him
the command of his troop, and Captain Shaftoe commanded under
him. Mr. Radcliffe had never been in the army before, and
consequently knew nothing of military discipline; but what he
wanted in experience and knowledge he made good in bravery,
and in animating his men to great exploits.”

The writer of these remarks then describes the gallant young

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leader riding in his scarlet cloak at the head of his troop on their
rapid journey on the Scottish border, and continues :—* Mr. Rad-
cliffe, who had never seen much of the world before, fancied
himself now upon his travels; and accordingly it was a great part
of his amusement to make observations on whatever he met with
that deserved his notice. At.every town he came to he enquired
what were the most remarkable customs and curiosities of the
place ; what monuments of famous men, or actions, or other noted
pieces of antiquity, were remaining among them; and whatever
information he could get of this kind he took down in his book.
Nor was he less curious in observing the various tempers and
passions of men.”

Before we enter upon the part which Charles Radcliffe took
in the first rebellion, it ought to be mentioned that he and his
brother being suspected by the Government, a warrant for the
apprehension of the two brothers was issued by the Ministry of
George I., expecting thereby to have the first move in the game,
and so prevent the Earl’s influence, which was so much dreaded.
But the Earl had a friendly warning from Whitehall ; and on hearing
that the Government messengers had arrived at Durham, on their
way to arrest him and his brother, they withdrew from Dilston and
went to the house of Sir Marmaduke Constable, where they stayed
a few days. The Earl afterwards took refuge in a cottage, and
continued in concealment through the latter part of August and
September. These proceedings were also taken against Mr.
Forster, who on hearing that a warrant was issued from the Secre-
tary’s office to take him, and finding that he could not hide himself
long in any place of safety, sent out messengers to his friends, to
meet him in Northumberland ; where, having met, they came to a
resolution to muster up all the forces they could, and to appear in
arms. Accordingly, notice was given to all their friends to meet
on the 6th of October at a place called Greenrig; and about
twenty gentlemen repaired thither ; they rode to the top of a hill
called Waterfalls, from whence they soon discovered the Earl ot
Derwentwater and his brother Charles, with their company, who
came that morning from the Earl’s seat at Dilston. In coming

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from thence, their way lying through the town of Corbridge, they
all drew their swords, and in that order marched through it. From
thence they proceeded to the seat of Mr. Errington, where they
halted, and the Earl was joined by several other gentlemen, with
their attendants, and so proceeded in a body to the place appointed,
where Forster and his party met them. Their company now con-
sisted of about sixty horse, most of them gentlemen with their
attendants. They marched to Rothbury, and from thence to
Warkworth, a small town upon the sea coast, their number still
increasing as they marched. Here they proclaimed James III.,
which was done by Mr. Forster; and this was the first place in
England where the Pretender was proclaimed.

On the roth October they came to Morpeth, where they were
joined by sixty Scots horse ; so that now they were three hundred
strong. Here they prepared to march to Newcastle. The Earl of
Derwentwater ordered his brother, Mr. Radcliffe, to take a party
of horse, and to go and seize the post at Felton Bridge, which he
did, without any loss, for indeed, as yet, nobody opposed them.
However, the rebels were disappointed of their design upon
Newcastle ; for the townsmen taking alarm, armed, and prepared
for their defence ; which the rebels being informed of, they turned
and marched to Hexham, and were joined by some more Scots
horse.

While at Hexham they had information that General Car-
penter, at the head of a considerable body, was come out in pursuit
of them, and was preparing to attack them. Upon which a council
of war was held, and Charles Radcliffe proposed to march out and
fight them, before they had recovered themselves from their long
marches which they had been obliged to: make. But the other
leaders did not think this advisable, because most of their men
were raw and inexperienced, and had never yet faced an enemy,
whereas the king’s forces were disciplined troops, and had a brave
general at their head ; and therefore, for the present, it was better
to avoid fighting till they could get such reinforcements as they
expected daily to join them. This counsel was taken, and they
marched forward to meet the forces that were coming to join them

301

from Scotland, headed by their leaders, the Lords Kenmuir, Niths-
dale, Carnwarth, and Wintoun,—and were advanced as far as
Rothbury. Here the English and the Scotch rebels joined their
forces and marched directly from thence to Wooller, in Northum-
berland. They now adopted the fatal policy of marching for
Scotland, where they were assured their friends were numerous.
Accordingly they passed the Tweed, and went to Kelso. Here
they mustered their forces, and found them to amount to about
fourteen hundred. They stayed there about five days; but hearing
that General Carpenter was come with his forces as far as Wooller,
and intended immediately to go to Kelso, a council of war was
called, in order seriously to consider what course they should take.
Lord Wintoun was for marching away into the west of Scotland,
and gave several substantial reasons for it; but the English,
imagining that half the people in the country would rise as soon as
ever they should see a standard erected for James III., rejected
this advice, and the majority of votes being on their side, it was
resolved to march back into England.

Mr. Charles Radcliffe then proposed to re-pass the Tweed,
and attack King George’s forces, since at that juncture they had a
manifest advantage, from the weakness and weariness of General
Carpenter’s men, who were extremely fatigued, and their whole
complement did not consist of above five hundred men, of which
two regiments of dragoons were newly raised, and had never seen
service. This advice was bold, and agreeable to Mr. Radcliffe’s
fiery and spirited temper; and it is probable that if it had been
followed the king’s troops would have been worsted, con-
sidering how much they were fatigued, and that they were
not half the number of the insurgents. But this advice was
not followed, although it seemed the best that could be given at
that time. There seems to have been a fatality that attended all
their counsels, for they could never agree to any one thing that
tended to their advantage. However, it was thought desirable to
decamp from Kelso, which they did, and marched to Jedburgh.

While they lay at Jedburgh, they perceived that an oppor-
tunity offered of getting the start of General Carpenter, by three

302

days’ march ; upon which a consultation was held, and the English
gentlemen earnestly pressed marching southwards, and it was
accordingly resolved to cross the mountains, and march for
England. This resolution, however, might have been attended
with fatal consequences, for the Highlanders could not be
persuaded to cross the borders, which obliged them to alter
their resolution. From Jedburgh they marched to Hawick,
then a small town which belonged to the Duke of Buccleuch,
at whose house Lord Derwentwater and his brother took up their
quarters.

Mr. Radcliffe finding that all the English officers were resolved
to march into England, and that their reasons were too weak to
balance those given by the Highlanders for their march into Scot-
land, at this juncture sided with the Scots, and declared it as
his opinion, that they should better serve the cause by joining the
Highlanders in their proposed march to the west of Scotland, than
by continuing their route to England, where it was uncertain what
assistance they should have from their friends, many of whom,
though he knew they were hearty in the cause, were yet fearful of
appearing in it, till they saw some possibility of its succeeding ;
and others, who were gentlemen of fortune, though they were
hearty well-wishers of the cause, yet having too much to risk, did
not care publicly to embark in it till they had some rational grounds
to hope for success. Therefore he thought their best way
would be to strike a bold stroke in Scotland, and endeavour to
make a complete conquest of that kingdom ; they should then be
able to raise and send powerful armies into England, and be ready
to succour them with supplies; moreover it would always be a
place of retreat if any disaster should befall their army, whereas, in
England, if they should happen to meet with a rebuff, they would
be entirely ruined, having no resource, nor any means of retrieving
a misfortune of this kind. This seemed to be wholesome advice ;
but the leaders were so infatuated, that they would not listen to
anything that contradicted the resolution of going back to
England.

When Mr. Radcliffe perceived that whatever he could say
would be to no purpose, he begged of them to give him only one

;

303

hundred horse, and he would take his fortune along with the
Highlanders. But this was not granted, because it would weaken

‘their force too much, discourage their friends from joining them,

and give their enemies an opportunity of crushing them before they
should be able to make head against them. Several councils and
consultations were held about this affair of the Highlanders, and
many messages passed between them; at last the Highlanders
agreed to stay with them so long as they continued on the north
side of the Tweed, but were determined not to go further than the
Borders.

After they had marched about from place to place for some
time, the English gentlemen at last grew determined for an attempt
upon England, having, they said, received letters from Lancashire
inviting them thither, and assuring them that there would be a
general insurrection on their approach, and that 20,000 men
would immediately join them. Whether they had such expresses
or not was never certainly known; but they affirmed it to the
army, and urged the advantages of a speedy march into England
with such vehemence, that the scale was turned. But Mr. Charles
Radcliffe always protested against it, as a measure which would
certainly be their ruin, as indeed it proved. Five hundred High-
landers thereupon left them, and the Earl of Wintcun went off
likewise, with a good part of his troops, although he afterwards
rejoined them. But notwithstanding all these discouragements,
they were not disheartened, and still continued in their resolution
of marching for England with such forces as were willing to bear
them company.

On the roth of November they came to Preston, where they
proclaimed the Pretender, and were joined by a great many gentle-
men, with their tenants, servants, and attendants, but nearly all
papists. Whenthe alarm was given that the King’s forces were
coming to attack them, and were but a few miles off, Mr. Farquar-
son, at the head of a body of rebels, went out of the town as far as
Ribble-bridge, where they posted themselves, to hinder the king’s
forces from proceeding any farther ; but they were soon cut off,and the
passage was left free for General Wills and his troops to pass into
the town.

304

Foster had been appointed General of the insurgents, not for
any capacity on his part for military affairs, but because he was the
popular Member of Parliament for the county of Northumberland,
in the prime of life, and particularly because being a Protestant, he
was expected to conciliate those Jacobites who were not Roman
Catholics. This appointment was most unfortunate. He was
accused of cowardice, but there is no reason to believe he lacked
personal courage ; he was simply powerless through his incapacity,

The insurgents in the town prepared for a vigorous defence.
The gentlemen volunteers were drawn up in the churchyard, under
the command of Lord Derwentwater and his brother, Mr. Charles
Radcliffe. Both of them behaved with the utmost intrepidity,
urging them by words and example to behave with courage suitable
to the emergency of the occasion; and they maintained their
ground for a long time, and behaved so well, that they obliged the
King’s forces to retire. During the whole action Charles Radcliffe
was in the midst of the fire, and exposed to as much danger as the
common soldiers. But the rebels being now invested on all sides,
Mr. Foster proposed a capitulation, which the Highlanders
opposed, and Mr. Radcliffe protested against, and said that “he
would rather die with his sword in his hand, like a man of honour,
than be dragged like a felon to the gallows, to be there hanged
like a dog.”

In this “scene of unavoidable destruction,” says Sir Walter
Scott, “the English gentlemen began to think on the means of
saving their lives and returning to their homes and estates, while
most of their Scottish allies were in favour of sallying out sword in
hand, and preferred death to a base submission.” General Foster
was disheartened, however, and it was said that, acting on the
advice of Colonel Oxburgh, he sent him to propose a capitulation
without the knowledge of his principal colleagues. The majority
being against Charles Radcliffe, once more he was obliged to yield
with the rest.

Whole hecatombs of prisoners were cruelly sacrificed to the
Moloch which the Parliament had set up. Thirty-four met with
their death at Liverpool by the hands of the executioners. Among

—_—

ne >

305

these were George Collingwood of Easlington, a Northumbrian
gentleman, who was much beloved in his county; and also John
Hunter, of the same county. At Preston Captain Shaftoe and
several prisoners of note suffered death before Lord Derwentwater.
Others at Lancaster, Wigan, Garstang, and Manchester; and more
at Tyburn ; the privilege of decapitation being alone conferred on
Lords Derwentwater and Kenmure.

Hanoverian vengeance was not satiated for some time after
these executions ; but the last who suffered in England were John
Bruce of Preston, and four others, who were executed at Lancaster.
Many died in Newgate, and great numbers were transported to the
American plantations.

Charles Radcliffe was brought to London with many more
of the rebel chiefs. The Lords were committed to the Tower, and
he with others, to Newgate. On the 8th May, 1716, he was
arraigned at the Exchequer Bar at Westminster, for high treason,
to which he pleaded not guilty. On the 18th of the same month,
he was brought there again, and tried upon the indictment, and
having but little to say in his defence, he was found guilty. A few
days after, he and eleven more of the chiefs, were carried to
Westminster in six coaches, in order to have sentence of death
passed upon them. It happened that when the coach which

contained Mr. Radcliffe came into Fleet-street, his majesty King

George I. was then passing along in his coach on his way to
Hanover, for the first time since his ascension to the throne. This
obliged Mr. Radcliffe’s coach to stop, which happening opposite a
distiller’s shop, the third door on the right towards Temple Bar,
he called for half a pint of aniseed, which he himself, his fellow-
prisoners, and a servant of Newgate, drank,* and then proceeded
to Westminster, where sentence of death was pronounced upon
him. |

He was several times respited, and perhaps might have been
pardoned’; but not caring to trust to an event so doubtful, he
began to entertain thoughts of making his escape, which he

* One might almost fancy that he pledged King George, and wished him
well to Hanover,

21

306

actually did in the following manner:—The day appointed for
the purpose, the rebel chiefs in Newgate had a very grand enter-
tainment, which was held in a room called the castle, in the
upper part of the prison. Charles Radcliffe was then dressed
in a suit of black; and when the company were in the height of
their merriment, observing a little door open in the corner of the
room, he went through it, and was followed by thirteen more of
the rebels who were then in company. The passage from this door
led them to the debtors’ side, where the turnkey, not knowing
them, but supposing them to be strangers who came to see their
friends, let them out.*

The fugitives had no sooner passed the gloomy portals of
Newgate, than they hastened to various places of concealment ;
and Mr. Radcliffe, after remaining for some time in the house of
a lady of his family in London, who nobly protected her gallant
relation from the emissaries of the government, was ultimately
provided with an opportunity for escaping to France.

“The sails were fill’d, and fair the light winds blew,

As glad to waft him from his native home ;”
when the fugitive took leave of his country to seek an asylum in
France. He remained for some years in Paris and elsewhere,
following the fortunes of the wandering and exiled prince, and en
deavouring to promote his restoration. During this time, his only
means of subsistance was a miserable pension allowed to him by
his more unfortunate royal master, and such remittances as his
young nephew could manage to send him.

But the penalties of forfeiture, attainder, and exile could not
break his gallant spirit ; and, before many years had passed, we
find him the hero of a somewhat ambitious courtship, which was
marked with a most amusing and romantic, though prudent degree,
of perseverance. The lady of his choice was Charlotte Mary,
only daughter and heir of Charles Livingstone, Earl of Newburgh,

* When Napoleon III. was a prisoner at the Castle of Ham, he made his
escape in the dress of a workman carrying out of his prison yard a plank upon
his shoulder. His letters were returned to the French General Post Office,
marked, ‘‘ Gone, without leaving his address.” The same might have been
said of Charles Radcliffe when he escaped from Newgate. -

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in the Scottish peerage, widow of Thomas Clifford, second son of
Hugh, third Lord Clifford, Baron of Chudleigh, and in her own
right Baroness Livingstone, Vicountess Kinnaird, and Countess of
Newburgh. She married in 1713, with a portion amounting to
10,000, and became a widow with two daughters in 1719.
Between that time and 1724, Charles Radcliffe became her suitor,
and is said to have urged his suit no less than sixteen times. His
sixteenth proposal was, as it deserved to be, successful ; for, having
obtained access to the lady’s apartments in other ways in vain, he
at last adopted the very novel expedient of coming down the
chimney, when the countess, half alarmed and partly pleased at
his perseverance, received her daring suitor graciously. This
scene is represented in a picture in the possession of Lord Petre,
at Thorndon, in which the lady, whose attire is somewhat of Dutch
fashion, is represented in the act of curtseying to her handsome
and persevering suitor, who, notwithstanding that he is supposed
to have just completed his journey through the soot, is attired in
a rich white satin dress, slashed with pink. His dress seems to be
Spanish: he wears large pink bows at the knee and on the shoes,
which are of a singular shape; and on the floor is a Spanish hat,
adorned by a white plume tipped with pink. It is not improbable
that the proposal took place at Louvain, where the widowed
Countess of Derwentwater and her son then resided. It was in
_ the gay city of Brussels that Lady Newburgh took Charles Radcliffe
for her second husband. He thus acquired a considerable income,
and it enabled him to maintain the title of Count de Derwent,
which he assumed on the death of his nephew. By his marriage
he had three sons, namely, James Bartholomew Radcliffe, born in
France 23rd August, 1725, who became Earl of Newburgh, and
died on the 2nd day of January, 1786; Clement Radcliffe and
Charles Radcliffe ; and four daughters, namely, Charlotte, Barbara,
Thomasina, and Mary. His eldest son was thought to bear a
great resemblance to the exiled house of Stuart, for whose service
Charles Radcliffe ventured in 1733 to visit his native country. It
_ would seem that a life of inactivity, not chequered by peril and
adventure, was insupportable to him ; and, accordingly, after the

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accession of George II., he came to England, and resided for some
time in Pall Mall, under the name of Mr. Johns, without being
at all molested. He returned to France, and again came to
England in 1735, when he ventured into public, and visited several
families in Essex and elsewhere; but his hopes of obtaining a
pardon, for which object he had the mediation of friends, were
disappointed. Charles Radcliffe took this opportunity of
revisiting Dilston. His parental hall was desolate; the gardens
were over-grown with weeds; the walls and gates were broken
down ; and the old bridge (which still remains), was in disrepair.
There was nothing like itself but the old chapel, where a clergyman
of the Church of England was officiating periodically, and beneath
which the body of his lamented brother was entombed, besides their
father’s remains; but even these sad relics he could not be
allowed to see.

It is said that with a faithful follower named Armstrong, he
resided for some time in the neighbourhood of Dilston, taking no
pains to conceal himself. In the shades of evening he was
occasionally met by the inhabitants, who took him for the ghost of
the departed Earl. ‘The woods and river-dell soon gained the
reputation of being haunted by the spirit of their former owner,—
a belief to which the dress and family likeness of the forgotten
Charles Radcliffe contributed. On one occasion he met face to
face, in the narrow forest walk, the bailiff who had been sent down
from London by the Commissioners. The man, terrified at
encountering the supposed ghost, turned his horse and galloped
back, pursued by Charles, who highly relished the panic he had
created. The chase, however, was short, for the bailiff striking his
head against the branch of a tree, was felled to the ground by the
blow, where Charles left him to recover at his leisure. He was
picked up by a woodman and conveyed home, and ever afterwards
persisted in asserting that the ghost had thrown its head at him,
and thus occasioned the plight in which he was found. He soon
afterwards petitioned for his recall, and another was sent down in
his stead, who declared that he had no fear of ghosts, and was
determined to fire at it the first opportunity ; this opportunity was

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not long wanting, for on a fine moonlight night, as he was riding
through the river at Styford, he encountered Charles in the very
middle of the stream, who seized the bridle of the bailiff’s horse,
causing it to rear over its unfortunate rider, and then left them to
flounder out of the river as best they could. ‘These adventures
occasioned so much sensation, that the Commissioners determined
to send down a military force to maintain the confidence of the
peasants, who were beginning to refuse to till their lands; and as
Charles at this time met with an opportunity of passing over into
Holland, from whence he went into France, the small party of
soldiers gained all the credit of having laid the ghost of the Earl.

Whether Charles Radcliffe ever revisited Derwentwater is not
recorded ; but it is not improbable that a man of his active habits
might do so. Fancy the wanderer taking a bird’s eye view of
the most ancient of the family estates from the top of Castlet!
His mind would naturally revert to the times when the de
Derwentwaters were sole owners of the beautiful lake and valley at
his feet, with other lands extending towards the sea as far as
Tallentire, which afterwards passed to a lady of the family, Dorothy
Radcliffe, who married Francis Dacre, or D’Acre, and their
daughter, Magdalen, married a Richmond. He might almost have
wished that his ancestor, Sir Edward Radcliffe, had not married
the heiress of the Northumberland and Durham estates, and taken
a wife in his mountain home.

After a residence of two years in England, again “the childe
departed from his father’s hall,” and entered into the service of the
French King. From this time until 1746, little is known of his

career, but it is not likely that a spirit so energetic remained during

all this time inactive. The Prince, in whose cause he had suffered

so much, had gone to his “long home,” and was succeeded by his

son, Charles Edward, whose mother was grand-daughter of John
_ Sobieski, the heroic King of Poland. Charles Radcliffe received
_ acommission in a regiment which was allotted with other forces

for the Chevalier’s service in Scotland; and with his eldest son,
James Bartholomew Radcliffe, then in his twentieth year, he again
sailed for England, and entered on new and romantic scenes of

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his chequered career. It is probable that the Countess of New-
burgh was at this time in Scotland ; and although he did not appear
in arms in the ill-fated Scottish campaign, he was doubtless giving
his services in another quarter; at all events, no part of his time
was spent in inglorious ease, and we may suppose him to have
taken leave of his lady in the sentiments of the ballad :—

‘Farewell to Lochaber, and farewell to my Jean, .

Where heartsome with thee I have many days been ;

For, borne on rough seas to a far hostile shore,

May be I’ll return to Lochaber no more.”

The traditions of Lancashire preserve a romantic tale that
Charles Radcliffe lived for some time in the family of an honest
yeoman—half farmer and half fisherman—who tenanted a lonely
farm on the Lancashire coast, where the much frequented South-
port has since arisen. Here he was introduced by a Roman
Catholic gentleman in the neighbourhood, and, although quick of
apprehension, seemed to want the gift of speech. He com-
municated his thoughts by writing, or drawing sketches with chalk
—a method which did not tend to unravel the mystery that
attached to him. When, however, he was about to be apprehended,
and was insolently addressed by a minion of the law, he was no
longer dumb, he answered, with dignity, “Sir knave! I own no
nicknames, and I answer to none. My name is Derwentwater.”
Although made prisoner, through the wits of the fisherman’s
daughter he made his escape. For the full account of this story,
see ‘‘ Roby’s Traditions of Lancashire,” second series, vol. 2, p. 213.

At what time this occurrence took place, or whither the ship he
embarked in conveyed him, there is no record; but turning to
authentic history, we next find Charles Radcliffe (who styled him-
self Earl of Derwentwater), his son, and twenty officers, Scotch,
Irish, and French—besides about sixty men—at sea, opposite the
coast of England. On the 22nd November, 1745, they were
captured by King George’s frigate, Ze Sheerness, being bound for
Montrose in Scotland. Mr. Radcliffe and his son were brought
to London with their fellow passengers, who were accused of
treasonable intentions in favour of Prince Charles. The captors

Biting

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seeing the resemblance of young Mr. Radcliffe to the prince, took
him for the Cheyvalier’s younger son, and fancied Mr. Radcliffe to be
the Pretender himseif. is arrival in London, and his safe
lodgement in the Tower, created no little sensation ; but the public
before long found out that the report was without foundation. On
the 27th March following, young Mr. Radcliffe and four officers
who were French subjects, were liberated from the Tower upon
their parole, for they could not be indicted for treason to the King
of Great Britain. The spring, summer, and autumn of that
eventful year passed over the head of Charles Radcliffe, but still
left him an untried prisoner in the Tower. The Government

“* Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,”

seems to have been at a loss to know what proceedings to take
against him, and was probably occupied all that time in en-
deavouring to find witnesses who would prove him to be the same
Charles Radcliffe who had been condemned for high treason thirty
years before.

On Friday, the 21st November, 1746, he was taken in a coach,
strongly guarded, from the Tower to the Court of Queen’s Bench
in Westminster Hall, to be arraigned on the conviction for high
treason which had been recorded against him in 1716. *He‘is
described as appearing five feet ten inches in height, dressed in a
scarlet regimental suit, faced with black velvet, and gilt buttons,
a gold laced waistcoat, bagwig, and hat of Spanish fashion, with a
white plume. Being called on to plead as Charles Radcliffe, he
said that was not his nanie ; that he was the Count de Derwent:
Water, and a commissioned officer and subject of the King of

France, whose commission he produced, and in whose realm he
had resided thirty years. It was ordered that a jury should be
“empannelled to try his identity, and this trial was appointed for the
following Monday. On that day he was again arraigned, but he
_ treated the Court with contumacy, and refused to acknowledge its

_ jurisdiction to try him, repeating his claim to be treated as a

subject of the King of France, and appealed to the minister of the
the King of Sicily, who was then in court. This claim was of

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course disallowed; and the indictment, founded on the conviction
which had been recorded in 1716, was then read over to him in
English. He merely repeated that he was the Count de Derwent-
water, and persisted in refusing to hold up his hand, and to plead
in the usual form. His counsel, however, took issue on this
allegation, and moved the postponement of the trial, on the ground
that two material witnesses were absent. But the court held that
no sufficient ground was shown for a postponement, and proceeded
to hear the evidence of the witnesses whom the Crown had at length
found, to prove the identity of the prisoner with the Charles
Radcliffe who had been convicted in 1716. Two Hexham men—
Abraham Bunting and Thomas Mosley—swore to his identity from
a scar on his face, (said to have been received in a blacksmith’s
shop when a boy,) and declared that they had seen him march out
of Hexham at the head of the Earl of Derwentwater’s tenantry in
October, 1715. One of them swore that he had seen the prisoner
at Dilston ten years before, and had shown him a trap door leading
to a vaulted chamber below the floor of Dilston Hall.

A writer of the day says that “none of them could come up
to the point until a great officer was sworn, who deposed that Mr.
Radcliffe, since his confinement in the Tower, had acknowledged
to him when they had been drinking a glass of wine together, that
he was the same person. But Mr. Radcliffe objected to the
credibility of this witness, because he had confessed to him that he
believed neither in God nor devil; and it would be an absurdity to
swear a man upon the bible who had no faith in anything it
contained.”

This objection was over-ruled, and no other defence being
made, after a trial of seven hours duration, the jury having
consulted ten minutes, found their verdict, that the prisoner was
the same Charles Radcliffe who had been convicted of high treason
in 1716. It was then ordered that he should be beheaded on the
8th of December. On hearing this sentence, he merely remarked
that he wished a later day had been appointed, to afford time for
his acquainting some friends in France, so that his brother, the
Earl of Morton, and he, might have set out on their journey at the
same time.

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His demeanour in the Tower is said to have been marked by
a sullen haughtiness, which contrasted unfavourably with the meek
resignation of his noble brother in similar circumstances. ‘Thirty
years of exile had hardened rather than softened his temper. But,
like the earl, he behaved with courage, constancy, and a lofty
firmness ; and his manly bearing, as free from bravado as it was
from weakness, well became the scion of a noble line. But of the
last days of his eventful life, no particulars have come down to us,
save that it is said in a contemporary periodical, that he seemed to
disregard a devotional preparation for eternity, until, on the 4th of
December, when he received a letter from his niece, Lady Petre,
which seems to have recalled his attention to the necessity of
preparing for the change that awaited him, because from that time
he evinced a more religious deportment. On the night preceding
his execution, he wrote the following letter to the Countess of
Newburgh, his wife :—

‘* From the Tower, 7th Decr., 1746.
“*The best of friends takes leave of you. He has made his will. He is
resigned—to-morrow is the day. Love his memory. Let his friends join with
you in prayer: ’tis no misfortune to die prepared. Let us love our enemies
and pray for them. Let my daughters be virtuous women like you; my
blessing to them all; my kind love to Fanny,* that other tender mother of my
dear children.

** Adieu ! dear friend,
“DERWENTWATER.”

It seems that at first Government hesitated in their sanguinary
purpose, for orders were not given until so near the time, that the
carpenters worked the whole day and night of Sunday, in order to
be ready for the fatal Monday, the 8th of December. About eight
o’clock in the morning, two troops of life guards, a troop of horse
grenadier guards, and a battalion of foot guards, marched to Little
Tower Hill; the horse guards lining the way from the scaffold to
the iron gate, while the rest of the forces surrounded the scaffold.

Four months had not elapsed since, upon the same spot, a
vast concourse of people had witnessed the decapitation of Lords

*The Hon. Frances Clifford, daughter of his wife, Lady Newburgh, by
her first marriage.

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Kilmarnock and the accomplished Balmerino, two of the noble
captives of Culloden—that fatal and sanguinary contest which, in
the previous April, while Charles Radcliffe was a prisoner in the
Tower, had ended for ever the hopes of the House of Stuart. The
scaffold on which the brave and devoted adherent, Charles Rad-
cliffe, was now to suffer, was covered with black serge, as was the
fatal block ;* and upon the scaffold was placed the coffin to receive
his remains. It was covered with black velvet, and had costly gilt
handles and nails, but bore no inscription. In the meantime the
Sheriffs proceeded in their chariots from the Mitre Tavern,
Finchurch-street, to the lower end of the Minories, from whence,
preceded by their officers, they went to the victualling office,
where the Sheriffs remained; the under sheriffs proceeding with
a party of the foot guards to the east gate of the Tower, next the
iron gate, to demand from General Williamson, deputy-governor,
the surrender of the prisoner. He was brought, riding in a landau,
through the east gate of the Tower, whence a procession moved
slowly in the following order :—First, the officers, then a mourning
coach, conveying the under sheriffs with their wands, then the
prisoner, whose carriage was surrounded by a detachment of foot
guards, and followed by the officers of the Tower. Proceeding
thus up Little Tower Hill, Mr. Radcliffe alighted opposite the
victualling office, and happening to see among the crowd some
gentlemen whom he knew, he saluted them with cheerful courtesy,
and, coming to the side of the mourning coach, he asked whether
he was to go in that vehicle, and on being answered in the
affirmative, said, “It is well,” and stepped in directly. A little
booth, lined with black cloth, was erected at the foot of the stairs
leading to the scaffold, wherein he spent a short time at his
devotions, speaking but few words to any person. He then, with
great composure, ascended the scaffold, attended by a priest and
a few friends, and by the sheriffs.

The gallant Radcliffe was attired in a scarlet regimental suit ;
the coat made with short tight sleeves and long wide cuffs, with

* Probably the one now exhibited in the Tower. I was told by the
Warder in 1846, that Kilmarnock and Balmerino were beheaded on it.

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gold buttons and lace; a long flapped waistcoat, brocaded with
flowers, quilted, as was the coat, with black velvet worked with
gold ; white silk stockings, which rolled over the knee, and diamond
buckles at his shoes and garters. His hat was decked with a white
plume, and a peruke, made of his own bright hair, fell in full curls
upon his shoulders. The collar of his shirt was fastened by a black
ribbon, and he wore a silver crucifix and rosary of beads. When
he came upon the scaffold, he first took leave of his friends ‘“ with
great serenity and calmness of mind.” He then spoke as follows :
“TJ die a true, obedient, and humble son of the Catholic Apostolic
Church, in perfect charity with all mankind, and a true well-wisher
to my dear country, that never can be happy without doing justice
to the best and most injured king. I die with all the sentiments
of gratitude, respect, and love for the King of France, Louis, the
well-beloved—a glorious name! I recommend to his majesty my
dear family. I heartily repent of all my sins, and have a firm con-
fidence to obtain pardon from Almighty God through the merits
of his blessed Son, Christ Jesus, our Lord, to whom IT recommend
my soul.” Having assured the executioner of his forgiveness, he
put some gold pieces into his hands, saying, “I am but a poor
man ; there’s ten guineas for you; if I had more, I would give it
you; I desire you to do your office so as to put me to the least
possible misery you can.” He.then kneeled down by the block,
and was occupied in prayer for about six minutes, all the persons
on the scaffold kneeling with him. His devotions finished, he
divested himself of his wig, his coat, and waistcoat ; and then
turning to the Sheriffs, took leave of them, after which reciting a
short prayer, and crossing himself several times, “he laid his head
upon the block,” and told the executioner he was to do his office
when he should see him stretch forth his hands. In less than half
a minute he gave the signal, which was instantly followed by the
stroke of the axe. It almost severed the head from the body at
one blow, which was given with such force that the axe became
fixed in the block.

Charles Radcliffe “behaved to the last,” says a contemporary
account, “with the greatest coolness, fortitude, and manly courage,

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and was in no way shocked at the approach of death.” So the
noble victim died, in the fifty-third year of his age ; constant to the
last in his faith, and in his attachment to the exiled House of
Stuart.

Such was the sanguinary vengeance of George II. for a
treasonable act committed in the reign of his father at a distance
of no less than thirty years! The remains were taken in the
coffin to the Nag’s Head, in Gray’s Inn lane, and from thence
removed, “in the dead of night,” to a Mr. Walmsley’s, near
Red Lion Square. His heart is said to have been embalmed and
placed in a leaden casket, which was afterwards deposited, by his
own desire, near the remains of his noble brother and ancestors at
Dilston; and from Mr. Walmsley’s, the body was taken two
nights afterwards, to be interred, as was supposed, in the church-
yard of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, but, according to tradition, in
reality to Abbot’s Stanstead, in Hertfordshire ; the funeral being
conducted with all possible secrecy. f

The following inscription in his memory was erected in the
churchyard of St. Giles :—

“Carolus Radcliffe, Comes de Derwentwater,
Decollatus die 8 December 1746, Etatis 53.
Requiescat in pace !”

The vengeance of the first two Georges on the adherents of
the House of Stuart, urged on by Walpole and his party, was
resented by a few independent men. The Earl of Anglesea, in
reference to the impeachment of the Earl of Oxford, in 1716, said
that “such violent measures were disagreeable to the people, and
it was to be feared would make the sceptre shake in the King’s
hands.” But the king thought more of the security of his throne
than of the Protestant faith which he was brought from Hanover
to defend.* There were statesmen who were sincere and dis-
interested in their efforts to stamp out the House of Stuart, and, as
they also hoped, any future ascendancy of Romanism in England.

* Not so, however, George III. He said he could lay down his crown,

and live in a cottage, rather than violate his Coronation Oath to defend the
Protestant Constitution, by virtue of which he reigned.

tlie

317

Of these, the Earl of Shaftesbury, as Lord High Steward, was
perhaps the most conscientious and distinguished.

It was the dread of the return of Roman Catholicism which
caused the nation to suffer the Government of the day to visit with
such severity the offences of men, who, however mistaken, were
loyal to their creed, political and religious, and who staked their
property and their lives in the defence of their principles.

Many good men and true, who were not Roman Catholics,
espoused the cause of the exiled Stuarts. The Lord Kenmure, in
his speech on the scaffold, said: “I die a Protestant of the Church
of England. I take God to witness, before whom I have soon to
appear, that I never had any design to favour or introduce Popery.”
The Earl of Derwentwater, and his brother Charles, not only
suffered in their own persons, but, by the vindictive action of
Parliament, the treason of the fathers was visited upon their
innocent offspring. History does not present a parallel case.

The Derwentwater Estates included thirteen manors, or large
separate estates, in Northumberland and Durham, independent of
their more ancient possessions in Cumberland. The whole yielded
a larger yearly income than the Electorate of Hanover. The
estates were all settled by the Earl in 1712 upon himself for life,
and entailed upon his first and other sons, with remainder to
Charles Radcliffe for life, on whose first and other sons the estates
were in like manner entailed. The Earl having only a life estate
in his property, could forfeit no greater interest. His only son,
although he lost his title of nobility by the attainder of his father,
was, by solemn adjudication of law at Westminster, admitted tenant in
tail in possession of all the settled estates ; and the fortune of the
Earl’s daughter was raised and paid out of them. The Earl’s son
(John Radcliffe), was in possession of the estates during sixteen
years ; and if he had lived to attain the age of twenty-one years, he
might have dealt effectually with them, so that they could not, at
any future time, have been affected by the attainder of his father,
or his. uncle, Charles Radcliffe. Upon his death, without issue, in
1731, the life estate of Charles Radcliffe commenced, but it vested
in the Crown by reason of the attainder, Not so, however, the

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estate in tail of his eldest son, James Bartholomew, to whom the
settled property stood limited by a limitation similar to that in
virtue of which his cousin, Mr. John Radcliffe, had been admitted
tenant. James Bartholomew was born on the 23rd of August,
1725, at Vincennes ; but, the statute passed in the seventh year of
Anne (1708), gave him all the rights of a British subject born
within the realm. He therefore became legally entitled on his
birth, to an estate in tail male expectant on his father’s decease, of
all the lands comprised in the settlement of 1712. He was, never-
theless, excluded while an infant, and remained excluded through
his life, from his inheritance, by a cruel, severe, and unprecedented
expedient, which must ever reflect indelible disgrace upon the
Government and Legislature of the time ; for, in 1731, immediately
after the death of Mr. John Radcliffe, and when James Bartholo-
mew, his cousin, was an infant of five years of age, the Government
devised a statute, whereby it in effect declared that nothing
contained in the declaratory law of Queen Anne, did or should
extend to give the privileges of a natural-born subject to any child
or children born, or to be born abroad, whose father at the time of
his or their birth, either stood attainted of high treason, or was: in
the actual service of a foreign state in enmity to the Crown of
Great Britain—an outrage of legislative tyranny which was full of
injustice generally, and designed with peculiar cruelty to the heir
of Radcliffe, being passed for no other purpose than to secure to
Government the confiscation of the great estates of the Derwent-
water family.

When the eldest son of Charles Radcliffe was about eleven
years of age, his mother, the Countess of Newburgh, gave notice to
all the tenants on the Derwentwater Estates, of the title of the
Radcliffe family, in the following letter.

‘London, September 20th, 1736.

“¢ Sir, —Knowing you to be a friend of a family whose interest I espouse
very much, I beg you will let the tenants know, who I hear are now taking
leases upon lives, that there is three sons belonging to that family ; and though
their father cannot now possess the estate, his soz’ Right is undoubted after his
death, so that it will be at their peril. I am come over on purpose to serve
the family what I can, and I have a great many relations who have interest,

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and are so kind as to have a will to serve me. I beg you'll excuse this
trouble, and believe me, Sir,

**Vour most humble Servant,
“C, NEWBURGH.
“To Mr. Charles Bushby, at Corbridge, near Hexham.”

However undoubted the right of the eldest son of Charles
. Radcliffe after his father’s death, he was as effectually deprived of
his inheritance as if he had himself been guilty of high treason.

In 1749, the King went down to Parliament, and gave his
assent to an act to “endow the Royal Hospital for Seamen, at
Greenwich, with the forfeited estates of the Earl of Derwentwater
and Charles Radcliffe, deceased, and for raising certain sums of
money for the relief of the children of the said Charles Radcliffe.”

Charles Radcliffe’s eldest son, being deprived of his patrimony,
and having no other means of subsistence, accepted £24,000—a
sum scarcely exceeding one year’s income of the family estates—as
a relief for his support, and consented that the title under the
settlement should be extinguished. But, if he was under the
disabilities of an alien, and could not hold the estate, the Act
of 1749 could confer no valid title on the trustees of Greenwich
Hospital, still less could it operate in law to deprive his only son,
Anthony James, born in England in 1757, of his rights of inherit-
ance.

Anthony James, grandson of Charles Radcliffe, became Fifth
Earl of Newburgh in 1786. He married Anne, daughter of Joseph
Webb, Esq., of Slinden. She was a grand-niece of the last
Countess of Derwentwater. He presented a petition to Parliament
gth June, 1788, when a bill was passed granting £2,500 per annum
to his lordship. He was undoubtedly the last who had any claim on
the Derwentwater Estates under the settlement of 1712. He was the
last male heir, and was succeeded in the Earldom of Newburgh by
his cousin, Francis Eyre, Esq. In the year 1800, he visited
Keswick, and was in Crosthwaite’s Museum. ‘The proprietor
expressed his regret that he had accepted so paltry a pension for
his large inheritance, but he only replied—“ Half a loaf is better
than no bread,” :

320

I do not intend to moralize on ‘the unhappy fate of Charles
Radcliffe, the great-grandson of Sir Edward Radcliffe, who suffered
so much in the cause of Charles I. that he was distinguished in his
time as Sir Edward the Loyal—the grandson of Charles II., his
mother being the Lady Mary Tudor—the first cousin of the

Pretender—brought up in France, and in constant intercourse with
the exiled Stuarts: it is not surprising that he should have espoused
the Stuart cause with all the vehemence of his ardent and
uncompromising spirit. His loyalty and his creed were dearer to
him than life itself, Although invincible prejudice does not
exonerate any man from the duty of exercising his reason, and
investigating the grounds of his faith, yet it is not for us to presume
to judge another: “To his own master he standeth or falleth.”
Of him it may be truly said that he was an honest man, the very
soul of honour, and a gentleman.

Prudence led some families to take opposite sides in civil
conflicts, and then, whatever the issue, the family in one or others
of its members retained their titles and property. They probably
bore in mind Sir John Harrington’s lines :—

‘Treason doth never prosper, what’s the reason ?

Why, when it prospers, none dare call it treason.”
Not.so the two devoted Radcliffes of Derwentwater. They staked
their all, and they lost all, but honour and integrity.

It may be that many a thoughtful tourist will visit the ruins
on Lord’s Island, and ponder with melancholy thoughts not
devoid of thrilling interest, on the misfortunes of this ancient and
honourable family. Had the lot of Charles Radcliffe fallen on
happier times, his sterling character and good qualities might have
left an enduring impression for good on his country. As it fell
out, we may say of him and his noble and amiable brother, that—

They ‘‘left a name at which the world grew pale,
To point a moral, or adorn a tale.”

ROBERT SOUTHEY.
By THE VERY REv. A. P. STANLEY, D.D., F.R.S.,
DEAN OF WESTMINSTER.

(Lecture delivered at Keswick, March 31st, 1879.)

In choosing the subject of Robert Southey as the one on
which I am to address you this evening, you were, I believe,
influenced by having heard from some one the admiration which I
had expressed for his poetry.

It is true that in this respect he was, I may say, my earliest
love. I can remember, even at this moment, the feeling of delight
with which I read, one after the other, the poems of ‘“ Thalaba,”
“ Kehama,” ‘‘ Madoc,” and “ Roderick.” Not even the novels of
Sir Walter Scott had, for me; a keener attraction. The prospect
of visiting the scenes of any of these poems filled me with enthusi-
asm ; and although in later years that enthusiasm may have cooled
down, yet it was only three years ago it led me indirectly into
making a visit to the otherwise somewhat uninviting kingdom of
Portugal, that I might see some of the spots hallowed in my
memory by the closing scenes of “ Roderick.” And, even now, I
sometimes feel as if I should not die happy until I had explored
the locality of the crisis of that poem “Covadonga,” in the
_ Asturias. But this predilection would not have been sufficient
to warrant my yielding to your request, if it were not that it
seemed to me a useful framework for various wholesome
reflections.

Southey is one of those poets who has now fallen almost into
oblivion in the great outside world. Here and there you meet

22

322

individuals, like myself, who still cherish the flame which he once
enkindled. Here and there you meet families in which the
tradition of admiration is handed down. I may mention that the
present Lord Chief Justice Coleridge, while his venerable father
was still living, presiding over a whole host of children and grand-
children, pointed out to me with satisfaction that I was looking on
three generations of the worshippers of Southey. But these are
exceptions, and it is therefore instructive from time to time to
recall the thoughts of the younger generation to the household
gods of their fathers, and to poems which have retained a more
living popularity, where may be seen traces of Southey’s influence
by those to whom his melodies are familiar. For example, I doubt
whether any single poet has so deeply coloured the phraseology of
Keble’s “ Christian Year” as Southey.

Again, he is an author of whom, speaking impartially, we must
say that his writings exhibit extraordinary inequalities. Few poets
or prose authors of our time have written books at once so good
and so poor. Dryden is perhaps another example. Of his history
of the Peninsular War, the Duke of Wellington is reported to
have said: “Mr. Southey, Sir, may be a very clever man; but
he has not understood the plan of one of my campaigns, nor the
object of one of my battles.” And of his Poems, “Joan of Arc,”
“The Vision of Judgment,” and many of his Laureate Odes, have.
sunk into a gulf of oblivion from which it would be impossible
ever to rescue them. We must acknowledge this.

His opinions, too, were of the most unequal importance.
Having begun life as a revolutionary Radical, he ended it asa
most uncompromising Conservative. There was a vehemence in
both extremes which belonged to the same defect of character.
Lord Macaulay says, that in passing “from one extreme of
political opinion to another, he has constantly contrived, like
Milton’s Satan going round the globe, to ‘ride with darkness.’
Wherever the thickest shadow of the night may at any moment
chance to fall, there is Mr. Southey. It is not everybody who
could have so dexterously avoided blundering on the daylight
in the course of a journey to the antipodes.” This, no doubt,

323

is a highly coloured statement, as is the whole of the fierce assault
contained in the Essay from which these words are extracted.
But it is useful for all of us, old or young, to bear in mind,
that even in those whom we most admire, there may be failings ;
and it is one of the duties of all public instructors to insist on
the duty of discrimination in human characters, and to remember
the infirmities and the errors which belong to the mixed conditions
of human existence.

But, thirdly, the topic appeared to me extremely suitable to
this place. Some of you have had the pleasure of knowing him ;
almost all of you must have heard of him. He is the genius of
Keswick, almost as exclusively as Wordsworth is of Grasmere and
Rydal—or as Shakspeare is of Stratford-on-Avon. His grave, his
monument, his house,—(as I can speak from experience, owing
to the kindness of its present occupants)—still speak of him.
Such memories, attaching to any locality, are amongst the best
treasures which we can possess, if we only rightly use them; and
it therefore seemed to me a good work to revive these recollections,
and to ask you to consider with me what were the permanent
elements of good which Southey’s life and teaching may convey.

A few words, and a few words only, on his general life.
Personally, I never saw him. The first time that I visited the
Lakes was when I was staying in Grasmere with Dr. Arnold, and
rode or walked over from thence to Keswick. It was a great
disappointment to me, although highly characteristic of the man,
that Dr. Amold was too shy to give me a letter of introduction to
the poet, whom of all others in England I should most have
wished tosee. I walked, if I remember, round the outside of Greta
Hall; but that was the nearest approach that I ever made to
him in bodily presence. But it is not difficult for me, or for
any one, to recall what he was. From the abundant stores
that his letters provide, he remains a shining example of a man
_ whose pleasure was found in the simplest, kindliest, social inter-
course, and in the most indefatigable intellectual activity. Such a
workman is an exception to us all—a workman who feels his
pleasure in his work, and his enjoyment in ministering to the

324

wants of others. He said somewhere, and herein I quite agree
with him, that one of the greatest of earthly pleasures is the |
correction of proof-sheets. An excellent Quaker, with whom I
crossed the Atlantic last autumn, told me that Southey had said to
him, (he was then sixty-five,) “ My motto through life has been zz
labore requies”—he pointed as he spoke to the sixth volume of the
“ Acta Sanctorum,” through which he was steadily plodding, and
added, “ My only sorrow will be when I have reached the end.”

Let me read to you a few passages from his letters describing
the best experiences of his life. [The lecturer then read passages
as referred to below, fromthe “ Life and Correspondence of the late
Robert Southey,” in 6 vols., edited by his son, the Rev. Charles
Cuthbert Southey. ]

Vol. III., page 84.—Boy’s heart and child’s spirit.

Vol. IV., page 31.—The effect of time on his feelings.

Vol. IV., page 320.—Effects of Friendship in College Life.

Vol. IV., page 186.—His mixed joys and sorrows.

One or two of his higher expressions on Life and Religion :—

Vol. IV., page 178.—Of natural affections.

Vol. IV., page 157.—The future destiny of mankind.

Vol. V., page 12.—The. value of Religion in the widest

sense.

Vol. IV. page 75.—‘‘The duties of a Parish Clergyman.”

I now turn to his writings. Of the style of his prose writings,
it has been truly said they have ‘every merit except the first.”
But of their substance, we must acknowledge that the inequality, of
which I spoke before, here makes itself apparent. But leaving in
the shade those which are not worth recalling, let us hasten to say
that there are two which will probably stand as long as the
English language itself. One is the ‘Life of Nelson.” Even
Macaulay relaxes in the presence of that charming biography.
Southey was gratified at being told by Queen Victoria, then a little
girl of eleven years of age, that she lately read, with pleasure, his
“Life of Nelson.” Only the other day I received a letter from an
aged clergyman, who describes the delight with which, when
confined to a sick room at school with small-pox, he read the “Life

of Nelson” in the spring of 1830, a few weeks before the death of
George IV., and vainly sought last winter to refresh his memory
by another perusal. The “Life of Wesley,” from its subject, is
not so popular ; but that also remains, after all that has been said
for and against that extraordinary man, the best record of Wesley’s
position in English literature and English religion. Allow me to
read to you Southey’s own account of his design in writing it. [See
Vol. IV., p. 294, of “ Life and Correspondence.” ]

These two books furnish, the first for Sailors, the other
for Clergymen, unfailing springs of living instruction and
edification.

I pass now to his Poems. They may be divided into three
classes. I speak now of those poems which deserve to live. The
first are the Ballads. It is difficult exactly to analyze the pleasure
given to us by effusions so fantastic, and belonging to a vein of
thought so eccentric. The pleasure they give is derived, I
think, chiefly from two sources: one is the extraordinary mastery
which they display over the English language in one of its most
difficult forms. I remember that Arnold used to say, “that he did
not know any poem which, in the same compass, shewed such an
exuberance and such a concentration of the powers of English
speech, as did the poem on the Waterfall of Lodore.” Secondly,
there is the pleasure arising from the profound acquaintance and
familiarity with the grotesque sentiment of the Middle Ages, such
as in architecture is shewn in the gargoyles of our Cathedrals, and
in literature, by the profuse display of ecclesiastical miracles, in
which, as in the gargoyles, reverence and irreverence are combined
in the most intricate mixture, and yet, owing to the absence of any
sinister motive, irreverence never runs into absolute profaneness.
Let me give a specimen of this: the poem on Queen Mary’s
Christening.

Secondly, there are the long historical or mythological poems,
whose names I have already enumerated. Of these, as I have
_ said, “Joan of Arc” must rank in the lowest place; even I have
not been able to read it. ‘‘ Madoc” and “Roderick,” although they
were my childhood’s delight, have lost much of their charm; yet,

326

in the case of “ Roderick,” any one can feel the austere grace of
passages like these. The first, The answer of Pelayo, the founder
of the Spanish monarchy, to one who announced to him the over-
throw of his house and family.

(Quotation here made.)

I ventured to quote these words in public upon the occasion
of the tragical overthrow of brilliant hopes, when the present
successor of Pelayo last year lost his beloved and charming
bride; Again, the description of ‘ Virtue overclouded by
misfortune” of which he himself describes the origination.
(“* Life and Correspondence.”) But “Thalaba” and “ Kehama”
have never lost their hold on those who were once swayed
by them, and this arises from a deeper cause than the
mere melody of the verses, or loftiness of the sentiments.
He has himself given the account of their origin. (Vol. IIL,
p. 351, “ Life and Correspondence.”) You will perceive that,
unconsciously perhaps, he was here treading on the threshold
of that immense world of religious philosophy, which the later part
of the r9th century has, for the first time in the world’s history,
appropriated to itself,—the region of comparative theology, or com-
parative religion—that which in our day has been so powerfully
set forth by Professor Max Miiller. It is a region of the greatest
interest ‘to scholars ; but it is also a region full of the most serious
and useful instruction to pastors and their flocks in the humblest
walks of life, because it opens to us the consoling belief, taught indeed
by the Apostles, but in the later ages of Christendom almost
entirely eclipsed—that the knowledge and grace of God are not
confined to any single church, or any single race, but may be found
wherever the heart sincerely turns towards whatever there is of the
best and highest in its own experience.

I remember an aged peasant in Cheshire, since called to her
rest, describing to me, as though it came with the force of a new
revelation, that she had once gone to a neighbouring barn to, hear
two old persons, a Quaker and a Quakeress, as she called them,
who travelled in many parts of the world, and had announced it
as their fixed belief, that in every religion God would accept those,

- ERR.

327

who, according to the best light of their conscience, sought to
worship and to serve Him. She said that this removed from her
mind a load of doubt and perplexity, and that she was now able
to look on the various disputes and controversies of which from
time to time the faint echoes reached her, with calmness and con-
solation. That aged peasant’s belief, and the announcement of
those two old missionaries, form the basis of the philosophy of
comparative religion. It is this sentiment which Southey en-
deavoured to exemplify in the case of Mahomedanism, and of
Hindoo Mythology, in these two poems. In “Thalaba” he took
the one great Mahomedan virtue of resignation, and worked it out
to the full. In doing so, heentered so completely into the genius of
the Arabian world, that as we read the pages of “‘Thalaba,” we seem
to be transported altogether beyond the range of European thought
or European scenery.

The first night that I ever spent in the desert, there came
back to me, with a vividness occasioned by the exact and literal
reproduction of the atmosphere around me, the lines which I have
again and again repeated in my early boyhood, from the opening
or Thalaba ”':—

“ How beautiful is night !

A dewy freshness fills the silent air,

No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain,

Breaks the serene of heaven :

In full-orb’d glory yonder Moon divine

Rolls through the dark blue depths.
Beneath her steady ray
The desert-circle spreads,

Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky.
How beautiful is night !”

Or again the passage further on, where his life in the tent is
described (3rd Book of “Thalaba,” stanza 16) :—

“Tt was the wisdom and the will of Heaven
That, in a lonely tent, had cast
The lot of Thalaba.
There might his soul develope best
Its strengthening energies ;

328

There might he from the world
Keep his heart pure and uncontaminate,
Till at the written hour he should be found
Fit servant of the Lord, without a spot.”

Stanza 21 :—

‘Tis the cool evening hour :
The Tamarind from the dew
Sheathes its young fruit, yet green.
Before their Tent the mat is spread,
The Old Man’s awful voice
Intones the holy Book.

What if beneath no lamp-illumin’d dome,
Its marble walls bedeck’d with flourish’d truth,
Azure and gold adornment? sinks,the word
With deeper influence from the Imam’s voice,
Where in the day of congregation, crowds

Perform the duty-task ?
Their Father is their Priest,

The Stars of Heaven their point of prayer,
And the blue Firmament

The glorious Temple, where they feel
The present Deity !

22.

“Vet through the purple glow of eve
Shines dimly the white moon.
The slacken’d bow, the quiver, the long lance,
Rest on the pillar of the Tent.
Knitting light palm-leaves for her brother’s brow,
The dark-eyed damsel sits ;
The Old Man tranquilly
Up his curl’d pipe inhales
The tranquillizing herb,
So listen they the reed of Thalaba,
While his skill’d fingers modulate
The low, sweet, soothing, melancholy tones.”

Still more remarkable is this in regard to “ Kehama.” No
doubt the details of the Indian Mythology will not bear so exact a
scrutiny as the Mussulman creed of ‘‘Thalaba ;” but it had the
inestimable merit of investing the names of the Hindoo divinities
with a familiarity, and also with a sublimity, such as they had
never had before. A well known pupil of my own, Thomas French,

329

now the venerated Bishop of Lahore, went out as a missionary
to Agra. I gave him asa parting present, Southey’s “Kehama.”
He kept it, he afterwards told me, all through the trying scenes of
the Indian Mutiny; and when the College at Agra was in those
troublous days scattered to the winds, he still retained with
grateful affection this earliest introduction to the old religions
of India.

Let me read two or three passages where, into the depths of
Indian Mythology, is infused, without violating the general con-
tinuity of the story, the most beautiful touches of Christian senti-
ment, such as he imagines might have illuminated even those dark
corners of the earth. [See ‘“‘Kehama,” Part XIX., “Mount
Calasay.”]

There is one other class of poems: those which are purely
personal; and here we return to the point from which we started.
Of these I will only select two, “The Holly Tree,” and “The
Library.” The latter relates specially to the poet’s home in
Keswick. This day for the first time in my life I have penetrated
into Greta Hall; and by the kindness of its present occupants, I
was allowed to go into every apartment, and amongst others into
Southey’s library. It was a great satisfaction to think that in a
chamber so long consecrated, and the scene of such indefatigable
work there should still go on the work of useful and faithful
instruction. Not now are the walls clad with the books that
used to clothe them as with an everlasting drapery, but I call to
mind one of the most beautiful poems,—one of the most touching
and affecting, because I feel how every word came from the
poet’s heart. He speaks about his hours in that library, about his
hours amongst the books of the great and good, from whom he
learned so much, and from whom also he endeavoured to teach
others :—

“*My days among the Dead are passed ;
Around me I behold,
Where’er these casual eyes are cast,
The mighty minds of old :

My never-failing friends are they,
With whom I converse day by day.

330

With them I take delight in weal
And seek relief in woe ;

And while I understand and feel
How much to them I owe,

My cheeks have often been bedew’d

With tears of thoughtful gratitude.

My thoughts are with the Dead ; with them
I live in long past years,

Their virtues love, their faults condemn,
Partake their hopes and fears,

And from their lessons seek and find

Instruction with an humble mind.

My hopes are with the Dead ; anon
My place with them will be,

And I with them shall travel on
Through all Futurity ;

Yet, leaving here a name, I trust,

That will not perish in the dust.”

i aa gM

as.

331

LIST OF CUMBERLAND BIRDS
IN THE CARLISLE AND KESWICK MUSEUMS.

By GEORGE DAWSON (CarLISLE), AND THE
Rev. J. CLIFTON WARD, F.G.S.

[Those marked C are preserved in the Carlisle collection, and
those marked A in the Keswick Museum. It is not supposed that
this is a complete list of all the birds ever found in Cumberland,
but it is hoped that the publication of such a list may be interesting
to local naturalists, and may prompt members of the Association
and others to present, as occasion offers, the specimens still
wanting in either museum. It should be added that local
(i.e. Cumbrian) birds are alone admitted into the Keswick Museum
collection.— EDITOR. |

ORDER RAPTORES, or BIRDS OF PREY.

Family Strigide.

SPECIES.
K C Strix flammea White or Barn Owl.
K C Strix otus Long-eared Owl (rare).
K C Strix stridula Tawny Owl.
K C Strix brachyotus Short-eared Owl (rare).
Family Falconide.
K C Falco peregrinus Peregrine Falcon (rare).
K C Falco tinnunculus Kestrel.
K C Falco zsalon Merlin.

C Falco subbuteo Hobby (rare).

332

Family Accipitrine.
SPECIES.
K C Buteo vulgaris
C Buteo lagopus
K C Accipiter fringellarius

Common Buzzard.
Rough-legged Buzzard.
Sparrow-Hawk.

ORDER GRALLATORES, or WADERS.

Family Ardeade.

Crested Heron.
Common Bittern.

K C Ardea cinerea
K C Botaurus stellaris

Family Radlide.

Water or Moor Hen.
Common Coot.

KC Gallinula chloropus
K C Fulica atra

K C Crex pratensis
C Crex Portzana
K C Rallus aquaticus

Corn Crake
Spotted Crake.
Water Rail.

C Phalaropus lobatus Grey Phalerope.
c 2 hyperboreus Red-necked Phalerope.

Family Scolopacide.

K C Scolopax rusticola Woodcock.
K C Scolopax gallinago Common Snipe.
K C Scolopax gallinula Jack Snipe.
C Scolopax calidris Redshank.
C Scolopax tetanus Spotted Redshank.
K C Tringa hypoleucos Common Sandpiper.
C Tringa subarquata Curlew Sandpiper.
C Tringa canutus Knot, or Red Sandpiper.
C Tringa ochropus Green Sandpiper.
C Tringa pusilla Little Stint.
C Tringa variabilis Dunlin.
C Tringa maritima Purple Sandpiper.
C Tringa rufescens Buff-breasted Sandpiper.
K C Numenius arquata Common Curlew.

SPECIES.
C Numenius phceopus Whimbrel.
C Philomachus pugnax Ruff (winter only).
C Limosa A%gocephala Black-tailed Godwit.
C Limosa rufa Bar-tailed Godwit.
Family Charadriade.
K C Hematopus ostralegus Oyster Catcher (rare).
K C Vanellus cristatus Common Lapwing, or Peewit.
K C Charadrius pluvialis Golden Plover.
K C Charadrius hiaticus Ringed Dotterel.
K C Charadrius marinellus Dotterel.
C Charadrius calidris Sanderling.
C Squatarola cinerea Grey Plover.
C Strepsilas interpres Turnstone.
OrDER NATATORES, or SWIMMERS.
Family Pellicanide.
K C Phalacrocorax carbo Common Cormorant.
C Phalacrocorax crestatus Shag.
C Sula bassana Gannet.
Family Anserine.
K C Anser palustris Grey Lag Goose.
Anser Canadensis Canada Goose.
K C Mergus Merganser Goosander.
C Mergus albellus Smew.
C Mergus serrator ~ Redbreasted Merganser.
C Anser bernicla Barnacle Goose.
Family Anatide.
K C Anas crecca Common Teal.
K C Anas faligula Tufted Duck (rare).
C Anas tadorna Shieldrake.
C Anas clypeata Shoveller.

333

SPECIES.

KC
aR &:
KC
iat

O1@-@Q eG. @

nm

QO.24 OA GO O° 64.6"°R, 2 a7 @

EC
a &
c

Anas acuta
Anas ferina
Anas clangula
Anas penelope
Anas boschas
Anas nigra
Anas fusca
Anas Marila

Mareca Americana _

Larus canus
Larus minutus
Larus ridibundus
Larus marinus
Larus fuscus
Larus rissa
Larus argentatus
Larus glaucus
Sterna hirundo
Sterna Dougalli
Sterna fuliginosa
Sterna minuta
Sterna macrura
Sterna cantiaca
Lestris Buffonii

Lestris Richardsonii
Procellaria pelagica

Lestres cataractes

Uria Minor
Utamania torda
Fratercula arctica

334

Pintail Duck.
Pochard.
Golden Eye.
Widgeon.
Mallard.
Common Scoter.
Velvet Scoter.
Scaup Duck.

American Widgeon.

Family Laride.

Common Gull.

Little Gull.
Brownheaded Gull (rare).
Great Blackheaded Gull.
Lesser Blackheaded Gull.
Kitty Wake (rare).
Herring Gull.

Glaucus Gull.

Common Tern.

Roseate Tern.

Sooty Tern.

Lesser Tern.

Arctic Tern.

Sandwich Tern.

Buffon’s Skua.
Richardson’s Skua.

Stormy Petrel.
Common Skua.

Family Alcide.

Little Auk (rare).
Razorbill (rare).
Puffin,

335

Family Colymbide.

SPECIES.

K C Podiceps arcticus Blackthroated Diver.
C Podiceps rubricollis Rednecked Grebe.
C Podiceps glacialis Great Northern Diver.
C Podiceps minor Little Grebe.
C Colymbus septentrionalis Red-throated Diver.
C Uria Troile Common Guillemot.
C Uria lacrymans Ringed Guillemot
C Uria Brunnichii Brunnich’s Guillemot.

OrDER RASORES, or SCRATCHERS.

Family Zetraonide.

K C Perdix cinerea Common Partridge.
K C Lagopus Scoticus Red Grouse, or Moor Cock.
K C Lyrurus tetrix Black Grouse.

C Coturnix dactylisonans Quail.

Family Phasianide.

K C Phasianus colchicus Common Pheasant.

Family Columbide.

K C Columba Ainas Wood Pigeon.
C Columba palumbus Ring Dove.

OrDER SCANSORES, or CLIMBERS.
Family Cuculide.

K C Cuculus canorus Common Cuckoo,

336

Family Picide.
SPECIES.

K C Certhia familiaris
C Picus viridis
C Picus minor

Common Creeper.
Green Woodpecker.
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.

Family Yuncine.

C Yunx torquilla Wryneck.
ORDER INSESSORES, or PERCHERS.

Family dAZerulide.

K C Merula pilaris
KC Merula iliaca

K C Merula viscivera
KC Merula vulgaris
K C Merula aquatica
K C Merula torquata
K C Merula musica

K C Lanius collurio
C Lanius excubitor

K C Parus caudatus

K C Parus ceeruleus

K C Parus major

K C Parus ater
C Parus palustris

K C Curruca atricapilla
C Curruca hortensis

K C Sylvia hippolais

Fieldfare.

Redwing.

Missel Thrush.
Blackbird.

Water Ouzel or Dipper.
Ring Ouzel.

Song Thrush.

Family Zaniade.

Red-backed Shrike
Grey Shrike.

Family Sy/viade.

Long-tailed Titmouse.
Blue Titmouse

Great Titmouse.

Cole Titmouse.
Marsh Titmouse.
Blackcap

Garden Warbler.
Chiff-Chaff.

SPECIES.

K C Sylvia troglodytes
K C Sylvia phoenicura

C Sylvia sylvicola

K C Sylvia sylviella

K C Sylvia trochitus

K C Saxicola rubetra

C Saxicola rubicola
KC Saxicola cenanthe
_ KC Erythaca rubecula

_ KC Salicaria phragmites
K _ Salicaria arundinacea
r, C Sibillatrix locustella
KC Motacilla boarula

~ C Motacilla neglecta
K C Motacilla Yarrellii
C Motacilla campestris
C Budytes flava

KC Anthus arboreus
KC Anthus pratensis

C Anthus petrosus

C Ampelis garrula

KC Regulus cristatus
KC Sylvia troglodytes

337

Wren.

Common Redstart.
Wood Warbler.
Lesser Whitethroat.
Willow Warbler.
Whinchat.
Stonechat.
Wheat-ear.

Robin Redbreast.
Sedge Warbler.

Reed Warbler.
Grasshopper Warbler.
Grey Wagtail.
Grey-headed Wagtail.
Pied Wagtail

Ray’s Wagtail.
Yellow Wagtail.
Tree-pipit.

_ Titlark, or Meadow-pipit.

Rock-pipit.

Family Amfpeline.

Common Waxwing, or Bohemian
Chatterer.

Family Caprimulgide.

Ke Caprimulgus Europeus Nightjar.

Family Certhiade.

Golden-crested Wren.
Common Wren.
23

338

Family Fringillide.
SPECIES,
K C Fringilla ccelebs Chaffinch.
C Fringilla spina Siskin.
K Fringilla montifringilla = Mountain Finch.
C Fringilla chloris Greenfinch.
K C Fringilla carduelis Goldfinch.
C Fringilla coccothraustes | Hawfinch.

K C Passer domesticus
C Passer montanus
K C Accentor modularis
K C Alauda arvensis
K _ Alauda arborea
K C Pyrrhula vulgaris
C Emberiza cirlus
K C Emberiza citrinella
C Plectrophanes nivalis
K C Emberiza Scheeniclus
K C Linaria minor
K C Coccothraustes chloris
C Linaria cannabina
C Linaria montana
C Linota linaria
C Loxia curvirostra

House Sparrow.
Tree, or Mountain Sparrow.
Hedge Sparrow.
Skylark.

Woodlark.

Common Bullfinch.
Cirl Bunting.

Yellow Bunting.
Snow Bunting.
Blackheaded Bunting.
Lesser Redpole.
Green Linnet

Brown Linnet.
Mountain Linnet.
Lesser Redpole.
Crossbill.

Family Alcedinide.

K C Alcedo ispida

Common Kingfisher.

Family Aduscicapide.

K C Muscicapa luctuosa
C Muscicapa griseola

Pied Flycatcher.
Spotted Flycatcher.

Family Coracine.

C Coracias garrula

Roller,

339

Family Hirundinide.

SPECIES.

ek C Cypselus apus Common Swift.
a K C Hirundo urbica House Martin.
~ KC Hirundo rustica Swallow.

C Hirundo riparia Sand Martin.

Family Sturnide.

: K C Sturnus vulgaris Common Starling,

Family Corvide.

KC Garrulus glandarius Jay.

KC Pica melanoleuca Magpie.

KC Corvus corax Raven.

KC Corvus corone Carrion Crow.
eC Corvus frugilegus Rook.

K C Corvus monedula Jackdaw.

~ C Corvus cornix Hooded Crow.

G. AND T, COWARD, PRINTERS, CARLISLE,

CONTENTS OF PREVIOUS VOLUMES

TRANSACTIONS OF THE CUMBERLAND ASSOCIATION

For the Advancement of Literature and Science.

VOL. I.—1875-76. (94 pages.)

I.—PROCEEDINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING (Wutrenaven) :—

InavGURAL ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, THE Lorp BISHOP OF
CARLISLE.

REPORTS FROM THE ASSOCIATED SOCIETIES,

GENERAL DISCUSSION ON THE WORK OF THE SOCIETIES.
Norice oF EXcURSIONS MADE.

PAPERS READ AT THE GENERAL MEETING :—

‘Some Plumbago Coining-Moulds.” (Abstract.) By R. 8. Fergu-
son, M.A. (Carlisle. )

‘Local Tokens.” (Abstract.) By Wm, Jackson, J.P. (White-
haven.)

“Harbours and Docks.” By J. E. Williams (Whitehaven. )
‘The Cumberland Dialect.” By John Richardson (Keswick. )

‘Sketch of the Geological History of the Lake District.” By J.
Clifton Ward, F.G.S. (Keswick. )

II.—OriciInaL PAPERS COMMUNICATED TO THE SOCIETIES DURING THE
Session 1875-6, AND SELECTED BY THE ASSOCIATION COUNCIL FOR
PUBLICATION :—

**The Cumberland Dialect.” By John Richardson (Keswick.)
‘‘Old Borrowdale.” By J. £. Crosthwaite (Keswick. )
‘Personal Names.” By Peter Harrison (Keswick.)

VOL. I1.—1876-77. (210 pages.)

I.—PROCEEDINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING (Keswick) :—
PROGRAMME CARRIED OUT.

ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT (THE LorD BisHop oF CARLISLE) ‘‘ The
Analogies and Contrasts between Human and Divine Science.”

REPORTS FROM THE ASSOCIATED SOCIETIES.
PAPERS READ AT THE ANNUAL MEETING :—

“Notes on the Meteorology of Cockermouth.” By H. Dodgson,
M.D., F.R.M.S. (Cockermouth. )

“The Rainfall of Keswick.” By J. F. Crosthwaite (Keswick.)

‘Notes on some Peculiarities of the West Cumberland Coal Field.”
By R. F. Martin, M.A. (Whitehaven. )

(Contents of Vol. I1.—continued. )

‘‘The Hematite Deposits of Cumberland and Lancashire.” (Ab-
stract.) By J. D. Kendal, C.E., F.G.S. (Whitehaven. )

‘«The Raised Beach on the Cumberland Coast between Whitehaven

and Bowness.” (Abstract.) By R. Russell, C.E., F.G.S.,
(Whitehaven,) and T. V. Holmes, F.G.S.

‘*Remarkable Boulders of the Keswick District.” By J. Clifton-
Ward, Assoc. R.S.M., F.G.S. (Keswick. )

II,.—ORIGINAL PAPERS COMMUNICATED TO THE SOCIETIES DURING THE
Session 1876-77, AND SELECTED BY THE ASSOCIATION COUNCIL FOR
PUBLICATION :—

‘¢ Fletcher Christian and the Mutineers of the Bounty.” By William
Fletcher, F.G.S. (Cockermouth)

“Old Customs and Usages of the Lake District.” By John
Richardson (Keswick. )

“* Jonathan Otley, the Geologist and Guide.” By J. Clifton Ward,
Assoc. R.S.M., F.G.S. (Keswick. )

‘‘Notes on a few of the Migratory Birds of the English Lake
District.” By John Birkett (Keswick. )

“Coleridge.” By the Rev. J. D. Harrington, M.A. (Lecture
given at Keswick.)

VOL. III.—1877-78. (229 pages.)

I.—PROCEEDINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING (Cockermouts) :—
PROGRAMME CARRIED OUT. .
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT. (I. Fiercuer, M.P., F.R.S.)
REPORTS FROM THE ASSOCIATED SOCIETIES.

Papers READ AT THE ANNUAL MEETING :—

“‘On the Probable Condition of the Interior of the Earth.” By
Sir George Airy, K.C.B., F.R.S., Astronomer-Royal.

‘Local Names.” By Peter Harrison, (Keswick.) .

‘‘Quartz, as it occurs in the Lake District; its Structure and its
History.” By J. Clifton Ward, F.G.S., F.R.M.S. (Keswick. )

‘* Wordsworth.” By Rey. Professor William Knight, St. Andrews.
IIJ,—OrIGINAL PAPERS COMMUNICATED TO THE SOCIETIES DURING THE

Session 1877-78, AND SELECTED BY THE ASSOCIATION COUNCIL FOR
PUBLICATION :—

‘Boulder Clay.” By C. Smith, M.R.LA., F.G.S. (Whitehaven.)

‘“‘Submerged Forest at St. Bees.” By R. %Pickering, C.E.
(Whitehaven. )

‘Theory and Practice in their Relation to each other.” By J. D.
Kendall, W. H. Kitchin, and J. Nixon, (Whitehaven.)

“A Day at Ennerdale.” By Joseph Adair, (Whitehaven.)
‘Peter Crosthwaite.” By J. Fisher Crosthwaite, (Keswick.)

“Symbolism in Art.” By J. A. Wheatley, Carlisle, (Cocker-
mouth. )

‘‘Half an Hour with a few Common Beetles.” By William
Duckworth, (Carlisle. )

=!

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eS Advancement ey Literature and

=

“Piet 70: Munwins: ONE Stimai
me Non. MEMBERS, Pwo- SHILL aN

IN pastes oe

Gs AND: SIXPENCE

PRINTERS, 73 scorcit, smuer she
1881.

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TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

CUMBERLAND ASSOCIATION —

FOR THE

Advancement of Literature and
Scrence.

PART V.—1879-80.

Epitep. By -J. G. GOODCHILD,
“_-->->-—_-—_-—>--_

H. M. Geological Survey. x 77

PRICE TO MEMBERS, ONE SHILLING.
Non-MEMBERS, Two SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE.

rene

CARLISLE:

1881.

.

ae g

mn

CON Ts EN as:

_ ROLEs

List oF OFFICERS

REPORTS FROM ASSOCIATED SOCIETIES
REporT OF ASSOCIATION SECRETARY
TREASURER’S ACCOUNT

Warp MemortaL Funp

Part I.—PROCEEDINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING
(Maryport) :—

PROGRAMME CARRIED OUT
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS...

Papers READ AT THE ANNUAL MEETING :—

** Distribution of Boulders in West ei lene id
. D. Kenpat., C.E., F.G.S.

** Maryport Camp.” By J. B. ae

Councrt For PUBLICATION :—
Ferevuson, M.P.
“The Influence of Geological Structure on Scenery.”
J. D. Kenpatt, C.E., F.G.S., (Whitehaven)

F.R.S.” By E. T, Tyson, (Maryport)

(Carlisle)

By B. Taytor, (Whitehaven)

Parr IJ.—OrIcINAL PAPERS COMMUNICATED TO THE SOCIETIES DURING
THE SEssIoN 1879-80, AND SELECTED BY THE ASSOCIATION

Inaugural Address to Carlisle fat be ci Rover?

**Soul-Cells and Cell- Souls.” 2? P iene’ fioks the Ger-
man of Heckel.) By the Rev. C. H. Pargz, (Carlisle)

‘*Some Account of the Life of the late pe Huddart,

“The Local Museum, and its Relation to the Ws
History of the District.” By ere a. M.A.

(Carlisle)
““Notes on Inglewood Ture mn By sone _SacKs0s,
(Carlisle) :
— ‘Water and Air: their Relations to Health or pies a

By W. H. Watson, F.C.S., F.M.S., &e. (Whitehaven)
‘“‘The Moths of the District.” he GEORGE asietias

““The Character and i Distribution of the Diatomacea.. 2

151
181

35

69

97

115

129

143

159

191

199

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Ree ES

OF THE

Cumberland Association for the Advancement of
Viterature and Science.

1.— That the Association be called the ‘CUMBERLAND
ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF LITERATURE AND
SCIENCE.”

2.—The Association shall consist of the following Societies :—
Whitehaven Scientific Association, Keswick Literary and Scientific
Society, Cockermouth Literary and Scientific Society, Workington
Scientific and Literary Society, Maryport Literary and Scientific
_ Society, Longtown Literary and Scientific Society, Carlisle Scientific
Society and Naturalists’ Field Club, Ambleside and District Literary
and Scientific Society, Silloth and Holme Cultram Literary and
Scientific Society, and of such other Societies as shall be duly
affiliated. Also of persons nominated by two members of the
- Council; this latter class of members shall pay the sum of 55.
annually.

3.—All members of affiliated Societies, unless otherwise ruled
by the regulations of their respective Societies, shall be members
_of the Cumberland Association.

2

4.—The Association shall be governed by a Council, consisting
of a President, Vice-Presidents, Secretary, who shall also be
Treasurer, an Editor, and of ordinary Members, two to be elected
by each affiliated Society. The President, Secretary, and Editor
shall be elected annually at the Annual Meeting, and shall be
capable of re-election.

5-—The Vice-Presidents shall consist of the Presidents of the
various affiliated Societies; and the delegates of the various

Societies shall be elected annually by their respective Societies.

6.—An Annual Meeting of the Association shall be held at such
time and place as may be decided upon at the previous Annual
Meeting, or (failing such appointment) as may be arranged by the
Council.

7.—At each Annual Meeting, after the delivery of the Presi-
dent’s Address, and the reading of the Reports from the affiliated
Societies, the objects of the Association may be furthered by
Lectures, Papers, Addresses, Discussions, Conversaziones, &c.
The Council shall have the power of obtaining the assistance of

persons who are not members of the Association.

8.—The Council may publish at the expense of the Association
such portions of its own or of any of the affiliated Societies’ communi-
cations as may be deemed advisable, subject to the consent of the

author.

9.—The Council shall endeavour to promote co-operation among
existing Societies, and may assist in the formation of new ones; it

may also aid in the establishment of classes in connection with
any of the associated Societies.

10.—Affiliated Societies shall contribute annually towards the

3

general funds of the Association, Sixpence for each of their
members; but when the number of members of the affiliated
Societies exceeds one hundred and fifty, a reduction of fifty per
cent. shall be made upon the payment for each member in excess

of that number.

11.—The Rules can be altered only by a majority of two-thirds
of the members present at an Annual Meeting. Any member
desiring to alter the Rules, must send a copy of the proposed
alterations to the Secretary, at least two weeks before the meeting
is held.

12.—Past Presidents of the Association shall be permanent
members of'the Council, and be described as Past Presidents.

13.—The travelling expenses of all who assist in carrying out the
programme of the various affiliated Societies shall be defrayed by
the Society assisted.

The Sixth ANNUAL MEETING will be held at WorKINGTON
early in 1881, and due notice of the arrangements for the same
will be issued to all members of the Association.

Members willing to bring forward Papers on subjects of original
investigation, or of local interest, should send in the titles of the
same to the Secretary.

OFFICERS FOR THE SESSION 1880-81.

—:0:——

President.
Hon. P. S. WYNDHAM, M.P.

Past qQresidents.

Tux Lorp BisHOP OF CARLISLE.
THe Lats I. FLETCHER, Esq., M.P., E.R.S.

Vice Presidents.

T, F. TP Anson, Esq., M.D., (Whitehaven. )

Rev. A. Howson, (Keswick. )

Wurm FLETCHER, Esq., (Cockermouth. )

G. J. Swetus, Ese., (Workington.)

Rev. T. S. Craie, Maryport. )

Rev. A. O'Connor, (Longtown.)

RosertT FERGUSON, Esq., M.P., (Carlisle. )

R. Crewpson, Ese., (Ambleside. )

Rey. W. Horne, M.A., (Silloth and Holme Cultram. )

Council.
A, KircHIN, F.C.S.
JoHn VIVIAN,

Rev. Canon BATTERSBY. imeawiek
‘A. A. BH. Kuicut, M.D os

Henry Dopeson, M.D.
H. B, Wynpuam. Cockermouth.

C. J. VALENTINE, Esq. 2
Wiiiiam Wison, Esa. Workington.

Whitehaven.

Dr. MATHIAS.

J. H. Gouvis. Maryport.
JoHN WILSON. 5 <i
J. R. ARMSTRONG. ongtown.

R. S. FerGuson, M.A., LL.M., FSA. Carlisl
Henry BARNES, arlisie.

J. BENTLEY. - ~
Rev. H. 8S. CALLENDER.

A. Lerron, M.D.
W. CRABB.

Ambleside.

Silloth and Holme Cultram.

Bon. Creasurer and Secretary.
J, D. KENDALL, C.E., F.G.8,

Gr

Reports from the Associated Societies.

WHITEHAVEN SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION,

13rH SESSION, 1879-80.

President ies =f a He ARCHIBALD Kitcutn, F.C.S.
Vice-President = sa ia .. R. Pickrrine, C.E.

Past Presidents.

T. F. Anson, M.D. W. H. Kircurin.
W. Jackson, J.P., F.S.A. H. A. FretrcHer, F.R.A.S.
Augustus HELDER. JAMES BarrD.

R. Russet, C.E., F.G.8.

Committee.

E. ABiert, M.D. JOHN JACKSON.

JOSEPH ADAIR. J. D. Kenpatt, C.E., F.G.S.

W. TPAnson, M.D. B. Taytor.

J. Vivian, C.E.
Curator of Museum... tee si - W. T’Anson, M.B.
Curator of Building... bah 546 .. R. Pickerine, C.E.
Treasurer mee eat A ps ink J. S. HELion.
_ Hon. Librarian ie. ts o i. .. H. Apatr.
W. W. NeEtson.

Hon. Secretaries (vacant).

The following MEETINGS were held during the Session :—

Oct. 21.—CoNVERSAZIONE,—THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESs.
Nov. 4.—J. Crunss—The Theory of Despotic Government.

Nov. 18.—Rev. J. C. Warp, F.G.S., &c.—Traces of the Early History of
Mankind.

Dec. 2.—B. Taytor.—One of the Lowest Forms of Plant Life.
Dec. 16.—G. J. Snetus, F.C.S., &c.—The Bessemer Process.
Jan. 6,—J. Barrp—Charles Kingsley.

_ Jan. 20.—Prof. H. A. Nicnotson, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.E., Prof. of Natural
- History, University of St. Andrew’s—The Nature of Life.

er

6

Feb. 3.—J. S. Arnsworts, M.A., LL.B.—-Is Money Wealth?

Feb. 17.—W. H. Watson, F.C.S., F.M.S.—Water and Air: their Relation
to Health or Disease.

Mar. 2.—J. D. Kenpaut, C.E., F.G.S.—The Influence of Geological
Structure on Scenery.

Mar. 16.—Rev. J. M. Macmituan, LL. D.—Tennyson’s Poems.

Mar. 30.-—Rev. J. Hewetson—Thackeray.

Apl. 13.—CoNnVERSAZIONE.

Apl. 27.—Business Meeting.

Our Association has now reached the end of the thirteenth
year since its inauguration, and the Committee, in presenting the
annual Report for 1879-80, has to express the satisfaction with
which it reviews the work achieved within the past winter.

The Session was opened by a public Conversazione held in
the Town Hall, which was elaborately decorated for the occasion,
with works of art, mottoes, and evergreens. The decorations
contributed in an evident degree to the enjoyment of the evening.
The President’s address was devoted to a special phase of scientific
thought, in the form of an able veswmé of Dalton’s Atomic Theory,
illustrated during the evening by a series of beautiful experiments
on radiant matter, conducted by the lecturer, who used for that
purpose, the celebrated vacuum tubes recently invented by Dr.
Crookes.

Exclusive of the opening address, there have been delivered
at the Ordinary Meetings, four lectures on scientific subjects, four
on literary subjects, two on the application of scientific data to the
actual wants of social life, one on political economy, and one on
the theory of government.

From this brief analysis, it will be seen that Science and
Literature are not studied altogether apart from the real and
inseparable bearing which, rightly regarded, they must be acknow-
ledged to have over the practical interests of the community. In
fact, the raison d’etre of public institutions such as ours, is not
properly comprehended, if their promoters do not constantly strive
to attain the practical.

The attendance upon the lectures has been very encouraging,
and several of them were delivered to large audiences.

To those gentlemen who have so generously placed at the
service of the Association their time and energy, in the preparation
and delivery of these lectures, the Committee begs to tender its

Le.

-

~r

sincere thanks. It may not be generally known that Dr. Nicholson,
F.R.S.E., D.Se., M.D., who holds the distinguished position of
Professor of Natural History at the University of St. Andrew’s,
and who lectured before the County Associations with so much
approbation, is by birth a Cumbrian. His lecture on “The
Nature of Life,” was a skilful endeavour to make as clear as the
structure of the subject would permit, the vital issues involved in
an investigation of what is, perhaps, the most problematic question
in the whole range of modern scientific research.

It it is to be regretted that while, on the one hand, the
productive resources of the Association, as an educational means,
have been satisfactorily developed, the material sources of its
prosperity have, on the other hand, become weakened. In point
of numbers, there are twenty members less on the register this year
than last ; and, against a loss of thirty, there can only be placed a
gain of sixteen new members. This exceptionally large decrease,
however, includes the loss by removal from town of twenty-two
members, so that the falling off cannot be justly traced to any lack
of interest in the work of the Association. The actual number
now on the register is 269, comprising 80 Associates and 189
Non-Associates.

For the information of those who may not already be aware
of the advantages accruing from Associateship, it may be mentioned
that an Associate Member alone has the right to make use of the
library, and to receive each year, free of charge, a copy of the
Transactions of the Cumberland Association.

The Library, which is now a special feature of our Association,
contains about one hundred and sixty-five volumes, and it is the
intention of the Sub-Committee of Management to supply through
it a defect which has hitherto been keenly felt to exist in connexion
with other public libraries in town, the want, namely, of permanent
access to the best and newest literature on Science, Philosophy,
Biography, and Belles Lettres. Although only in the third year of
its existence, it is already fairly rich in helps to the student of
Literature and Science.

Under the able chairmanship of Mr. Joseph Adair, the
Botanical section has assumed such self-importance as to necessitate
a special report being prepared; and a similar remark applies to
the Museum, under the admirable supervision of Mr. Welby ~

TAnson, M.B., than whom a more competent curator could not be
desired. These three sections of Associational work have become
quiet but effective means for the spread of scientific culture.

Members may do much to increase their utility by gifts of books, .

plants, or scientific and antiquarian objects. In this way, things
which have merely yielded pleasure and instruction to an individual
possessor, may be made to yield like boons to the many.

The Committee desires to draw attention to an alteration in
the Constitution of the Cumberland Association, which has been
brought about by the action of your representatives at the Council
of the Union, and which will enable your Hon. Treasurer to effect
a saving in the expenditure of monies. The basis on which this
financial question has been arranged, may be thus stated. There
are at the present time nine Scientific and Literary Associations
affiliated under the shelter of the Cumberland Association for the
Advancement of Literature and Science, the Constitution of which
provides that, for the protection of the interests of the individual
Associations, and for the proper government of the whole, each
Association shall furnish two delegates to a general Council, and
contribute to its support a capitation grant levied on the whole of
the members of the County Associations collectively. It was,
however, found by your Committee, that while reaping no greater
benefit from the Union than other Associations, your Association
was paying into its exchequer about twice as much as the next
largest Association, and as compared with the younger Associations,
three and four times as much. In its early days, when the
Cumberland Association was a nursling, so to speak, and needing
all the support it could obtain, your Committee did not feel called
upon to suggest a more equitable readjustment of the capitation
grant paid by this Association ; but as the Union grew in strength,
year by year, it was considered that the time for action had arrived,
and your delegates are pleased to report that the Council, after
careful consideration, agreed to reduce the grant by fifty per cent.
on the 151st and every succeeding member, not only of the White-
haven Association, but of all the affiliated Associations.

Your Committee feels that this Report would be incomplete
without paying a tribute of respect to the memory of the late Rev.
J. Clifton Ward, F.G.S., Rydal Vicarage, Ambleside, who, since
its formation, has acted so efficiently as Secretary to the Cumber-

~ i A i iN aaa atin a nia.

4
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a
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9

land Association for the Advancement of Literature and Science,
and the intelligence of whose sudden decease, at the comparatively
early age of thirty-seven years, has been received by each member
of your Committee with feelings of deep sorrow. The Committee
feels assured that, in putting on permanent record the expression
of such sorrow, it is giving but an inadequate interpretation to the
genuine feeling of all the members of this Association. We have,
indeed, much reason to deplore the sad event. Our late County
Secretary embodied in himself, in no small measure, most of those
purely personal and mental qualities which are so essential to the
ultimate success of a man who, earnestly, and with single intent,
works for the social and intellectual development of his feliow-men.
Possessed of powers of social attraction, which gained him a circle
of disinterested friendships wherever he went, and gifted with more
than an average share of intellectual ability, no less than with fine
practical faculties of organization, he reduced to method and
distinctness every scheme on which he brought to bear the force
of his clear intellect. The day has almost gone past, when it needs
to be pointed out that, to him, was due the idea of uniting the
isolated County Associations into one representative whole; and
that to him, likewise, were chiefly due the business energy and
tact which moulded that idea to a practical and successful issue.
It may be truly said, that his praises are in the mouth of all the
Associations ; and that, perhaps, the most fitting monument which
could be erected to his memory, he has himself built up with his
own hands, to be a centre of broad human culture and beneficent
influences. His love for science was scarcely excelled by the
earnest enthusiasm with which he strove, both by means of speech
and the press, to make its truths known. No lectures in White-
haven were more looked forward to with interest, or more largely
attended, than his; and the causes of his popularity are not far
to seek. The true secret of his powers as a lecturer, lay in the
thorough knowledge of his subject which he invariably possessed,
combined with a gift which is equally indispensable to success—
that gift, namely, of clear, logical, incisive exposition, which
thorough mastery alone commands, and which evolves from the
mass of material under manipulation, a perfectly simple, intelligible,
and coherent whole, without at the same time sacrificing depth of
insight, or the necessary fulness of fact. Heis gone from us in

10

the prime of his manhood, a martyr, in the truest sense of the
term, to over-incessant activities for the good of his kind, which
have tended to exhaust the nervous energy of a physical frame
originally not too strong. He is gone just when, amidst the calm
and beauty of nature, and the sweeter calm of a happy home circle,
life was opening out to him a settled and peaceful prospect of
many years service in ministering to the highest spiritual wants of
those who surrounded him. He is gone! But in the brighter days
which are yet to dawn, his name will ever be linked with the
history of the rise and progress of the first organized system of
Scientific and Literary culture in our native county. In view of
the future well-being of the Affiliated Associations, it is to be
earnestly hoped that another gentleman may soon be found to
carry on our late Secretary’s work ; but it will, without doubt, be
difficult to replace him by one in whose individuality shall be
blended so much love, enthusiasm, and energy for the cause of
science and humanity, as were manifest in the life and character of
our much-lamented co-worker, the Rev, Mr. Ward.

Museum REPporRT.

A first report generally marks the springing into life of a new
institution. Such, however, is not the case with our Museum,
which dates almost from the first commencement of the Society.

At our earlier meetings, objects of interest were frequently
exhibited and explained. Many of these were afterwards presented
to the Society, and thus laid the foundation of the collection we
now possess.

Amongst the earlier donors were Dr. Jones of Aspatria, who
presented a series of specimens from the coal measures of Aspatria;
the late Mrs. Pratten of Haile, to whom we are indebted for a very
valuable collection of British plants, and for a cabinet of British
insects—probably the most perfect that is in the possession of any
similar society. Mr. G. Harrison presented a number of minerals
collected and named by himself; and the late Mr. Rooke, who
was known to most of us as an energetic and capable field
naturalist, gave us a large collection of shells, especially illustrating
the Molluscan Fauna of the neighbourhood, and first endeavoured
to arrange and classify the collection.

11

The Museum now contains specimens illustrating Geology,
Mineralogy, Palzontology, Botany, Zoology, Archeology, a few of
the Arts and Sciences, and a number of specimens which may be
arranged under the title of Miscellaneous.

For purposes of description, these may be divided into British
and Foreign, the former more particularly representing the neigh-
bourhood. The Foreign specimens comprise many of the minerals,
about half of the coins, a few of the Botanical and Zoological
series, and most of the Miscellaneous.

With the British collection we are more immediately interested,
illustrating, as it does, the life history of the country in which we
live. Eminently a mining district, West Cumberland should be
well represented by minerals. Those we possess comprise chiefly
the various ores of iron, lead, and copper. Cornwall provides us
with tin; and ores of silver and manganese we have also.

The Mountain Limestone of the district provides us with a
large series of fossils. Unfortunately, no record has been kept of
the localities from which these are derived, consequently their
value as a collection is very greatly diminished. Future donors of
fossils will, therefore, render a great service, by indicating the
formation and locality in which their specimens are found. Owing
to the difficulty of correctly naming them, the arrangement of the
fossils has not yet been commenced, and will probably be a work
of time.

The Archeological collection includes a number of coins,
specimens of Roman pottery (the origin of which I do not know),
and a number of drawings of fragments from St. Bees, admirably
described by Canon Knowles, to whom I am indebted for aid in
deciphering several of the coins. I would suggest that the
drawings should be placed in a portfolio, where they would be
most effectually preserved.

The Botanical collection embraces that of Mrs. Pratten; and,
within the last fortnight, has been further increased by two hundred
and fifty specimens of plants collected in this district during last
summer by the Botanical section of the Association, of which Mr.
Adair is President. When complete, this collection will be most
valuable. The specimens will be placed in the drawers of a
cabinet in the library, along with a number of the London Cata-

12

logue, for the information of members who are interested in the
Flora of the district.

Until lately, the Zoological department comprised chiefly the
collections of Mr. Rooke and Mrs. Pratten ; but, during the last
year it has been greatly enriched by a number of marine animals
presented by Mr. E. Dobson, to whose zeal in working out the
Marine Fauna of this coast, the Society is very greatly indebted.

During the past year I have cleaned and mounted the shells
and minerals, and the specimens presented by Mr. Dobson. Many
of the shells required re-naming, and they have been arranged
according to the British Mollusca of Professor Forbes. The Star-
fishes have also been named according to the same author ; the
Zoophytes after Professor Johnston; and the Crustacea after
Professor Bell. The minerals will be arranged in their natural
orders of the Oxidized Stones, the Saline Stones, and the Inflam-
mables ; while the Ores will be arranged in groups, according as
they represent iron, copper, etc., since we do not possess sufficient
specimens to follow any other arrangement. On the underside of
the cards on which the minerals are mounted will be found a brief
description of their chemical composition and system of crystal-
lization.

During the last twelve months, specimens have been presented
by Messrs. Dobson, B. Taylor, Nelson, Murray, Dr. Anson, and
Mrs. Bell. I have to thank these members for their donations,
and hope that next year we may be able to chronicle a larger list.

I would draw attention to the fact that the Museum is, at
present, totally unprovided with means for preserving specimens of
animals in a fresh condition. It would be a pity that valuable
specimens should be spoiled for want of proper means of displaying
them. A small annual sum, set aside as a Museum Fund, would
therefore be well bestowed, and it might be made to cover needful
repairs for cases, etc.

I cannot conclude this report without expressing a hope that
a greater amount of use will be made of the Museum than has
hitherto been the case. One evening, at least, in the Session
might be set aside for the explanation and discussion of new
specimens ; and I believe that this would not only be profitable to
the members, but would lead to larger additions being made to the
collection. A tank of sea water might also be kept in the room

a

eS Se ee eee Se

.

13

adjoining the Museum, in which such animals as may be brought
in alive might be studied by those interested in Zoology. I may
add, that a Catalogue of the Collection is being prepared, which I
hope to finish before the end of next Session.

REPORT OF THE BOTANICAL SECTION.

The members of this section have just terminated the past
year’s work to-day, by handing over to the curator the specimens
of flowering plants and Equiseta gathered and preserved during the
season. It will be remembered that last summer the weather was
cold and rainy, and generally of a broken and uncertain character,
and, consequently, a most unfavourable one for the field botanist.
There were many excursions planned, most of which were frustrated
by the inclemency of the weather; so that individual members
were left in a great measure to their own resources.

The total number of plants observed in the district by the
members is about five hundred and fifty, of which number two
hundred and fifty species have been collected and preserved, and
are now handed to the curator to be added to the Museum, as
their contribution for the past year.

Although a great number of the specimens which have been
preserved and mounted are widely distributed, and consequently
of common occurrence, there are in the collection many species of
a local or rare character, amongst which may be mentioned—
Meconopsis cambrica, Brassica monensis, Claytonia perfoliata,
Hypericum elodes, gathered by Mr. Kendal ; Serratula tinctoria,
Inula Helenium, and Primula farinosa, by Mr. Wm. Nixon; and
Utricularia intermedia, Parietaria diffusa, and other interesting
Species contributed by Mr. J. Nixon; Saxifraga aizoides, Saxifraga
Stellaris, and Melica uniflora by Mr. Jos. Adair; Festuca vivipera
by Mr. Wm. Adair.

A number of Carices, many of which are of rare occurrence,
have been sent by Mr. William Hodgson of Watermillock, to whom
the best thanks of the members of the section is due.

Messrs. W. I’Anson and W. H. Kitchen each furnished a list
of plants observed, both of which contained the names of species of
fare occurrence. Specimens of these will be preserved for the
next collection,

14

The members of the section feel, there is a very wide field of
observation before them, embracing, as it does, an extended sea
beach, a pastoral and well-wooded country, backed by the gentle
hills and high mountains of West Cumberland, and affording an
infinite variety of soil and situation for the growth of plants.

At the close of the next season, they hope to be able to add
another contribution of dried specimens of plants, at least equal to
that made on the present occasion.

KESWICK LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

lltH SESSION, 1879-80.

President... oe ee ... Rey. Canon Batterssy, M.A.

Vice-President oe ae a J. FisHerR CROSTHWAITE.

Secretary... 8 sae sais si Wiii1am Woop.

Treasurer... vn ie site =e EpWIN JACKSON.
Committee.

Rey. ALrrepD Howson. Rev. J. Currron Warp, F.G.S.

Rev. Wm. CoLvitte. A. A, H. Kniaut, M.D.

JOHN CROSBIE. JOsEPH COCKBAIN.
JoHN BIRKETT.

Henry Mayson. | JOHN PosTLETHWAITE.

PUBLIC LECTURES.

Oct. 22.—Rev. H. D. Rawnstey, M.A.—From Cairo to Sinai and Petra.

Nov. 3.—Major Duncan, R.E.—Help to the Helpless in the Battles of Life.

Nov. 24.—Frank Curzon, Esq.—Our Faces, and how we came by them.

Dec. 15.—Gxo. Buack, Esq., M.B.—Sick Nursing.

Jan. 14.—Rey. G. L. B. Witp1c, M.A.—The Norman Conquest.

Jan. 26. ae H. A. Nicnotson, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.E.—The Nature of
ife.

Feb. 23.—R. A. Atuison, Esq., M.A.—Dante and his Times.

Mch, 22.—Joun Houmss, Esq., Leeds—The Evolution of Perception in Fine
Arts, ;

eo

as 7 Y

15

ORDINARY MEETINGS.

Oct. 13.—The Presipenr—Opening Address.

Noy. 17.—Mr. Prrrr Harrison—Names of Places.

Dec. 1.—Mr. Epwin Jackson—Robert Burns.

Dec. 22.—Open Night, for Debate on Anonymous and other Papers.
Jan. 19.—Mr. Guo. E. Lowrn1an— Water.

Feb. 9.—Rev. J. Cirirron Warp, F.G.S.—Ants.

Mch. 8.—Rev. AtrrED Howson—Beauty in Art conducive to progress in
Manufactures.

Mch. 29.—Mr. J. F. CrostHwartE—Brief Memoir of Major-General Sir
John George Woodford, K.C.B. and K.C.H.

April 5.—Mr. Wm. Woop—Charles Dickens : A Sketch.

The Committee, in presenting this report, are sorry to record
a falling off in the number of members, to the extent of thirteen.
In last session, there were one hundred and sixty-two; there are
now only one hundred and forty-nine on the books. Of these
one hundred and forty pay three shillings and sixpence; the
remaining nine are under age, and pay two shillings and sixpence
each. This decline in the numbers has been mainly caused by
removals and deaths, or by fewer members joining the Society in
the session just concluded than had previously done. There were
twenty-two new names added in 1878-9, but only nineteen in the
session for 1879 and 80. While we have reason to regret this,
still we may congratulate the Society on the state of its funds, as
will be seen from the Treasurer’s report, which shows a balance of
fifteen pounds in our favour, and which is now carried forward to
next year’s credit. The particulars will be presented to you in the
Treasurer’s balance sheet. There have been eight lectures during
the session, on a variety of subjects, including history, physiology,
poetry, fine arts, and personal travel, and they have been fairly
well attended by the members, but non-members have not come to
the lectures so numerously as before, perhaps because the price of
admission has been raised to threepence, as against one penny of
previous sessions. The amount taken from non-members for
attendance at lectures has been £5 os. 7d., compared with
4#2 14s. 2d. last year. There have been seven papers read at the
ordinary meetings, consisting of biography, natural history, science,
etc., besides one open night, at which there was a lively debate on
the land question ; and at the ordinary meetings, discussions some-
times followed the papers. With regard to the ordinary meetings

16

falling due for March 29th and April 5th, your Committee thought
it best to postpone them, in consequence of the General Election
and the Easter Holidays, and as the season is now so far advanced,
they have resolved to make the present meeting the last for this
session.

In the month of February and the beginning of March, the
Rey. J. Clifton Ward delivered a course of lectures on “Our
Mountains, and how we came by them;” also a supplemental
lecture upon “ Glacial action in the Lake District.” These lectures
were delivered in the Keswick Museum, and were well illustrated
by the model, plans, and specimens which are in that collection.
The attendance was very good, and consisted principally of
working people, who showed a great deal of interest in the subject
and the popular way in which Mr. Ward placed it before them.

During last summer, the Society had three excursions, or field
days. The first was to Comb Gill and Barf, attended by thirty-
nine members and friends. The second, round Skiddaw, by way
of Threlkeld, Mosedale, Carrock Fell, Caldbeck, etc., attended by
forty-eight persons. ‘The third, by Newlands to Dale Head, and
so round by Rosthwaite. This was attended by eighty-nine
persons, many of them being members of the Cockermouth Society.
The Committee have the pleasure to report that these excursions,
attended by a total of une hundred and seventy-six members and
friends, have been conducted without any cost whatever to the
funds of the Society. They have just paid their own expenses.

The Committee have also to report that they have settled all
claims upon the Society up to the present date, leaving a clear
page for next session.

It was resolved to grant five pounds from the balance in hand
to the funds of the Keswick Library for the purchase of books.

It was also resolved to grant the cost of the notice board,
erected at the entrance of the field in which the “ Druids’ Circle”
is situated.

The election of officers for the ensuing session was concluded
as follows :— President, Rev. A. Howson; Vice-President, Rev.
Canon Harford Battersby; Hon.-Secretary, Mr. Wm. Wood;
Hon.-Treasurer, Mr. Edwin Jackson. Committee, Mr. J. Fisher
Crosthwaite, Dr. Black, Rev. W. Colville, Mr. John Crosbie, Rey.
T. K. Richmond, and Mr. H. I. Jenkinson,

a i i ee

17

A vote of thanks was passed to the retiring president, Rey.
Canon Battersby.

COCKERMOUTH LITERARY & SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY,

9TH SESSION, 1879-80.

President 7a ae See W. Fiercuer, Esq., M.P.

Vice-Presidents.

Rev. E. Green, M.A.
H. Dopeson, Esq., M.D., F.R.A.S., F.M.S.
Jos. Brown, Esq.

Committee.
r. T. M. Harris. Mr. J. Srmerson.
Mr. J. H. Pickertine. Mr. E. L. Wavau.
Mr. W. Youpate.

Treasurer ; a md xe a Mr. GRAHAM,
Secretary is bee * Ae Mr. H. B, Wynpuam.
PUBLIC LECTURES,

1879.

Oct. 23.—Rev. H. D. Rawnstey, M.A.—From Cairo to Sinai and Petra.

Nov. 27.—Frank Curzon, Esq.—Our Faces, and how we came by them.

Dec. 18.—Rev. T. T. Toorntky, M.A.—Charles Kingsley.

1880.

Jan. 7.—T. Newsy Heruerrnerton, Esq., F.R.G.S.—The Writings of
Charles Dickens,

Jan. 22.—Prof. H. A. NicHoxson, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.E.—The Evolution
of the Hoofed Quadrupeds.

Feb. 19.—A. A. H. Knrenr., M.D.—Tobacco.

Mch. 11,—Rev. Currron Warp, F.G.S,—Ants.

ORDINARY MEETINGS.
1879.

Noy. 6.—Mr. T. H. PICKERING—Macaulay.
1880.
Jan. 15.—Mr. W. F. Cooprr—Nareotics.
Feb. 5.—Mr. E. L, WavenH—Roman Law.
Mch. 4.—Mr. Jas, Buack—Probable purposes of the Pyramids,

3

18

There has been a falling off in our numbers, and the
attendance at the meetings has not been so good as we could have
wished. This may be partly accounted for by the very bad
weather we had last Session. The hope is entertained, however,
that the new and more numerous Committee appointed at our
last meeting, may be the means of securing a larger attendance,
and also of promoting the success of our Association.

The Committee, at the beginning of the Session, determined
to follow the example of some of the other Societies, and to hold
alternately public and ordinary’meetings; this appears to have been
fairly appreciated, and should, we think, be continued.

WORKINGTON SCIENTIFIC & LITERARY SOCIETY.

6TH SESSION, 1879-80.

President ce ies ee es a G. J. Snetus, Esq.
Vice-President fcr eae Ae ze A. Prix, Esq.
Treasurer... sas ait ae 5a W. Wizson, Esq.
Secretary i sie eee 36 aoe .. Dr, HigHetr
Committee.
Mr. W. BaILey. Mr. H. Bowes.
Mr. G. GRAHAM. Mr. C. HinpMaRsH.
Rev. J. J. THORNLEY. Mr. E. J. Burrows.
Mr. W. Buaypon. Mr. Tuos. IREDALE.
Mr. G. SvART.

The following Lectures were delivered during the Session :—

Rev. J. C. Warp, F.G.S.—Traces of the Early History of Mankind.
Frank Curzon, Esq.—Our Faces, and how we came by them. '
Mr. Harkness—Tennyson.

J. A. WHEATLEY, Esq.—Styles in Art.

Mr. FLercHER—English Dramatists.

Professor H. A. NicHotson, M.A.—The Nature of Life.
Mr. Bouron—Readings from Sheridan.

Rev. J. J. ToorntEY, M.A.—The Study of Words. :
GuorGE Brack, Esq., M.B.—Robert Burns. '
A. Kitcnen, Esq.—The Chemistry of Wine, ;

EPIRA Ye -) te

A

19

On the whole, our Lectures' have been pretty well attended,
but there is great room for improvement.

This Society has made some progress during the year, but
not as much as might have been expected, considering the popu-
lation.

The number of members on the books is 103, as against 83
last year.

The Committee beg to express their thanks to those friends
from other Societies, who favoured them with Papers, and trust
to receive a continuance of such help.

It is with the utmost sorrow the Committee have heard of the
death of the Society’s earliest and best friend, the Rev. J. Clifton
Ward, F.G.S. We shall miss his cheerful assistance and instructive
lectures more than we can express.

OFFICE-BEARERS FOR 71x SESSION.

President ah ba ns Es .. G. J. Syezos, Esq.
Vice-President ape a gat Rev. J. THORNLEY, M.A.
Treasurer... sae ive at .. Wm, Parstey, Esq.
Committee.
Mr. Gro. GRAHAM. Mr. C. HrnpMaArsH.
Mr. E. J. Burrows. Mr. Tuos. IREDALE,
Mr. H. Bowsrs. Mr. J. Buaypon.
Mr. Rost. GARDNER. Mr. G. SAUNDERS.
Dr, HicHer.
Delegates.
C. J. VALENTINE, Esq. | Wm. Witson, Esq.

MARYPORT LITERARY & SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

4TH SESSION, 1879-80.

President 5 a ie 23: J. Appison, Esq.

- Past Presidents.
Rey. A, Oares. | J. Woop, Esq. | Dr. CRERAR.
Viee-President ... ie 4 an) Pe0 JERE SENHOUSE, Esq.

20

Hon.,-Secretaries.

Mr. J. B. BAILey. | Mr. L, Apatr.
Treasurer oe wee ie oe = Mr. J. Ropryson.
Committee.
Rev. J. S. Crata. i Mr. F. WALKER.
Mr. A. Hine. Mr. W. Hine.

Mr. J. Hopeson. Mr. A. NoBLe.

Mr. P. MacInTyRE. ~ Mr. R. Aparr.
Mr. J. H. Goupte. Mr. J, R. CoRNER.

PUBLIC LECTURES.

Oct. 7.—Rev. J. Cuirron Warp, F.G.S.—Coral and Coral Workers.

Nov. 4.—Rev. T. J. Cooper, M.A.—The Poems of Tennyson.

Nov. 28.—Rev. Canon Carr—Botany.

1880.

Jan. 13.—J. Newsy HeTuHertineTon, Esq., F.R.G.S.—Origin and Develop-
ment of the Arthurian Legends.

Jan. 23. (Friday)—Prof. H. A. Nicnotsoy, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.E.—The
Nature of Life.

Feb. 17.—Rev. W. SHeRweN, M.A.—The English Language, its Source
and History.

Mch. 2.—Rev. J. J. THorNLEY—Charles Kingsley, his Life and Writings.

ORDINARY MEETINGS.
1879.
Oct. 14.—Mr. E. T. Tyson—Capt. Jos. Huddart, F.R.S., H.E.I.C.S.
Oct. 21.—Mr. P. Gitmour—Robert Tannahill.
Dec. 2.—Mr. D. Jackson—Small Causes, Great Effects.
Dec. 16.—Mr. W. WHaRTON—The Cumberland Dialect and its Writers.
1880.
Feb. 3.—Mr. J. Trynton—Oliver Goldsmith.
Feb. 24.—Mr. J. Roprnson—The Abbey Holme.
Mch. 9.—Mr. W. Appatrr—A Journey in Italy and on the Rhine.
Mch. 16.—Mr. J. CarTMELL—Railways.
Mch. 23.—Rev. D. Durr—The General State of Religion among the Jews at
the Date of the Advent.
Apl. 13.—Election of Officers, etc.

In presenting their Fourth Annual Report, the Committee
_has, with pleasure, again to record a very gratifying increase,
though not so much in the number of members as in the general
attendance at the various meetings. In this latter respect, a
marked improvement has taken place as compared with that of

Rea Ogres -

21

the first and second Session. This success is, they hope, a proof
of the growing estimation in which the Society is held, and is,
doubtless, owing to the excellent way in which the various lectures,
etc., were delivered, as also to the varied and popular nature of
the same. There were nine ordinary meetings, and seven public
lectures. Hearty thanks are due to all those gentlemen who have
so kindly given their services. The following new Honorary
Members have been elected during the Session :—-

Rev. T. J. Cooper, M.A.

Rev. CANON CARR.

Prof. H. A. NicHotson, M.D., D.Sc, F.R.S.E.
Rev. W. SHERWEN.

Last year there were one hundred and three members, and
seventeen new ones have been enrolled, whilst ten have been left
off the roll owing to death, removals from the district, etc.
Financially, the Society is in a prosperous condition. Last year
there was a small deficit, owing to a heavy outlay on the Phono-
graphic exhibition; but this year there is a satisfactory working
balance.

The Subscription is 5s.,and the Zransactions have been given
free. Notices are sent round to each member previous to any
meeting, and they are also sent to the general public on the
occasion of the public lectures, which are free to all. Non-
members have been admitted to the ordinary meetings on pay-
ment of sixpence each, with satisfactory results. The names of the
members have been printed along with the programmes.

The Committee deeply feels the great loss the Society has
sustained through the death of the Rey. J. Clifton Ward, and
trusts that the Council may be fortunate in selecting a worthy
successor.

LONGTOWN LITERARY & SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

3rd SESSION, 1879-80.

President Ts He tome i Rev. ALEx. O’Connor.

Vice Presidents.
R. A. Auuison, Esq. | Rev. P. CARRUTHERS.
Secretary and Treasurer sd ars Mi Mr. Jonn WI1son.

Committee.

J. R. ARMSTRONG, Esq. Rey. Wm. Lyrrett, M.A.

Dr. Mc. LacHLay. Dr. GILL.

Mr. A. WILKIE. Mr. J. Rice.

Mr. J. Butron. Mr. J. PEEL.
Delegates.

J. R. ArmstTrone, Esq. Mr. Jonn Wison.

PUBLIC LECTURES.

Nov. 4.—Rev. J. Ciirron WarRD, F.G.S., &c.—Ocean Life.

Noy. 18.—Rev. H. WurreHEaD, M.A.—Prince Charles Edward.

Dec. 19.—W. Easton Ropertson, Esq.—Travels in America.

Jan. 28.—Professor H. A. NicHoxson, M.D., D.S., F.R.S.E., Professor of
Natural History in St. Andrew’s University—The Nature of
Life.

Feb. 24.—Rev. T. S. Cooper, M.A.—The Study of Nature.

Mch. 23.—THos. WuiTeLaw, Esq.—Hocus Pocus; or, The Science of
Make-believe.

April 13.—R. J. Barium, Esq., F.R.A.S.—The Sun.

Feb. 10.—Readings.

Keb. 17.—Mr. Atex. WitK1e—The Atmosphere.

Mch. 2.—Discussion.

Mch. 9.—Miscellaneous Entertainment.

Mch. 16.—Mr. Mc.Conacu1ze—The Poets and Poetry of America.

Mch. 30.—Discussion.

April 6.—Miscellaneous Entertainment.

April 20.—Business of the Society.

April 27.—Adjourned Meeting for Business.

April 29.—Social Tea and Conversazione.

ORDINARY MEETINGS.

Noy. 11.—Discussion.

Nov. 25.—Discussion.

Dec. 2.—Select Readings.

Dec. 9.—Jonn Gri, M.B., C.M.—The Eye.

=

to
oo

Dec. 23.—Discussion.

Dec. 30.—Select Readings.

Jan. 6.—Rev. A. O’Connor—Self-Culture.

Jan. 13.—Readings.

Jan. 20.—Rev. P. CarruTHERS — Historical Events connected with
Longtown.

Feb. 3.—Discussion.

The Committee of the above Society have pleasure in
presenting this their Third Annual Report.

The members of the Society now number 44, of whom 16 are
ladies. This shows an increase of seven members on last year’s
report.

Income (including 11s. 3d. brought forward) £8 11 3

Expenditure’ - - - - : - £8 119

The Session was opened on Nov. 4th last year, by the
late esteemed and lamented Secretary of the Association, the
Rey. J. Clifton Ward, F.G.S., &c., delivering a most interesting
and instructive lecture on “Ocean Life.” Since that time, six
Public Lectures, and nineteen Ordinary Meetings have been held,
exclusive of the Conversazione. The average attendance at both
the public lectures and the ordinary meetings, has been very fair.

The Committee are much indebted, and desire to express
their sincere thanks, to those Gentlemen who so kindly came
forward and delivered valuable lectures ; also to the members of
the Society who read papers at the ordinary meetings.

The past has been a most successful Session, and the Com-
mittee look forward to the next being even more successful. It is
intended to hold Field Meetings in connection with the Society,
at places of interest in the locality of Longtown, on the first
Saturday in each month, during the summer.

The Session was brought to a close on Thursday Evening,
April 29th, when a Social Tea and Conversazione was held, at
which a considerable number of members and friends attended.
After Tea—which was generously provided by J. R. Armstrong,
Esq.—a programme consisting of songs, readings, recitations, etc.,
was creditably performed, and a most enjoyable evening was
spent by all present.

24

CARLISLE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY AND FIELD
NATURALISTS’ CLUB.

3rD SESSION, 1879-80.

President ee ws eas R. Frereuson, Esq., M.P.
Past-President ... 2. tHe Right Rev. the Lorp BisHop oF CARLISLE

Vice-Presidents.

S. J. Bruyyine, Esq. | Mites MacInyegs, Esq.
Treasurer ite 38 ie bce R. 8. Fercuson, Esq.
Hon. Secretary... aoe nee ie .. Mr. W. DuckwortH

Committee.

Dr. MACLAREN. Mr. J. HEPworTH.

Mr. W. I. R. Crowner. Mr. R. M. Hitt.

Mr. R. J. BatLuie. Dr. BaRnEs.

Mr. W. B. Dopp. Mr. G. Dawson.

Mr. J. B. Watson. Mr. J. JAcKSON.

Mr. Tom DuckwortH. Mr. J. SINCLAIR,

PUBLIC LECTURES.

Oct., Nov., Dec.—1l Lectures by R. D. Rozperts, M.A., a Cambridge
University Lecturer—Physical Geography.

Dec. 30.—Inaugural Address by THE PRESIDENT.

Jan. 6.—Rev. J. Cuirron Warp, F.G.S., &c.—Traces of the Early
History of Mankind,

Jan. 29.--Prof. H. A. NicHotson, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.E.—Limestone and —

its Makers.

March 2.—Dr. Campsett, M.D., F.R.S. Edin.—Self-Control (Principally
an Historical Sketch.)

April 6.—Mr. R. J. Barus, F.R.A.S.—The Planetary Worlds.

ORDINARY MEETINGS.

Nov. 21.—Rev. C. H. Parzrz—Soul-Cells and Cell-Souls. (Translation
from the German of Hiickel.)

Jan. 22.—Mr. J. SincLair—The Apple.

Feb. 4,.—Rev. J. ARLosH—The Museum, and its relation to the Natural
History of the District.

Feb. 17.—Mr. G. Dawson—Local Entomology. Part II.

Mar. 16.—Mr. W. B. Dopp—The Building Stones of the District.

April 27.—Business Meeting; Lecture on the Harkness Collection by
J. G. GoopcHitp, Esq., of H.M. Geo. Survey.

=

y Wikkslll dei Disk. . Dee

sg a a a el

o) CF or

J = PR:

Sing

25

The Committee have much pleasure in presenting their Third
Annual Report, and have again to congratulate themselves upon
the success which has attended their efforts.

During the summer and autumn of 1879, the Society had

five field meetings, which were everywhere successful. The Com-

mittee hope that the diffusion of knowledge on these occasions,
will lead many of the members to take a greater interest in the
subjects brought before them, than what has hitherto been the
case.

At the first, on Whit-Monday, to Bowness-on-Solway, three
Papers were read, viz :—‘‘ How to Enjoy a Field Excursion,” by
the Rev. T. Cooper; “The Archeology of the District,” by J.
Jackson ; ‘The Natterjack Toad,” by T. Duckworth. The next
excursion was a visit to the Old Volcanoes of Cumberland, under
the guidance of the late Rev. J. Clifton Ward. And here the
Committee may well pay a passing tribute to the memory of him
who has so suddenly been called away; who was a guide and
helper in all their difficulties, and who was ever ready to assist
them by his genial counsel and advice and his rare talents ; to whom
this Society, along with others, owes much of its present prosperity.
The third excursion was to Rose Castle. On this occasion, the
Society received a good deal of information on the Botany of the
District, from the Rev. Canon Carr. Mr. Jackson read a paper on
“Inglewood Forest ;” Mr. George Dawson contributed one on the
Natural History of the Neighbourhood ; and Mr. C. J. Ferguson
gave a concise and effective description of Rose Castle.

The fourth excursion was to Shawk Beck and Quarries, where
the Rev. R. Wood, Rosley, entertained the members present with
an account of the Botany of the District ; and Mr. W. B. Dodd,
with its Geology ; and Mr. T. Duckworth read a short paper on
“The Glowworm.”

The fifth field meeting was held, through the kindness of
E. Behrens, Esq., in Corby Woods, and was principally devoted to
“Fungi.” Dr. Carlyle kindly acted as cécerone on the occasion.
At a meeting held in the Museum on the following evening, Dr.
Carlyle pointed out the differences between the Edible and the

26

Poisonous Fungi, and mentioned the different localities where they
were to be procured.

The Winter Lectures were postponed for some time, owing to
the support this Society gave to the Cambridge University Exten-
sion Lectures. A course of eleven Lectures was given by R. D-
Roberts, M.A., on “ Physical Geography,” and, at the conclusion,
twenty-six candidates presented themselves for examination, of
whom five passed in the first class—one with distinction, and sixteen
in the second class. The Committee are pleased to learn, that these
lectures have been successful in a pecuniary respect.

After this course of lectures was finished, a very able Address
was given by the President, R. Ferguson, Esq., M.P.

On the whole, the lectures and the evening meetings were
well attended.

Two rooms have been added to the Museum, which has been
cleaned and re-arranged.

The Harkness Collection has been piovneshiars arranged, by
Mr. J. G. Goodchild and Mr. Colvin, to whom the Museum Com-
mittee are much indebted ; also to the former, for his advice and
assistance in many other ways. The Committee contributed £15
out of the Society’s funds towards the expense of the cases for the
Harkness Collection.

During the past Session, the Committee have distributed
about 170 copies of the Zransactions, and will continue to distribute
as subscriptions are received and new members enrolled. About
forty new members have been enrolled since last year.

The Committee would urge upon the members of this Society,
the advisability of procuring for the Museum all objects of local
interest, which should be accompanied, as much as possible, by
notes relating to any points of interest, and should be placed in
the charge of the different sub-curators appointed by the Museum
Committee, a list of whom may be seen in the Museum.

27

AMBLESIDE AND DISTRICT LITERARY AND
SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

38RD SESSION, 1879-80.

President a4 fi a Rost. CrEwpson, Esq.
Vice-Presidents,

Rev. H. S. CALLENDER.
Rey. EK. M. RrEyNoups.

Secretary ee _ me as “is Mr. J. BENTLEY,
Treasurer ‘. an ads AT “ Mr. W. Lister.

Delegates.
Rey. H. S. CALLENDER.
Mr. J. BENTLEY.

Committee.

Rev. J. W. Aston. Mr. G. Gatry.

Mr. W. Barron. Dr. A. JOHNSTONE.
Mr. T. Bry, Junior. Mr. F. M. T. Jonss.
Mr. H. Boye. | Mr. W. T. KENDALL,
Mr, J. FLEMING. Mr. C. W. Smita.

ORDINARY MEETINGS.

1879.
Oct. 10.—CoNVERSAZIONE.
Dec. 5.—Rev. C. E. E. Appieyarp, B.A.—Dr. Johnson, and his
Biographer.
Dec. 19.—Rev. E. M. Reynoups, Vice-President,—Debate : The Study of .
Fiction is essential to the Formation of Character.
1880.
Jan. 16.—Rev. J. W. Aston, M.A.—Shakespeare.
Feb. 13.—Rev. H. 8S. CaLLenDER, M.A., Vice-President,—On Books.
Mar. 12.—W. Horrs Heeuis, Esq.—Ancient and Modern Oaths, and some
peculiar Modes of taking them.
April 9.—Tae AnnuaL Merrinc or Mempers.—Election of Office-
bearers, &c.

PUBLIC LECTURES.
1879.
Nov. 7.—Rev. H. D. Rawnstey, M.A.—From Cairo to Sinai and Petra.
Noy. 20.—(Thursday) T. Hastines IncHam, Esq.—Poetry : What is it?
and What are its Uses?

1880.
Jan. 27.—(Tuesday) Prof. H. A. Nicuortson, M.D., D.So., F.R.S.E.
(Professor of Natural History, St. Andrew’s University), —The

Nature of Life.

Feb. 27.—Rev. J. Currron Warp, F.G.S.—Magnetism and Electro-
Magnetism, with illustrations and experiments.

April 1.—Rev. J. T. Potnock, M.A.—Pope.

The Committee, in presenting their Third Annual Report,
have pleasure in being able to congratulate the Members on
the satisfactory condition of the Society, both financially and
numerically,

Twenty-nine Members have been elected during the year, and
the number now on the books is one hundred and ninety.

On May 29th, 1879, the Society had a very interesting Field
Day; Tilberthwaite Ghyll and Coniston being visited under the
leadership of the Rev. J. C. Ward.

The Conversazione, by which the Winter Session was opened,
was largely attended, and the Committee have to acknowledge the
assistance and support which they received from Members of the
Society and others, who kindly lent many objects of interest on
the occasion.

There have been five Public Lectures and six Ordinary
Meetings. The Lectures have been generally well attended ; but
the attendance at the Ordinary Meetings has been unequal.

SILLOTH AND HOLME CULTRAM LITERARY
AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

—_—

lst SESSION, 1879-80.

President ee Ee ae Rev. W. Horne, M.A.

Vice-Presidents.
E, H. Banks, Esq.
Rev. A. F. SHEepparp, B.A. .

ON ee

29

Committee.

W. CRABB, F, GRAINGER.

J. GLAISTER. W. S. Irvine.

R. GLalstTEr. J. Lerren, M.B.

J. A. Gorpon, L.R.C.P, & L.R.C.S. W. F. Witson.
' Treasurer.

J. STRONACH.

Hon. Secretaries.
W. M. Hupson. | Louis Lioyp.

ORDINARY MEETINGS.

1879.
Oct. 14.—A Conversazione, with an Address by the President.
Nov. 11.—Rev. A. F. SHepparp, B.A.—Fixed Stars.
Dec. 9.—J. LertcH, M.B.—Grasses.

1880.

Jan. 13.—Lovi1s Luoyp.—The Life and Proverbs of George Herbert.

Feb. 10.—JoHn GLAISTER.—Science a useful Branch of Education.
Mch. 9.—R. Preat.—Canada.

PUBLIC LECTURES.

1879.
Oct. 28.—Rev. J. Oxirron Warp, F.G.S.—Ocean Life.
Noy. 25.—Dr. I Anson, Whitehaven.—Water : its Forms and Forces.
Dec. 23.—Rev. J. T. Pottock.—Pope.

1880.
Jan. 30.—Professor Nicnorson, M.D., D.Se., and F.R.S.E.—Ancient

Forms of Reptiles.
Feb. 24.—-R. A. Attison, Esq., M.A.—The Early Cumbrian Church,
_ Mch, 23.—R. J. Baruuie, Esq., F.R.A.S.—The Sun.

/

In presenting the First Annual Report of the above Society,
_ the Committee are to be congratulated upon the successful results
_of its operations.

°

The Society was formed in October, 1879, with the object of
- cultivating a taste for Literature and Science, by means of Public
Lectures, and the reading of papers on such subjects, by Members
_of the Society and others.

The total number of Members now on the books reaches 126.
The Session was commenced by a Conversazione, which was
well attended, and was, in fact, from every point ef view, a most
‘gratifying success, The President, the Rev, W. Horne, M.A.,

30

gave an address upon the advantages of Literary and Scientific
knowledge.

The thanks of the Society are particularly due to those friends
who kindly gave the use of various articles for exhibition, on that
interesting occasion. é

During the Session there have been eleven meetings, exclusive
of the Conversazione and the Annual Business Meeting. The
meetings were held fortnightly, and, on the whole, proved most
interesting and instructive. Seven of these meetings were devoted
to Scientific subjects, and the other five were generally of a Literary
and miscellaneous character. ‘The attendance at each meeting has
been highly satisfactory, and, in a few cases, a very crowded room
testified unmistakably to the ability and popularity of the lecturer

The financial position of the Society (judging from the Balance
Sheet submitted by the Treasurer) appears to be in a very satis-
factory state ; and the balance being on the right side, it is evident
that there is yet a greater scope for the Society to widen its
operations and extend its usefulness.

The formation of this Society was originally suggested by the
late Rev. J. Clifton Ward, who died so unexpectedly a short time
ago; and the Committee deeply regret the loss of his valuable
services.

The Committee would be glad to see the Members take a
more active part in the discussion at the close of each lecture at
the ordinary meetings. By doing so, it is possible to gain a better
insight into many details of the subject, which necessarily, can be
but briefly touched upon by the Lecturer.

In conclusion, it is to be hoped that our important Institution
may continue to flourish, and that its objects may be carried out
with untiring zeal, to the benefit of our fellow-men.

31

Report of Association Secretary, (pro. tem.)

Although we cannot this year record any addition to the
~ number of affiliated Societies, still there is an increase in the
aggregate number of members, there being now 1213 against 1131
at the date of last report.

The numbers in the different affiliated Societies are as
_ follows :—Whitehaven, 260; Keswick, 150; Cockermouth, 64;
Workington, 103; Maryport, 106; Longtown, 43; Carlisle, 190;
Ambleside, 171 ; Silloth, 126.

The Public Lecturer, Professor H. A. Nicholson, M.D., D.Sc.,
F.R.S.E., seems to have given general satisfaction. The total cost
to each of the Societies was £2 175. 6a, a sum of £12 125.
having been devoted towards the expenses out of the Association
Funds.

Financially, the Association is not in quite such a flourishing

condition, on account of the largely increased expenditure for the
Transactions.

32

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33

Proceedings at the Annual Meeting at Maryport,

Upon Tuesday & Wednesday, May 4th & 5th, 1880.

PRESIDENT: Hon. P. S. WYNDHAM, M.P.

TUESDAY, May 4th.
12-30 p.m. Address by the President, at the Atheneum,

1-30 p.m. Public Luncheon at the Golden Lion.

2-30 p.m. GENERAL MEETING at the Atheneum.—Election of Officers,
and the place for next year’s Meeting. Reading of Reports from all
the affiliated Societies.

3-30 p.m. Paper on the ‘‘ Maryport Camp,” by Mr. J. B. Bailey, at the
Camp. Visit to the Coast Guard Battery—the Excavations on the
site of the Roman Town—also to Netherhall, to examine the Roman
Altars‘and other antiquities.

6-30 p.m. Meat Tea at the Golden Lion.

7-30 p.m. Lecture in the Atheneum, by Major F. Duncan, R.A.,
D.C.L., LL.D., on ‘‘Ambulance Work in Peace, or How to Render
First Aid to the Injured.”

WEDNESDAY, May 5th.

10-30 a.m. READING OF ORIGINAL Papers, (Atheneum) :—

‘‘The Roman Camp near Beckfoot,” by Mr. J. Robinson.

“‘The Strategic Position of the Roman Camp at Maryport, and its
Relation to the general System of Roman Camps in the North,”
by Mr. R. S. Ferguson, M.A., F.S8.A.

“* Notes on a Submerged Forest off Cardurnock on the Solway, and
the Destruction of Skinburness by the Sea, about the year
1305,” by Mr. T. V. Holmes, F.G.S.

‘On the Distribution of Boulders in West Cumberland,” by
Mr. J. D. Kendall, C.E., F.G.S.

12-30 p.m. Inspect the Mote Hill and the Old Iron Furnace, under the
guidance of Mr. Addison.
2-0 p.m.—Visit to the Maryport, and the Solway Iron Works.

34

WARD MEMORIAL FUND.

After the death of the late Rev. J. C. Warp, a meeting of the
representatives of the Cumberland Association was held, for the
purpose of deciding what steps should be taken in order to give
fitting expression to the regard felt for him by the members of the
Association and his friends generally.

It was considered that this object would be best attained by
giving each of the Affiliated Societies an opportunity of contributing
towards a General Fund—part to be devoted to the erection of a
Memorial Tablet in Rydal Church, and the balance to be set apart
as a contribution towards the sum. necessary for the education of
his daughters.

The following is the result :—

Collected by Ambleside Association wen 4613 10%\6
Carlisle Do. tas ZOssc eG
Cockermouth Do. wc 17913 0
Keswick Do. oe 81 3 6
Longtown Do. be o1o 6
Maryport Do. B. 417.0
Silloth Do. ue 315 6
Workington Do. ae 12.9 0
Whitehaven Do. eat 713 0

Through Mr. Bailey, Maryport... a 247-3 %O

Rev. Canon Battersby... ae 37 5 6
Keswick Bank ... # at 1615 oO

35

INAUGURAL ADDRESS
TO THE

CARLISLE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY AND FIELD
NATURALISTS’ CLUB.

(Delivered at Carlisle, December 30th, 1879.)

By ROBERT FERGUSON, M.P. (PRESIDENT.)

When I was first invited by your Secretary to address you, it
was naturally a matter of consideration with me in what manner I
should speak to you upon a subject of which I have made no
special study, and in regard to most of the details of which many
of your members are doubtless better instructed than I can be.
But then it occurred to me that any one who has been in the
world so long as I have, must, in the course of his life, have
observed some things, and read of some things, and thought of
some things which, though without any special scientific training,
it might be of interest for him to communicate, even if it were
mainly only in the way of suggestion.

On this principle, then, I propose to address you, giving you,
as far as occasion offers, my own ideas and impressions. I may be
a little discursive, and I may be occasionally subject to scientific
correction, but I have thought that it would be, on the whole, the
most agreeable, and possibly the most useful course of proceeding.
But, in the first place, I think it will be in accordance with an

address of this sort that I should endeavour to give you—though,
necessarily, for the most part at second-hand—some account of
the results which have been obtained in that particular field of
investigation towards which the attention of scientific observers has

36

in a rather special manner been of late years directed, and with
which the address of the President of the British Association,
Professor Allman, was mainly occupied.

The problem is one of the deepest interest, and one of the
greatest importance. What is the basis of physical life in man and
animals? where does it reside? to what primal condition can we
trace it? and to what extent is the basis of life the same in the
animal as in the vegetable world? Well, they have succeeded in
tracing it to a substance to which they have given the name of
protoplasm, and which they assert to be the basis of all life both
in the animal and in the vegetable world. Protoplasm is a word
which often comes before us now, and will doubtless still more
frequently in the future; but it is not very easy to understand
exactly what is its meaning. When we are told that protoplasm is
physically a clear, viscid, jelly-like substance ; that chemically it is
very little different from the white of an egg; and that it may be
resolved into the elements carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen,
with a slight trace of sulphur and of phosphorus, I do not think
that we feel very much wiser, and perhaps we may succeed in
getting a better idea of its nature by means of illustration.

When we see any one of the more highly organised animals,
with all its organs beautifully adapted for their respective uses—
limbs with which to move, nerves with which to feel, mouth,
stomach, and other organs with which to feed—we naturally say,
these are but parts of a machine, and there must be some force,
some principle behind, which puts all this beautiful and complex
machinery in motion. But if you were to see a thing which could
move, though it had no organs of any kind for progression; which
could feel, though it was destitute of anything whatever in the
shape of nerves; which could feed, though it had no mouth, and
no stomach, and no alimentary organs of any kind—a thing which
seemed to be in effect nothing more than an animated bit of jelly
—you would naturally say, “‘ Here we have something beyond
which we cannot get—something which seems to contain that
principle, whatever it is, which is at the very bottom of life.”

Well, there is such a thing, and that is precisely the descrip-

aah
a pe

37

tion which scientific observers give of it, or in other words, they
say that it is a bit of protoplasm. This is a microscopic animal-
cule found in stagnant waters, to which they have given the name
of the Protameba primitiva. The origin of the name is this—
there was an animalcule before known to us under the name of
the proteus animalcule, so called from its incessant changes of
shape, similar to the ‘one in question, but not so utterly destitute |
of organism. ‘This they now call the Amaeba, a name which in
Greek has the same meaning, ‘the changing.” And then when
this still more primitive creature was discovered, in order to dis-
tinguish it from tbe other, they gave it the name of Protameba
primitiva, “first or earliest primitive Ameba,” a name in which
science seems to struggle to express the exceedingly primitive
nature of the creature. It moves, though it has no organs of any kind
for progression ; its characteristic is constant and incessant move-
ment, constant and incessant changes of shape. At one time it
appears like a thread long drawn out; at another it takes a shape,
it may be, more resembling some kind of flower; so that in point
of fact you cannot tell what shape it is, or whether it has any shape
at all.

Now this characteristic of incessant motion is an important
one to attend to, for it is a special characteristic of protoplasm,
i.e., motion without an object or an aim, but rather as an innate
and essential condition of its existence. Then it feeds, though it
has no mouth and no stomach and no alimentary organs whatever.
It seems to feed, so to speak, with its whole body. When it meets
with that which is good for it to eat—presumably a smaller speck
of protoplasm than itself—it envelopes it with its own substance,
wraps itself, so to speak, around it, and the. one seems to melt
away into the other. Then it feels—as it must do, to know when
it meets with anything—although it is utterly destitute of anything
in the shape of nerves.

This then is the simplest form of life with which we are at
present acquainted, and it is upon the existence of such forms of -
life as this that the theory of the protoplasmic basis of life mainly
depends. I will ask leave to digress a little from the main subject

in order to refer to a point in which the Ameda is of interest to us
as affording a type of the manner in which the human frame has
been put together. The Amceda, as the simplest form of life,
consists of a single cell—the human frame consists of a multiplicity
of cells. But man, in his inception, in his embryo state, also
consists of but a single cell. Now, the Amceba has the property
of spontaneously dividing itself into two parts, each part forming a
perfect cell, a complete animal, and each going henceforth its own
way, and leading its own life. The primal cell in man also divides
in two, but instead of separating, they remain united, and each
fresh cell in its turn dividing to form another—thus bit by bit the
human /eefws is put together.

I have spoken of the Protameba primitiva as the simplest
form of life with which we are acquainted. But only until
scientific men have made up their minds about something else
more recently discovered, and which seems to be, if possible, a
still lower form of life. ‘There is a kind of slime, seeming to
be endowed with motion, and therefore with life, which has
been dredged up from the bottom of the sea, where many
naturalists are of opinion it forms masses of living protoplasm.
To this they have given the name of Bathybius (Greek Bathus,
depth, Jos, life). But, as I have said, scientific men are not as yet
agreed about this substance ; for while Huxley, Allman, and the
German physiologist Haeckel, have expressed their belief in the
organic nature of Bathybius, the naturalists of the ‘Challenger ”
expedition say that in all their dredgings they never brought up
anything like this. Their theory is that this mobile, gelatinous
substance, is nothing more than gelatinous sulphate of lime,
precipitated from sea water by the strong spirits of wine the speci-
mens were preserved in. We must leave these distinguished men
to fight it out among themselves ; and now, having endeavoured
to get some idea of the nature of protoplasm, we come to the
question—

WHERE IS THE PROTOPLASM TO BE FOUND WHICH IS THE
BASIS OF LIFE IN MAN?

Man is pervaded with protoplasm—it lodges in the micro-
scopic cavities of his bones, and especially it streams in the current

39

of his blood. The white corpuscles of the human blood are things
like the Ameba—seen under the microscope they go through all
those evolutions, those incessant movements, and those constant
changes of shape which-characterise protoplasmic creatures like the
Ameba. And what seems remarkable, with due care they may even
be kept alive after they have been taken from the human body. It
seems, then, that scientific observers, finding in the first place a thing
which, like the Ameba, seems to contain in itself the abstract
principle of life, and then observing the presence of numberless
such creatures, which must have their use in the blood of man,
have come to the conclusion that these form an essential contri-
bution to his vitality.

We can now perhaps get an idea as to the rationale of that
most revolting remedy which has come into vogue of late in
America, and I believe also in England, in cases of advanced
consumption, which requires the patient to attend at the slaughter-
house, and to drink a loathsome draught of the warm and yet
living blood, as it flows from the slaughtered animal. But, now,
does there not seem to be, in the discoveries of modern science, a
ground for the word which was spoken to the old Hebrews when
it is said, “‘ The blood thereof, which is the life thereof?”

I have referred to this subject of protoplasm partly because I
thought it was appropriate to an address of this sort, and might be
interesting to those who may not have heard it ortherwise, and
partly because it leads up to something else upon which I have
something to say. What I now propose to bring before you is
certain points of coincidence which recent discoveries have shown
to exist between the animal and the vegetable world, the tendency
of which is further to illustrate the unity of the system of creation.
And of all these points, the first, and perhaps the most important,
is this—that the same principle of protoplasm is the basis of life in
both. The protoplasmic principle in plants is to be found occupying
the interior of each cell of the interior tissue at one stage of its
development, the harder substance forming the outer wall of each
cell being secreted by the living principle within to form for itself
a protection. And if this plant-protoplasm is examined through

40

the microscope, it will be seen to possess all those properties of
active and incessant motion by which protoplasm is invariably
distinguished.

To this point, then, the researches of Science have been able
to attain. But mark this, that between the speck of protoplasm,
which is the germ of the man that is to be, or of the mouse, or of

the mushroom, Science has not hitherto been able to discover any ~

difference. Whether a touch more of brimstone gives the ferocious
creature, or a touch more of phosphorus the intellectual animal, is
a secret which is not revealed to us. We see, then, how far the
vision of Science has been able to pierce ; how infinite is the gulf
beyond, into which Science has not been able—perhaps, never may
be able—even vaguely to peer !

The next point of coincidence between the animal and the
vegetable world to which I wish to refer, is not, so far as we know,
one of general application, but one which is confined to a few
species of plants. We have been accustomed to look upon the
world of plants as affording no instance of what, in the animal
world, we are accustomed to regard as a form of cruelty—the life
of one animal being sacrificed in order to supply the wants of
another. Yet this is not so, for there are some plants, of which
the Common Sun-dew may be given as an instance, which, though
possessing the outward characteristics of the vegetable, yet, in some
of their habits and modes of life, bear considerable resemblance to
the carnivorous animals. These plants subsist largely upon insects,
which they catch, and kill, and eat, and digest; and they would
eagerly eat a piece of meat, if presented to them in a sufficiently
small particle. These plants, inasmuch as they do not, like the
generality of other plants, draw most of their sustenance from the
soil, do not require to have, and so have not, roots as well
developed as most other plants. What they do require is water,
in order to form their digestive secretions. As in man the digestive
operation is performed by means of a juice, which is called the
gastric juice, so in these plants digestion is performed by means of
a secretion which, in its constitutents, is hardly to be distinguished
from the gastric juice in man. But in order to have juice you

ot

4)

must have water, and, therefore it is that these plants require
water in order to form their digestive secretions.

Some of these insectivorous plants float upon the surface of
the water, and so being in contact with the water, do not require,
and so have not any roots at all. A good example of this kind is
to be found in the common Bladderwort ( Utricularia) of our
ponds and ditches. Others, not in immediate contact with water,
but growing in marshy places, have very short roots, just sufficient
to enable them to suck up water from the soil. The insectivorous
plant best known to us is, perhaps, the Common Sun-dew of our
bogs and moorlands ( Drosera rotundifolia ). This may be described
as consisting of a saucer-shaped group of orbicular leaves, which

are covered on the top by glandular hairs, each tipped with a clear

transparent substance like a drop of dew, whence it derives its
name. But this substance is in reality of an exceedingly viscid
and tenacious nature, so much so that any fly alighting on the
plant, and once touching this, is at once held fast, and unable to
make its escape. At the same time the edges of the leaf which
has been touched, begin slowly and gradually to curl upwards,
until they meet at the top like the lid of a box. The leaf of the
plant now becomes, to all intents and purposes, an improvised
stomach, within which the operation of digestion is carried on.
There is another plant of the same order which is still simpler
it its arrangements, the Venus’s Fly-trap (Dionea muscipula ),
found in North Carolina. This plant has not, like the Sun-dew,

- any viscid secretion for catching and detaining the fly ; and, there-
- fore, it would not do for it to close slowly, as in that case the fly

t

would have time to escape; it closes, therefore, sharply and
instantaneously. Each leaf of the Dionea consists of two lobes

hinged together at the end of a long foot-stalk, and armed at the

edge with a series of strong sensitive bristles. Under ordinary

conditions, the edges of the lobes remain wide apart, but the

- moment an insect, or any other solid body in motion, touches the

_ bristles, the marginal bristles instantly interlock like the teeth of a

_ rat-trap, and shut the object in until the digestive secretions of the

_ plant have had time to take effect. Each leaf of the Dionea is

42

thus, in effect, a pair of jaws and a stomach combined—a pair of
jaws to snatch, a stomach to digest its food.

Having now, so to speak, swallowed their fly, the respective
plants remain closed until the operation of digestion is completed
—a period of five days in the case of the Sun-dew ; of ten days, or
double the time, in the case of the Venus Fly-trap. The plant
then opens again, ready to recommence its operations, and the
dry shell of the fly, from which the digestible matter has been ex-
tracted, may be seen adhering to the leaf, like the dry carcase of a
fly in a spider’s web, after the spider has sucked the juice.

But it is to be observed that these plants close upon every
solid object that comes, whether it be good to eat, or whether it
be not—it may be a fly, or it may be a speck of dust, the plant
closes upon it just the same. But in the case of its having
swallowed something not good to eat, the plant opens again; the
Sun-dew in about seventeen hours, the Fly-trap in about thirty-nine
hours—again about double the time. It seems evident from this,
that it is only by attempting to digest what it has swallowed that
the plant finds whether or not it is good to eat; for you will see
that the plant of slower digestion, which requires double the time
to digest its food, requires also double the time to find out whether
what it has swallowed is fit to eat ; so that it seems clear that it is
only when the process of digestion is ripe for commencing, tha
the plant finds out that what it has taken is not capable of being
digested. When I say that these plants close on everything that
comes, the statement must be subjected to a certain qualification.
It must be something that comes, as a fly comes, with a light and
titillating touch. A speck of dust would do it, but anything
coming with a stronger impact, would produce no effect. And
you will at once see how essential this is to the life of the plant.
If the impact of a drop of rain, for instance, were to cause the
plant to close, it might be kept closed till it was starved to death.

The nerves of the plant, then, which set its closing machinery
in motion, have the property of being stimulated only by a slight
touch, and not by a heavy one. And this is a property by no
means confined to this particular plant. Take the common nettle,

OO eee bat

—_—---

43

for instance. If you touch the nettle lightly, it stings you; if you
grasp it firmly, it has no effect upon you. This seems to me to
show that the nerves of the nettle, or those particular nerves of the
nettle which set the stinging machinery in operation, are in like
manner excited by a slight touch, and not by a heavy one. But
we need not go so far as the nettle for an illustration—we seem to
have nerves of the same sort in our own frames. If you want to
tickle a person on the face or on the soles of the feet, you take the
tips of your fingers, or something delicate like a feather, and
touch him as lightly as you possibly can. So doing, you tickle
him ; if you lay on heavily, youcannot do it. Now the sensation
of tickling, like every other sensation, comes from the nerves, and
it, therefore, seems to me to show that we have in our own frames
nerves which, like those of the plants in question, are excited by a
slight touch, and not by a stronger one.

The next point to which I desire to call your attention is
this :—The insectivorous plants I have referred to swallow every-
thing that comes, whether it be good to eat or whether it be not,
and, constituted as these plants are, you will see that it is a
necessity of their existence that they should do so. In a state of
nature these plants take their chance—sometimes they get some-
thing which is good to eat, sometimes something which is not, but
upon the whole they get enough to eat. But if you were to take
one of these plants and feed it, when it opened giving it a fly, and
as soon as it had digested that and opened again, popping in
another, and so on for a number of times in succession, the result
would be that the plant would die from over-eating, because its
digestive organs would be deprived of the interval of rest which

_ nature provides by occasionally giving it something which is not

good to eat.

Now, sometimes even in a state of nature, these plants seem to
die from over-eating, and it is not difficult to see how this may be
so simply on the doctrine of chances. It may happen that the

plant may get something good to eat every time for a number of
_ times in succession, and so may, even in a state of nature, die
_ from over-eating.

44

Now, we may compare these plants with one of the simpler
forms of animal life, say for instance, the Octopus. The Octopus
may be described as a combination of a central stomach with an
apparatus for putting things into it—in its case a number of Zentacula
ranged around for the purpose of grasping whatever comes, and, of
course, the necessary machinery for assimilating what it swallows.
So the Drosera consists of a stomach, or that which does duty
for a stomach, an arrangement for putting things into it, and the
machinery necessary for assimilating that which it receives. But
the Octopus possesses one sense which these plants have not ; it
does not require to put a thing into its stomach in order to find
out whether or not it is good to eat. Some of you may have seen
an account, which went the round of the papers, of an attendant
who had occasion to go into the tank at the Brighton Aquarium,
in which the Octopods are kept, having put on for the purpose a
pair of those large heavy boots which are used by fishermen. The
larger Octopus seized him by the leg, to which it held on with four
of its ¢entacuda, while with the other four it kept a firm hold of the
rocks at the side. The man struggled with all his might, but the
Octopus held him as ina vice. At last the idea occurred to him
of slipping his leg out of the boot and leaving the Octopus in
possession. The Octopus held on to the boot for twenty minutes,
at the end of which time it gave it up. Now, are we to suppose
that the senses of the Octopus are so dull and slow that it requires
twenty minutes in order to decide whether or not a thing is good
to eat? Or is it not rather that there were exceptional circum-
stances in the case, the boot being essentially an animal substance,
and yet one of such a nature as to render it exceedingly uncom-
fortable in the stomach of any animal? This I take to have been
the case, and that under these peculiar circumstances the puzzled
Octopus required a little time for consideration. Who can tell
what chain of impressions was passing through that dull intelli-
gence in the twenty minutes during which the Octopus was
making up its mind whether or not the boot was good to eat ?

But the Octopus showed more discrimination on this occasion
than an animal usually supposed to be higher in the scale did

;

45

upon another. Some of you may have heard the story of the Boa
Constrictor at the Zoological Gardens which swallowed its blanket.
But the Boa was at any rate*right so far as this, that the blanket
was an animal substance ; and probably the creature finding, on
waking from its lethargy, this substance conveniently at hand,
proceeded, without due consideration, to bolt it, the circumstances
being such as could hardly occur in a state of nature.

To return to the vegetable world. There is another plant
well known to you all, the Sensitive Plant, which has the property
of closing when it is touched. And there can be, I think, as little
doubt that the plant does so for some reason essential to its own
preservation, as that the Hedge-hog rolls itself into a ball for its
- own protection. It may be that the Sensitive Plant secretes some
juice or sap of which certain insects would like to partake, that
the loss of this sap would be injurious to the plant, and that,
_ therefore, it closes when touched to protect itself from depre-
dation. The Sensitive plant is, at any rate, more humane in its
_ mode of protecting itself than another plant, the AZentze/ia, which
is also subject to the incursions of flies. This plant, as described
by a French botanist, M. de Poison, is provided with a number
of spikes, having their barbs set downwards. These are so thickly
‘ placed that a fly has only room to insert his proboscis in the
interstice between in order to get at the sap. But, on attempting
‘to withdraw it, the proboscis is caught by the downward barb, and
the result is that the unfortunate fly, thus hooked, generally ends,
according to M. de Poison, by twisting off its own head in its
frantic efforts to escape.

_ There was a curious experiment performed lately by a French
naturalist upon the Sensitive Plant. It was one of a series of ex-
periments upon the nerves of plants, and I refer to it as illustrating
a third point of identity between the animal and the vegetable
world. You are aware that there is a class of substances called
‘anesthetics—ether and chloroform for instance—which have the
effect of paralysing the action of the nerves, and so destroying
sensation in animals. You know that by means of this great and

am

beneficent discovery, a man may have the most terrible operation

46

performed upon him, and yet feel no pain. The object of the ex-
periment was to ascertain whether the nerves of plants are
similarly affected by the same conditions. The operator dipped
a sponge in ether, and laid it by the side of the Sensitive Plant,
and then covered it with a bell-glass to confine the fumes of the
ether. The experiment was completely successful—the nerves of
the plant were paralysed—no longer did it shrink and close when
it was touched, and it was not till the ether was removed that the
plant regained its original properties. Thus treated, the nettle
would cease to sting, and insects might pry with impunity into the
Venus’ Fly-trap. Among other experiments, it was found that the
germination of seeds, and the fermentation of liquids (which is due
to the production of myriads of organisms) was arrested by the
operation of an aneesthetic.

This, then, is the third point of coincidence between the
animal and the vegetable world, that the nerve systems of both are
—though to an extent perhaps yet not fully ascertained—subject to
the same conditions.

The last-named experiment, which proves that the production
of animal life is suspended by an anesthetic, leads me to some-
thing to which I refer rather in the way of suggestion or inquiry.
We hear a good deal just now about chloral, which at first supposed
to be perfectly harmless, is now known to be, in consequence of
its cumulative action when taken continuously or frequently,
highly injurious, and even fatal. I believe that it acts to a con-
siderable extent as an anesthetic; and it is said that the way in
which it acts injuriously is by impoverishing the blood, and
depriving it of its nutritive property. I want to suggest a possible
manner, suggested by the above experiment, in which this
cumulative and injurious effect may be produced. If, as we have
seen, the blood is full of living creatures like the Amada, they
must, as is the case with all living creatures, reproduce themselves,
and the old ones must die out. If, then, chloral acts as an
anesthetic, and if the property of an anesthetic be, as we have
seen, to suspend the propagation of animal life, the result of a con-
tinued course of chloral would be, the old creatures gradually, in the

a

wt ee eS ee ee eee eC ermhmrmrmUm

+= pas Se

47

course of nature, dying out, and the production of new ones being
suspended, that the protoplasm which is the source of life would
be drained away, and so the man must die.

I warned you that I might be a little discursive, and there is
but a slender thread of connection between the subjects on which
I have treated, and that upon which I am about to speak. I have
referred to the system of cruelty, in the sense of suffering, which
pervades the animal world, and from which even the vegetable
world is not altogether exempt. But it is to be observed that all
through the domain of nature, until we come up to man himself,
there is no unnecessary cruelty. Cruelty is the result of weakness,
and not of strength ; and the more powerful an animal is relatively
to that on which it preys, the more merciful is its mode of des-
patching it. The large carnivora, as for instance, the lion,
frequently despatch their prey with a stroke. I remember hearing
of a man* who had been struck down by a lion, and who subse-
quently recovered, and he said that when struck he felt no pain,
only a sensation of numbness all over his body. But when we
come to a smaller animal of the same kind, the leopard, which is
said sometimes to leap from a tree upon such an animal as the
giraffe, and, sticking its fangs into its neck, to ride it until the
terrified animal drops from exhaustion and loss of blood, we see
how much is the increase of suffering from the relative weakness of
the attack. Or take the weasel, one of the smallest of the
carnivora. I remember being much struck with a picture by
Landseer, representing a hare attacked by a weasel, the hare, an
animal more than twenty times the size of its assailant, standing
petrified with fear, while the little creature, standing on its hind
legs, reached up and struck its fangs into its neck. I apprehend
that that great animal painter must have witnessed the scene which
he depicted, for I never in my life saw the expression of horror so
powerfully, so painfully depicted as it was in the eye of that hare.

There is perhaps no animal whose manner of taking its prey
is so repulsive as that animal between which and man there is the

est feeling of abhorrence, and which we have taken as the
* David Livingstone,

48

type of the Evil One. The manner in which the boa, for instance,
swallows live rabbits is sufficiently repulsive—in the case of larger
animals, its more natural prey, it would be so much so as to cause
English feeling to revolt. Even the manner in which the common
English snake devours its prey, a frog for instance, seizing it by its
hind-quarter, and gradually, by the force of the muscles of its throat,
drawing it in, the frog shrieking and vainly struggling, is a sight so
unpleasant that few persons can resist interfering with the opera-
tions of nature by giving the snake a switch across the neck. Yet
even here it can hardly be said that we have an exception to the
law of nature which forbids unnecessary cruelty.

The domestic cat might seem to be an exception from the
manner in which it torments a mouse by anticipation before it
devours it. But I think we may be warranted in assuming that
this is a habit which the cat has learned from its contact with
civilization ; one would think that in a state of nature the sense of
insecurity, and the chance of its prey escaping, would restrain such
a development.

But nature adopts something more than a negative course in
regard to the prevention of useless suffering. I refer to the instinct
implanted in animals which causes them to put to a speedy death
one of their own kind to prevent it from being exposed to lingering
suffering. I do not know how far down in the scale this principle
extends, but from what I am about to tell you, it would seem to
extend even to those creatures which do not seem to us to be of
much account. I remember when a boy, having my attention
attracted to a number of sparrows on a tree in the garden, which
were hopping about from bough to bough and twittering, in a state
of intense excitement. While I was watching them, and wondering
what they were about, they all descended to the ground, where, as
I then saw, there lay another sparrow disabled from some causes
and unable to move. All the other sparrows then set upon this
one, and despatched it by repeated blows on the head with their
beaks.

Now we seem to have here an instance of the beneficent
interference of nature to prevent lingering suffering. But there

49

seems to me to be something more behind. The last act of the
drama we fully understand, but what was the object of the previous
proceedings? It could not be anything in the nature of a con-
sultation, where every one was screaming at the top of his voice,
and yet I take it that nothing in nature is done without a cause.
I have thought of it since, and I have come to this conclusion—
that these sparrows were working themselves into a state of excite-
ment to do a deed which had to be done, but which they could
not do in cold blood,—to take away the life of a fellow sparrow.

I remember reading in the life of Ah Pacha of Janina, an
incident which seems to me to afford a parallel, though in this case
the actors were women, and not sparrows. A village in Albania
had been taken by an enemy, the men had been slaughtered, and
the women had betaken themselves to the top of a neighbouring
hill, which overlooked the sea. The enemy having made an end
of the men, surrounded the mountain, and began to ascend its sides
in order to capture the women. ‘The women, joining hands, began
a dance, slow and measured at first, but as the foe came nearer
and nearer up the hill, increasing in intensity and excitement, till
when the foe were nearing the summit, and their eyes, gleaming
with passion, became visible—and when the dance had reached a
pitch of frantic excitement—the leader broke the circle, and flung
herself head-foremost into the sea, all the others one by one
following her example.

Now it seems to me that just as these women were working
themselves up into a state of excitement in order to do a deed
against which human nature revolts—to take away their own lives
—so also were these sparrows working themselves into a state of
excitement in order to doa deed against which their nature revolted
—to take away the life of a fellow sparrow.

I began by referring to this as instinct, but does it not look
more like an operation of conscience? And is not this little story
an apt comment upon the text which says that “ not a sparrow falls
to the ground without our Father ?”

While on the subject of the sparrow, I would like to say a little

more about him. We, in this country, do not set much value on
4

50

the sparrow, apparently on the principle that that which is very
common is not held in much account. But when any one has
been to America, he comes back with an increased respect for the
sparrow. There is in America a little insect, the canker-worm,
which destroys the noblest trees. You may imagine what a grief
it must be to a man to see the stately elms which surround his
dwelling perish, one by one, from the attacks of this insidious little
pest. And, in order to protect their trees, they cover their trunks
with sheet tin, which they then paint with coal tar; and the effect
of this is, that the worm, striving to make its way up the trunk, is
unable to make its way over the tar. But you may well imagine
that it does not much improve the appearance of the trees to be
painted black, and I well remember the astonishment of a young
Englishman who had never been in America before, when on
taking a drive out of Boston we came to a country house, and he
saw that the trees around it were painted black—“ Has there been
a death in the family ?” he said, ‘‘and have they been putting the
trees in mourning?” Now, it so happens that there is not a bird
in America that will touch this worm, whereas the English sparrow
goes in for it with the greatest avidity, and so for many years the
Americans have been casting longing eyes upon our sparrow ; and
while in many places in this country the farmers have been forming
clubs to destroy him, the Americans have been making earnest
endeavours to naturalise him. After many abortive attempts, they
seem now to have hit upon a plan which seems likely to be suc-
cessful. They have let loose the sparrows among the trees of the
parks attached to the great towns, where they will be under the
protection of the police, and also of the public sentiment. They
have erected little houses for them among the branches, and in
order to domicile them there, supplied them in the first instance
with food, and it was amusing to see the sparrows going in and
out of their little houses, while the Americans looked on with
benignant interest. So now the Americans seem to be in a fair
way of gaining their object, and succeeding in naturalising the
sparrow. And perhaps it may afford something of a lesson to us,
not to undervalue a thing because it is common, and not to ignore

51

the useful purpose which it might require a change of circumstances
to make us more thoroughly appreciate.

It remains before I conclude, that I should say a word re-
specting the Society before which I have the honour of appearing.
And it seems to me that this Society is one which perhaps, more
than any other, claims our sympathy in this respect—that it is in
the best sense of the word the most democratic. Its pursuits are
those upon which all men engage on equal terms, for to all men
alike is the Book of Nature open, and the results are to those whose
observation is the most intelligent, and whose patience is the most
enduring. I will not take up time with any observations which
might be rather trite on the humanizing and the elevating effect of
all study of the work of the Creator, but I cannot but feel that the
man who follows the denizens of the field and of the wood into
their haunts, and makes a study of the economy of their daily lives,
diversified as these are with many a curious and interesting trait,
will have, more than other men, something of a kindly sympathy
with all God’s creatures, and will realize more than other men the
words of the Poet—

‘* He prayeth best who loveth best
All things, both great and small,”

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53

PSYCHOLOGICAL NOTES.

ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT,
THE Hon. PERCY WYNDHAM, M.P.
(Delivered at Maryport, May, 1880. )

Has PsyCHOLOGY ANY EXISTENCE AS A SCIENCE?

Are not all the ideas that are held on the subject capable of clas-
sification under two heads? One heading would include those tenets
on the subject of Psychology which were taught us from our earliest
childhood, and which, with many of us, has been allowed to lie in
our minds fallow and unquestioned, or at least labelled unques-
tionable; the other would include those ideas in Psychology which
are evolved from the inner consciousness, touching ground seldom
and at rare intervals, and bearing little relation to ascertained facts.
Were this all they had to go upon, they might say that no such
science existed. ‘ Psychology,” to use the words of the late Serjeant
_ Cox, “in the metaphysical form in which it has been hitherto, with
rare exceptions, presented to the student, has appeared to him
difficult, dry, and almost repulsive ; a science of abstractions and
unrealities based upon argument alone, with the very slightest
reference to facts.” The Psychology to which I would draw your
attention is, to quote the same authority, “a science to be pursued
like other physical sciences, by observing phenomena, trying
experiments, applying tests, and collecting the facts which are to

34

be found in this as abundantly as in any other science.” The
theories of thinkers like Reid and Stewart, Hamilton and Browne,
were evolved from their inner consciousness, and were moulded
entirely from introspection instead of from observation. They
may be compared to the pre-Baconian philosophers: to the new
school belong Gall and Spurzheim, George and Andrew Combe,
Abercrombie and Moore, Carpenter, Spencer, Cox. Still, however,
the question remains, Can a science be made of that which is
imperceptible to the senses? The positivists would reply in the
negative. Magnetism, electricity, and the law of gravitation are
all in themselves imperceptible to the senses. Why do we believe
in them? Because the existence of a thing can be proved by
manifestation of effects of which it was the cause as well as the
cognition of palpable substance. Of magnetism, of electricity, of
gravitation we know no more than we can know of the soul and
mind, but we believe in them because, although imperceptible
themselves, we learn their nature and qualities by observing their
manifestation upon matter that is perceptible. The nature and
qualities of a mind, or soul, or pneuma must be studied in the same
manner; and should we ever find instances in which a mind, or
soul, or pneuma acts independently of the usual material agents—
instances in which the effect of hearing is produced without the
agency of the ears, the effect of seeing without the agency of the
eyes—we are at least led towards the conclusion that a mind or
soul may exist independent of the material structure of the body.
Physiologists can find nothing in the human structure that is not
material: all that the microscope and the scalpel reveal dies and
is dissipated. Is there nothing more? Stones are structures, so
are sponges; but man has intelligence, which a stone has not.
What, then, is there in the structure of a man which there is not
in the structure of a stone that gives intelligence to the man and
not to the stone? To this important question various replies are
made. I shall endeavour to give expression to the most prominent
ones.

First comes the ancient belief that the material structure of
man is the shrine of an immortal soul destined to survive the

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dissolution of the body. This faith, though no doubt rudely
shaken in the minds of some by generalisations drawn from the
investigations of modern science, has, in the minds of others,
recently received confirmation from the study of the science to
which I draw your attention on the present occasion. Next I
would mention a belief for which I must invent a name, and call
it Pneumatism, by which I mean to express a belief in a soul which
is dependent entirely on the material body—a soul in short which
is not necessarily immortal. The holders of this belief occupy
a middle position between the materialists and the spiritualists.
I usé this term here in its wider sense, and not as limited to what
is called modern spiritualism. Third and last come the materialists,
and I will give their belief in their own words. “Mind is not an
entity like the body, nor a part of the structure like the brain or
the liver, but it is the product of structure. Mind is a function of
the brain, as digestion is a function of the stomach. Thought is a
secretion from the brain. When the brain dies, thought ceases.”
On this definition I would make one or two remarks. When you
have called thought a function of the brain, you have not really
explained it ; nor can you explain it as you can explain the process
of digestion as a function of the stomach: your explanation is, at
best, but an adroit evasion of a difficulty. The conclusion at
which you have arrived is one in favour of which a great amount
of affirmative evidence might be adduced ; but it is not more than
this ; and we can conceive of thought, mind, and consciousness as
being something other than a function of the brain, in the sense
that its origin is in the brain. Thought, mind, consciousness of
personality, are not secretions of the material brain in the sense
that their existence is inconceivable without the existence of a
material brain, but a material brain is absolutely necessary to
consciousness, thought, or mind during contact with a material
world. The question presents itself, if we can think without the
machinery of a brain, why are we endowed with one? The answer
is, that without a brain, we cannot communicate with the material
world. On the hypothesis I have advanced, the brain would still
be necessary to put the nerves in motion, and through them the

56

muscles, and cause them to speak the word, strike the blow, put
one foot before another. If we wish to ascertain whether there
is any probability that the hypothesis is true, in what direction
should we look for proof? The answer is clear. We must en-
deavour to find out whether the results that follow the functional
exercise of the material organs of man, are ever to be met with
dissociated from the exercise of those functions.. To the late
Serjeant Cox belongs the merit of the suggestion that if the mech-
anism of man is composed of soul as well as body, the fact must be
capable of proof, and some facts might surely be discovered that
would throw some light upon the subject.

SOMNAMBULISM.

The state of artificial somnambulism, or the mesmeric state,
offers a wide field for observations to the student of Psychology.
Somnambulism, or sleep-walking, has no connection with sleep;
although natural somnambulism occurs more often when the patient
is asleep, or has lain down to rest in the dark, than at any other
time. The mesmeric state, or trance, is the state of somnambulism
artificially induced. Somnambulism is the mesmeric state natur-
ally induced. The word “sleep-walking” should be discarded,
on account of its being inseparably connected in our minds with the
condition of sleep ; an objection which does not apply to the word
“somnambulism,” though of course the meaning of the two words
is the same. The appearance of the patient in somnambulism is
that of one plunged in profound slumber: in the great majority of
instances the eyes are firmly closed ; the countenance is extremely
placid, and the face very pale, the extremities abnormally cold and
clammy; the breathing regular and full, with frequent sighing, or,
to be more accurate, with deep inspirations that make the sound
of a sigh, but are not, like sighing, expressions of any mental
emotion. But here the resemblance to sleep ends. The conditions
differ from those of sleep in these particulars: the muscles are not
flaccid, but retain all, and often more than than all, the ordinary
tension of working life. The limbs are not relaxed, but in energetic
action. The head does not droop. The muscles are extremely

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rigid, especially when the patient is still: this is the reverse of their
condition in sleep, when they are usually flaccid even in motion
but are entirely so at rest.

The somnambule with his eyes closed and all his senses sealed,
will perform his daily work, however intricate, write, read, thread a
needle, sew, and do other works requiring keen insight, manual dex-
terity, and delicate touch. During the entire acting of this, the senses
continue paralyzed. He neither sees nor hears nor feels with the
bodily organs. Zhe mind only is awake; and manifestly the mind
then receives impressions of external objects, and guides the actions
of the body without the assistance of its usual informants, the
Senses. If undisturbed, the patient usually retires to his bed;
somnambulism gives place to sleep; the limbs relax; dreams
come, go, and are remembered. Finally, he wakes from slumber
without the slightest recollection of anything that had happened
during the period of somnambulism.

This description of the condition of somnambulism is abridged
from the second volume of the late Serjeant Cox’s work,* “ What
am I?”

I will now give you one or two examples of the state of
natural somnambulism which appear in more than one of the
books relating to the subject. Dr. Arnold Weinholt reports the
following on the authority of Dr. Schulz, the famous physician of
Hamburgh :—

‘* A girl between twelve and thirteen years of age belonging to a family of
some distinction, was afflicted with a violent nervous complaint in which strong
convulsive motion alternated with catalepsy and syncope. Besides, she
frequently had paroxysms, during which she conversed with much liveliness
and ingenuity. In this state she distinguished without difficulty all colours that
were presented to her, recognised the numbers of cards, and the stripes upon
those which were variegated. She described the colour of the binding of books
when shown to her. She wrote in the same method as usual, and cut figures
in paper as she was accustomed to do for pastime in her waking state. Her
eyes at this time were firmly closed ; but in order to be assured that she made

“no use of them, a bandage was placed over them on the approach of the
paroxysm.”

* Whatam I? A Popular Introduction to Mental Philosophy and Psychology.
By Edward W. Cox, Serjeant-at-Law. London: Longman and Co., Pater-
noster Row. 1874.

58

The “French Encyclopcedia” has preserved a very remarkable
case, accurately noted by the Archbishop of Bordeaux. It is that
of a young ecclesiastic in the same seminary with the Archbishop.
He was in the habit of getting up during the night in a state of
somnambulism, of going to his room, taking pen, ink, and paper,
and composing and writing sermons. When he had finished one
page of the paper on which he was writing, he would read over
what he had written, and correct it. Upon one occasion he had
made use of the expression Ce divin Enfant. In reading over the
passage, he changed the adjective divin to adorable. Perceiving,
however, that the pronoun ce could not stand before the word
adorable, he added to the former the letter #

In order to ascertain whether the somnambulist made any use
of his eyes, the Archbishop held a piece of pasteboard under his
chin, to prevent him seeing the paper on which he was writing ;
but he continued to write on without appearing to be incommoded
in the slightest degree. The paper on which he was writing was
taken away and other paper laid before him, but the somnambulist
immediately perceived the change. He wrote pieces of music
while in this state, and in the same manner—with his eyes closed.
The words were placed under the musical notes. It happened
on one occasion that the words were written in too large a character
and did not stand precisely under the corresponding notes. He
soon perceived the error, blotted out the first, and wrote it again
with great exactness.

CLAIRVOVANCE.

The effects produced by artificial somnambulism are precisely
similar, and if they appear to cover more ground, that is probably
due to the fact that facilities for observation are much greater in
artificial somnambulism than they are in natural somnambulism.
You will find many recorded in Dr. Gregory’s book*, “* Animal
Magnetism,” of which a new edition has recently been published.
I do not intend to quote any, but will take one within my own

* Animal Magnetism, or Mesmerism, and its Phenomena. By the late

William Gregory, M.D., F,R.S.E. London: Wm. Harrison, 38 Great
Russell Street.

—

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experience which will serve the purposes of my argument as well
as any other. The state can be induced in various ways: by
passes of the hand over the eyes of the patient ; by his fixing his
eyes upon a leaden disk, with a piece of copper in the middle ; or
even in some cases by the patient taking the hand of another
person, and inducing the state by an act of volition on his own
part. This is the case with Mr. J. C. Fletcher, the somnambule
to whom I paid a visit last summer. I went there without notice
or previous appointment, and on_his passing into a state of trance,
questioned him on various matters relating to myself. I give one
instance only. I asked him to go to where my boys were at
school. I was of course particular not to mention the name of the
school—Eton. ‘The general description he gave of them, the house
and the room they were in, was accurate ; but of course it always
occurs to one that one general description is like another, and for
this reason, as a test, it is better to choose some locality that
possesses some definite feature of a peculiar character. The Upper
School at Eton fulfils this condition. It is entirely without furni-
ture, beyond some fixed desks and benches, and has only one
feature to distinguish it from any other large well-proportioned
room. Accordingly, when he was describing the external appearance
of the buildings there, and among others, one that resembled -the
Upper School, I—carefully abstaining from using the word Upper
School, which might suggest the locality to one who had heard of
the name—asked him to go into the building, and tell me what he
saw there. He described it as a very long room, wainscoted with
oak. I then said, Do you see anything else in it? He replied, I
see a row of busts round the room, and the tops of heads are
covered with dust. This was the feature which I wished to see
whether he would notice or not; the peculiarity of the Upper

_ School at Eton being the row of busts of distinguished men who

have been educated there, placed round the room.

WHAT IS THE EXPLANATION ?

Of course I am well aware that many people deny the existence
of the phenomena of what is sometimes called clairvoyance ; but it

60

is not my purpose to deal with any doubts of the kind—if I had time

I have not the inclination, as only personal experience can convince
persons whether the wonders of artificial somnambulism are true or
not. I must ask those who disbelieve in the whole matter, to bear
with me while I attempt what must appear to them the unprofitable
enquiry—how the mind of Mr. Fletcher received the impression of
the appearance of the interior of the Upper School at Eton. I had
hold of Mr. Fletcher’s hand: could that be the medium of contact
between my brain and his? This solution must be dismissed at
once; it might explain this individual case, but in the great
majority of cases there is no contact between the clairvoyant and
his questioner.

So far as I know, only three theories are put forward in
explanation of similar cases by those who would believe the
external circumstances to be as I state them. The first is the
belief that man possesses a soul, and that this soul in certain
abnormal conditions of the body is freed from the limitations
which that body ordinarily imposes on it. With people holding
this belief, the solution is easy. According to them, the soul of
the clairvoyant—which is himself, while his body is in a state
of insensibility—is able to have cognizance of the place in
obedience to the will of the operator. I shall not dwell upon this,
whatever my own opinion may be, as it begs the question, and, if
admitted, proves more than I require for my argument. The
second is difficult of explanation, if indeed capable of it. It
is as follows—that there is no question of soul or other conscious-
ness than that which is a secretion of the body. That in certain
abnormal conditions the powers of the body become marvellously
extended—how they are extended is not known—and the man
sees without the use of his eyes. What is worth remarking here is,
that there is an admitted independence of the organs of sight.
Another solution would be that Mr. Fletcher was able to describe
the appearance of the Upper School by what is called thought-
reading ;—that he read the thoughts that were passing through my
brain at the time. That the phenomenon of thought-reading exists
I have little doubt, but it is quite distinct from clairvoyance. If

6]

the phenomenon of thought-reading, or sympathy, has any exist-
ence, what does it mean? It means, that under certain conditions
the motive power of the brain may be something distinct from, and
outside, itself: that it obeys a will other than its own. If so, it is
easier to conceive that it is not its own governor, that the power
it ordinarily obeys is not itself, but something other than itself,

- whose behest it obeys.

To return, then. In the second of the three possible explan-
ations I have given of the power possessed by Mr. Fletcher, we
have the effect of sight without the use of the organs of sight; in
the third, the effect of sound without the use of the organs of
hearing. ‘The independence of two such important material organs
makes the conception of a total independence of the material body
less difficult.

It is to be regretted, on the score of Psychology, that mes-
merism fell into disuse some thirty or forty years ago : its use prior
to that was steadily increasing. The physician who used it most
was Dr. Esdaile, in the hospital at Calcutta. Medical science
applied successively ether, chloroform, and laughing-gas as anees-
thetics ; all preferable for that purpose to mesmerism—-quicker and
more effectual. The practical English mind allowed mesmerism to
fall into disuse. An interest is reviving in it among a few who see
its relation to Psychology, and Dr. Gregory’s book has been
re-published without the first three chapters. These were devoted
to proving that mesmerism was not trickery and imposture. No
one now would urge that conclusion, and this should be remembered
when we find so many scientific men denying the possibility of

‘clairvoyance. The phenomena of mesmerism have been subject

to fierce controversy while passing through the phases that appear
to be the invariable fate of new truths. ‘When first asserted,” to
use the words of Serjeant Cox, “they are vehemently disputed, not
by investigation, by experiment, and test, but by @ Jriord arguments
to prove that they cannot be.” But a fact remains still a fact
in defiance of any quantity of argument to prove that it cannot be,
and will assert itself to common sense, however reluctant scientists
may be to admit that there can possibly be any natural law or force

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not known to them. So the phenomena of somnambulism, at first
fiercely disputed, and their assertors denounced as knaves and
dupes, have come to be accepted as substantially true. But then
they were declared not to be new truths, but to have been familiar
to every physiologist and psychologist, under other names, such as
hysteria, or hallucination; and now they have taken their place
among the recognised incidents of a rare condition of the nervous
system. At this point they were, until lately, almost dismissed
from notice. Their relationship to Psychology seems not to have
occurred to the physiologists and physicians—with very rare
exceptions. They had not the curiosity to enquire what was the
meaning of these strange, and, according to the laws of physical
science, utterly inexplicable phenomena. What light, if any, they
throw upon the mysteries of the mind and soul, the scientists have
not paused to enquire. Is it that they fear to ask, lest the answer
should be fatal to their favourite materialism? or is it that their
faith in materialism is so firmly fixed that they deem it a waste of
time even to listen to evidence on the other side? Whatever be
the cause, while the facts and phenomena of somnambulism have
been reluctantly accepted, their value in revealing the mechanism
of man, and the manner of its action, has been grudgingly admitted,
and to this moment has been but partially employed for the
purpose of that knowledge of himself which is the highest and
most important object of human research.

ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE.

By the exercise of what power do animals find their way back
to distant places from which they have been removed? It has
been surmised that man may have once possessed this power, but
that he has lost it in the process of evolution. The suggestion,
whether true or not, throws no light whatever on the matter. No
explanation worthy of the name has ever been attempted ; and we
must confess that in our present state of knowledge, we are unable
to conceive or realize the power they possess. One thing only is
tolerably certain—the knowledge of topography necessary to them

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to find their way, is not conveyed to them through the ordinary
channels of the senses.

Of this power in animals, I know of two remarkable instances
in my own knowledge. During the mastership of Mr. Millom
Hartley, the late Lord Leconfield sent two foxhounds from
Petworth to the Cumberland kennels. They went by rail from
Petworth to London, were led across London, and again by rail
from Euston Square to Dalston station. ‘They remained for a
month at the kennels there, going out with the hounds, when one
day they simultaneously disappeared. Some days after—I do not
remember how long—when the huntsman at Petworth opened the
kennel door in the early morning, the first thing that greeted him
was one of the hounds, who laid his paws on his shoulders. His
companion was never heard of again. It is worthy of remark that
the hound that reached home had more character than the other ;
he was an excellent hound, but was draughted for skirting and
running cunning.

In another case a badger was kept for four years in a loose
box attached to a stable. He made his escape, and two days
after he was dug out of a hole from which he had originally been
taken. This badger must have recrossed a river to regain his home,
which river he had crossed four years before in the bottom of a
sack. He had been placed in a sack on capture, and not enlarged
until he reached the place of his confinement.

Here is another instance, not within my own knowledge, still
lower down in the scale of creation. At Falmouth, the crabs
caught at the Lizard, some twelve miles distant, were taken to
the harbour, branded with the mark of the fisherman, and placed in
a box alive to await sale. The box was staved in, and the crabs
escaped. Three days afterwards many of them were again captured
at the Lizard. To reach this they must have found their way to
the mouth of the harbour, and having arrived there, learned by
some strange perceptive power, in which direction their home lay ;
for it was far out of any possible range of vision, and they had been
carried to their prison in a boat. It is suggested that this is made
possible by the possession of another sense of which we know

64

nothing. It is, however, opposed to general experience that living
organisms of a higher type should possess a particular sense with-
out the association of a material organ. But perhaps it is meant
that this sense is without any material organ ; if so, it only shows
us how little our knowledge of the use of material organs
helps us in accounting for incidents like those I have quoted. In
the case of two of them I vouch for the truth, but they are only
among hundreds equally well authenticated.

LOCALISATION OF THE ORGANS OF THE BRAIN.

Among recent discoveries, one of the most interest to
psychologists is the confirmation by Ferrier and Althaus of Gall’s
theory of the localisation of the cerebral faculties. That he failed
to prove that external bumps on the skull correspond to equivalent
portions of the brain’s surface, is a matter of minor moment. It is
now admitted that when we think on a particular subject, we do
not use the whole of our brain, nor even the half, but a portion of
the half. Further research will probably carry the departmental
theory of the brain further ; and, indeed, we can infer that such is

_the opinion of Dr. Althaus, though we may doubt whether so far as
psychology is concerned, the careful examination of dead matter is,
as he suggests, the only true road to knowledge.*

SPIRITUALISM.

I cannot bring these desultory remarks to a close without a

passing allusion to modern spiritualism, and I had better at once
put myself right with my audience by announcing my belief in the
reality of the phenomena ; an avowal I am not ashamed to make
in company with such men as Mr. William Crookes, Mr. Varley,
Professor Zollner, Mr. Wallace, Lords Lindsay and Rayleigh. If
asked to define and explain the ultimate cause of the phenomena,
which I believe to be genuine, I should be obliged to confess my
inability to do this, a confession which might be much more widely
made in regard to other beliefs, with the same degree of truth. I

* The Functions of the Brain, by Julius Althaus, M.D., &c., &c, London;
Longmans and Co,, Paternoster Row,

2 RE EO

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have my own theories and inclinations towards convictions, but I
should like all who may take an interest in these matters to admit
that we have not yet reached the stage for enunciations of theories
and systems. What people who are interested in the inquiry have
to do is to register, sift, and catalogue facts. With regard to the
phenomena themselves, I accept the thesis which most spiritualists
would accept, namely, “that they have discovered a force unknown
to science, governed by an intelligence outside a human body.”
Let us assume, then, what is a fact, that the truth of the phenomena
is attested, after careful examination, by numbers of intelligent
men. What is there that should prevent us accepting their
testimony? Instances of trickery and fraud, common in this as in
other matters, do not affect those instances where a belief in their
presence would necessitate an amount of credulity far greater than
that which is inveighed against. The triviality of the manifestations
does not shake it. Professor Huxley once said that even supposing
spiritualism was true, he did not care to listen to spirits whose
conversation never rose above the level of the gossip of a provincial
town. A very fair remark, and one in which all frequenters of
spirit circles must often have felt inclined to concur; but after all,
the question still is, are the phenomena genuine? and if this is
attested by the evidence of credible witnesses, what is said or done
at spirit circles is for the present at least of secondary importance.
We are not, I suppose, to assume that we are, in virtue of our inner
consciousness, perfectly acquainted with every possible condition
of spirit life, assuming its existence, and that everything that does not
immediately square with these preconceived ideas is to be dis-
missed at once. We might remember that when a fresh vista of
discovery is opened to our eyes, we at first see but a portion of
the realm of fact it may reveal to us.

Its SIGNIFICANCE.

What, then, is the value of the discoveries of spiritualism,
assuming them to be true? ‘Trivial and perplexing as they are for
the most part in themselves, their value lies in this, that once the
existence of anything in the nature of spirit is admitted, the whole

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fabric of materialism as the only possible basis of our existence
falls to the ground. With it goes much that is deduced from it,
and beliefs that had been supposed to be laid at rest for ever
begin to reassert the possibility of their truth. We are, however,
told by men of science that we are not to believe the evidence of
credible witnesses in certain cases, and, according to Dr. Carpenter,
the standard by which they are to be tried, is the standard of
common sense. Thus, in paragraph 530 of his book on Mental
Physiology,* we are told that

‘Every one who accepts as facts, merely on the evidence of his own senses,
or on the testimony of others who partake of his beliefs, what common sense
tells him to be much more probably the fiction of his own imagination, even

though confirmed by the testimony of hundreds with the same epidemic
delusion, must be regarded as the subject of a diluted insanity.”

This is all very well, but the testimony of intelligent credible men
has the same value in all time. Common sense is a constantly
shifting standard. The common sense as to what is possible of
the reign of Elizabeth, or of ten years ago, is the common nonsense
of the reign of Victoria, and the present year. But Dr. Carpenter
is reasonable compared with Dr. Beard of New York.

2

‘‘Other factors,” writes Dr. Beard, ‘‘being the same, a common-place
man without logic, or imagination, or education, or aspiration, would be less
likely to be conquered by a delusion than a successful lawyer, or judge, or
Scientific discoverer ; for logical, well-trained, truth-loving minds, the only
security against spiritism is in hiding or running away. If they venture a fair
and open attack, and are true to their convictions and necessities of logic, they
must unconditionally surrender. If Sir Isaac Newtown were alive to-day, he
would not unlikely be a convert to spiritism: the amount of human testimony
in favour of spiritualistic claims is a millionfold greater than that in favour of
the theory of gravity. The late Judge Edmonds used to say that he sifted the
evidence of spirit manifestions just as he sifted the evidence in cases of law, and
in accordance with the same principles, and from the standard of the law books
and the Universities, his position was impregnable.” +

I confess this takes my breath away; the only conclusion it seems
to point to is that ignorance and lack of knowledge are safer guides
than their opposites. From Dr. Carpenter and Dr. Beard let us

* Principles of Mental Physiology, by William B. Carpenter, M.D., C.B.,
F.R.S. Kegan, Paul & Co., Paternoster Square, London.

+ Psychology and Spiritism, North American Review, July, 1879.

:
_
|

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pass to a greater name, that of Professor Tyndall. In his well-
known essay, Science and the Spirits, he writes as follows :—
“Belief in spiritualism is a state perfectly compatible with extreme intel-
lectual subtilty, and a capacity for devising hypotheses which only require the
hardihood engendered by strong conviction to render them impregnable. The
logical feebleness of science is not sufficiently borne in mind. It keeps
down the weed of superstition, not by logic, but by slowly rendering the mental
soil unfit for its cultivation,”
This is sound and excellent, but danger lurks in its unqualified
acceptance. Let us all beware of the impediments acquired know-
ledge places in the way of obtaining more. It has been said with
truth that all women and most men generalise a great deal too
much. Any flattering unction the sterner sex may lay to their
souls on the score of this saying is more than dissipated by the
fact that as they for the most part think on more important matters,
so their generalisations are the more mischievous in their conse-
quences. An article by Lord Brougham in the Edinburgh Review,
based on deductions drawn from acquired facts, postponed the
recognition of the true Undulatory Theory of light for sixty years.
To reason without generalising from acquired facts would be like
refusing to use logarithms in a proposition of algebra. But the
confidence we can repose in one process is not the same confidence
we can place in the other. The deductions we may draw from
facts acquired, or supposed to be acquired, should lead us only,
never guide us. The word “impossible” should be sparingly used.
“Highly improbable,” “totally inconsistent with the recognised
views of existing facts,” are more philosophic. Nay, more, we may
be called upon to allow two theories, each supported with evidence
of the same value, and each absolutely irreconcileable with each
other, to lie side by side in our minds till more extended knowledge
establishes one and destroys the other, or shows that after all they
are not irreconcileable. How easy for the amateur, how difficult
for the discoverer and the man of science. His invention, his
discovery, his recognised theory is not only true in itself, but look
at it properly, and it is much more a key and compendium of the
universe. With a slight tendency to look at only the affirmative
side, the conviction grows that it, and the deductions that can be

68

logically drawn from it, explain everything. The next step is as
certain, but not so innocent, in its effects. Everything it cannot
explain is nonsense, and has no existence. ‘Tiresome men make
fresh discoveries ; they are hushed for a time, or for their life, but
others rise in their places. More strange still, facts discover them-
selves, they are said to be the result of trickery or credulity, but,
as Carlyle has said, they still stand there like questions waiting for
an answer, and, what is more, refuse altogether to go away until
they get one. Let us ever keep our minds open to evidence,
remembering that knowledge has a tendency to turn the key of her
treasure-house, lest a portion should be found on closer examination
to be dross; and as the knowledge of yesterday is often the
ignorance of to-day, so the human mind may still be only on the
threshold of discovery.

69

SOU L-CELLS AND CELL-SOULS.
(Translated from the German of Heeckel.)
By THE REv. C. H. PAREZ,
(Read at Carlisle.)

INTRODUCTORY.

A LITTLE more than a year ago, my attention was directed
accidentally to the Essay of Heeckel’s, from which I am to read
some extracts to-night, as containing a theory which he regarded
as offering a ground of mediation between old and new philosophies.
Knowing that Hzeckel was one who carried Darwinism to its
extreme conclusions, and being well aware of his eminence as a
scientific man, I felt my curiosity excited, and procured the Essay.
It contains probably nothing very novel as regards its facts, and
perhaps the theory insisted on is not altogether new,* but the
essay is I think a very interesting one itself, and the theory of the
cell-soul has so far attracted notice as to have become the subject
of some remarks in the Address of the last Meeting of the British
Association, to which I propose briefly to refer presently. I do
not pretend to decide, where doctors disagree, but I propose to lay

- before you the points in dispute.

It may be as well at the outset to explain the use of the term
“soul” in the title of the essay. The theory of the cell-soul is that
each cell of the most highly organised bodies is a separate psyche

or individual; that it not only grows by receiving nourishment,

* It is indicated in a little work by Jean Macé, which has been translated
into English by Mrs. Gatty under the title of A Bit of Bread.

70

propagates itself, and responds to stimulus, but has individual
consciousness. It is in fact much the same theory, advocated
from a scientific platform, as that which was expressed long ago by
our native poet when he attributed conscious pleasure to flowers
and plants :—
Through primrose tufts in that sweet bower
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths ;

And ’tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air :

And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.

iE

The first, most universal, and weightiest fact, which at the
beginning of this psychological enquiry meets the scientific explorer,
is the dependence of all soul-activity on certain material parts of
the animal body, viz.—the organs of soul. In man and in the
higher animals, the soul-instruments of which I speak are the
organs of sense, the nerve system, and the muscular system:
in the lower animals, they are groups of cells, or even single cells,
which have not yet been differentiated into nerves and muscles.
Every manifestation of soul-life, every psychical work, is inseparably
connected with such an organ, and cannot be conceived apart
from one. It must therefore be our first duty to make ourselves
somewhat more nearly acquainted with these organs. The above-
named instruments of our soul-life, viz.—(1) the organs of sense,
(2) the nerve system, and (3) the muscles, form together a single
great apparatus which we designate briefly in one word as the
soul-apparatus. In man, as in all the higher animals, this
armoury of soul activity shews us a wonderfully remarkable
combination of highly constituted organs and textures, the consti-
tution of which is the more delicate, according as the work of
the apparatus—the soul ac¢ivity, is the higher and more elaborate.

71

A journey of discovery in this wonderful labyrinth would be
certainly in the highest degree attractive and instructive; but we
should find it too difficult. Instead of this, it answers our purpose
far better, to cast a glance at the very szmply built soul-apparatus
of a lower animal. We choose for this purpose a simple worm ;
not because man, according to Faust, “‘is like a worm that grubs
through the dust,” or because according to modern phylo-genetic
theories, there is in the genealogical tree of men even a row of
worms among our ancestors, but rather because in the lower worms
there is exhibited a very simple and clear building-up of their soul-
organ, which excellently facilitates the difficult comprehension of
the highly constituted soul-apparatus of the higher animals.

Let me observe such a single worm, e.g., a leaf-shaped plan-
arian or turbellaria, under the microscope. We observe in front,
over the mouth, a tiny white ball, from which fine threads radiate
in all directions to the various parts of the body. That white ball
above the mouth consists of a soft nerve mass, and is the centre of
the whole soul-apparatus, in fact, a dvazz of the simplest kind; and
the fine threads which radiate from the brain to all parts, are
nerves. We distinguish two sorts of such nerve threads. One sort
are instruments of the will, motor or efferent nerves; they go from
the brain to the flesh, the filaments of which, instead of the muscle-
filaments, are excited by them to movement. The other sort are
instruments of sensation, or sensory nerves: they carry the different
impressions of sensation from the outer skin, and from the organs
of sense to the brain, and thus place the latter ex rapport with the
surrounding outside world. The instruments of sense of such a
lower worm are certainly as yet very simple, but it is just on this
very account that they are so interesting. In many worms it is
simply and alone the outer skin which supplies the place of a
general sense instrument, and communicates sensations of various
kinds, especially variations of pressure and of temperature. In
others there are added, eyes of a very simple kind, dark spots
in the skin, which surround a refracting lens; also organs of
hearing of a very simple form, viz., a pair of little dimples or
bladders in the skin, which are thickly set with fine little hairs ;

72

hairlets of hearing, which are subject to excitations of a very definite
character from waves of sound.

That even these instruments of the higher sensory perceptions
in the lower worms—eyes and ears—are nothing else but specially
developed parts of the outer skin-covering, is a fact of the greatest
significance. For it is a fact also that the much more highly
developed and elaborate eyes and ears of the higher animals,
have arisen originally in the outermost skin-layer of the body,
and do not contradict the highly important, and only recently
firmly established law of the origin of all sensation from the skin.
In respect of their origin, all the different instruments of sense in
animals are only specialised parts of their sensory outer-skin.

Furthermore, the instruments of motion, the servants of the
will—the muscles, stand, in respect of their origin, in the closest
connexion with the outer skin.

In our lower worms, the whole muscle-system is represented
by nothing more than a mere thin layer of flesh, which spreads out
everywhere under the covering of skin. Usually this so-called
‘‘skin-muscle-membrane” of worms separates into two different
layers—an outer layer of round filaments, and an inner one of long
filaments, but not yet separated into groups or bundles of muscles,
as in the higher animals.

But especial prominence must be given to the important fact
that the whole body of werves, alike the centripetal sensory filaments

that go from the brain to the skin and sense organs, and the ©

centrifugal motor filaments that go from the brain to the muscles,
stand in immediate connexion with these outer-lying parts. Thus
when, agreeably to nature, we conceive the whole soul-apparatus
as one whole, the perceptive sensory organs are nothing else but
special expansions of the ends of the sensory nerves; and the
muscle filaments subservient to the will, are nothing else but special
terminal organs of the motor nerves. Between those first and
these last is intercalated the brain, as a common centre and direct
bridge of connexion.

If a clear perception is wanted of the working of such a soul-
apparatus—of the nature of the soul-life, the best help for such a

eS a

eee

»

Oe Oe EE ——

73

purpose is found in the oft-repeated comparison with the system
of the electric telegraph. This well-known comparison is justified
not only by the whole arrangement of the soul-apparatus, but
especially by the fact, that in the action of this apparatus, actual
electric currents do play the greatest part. The comparison
however does not attain its full significance until by the aid of a
strong magnifying power we have recognised the finest components
which constitute that apparatus. The microscopic elementary
forms or building stones of the soul-apparatus, are none other
than those of which the remaining organs of the animal body
consist, the so-called ‘‘cells.” Here, therefore, as everywhere in
natural history, we have the cell theory established forty years
ago by Schleiden and Schwann, which serves as a master key to
open to us the first gate of deeper knowledge. Various then as
appear the countless forms of small cells in the various textures of
the bodies of plants and animals, nevertheless all agree in this
important particular—that each single cell possesses a definite
degree of individual independent existence of its own, has its own
form, and leads its own life. As Briicke says, well hitting the
point—each microscopic cell is an elementary organism, or an
individual of the first rank. Yes, as we shall presently see, we
may even attribute to each cell an independent psyche, a ce//-soul.

Countless as the stars in the heavens are the endless myriads
of cells which constitute the giant body of a whale or an elephant,
an oak or a palm. And yet the gigantic body of these largest
organisms, as much as that of the invisible dwarf body of the
smallest, consists in the beginning of its existence only of a single
little egg-cell, to the naked eye invisible. Once, however, this cell
begins to develop, and there arises from it through manifold
division, in the shortest space of time, an enormous mass of similar
cells. These are distributed in leaf-like layers, the so-called germ-
leaves. At first all cells are alike ; each single cell is of the very
simplest form and constitution: a round, soft little ball, like white
of egg, or lump of protoplasm inclosing a more substantial kernel.
Soon, however, arise dissimilarities or differentiations: the cells
begin in the work of life to split up, and to assume various forms and

74

qualities. The stomach cells undertake digestion, the blood cells
exchange of matter, the lung cells respiration, the liver cells the
formation of bile. On the other hand, the muscle cells devote
themselves exclusively to motion, the sensory cells to various
‘perceptions ; the touch cells of the skin learn to comprehend vari-
ations of pressure and of warmth; the hearing cells to distinguish
waves of sound, the seeing cells those of light; but the most
difficult and brilliant course is run by the nerve cells ; and among
these again are the ingenious brain cells which in the bold race
carry off the highest prize, and as sozd/-ce//s elevate themselves far
above all the other kinds.

This most significant division of labour of the cells—or, as the
anatomist says, building up of tissues—is completed in the indi-
vidual development of every animal and of every plant under our
eyes within a few days. The development, however, which we see
here going on so astonishingly fast under the microscope, is only a
short repetition, brought about through hereditary transmission, of
a long and slow historical process—a historical precedent which
required many millions of years, and in which the division of
labour of the cells (in the strictest sense of the word) was caused
by accommodation to the various life-activities of the cells in the
battle for existence. The cells behave therein even just as the
well educated citizens of a well regulated civilised state. In reality,
our own bodies, as those of all the higher animals, are such civilised
cell-states. The so-called tissues of the body, those of the muscles,
of the nerves, of the glands, of the bones, of the ligaments, answer
to the various ranks or guilds of a state, or yet more accurately to
the hereditary cas/es, as we meet with them in ancient Egypt, and
still at the present day in India. The tissues are hereditary cell-
castes in the civilised state—the many-celled organism. The
organs also, which again are constituted of various tissues, are to be
compared to the various offices and institutions in the state. At
the top of all stands the mighty central government—the nerve-
centre—the brain. The more elaborately developed the higher
animal, the more strongly centralised the cell-monarchy, so much
the more powerful is the ruling brain, and so much the more nobly

Oe

EE ————— ee

75

constituted is the telegraphic apparatus of the nerve system which
places the brain in connexion with its most important subordinates
in government, the muscles and sense organs.

In comparison with this, the arrangement of the soul-apparatus
in our previously-observed worm is very simple, but it is not
different in kind. If we irritate the worm in any way, if we stimu-
late its tender skin with the point of a needle or with a bit of
ice, it is at once made aware of the corresponding change of pressure
or of temperature by the sensory skin-cells, which, as sentinels, keep
watch everywhere over the outer surface of the skin; they at once
telegraph their perception through the skin-nerves to the brain.
In the same way, the waves of sound which meet the auditory
bladder, are perceived by the auditory-cells of the latter as noises
or sounds, and are telegraphically announced by the auditory-
nerves to the brain. Not less do the seeing-cells of the eye, when
struck by a beam of light, send at once a light or a colour telegram
to the brain. Here sits the high government of the cell-constituted
state, consisting of a few large star-shaped cells, whose ramifications
are in immediate connexion on one side with the sensation-bearing
afferent nerves, and on the other with movement-exciting muscle
nerves. As soon as telegraphic information of any variation in
the surrounding outer world reaches the central government
from the sensory nerves, this information is passed on from
one to another by the excited brain-cells (or ganglion-cells) as
sensation, and the high council now determines what is to be done.
The result of this determination is telegraphed as will by means
of the muscle nerves to the muscles which forthwith carry out
the command by contraction of their filament-cells, by movement.

Without doubt therefore, the most important 7é/e in soul-life
is played by the intricate, and reticularly connected nerve cells of
the brain, the ganglion-cells, or sow/-cel/s; for in reality they form
the central government of the whole many-celled animal body.
They take up all the views of the outer world which are sent by the
sense-cells by means of the centripetal telegraph wires of the
sensory-nerves to the brain. They impart at the same time also all
the commands of the will, which go out by the centrifugal conduct

76

of the motor nerves to the muscles. Moreover, these most
remarkable soul-cells of the brain perform further that most of
all remarkable and mysterious work which we in one word designate
as zmagination (vorstellung). These it is that in the higher animals,
as in man, bring about the most elaborate of all soul-activities,
those of thought and comprehension, of reason and consciousness.

Whilst we here touch upon the highest limits and the noblest
function of the soul-life—reason and consciousness, we desire how-
ever to add the remark, that we are certainly as yet entirely in
ignorance of the real nature of this mysterious work of the cells,
but nevertheless we are in a position, by the aid of comparative
psychology and the zstory of development, to throw considerable
light upon it. For, first of all, we see by the comparative study of
souls in animals, a long gradation of development, on which all
conceivable degrees of reason and consciousness are represented,
from the quite irrational to the most rational animal—from sponges
and polypes, to dogs and elephants. Secondly, we see in every
child, as in every higher animal, that reason and consciousness are
not yet present at birth, but are slowly and gradually developed.
Thirdly, and lastly, we even accept it as true that no sharp line of
demarcation exists between conscious and unconscious soul-activity
any more than between intelligent and unintelligent thought (?),
that rather these contrasts often touch one another without any
fixed limits and pass one into the other.

This dark question of consciousness, as is well known, plays quite
a chief part in the psychological battles of the day. The famous
physiologist, Du Bois-Reymond, in his “ignorabimus” discourse at
the Leipsic Scientific Meeting has declared consciousness to be an
entirely insoluble problem—a limit of scientific knowledge which
the human mind will never overstep, even by the most extensive
development, Many others regard consciousness as an exclusive
prerogative of man, which is entirely wanting to all the animals.
This last view will certainly be shared by no one who has attentively
and carefully observed the conscious and reflective actions of dogs
and horses, of bees and ants, and other intelligent animals. But
even the former view is untenable; for careful self-observation

teaches us how, in a thousand ways, conscious and unconscious
actions pass over continually one into the other. Countless
performances of daily life, as e.g., the use of drinking vessels, of
knife and fork, reading and writing, the playing of musical instru-
ments, &c., depend on a complicated working of nerves and muscles,
which originally must have been slowly learnt with careful reflection
and evident consciousness, but gradually by exercise and habit
has become quite unconscious. Every morning when we wash
and dress, get up and go out, we perform hundreds of complicated
moyements quite unconsciously, which originally must have been
painfully and gradually learnt, with consciousness. Conversely, the
most various unconscious actions return at once to clear conscious-
ness, whenever from any cause our attention is directed thereto
and self-observation is aroused. No sooner do we make a false
step in going up or down stairs or strike a false note on the piano,
than we are at once made conscious of the unconscious act.
Besides this, we can also without doubt follow up, step by step,
the gradual progress of the development of consciousness in every
child. On the score of such matters of fact, we can no longer
doubt that consciousness depends on a complicated working
of the soul-cells, first arising gradually through adaptation to
surrounding circumstances, and thus by inherited adaptations
being slowly developed more extensively. We learn the same
from the comparative development-history of soul-life in the
animal kingdom. The complicated molecular movements in
the protoplasm of soul-cells, whose highest result is reason and
thought, understanding and consciousness, have first been acquired
in the course of many millions of years by a process of natural
education. For even the brain, the organ of those functions, in
the course of this long space of time, has been quite slowly and
gradually developed from the simplest to the most elaborated form.
Here, as everywhere, the development of the organ goes hand in
hand with that of its function: the instrument perfects its elabor-
ation with its work.*

* It will be observed that in these and the preceding remarks of Hxckel’s,
nothing whatever is really shewn as to the origization of consciousness, and

78

For the establishment of this view, so weighty in its conse-
quences, the comparative observation of the nerve systems of
different classes of animals is of the greatest importance. The
simply constructed brain of the worm, with the few nerve-threads
streaming out from it, has become the starting point of a number
of variously constructed and very complicated arrangements in the
nerve-system of the higher animals. This last bears the same
relation to the former that the great telegraphic system of the present
German kingdom, with its hundreds of stations and thousands of
offices, bears to the first simple model of an electric telegraph, by
means of which, forty years ago, the inventor of the same introduced
into the world one of the most important means of exchange of
thoughts. The more highly developed the faculties of perception,
will, and thought are in an animal, so much the more developed
and centralised is the constitution of the soul-apparatus which
performs the physical work, so much the more does controlling
power rest in the nerve-centre, on which the guidance of the whole,
as a unit, depends.

It is therefore customary to call the centre of the nerve-system
(the brain, as we may say speaking broadly), the “seat of the soul.”
In reality however this customary expression is inexact, and we
can only accord to tt a metaphorical meaning in the same sense
as we call a clever house-wife the ‘‘soul of the house,” or an all-
powerful minister the “‘soul of the state.” As little, in fact, as we arc
willing to deny their individual souls to the other persons connected
with the central power in a state, just so little dare we disown the
last in the millions of cells in the soul apparatus of those higher
animals whose brain we style the “seat of the soul. When in the
Franco-German war of 1871, Paris, which is in fact the soul of the
centralized kingdom of France, and according to Victor Hugo
the soul also of the world, was entirely surrounded by our victorious
armies, when telegraphic communications with the rest of France
was entirely cut off, then nevertheless incessantly in its severed
limbs the many complicated telegraph-network kept on working,

though the course of the development is indicated, it may be disputed whether
the cause is adequately accounted for,

ee

—— es

79

and Gambetta’s imperturbable soul incessantly organised new
armies for the deliverence of the besieged capital. So also are we
taught by philosophical experiment on beheaded frogs and insects,
that, in spite of the severance of the brain, the soul-life in the
remaining parts of the body can still subsist for some long time.
Only the unity of the central guidance of the whole is overthrown;
only the highest soul-actions—understanding and consciousness—
are thereby wholly or in part abolished; other actions still continue.
If we place a drop of corrosive acid on the skin of the beheaded
frog, at once it wipes it quickly off, as if it still possessed a head ;
or if we hold a beheaded beetle fast by one leg, at once it endeav-
ours with the other five to make its escape, as hastily and readily
as if it had not lost its brain. Sense-activity and perception, will
and muscle-movement, thus continue for some long time after the
brain has been removed. All that has been lost with the latter is
the unity of consciousness—the central government. We must
therefore distinguish carefully between this conscious central-soul
of the many-celled animal, and the individual soul of its countless
cells ; the latter are in truth subordinates to the former, but remain
ever to a certain extent independent.

The organ of the central-soul is the whole of the sou/-cells
collectively, the ganglion-cells of the brain; the organ of each
individual cell-soul, on the other hand, is the body of the cell
itself—protoplasm and cell-kernel, or some part thereof.

LH;

For comparing the lower and higher steps of development of
the soul-life there is perhaps, after the mammals, no class of animals
of such importance as that of zwsects. For albeit all the countless
different sorts of insects exhibit only an endless variation of a single
original theme ; albeit the modern theory of development accord-
ingly derives all butterflies and beetles, all flies and bees, all hymen-
optera, neuroptera, &c., from a single common root-form ; never-
theless, the diversities in the development of their soul-activities
is quite extraordinarily great. The well-known contrasts between
the stupid goose and the sagacious falcon (hawk?), between the

80

stolid rhinoceros and the clever elephant, appear of no importance in
comparison with the tremendous differences which the soul-activities
of the various insects present tous. On one side many of the
inferior insects, e.g. plant-lice, cochineal-insects, bugs, and especially
parasitical insects of various kinds, stand on a very low step of the
ladder of cultivation, not rising above that of most of the worms:
eating and drinking being their only need. On the other side, the
higher sorts, and above all the social insects—the bees and wasps,
the ants and termites, that form themselves into regular states or
societies—rise to a height in the mind-activity which admits only of
comparison with the state-forming peoples of civilisation. The
wonderful division of labour, especially among ants, leads to the
separation of their states into various parts, the subjects of which
are distinguished by special tokens and peculiarities. There have
we to distinguish not only males and females, but also soldiers and
workers, farmers and labourers, rulers and slaves. Their agricul-
tural and gardening activity is not contented with carefully collecting
provisions and the preservation of nutriment, but rises even to actual
culture of vegetables, and to the careful breeding of their milch-kine,
the aphides or plant-lice, whose sweet honey-sap they suck. Not
less worthy of wonder is the architectural talent of ants and termites
which appears in the planning of their magnificent palaces, with
thousands of halls and chambers, corridors and staircases, doors
and windows. Nor in these arts of peace do they forget the duty of
the rough art of war, and the military talent with which contending
armies of ants at this very day seek to circumvent or to surround
one another, shows very significantly that they too are children of
the nineteenth century. In one sort of ants in S. America indeed,
there has even been developed from the excessive use of weapons,
an exclusive military espvit, which has led_to the entire giving up
of the early peaceful occupations, and to the robber-life of hordes
of Circassians. Lastly, let us not forget that even the institution
of slavery, which belongs to human civilisation, has been practised
already longer by the ants than by our own highly constituted and
feudally organised race. There are ant-states which carry on a
regular rearing of slaves, which rob other sorts of their young and

=

9
7
-

oe

81

thence draw for themselves genuine slaves; nay afterwards, even
these slaves, denying all the ties of nature, prefer even the advantage
of their cruel lords to that of their own race, and are the very first
in their robber-raids to help to carry off new flocks of slaves.
Although these highly interesting facts of the intellectual life of the
ants were discovered more than a hundred years ago by Huber
and other entomologists, they were nevertheless held for a long
time to be mere fabulous products of fancy, and the numerous
investigations of modern time, whilst adding further new dis-
coveries, have first fully established them.

In truth, the intellectual contrasts between the clever ants and
their stupid milch-kine, the aphides, are greater than the tremendous
difference between the god-like genius of a Goethe or a Shakspeare
and the poor animal-soul of a Hottentot ora Bushman. And yet
in the one case, as in the other, there exists between the extreme
ends a long row of intermediate degrees. All have still a common
original source. As most men consider our race to be derived
from a common father of all men, so-almost all zoologists are
agreed that all those various groups of insects are derived from a
common insect-stem. Consequently, the most widely differing
soul-activities of these must have been gradually developed by
means of adaptation to the differing life-circumstances, and then,
by continued inheritances, have become turned into the so-called
instincts,

No idea has called forth so many errors and misunderstandings
in comparative physiology, as what is called zvstinct. Thus while
the older natural history made all individual kinds of animals
with their special peculiarities to come into existence by a super-
natural act of creation, it was obliged at the same time to assume
that the specific soul-activity also of such a class had been
created, and thus by this necessity every step in life of the
animal was definitely determined from beforehand. The whole
of the impulses which accordingly were necessarily bound to deter-
mine without possibility of variation the modes of action of the
kinds of animals, and among which the most note-worthy are the

so called art-impulses of the nest-building birds, bees, &c., were
6

82

regarded as having been. originally a created instinct. This gener-
ally received view is become altogether untenable, since we know
through Darwin that neither are the individual kinds of animals, as
such, created, nor are their special instincts unalterable. We now
know that all kinds of one class of animals spring originally from
one common kind of stock, and that, like their other peculi-
arities, their instincts also are subject to alteration and trans-
formation through the powerful influence of the training of nature.
As animals are placed under new and unaccustomed life-circum-
stances, they adapt themselves to these, find new thoughts, make
new inventions, acquire new instincts. Necessity is the mother of
invention, and practice makes perfect. The hard battle for
existence makes in fact everywhere and at all times such stringent
demands on the impulse of self-preservation of animals, that they
are just as much compelled to learn and work, as men are. It is
not true, even though now-a-days it is often asserted to be the case,
that beavers build their water-palaces, swallows their nests, bees
their honeycombs always and everywhere after the same manner
to-day as they did two thousand or eight thousand years ago.
On the contrary, we know from the most reliable observation that
even these most highly developed art-impulses are subject to vari-
ations of really great importance, and adapt themselves to the
advantageous circumstances of any individual locality. The last
of the Mohicans of the beavers which survive even to-day here and
there in Germany have adapted themselves to the police-regulations —
of civilised life and no longer build those grand water-palaces as
their forefathers did two thousand years ago. Whilst here in
Europe the cuckoo lays her eggs in strange nests, in America she
has not adopted that bad habit. Every experienced bee-master
knows how the special customs of bees vary in manifold ways in
different hives. It is universally known that nightingales, finches
and other singing birds learn new melodies, appropriate by
imitation new tunes, consequently change their musical instinct.
And do we not observe quite palpably in our house-dogs, terriers,
colleys, &c., how new and diverse instincts have been acquired by
training, practice and habit ?

83

Observation carried on impartially and without prejudgment,
by comparison and inquiry, thus makes it indubitable that the
so-called ‘‘instinct” of animals is nothing else than the sum total
of the soul-activities which were originally acquired through adapt-
ation, and have become fixed by habit and passed on by inheritance
from generation to generation. Executed originally w7t# conscious-
ness and consideration, many of the instinctive actions of animals
have become wzconscious in the course of time, just as in the same
way happens also in the habitual intellectual actions of man.
Consequently, neither is instinct an exclusive brain-property of the
animal, nor intelligence a special prerogative of man. On the
contrary, there is perceived by the impartial study of comparative
psychology, a long, long ladder of steps of gradual progress and
development of forms of soul-life, leading down step by step from
the higher to the lower men, from the highly complicated to the
simple animals, even down to yonder simple worm, whose simple
nerve-knots furnish the starting point for all the countless brain
forms of this ladder.

As in reality no break exists anywhere in this ladder, and as
the simple soul-apparatus of our worm already contains all the
elementary forms—nerves, sense organs, and muscles—of which in
the most highly complicated manner the wonderful soul-apparatus
of man is constructed ; so it is now universally agreed by all in-
quirers in natural science, that in all these animals which are
furnished with a merve-system, there exists a soul-life, in fact, a
psyche.

III.

But now how stands the case with those lower animals which
are without a nerve-system, even of the simplest kind, e.g., corals,
polyps, sponges, &c.? Have we in the want of a nerve-system
what constitutes the lower limit of soul-life? Or is there here a
soul without nerves? Scientific men of note, e.g., Virchow and
Du Bois-Reymond reply in the negative to our last question, and
maintain that there can be no idea of the existence of real soul-life

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in these nerveless animals.* We are of the contrary opinion, and
rest our conclusion on the consent of all zoologists who have
devoted themselves long and perseveringly to the exact observ-
ation of such nerveless animals. Nay, we are even convinced
that these very nerveless, but nevertheless soul-possessing animals,
are of the highest interest to comparative psychology, and first
make known to us the true key for the comprehension of soul-
development.

The most instructive, best known and most accurately
observed in this noteworthy group of lower animals, is the common
fresh-water polyp, the Hydra. Truly this little tender, tiny creature
is spread everywhere in our ponds and ditches, and is always
to be found in abundance; yet only a few anticipate what a world
of important disclosures, on the most important secrets of Nature,
this despised little creature affords us. Its simple body has the
form of an oval cup, which is sometimes coloured grey or green,
sometimes brown or red. The hollow of the cup is the stomach
of the hydra; the opening is its mouth. Round about the mouth
stands a circle of from four to eight fine threads, which serve alike
as feelers for touching, and as holders for seizing their food.
Eyes and ears, muscles and nerves, we seek in vain in our hydra,
and yet we are convinced that it has plenty of perception and
motion. If we touch the slender, long outstretched body but
gently with the point of a needle, in a moment it draws itself up
together into a little round ball. If we place a tumbler with
hydras in it at the window, in a few hours we shall have all the
polyps collected together on the light side of the glass. They
therefore have perception of light, though they have no eyes, and
move crawling into the light, though they are without muscles.
Sensation and voluntary motion, the most important tokens of
of animal soul-life, are therefore undoubtedly present, and never-
theless these animals are devoid of the proper organs of soul—

* Heeckel’s case seems here to be materially strengthened by the recent
discovery (which Professor F. M. Balfour holds to be demonstrated, véde Address
at British Association, Section D, given in Nature for Sept. 2, 1880), that the
nerves have been developed from processes of epithelial ce//s.— C. H. P,

85

muscles and nerves. How is this riddle to be explained? Have
we here a function without an organ, a soul without soul-apparatus?

The decisive answer to this question is given us by the micro-
scope. The cup-shaped body of the hydra consists really of two
cups of equal size fastened into one another, whose walls closely
touch each other on all sides. If we now observe thé thin fine
section of double-wall of the hollow hydra body with a strong
magnifying power, we see that the two cups consist each of a
peculiar layer of cells. These two cell-layers have quite different
properties and functions. The cells of the inner layer are exclu-
sively concerned with the vegetative work of nourishment—
digestion and assimilation. Those of the outer layer, on the
contrary, negotiate the animal functions of sensation and motion.
Now, if we pull to pieces this outer layer of skin with a needle,
we shall observe in many of the separated skin-cells a long stringy
process. More exact investigation shows that this thin stringy
part of the cell runs circularly between the two layers round the.
cup-shaped body, and causes the contraction of the latter, just like
a muscle ; while the outer, roundish, nucleated part of the same
cell has the power of sensation. We stand thus in face of the remark-
able and highly important fact that a single cell, alone by itself,
fulfils the most important duties of the soul: the outer, roundish
part of the cell having sensation; the inner, thread-shaped part
having will, voluntary motion. The outside half of the cell is
nerve, the inner muscle; rightly therefore did Kleinenberg, the
discoverer of these soul-cells of the hydra, call them “nerve-
muscle-cells.” The whole soul-apparatus of our polyp consists in
fact of nothing more than a simple layer of nerve-muscle cells,
and each individual of these cells performs in simplest guise just
what in vastly more elevated form the complicated soul-apparatus
of the higher animals can do with its different nerve-muscles and

_mind-cells. Naturally, however, here there is wanting entirely a

central apparatus—a brain ; and instead thereof “the seat of the
soul” is in our little polyp the wo/e outer skin. We need there-
fore no longer wonder at the astonishing divisibility of the hydra,
first made known in the year 1744 by Trembley’s experiments.

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If we at the present time cut up a fresh-water polyp into fifty little .

bits, there will be developed therefrom in a few weeks just so many
complete polyps. Every little bit of the cup-shaped body at once
grows up again into an entire polyp. The cell-souls of all the
individual nerve-muscle-cells are completely alike.

The nerve-muscle-cells of the hydra are therefore, as the
Berlin housewife says, “maids of all work.” Each individual
performs in the economy of this little polyp all the various duties
which in the higher animals are distributed among muscle, nerve
and sense-cells of different kinds. All these last widely differing
sorts of cells consequently, have arisen by means of division of
Jabour from simple nerve-muscle-cells.

The next result of this division of labour is shewn us by the
umbrella-shaped sea-bells, or Medusz, which are in fact nearly
related to the hydra polyps, but are considerably more highly
developed. Whoever has spent a few weeks at the sea-side has
doubtless at times seen shoals of these beautiful bell-shaped jelly-
soft creatures swimming about; and if anyone in bathing has
come into disagreeable contact with them, he will remember the
unpleasant burning sensation which was thereby excited, like
touching a stinging-nettle. The larger class to which the medusz
belong, are therefore called ‘“Sea-nettles.” If now with the aid
of a large glass vessel we cautiously capture such a medusa,
and if we accurately examine its bodily structure, we discover at

once specialised soul-organs. On the edge of its umbrella-shaped -

body real eyes of simplest kind and hearing bladders are keeping
watch ; and attentive nerves communicate intercourse between the
sensory-cells and the muscle-cells which work the powerful swimming
motions of the medusa. Only here muscles and nerves stand in
most intimate connexion with their original seat, the outer skin ;
and a veritable brain, as a unifying central organ of the whole soul-
apparatus, is still wanting to the medusze. Compared with the
simple, diminutive, stationary hydra polyp, the great beautiful
lively medusa seems to us undoubtedly a far higher and more
consummate animal. And yet these two forms of animals, which
were formerly placed in quite different classes, stand in the closest

87

constitutional relation ; for in historic times has the medusa-form
developed out of the hydra-form. Yes, even at the present day,
the majority of medusze arise directly from polyps. From the
stomach-wall of the little hydra-like sea-polyp proceeds a bud
which gradually shapes itself into a medusa, and later on falls off
like the ripe fruit of a tree, and swims about free. From the eggs
however of this medusa there do not again arise other meduse,
but polyps—germs which becoming stationary grow into hydra-like
cups.

Yet further in another relation is the remarkable class of
hydra-medusz of the highest interest for our comparative soul-
study. For out of it have developed the wonderful Siphonophora ;
those swimming animal-steps which for the study of the avision of
labour are so extraordinarily important. The siphonophora are
found swimming on the smooth mirror of the warmer seas, though
only at certain times and not abundantly. They belong to the
most splendid forms of the inexhaustible riches of Nature, and
whoever has once had the good fortune attentively to observe living
siphonophora, will never forget the noble sight of their wonderful
forms and movements. They may be best compared to swim-
ming flower-stems, whose variegated leaves flowers and fruits
are delicately formed, tenderly coloured, and shaped like polished
crystal. Each single flower-like, or fruit-shaped appendage of the
swimming stem is really a medusa-individual. The various medusz
of the society have assumed however, through division of labour,
totally different forms. One part of these medusz has to do only
with the movement of swimming, another with the reception of
nourishment and digestion, a third with sensory perception, a
fourth with defence and attack, a fifth with egg-making, &c. The
various life tasks which a single ordinary medusa fulfils for itself
are therefore here divided among the different persons of the
society, and these have all transformed their bodies correspondently
to their special life-task.

In like manner as in the ant-republic, so here also in that ot
siphonophora, many variously-formed animals of one sort are
united into a higher social community. But whilst in the higher-

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standing ant-republic, the ideal bond of union of social interests,
and of feeling of public duty, holds together the body of citizens
remaining free; in this state, on the other hand, the individual
members of the community are forcibly held together in immediate
corporate connexion, as slaves under the yoke of the state. It is
true that here also each individual possesses his individual psyche ;
if separated from the stem, can move about of his own pleasure,
and have separate sensation. But, nevertheless, the whole trunk
possesses an individual central-will, on which the separate indi-
viduals depend, and a sensation of the community, which is shared
by each individual with all the others. Each of these medusa-
individuals of the siphonophor-stock can therefore say of himself,
with Faust: “Ah! two souls live in my breast!” The egoistic
soul of the separate individual lives in compromise with the social
soul of the whole stock, i.e., the state.

Woe to those medusze of the siphonophor-state which in a
blind egoism loosen themselves from their community, and wish
to lead a free life on their own account. Unable to perform all
the separate duties which are necessary to their self-support, and
which have been done for them by their fellow-citizens, if separated
from the latter, they go quickly to the bottom. For one of the
medusz can only swim, another can only feel, a third only eat,-a
fourth only catch prey and keep off enemies, &c. Only the
harmonious joint working and the mutual offices of all the fellow-
members of this swimming company, only the common mind, the
central soul, which binds all in true love with one another, can
confer on the existence of the individuals, as well as on the great
whole, a continuing duration. So also in human civilised com-
munities, a continuing existence is only rendered possible by the
true fulfilment of civil and social duties on the part of the several
citizens. *

* Tn our ignorance of the real nature of the psyche, we must ‘‘ beware of

hasty generalisations” in drawing analogies between animal bodies and human
or ant communities.—C. H. P.

89

TV.

The ce//-scud is therefore a perfectly general manifestation of
organised life ; the sowd-cell, on the contrary, a special one. No
doubt our conception of the cell-soul is by no means yet universally
recognised, and is energetically contested even at present by
eminent authorities, e.g., Von Virchow. But on the firm ground
of the development theory of modern times, due to the reformation
introduced by Darwin, we must maintain that our “theory of the
cell-soul” is as much a necessary as it is an important consequence
of the unitary or monistic conception of Nature. We must there
fore accordingly be allowed to cast a hasty glance at those lowest
groups of beings, which most especially seem to us to bear witness
to the truth of this pregnant theory.

Deep down on the lowest step of organised life, midway in
between the limits of the animal and plant kindoms, and most
closely uniting both great kingdoms, lives and works that wonderful
world of microscopic organisms, invisible to the naked eye, which
are generally designated as primeval infusoria, or protozoa. The
great majority of these protozoa remain their whole life in the
form of a simple single cell, and nevertheless this cell confessedly
possesses alike sensation and voluntary motion. In the lively
“eye-lash” or ciliated animalcules—the infusoria—these soul-
activities are exhibited in so surprising a degree, that the famous
investigator of infusoria, Ehrenberg, unhesitatingly and with the
greatest certainty maintains that even here there must be present
nerves and muscle, brain and mind organs. And yet as a matter
of fact, not a trace of any such things appears. The sole and only
material supporter of the soul-life here is the protoplasm of the
cell-body, the substance containing within it the cell-nucleus,
forming a soul-apparatus of the simplest kind. And if we but
once become convinced that already among these single-celled
infusoria there are very different characters and temperaments—
clever and stupid, strong and weak, lively and dull, light-loving
and light-avoiding individuals—we find that we can account for

90

the countless ramifications of soul-life in these little creatures only
through the acceptance of delicate differences of composition in
their protoplasmic substance.

Soul-activity in the broader sense is thus a universal property
of all organised cells. But if that be the case, then we cannot
entirely deny a soul-life even to A/ants. For even the lowest plants
are simple cells; and in all the higher plants, as in the higher
animals, the body consists of countless single cells. Only in the
latter, the division of labour among the cells and the centralisation
of the state have advanced much farther than in the former. The
form of government in the animal body is the cell-monarchy; in
the plant body, the cell-repudblic. As all the single cells in the
plant body remain much more independent than in the animal
body, the oneness of the soul meets us far less prominently in the
former than in the latter. Only a few specially important plants,
as the delicate sensitive plants, the fly-catching dionzea, form
exceptions to this rule. In consequence of this, the soul-life of
plants has been much less investigated than that of animals, and
only a few naturalists have turned their attention to it. Among
these should be named the acute founder of Psycho-physik,
Professor Fechner of Leipsic, who has discussed the question of
plant-soul in a series of ingenious writings, In other ways, the
necessity of the acceptance of a plant-soul has also already been
sufficiently established, so that we are not in a position to draw a
sharp line between the animal and plant kingdoms. The one-
celled infusoria or protozoa form the bridge which unites both
great kingdoms of organic life into.one great whole. Only the
ramifications of soul-activities are extraordinarily various, and in
both kingdoms very different.

No reproach has been more abundantly thrown out against
the natural science of the day, and in particular against its most
hopeful off-shoot—the development theory—than that it degrades
living nature to a soulless mechanism, banishes everthing ideal
from the world of reality, and destroys all poetry. We believe
that our unprejudiced comparative and genealogical observation of
soul-life invalidates this erroneous reproach. For according to our

cet a eet et eee ee ati nee pee

—————— eee ee, SSmCl ee ee LSS

a

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unitary or monistic conception of Nature, exactly the contrary is
the case—all living matter has soul.* Far from believing in a raw
and soulless matter, as our adversaries represent, we on the
contrary are obliged to accept in all living matter, in all proto-
plasm, the first elements of all soul-life: the simple form of
sensations of the agreeable and disagreeable, the simple form of
movements of attraction and repulsion. The steps, however, of
the formation and constitution of this soul are different in the
different living creatures, and carry us on gradually from the quiet
cell-soul through a long series of ascending and intermediate steps,
right up to the conscious and intelligent soul of man.

Still less can we concede that the poetic and _ ideal
conception of the world is endangered through our monistic
development doctrine. No doubt we nowadays miss the
nymphs and naiads, the dryads and oreads, with which the
old Greek fountains and streams were alive, the woods and hills
peopled. They have long ago vanished with the gods of Olympus,
but in place of these man-like demigods, stand the countless
elementary spirits of the ce//s. And if ever there were a conception
in the highest degree poetical and at the same time true, it is cer-
tainly the brilliant discovery—that in the smallest of little worms,
and in the most invisible flowers, there live thousands of indepen-
dent delicate souls; that in each of the single-celled microscopic
infusoria an individual soul is active, just as much as in the blood
cells which restlessly circle in our blood, in the brain cells which
are elevated to the highest of all soul-offices—that of clear consci-
ousness. From this point of view we see in the doctrine of the
cell-soul the most important advance to the reconciliation of the
idealist and the realist conceptions of Nature—the old and the new
modes of regarding the universe.

Thus ends the Essay; and now with your permission I
should like to make a few brief remarks on it.

* There may however be different £zds of psyche.—C. H. P.

92

Like most Germans, Heckel thinks that his interpretation of
facts is so palpably and unmistakably the right one, that it cannot
be disputed. Nevertheless it is disputed, and amongst others, by
no less eminent a person than the President of the last meeting of
the British Association, Professor Allman ; and a brief summary of
the points of divergence in the conclusions which these two
physicists draw from the facts which scientific investigation has
disclosed, may be of use.

As to the facts themselves, there appears to be no difference
of opinion of any great importance; in proof of which I will simply
quote one or two passages from Professor Allman’s address :—

**In the most complex animals, even in man himself, the component cells,
notwithstanding their frequent modification and the usual intimacy of their
union, are far from losing their individuality.”

Again :—

““The whole complex organism is a society of cells in which every indi-
vidual cell possesses an independence, an autonomy, not at once so obvious as in
the blood cells, but not the less real. With this autonomy of each element,
there is at the same time a subordination of each to the whole, thus establishing
a unity in the entire organism, and a concert and harmony between all the
phenomena of its life.

“In this society of cells each has its own work to perform, and the life of
the organism is made up of the lives of its component cells. Here it is that we
find most distinctly expressed the great law of the physiological division of
labour.”

In spite of this agreement as to the facts of cell-phenomena,
however, Professor Allman does not give in to the theory of the
cell-soul. He does not allow consciousness to the cell. Living
matter is with him indeed distinctly separated from non-living
matter. I think, however, we should not misrepresent him in saying
that he regards what he calls life as belonging to a sort of department
of mechanics; different from non-living matter, but still simply
mechanical in its operations. The three distinguishing marks of
living matter are—assimilation, reproduction, and irritability or
responsiveness to excitations. The last of these he calls “the one
grand character of all living beings.” And it is this which seems
(to my mind at least) so difficult to regard as acting without
consciousness. “There is no greater difficulty,” he says, speaking

93

of the contraction of the heart of a recently killed frog under
stimulus, “in conceiving of contractility as a property of protoplasm
than there is of conceiving of attraction as a property of the
magnet.” And in this instance, the divergence from apparently
purely mechanical motion is certainly not obvious. But there are
other matters of observation in which there is, as he himself says,
the “semblance of volition” of a very striking kind, as e.g., the case
cited by him, of the swarm-spore (i.e. practically, the young) of
certain plants, which when an obstacle is placed in its course (I am
quoting from his address) “will, as if to avoid it, change the
direction of its motion, and retreat by a reversion of the stroke of
its cilia.” The explanation of this phenomenon supplied by him
is, “that the irritability of the protoplasm of the ciliated spore,
responding to an external stimulus, sets in motion a mechanism
derived by inheritance from its ancestors, and whose parts are correlated
to a common end—the preservation of the individual.” But this seems
difficult to regard as an explanation, except in connexion with the
idea of consciousness.

And in the instance ofthe beheaded frog, referred to in
Heckel’s essay, consciousness does not exist in the frog itself ;
so far as the frog as a whole is concerned, the movement caused
by stimulation must be automatic; but the ganglion in the
spinal cord may be conscious; and it is difficult to disconnect
the idea of consciousness from that of an apparent sensibility
to pain, or discomfort. The accidents of the dead inorganic
world seem to constitute a continual call on mind (however
we may attempt to explain or define the word) to assert
itself. The animate by modifying, preventing or continuing the
influences of the inanimate, does on the whole by slow degrees
gain the mastery-over the inanimate; and apparent accidents, by
becoming the occasions of the action and development of mind,
may thus claim to be seen no longer as accidents, but as links
ina chain (however interrupted from time to time by retrogressions

and degenerations)—a chain, nevertheless, of assured progress.

There is however another question connected with this matter,
which is one of very great importance, in which it may be quite

94

possible for us to agree with Professor Allman, even while inclining
to the “‘cell-soul” theory. “Admitting,” he says, ie., for the sake of
argument, “that every living cell were a conscious and thinking
being, are we therefore justified in asserting that its consciousness,
like its irritability, is a property of the matter of which it is
composed ?” and he goes on to argue to the contrary, on the
ground of the want of analogy between the phenomena of living
matter and those of consciousness. He would regard protoplasm
as being only a requisite condition for the manifestation of the
phenomena of consciousness, and supports his supposition by an
illustration: ‘‘The rays which lie invisible beyond the violet in
the spectrum of the sun have their refrangibility altered, and are
made visible by being passed through certain infusions. Even the
generation of these rays cannot,” he says, “be regarded as a
property of the medium which by changing their refrangibility can
alone render them apparent.” To which I may perhaps add
another illustration: One’s first idea on observing the phenomenon
of the formation of yeast on a sugary liquid, would be, that the
yeast-fungus was 7# the sugary liquid ; this, however, is not the
case ; the fungus germs are floating in the air (as has been ascer-
tained by experiments in which the air is excluded); and the
sugary liquid merely supplies one of the requisite conditions for
the manifestation of the fungus growth. So it may be that the
protoplasm may be merely (when living) one of the conditions

amidst which something subtler than air or even than the.

luminiferous ether and which cannot possibly be excluded, may be
enabled to play its part.

This part of the question has been very fairly put by Professor
Huxley in the ‘Nineteenth Century” for April, 1879. He men-
tions three possible hypotheses on the relation between material
and immaterial phenomena :—

1. That an immaterial substance of mind exists ; and that it is affected by
the mode of motion of the sensorium in such a way as to give rise to sensation.

2. That sensation is a direct effect of the mode of motion of the sensorium,
brought about without the intervention of any substance of mind.

3. That the sensation is neither directly, nor indirectly, an effect of the
mode of motion of the sensorium, but has an independent cause, and, properly

95

speaking, is therefore not an effect of the motion of the sensorium, but a con-
comitant of it.

While holding that none of these speculations can be seriously
regarded as anything but a more or less convenient working hypo-
thesis, he himself inclines to the second, which he calls the
“simplest ;” the “simplicity” of which, however, to some minds
may appear as consisting only in that of a statement which conceals
an hiatus that cannot be filled up by human intelligence.

I may perhaps most fitly bring my remarks to a conclusion by
quoting a sentence from the Introduction to a book which has
attracted a great deal of notice—“‘ The Unseen Universe ;’—the
opinion expressed in which appears to me worthy of the most
attentive consideration: “ We are entire believers,” say the writers
of this book, “‘in the zujinite depth of Nature, and hold that just as
we must imagine space and duration to be infinite, so must we

imagine the structural complexity of the universe to be infinite
also.”

”

97

THE INFLUENCE OF GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
ON SCENERY.

By J. D. KENDALL, .C.E., F.G.S.

(Read at Whitehaven, Carlisle, Maryport, and Workington. )

THE love of Scenery appears to us nowadays to be so natural—so
much a part of our zsthetic constitution—that we are apt without
further thought to look upon it as

** An ingredient in the compound man,
Infused at the creation of the kind.”

Upon inquiry, however, we find that this is not the case, but,
on the contrary, it turns out that—like many other of man’s
characteristics which, for some reason or other, he would like to
persuade himself have not been recently acquired—his love of
scenery is but of comparatively modern growth. It will scarcely
be disputed, I should think, that wherever or at whatever time
there has existed a love of scenery, some record of it will be found
in the works of either the poets or painters—or perhaps of both—
_ who lived at that particular time and place. But the history of
painting is almost silent on the subject of landscapes until within
the last hundred or hundred and fifty years ; and after having seen
_ some of the older productions of the easel, we are not surprised
that it should be so. The Louvre in Paris probably contains some
_ of the finest specimens of the Old Masters that are to be found
anywhere, yet in that splendid collection, there is almost an entire
_ absence of landscapes; you go wandering on from corridor to
7

98

corridor, and through one room after another, all filled with “ Old
Masters,” and yet you scarcely ever meet a landscape. This want
is also observable in our National Gallery, if we leave out the
works that are really modern. So too in Poetry the same neglect
of Nature, outside humanity, is equally apparent, until we draw
near our own times, when we are presented with a galaxy of names
whose landscapes of the pen are as numerous and beautiful as are
those of the modern pencil.

This absence of landscapes in the works of the older poets
and painters, I take it, is an indication that the love of scenery has
been but recently developed. Ofcourse it may be that there is some
charm in Nature now that has not ever been—some beauty in the
woods, the fields, and mountains that was not long ago; but I
think a careful study of all the evidence will show, that there is
rather a fresh faculty in man—a newly acquired chord of exquisite
fineness, which vibrates in unison with a note in Nature’s varied
strain that aforetime passed unheeded.

In no one perhaps has this faculty been more highly developed
than in Wordsworth, for it seems, indeed, in studying his works you
cannot avoid the conclusion, that his whole life was influenced by
it. In his beautiful poem written ‘On Revisiting the Banks of
the Wye,” we learn something of the power of this new develop-
ment in the words :—

““ How oft—
In darkness and amid the many shapes
Of joyless daylight ; when the fretful stir
Unprofitable, and the fever of the world,
Have hung upon the beatings of my heart—
How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,
O sylvan Wye ! thou wanderer through the woods.
How often has my spirit turned to thee !
And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought,
With many recognitions dim and faint,
And somewhat of a sad perplexity,
The picture of the mind revives again :
While here I stand not only with the sense
Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
That in this moment there is life and food
For future years,”

99

I cannot tell how it may appear to others, but to me it seems
that the inducement to record the thoughts and feelings of a mind
and heart thus influenced, is so strong as to be almost irresistible,
so that I think we do not err in concluding that where such a
record is absent, the feeling that would prompt its production
must have been absent too.

The temptation to pursue this theme is great, but we must
refrain. Dallying by the way in search of objects that we set not
out to find, will perhaps only rob us in this case, as it often does
in others, of time that might be more beneficially employed. Let
us therefore keep to the path direct.

Scenery may be viewed from two very different standpoints—
the esthetic, and the scientific. From the former we see and are
pleased, but know not why, and care not wherefore. From the
latter we must know why, or we cannot be pleased at all. From
the esthetic point of view we may experience the fullest enjoyment
without knowing anything of the order of effects by which the
scene resulted, for there is in it then something that—

‘* Hath no need of a remoter charm by thought supplied,
Nor any interest unborrowed from the eye.”

From the scientific standpoint we can only be satisfied by a know-
ledge of the cause, be it remote or mediate, which has led to such
an elaborate effect.

It is from the latter point of view that I invite you for a short
time to look at scenery now. Premising that there are some
among you who have not taken up that position before, it may be
necessary, in order that you may fully appreciate the prospect, to
make a few preliminary observations. This, with your permission,
I will now proceed to do.

The exterior portion of the earth’s crust, with which alone we

are acquainted, is known by common observation to be composed

of different kinds of rocks. These we find on examination may
be separated into two classes—aqueous and igneous—the former
having originated in water, the latter by fire. Among the water-
formed rocks are our limestones, sandstones, and slates, which

100

together occupy by far the larger portion of the earth’s crust ; the
igneous rocks, such as we see about Borrowdale, are less extensive,
being confined to those areas which either are or have been the
scene of volcanic’activity. When rocks are cut into—especially
those that have had an aqueous origin—we find that they occur in
layers, or strata. These layers are sometimes piled one above
another to a very great height, or underlie one another to a great
depth. We also find that the layers vary very considerably in
their thickness, as well as in the mode of their aggregation. For
instance, there is a very great difference in the thickness of the
layers composing St. Bees Head, some being only a few inches
thick, whilst others are several feet. In the slaty rocks of Skiddaw
the layers also vary, but not so much as the sandy rocks of
St. Bees Head, and they are much thinner as a rule at Skiddaw.
Again at Distington or Overend, we find similar variations in the
thickness of the different beds of limestone. Sometimes we find
layers of different sorts of rock alternating, as in the cliffs between
Whitehaven and Harrington, which consist of layers of sandstone
interstratified with shale, and an occasional seam of coal. At other
places like St. Bees Head, we see a great number of superimposed
layers of the same sort of rock: there it is redsandstone. Then
again at Distington quarry there are a great many layers of another
sort of rock—limestone ; whilst Skiddaw and Dent are made up
almost entirely of slate. These rocky layers, sometimes, are nearly
level ; at others they are slightly, or perhaps highly, inclined; and
not unfrequently, especially in hilly countries, they may be seen
standing on end. Sometimes they are bent, at others contorted,
as if they had been subjected to a pressure endwise ; or again we
find them broken completely across—or faulted, as it is called—
and the layers on one side of the fault lifted away above the other.
Most rocks, too, are greatly intersected by joints. Besides the set
of horizontal or inclined joints separating the different beds or
strata, there are two other sets, nearly at right angles to those and
to each other, by which the rock is split into rhombohedrons
varying in size and proportion with the proximity of the joints.
In some formations, such as the Skiddaw Slate, these joints are

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EEE ee ee es

ae ee el SS eee eee or

101

so numerous that the rock is divided into fragments frequently less
than one’s hand. In limestone rock like that at Distington, and
also in the red sandstone of St. Bees, the joints are not so
numerous, consequently the pieces into which the rock is divided
are larger. Quarrymen speak of those joints which are nearly at
right angles to the bed-joints—at least when they occur in the
limestone and sandstone as “‘backs,” and they greatly prize them,
for it is not too much to say that their work of rock-getting is
reduced to one-half or one-fourth, or even in certain cases to
one-eighth of what it would be were these natural joints absent.
Another feature of rocks which must, at some time or other, have
been noticed by everyone who has any power of observation, is
their different degrees of hardness : some being soft and incoherent,
whilst others are extremely hard and compact. But, it may be
asked, what has all this to do with scenery? To the esthetic, I
readily admit that it is nothing, but to the scientist it means
much.

Before geologists had begun to study the curious characters
that are written on the rocks, it was supposed—and indeed by
many it is still thought—that the hills and valleys, continents and
seas, by which the surface of our earth is beautified, ‘were coeval
with the globe itself; that they were so fashioned, formed, and
fixed in that eventful week when out of chaos and of death it is
said there sprang order, life, and beauty. Now, however, to the
geologist at least, they have a different history. Their present
form he looks upon but as the latest of a long series of forms
which they have successively assumed in the grand process of
evolution which the earth during untold ages has undergone, and
is still undergoing. The present form of the earth’s surface, so far
from being what it has always been, or what it will be in the future,
may, says the geologist, rather be compared to one of those
transitory forms presented by a statue as, stroke by stroke, the
sculptor gradually evolves from a rude and formless mass of stone
the “embodiment of his poetic thought.”

The tools by which Nature works are, however, different from
those employed by Art. The hammers and chisels of earth

102

sculpture are waves and streams, frost and rain, and chemical
decomposition. Every shower that falls exerts a wasting and
weathering influence on rocks, soils, and all exposed surfaces,
“There is no rock so hard but a little wave may beat admission in
a thousand years ;” and so it is that every wave that beats along
the troubled ocean’s shore, every ripple on the margin of the quiet
mountain lake, every brook and stream and river as it leaps and
rolls and sweeps along, slowly but surely alters or destroys the
seemingly imperishable framework of our globe. Its contour is
also considerably modified by the action of frost. Water passing
through the numerous joints and fissures that exist in rocks of
almost every kind at certain seasons of the year, becoming frozen,
expands. It has then a tendency to rend and force apart the
integral masses of the much-divided rocks, the consequence of
which is, that when the thaw comes, these masses, having lost their
cohesion, fall asunder, in many places producing those immense
heaps of angular fragments at the foot of escarpments which, in
our Lake District, go by the name of “‘screes.” Then again, water
as it passes through the rocks, either by the joints or by the
interstices of the component parts of the rock, dissolves and carries
away portions of the lime, soda, potash, and magnesia that enter
into their composition, thus promoting their disintegration. They
crumble away, and are then in a condition to be borne to lower
levels by either rain or rivers, or both—ultimately to be dropped
by them into the sea. The mud and other sediments which are ©
borne down by, and which discolour our rivers and streams both
during and for some time after a storm, may be mentioned as
evidence of this particular kind of degrading action. At first sight
we are not much impressed with its importance, but upon closer
examination, we find that the mud which is annually borne down
to the sea by rivers is something enormous. It has been shewn,
for instance, that the united Ganges and Brahmapootra carry down
to the bay of Bengal 40,000,000,000 cubic feet of solid matter
every year. A better idea may be formed of that enormous
quantity, when it is stated that at such a rate of deposition Enner-
dale lake would be filled with sediment ina month.

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103

Another agent of destruction is the atmosphere. Composed
of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid, its action is principally
chemical, and is observable more or less on all exposed surfaces,
Its gases, partly by themselves, and partly in conjunction with the
moisture in which they are diffused, exert a wasting and weathering
influence on rocks of every description—softening, loosening, and
crumbling them down to be more readily borne away by currents
of wind and water. Carbonic acid acts specially on all rocks
containing lime. Oxygens rust or oxydises those impregnated with
iron. Moisture insinuates itself everywhere, and thus in after
years the hardest rock exhibits a wasted and weathered surface.
Particle after particle is loosened, film after film falls away, a new
surface is exposed to new waste, and in the course of ages the
boldest mountain mass yields to this silent imperceptible agency.

The operations of these various denuding agents are divided
by geologists into two classes—chemical and mechanical; the
former including the chemical action of the atmosphere and water,
the latter, those agents which act either by abrasion or some other
mechanical means—this class includes rain and rivers, waves of
water and frost.

Knowing now that these apparently powerless agents are
capable of modifying the form of the earth’s surface, we have only
to keep clearly before us the manner in which they act, to be
convinced, once for all, that, other things being equal, their effect
will be greatest on those parts of the earth’s crust which are
softest, in the same way that a sculptor or a quarryman can work
more rapidly in a soft stone than in one that is hard. And further, as
the work ofa quarryman is greatly facilitated by the presence of joints,
so is the action of these denuding agents. The more a rock is
split up by joints, the greater is the destructive effect on it of both
water and the atmosphere—chemically as well as mechanically—
because the more readily do they gain access to its interior.

Keeping these facts constantly before us, we shall, I think,
be able now to appreciate fully the subject we have to consider,
that is, the Influence of Geological Structure on Scenery. Let us
commence with our sea-coasts.

104

From what has just been said, it must, I think, be clear to all
that if the sea everywhere met with the same resistance, that is to
say, if the rocks along our coast were everywhere of the same
structure and. hardness, and always presented themselves to the
denuding action of the waves in the same manner, we should have
none of those beautiful bays and coves and headlands which give
such pleasing variety to our coast scenery now, but everywhere we
should meet with the same monotonous prospect. Fortunately,
however, it is not so, for the rocks vary both in hardness and in
the manner of their occurrence, so that the denuding action of the
sea has greater effect upon them at one point than at another, and,
as a consequence, carves them out into bays and headlands of
infinite form and variety in the way that we now see them.

On many parts of our coasts, especially about Cornwall and
Devon, the connection between geological structure and scenery
is displayed most strikingly, and could hardly fail to arrest the
attention of the most superficial observer. But we may, I think,
learn something of that connection by an examination of the coast
nearer home. Those who have been along that part of it which
lies between Parton and St. Bees, will remember that it is very
irregular. First of all there is, at Parton, a small bay-like indent-
ation at the mouth of the valley in which the village lies. Then
the coast stands somewhat out towards the sea until we reach
Redness Point, whence it recedes to Whitehaven, and forms at the

end of St. Bees valley another small bay. Jutting out seaward —

again somewhat abruptly on the south side of this bay, it thence
pursues a nearly straight line to Port Hamilton. At that point it
turns seaward once more, and we are on the fine headland known
as St. Bees Head, broken only near its centre by a slight indent-
ation called Fleswick Bay. Opposite St. Bees the coast retires
again, and forms another small bay, there too at the mouth of a
valley. Now, what is the cause of this irregularity of the coast
line? That it adds much to its beauty no one will deny; but why
should it not have been a straight line? Why all the projections
and indentations that exist? To answer these questions we must
first make ourselves acquainted with the nature of the rocks

105

forming the coast. Now, an examination with that object in view,
shews us that between Parton and Port Hamilton, the cliffs consist
chiefly of alternations of sandstones and soft shales belonging to
the Coal Measures. From Port Hamilton to St. Bees—that is,
around St. Bees Head—they are made up of red sandstone, whilst
opposite St. Bees they are composed of drift—an incoherent mass
of sand and gravel—which at that point overlies the red sandstone.
Now this drift and the soft shale, which make up a considerable
part of the cliffs between Parton and Port Hamilton, are very
much more easily denuded by the sea than the compact sandstone
of St. Bees Head, and consequently they have been worn farther
back than it. But it may be said, if that is the correct explanation
of the prominence of St. Bees Head, how is it, seeing that the
whole of that head is formed of red sandstone, that there occurs
a little bay—called Fleswick—about midway across it? Is the red
sandstone at Fleswick softer than the red sandstone on each side
of that place, forming the remainder of the head? Or why is it
that the sea has been able to push back the cliffs further at Fleswick
than on each side of it? An examination of the ground sbews us
that there the cliffs are lower than on each side, in consequence
of a small valley which at that point comes down tothe sea. That
is why the bay has been formed; for although the sandstone
around the bay and that on each side of it may be of equal hard-
ness, and consequently present the same resistance to the waves,
yet it must be quite clear to everyone, at a moment’s reflection,
that before the waves can eat away the cliffs to any given distance
inland, they must remove more material where the cliffs are high
than where they are low. Consequently if the sea removes the
same amount of matter from every point upon which it impinges,
as presumably it must do, if the rock is everywhere of equal
hardness, then it will make the greatest progress inland at those
points where the cliffs are lowest. That is exactly,what it has
done at Fleswick. The cliffs there being lower than they are on
each side, the sea, in doing the same amount of work at every
point it broke against, has of necessity, for the reasons just stated,
formed a bay. The same explanation may be extended to the

106

bays at Parton and Whitehaven, the existence of which at those
particular points is mainly due to a locally diminished height of
the cliffs arising from the intersection of the coast line there by
two valleys. In a similar way we might explain every indentation
or promontory that is to be found along our coasts ; so that we
see what an intimate relation there is between the denuding action
of the sea and the irregularities of its coast outline. We further
see how this denuding action is influenced by geological structure,
and consequently, how on that geological structure depends our
sea coast scenery for its variety.

Let us next see if we can trace the same sort of connection
between geological structure and our inland scenery. For this
purpose we might almost take the country indiscriminately, but
perhaps our subject will be as well illustrated about Keswick as
anywhere. Few people who have visited that locality will have
left it, I should think, without first ascending Castle Head—that
little rounded woody eminence, rising abruptly, just outside the
town on the left of the road leading to Borrowdale. The view
obtainable from the top of that hill is perhaps as fine and varied
as any that can be found in the district. Looking southward—
that is, towards Borrowdale—we see, a little way below us, a
straggling plot of intermingled wood and field, beyond which lies
the bright and smiling lake, set as it were at the foot of a grand
amphitheatre of hills, which as, in seeming eagerness to see the
lake, they rise higher and higher in the distance, at length com-
pletely shut out the prospect beyond. At the nearer end of the
lake there is a broad, flat or but gently undulating, stretch of
meadow land, which, as we turn to the north west, is seen
extending away betwixt lines of hills to Bassenthwaite. On the
north of us lies the little quaint old town; and beyond, limiting
the view in that direction, rise the majestic forms of Skiddaw and
Blencathra, their furrowed sides, like lines of age, forcibly reminding
us of their lifelong struggle with the elements. Hours might be
spent in describing the glorious panorama around this point, and
even then but a faint impression would be conveyed of its sur-
passing loveliness ; for

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SS eee ee ee eee ee ”.hCUrde”Dhl ee SSS ee

107

‘* Such beauty varying in the light
Of living Nature cannot be portrayed
By words, nor by the pencil’s silent skill,
But is the property of him alone
Who hath beheld it, noted it with care,
And in his mind recorded it with love.”

Located on our standpoint of Castle Head, a careful observer
will speedily discover how different in outline some of the hills
seen by him are from others. He will see one group of which the
surface is comparatively even and unbroken, and another that is
rough and rugged in the extreme. Looking towards Borrowdale,
for instance, he will quickly perceive that the hills on the left of
the lake, and those at the farther end are infinitely more wild and
irregular than those on the right, which, in fact, have a somewhat
tame and even outline. On the north too, he will see that the
same comparatively smooth and unbroken appearance is presented
by the forms of Skiddaw and Blencathra, notwithstanding their
deeply furrowed sides. Now what is the cause of this difference
of appearance? Why should one set of hills have a rough and
hummocky exterior, and the other be regular and comparatively
smooth? Like the form of the sea-coast line, it is explained by a
knowledge of their geological structure. On examination we find
that the more even-looking hills are formed out of a rock which is
known as Skiddaw Slate—so called from the fact of its largely forming
the mountain of Skiddaw. Itis a formation which consists mainly of
beds of mudstone of nearly uniform hardness; so that it offers to
the agents of denudation the same— or nearly the same—resistance
at every part of it. Hence the regular outline of the hills in which
it occurs. But the hills of rugged outline are built up of volcanic
lavas and ashes, rocks of very different degrees of hardness, and
therefore yielding variously to the denuding action of the elements.
Whence their jagged and hummocky appearance.

In, this way we might go on explaining nearly every feature
of the rocks we see. Should we ask ourselves, for instance, why
Castle Head, the hill on which we stand, rises so abruptly from the
ground around it, the answer is at once apparent when we discover
that the hill consists of a hard volcanic rock called Diabase, whilst

108

the low ground surrounding it is formed of soft Skiddaw Slate.
Or again, if in walking from Rosthwaite towards Keswick, we
enquire why the valley along which we walk widens out so suddenly
at the village of Grange, and we are told that we are then just
leaving the volcanic lavas and ashes, and coming upon the softer
Skiddaw Slates; the reason for the sudden change in the width ot
the valley at once flashes upon us, and we are satisfied.

Or generally, suppose we ask ourselves why some valleys are
deep and narrow, whilst others are broad and shallow, what
answer can we give? The reply involves a knowledge of the
process of valley formation. Suppose we have a stream that has
just commenced to cut its way through a newly formed tract of
country, as for instance a piece of flattish country that has just
been raised out of the sea;—as soon as ever that stream has
formed for itself a channel, the sides of that channel will be
attacked by the various chemical and meteoric denuding agents.
Frost, if it be in winter, will loosen and crumble large quantities
of rock on each side of it. Water charged with carbonic acid will
dissolve and carry much away, especially if the rock be either
chalk or limestone; and the pieces loosened and crumbled by
frost will be washed by rain into the stream, and thereby carried
away to be deposited elsewhere. The effect of these united actions
will be that the channel will soon become wider at the top than at
the bottom; for the top having been longer exposed to the

denuding agents, must necessarily have suffered more from them. -

In course of time, as the stream deepens its bed, either by erosion
or by dissolving the material of which it is composed, fresh ex-
posures of rock will take place along the bottom of each bank,
which will at once be attacked and wasted by the impatient
destructives. So also will every additional exposure that is made
by deepening the stream bed, no matter how long that may be
continued. The result of these actions ultimately will be a valley.
As the stream worked itself deeper into the rock, the sides or
banks would be worn gradually further and further back by frost
and rain and chemical decomposition. The upper part of each
bank having been longer acted upon by these influences than the

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109

lower part, must have suffered more from them; so that the sides
at any given height are farther apart than they are lower down
nearer the stream, where they have not been acted upon so long.
The exact section of the valley will however depend upon the
geological structure of the country through which it is formed, and
the inclination of the river traversing it. If the rocks are hard,
the width and depth of the valley will not be so great as if the
rocks were soft; and other things being equal, its depth will be
greater if the bed of the stream be steep than if it were nearly
level. Generally we find that narrow valleys are steep, their steep-
ness—and consequently the velocity of the streams flowing through
them—being inversely proportional to their breadth; that is to
say—the steeper they are, the narrower they are comparatively,
other things of course being equal. The explanation of this is
very simple. The erosive power of a stream is proportional to its
velocity ; if this increases above a certain point, the action of the
stream on its bed will be greater than that of the atmosphere and
other kindred forces on its banks, the consequence of which will-
be that the valley will be enlarged at a greater rate downwards
than sidewise, so that it will eventually become deep and com-
paratively narrow. On the other hand, if the inclination of the
stream be very slight, its denuding action downwards will be less
than that of the forces acting on the sides, so that the width of
the valley will increase more rapidly than its depth. As a conse-
quence of this, the valley will become, in the long run, broad but
comparatively shallow.

To some, probably, there may seem to be a great want
of efficiency in these subaerial forces to effect a work so enor-
mous as that with which they are credited, but is it so? No
doubt so long as we were content to accept unquestioned Arch-
bishop Usher’s figure of 6000 years as the age of the world, there
might be a difficulty in reconciling such an enormous effect with a
cause apparently so inadequate. But now that geologists—by

j thinking for themselves, and by earnest study of the Book of Fact

—have learned that it is millions of years since our earth began
its circling flight through “the lucid interspace of world on world”

110

—the difficulty has disappeared, and the efficiency of those
subaerial agents of which we have been speaking is now confidently
asserted. Let us go into figures for a moment. Suppose we
assume that material of the depth of one-tenth of an inch is
removed from each side of a valley every year, at the end of ten
thousand years that valley would be one hundred and sixty-six feet
wider than it is now, and in a hundred thousand years it would be
1660 feet wider. Now one tenth of an inch is not a great quantity
to be removed in a year, and one hundred thousand years is not a
great length of time when you have millions to take at; yet even
with those figures we see that a valley would be produced greater
by far than the majority of our present valleys, so that I think
there can be little doubt about the competency of the agents of
which we have been speaking to do the work ascribed to them.

In the country about Ennerdale there exists a similar connec-
tion between geological structure and scenery to that which has
been seen to prevail at Keswick and along our sea-coast. The
tame and even outline of the range of Dent and Kinniside Cop
contrasts strongly with the torn and rugged features of the Pillar
and its neighbours ; and so upon examination we find that there is
great difference in their geological structure, Dent and Kinniside
being formed of Skiddaw Slate, while the pillar is composed of
volcanic lavas andashes. The Pillar Stone standing conspicuously
out from the flanks of the Pillar mountain is another apt illustra-

tion of our subject. Close inspection shews that that very remark- |

able feature of the Ennerdale valley consists of a rock which is
much harder than that immediately surrounding it. Whence its
curious and remarkable prominence.

In travelling by rail from Whitehaven to Furness, we obtain
a splendid view of the western hills of the Lake Country. We see
their varied outline, and how in every case it alters where there is
alteration in their rocky structure; the distant changing profile
being in fact a sure index of the petrological changes that are met
with on a nearer acquaintance. And so, wherever we go, there is
the same association of external form and internal substance, the
one changing as the other changes, being together knit by the

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111

inseparable bond of cause and effect. Not more certainly does
the oscillating mercury speak to us of meteoric changes, than the
petrological variations of a district or a country are indicated by
the varying character of its profile. I remember on one occasion
when standing on the north coast of Ireland, near the Giant’s
Causeway, and looking out seaward, being greatly struck with the out-
line of the Island of Rathlin, one part of which is quite low and very
even in form, the other being much higher and somewhat irregular in
inoutline. It occurred to me that there must be some difference in
the rocks of the two parts of the island to cause this difference in
the outline ; and upon enquiry, I found that the low and even-
looking portion was composed of chalk, which is comparatively
soft and easily denuded, whilst the higher and more irregular
portion proved to be formed of basalt, a rock which is much
harder than chalk, and not by any means so easily acted on by
the atmosphere and other denuding agents; whence its more
prominent appearance.

In this way we might go on from one part of the country to
another almost ad infinitum, adducing examples in illustration of
the great influence of geological structure on scenery. So far we
have principally concerned ourselves with changes in lithological
composition, which is but a part—although a very important part
—of what is embraced in the phrase, geological structure. I would
like now, before concluding, briefly to notice how scenery may
be, and in fact, is influenced in other ways, as, for instance, by
the dip of the strata, by joints, and by faults.

In walking across country from Ennerdale to Whitehaven, it
may have been noticed by some of you that those valleys, or those
parts of valleys, which have a north and south direction, are as a
rule, steeper on the west side than on the east. The explanation
of this is as follows. The general dip of the rocks in that part of
the district is to the west, so that the valleys or parts of valleys
having a north and south direction are at right angles, or nearly
so, to the dip. Now every quarrymen knows, and it is apparent
to almost everybody, that it is much easier to work towards the
rise of the strata than to the dip, because in working up-hill, so to

112

speak, the pieces of rock, as soon as they are loosened by blasting,
fall towards you; but in working down-hill, that is with the beds
of rock dipping from you, a great amount of levering is frequently
required to throw the stones down, after they have actually been
separated from the parent rock by gunpowder. So in the oper-
ations of denudation—which is a species of quarrying by inanimate
agents—the rock on the east side of a north and south valley being
to the rise, is more easily denuded than that on the west side,
which is to the dip. Hence the east side of such a valley is, in
any given time, worn further back, and consequently is flatter than
the west side. The influence of dip on the outline of a district
may be very clearly seen in looking at the mountain of Grassmoor
from about the centre of Crummock Lake. The rocks there dip
eastward, and the slope of the east side of the mountain corresponds
with the dip, and is comparatively regular; but the west side,
where the ends of the strata crop out, has quite a jagged appear-
ance. The same connection between dip and profile may be seen
at Pardshaw Crag.

Some of you in your visits to Eskdale, I have no doubt, will
have noticed the hummocky nature of the granite which abounds
there. From what has gone before, it might have been expected
that the hills formed of this rock would have approached somewhat
in outline those consisting of Skiddaw Slate, or any other homo-
geneous rock ; but it is not so, and the reason for the difference is

found on examination. ‘Through the gaps between the hummocks —

we are almost sure, on inspection, to find traces of a mineral vein,
or of a strong joint, it may be a fault; but from the homogeneous
nature of the rock, this cannot be determined. Now it is well
known that the rock adjacent to a mineral vein is often much
softer than that further away. This is also frequently the case
with the rock near a large joint. Especially is it so in the Esk-
dale Granite, the rock near both mineral veins and joints being
much softer than that farther off; and that is why the hills at those
points where either mineral veins or strong joints exist, have been
farther denuded than at more distant points; and it is the reason
too for the hills formed of Eskdale Granite having such a hum-

— i a ith diaet . n n* 5 ied Miia

‘ ta? al

113

mocky and irregular outline. The mineral veins traversing the
Skiddaw Slate do not affect the adjacent rock so much, so that
their existence has less effect on the contour of the country through
which they pass. Whenever the hills formed of these rocks have
an irregular outline, it is due to the presence of harder beds.

I must now bring my remarks to a close ; and in doing so, let
me briefly recapitulate the results at which we have arrived. In
the first place we have seen that the exterior portion of the
earth’s crust is made up of rocks of several different kinds,
varying in hardness in the manner of their occurrence, and in
numerous other particulars. We have further seen that these rocks
are acted upon and denuded, both chemically and mechanically,
by such agents as water, either at rest or in motion, by frost, and
by the atmosphere. Lastly, we have seen that to these agents,
acting on the rocks with variable intensity, is due all that beautiful
carving into hill and dale which we so much admire. By many,
no doubt, it will be regarded as unquestionable that all our much
prized scenery—the rough and rugged hills in the north, and the
low-lying gentle undulations of the south—was specially intended
to delight the eye and mind of man; but to the geologist it will,
I think, appear rather as an incidental existence, which has arisen
in the grand process of destruction and reproduction, which is and
has been for millions of years going on in the rocky structure of
our globe. Here, as often elsewhere in the universe, beauty for

its own sake does not exist ; still none the less need we prize it.
‘Do we think less of the lovely flowers because we know that their

bright and charming colors are primarily displayed as allurements
to the insect tribe, for the selfish purpose of securing their own
existence? Or does the floor of heaven, “thick inlaid with
patines of bright gold,” impress us less now that we know some-
thing of its real nature than it did before astronomy had so rudely
upset our old ideas? No! And no less succesfully will beautiful
scenery appeal to the esthetic part of our nature, because we know
that such scenery is only an incidental of rock denudation.

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;
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE
OF THE LATE CAPTAIN HUDDART, F.RS.,

By EE. 2. TYSON:

(Read at Maryport, October, 1879.)

THE subject of this memoir—though of great eminence in his day
—appears to be little known to the present generation. A native
of Cumberland, born at yonder little fishing village—Allonby—
and connected very intimately with our own more pretentious
_ sea-side town—especially during the earlier period of his notable
and distinguished career—it occurred to me that some account of
_ him might prove not altogether uninteresting or uninstructive.
The prominent features of his character, as disclosed by the
narrative of his life, are, to my mind, great steadfastness of purpose,
and industry. These excellent qualities, combined with the great
mental endowments he possessed, and had the wisdom to cultivate
and to apply to practical purposes, enabled him to rise from
comparatively humble, though respectable surroundings, to a
position of considerable social influence, and to acquire in the
_ world of Science an undoubtedly high reputation as a hydrographer,
navigator, and engineer. It is somewhat singular that in our own
county so little should be known about him, and that—save a
short notice of his life which appeared in the Gentleman’s Magazine

and other periodicals of former days, and a memoir compiled in
the year 1821 by his then only surviving son, and which appears
to have been chiefly, if not exclusively, designed for private

116

circulation—his biography, in a complete form, should still be
unwritten.”

A Cumberland worthy, however, he unquestionably was,
and, as such, Cumberland ought to feel proud of him. The
connection with our county of a Wordsworth, a Fearon Fallows,
and a Huddart, ought, in its degree, to be quite as much ~
matter of local concern and pride as a Shakespeare, a Burns,
or a Moore is of national pride and concern. My object, —
therefore, to-night, is to endeavour in some measure to put
before you, as concisely as I can, some of the chief inci-
dents in the life of this remarkable Cumbrian. I do this, not
simply by any means because he happened to be a Cumbrian,
but because the example of his meritorious, useful, and unosten,
tatious life appears to me well worthy of our consideration, and
especially calculated to encourage my younger auditors who may
yet have to embark upon life’s eventful voyage.

Joseph Huddart was born at Allonby, on the 11th January,
1741. Hewas an only child. His father appears to have been
engaged, along with a few friends, in the fishery of herrings, which,
in former years, and more particularly about the period referred
to, were very abundant in the Solway. From a boy, young
Huddart showed unmistakeable signs of genius. When a water
flour-mill, was being built at Allonby, it is said that Huddart
was observed by the workmen to be frequently prying about
and closely observing what was going on. They probably little
imagined that he was constructing at home, in miniature,
similar machinery to that which they were setting up. On
the completion of the mill itself he produced his own little —
toy-mill, which is reported to have been a tolerably accurate ©
imitation of the original, and to have been set going with it.

It was not, however, towards practical mechanics that ©
Huddart’s mind and tastes exclusively leant. Under the teaching

* The writer’s attention was not called to Dr. Lonsdale’s short biography —
of Captain Huddart until after the delivery of the paper. When the paper was
in course of preparation, he was led to understand by a literary friend that Dr.
Lonsdale had vof included Captain Huddart in his Worthies,

117

of the Rev. Mr. Wilson, the incumbent of Allonby, who had
acquired at Glasgow College a knowledge of both medicine and
astronomy, he made some progress in the latter science, for which
he had naturally a decided predilection. As a boy, however, he
_ was more especially remarkable for his constructive skill. It is
said of him, that having read Mungo Murray’s “Treatise on Ship-
building and Navigation,” published in 1754, he commenced, and
with great perseverance successfully completed, according to the
rules laid down in the work, an exact model of a 74-gun ship.

As young Huddart grew up he assisted his father in the
fishery. This he did until the latter’s death, in 1762, when he
_ succeeded to his father’s share in the business. The same year
q he married a Miss Johnston, whose father was a yeoman, living at
Coupar, in the Abbey Holme. She died at Allonby, r2th
February, 1786. There was issue of the marriage, five sons ; two
of these died in infancy. Of the remaining three the eldest and

the youngest, called respectively William and Johnston, predeceased
their father. William, who was a captain in the sea service of the
Honourable East India Company, died 30th March, 1787, and
was buried at Macao, in China. Johnston, 3rd officer of the
_ Princess Amelia, in the same Service, died on the 29th January,
1795, and was buried at Leghorn. Of the only surviving son more
_ particular mention will be made hereafter.
. In 1768 Mr. Huddart built a brig, at Maryport, having some
_ time previously given up the fishery. This vessel appears to have
_ been built by Mr. John Wood, who, along with his son William,
‘Was at that time a shipbuilder of repute. To this day the same
_ shipyard is in existence, the business being conducted by Mr.
_ Wilton W. Wood, the great-grandson of Mr. John Wood. With
_ this vessel Mr. Huddart traded to and from North America on his
_ own account, and also to and from Maryport and the Irish Coast.
a It was in 1773 that through the urgent solicitations and advice
of Sir Richard Hotham, Mr. Huddart was induced to enter the sea
service of the Honourable East India Company. More than two
years before he had been introduced to Sir Richard by an uncle,
then living in London, and whose eldest daughter had married Sir

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Richard. Sir Richard, it appears, was an influential shipowner.
He husbanded, at the time we speak of, two ships in the Company’s
service. Struck with Mr. Huddart’s practical acquaintance with
shipbuilding—(how true it is that the boy makes the man)—and
with his sound knowledge of maritime matters generally, he felt
that Mr. Huddart’s proper sphere was in a much more enlarged
field of duty. Sir Richard accordingly pressed him to enter the
Company’s service. After much deliberation, Mr. Huddart con-
sented to try one voyage. He accordingly sailed as 4th officer in
the York from the Downs, on Christmas Eve, 1773, bound to
St. Helena and Bencoolen. In the course of this voyage he made
many useful surveys, particularly on the west coast of Sumatra, and
returned to England in October, 1775. With a heavy heart anda
light purse, he went back to his native village. The voyage, though
a profitable one to the owners, had, unhappily, proved a disastrous
one to the officers who traded on their own account. He therefore
resumed command of his little brig which he had been so slow to
part from, and ran her in the coal trade from Maryport to Ireland
and back, until the following October, when he proceeded to
London from Cork with a cargo of ship’s provisions to the order
of Sir Richard Hotham.

In 1777 we find Mr. Huddart engaged upon his famous survey
of the St. George’s Channel. It was a work of great magnitude
and importance, and beset with corresponding difficulties. He had
no solid foundation, so to speak, on which to build, there being at
that time no accurate chart of the Channel. The survey, however,
after much patient industry and unflagging perseverance, was

successfully completed. The work, which was originally dated on —
board the Royal Admiral, hereinafter mentioned, 31st March, 1778, —

fully established, when published, Mr. Huddart’s reputation as a
hydrographer, and ‘“ Huddart’s Chart” was the talk of every seaman.
For years it was the only trustworthy chart of that Channel, and I

am much mistaken if the Government charts of more recent days

have not been based upon it.
After this notable achievement, which resulted in so much

good to the country, Mr. Huddart shortly afterwards joined the —

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Royal Admiral, which Sir Richard Hotham, by leave of the Court
of Directors, had just built. He sailed out with that vessel on the
27th April, 1778, for Bombay, as chief officer. She put into
Portsmouth on the outward voyage, where the captain died, and
Mr. Huddart was appointed to the command.

Altogether, Captain Huddart was fifteen years in the Com-

pany’s service, ten of which he served as commander in the

Royal Admiral. During this period he devoted much of his leisure
to hydrographical and astronomical pursuits. Here again we see
the early tastes of the boy matured in the man.

ss By the eclipse of Jupiter’s Satellites he is said to have ascertained (amongst
other astronomical observations which he made) the longitude of Bombay with
greater precision than had been done by any former geographer. Together
with other surveys, he completed one of the whole peninsula from Bombay to
Coringo; also one of the river Tigris, and one from Canton to the Island of
Sankeet, for which last in particular, and for his exertions in improving the

navigation to and from the Kast Indies and China, he received the thanks of the
Court of Directors.”—( Huddart’s Memoir. )

His connection, however, with the East India Company had
not by any means been so profitable as might be supposed.
During a portion of his career his ship, the Royal Admiral, was
put under orders, and he was engaged, whilst acting with the
British fleet, in the reduction of Jaggniaultporam and Negapatam,
and otherwise employed for a time in the King’s Service. By
reason of war and bad voyages his pecuniary resources were,
certainly up to 1783, but little augmented. Sir Henry Fletcher,
however, who was then Chairman of the East India Company,
exercised his privilege of nomination by spontaneously appointing
Captain Huddart to a Bombay and China voyage (then regarded
as one of the best). This voyage proved a highly successful one
to Captain Huddart, who sailed upon it from the Downs on the
27th March, 1784, and returned to England in April, 1786. The
succeeding voyage was his last one, and it, too, was a prosperous
one to him. It was to Madras and China. He set sail on the
2oth January, 1787, and got back to England in July, 1788.

It will be interesting to know that Sir Henry Fletcher was
likewise a Cumbrian. His father was John Fletcher, Esq., of Clea

120 :

Hall, and his mother, Isabella, daughter and co-heiress of John
Senhouse, Esq., of Netherhall. He was created a baronet 20th
May, 1782, and represented his native county in Parliament from
1768 to 1802—a period of thirty-four years. The present Sir
Henry Fletcher, of Ashley Park, Surrey, fourth Bart., is his great-
grandson.

Having quitted the sea, Captain Huddart took up his residence
at Highbury-terrace, London, in which he continued to live up to his
decease. His was not, however, a life of indolence and inactivity.
He added to his house an observatory and workshop, in which he
was wont, when not engaged upon his surveys and other affairs, to
indulge his tastes for Astronomy and Mechanics.

Between the years 1789 and 1794 he surveyed the western
coasts and islands of Scotland. This chart comprised all the coasts
and channels between the Mull of Cantire and Cape Wrath, and
was dedicated to the British Society of Fisheries. For this chart
he received the thanks of the Society. In 1790 he made a
survey of Hasboro’ Gatt. The year following he was elected an
Elder Brother of the Trinity House, a position he was eminently
qualified toadorn. By electing him one of the Elder Brethren the
Trinity Corporation paid him a well-deserved compliment. The
same year his conspicuous abilities received their due recognition
from the Fellows of the Royal Society. To be a Fellow of the
Royal Society is a distinction which many an eminent scientific
man has coveted in vain, and that the honour of Fellowship should
have been bestowed upon Captain Huddart, proves clearly the high
position which he had then gained in the world of Science.

As an Elder Brother Captain Huddart superintended, amongst
other maritime works of national importance, the erection of the
Longships Lighthouse. For his able services in this direction the
Trinity Corporation, at a General Court, held on the 8th October
1795, unanimously voted him their thanks.

As a Fellow of the Royal Society he read an able paper,
entitled ‘‘ Observations on Horizontal Refractions which affect the
Appearance of terrestrial Objects, and the Dip, or Depression, of
the Horizon of the Sea.” This paper, which was read on the

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24th November, 1796, was ordered to be printed by the Society,
who passed a vote of thanks to Captain Huddart for it. A letter
written by him to the Rev. Joseph Priestly, LL.D., F.R.S., entitled
“An Account of Persons who could not distinguish Colours,” had
also been, as far back as the 13th of February, 1777, communicated
to the Society.

In promoting the construction of the London Docks, Captain
Huddart took an active part, as well as in the construction of the
docks for the accommodation of the East India trade. Of both
these undertakings he was a Director, and he had the distinguished
honour of laying the foundation stone of the latter work.

Captain Huddart also had the merit of devising a plan for the
improvement of cordage. Rope-making at that time, especially the
manufacture of ships’ cables and tackle, was of more importance
than it is in the present iron age. He offered his invention—the
principle of which was that every component part of the rope should
bear its proportion of strain—to the East India Company, but they
declined it. Subsequently Captain Huddart formed a private
company at Limehouse, and he there personally superintended the
construction of the requisite machinery, the whole of the designs
of which are said to have been drawn by himself. The machinery
is stated to have been of a very elaborate kind, and the works
themselves to have been in their day unrivalled. It seems Captain
Huddart had at one time described his principle to a Mr. Barnes,
a rope-maker at Maryport, but Mr. Barnes, it appears, could not
see his way to the adoption of it, otherwise we might have had an
important rope manufactory in our midst.

In 1797 Captain Huddart appears to have built another vessel
in Mr. William Wood’s yard at Maryport. She was taken to
London when built, and used by Captain Huddart for scientific
experiments in connection with ship-building, in which he took a
great interest.

As an engineer and surveyor, Captain Huddart appears to
have had a most distinguished reputation. A good deal of his
advice seems to have been given gratuitously, and with the express
object of furthering the public good. In December, 1789, he

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received a vote of thanks from the Trustees of the Harbour of
Whitehaven for a plan which he had submitted to that body for
the improvement of their harbour. In the Cumberland Pacquet of
2oth January, 1790, reference is made to this plan as follows :—

**Captain Huddart, whose abilities as a surveyor are well known, has
offered a plan for the improvement of this harbour which is said to be more
generally approved than any other ; but we do not hear that anything has been
agreed on.”

The paragraph is a trifle bald—old Ware (the editor at that time)
was evidently somewhat out of his depth. We shall however see, bye
and bye, that there were rival projects before the Board, on which
opinions were —as we have known them to be in other places in
more recent times—a good deal divided. At all events, in the
following week’s impression of the Cumberland Pacquet, there
appeared another paragraph, which, as a bit of judicious trimming,
it would be difficult to surpass. This paragraph runs :— -

“Our notice of Mr. Huddart’s plan for the improvement of this harbour
went, as we are now informed, further than the circumstances would warrant.
Amid such a contrariety of opinion, it is perhaps impossible to say which
projection may have the most suffrage. There is, no doubt, a general dispo-
sition to adopt the best.”

The suggested improvements appear to have consisted of adding
the two return piers at that port. The east return is stated by Mr.
James Walker, of London, and Mr. Jesse Hartley, of Liverpool,
civil engineers, in their report on Whitehaven harbour, dated the
17th May, 1836 (a copy of which has been kindly lent to me by
Mr. John Musgrave, the chairman of the Whitehaven Trustee
Board), to have been built first. The effect of it was to throw
back the westerly seas into the west part of the harbour. To
prevent this the west return was built. Their joint effect was to
deepen the harbour, but the funnel mouth threw in heavy seas,
and made the whole so unquiet that the old bulwark was shifted
eastward, by which the eastern harbour was naturally quieted.
The North Tongue, now called the Bulwark, seems to be here
referred to. It was erected about the year 1804, and shortly after
Captain Huddart had submitted his report thereon to the Trustees.

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A copy of this report, and of the plan therein referred to, Mr.
Musgrave has also furnished me with. The report bears date
Allonby, the 27th day of October, 1804, and is as follows :-—

“*To Robert Blackeney, Esquire.

“ Dear Sir,—I have received your favour of the 28th ult., inclosing a plan
and suggested improvement for the northern part of the harbour of White-
haven, requesting my further consideration of this subject at the request of the
Trustees. I was desirous to view the harbour in its present state (in order to
ascertain whether the effects of the late works were what I had reason to
expect, ) before I gave an opinion upon the tongue or breakwater for stilling the
north harbour, which I have done ; and taking the whole into consideration, I
give it as my opinion that the North Tongue should begin at the right line
joining the extremities of the New Quay, and the North Pier or quay continued,
leaving 38 yards clear, &c., between the North Quay and the Tongue, at its
south-west angle. From which point the Tongue to be extended in a right line
to join the old Bulwark at 50 yards distance from the north-west angle of the
sugar house yard, as by the inclosed plan, in which the North Tongue (with an
additional breadth to the Bulwark), is coloured red, and which additional
breadth may be further extended down the Tongue as occasion may require. for
business. I have mentioned 38 yards of clear opening for better accommo-
dation, presuming that the north harbour will then be so still as not to occasion
any damage to the shipping therein; but if a further reduction of waves is
thought necessary, it may be obtained by adding to the length of the Tongue,
as represented by dotted lines, at any future period. It is also my opinion that
this Tongue will not sensibly affect the old harbour, and will render the whole

area of the North Harbour perfectly secure for shipping. —I am, sir, your most
obedient,

“J. Huppart.
“‘Allonby, 27th October, 1804.”
Mr. Musgrave informs me that when the whole of Captain Hud-
dart’s improvements had been carried out, experience has found
them to be most efficient, and in every way satisfactory.

In September, 1793, Captain Huddart received the thanks of,
and a silver cup from, the Mayor and Corporation of Boston, for
his survey of the harbour and river at that place. The Commis-
sioners of Customs formally thanked him in November, 1794, for
his survey of the port of Hull. In June, 1795, the trustees of the
harbour of Swansea passed a resolution acknowledging his valuable
Suggestions for the improvement of that harbour, which were
carried into effect. In the year 1796, he surveyed the harbour of
Portsmouth. He also surveyed the same year the harbour of
St. Agnes, Cornwall, and drew a plan for a new jetty there. In
1800 he surveyed and reported upon the harbour of Leith, at the

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request of the magistrates and council of the city of Edinburgh.
He had the honour to see his suggestions adopted, and to be the
recipient from that body of a resolution conveyed to him by the
Lord Provost, thanking him for his valuable advice and assist-
ance. In January, 1803, the thanks of the Director-General
of Inland Navigation were voted to him for the “consider-
ation and application” he gave to the improvement of the
harbour of Dublin. In May, 1808, he visited Holyhead, and
reported upon the proper site for the erection of a lighthouse,
which resulted in the building of a lighthouse on the South
Stack. The same year he went to Ireland with the celebrated
engineer, the late Mr. Rennie, to advise the Government as
to the expediency of making a harbour at Howth to accommodate
packets. He also, in conjunction with the late Mr. Mylne and
Mr. Rennie, at the request of the Navy Board, reported upon the
improvement of the dockyard at Woolwich ; and at the request of
the Government went with Mr. Mylne to Portsmouth, on account of
the then contemplated improvements of the harbour there. Captain
Hududart also assisted in the survey of the dockyard at Sheerness,
and for his co-operation received the thanks of the Lords’ Com-
mittee of the Admirality. He was also employed to settle the
bounlaries of the Whitstable Oyster Fisheries.

[n 1809, Captain Huddart purchased the residential estate of
Brynker, in Carnarvonshire, and later on other important properties
n the same county. He, however, never resided upon, and it is
said that he never even saw, his estates, the management of which
he deputed to his sole surviving son. These estates are still in the
possession of the Huddart family, the present representative being
George Augustus Huddart, Esq., Deputy-Lieutenant and J.P.,
Carnarvonshire, and J.P., Merionethshire.

As Captain Huddart advanced in life his health gradually
became less robust. So long, however, as his health permitted,
he was assiduous in the performance of the various duties which’
devolved upon him; but his health at last broke down completely,
and his illness, which was a protracted one, turned to dropsy, and
terminated fatally on the roth August, 1816.

In person Captain Huddart is said to have been tall and
muscular, of a benign, open, and placid countenance. In his
habits he was temperate and abstemious, and of a most kind and

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125

benevolent disposition. His manners were simple and unosten-
tatious. He mixed but little in general society, but preferred the
home delights of his own fireside, and the engagements of his study.
When his death was announced in Cumberland, it created a wide-
spread feeling of genuine sorrow. His loss, too; was keenly felt
by all who had been objects of his unstinted bounty, of whom
there were many both in this county and elsewhere.

Captain Huddart was interred on the 28th August, in St.
Martin’s Church, Westminster. A white marble monument, by
Fontano, of Carrara, is erected to his memory in the Chapel of
Ease of his native village—Allonby, the inscription on which reads
as follows :— ;

Sacred to the Memory of
CAPTAIN JOSEPH HUDDART, F.R.S.,
formerly of the
Honourable East India Company’s Service, and one of the
Elder Brethren of the Corporation of the Trinity
House, London.

He was born at this place,
11th January, 1741,
And died at Highbury Terrace, near London,
August 19th, 1816.

He has left a Memorial of his Fame far more lasting than
this Monument, in those numerous Works of
Science, by which he has done Honour to
his Country, benefitted Commerce,
and improved Navigation.

“‘ Unto whom much is given, of them shall much be required,”

And of him it may be truly said that the pre-eminent
Powers of his Mind, and his superior Acquirements in
Mathematics, Mechanics, and Astronomy, were
unceasingly devoted to the Services of Humanity,
by pointing out a
more secure Path in the trackless Deep,

And by increasing the Facilities and lessening the Dangers
of those who go down to the Sea in Ships and
occupy their Business in great Waters.

These men see the Wonders in the Deep.

They were strongly impressed on his capacious Mind; he
saw and acknowledged in them the wondrous Works
of God, and meekly trusting in the Merits of his
Saviour, closed a life of unblemished
Integrity,
in the 75th Year of his Age.

His only surviving Son erected this Monument in commemoration
of those Virtues which endeared him in all the
Relations of private life,

126

The only surviving son here and elsewhere referred to was Sir
Joseph Huddart (now deceased), of Brynkir. He was appointed
deputy-lieutenant for Carnarvonshire in 1820, and served the
office of High Sheriff in 1821, when King George the IV., paying
a visit to the Principality, conferred the honour of knighthood
upon him. He married, May 15th, 1808, Elizabeth, second
daughter of Andrew Durham, Esq., of Belvedere, County Down,
and had issue nine children.

Such is, briefly, the narrative of Captain Huddart’s eventful
life ; and I hope its relation may have proved both interesting and
instructive to you. Within the limited compass of a paper of this
kind it is obviously difficult, if not impossible, to enter as fully as
one might wish into details—a task which at this distance of time
would, in the present instance, be beset with more than ordinary
difficulty. It will be seen that Captain Huddart made his reputa-
tion at a period when the educational machinery of this country,
compared with that of the present day, was most inefficient and
insufficient. The parish school of that day, whether as regards its
structural character or its educational machinery and general
efficiency, was as nothing compared with the voluntary elementary
and Board schools of our time. And yet the century in which
Captain Huddart lived produced men eminent in every depart-
ment of genius, who emerged into public life in many instances
from very humble positions. It seems as though the want of
educational facilities in those days impelled men to largely cultivate
self-culture and self-reliance, and to draw all the more greedily
from, when found, those springs of knowledge which here and
there fortunately welled up in the rural plains of intellectual
barrenness.

At Allonby, as was not infrequently the case in many rural
portions of Cumberland, it would almost seem as if the parish
school had been taught by the incumbent of the parish. Thus
children got an education which was, in the majority of cases,
vastly superior to that which they would have otherwise received
from the typical country pedagogue.

In Captain Huddart’s time no doubt mathematics, and the

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study of the classics especially, flourished in a luxuriant growth in
our English universities, our public schools, and those numerous
excellent provincial grammar schools, whose foundations date, for
the most part, from the Reformation. But in the more remote
districts education, even of the elementary kind, was too often at
a discount, and, as I have already stated, the instruction of the
young generally depended for its efficiency upon the clergyman of
the parish, who thus was wont to augment his scanty stipend,
which in the majority of cases it seemed an abuse of terms to call
his “living.” Two of Captain Huddart’s contemporaries, both of
whom he knew intimately, were Watt, the inventor—I think we
may call him—of the steam engine, and Rennie, whom I have
already mentioned.

Time will scarcely permit me to enumerate the names of the
various other eminent men who were Captain Huddart’s contempo-
raries. There is, however, one whose name occurs to me whose
fame will never die. He was a sailor like himself—I mean the
immortal Nelson. You are all more or less acquainted with the.

' history of this noble life. It is the lot of comparatively few men

to make their mark and to figure as Nelson does in the pages of
their Nation’s history ; but it is the proud boast of all of us that it
is alike our privilege and duty to help onward, to the best of our
skill and judgment, the building up and consolidation of our
mighty empire, the promotion of the spiritual and material improve-
ment and well-being of its several peoples, the spread of education,
the cultivation of the Arts and Sciences. If this somewhat meagre
account of Captain Huddart’s life should in ever so slight a degree
stimulate the minds of any of my hearers in this direction, I shall
feel that my labours have indeed been productive of good and
substantial results.

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129

THE LOCAL MUSEUM, AND ITS RELATION
TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DISTRICT.

By JAMES ARLOSH, M.A.”

(Read at Carlisle. )

THE great end and aim ever to be kept in view, as it seems to me,
by the managers of a Local Museum, is the collection of all
objects of interest peculiar to the district or county in which it is
situated. But by “objects of interest” I do not mean monstros-
_ ities, or abnormal forms, such as white blackbirds or two-headed
calves. I mean a carefully arranged, classified, and named
collection of specimens of every Bird, Beast, Insect, or Reptile to
_ be found in the district; supplemented, of course, by every relic
of Antiquity, and by specimens of all the Minerals which can be
obtained.

A miscellaneous gathering together of a number of stuffed
birds and beasts from every quarter of the globe—Warblers, Pies,
and Seabirds, Finches and Hawks, jostling each other in sweet
_ confusion—is only puzzling to the visitor, who wants information
accurately and clearly given, of the objects of natural interest to
be found in any given area.

I will confine myself to speaking this day upon that branch
of my general subject with which I am best acquainted : the Birds
and Beasts of Cumberland. No detail is too minute to be care-
_ fully recorded; and if there were a County Museum in every
County Town in England, arranged as I would have it, I am
certain that many most curious additions would be made to the

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130

stock of knowledge upon its general Natural History. The birds
of hardly any two counties are exactly the same. Here, in Cum-
berland for instance, we have commonly amongst us birds excessively
rare, or altogether unknown, in Northumberland, and vice versa.
This at once throws some degree of light upon the interesting
question of migration. We get birds with us which come from the
west—they get those from the east, as I believe; not exclusively
of course, but in part.

Again, apart from the migration question now, we are
especially rich in many varieties of the beautiful Wren family,
that lovely little warbler, most graceful of its graceful kind,* the
Wood Wren,! and the “King with the Crown of Fire;”? and
these are birds—except in a few favoured spots—scarcely known
amongst our neighbours. A carefully prepared case of every
specimen of the Wren family or Warblers to be found in Cum-
berland, would naturally attract the attention of one coming from
the adjoining county ; and so, what to us would appear common,
to them would seem rare and of interest.

Again, supposing any one writing or talking of the Zglish
birds in general were to confine himself—and mind, it is not
unnatural that he should—to the birds of his immediate neighbour-
hood, what false ideas would be afloat! and such a one would
seem to one of another county of equally narrow views, to be but
talking idly. What I want is, that from these local museums
should spring, in these days of easy travelling from county town to
county town, a wider spread of, and more intimate acquaintance
with, the general Natural History of England as a whole: each
man’s knowledge of his own district thoroughly enlarged by a
careful study of the specimens in other counties.

An English bird is an English bird, you may say; but as I
have shewn in the case of this county and Northumberland the
variation, so believe me, in other counties it is the same.

* The Editor wishes it to be distinctly understood that he alone is-

responsible for any error in the application of the systematic names given in
the foot notes throughout this article.

1 Sylvia sylvicola. 2 Regulus cristatus.—(ED.)

—————————

eS

'

131

No nightingale north of the Trent,) it is said; and the
difference between birds of the various districts of England is
almost as great as the difference between the dingy sparrow of
Carlisle streets and a Bird of Paradise. How amazed, for instance,
I should be if on coming home through the Woodside plantations
some evening, I heard the wild, mocking cry of the Great “Yaffir,”
or Laughing Woodpecker,” a sound I have heard daily in Hamp-
shire; or in early morning I saw the uncanny Wryneck swarming
up the bole of one of my apple-trees, as I have seen him many a
score of times in Somersetshire.

I will instance the desirability of a careful knowledge of district
peculiarities, by showing how I once ran a certain amount of risk
by the want of such knowledge in a strange place. It is generally
known that there are but two kinds of snakes in England? —the
green harmless snake,‘ a pretty shining creature of gentle manners,
and the Viper or Adder, dingy in his olive-coloured skin, with
flattened vicious head and poisonous bite. Well, one fine summer
day, upon the threshold of my home in Somersetshire—just on the
borders of Dorsetshire—at the open door, basking upon the warm
flag-stone, I spied a gorgeous creature—a snake indeed such as I
had never seen, of a fiery golden red, glittering and beautiful. No
adder, thought I, could ever shine so; you, my friend, must be
harmless. I could not kill him upon my very door-stone, and I
stooped down to pick him up and caress him. I did not do so,

‘however, but guided him with my stick into a bed of evergreens

hard by, and made a note of his appearance. He was a Dorset-
shire Red Adder, I found out at last,—by pertinacious enquiry, for
there was no local museum—a hurtful beast, even more venomous
than his dingy-coloured brother, and a variety unknown except in
Dorsetshire and its immediate borders.

Cui bono? of what good is all this trifling? some may ask—a
Singing bird is a singing bird. None who have not tried it know

+I have since been told that nightingales are heard every spring at
Prestwich Cleugh, near Manchester.—J. A.
2 Picus viridis,
® That is, if we leave the rare Coronella levis out of account, and regard

’ the Slow-worm as a Lizard.

* Natrix torquatus. ° Vipera berus,—(ED.)

182

the delight there is—the constant pleasure—in every country walk,
in distinguishing the notes of all the various warblers, in noting the
appearance of our summer visitors, and in listening for them—
noting indeed the passage of time by the melody of birds. In the
dull heart of summer, when Nature’s work seems done, how deep a
silence falls upon the resting earth; but we are soon warned that this
is but a short breathing space—another autumn is upon us, and
the familiar bright-eyed Robin tells us this the first unerringly by
his sad sweet song—how different to that he piped to us in opening
spring! Some of our summer visitors indeed we seldom or never see,
and yet would miss their voices. All my life I have been trying to
see the Grasshopper Lark,! whose sweet tantalizing chirrup here
enlivens many a hedge bank on many a summer evening. To me
he has ever proved a delusive phantom; but this summer I will
yet again make pleasant search for him. He is an elegant little
bird, runs like a mouse, and chirrups like the shrill Cicala.

We are very rich in Birds here; it would indeed give me
pleasure to see a well-stuffed collection—well named and well
classified—in this bright and cheerful room. I believe we have a
bird all to ourselves here in Cumberland, unknown in any other
part of England, indeed in Cumberland confined to only one spot
—Devoke Water, in Eskdale—the Devoke Water Mew, a fresh
water gull.2. Many a time I have watched them with delight in a
wild, stormy evening in summer, their wild cries mixing with the
plash of the rain and the growling of the thunder in that desolate
place—sporting here and there, their long wings doing brave battle
against the freshening wind.

West Cumberland some years ago was a grand field for the
out-door naturalist : Ravens at St. Bees, Buzzards on Blengtongue ~
—and now and again I have seen the Kite, with his wonderful
sweep of pinion, soaring away over the wild roads on Cold Fell.
Thereabouts also I have seen what I never saw elsewhere—Water-
ousels building in a company—in fact an ouselry. Now in the
case where the ousels were in the museum, there might be a little

1 Salicaria locustella.

2 The Black-headed Gull, Z. vidibundus,—(Ed.)

135

bit of local information given—‘ Under a bridge in Wormeill,
West Cumberland, over the Calder, there existed for some years
a small colony of ousels, who built their nests close together”
—or something of the kind. Every minute detail of every bird
should be given, mind that—especially dates as to time of
shooting.
In winter here we have great flocks of ex Chaffinches—in
other counties great flocks of cock birds; and now we come to
see the use of dates—arguing from this broad example, useless
perhaps except as an example—for by dates alone can we ever
_ hope to get some clue to the partial migration of birds in England
—a great mystery! I often wondered what became of our familiar
friends the Starlings, after with so much fuss and noise they had
reared their young about our chimney tops ;—and what a bold
beautiful fellow the cock Starling is, shining resplendent in the sun
with his coat of rainbow colouring—glossy, iridescent. I ceased
_ to wonder after one wild November day I spent in a long walk
upon the downs between Somerset and Wiltshire. I had the luck to
see that day absolutely thousands of Starlings packed flying south-
wards; and during the years I spent in Somersetshire, as each
winter came round, with it came the flights of Starlings; but I
never but that once saw the whole body, as it were, of all the
Northern Birds upon the wing. Now mark the difference—here,
when the Starlings come, we know that spring is come ; there, their
arrival told us of the Cyder-time—and greedily they took their
share of the stores of fruit laid up in every orchard ; and were shot
_down—lI regret to say—pitilessly; and I have heard that a starling
pie was no mean dish.
It is easily intelligible how tender birds may like warmer
quarters than we can offer them in winter months—small blame to
them these winters—but the subtle influences which induce certain
birds at certain times to leave their usual haunts, and repair to
others apparently very little dissimilar, are too subtle for us to
explain readily.
Flocks of Bullfinches, for instance, coming down at certain
times, but not staying to breed, and Goldfinches (and in North-

134

umberland Siskins). I have never found a Goldfinch’s nest here,
but have in West Cumberland; here I have frequently seen small
flights of Goldfinches in winter, which I never saw in the West.
Again—for reference in uncertainty—how useful to students of the
Natural History of their district, to have a good Collection for
their guidance and information. I do not mean that there is only
one—but there is one family of Birds especially in this County, of
which I want more certain knowledge—the Doves; and my
difficulty in this matter shews the need of very great accuracy in all
our doings. We all know the Wood-pigeon or Cushat,! coming
down in great flocks upon our turnip fields and oak trees in early
winter—shy, and wary, and strong. Now he, I believe, is the
Ringdove, the largest of the pigeon tribe indigenous to England ;
but is he the bird which builds in our tall fir trees, and makes the
soft spring mornings pleasant with his murmurous cooings? or is
that the Stock-dove,? smaller and darker in feather? or do they
pack together as winter comes on, and then are indiscriminately
shot as “Cushats” or Wood-pigeons ?

We find in the Natural History books—the Ring-dove,
Cushat or Queest, the largest of all the pigeon tribe. A great
friend of mine in Herefordshire—dead now, poor fellow—a good
sportsman and keen observer, used to tell me that the Turtle
Dove? was a regular summer visitor in his county, and bred in the
great hedgerows; that they generally left about the second week
n September ; and that it was an old custom of the old-fashioned
gentry, at the end of -their first day’s partridge shooting, to kill a
brace or two of these beautiful little birds on their way home—and
it was called in the vulgar tongue “‘Queest”—-so in loose parlance,
to the largest and the smallest specimens of one family, the same
name appears to be given in different parts of England.

Now all this may seem the veriest trifling to one who cares
for none of these things. It is wonderful, perhaps, how full of
interest it is to me, and men of like mind; but only think how
pleasant, in any perplexity, to be able to have all cleared up by
looking at the cases in the complete collection in the County

1 Columba palumbus. 2 C. oenas, 5 Columba turtur.—(ED.)

SS. == —s~-

135

Museum. The perfection of such an Institution would be its
completeness ; and we will assume that the best specimens should
be drafted into it periodically from all the different districts—here,
for instance, from Wigton, Brampton, and Keswick—and that
representatives from district committees should meet yearly in
general committee. A pleasant intercourse would thus spring up
amongst men of congenial tastes, and the specimens of Natural
History of the whole county would be carefully and systematically
arranged. No locality is so small but that it has some bird, I
believe, almost peculiar to itself; I may be wrong, and if so, I will
most gladly be set right. But, for instance, as long as I remember,
year after year, we have had at Woodside a pair of Redstarts—
and beautiful birds they are: haughty and intolerant of all company
but that of man, and with him familiar and confidential. Now
certainly in that part of the West of Cumberland where I lived
for some years, the Redstart was unknown.

In arranging the cases of specimens I should suggest, in
addition to the careful naming and dating, that each case was made
large enough at first to accommodate at least two specimens, cock
and hen, of every variety in the whole family. For instance, take
the Tits—we have the lovely little blue bird,! a bold and venture-
‘some fellow, ready to fight upon the slightest provocation—or
without any at all for that matter—utterly regardless of disparity
of weight or size, and particularly distinguished by his sleepless

dislike to the Owl. The Ox-eye? with his bright black hood
_ shining like satin. The Long-tailed Tit,? with its beautiful pendu-
_ lous nest in summer ; a great favourite too, as we see him and his

faithful partner together, even in winter, flitting about amongst the

birch trees, brisk and cheerful even in the keenest weather. And

the Marsh Titmouse,* with whom I am not so intimately acquainted;

_ he is apt, without special knowledge, to be confused, I fancy, with

his black-capped brother, or Ox-eye, though quite distinct when
the two can be seen together. Of the Bearded Titmouse,® or-—as
he is sometimes miscalled—the Least Butcher Bird,® I think we

1 Parus ceruleus. 2 Parus major.
8 Parus caudatus. * Parus palustris, 5 Calamophilus biarmicus.
® Not Lanius minor, of course, —(ED. )

136

should get no specimen. He is chiefly found in the more southern
counties. This family would make a charming case; and if the
cases were made with their backs upon hinges, to open like a
door, and projecting perches fixed therein, they could be opened
at any time to add fresh specimens as they came in, taking care
just to paste a strip of American cloth round the outside edges
after each opening, to prevent dust getting in to the discolouring
of the plumage.
Of Beasts, or Quadrupeds, we have not here a very great
variety ; but the Sweet Mart! is almost or altogether unknown in
many parts of England; and I believe we might with a little
trouble yet secure a specimen of the Mouse Weasel,? a fiendish
little chap, not bigger than a very large mouse, but with the thirst
of blood for which his family is celebrated highly developed
indeed in inverse ratio to his size. The Mole we have too; and
I remember when a boy a beautiful cream-coloured one being
caught at Woodside. This concentrated essence of energy—
superior even to the Shrew in the frenzy of his passion for either
love or war—is a wonderful beast; his underground dwelling a
marvel of engineering skill; himself one of the boldest and craftiest
of all God’s wonderful creatures. He is the only quadruped I
know which feigns death. After a long watch, I once caught one
alive by Bleng-side. I wanted sadly to keep and tame a mole,
and slung him carefully in my handkerchief triumphant, plotting
and devising as I went what I could do for his comfort: how I
would get an old tub cut in half, filled with earth and plenty of
earth-worms. Meditating thus, I thought I would just see how
my little friend in black velvet was getting on; so I sat down on
a nice smooth bit of turf and opened my handkerchief. Really,
to my remorse, the little creature lately so full of life and energy
was dead! almost stiff. I laid him gently on the grass and |
smoothed his coat, admired his nervous hands and trenchant
snout. And then it seemed so strange a thing! He couldn’t
have been suffocated, the hardy little miner? I had waded the
river, and only come about a mile since I had taken him. Sus- .
1 Martes sylvatica. 2 Mustela vulgaris,—(ED.)

—— CO

a

te

—S ee

137

picion grew on me. I retired and hid behind some bracken.
Scarcely five minutes passed after I was safely out of sight, before
up sprang the deceiver, and made off faster than you could have
believed it possible, to some softish ground near, and there
disappeared. He had a sufficiently long run in the open to have
given me time to have out-paced and again secured him; but I
allowed the little beastie to escape—it was not in my heart to
condemn him to a tub after a display of such wonderful craft,
such cool and heroic deception.

And then that harmless vegetarian, the Water Vole,! perse-
cuted by anglers for others’ sins—still, I am glad to say, haunts
many a river bank amongst us—the dwarf beaver, rather than the
water rat.

The Shrew Mouse,? of course, with its unpalatable carcass,
rejected by every cat, hawk, dog, and owl; but have we certainly
the Water Shrew® or the Elephant Shrew*? and have we the
Harvest Mouse? ? the smallest of British quadrupeds. The Long-
tailed Field-Mouse® I have assuredly seen, but never its Short-tailed
brother’ ; and we decidedly have not the Hamster. And I never
met the Badger, poor old fellow—very harmless, but with an ill
reputation ; shy and retiring in his manners, if only unmolested—
so shy that in his own haunts even, I have tried in vain many a
time to see him. Moving with an unwieldy gait, between the
amble of a hurried pig and the shuffle of a brown bear. I have
watched, I say, for hours in a coppice in Hampshire, where his
earth was, but never caught him on the move, though I used to see
his footprints all about on the fresh earth the very morning after.

I am afraid we should not want a large case for the show of
Quadrupeds.

Now of Reptiles. I am very fond of the Toad ; and I believe
that in this county we have a peculiar variety. I have studied the
habits and ways of many in my father’s conservatory. We had
one for a long time who came out regularly every evening at the

1 Arvicola amphibius. 2 Sorex murinus. ® Crossopus fodiens.
* Macroscelides (Ethiop.) ° Micromys minutus. © Mus musculus,
" Arvicola arvalis, 8 Cricetus frumentarius,—(ED,)

138

same time for a shower bath, which was given him tenderly from
the fine rose of a watering-can. The Common Toad crawls with
an ungainly motion with the foot flat to the ground; the toad
which I believe to be a distinct variety, steps delicately upon the
tips of his toes. I have been intimately acquainted with several
members of the toad family who always moved ‘in this fashion ;
and in addition to this distinctive peculiarity, such always, as I
fancied, were brighter and glossier in their skins—the mincing
dandies of their race. One of the most curious sights of the kind
I know is to see a toad sitting holding an earth-worm in his
grotesque fingers, and drawing it deliberately into his mouth, as I
have seen a Frenchman eat a slender roll, or a child a finger biscuit.
I only now of one species of Frog in England, though I have
heard tales from the fens of one like the American bullfrog for size
and voracity ; but I speak with caution, for of the Bat alone I was
told with authority the other day, in England there are upwards of
twenty varieties. We have at any rate here to my knowledge
neither the mute or edible Frog of France,! nor the brilliant little
Tree Frog of southern Italy.2 I cannot resist here telling you a
story of a frog I once knew. Some years ago I was walking along
a dusty high road early in March, a cold north-easter blowing,
when I espied the most deplorable-looking frog it was ever my
ill fortune to meet. His skin was dry and hard and shrunken,
and his poor worn body seemed actually shrivelled. Vow,
with his fellows, under favourable circumstances he should
have been enjoying himself with all a summer’s pleasure before
him, swelling the jocund song of his race—Brachy Koax—which
would soon be going merrily up from many a reedy pool and deep
lake side. I pitied my friend upon the highway, wrapped him up
in my handkerchief and took him home—placed him in a large
foot bath with a box lid for a floating island, gave him some shreds
of raw meat, and left him for the night. To make a long story
short, he soon grew fat and well liking, and as soon as he saw me
would hop up on to his island, and gaze at me from his far away
sphynx-like eyes. This was curious; but he grew so familiar that

1 Rana esculenta. 2 Hyla arborea.—(ED.)

——."

139

he used to sit upon my knee in front of the fire enjoying the
warmth—his skin distended with moisture like a sponge, for such
is frog nature—stretching now one leg out, now another, and
answering a gentle rubbing under the throat with a subdued croak
of evident pleasure. I called him “ Pharaoh,” and when quite
restored to health and vigour, turned him into a little wayside
marsh at the back of my garden, where he founded a colony, and
for all the time I lived I never wanted for the cheerful sound of
“ Kirk Kurruk,” all through the pleasant springtide.

Of Fishes and Insects I am sorry to say I know very littlh—
but the Eden Whiting is surely peculiar to that river; and do
Flounders usually come so far upwards from the sea as they must
do to be caught, as I am told they are, at Wetheral? There is
also a fresh water Mussel peculiar to the Petteril.2

Two years ago I found a colony of the grub of the Goat 2
Moth in a mouldering old oak; and the same year we caught a
very fine specimen of the Death’s-Head Moth. Is it commonly
known—I daresay it is—that this unfortunate creature when seized
screams like a rabbit or a child?

I must now apologise for the constant egotism so apparent in
what I have just read. That hateful letter “I”—capital I—recurs
in almost every sentence ; but I did not want to give a cool resumé
of many books which you can all read for yourselves, but merely
to lay before you, for as much as they are worth, a few observations
of my own ; having given nothing on hearsay or from mere printed
history, with the few exceptions I have noted as I went on.

There are just one or two practical points I would touch on
before I stop. When I said what I did about the value of local
objects of interest, do not imagine for one moment that I would
exclude foreign beasts and birds altogether from a County Museum
—only keep them separate. If possible get a collection together,
by all means—every bird and beast under the broad canopy of
heaven ; but surely let that come by and by. Let us begin at
home, and when we have exhausted all our home subjects—in the
collection of which we may all take an intelligent part—then if we

1 Unio sp. or Anodon sp. ? Cossus ligniperda.—(ED.)

140

are in funds, we may enlarge our borders, and buy specimens of
foreign creatures, which, bright and beautiful as they may be, will
never, I venture to say, interest us half as much as those humbler
denizens of our own county, endeared to us by a thousand pleasant
recollections—in each one of which we have grown to feel a sort
of kindly proprietorship. There are already here a good number
of specimens of British birds; more than that—County birds—
which only require a little careful handling and re-setting, to form
a fair beginning. If practicable, I should like to see the English
and Latin names of each family painted in plain letters—black, in
the inside of each family case, and the individual name of each
member of such family so painted upon each perch respectively
occupied. The system of naming I would suggest is that followed
by Bewick: so very simple—giving the family name in English as
we will say of “The Wagtail,” the ‘Pied Wagtail” member of that
family.

We should avoid all decoration of the cases in the inside with
grasses, flowers, or the like, but attempt to give each bird its most
distinctive attitude. The Kingfisher, for instance, with open wings,
head downwards, ready for his rapid plunge. I wonder if there are
any of these beautiful birds still to be found on the Petteril side?
I have seen them there when I was a boy. And in those happy
days I have met both with the Whin Chat and the Stone Chat
-on Wragmire Moss edges and on Blaze Fell road.

Yet once more. A County Museum would be incomplete
without a collection of all the Plants indigenous to the county ;
and the more active minds we can enlist to help us in our general
scope the better. No doubt many who care not for birds and
beasts, make Botany their study; and the Ferns alone in this
county would make a beautiful collection. Secure their aid.
With the County birds fairly ranged and classified by themselves;
with the British birds in general so classified also, so that at a
glance may be seen in what members of each family the County
is deficient ; with a few bright cases of Foreign birds perhaps, as
an ornament ; with the valuable collection of Antiquities already
acquired ; with a complete Hortus Siccus of the County—with its

141

Moths and Butterflies and its Quadrupeds—how complete the
Institution would be! and in working to attain this end, what a
number of charming rides might not a number have, each careering
on his especial hobby.

The old prints, too, of the good old houses and the good old
City in the good olden times—how fair they shew already upon
the walls. And why should not some who care for neither birds
nor weeds, nor beasts nor moths, turn their attention to collect
likenesses of our Cumberland worthies ?

If a County Museum were what it should be, scarcely one
intelligent man would be without an opportunity of gratifying his
private taste for the public good.

I have said my say, and thank you heartily for having borne
with me so patiently.

143

NOTES ON INGLEWOOD FOREST.

By JOHN JACKSON.

(Read at Dalston. )

[The following Notes on Inglewood Forest have been chiefly gleaned from
the county Histories and other books ; some few are original.—J. J.]

THE Ancient Forest of Englewood, or Inglewood, long formed
part of the domain of the Crown of England. At a very
early time it was described as “a goodly great forest, full of
wood, red deer and fallow, wild swine, and all manner of wild
beasts.”* In the reign of William Rufus it was uncultivated,
and the soil neglected for some years after this period, except in
the immediate neighbourhood of Carlisle. William therefore sent
a body of men from the South of England to instruct the natives
in the art of cultivating the soil, and making it contribute to their
subsistence.

Inglewood Forest comprises part of Leath Ward, Allerdale
Ward below Derwent, and Cumberland Ward, and includes the
whole or most part of eighteen parishes.t In a perambulation of
the boundaries of the Forest by the Commissioners of Edward I.,
in the twenty-ninth year of his reign, they were declared to be as
follows :—“‘ Beginning at the bridge of Caldew, without the city of
Carlisle, and so by the highway unto Thursby towards the south ;

* Jefferson’s Leath Ward, p. 7. ,
+ Given in Nicolson and Burn’s Westmorland and Cumberland,

144

and from Thursby by the same way through the middle of the
town of Thursby to Waspatrick wath, ascending by the Water of
Wampole to the place where Shawk falls into Wampole, and from
thence going up straight to the Head of Rowland Beck ; and from
that place descending to the Water of Caldbeck ; and so down by
that Water to the place where Caldbeck falls into the Caldew.
And so up to Gyrgwath; and so by the highway of Sourby unto
Stanewath, under the Castle of Sourby ; and so by the highway up
to Mabil Cross; and so to the Hill of Kenwathen, going down by
the said highway through the middle of the town of Alleynby (now
Ellonby), and so by the same way through the middle of the town
of Blencowe ; and so by the same way unto Palat; and so going
down by the same way unto the bridge of Amote (now Eamont
Bridge); and so from that bridge going down by the bank of
Amote unto Eden ; and so descending by the water of Eden unto
the place where Caldew falls into Eden; and from that place to
the bridge of Caldew aforesaid, without the gate of the city of
Carlisle.”

Thus it will be observed that the Forest comprehended all
that large and now fertile tract of country extending westward from
Carlisle by Thursby to Westward, and thence to Caldbeck, Castle
Sowerby, Mabil Cross, Blencowe, and Penrith, whence its boundary
extends along the Eamont to the Eden, which constitutes its
eastern limit, all the way northward to Carlisle, where it terminates

in a point as at Westward ; and the confluence of the Eamont and.

Eden, forming a sort of triangle, two sides of which are more than
twenty miles in length, and one side twelve miles. It was divided
into two Wards: the High Ward, from Penrith to Hesket; and
the Low Ward, thence to Carlisle.

The Scots, who were dispossessed of this great Forest by
William II., were very loath to relinquish their claim, and they
several times regained it; but in 1237, Alexander II., King of
Scotland, at a conference held in York, gave it up, together with
all the forfeited estates possessed by the Scots in Cumberland and
other northern counties.

In the eighth year of Edward II., Edward de Brus, brother of

= Sate!
ve)

- et ap a

—

i

145

Robert, entered Cumberland, and tarrying at Rose Castle three
whole days, sent out parties to burn, destroy, and plunder on all
sides. Inthe tenth year of Edward II., the Scots again entered
Cumberland, and proceeding as far as Richmond, in Yorkshire,
with all possible devastation, turned thence towards Furness in
Lancashire, burning and destroying all the way they went. Here
they were much pleased with finding large quantities of iron, which
did not abound in Scotland. The chronicle adds, that in this
year great plague and famine raged in both England and Scotland
to a degree till then unheard of; and that the quarter of bread soon
sold in the north for forty shillings.

In 1322, Robert Bruce burned Rose Castle; and in 1345,
during an incursion of a large Scottish army into Cumberland,
Penrith was burnt, and many of the inhabitants carried into
captivity.

During a truce between the English and Scottish nations in
1380, the Scots passing by Carlisle laid waste the Forest of Ingle-
wood, where, says Dr. Todd, “they seized 4000 cattle.” In the
reign of Henry VI., inroads, or forays—as they were termed—were
numerous, and attended with increased destruction ; and so con-
tinued to the reign of Henry VIII., by whom it was disforested.

In 1229, Henry III. granted by charter the manor to Walter
Malclerck, Lord Treasurer of England and Bishop of Carlisle, and
to his successors there, with authority to make parks, and to possess
the manor as a forest of their own, with all the privileges of a
Royal Forest, forbidding all others to sport within its limits, under
penalty of the payment of ten pounds.

In 1374, Bishop Appleby’s Register says :—‘ Several unknown
persons have broken into the Bishop’s park at Rose, and (with
dogs and nets) have killed and carried off great numbers of his
deer, and an injunction has been sent out to the neighbouring
clergy, requiring them to denounce all such offenders.”

In the year 1300, King Edward I. took up his abode at Rose.
It is related in the chronicle of Lanercost, that “he hunted in the
Forest of Inglewood, where he took two hundred bucks and does.”
Edward also granted all the extra-parochial tithes of the Forest of

10

146

Inglewood to the Priory of St. Mary’s, Carlisle, for the good of his
soul, and the soul of his wife, Eleanor, of famous memory, some
time Queen Consort, and the souls of all his ancestors and
successors. :

In 1345, it appears from the Patent Rolls that W. de Langley,
High Bailiff of the Forest of Inglewood, was sworn before King
Edward the Third, that as often as it shall tend to the King’s
honour, he will grant a day’s coursing of deer and other game to
knights and gentlemen, to ladies and other noble persons. In the
eighth year of Henry the Fifth, Thomas, Lord Dacre, had a grant
of the office of Chief Forester; and in the ninth of Edward the
Fourth, Humphrey, Baron Dacre of the north, was appointed to
that office for life.

About 1547, among the fees and emoluments received by the
Lord Warden of the West Marches, was—‘the receipt of the
Queen’s lands, called the Queen’s Hames, and Forest of Inglewood,
with the Stewardship of the forest there.

In 1696, the Forest, with appurtenances, was granted by
William the Third to William Bentinck, First Earl of Portland,
whose family retained it till 1787, when it was purchased by the
Duke of Devonshire, whose descendants, as Lords of the Honour
of Penrith, have paramount authority over the Manor of Inglewood
Forest.

Of the many places of interest within the boundary of the
Forest, perhaps the most classical—but now no longer to be found
—is Tarn Wadling; and Castle Hewen, traditionally said to have
been a fortress belonging to Ewain, King of Cumberland, but more
celebrated as the reputed residence of Sir Gawaine, who conquered
King Arthur by enchantment, so that his sinews lost their strength,
and his arms sank powerless at his side. The giant seems to have
been of stature almost as gigantic as the famous Sir Hugh Cesar,
who is said to be buried at Penrith.

At Tarne Wadling his castle stands,
Near to that lake so fair,

And proudlye rise the battlements,
And streamers deck the air,

147

No gentle knighte, nor lady gay,
May pass that castle-walle :

But from that foule discourteous knighte
Mishappe will them befall.

Hee’s twyce the size of common men,
Wi’ thewes and sinewes stronge,

And on his back he bears a clubbe,
That is both thicke and longe.

Tarn Wadling was drained in 1858 at the instance of Lord
Lonsdale ; and what was once a place of attraction to shooters of
wild fowl, anglers for carp, and gatherers of cranberries, is now a
broad expanse of cultivated ground.

Of the ancient trees near Hesket, there stands the “'Thorn of
Ransom,” or Court Thorn, on the stone beneath whose branches
annually, on the feast of St. Barnabas (June 11th), have assembled
for unnumbered years the tenants of upwards of twenty manors,
from whom a jury was impannelled and sworn, of which Dr. Hugh
Todd says, the Chamberlain of Carlisle anciently was foreman.
Here were paid the annual dues to the Bow Bearer of Inglewood
Forest.

Mr. T. Denton, writing in 1688, says that the townships of the
north and the west parts of the Forest meet in the morning, the
Chamberlain of Carlisle being foreman of their jury; the townships
of the south and the east parts in the afternoon, the Bailiff of
Penrith being foreman. He describes the courts as being like the
Swain-Mote courts used in other forests.

In Castle Sowerby there is a lofty hill called Castle Hill,
which is part of one of the ten principal estates in the parish
formerly called Red Spears. The owners of these lands did their

_ singular service of riding through the town of Penrith on Whit-

2

a

Tuesday, brandishing their spears. The spears were about nine
feet in length, and until within this century some of them remained
in the proprietors’ houses, where they were usually deposited.
_ These Red Spears were sureties to the Sheriff for the peaceable

_ behaviour of the rest of the inhabitants. The ancient owners of

vy
af

the estate now particularly noted, annually served as jurors at the

_ Forest Court, by which they were exempted from all parish offices.

148

Dr. Lonsdale* says that ‘‘ Thackwood was one of the spear houses
of the Honor of Penrith.” On every Whit-Tuesday, the holders
of these houses made their appearance at the Forest Courts, and
they headed the procession which opened Penrith Fair, brandishing
their spears to defy and to deter marauders. They were in fact
conservators of the peace, as well as military tenants, and they
were charged with the maintenance of good order in their respective
districts.

Over the front entrance of Thackwood, and standing out
from the roof, is a small figure of a man holding a spear, and
tradition yet repeats the cry—

**Ride on! ride on! and turn Dob’s Hill,”

which we may fancy to have risen in days of yore, whilst the Red
Spears, with their followers, started from Thackwood to scour the
country of marauders, or to muster the population to the peaceful
gatherings of court or market.” Dobs Cross, on Broadfield, is
supposed to have its name from Dobs Hill, upon which it stands.

In the Parish of Dalston, near Hawksdale lodge, is the
remains of a fine old oak called “Barras Tree.” We are told that
a bar extended from Dalston Hall to Cumdivock—a distance of
three miles—raised for the purpose of protection against the
incursions of the Scotch. Near this encampment were erected
several bar houses, occupied by people whose duty it was to give
the alarm on the approach of the enemy, by the ringing of bells
and blowing of trumpets, on the sound of which the inhabitants
drove their cattle behind the bar for safety. In Dalston parish we
have such names as Bishop’s Dyke, some remains of which are in
a field opposite Dalston Hall. Then there is Barras Lonning,
Barras Gate, Barras Brow, Trumpet Croft, Bell Gate, and Glavet
Hill, which signifies sword hill, g/ave being the name for the long
sword, hence Glave Hill may be supposed to have been a hill
where military exercises, or executions, took place. In the

* Lonsdale’s Memoir of W. Blamire, Esq., p. 8.

+ Glaive—A cutting instrument used by infantry, and believed to have
originated from the Celtic custom of fixing a sword to the end of a pole as a
defensive weapon against cavalry.

| 149

- adjoining parish of Orton, an iron chain went across the road,
which was locked every night, and was called Barras Gate.
Next there is the venerable oak now the property of John
_ Richardson, Esq.; a tree that induced the Blamires to change
the name of their homestead in 1790 from Hollin Bush to The
Oaks, on the same day that the venerable Paley christened their
son William—of future fame as one of the foremost statesmen of
Cumberland. The tree at The Oaks is about three feet from the
ground, and nineteen feet in girth. By the road side, between
Hawksdale and Rose Castle, is a fine old gnarled oak, twenty-one
feet in circumference.

At Armathwaite Castle, John Thomlinson, Esq. informs me
there are some very fine old trees ; one in particular, whose history
is apparently lost; but it is a magnificent oak, carefully, and very
cleverly, bound with iron hoops or bands, and is well worthy the
attention of this Society when they visit Armathwaite.

On the margin of Wragmire Moss there stood, till 1823, a
a well known oak, said to be the last tree of Inglewood Forest,
which had survived the blasts of seven or eight hundred years.
This time-honoured tree was remarkable, not only for the beauty
of its wood, but for being the boundary mark between the respective
Manors of the Duke of Devonshire and the Dean and Chapter of

_ Carlisle; as also between the parishes of Hesket and St. Cuthbert’s,
Carlisle ; and as such was noticed for upwards of six hundred
years.* Mr. Jefferson says it fell, not by the tempest or by the axe,
but from sheer old age. This happened on the 13th June, 1823.

_ He goes on to say that—“ under its spreading branches may have
reposed the victorious Edward the First; and perhaps, at a later
period, John de Corbrig, the poor hermit of Wragmire, may have

counted his beads beneath its shade.
From the almost universal opinion that the Wragmire Oak
_ was the last tree that remained of the once famous Forest of Ingle-
wood, I beg strongly to dissent. There are here in the Rose
holms three trees, magnificent ruins of what, centuries ago, must
have been fine members of the sylvan family. And if we believe
that

* Jefferson’s Leath Ward.

150

The monarch oak, the patriarch of trees,

Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees ;

Three centuries he grows, and three he stays

Supreme in state, and in three more decays, —
we shall have no difficulty in placing these three amongst the last
trees of Inglewood Forest. The one nearest Rose bridge, between
five and six feet from the ground, is eighteen feet in girth; the
middle one, from five to six feet up, is twenty-one feet in circum-
ference ; and the one nearest Holm Hill, thirteen feet six inches
in girth. Knotted and gnarled the trunks of them truly are, for
for the upper branches have long since disappeared. Long may
their remains stand to be ornaments to ‘“Cauda’s sweet valley.”
When we remember that many a band of outlaws found refuge in
the Forest; and many a holy man, disgusted with the world around
him, also sought refuge there. Dalston had its hermitage, which
in 1343 was occupied by a recluse called Hugh de Lilford. Strangely
has the country altered since then: the old forests are gone, and
the sound of industry is now heard instead of the hunter’s horn.

DISTRIBUTION OF BOULDERS IN WEST
CUMBERLAND.

By J. D. KENDALL, C.E., E.G.S,

HON, SEC, OF THE ASSOCIATION,

(Read at Maryport General Meeting. )

THE remarks which I am about to submit for your consideration
have reference to a subject which, as many of you will be aware, is
engaging a large share of the attention of geologists. Most of
you, I suppose, have noticed the superficial accumulations of sand,
gravel, and clay, stuck full of boulders, which, in discontinuous
patches of various thicknesses, extend over the greater part of the
_low ground of this district. Similar accumulations are found over
the principal part of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as in the
north of Europe, Asia, and America. <A few years ago these
upper deposits, like the old slaty rocks of pre-Devonian age, were
almost entirely avoided on account of the difficulty attending their
study. Now they are the two most active fields of geological
investigation. It is, however, only with the former that we are
concerned at present ; and it is somewhat curious to observe how,
as in most other branches of geological study, the development of
thought in connection with these superficial accumulations has
gradually tended towards simplification, by substituting for the
cataclysms of the earlier geologists such operations as we now see
Y going on around us. Many curious speculations have been in-
7 dulged in at different times as to the origin of the deposits under
_ Consideration, but with those I do not propose to deal ; suffice it

152

to say that the outcome of all the investigations hitherto made is,
that these Boulder clays, sands, and gravels are due to ice-action ;
that they were formed at a time when the countries where they
occur were swathed in one mass of ice as Greenland is to-day.

This is the general conclusion of geologists, but there are
very great differences of opinion between them as to the precise
manner in which the ice acted. Those differences arise mainly on
the relative importance attached to the parts played by glaciers
on the one hand, and by icebergs and floebergs on the other.
My object at present is not to discuss the merits or demerits of the
different views set forth by the numerous writers on the subject,
but rather to place before you a number of relative facts which
have come under my own observation in the course of numerous
perambulations through West Cumberland.

In looking at a section of sand and gravel, or of boulder clay,
as laid open in a railway cutting, a stream side, or along the sea
shore, almost the first thing that would strike a curious observer is
the many different kinds of rock which it contains in the form
of boulders. If he be well acquainted with the rocks in the im-
mediate neighbourhood of the section, most likely he will be able
to identify many of the boulders ; but there will almost certainly
be a great many others which he cannot identify, unless he has
travelled and observed far afield. Should he, however, happen to
recognise some of the farther-travelled ones, doubtless a very
curious train of thought will be aroused, and he will be greatly
puzzled as to how those boulders have come to be where he sees
them. Geologists who have made the matter a study, are agreed
that they have been brought there through the agency of ice; but
there is much difference of opinion as to the form of that ice,
some contending that it acted as glaciers, whilst others are favour-
able to icebergs and floebergs. Such being the case, it is somewhat
remarkable that there should be so little known as there is
regarding the distribution of boulders; for many boulders have
such a distinct character, that it becomes possible to trace out
almost exactly the course they must have taken in travelling from
their parent rock to the position they now occupy; so that by

1538

accumulating a sufficient quantity of evidence of this sort, we
should be in a position to say whether the ice by which the
boulders were transported acted as glaciers or as bergs; because,
so far as the dispersal of boulders is concerned, there is a very
marked difference in the action of ice under these two conditions.

This is the sort of evidence that I propose to lay before you
now, but only so far as the Glacial deposits of West Cumberland
are concerned, which of course are but a very small part of the
whole ; but still, I think we may derive from them many valuable
hints.

In several parts of the Lake District, occupying very limited
areas, there are rocks which present such peculiar features, that
once you become thoroughly acquainted with them, they may be
recognised anywhere. One of these rocks occurs as a vein on
the side of Helvellyn and Armboth Fell. It is a quartz-felsite,
containing beautiful pink crystals of felspar. Boulders of this
rock occur all the way down St. John’s Vale to Threlkeld, where
the stream seems to have been split, one part going westward, as
far as Keswick, the other turning towards Troutbeck. There a
further division of the boulder stream takes place, and we find
some of them on the way towards Penrith, whilst others have turned
round the eastern side of Blencathra, through the valley which
extends from Troutbeck by Mungrisdale to Caldbeck. Then I
have found them at Carlisle, Aspatria, Maryport, Flimby, St. Bees,
and Ravenglass. Nowhere, so far as I know, do they occur at a
greater altitude than 1200 feet above the sea level.

Another rock equally distinct in character, and also a quartz-
felsite, occurs on each side of the northern end of St. John’s Vale.
Boulders of this rock are found westward down the valley as far as
Keswick ; and eastward, beyond Troutbeck, on the way to Penrith.
They also occur in abundance in the Mosedale Valley, on the east
of Blencathra ; and I have found them at Carlisle, Bullgill, Flimby,
and St. Bees ; whilst Mr. Goodchild, of the Geological Survey, has
found them in the Vale of Eden, near Brough. A rounded boulder
of this rock found in the gravel-pit at Bullgill Station is about two
feet six inches in diameter.

154

On the east side of Carrock Fell there is a mass of granitic-
looking rock called Hypersthenite. Fragments of this rock can
readily be detected wherever they are seen. They are plentiful in
the Vale of Caldew north of Linewath, but I have not found any

to the south of that place. I have also found them at Carlisle, |

Flimby, St. Bees, Salter Hall, Braystones, and Sellafield.

Around the granite bosses of Skiddaw Forest and the upper
Caldew there occurs a curious looking rock called Spotted Schist,
boulders of which occur on every side of the cluster of hills formed
by Skiddaw, Blencathra, Carrock, and the Caldbeck Fells. I
have also found them at Maryport, Flimby, St. Bees, Moresby
Parks, Ennerdale Bridge, Braystones, and Sellafield.

Another stone of peculiar appearance is the Syenite of
Buttermere and Ennerdale, than which no rock in the district,
that can be identified, has given off a larger number of boulders.
They are scattered over the ground everywhere, in fact, from the
Vale of Lorton to the Bleng, and from the level of the sea shore
to an altitude of 2000 feet. On the lower ground they may be
found all the way from Carlisle on the north, to Millom on the
south ; and Mr. Goodchild has, I believe, found them on the top
of Stainmoor, in Yorkshire. If so, they must have gone round the
north side of Caldbeck Fells.* Probably also they made their way
beyond Carlisle through the Tyne Valley to the East Coast.t
They are also plentiful in Furness.

Another easily recognised rock is the Eskdale Granite, which,
as its name indicates, occurs about Eskdale. Boulders of this
rock are numerous in the Valleys of the Mite and Esk, and south
wards along the lower ground to Millom, and even into Furness.
On the side of Black Comb, they occur as high as 1000 feet above
the sea. Northwards from the mouth of the Mite, I have not

been able to find any.
From Millom northwards to Carlisle, along the low ground
between the western and northern hills of the Lake Country and

* Ennerdale Syenite is common in the drifts all through the Eden Valley
from Stainmoor to Carlisle. (Ed.)

+ Since this was written, I have found St. John’s Quartz Felsite and
Ennerdale Syenite at Haydon Bridge, which is some miles to the cast of the
water-shed of the Tyne valley.

Bela o's

a EEE EE eee

155

the sea, there occur numerous boulders of a grey granite, which,
so far as I can make out, is found zz sifu only about Criffel, in the
south of Scotland. Many of these boulders are of considerable
size, especially north of Maryport; and some of them are very
much decomposed, in which state they frequently contain Ver-
miculite.

We have now obtained an approximate idea of the courses
taken by some of the boulders of this district whilst being trans
ported from their native rock, but there is one very important
point yet to notice. In examining the boulders in Whicham
Valley, I found Eskdale and Criffel Granite, Ennerdale Syenite
and St. Bees Sandstone, as far up the valley as Whicham Hall,
which is about a mile up from the mouth of the valley. The icy
stream by which these boulders were borne must therefore have
made a right-angled turn round the south end of Black Comb, for
none of them can have come down the valley, as there is no rock
of any of the kinds mentioned in that direction. The boulder
current has also been deflected in a similar manner up the Vale of
Duddon, and also towards the head of Ennerdale, for at the south
end of that Lake there are numerous boulders of St. Bees- and
Whitehaven Sandstones, Carboniferous Limestone, various Coal

‘Measure rocks, and Criffel Granite. These rocks must have been

carried round the south end of Kelton Fell, as none of them
occur 7 situ farther up the valley, and the nearest of them any-
where, is from two to three miles away to the westward.

Again, in Cogra Valley there has been a similar movement
up-hill, for we find boulders of Carboniferous Limestone resting on
Skiddaw Slate, nearly at the top end of the valley. Some of the
boulders are very large, and many of them are severely glaciated.
They occur both in tough boulder clay and directly on the bare
slate. Up the sides of the valley I have found them at an altitude
of 1100 feet. One, in the mouth of the Wisenholm Valley, at an
altitude of about eight hundred feet, measures 8‘ x 5‘ x 4\, and
would weigh about eleven tons. There is no rock of this kind iz
situ at an altitude anything approaching this nearer than Caldbeck.
But the most remarkable feature of these boulders is, that they

156

must have gone up the valley, that is, in a direction from the low
ground fringing the sea shore, towards the hill tops, whilst at the
same time they occur in true till or Boulder Clay. These facts
place us on the threshold of a most interesting discussion, but
time will not allow us to enter. Mr. James Geike, in his “Great
Ice Age,” has put forward an explanation of the till or lower
boulder clay, which I think he would find difficult to reconcile
with these facts; indeed, I am strongly of opinion that they
disprove his explanation altogether.

A fact of considerable importance in connection with the
boulders of every kind hitherto mentioned is, that they occur
indiscriminately in the Upper and Lower Boulder Clays, in the
middle sands and gravels, and on the surface.

Another somewhat curious fact in connection with the subject
may be mentioned, and then I have done. On the Watershed
between the head of Uldale and Ennerdale, just opposite Enner-
dale Bridge, and not far from Cockhow, about seven hundred
feet above the level of the sea, there is an immense accumulation
of gravel, consisting of Whitehaven- and St. Bees Sandstones,
Carboniferous Limestone, Syenite, Lavas and Ashes, Skiddaw
Slates, and several Coal Measure rocks. The underlying strata
are Skiddaw Slate, and there is no Carboniferous Limestone,
St. Bees or Whitehaven Sandstone, or in fact any other Coal
Measure rock within two or three miles, and there is none at the
same or a higher level within five miles, that is, on Dean Moor,
between which place and the gravel deposit under consideration,
ground several hundred feet lower intervenes. But the most
remarkable thing is, that although this gravel has been carried up
to such a height, and deposited on the hill top, none of it seems
to have gone over the watershed into Uldale. I examined the
upper part of that valley most carefully, but only found a single
piece of St. Bees Sandstone, and that was so small, and lying in
such a position, that I prefer to leave it out of consideration, as it
might very possibly have been conveyed there by human agency.
What makes the absence from Uldale of rocks such as St. Bees-
and Whitehaven Sandstones still more noticeable is, that there are

157

boulders “of those rocks on the side of Dent, two hundred feet
above the level of the watershed of the valley that runs through
between Dent and Kinniside to join Uldale. The reason of this
curious disposition of the boulders we cannot now undertake to
consider, nor can we enter upon the many trains of thought
suggested by the facts that have been brought forward. The
subject of which the distribution of boulders forms a part, has now
become so much elaborated by the combined efforts of its numerous .
investigators, that I should have to trespass too much on your
time were I to attempt an explanation of the many facts that have
just been reviewed. I prefer therefore to leave them at present
for each to interpret and correlate for himself. On some future
occasion I hope to return to the subject.

woh Vit owe ga Hii nfies adh, ie Woatig aN
beers; shuld goatee: ach tae ais
shte Shania sat Pe wat Wey
Bit stsrei get =e re

wey

ptt

rid '
70 We aR

*

a i? +

159

WATER AND AIR: THEIR RELATIONS TO
HEALTH OR DISEASE.

By WILLIAM H. WATSON, F.C.S., F.M.S., &c,

(Read at Whitehaven. )

IN tracing the progress of scientific knowledge, we find that it has
been very gradual ; that many theories have been advanced which
the light of future discovery has shown to be incorrect, and that
in no branch of science is this more noticeable than in regard to
matters concerning health. It would be wrong, however, to rashly
dispute fresh theories, or cast hasty rebukes in the paths of Science;
but we should first carefully investigate them by experiment and
reasoning.

There is in scientific matters—as in any other, where from
apparent uncertainties a difference of opinion may exist—much
harm done by the expression of ideas without sufficient enquiry,
and we shall also understand the erroneous impressions which
those opinions may raise, especially when they emanate from those
who hold official positions in the particular direction of the
“enquiry.

I have chosen for my remarks to-night the subject of Water
and Air, and their Relation to Health or Disease, for three reasons:
first, because the question of water-supply is a favourite one in
this district at the present time; second, because I have been
paying special attention to the question of water and air analysis ;
and third, it is a matter connected with everyday life; and
although I may not say it is always an interesting one, yet it is
certainly one of great importance.

160

Dr. Lyon Playfair a few years ago, when addressing a meeting
on Social Science, made a remark which may well be repeated in
introducing to you this subject. He said, “ Hypocrates was the
first to write a book on public health, and he took for his text,
‘Pure air, pure water, and a pure soil’ ;—so that the moderns,
after an age or more of ignorant neglect of his teachings, have
arrived at the same essential conditions of health.”

We can scarcely take up a newspaper at present without
finding much space devoted to the question of water supply ; and
in the scientific journals we frequently find interesting matters in
connection with the same subject; so that we may conclude from
this alone that it is one of general importance, increasing with the
increase of population, and one which is receiving attention from
those who are able to comprehend the importance of it.

Again, considering the gigantic schemes for the supply of
water to Manchester, from Thirlmere ; to Liverpool, from one of
the Welsh rivers; and, indeed, the question of National Water
Supply, under the consideration of the Society of Arts, we may at
least apprehend the fact that expense is of secondary consideration
to the matter of having a constant supply of wholesome water at
the command of every inhabitant of our large towns.

While, then, the supply of wholesome water is of public
importance, it is evidently desirable that the conditions and im-
purities which render it unwholesome should be more generally
understood. We cannot safely act without reason.

It is certain that at the present time we have in almost every
direction a great deal of theory, but too little practice; and in
regard to sanitary matters, Punch some weeks ago gave a striking
illustration where a sea-side visitor, who had evidently studied the
science of health, fully appreciated the delicious aroma of what
was supposed to be the healthful iodine from the sea, but which
on enquiry of a well-seasoned resident, was found to be due to the
“town drains as flowed out just there” !

Certainly the bases of continued health are—pure air and
pure water; but it is impossible to secure these absolutely—and
especially the former—by any method of legislation, unless the
people understand and endeavour, from their own desire, to avoid

161

the sources of air and water pollution, which by simple negligence
may, and no doubt do, frequently exist.

Impure water and air are not only the cause of epidemic
diseases, but they frequently lay the foundation for those which
become hereditary. And with regard to the former (as I wish to
discuss the question chiefly from a chemical point, being that which
I have especially studied), it will be easiest for me first, to show
the substances which, when present in water, are liable to produce
or to propagate such disease ; and then, by statistics, to trace the
relation of polluted water to the production of it, so far as has
been actually proved.

In the first place, then, it may be stated that for several years,
and especially during very recent years, physiologists and chemists
have been investigating, not so much the treatment of disease, as
the more important matters connected with its cause and preven-
tion. They have examined the air and water where disease
existed, with the view of determining what additional substances
they contained and which were not present in ordinary fresh air and
water. ‘Their experiments have been successful in many instances,
and they have obtained conclusive results which show that many
diseases are produced or spread in the form of epidemics by living
particles of an exceedingly minute size; these being often conveyed
long distances by the media of air and water, and entering the
living organism, they are rapidly reproduced, and in this way
seriously influence the ordinary vital functions. We find the
action of these germs in the body to be one of fermentation ;
such an action as takes place in the brewing of beer (though,
unfortunately, the result cannot be so much appreciated)—and it
is from this fact that certain diseases have been called zymotic.

These diseases may again be classed into at least two different
forms, according to the manner in which they are spread. The
ordinary fevers may be taken as a class spreading by the germs
passing directly into the blood through the lungs, or, by contagion,
through the skin ; while cholera and typhoid fever may be taken
as examples of another, in which the germs do not act by immediate

contact with the blood, but by passing through the stomach into
ll

162

the intestinal canal. Hydrophobia may be taken as an example
of what I wish to express, although, of course, a perfectly distinct
disease. A person bitten by a dog suffering from hydrophobia is
innoculated with the poison by its being directly conveyed to the
circulation by the bite, and the result would be, in all probability,
fatal; but if the same virus had even been swallowed, it would
have had no effect. And what do we find? When a person is
bitten in this way, instinct tells him to suck the wound, and it is
unquestionable that if this could be done immediately, it would
be a successful antidote, inasmuch as it would remove the poison
from the circulation, while it would have no effect even if swal-
lowed.

You will observe, therefore, why it is concluded that certain
zymotic diseases are chiefly spread by air, while others are spread
by water, because the germs of the one—the former—act when
they enter the blood direct, while those of the other act after
passing through the stomach.

The question of the production of cholera, from its evident
connection with impure water, has lately engaged the attention of
chemists and microscopists very much. I shall endeavour to state
briefly the conclusions which have been arrived at. The most
serious outbreaks occurred in the years 1832, 1849, 1854, and
1866, and London in each case suffered; so that the fact may be
stated by the way, that rivers and wells were the sources of the
water-supply, and that both were of an inferior character, The
conclusions arrived at on the first occasion may be passed over,
but on the second—in the year 1849—we find that Dr. Snow —
made an important observation. He found that the water derived
from a certain well had in many instances been the immediate
channel through which the contagion had been conveyed. This
was no doubt one of the first matters which brought the relation
of water to disease prominently forward, and suggested the
importance of water-analysis ; though the latter cannot be said to
have been much attended to till later years. More recently Mr.
Simon, the Medical Officer of the Privy Council, remarking on
this subject, says, “It is, I believe, a matter of absolute demon-

163

stration, that in the old epidemics, when the south-side of London
suffered so dreadfully from cholera, the great cause of the mortality
there was the badness of the water distributed in those districts
of London. In the interval between the 1849 and the 1854
' epidemics, one of the companies which supply the south side of
London with water had amended its source of supply; it had gone
higher up the river, and we at once lost a great part of the mortality
on that side of the river. But it was found that this great difference .
did not prevail uniformly through the south side of London, but
was confined to those houses which were supplied from the
amended source. There was still a great mortality on the south
side of the river, but this belonged exclusively to the houses which
were still supplied with impure water.” Again, he says, “The
area of intense cholera in 1866 was almost exactly the area of the
East London Water-supply.”

During the period between the 1832 and the 1866 epidemics,
the water-supply of the metropolis underwent important changes;
and summarising the facts shown by the whole of the epidemics,
we have figures as in

TABLE I,

Deaths from
WATER SUPPLY Total Mortality | Cholera per 10,000
from Cholera of Population

Epidemic of 1832.—Polluted ... at 5,275
Do. 1849.—Very much Polluted 14,137

Do. 1854.—Less Polluted me 10, 738

Do. 1866.—Much less Polluted... 5,596

A very valuable report was made last August by Surgeon-
Major Townsend, on an epidemic which visited the Central
Provinces of India in the years 1875 and 1876. I shall give you
his conclusions, because they are important in connection with the
chemistry of the subject. He discards the theories usually held
in that country as to atmospheric, fungoid, and miasmatic

164

influences, and describes the disease as produced by “a poison
which is generated in the bodies of those who suffer from the
disease, but which is capable of “ving, and probably of muz/tiplying,
in water containing decomposing organic matter.

Briefly, I may say that this disease (cholera) is now under-
stood to be generally conveyed by water containing its germs ;
and although no means are yet known by which these germs—or
any other disease germs—may be detected, except by their actual
influence upon persons exposed to them, yet chemistry enables us
to say when water contains substances which usually accompany
them, and which assist in their re-production. This branch of
chemistry—the analytical examination of potable water—is one
which has very properly received, and is still receiving, a great
amount of consideration.

The questions to be asked are—
(1) WHaT IS WHOLESOME WATER? and
(2) How MAY WE KNOW WHEN WATER IS WHOLESOME ?

Pure water, such as we prepare by distilling that which we
have in abundance around us, is composed of two gases—oxygen
and hydrogen, chemically combined ; but when we examine such
water as we have about us in wells or streams, we find it to contain
other substances in greater or less proportions; and it is to the
quantity and character—more especially the character—of these
additional substances that the purity or otherwise, the suitability
or otherwise, of the water for domestic use is due. Thus, by
analysing a sample of water, and determining the amount and
character of the additional substances, we obtain a knowledge
which may enable us to say whether it is suitable for drinking
purposes or not.

The purest form of natural water is that which falls in the
country either as snow, hail, or rain; but as soon as it reaches
the earth, it begins to dissolve various substances from it, which
too often, when drunk, are injurious. The artificial constructions
of man, so various and so numerous, first render the soil impure,
and then the soil contaminates the water he has to drink. The
water of deep wells is often purified from the surface pollutions by
the deep strata through which it has passed; and in this district
this is often the case. I have received samples of exceptional

165

purity obtained from wells in the high lying country in the
neighbourhood of Gosforth ; and although sa//ow wells are at all
times dangerous as sources of water-supply, yet there are many
situations in this district where individual houses might be well
supplied with excellent water by sinking deep wells.

Examining the rain as the source of water-supply, we find it
differs considerably in regard to its purity in different localities.
Of course, the rain falling in the thick and much-polluted atmo-
spheres of manufacturing towns is very different from that which
falls in this district, where almost the only impurity is’ the spray
which comes over from the sea, varying in amount according to
the direction and force of the winds.

Table II. shows the average impurities in rain-water from
various districts per 1,000,000 parts as found by Dr. Angus
Smith,

Taste II.

Where Collected

Sulphuric Acid
(Anhydrous)
Sulphuric Acid
for each 100 of
Hydrochloric Acid
Free Acids
calculated as
Sulphuric
Nitric Acid

Hydrochloric
Acid
Organic Ammonia

Ireland, Valencia

nN
~I
Ww

Scotland, five coast
country places, west

ow
ON
)

Scotland, eight sea
coast country places,
east

~sI
fo,)
ON

Scotland, twelve in-
land country places

England, twelve in-
land country places

Scotland, six towns

Darmstadt

London
Manchester

Glasgow

166

I shall draw more especial attention to these figures in
reference to the air, for they show the comparative impurity of the
air in different localities ; but in examining the rain further, it may
be interesting to show the considerable difference in the compo-
sition of the rain in this district at different periods and in different
situations. The difference is due chiefly to the varying extent of
contamination by sea-spray. Some time ago I constructed gauges
at different places in order to determine the amount of saline
matter carried in the air from the sea, and thus conveyed to the
land. I found marked differences with only slight alterations of
situation. Thus—

Parts per 100,000.

Collected about 400 yards Collected nearly one mile

from the sea, - from the sea.
Sodium Chloride 12°20 ao 2°45
Magnesium Chloride 3°43 su 0°67

Again, according to the stormy character of the weather, we have
variations in the composition of the rain in different months; and
occasionally it is very considerably contaminated with ordinary
saline substances, such as common salt. Thus—

Grains per Gallon. 1876.

——

Total Solids... aie ..-| 4:000 | 5°173 | 4°666 | 2°710

Loss on Ignition pa ...| 0°014 | 0017 | 0:010 | 0:010 | 0:100

Fixed solid residue... ...| 3°986 | 5°156 | 4:656 | 2°700 | 6636

Chlorine, equal to Sodium : : : : ;
ae 1-092 | 2-135 | 1480 | 0-786 | 2:847

The rain is in every case our primary source of water-supply,
for whether we collect the water which falls on the roofs of houses,
or from streams and rivers, or from deep or shallow wells, it is
only rain more or less contaminated since it has fallen. Mr. G. J.
Symons, F.R.S., who has obtained for several years rainfall statistics

167

throughout the British Isles, excepting from the Isle of Man, where
he says the returns are imperfect,—informed me last year that he
considered the average annual rainfall of the British Isles to be
thirty-seven inches. Now, in the mountainous districts of this
county, frequently one hundred and sixty inches fall, and we
consequently possess special advantages for supplying towns with
water, and our attention has simply to be paid to the best methods
of collecting it.

One inch of rainfall amounts to 22,622 gallons per acre,
and, therefore, multiplying 22,622 by 3734 (the average annual
rainfall), we have 848,325 gallons of rain per acre annually.
This is a considerable quantity, and if properly collected in country
villages, would afford a good supply of wholesome water. The
question is, How can this be collected in a pure state?

Mr. H. S. Wallis, Mr. Shirley Hibberd, and others, have
recently suggested the desirability of collecting the rain on the
roofs of houses as a supply for general domestic and drinking
purposes; but it is evident that before this suggestion can be
adopted, additional methods must be used for preventing the
pollution which at present exists in rain-water collected in this
manner. No doubt, however, attention may with advantage be
given to this question, for the cost of a general supply of water
from a distant source is heavy on small isolated householders in
tural districts, and a supply in this way is therefore not agreeably
accepted. I believe Mr. Symons discussed this subject in his
address on “Water Economy” before the Sanitary Institute. I
have not yet seen it, but it is published in the pamphlet form by
Stanford, of Charing: cross.

Although rain-water collected in country districts and pre-
vented from contamination by decaying vegetable matter, &c.,
must beyond doubt be of the highest degree of purity, yet the taste
of it is familiar to us as being disagreeably “flat.” This is due to
its being “soft,” and not aérated 3 but on that account it is not
injurious, and this fault might be remedied. Moderately hard water
is pleasanter to the taste, and often quite as wholesome, as soft water,
So that within certain limits the hardness or softness of a water does

168

not determine its value for drinking purposes. Water, however,
for the supply of a town should be as soft as possible, care being
taken that the supply pipes are not made of lead—soft water
having a solvent action on that metal. The arguments of certain
medical authorities as to the necessity of hard water—since by
using soft water we should loose the salts of lime which go so
largely to the production of bone—require only to be considered
to be neglected ; for it is certain that we have in our ordinary
articles of food a sufficiency of the lime salts in a form well
adapted for assimilation.

The substances which are especially injurious in water are
those of an organic nature; but organic matter varies very much
in character, and it is therefore necessary to make distinctions.
Some kinds of organic matter are perfectly innocuous, while others
are poisonous. The questions of the classification of organic
matters found in water, the relation of different forms to disease,
and the accurate determination of the quantity, are therefore very
important, for they provide the chief data by which we may
conclude as to the suitability of water for drinking purposes.

If the organic matter is of animal origin, by the use of that
water we should incur great risk; but if it is due to peat or other
vegetable substance of the same nature, we have not much to fear,
because a little peat in water is perfectly innocuous. Let us clearly
understand that the za¢ure of the organic matter must be considered
before we can say that it is injurious. In this district much
discussion has arisen as to the various supplies of water which
may be obtained for different townships, and the question of
quality has been several times raised, owing to the presence of a
little peat in some of the samples sent me for analysis. It may there-
fore be interesting here to state that the results of investigations have
repeatedly shown that peat is not injurious, while, on the other hand, it
is an antiseptic, and prevents the production of animalculz. Some
time ago I read of an instance of the body of a man being found
in a perfect state of preservation in a wild moor in Scotland, buried
in peat, and from his dress and other circumstances afterwards
discovered, it was believed that he had been buried there thirty or
forty years.

169

Do not expect to find peaty water when drunk to prolong
life in a similar way! but I mention this circumstance to show
that it is an antiseptic, and of a2 very different nature to putrid
organic matter, which has especially to be guarded against in
potable water.

If we wish for soft water from hilly country districts, we must
be content to have a little organic matter in the form of peat along
with it, which gives to the water a colour more or less brown,
according to the quantity present. The colour is objectionable,
but this is the worst feature.

Organic matters are capable of being oxidised by certain
substances which contain oxygen, and based upon this fact we
have a test which may be applied along with others in the examin-
ation of potable water. It cannot be used as a decisive test alone,
but having obtained results by other methods, this is often useful
as an additional one. (Experiments. )

Water, however pure, when exposed to the air in summer,
may become more or less contaminated with minute organisms ;
and if organic matter be also present, it will be, by the influence
of warmth, subject to putrefaction or fermentation. Peat is an
exception.

By the influence of these organisms, the putrefactive changes
rapidly spread, and the multiplication of the organisms themselves
is almost inconceivably rapid.

Animal organic matter is characterised by the presence of
nitrogen, so that we oftentimes find in addition to the free nitrogen
in absorption in water in the gaseous form from the air, nitrates
and nitrites, free ammonia, and nitrogen, in combination with the
elements carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen ; this last class of nitro-
genous body being well represented by albumen, or the white of
egg. In analysing a water, it is necessary to look for these forms
of nitrogen, and we expect to answer whether the water contains
nitrogenous organic matter, and whether it is putrid. It would
take much time to explain the details of the analytical processes
which may be adopted, and, indeed, to attempt to do so here
would be very unnecessary. Briefly, I may point out, as a general

170

Water-Supply

Bolton
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Chester
Birkenhead ...

Scarborough...

Well at Oak Bank, Whitehaven ...

Well near Egremont

Wells in country, about one mile from sea

do. do.
do. do.
do. do.

Well Water above Gosforth—A ...
Do. do. —B-.a

Drinking Fountain at Holm Rook

principle, that when nitrogenous organic matters (animal substances
for instance) decompose, or become putrid, ammonia is formed
along with other compounds, so that it is simply necessary to
determine the amount of free ammonia in a sample of water as an
index of the decayed organic matter, while the nitrogenous, or
animal, matter, zo¢ decayed, may be arrived at by decomposing it
artificially, and then by determining the amount of ammonia which
it has produced.

Based upon this principle of analysis, the results, as in
Table III., have been obtained from various samples of water.
TABLE III.

In 100 Million parts
of Water

Album-
inoid

Ammonia.| § mmonia.

One 7O 7 ee Ww oO Ck oe oom 64. 8 SO CO Ue SO

o = ete Ons Dr Ww wWA HN OO NH TO

Vey

Although we see by referring to these analyses, that several
of the well-waters of this district are superior to the water supplies
of Scarborough, or even of Glasgow, yet in a few cases the wells
are situated in places which are not eligible, and which render it
probable that they may occasionally receive objectionable drainage,
although free from it at the time of the analysis,and it therefore
follows that it is important to note the positions of the source of a
sample of water, in addition to the results we obtain at a particular
time by analysis; or to analyse the water upon more than one
occasion, and especially in the summer months.

You will observe that the numbers given for ammonia are
small, and refer only to “parts in one hundred million parts of
water,” and it will, no doubt, occur to you that the method adopted
for the determination of ammonia must be very delicate, or that
the results may in many instances be faulty. The test for ammonia
is certainly extremely delicate—one of the most sensitive tests
which chemists possess. It is known as Nessler’s Test, and we
are capable of detecting by it exceedingly minute traces of ammonia.
(Experiment made showing the presence of o’oor part of grain of
ammonia in 10,000 of water.)

I shall not now refer to the other processes involved in water-
analysis, but, in concluding this part of my subject, I may quote a
remark of Professor Chaumont, of the Army Medical School,
Netley, as given by him in a paper before the Congress of the
Sanitary Institute at Croydon last October. He said, “‘I consider
that chemical and microscopical research in the direction of water-
analysis is of considerable value, but the value has, in my opinion,
been both over-rated and under-rated. Thus, it has been over-
rated when chemists have proposed to lay down certain hard and
fast lines as to the quantity of constituents considered admissible.”
These words are well worth remembering, especially by those who
execute rough analyses in their capacities as Medical Officers of
Health. It is not sufficient to obtain even accurate results in
chemistry, without fully considering the circumstances which may
be the foundation for them, and this is especially the case in
water-analysis, where the same constituents may be derived from
various sources.

172

Although, however, it would be wrong to draw a fast line by
which we may say how much ammonia (indicating organic matter)
for instance, shall be present in a water to condemn it as absolutely
injurious, or as certain to produce disease, yet it is well to act on
the principle that a suspicious character is to be avoided ; and
therefore, if the results of our analyses lead us to be suspicious, or
to conclude that the sample is probably polluted with pernicious
substances, we shall not be doing wrong if we advise the abandon-
ment of the use of such water for drinking purposes. Probably
we are sometimes unnecessarily suspicious, and this may arise from
many causes.

We now come to the second part of my subject; that of

AIR IN ITS RELATIONS TO HEALTH OR DISEASE,

I am disposed to think that impure air exists more abundantly
than impure water; and considering the nature of the two media,
may it not be anticipated that more disease is likely to be produced
by the former than by the latter? Into the air, noxious gases and
minute organisms, resulting from putrefactions, &c., immediately
pass ; and we know that when the air enters the lungs, the blood
is directly exposed to it, and that a part of the air (the oxygen) is
carried by the venous blood to various parts of the body, where it
meets with impurities due to dissociations caused by the muscular
action going on in various ways. With these impurities the oxygen
combines, and they are thus rendered easy of emission as products
of respiration, &c. But during the passage of the air through the
different parts of the organism, any living organic impurities present
in it are likely to remain there to exercise their ferment actions, as
already suggested in the case of impurities in water; but in this
case (in the case of air) the impurities by being breathed are at
once conveyed to the circulation, which is not the fact when we
drink water. This, however, is only to be to a certain extent
considered.

The atmosphere has been well spoken of as a “catholic
receptacle,” and may we not then be led to wonder at its peculiarly
uniform condition, and its comparative freedom from deleterious

a

173

substances? But the atmosphere as a body is self-purifying, and
itis therefore the object of ventilation to cause the air of inhabited
rooms to mingle with the outside air, and to return purified.

The atmosphere contains a condensed form of oxygen called
ozone, and the part which this gas plays in the purification of the
atmosphere is no doubt very important, owing to its great oxidizing
properties: thus acting on putrid substances, and destroying their
putridity. The air consists chiefly of two gases, oxygen and
nitrogen—about twenty-one per cent of the former to seventy-nine of
the latter; and as many of you may be aware of the properties of
these gases, I will at once proceed to mention the general constitu-
ents present along with them in minute quantities. They are—
Water; Carbonic Acid, about 004 per cent.; Ammonia; Ozone;
Nitrous and Nitric Acids ; Sulphurous and Sulphuric Acids. We
have also in the air, in addition to these gaseous substances, various
solid bodies, which are indeed familiar to us as seen floating in a
sunbeam. They consist of every conceivable form of rubbish,
including (probably the more important) substances of a fungoid
nature, or the actual germs of those fungi commonly called mould
and mildew.

Again, there are sometimes present smaller particles, which,
by the aid of a beam of light, or even with the assistance of
powerful lenses, we are unable to see, or, at all events, to distinguish ;
these may include disease spores or germs, which, passing into
the blood, arrive at their destination where suitable materials exist
for their development.

Ozone, already spoken of as a natural element of atmospheric
purification, and a condensed form of oxygen (oxygen being repre-
sented by the figure O, while ozone by the figure O¢), is present
in the atmosphere, however, in very small quantity. The best
country air seldom contains more than one volumein 700,000. It
may be prepared artificially by passing electricity through air
gradually and silently, and it is therefore highly probable that the
ozone of the atmosphere is produced by continuous silent passages
of electricity between the clouds and the earth. Owing to the
value of the presence of ozone in the atmosphere for the purpose

174

of disposing of noxious matters—and from this its relation to
health generally—the determination of the amount present at
various times and localities is made an important subject of meteor-
ological enquiry, and much valuable information has been obtained
by comparing such determinations with statistics of disease at
various seasons.

Air is vitiated from three great causes—
1. Respiration.
2. Putrefaction.
3. Manufactures and Combustion.

The first of these sources of pollution is probably the most
important. It is one which must exist, and therefore cannot be
prevented, but which it is our duty to especially consider, in order
that its injurious effects may be guarded against. In each one
hundred parts of the air we breathe there are, as we have already
seen, about twenty-one parts of oxygen; but after it has been
breathed, the quantity is diminished, and we find in the air expelled
from the lungs only about fifteen parts, so that six parts of oxygen
are removed by the process of respiration.

But expired air is not only in this way rendered deficient in
oxygen, but it contains a correspondingly larger quantity of carbonic
acid, or what is commonly called “choke-damp;” and in addition
also to this increase of carbonic acid, there is an increase of the
amount of organic matter, which is a most serious fact as regards
health, for it has been shown that while air mixed with even one
fiftieth of its volume of carbonic acid alone may be breathed, the
same amount of air mixed with one quarter that amount of carbonic
acid, but accompanied by the usual organic imputities resulting
from respiration, provef much more poisonous.

Dr. Ransome, in a paper read before the Manchester Literary
and Philosophical Society, on the amount of organic matter in the
human breath in health and disease, says—“In diseased states of
the system there is much greater variation in the amount and kind
of organic matter given off than in health;” and remarks—“ We
cannot doubt that much of the disease which arises as a conse-

hee ee

175

quence of over-crowding, finds some of its sustenance in the
impure vapours arising from the lungs and the general surface of
the body.”

I understand him to mean by this that diseases are not only
produced by these organic emanations, but that they are sustained,
encouraged or spread.

In Table IV. I am able to show the amount of carbonic acid
in various close places in London, according to Dr, Angus Smith.*

TaBLe IV.
Per cent, per volume.

Chancery Court, closed doors, 7 feet from laceae 5a a 0:193

Do. 3 feet from ground th So ae 0:203

.Do. doors wide open, 4 feet from ground, aie 40 2 aeMey eee nO,0007)

Do. 12-40 p.m., 5 feet from ground iy ser ae 0:045
Strand Theatre, Gallery. TOGpsxns eee. wis a a8 0-111
Surrey Theatre, boxes, 7-12 p.m. ... sl es aes 0:218
Olympic, 11-30 p.m. ... “ne no if 4}. eine 0:0817

Do. 11-55 p.m. sa bas a 3 Bes 071014
Haymarket Theatre, 11-30 p.m. eh sxe mi a: 0:0757
Victoria Theatre, boxes, 10 p.m... . “oe 0°126
Queen’s Ward, St. Thomas’s Hospital, 3- 25 1 P-tic.. <3 0-040
Edwards’s Ward, St. Thomas’s Hospital, 3-30 p.m. Ss 0:052
Pavilion, 10-11 p.m. (Whitechapel) ... nee ish ne 0°152
City of London Theatre, pit, 11-l5 p.m. ... ae sins 0°252
Standard Theatre, pit, 11 p.m. bis be Am 2h 0°320

Observing that the amount of carbonic acid in fresh country air
is not more than o’o4, but generally rather less, and comparing
the above, we see the differences as regards carbonic acid between
good country air and that of the London Law Courts and Theatres.
Thus, the air of the Chancery Court contained about five times as
much as good country air; that of the Strand Theatre, eight ; City
of London Theatre, over six ; and the Pavillion nearly four.

The organic matter in expired air bears considerable relation
to the carbonic acid also present, so that the increase of carbonic
acid may be taken as showing a corresponding increase in the
organic matter. Medical authorities of the highest standing give
_ it as their firm opinion that these products of respiration, when

* This must, of course, be understood to apply to the places mentioned
only at the time the observations were made, (Ed.)

176

re-breathed, are the main cause of the high rate of Phthisis ;
and, in order to be brief, and at the same time expressive, the
following conclusions from the late Dr. Parkes may be given. He
shows that in the badly-ventilated prison of the Leopoldstadt, in
Vienna, the deaths per rooo prisoners were eighty-six, and out of
these deaths, 51°4 were due to Phthisis; while, on the other
hand, in the House of Correction, in the same city, which was
well-ventilated, the deaths per 1000 were only fourteen, of which
7°9 were due to Phthisis. From this it is evident that 43%
per 1000 were distinctly attributable to bad air.

With regard to what I have grouped as the second source of
air pollution, namely putrefaction, it may be stated that the results
of the processes embraced under the comprehensive word of putre-
faction are gases holding organic substances in suspension, and
these organic substances are so decidedly distinct from what the
constituents of the air should be, that when they are well mixed,
the oxygen or the ozone acts upon them, and converts them
into inorganic gases. The more ozone present in the air, the
more rapidly this beneficial change is effected. But the organic
emanations thus arising from putrefaction are not always simply
dead forms, but frequently they contain living germs, or organised
bodies, which directly induce disease, which the atmosphere does
not readily act upon, and actual investigation has shown that
they are in many cases the actual nuclei of fresh cases of
disease.

The ordinary putrefaction impurities in the atmosphere are
supposed to be the frequent promoters of disease of the respiratory
organs, in addition to typhoid and other fevers ; and on looking
at the statistics of this class of disease throughout the United
Kingdom, we find that country or agricultural districts are by no
means exempt from them, and it is a matter of general observation
that in this particular district the cases of Phthisis, or Consumption,
are comparatively high. Probably the breathing of air contamin-
ated with the results of putrefactive changes may be to some extent
a cause for this.

Of course the atmosphere, ever fresh and changing in these

177

districts, where the results of the conglomeration of people do not
exist, must be of typical purity ; but we find this is not a correct
representation of the air surrounding many farmsteads. On the
other hand, it is almost invariably contaminated with gaseous and
solid bodies in small quantity resulting from the decay of organic
substances.

I have recently been engaged on some experiments in connec-
tion with this subject. The object has been to determine the
relative tendency of the air in different situations to induce
fermentation.

I have exposed certain chemical solutions capable of under-
going fermentation near to several farmsteads, and have found
them to ferment more rapidly there than in the open country ;
thus proving that the air of those places contains bodies which act
as ferments. Iam hoping, therefore, to continue these experiments
further, and to obtain comparable results, so that the process may
be a new and more effectual method of examining the air as a
guide in sanitary matters.

In the evidence given before a Committee of the House of
Commons on the Scheme for the Supply of Water to Manchester
from Thirlmere, it was shown that in the Vale of St. John’s, near
Keswick, a very high rate of mortality—in proportion to the number
of inhabitants—exists there from Consumption ; and, although I
believe no special reason was suggested for this, yet it is probable
that the emanations from undrained and boggy lands in the
immediate neighbourhood may be the cause, for minute organisms
no doubt originate from these conditions, and pollute the sur-
rounding air.

And now, as to the third, and what we will consider the last,
source of air pollution,—that due to Manufactures and to Combus-
tion. We have here at least two distinct contaminations: one in
the form of black smoke, which we see and often remark upon;
the other which we do not see, and which is therefore frequently
never contemplated.

Black smoke acts injuriously in two ways; one is by charging
the air with small solid particles of carbon, which are then breathed

12

178

into the lungs, and which, no doubt, cause irritation there; the
other is by lessening the amount of daylight. It not only diminishes
the allotted proportion of sunshine, but it interferes with the quality
to no less degree than with the quantity of the light we receive.
Objects seen through an atmosphere thus polluted, appear of an
unnatural yellowish colour, because the light by passing through
the yellow smoke, is deprived to some extent of the blue and

violet rays which constitute the most refrangible portion of the

spectrum ; while the yellow, orange, and red rays, being less re-
frangible, are able to pass through ; and it happens also that those
rays which are cast off are those which are of most value in the
promotion of healthy living action. Light certainly is not life,
but it is-very essential to it; and I remember seeing somewhere
an account of some very interesting observations, showing the
relative amount of cures in the two sides of a hospital—one
receiving the sunshine, the other shaded. There was a very
marked difference, and the light side was by far the most successful.

Passing from the black smoke to the contamination of the air
by invisible gases resulting from the burning of coal, we come to
perhaps the most serious matter in connection with air pollution
in towns from artificial causes, since chemical works are now
under inspection, and do not therefore allow so much refuse to
escape into the air as previously, and also because this pollution is
very general, each chimney contributing its share.

Most coals contain sulphur, and they consequently produce
sulphur acids when burnt. If we take the average amount of
sulphur in coal at one per cent.—although this is in reality not so
high as the true average—we should produce, by burning a ton of
such coal, about forty-four pounds of sulphurous acid; and this
forty-four pounds of sulphurous acid, by passing into the air and
coming in contact with the aqueous vapour contained in the
atmosphere, would be gradually changed to about fifty-five pounds
of dry sulphuric acid, or seventy pounds of strong oil of vitriol.
This we observe is from one ton of coal; and if we consider that
many establishments consume even as much as twenty tons daily—
and there are dozens of these establishments in many towns—we

hy

179

shall at once notice that the sulphuric acid given off from the
combustion of coal is exceedingly large.

Dr. Angus Smith, in his Eighth Report under the Alkali Act,
gives some very important results of his investigations of emanations
from chemical works. He shows the total escape of sulphur acids
(calculated as sulphuric acid) from twenty-five chemical works.
In some instances there was no escape of these acids; but the
average loss of sulphur from the twenty-three works was rather
over seven-and-a-half per cent on the total quantity burnt; and in
four of the works, the loss was actually more than twenty per cent.;
in one case it amounted to one hundred and fifty-nine pounds of
sulphuric acid per hour. Probably since then there may have
been some improvement; but, unfortunately, it pays the manu-
facturers better to allow a large escape, and to work rapidly, than
to have the necessary large chambers, and to condense the whole
of the gases.

Again, the burning of coal gas in dwelling rooms vitiates the
air very much, both by the sulphur acids and the ordinary products
of combustion ; because, although many towns—but by far from
all—purify their gas very well, yet, unfortunately, the sulphur
cannot by any practicable means be removed, and the consumers
have to suffer from its effects.

In addition to the injurious action which these sulphur acids
have on animal life, they kill the trees and other vegetation for
miles round, which, apart from their value in purifying the atmos-
phere, convey that natural beauty to the scenery which we especially
enjoy, andwhich must therefore be conducive to health. Conversely,
the growing of trees in towns would be an easy matter if the escape
of the sulphur compounds were prevented. It is evident that the
inhabitants of towns—and especially of crowded towns, where no
space is allowed for vegetation—however well their dwellings may
be ventilated, are subject to much air-pollution, and it is therefore
desirable that greater attention should be paid, not only to the

consuming of the black smoke, but more especially to preventing

the escape of the invisible products of combustion and waste
chemical manufactures,

180

At present we find the centres of our large towns at night
practically unpopulated, only those remaining in them who cannot
afford to migrate into the suburban districts ; and thus we have an
especial instance where wealth mecessarily contributes to health.

I have endeavoured to place before you some of the chief
points in connection with this great and important subject of water
and air, and have confined my remarks chiefly to those matters
which have either been proved by chemical research, or which
appear conclusive from reliable statistics.

Science is at present receiving especial attention, and
important results will be obtained. All its branches, if we

“were able to see their terminations, would be found in human
happiness and success. Some appear more immediately con-
nected than others; and if the remarks which I have submitted
have been uninteresting, I have the satisfaction, or dissatisfaction,
of knowing that the subject is one of importance, and has only
failed to appear so by my inability to place it before you in a
more striking manner.

Health, Temperance, and Morality may be classed together,
and their accomplishment aided by the application of a knowledge
of Chemistry and Physiology to domestic matters.

181

THE MARYPORT CAMP:
ITS HISTORY, ITS EXPLORATIONS, AND ITS
PRESENT ASPECT.

Be ili > Baa A Tol LY

(Read at Maryport, May 4th, 1880. )

Tuat there has been a Camp, no one will be disposed to deny.
Strong naturally, on the summit of a hill, with steep cliffs bordering
the sea coast on the west, together with a rapid descent to the river
on the east and south sides—it was made doubly so by the hand
of the engineer. It would appear to have comprised an inner
vallum surmounted by a strong wall, and defended by a ditch;
the two lower courses of the wall being still visible near the _
northern gateway. Beyond this there was probably a second
vallum, with its attendant ditch.

The length of the camp is one hundred and forty yards, and
its breadth one hundred and thirty yards, enclosing an area of
nearly four acres.

There were four gateways, all of which are easily traceable,
that on the north being the most prominent. This gateway was
uncovered in 1787, and the entire arch was discovered shortly
after. In the absence of Colonel Senhouse, it was unfortunately
destroyed for wall building. Evidently it had been a very elegant
structure, and, seeing that that side of the camp is the one least
protected by nature, there may have been a tower at the angle
serving the purpose of a guard-room, etc. The stones of the
_ archway were “shaped and dressed, being made to fit close without

182

cement, there being iron stanchions at the end of the corner
stones.”* The ruts made by the chariot wheels are plainly visible.
In the N.E. corner of the camp, an elegant bath was discovered
in 1788. It was sixteen feet long, and was surrounded, in all
probability, by a paved walk two feet wide. Near the centre of
the camp is a well, having a diameter of three feet, and encased
with masonry. Some years ago the rubbish it contained was
cleared out, and it was found to be of great depth. Unfortunately,
it has again become filled with rubbish, and the upper courses of
stones displaced.

In the field to the south of the camp is an eminence now
called “Pudding Pie-Hill” (Pudding Pye-Hill in 1742), but more
anciently, ‘The King’s Burying Place,” from its being the reputed
burial place of some Celtic king or leader. So far as this latter
idea is concerned, the result of excavations made in 1742 has not
confirmed the tradition. It is undoubtedly artificial, but neither
coins, urns, nor remains of any kind were found, save the bones of
a heifer and of a colt, together with a few wood ashes. These
were covered with a layer of turf set edgeways, and about two feet
thick. This, in turn, was covered by several layers of red and blue
clay, together with a kind of hard red cement, the whole being
covered with a layer of earth. It may be worth the mention that
the soil was cleared away to some considerable depth below where
the remains were found.

But around the camp, on all sides, sprang up a town ; and, if
we may judge from the number of altars and other antiquities dis-
covered here, it must have been a town of no mean dimensions.
Camden, speaking in 1599 of the excavations that had then been
made, says, “Old vaults are opened, and several altars, inscriptions,
and statues are dug up, all of which that worthy gentleman, Mr. J,
Senhouse (in whose fields they are dug up) keeps very religiously,
and has placed them regularly in the walls of his house”—whilst
Hutchinson, in 1794, gives a list of one hundred and sixteen
articles found here ; and this list is still incomplete, the excavations
now being carried on (1880) almost daily adding to it. Of the

* Hutchinson’s Cumberland, Vol, IL, p. 277.

183

’ earlier excavations, in 1743 ‘foundations of houses, showing the
cement still strong, also plaster, and paint of a pinkish colour, were
discovered.”*

In 1766, “the streets were found to be paved with broad
flagstones, much worn by use;” whilst the steps into a vaulted
room, previously opened about 1686, were particularly well worn.
This was probably the temple of the Deze Matres, who are repre-
sented by a small sculptured slab still in the portico at Netherhall.
Roofing slates were found in abundance, and still may be picked
up in great quantities—several of them having the original iron
pegs still in them. Besides these, “pottery, glass vessels, and
even mirrors were discovered ;” also “evident marks of the houses
having been more than once burnt down and then rebuilt.”t In
addition, at different times have been discovered broken altars,
altars wanting inscriptions, fibulee, glass, iron, and bronze articles ;
tiles (one with Coh. 1, Hispa Inducius fecit on it), Samian and
Durobrian ware; whilst of coarser ware we have specimens of
amphore and mortaria. To these may be added querns and
mill-stones ; in short, as Horsley remarks in 1732, “a perfect
magazine of antiquities” is to be seen here.

We cannot, however, pass on to another subject without
alluding to the discoveries of 1880, for which we are mainly
indebted to a member of our local Association—Mr. Joseph
Robinson. These include a Legionary stone (2oth Legion), an
altar by G. Caballius Priscus—Tribune (1st Cohort Spaniards), a
second altar with the inscription apparently ploughed off; pottery,
funeral urns, tiles, roofing slates, coins ; foundations—believed to
have been those of a temple—forty-six feet by twenty-five feet ;
also of a round building some twenty feet from the temple, and
having a diameter of thirty-four feet, the walls being two feet thick.
To these must be added two heads, together with a female figure
supposed to have been one of the Dez Matres. Besides which,
a section of the road, twenty-one feet wide, was laid bare, as also
a drain ; and lastly—though not the least important—a pillar with

* Hutchinson’s Cumberland, Vol. II., p. 282.
+ Lyson’s Cumberland, p. 142.

184

a human face on one side, and a serpent on the other, was dis-
covered.*

The importance of the station, as shown by the “magazine of
antiquities,” and its commanding position, would almost lead us
to the idea that it was one of the JVo/itia stations, and accordingly
both the German and English scholars are now agreed that the
altars found prove it to be Axelodunum.t

Several roads have run from the Maryport Camp, placing it
in easy communication with the various stations both on the coast
and in the interior.

The first of these passed out of the Northern Gateway, crossed
the four fields to the N.E. of the camp, and then diverged to the
right, crossing the “Bank End Lane” near the plantation, and
shortly after the turnpike road, thence running some distance to
the E. of the cemetery; thence midway between Crosby and
Crosscanonby, past Allerby, and so on to Old Carlisle and
Carlisle (Luguvallium). The width of this road, from sections laid
bare, was about twenty-one feet.

The second road left the eastern gateway, ran across the
Netherhall park, crossed the Ellen (the slab with the name Ranorix
on it being discovered near the ford), thence through the southern
end of the plantation near the railway, and so on by the obelisks
near Hayborough, past Dovenby and Papcastle to Keswick,
Ambleside to Chester (Deva), and so to Mediolanum. Coins of
Claudius, Trajan, Faustina, Hadrian, and Geta have been found
at Papcastle.

The portion of the road from Maryport to Papcastle was
surveyed by F. L. B. Dykes, Esq., of Dovenby Hall, and the
results communicated in a paper read by Dr. Bruce at Maryport
on July 7th, 1870.

The third road ran along the coast by way of Allonby,

* Since writing the above, this pillar has been pronounced to be Phallic,

with Mithraic sculptures, and to be ‘‘the most curious things of the sort that
have ever come to light in this country.”—Carlisle Fournal, June 4, 1880,

+ Dr. Bruce, Dr. Mc.Caul of Toronto, Professor Hiibner, Mr. Thompson
Watkin, Ed. Archzological Journal, Vol. 37, p. 341.

+ Transactions of the C. & W. Antiq. and Archexo, Soc., Vol. I, p. 167.

185

Beckfoot, and Skinburness, to Bowness. The whereabouts of this
road had almost passsed into oblivion, although hinted at by
Hutchinson in 1794. However, its existence has now been put
beyond doubt, and the site of a camp has been discovered at
Beckfoot by Mr. Robinson, before mentioned, who has also rescued
the stone named by Hutchinson as having been found here, and
inscribed LIA PRAEF. COH. II PANNON FECIT.

The fourth road ran by the Mote Hill, evidently to Moresby,
and appears to have been in part protected by a wall of which
Camden says, “Ruins still remain at the mouth of the Elne or
Elen.” Its date is quite uncertain, although it has been ascribed
to Stilicho, in the reign of Honorius. It has, however, evidently
been of a much earlier date than this.

As to the exact date of the foundation of the Camp,
there is no positive evidence; but in all probability it was
constructed by Agricola or one of his officers, Should this be
thought too early, the fact of four altars dedicated by Marcus
Menius Agrippa—who was a personal friend of Hadrian—having
been found, shows conclusively that there was a Camp about 120.

There is also little positive evidence as to how long it remained
in the hands of the Romans. Still, if it be Axelodunum, the
Notitia bears witness to its being held to the very end of the
occupation. Besides, its position gave it such peculiar advantages
as would render its possession a necessity. But if it be, then,
if the evidence of coins be conclusive, we can safely affirm that
it was one of the last of the stations left by the Romans; and

further, that it had been almost continuously held during the

whole of the Roman occupation, as coins have been found
covering the whole period down to the reign of Honorius—
unless, indeed, it be between the years 191 and 244.

Before concluding, a few remarks may be made on the Alltars.
It is to be noted (1) that they are in some cases dedicated by
the officers, in others by the cohorts ; thus, the Spaniards dedicated
sixteen altars (although there are but six officers mentioned), the
Beetasians five, and the Dalmatians three altars and two slabs.*

* Since writing the above, another altar was discovered on April 28th, 1880.

186

(2) That either directly or indirectly, several are dedicated by
the same person ; thus, C. C. Priscus has four, Acilianus two with
two slabs, L. C. Maximus has three, T. A. Tutor three, Helstrius
Novellus two, and Ulpius Titianus two, M. M. Agrippa four.

(3) They also inform us the native homes of several of the
officers, e.g., G. C. Peregrinus came from Mauritania Ceesariensis
(Morocco), M. Censorius from Nimes in Gaul, and L. A. Verianus
from Sicca in Africa.

(4) That the garrison has consisted of legionaries, the first
cohorts of the Spaniards, Dalmatians, and Beetasians, with one of
Mauritanians (?); also volunteers; and included both foot and
horse cohorts, the commanders of the latter being Lucius Cammius
Maximus and Lucius Antistius Verianus.

(5) They give the names of the officers of the various cohorts ;
also (6) the religion of the soldiers. Thus twenty altars are dedi-
cated to Jupiter, in three cases the Emperor being deified along
with Jupiter; two are dedicated to Mars, and three to Victory.
In two, Rome itself is deified; whilst the local deities are
represented by Belatucadrus, Setlocenia, and the Genius of the
Place.

In point of rarity, these altars stand out pre-eminently. Those
by the Beetasians are rare—that to Vulcan is probably the only one
found in Britain; the one by Lucius Cammius Maximus, of the
18th Cohort of Volunteers, appears to be unique ; whilst those to
Mars add mé/itari, as though Mars was not suggestive enough.

Taking the fact of the interment of the altars them-
selves, it is clear that all those discovered in 1870 were buried
at one time, as they were found arranged, not here one and
there one, but in a series of pits round a common centre,
the diameter of the space being some twenty yards. Together
with this, it is to be observed that the altars found in 1870
include every name on either Spanish, Dalmatian, or Betasian
altars found previous to that date, with one exception; so that
they too may have been buried at the same time and in the same
place, since several pits opened in 1870 were found empty. The
date of such interment is difficult to fix, nay, probably impossible.

i

187

Still, when it is known that a time of great unquiet prevailed
among the tribes to the north of the wall towards the end of the
Second Century, and that Maryport had evidently felt the effects of
reverses, it having been more than once burnt to the ground and
then rebuilt, it seems probable we shall not be far wrong in fixing
A.D. 194, or thereabouts, as the approximate date, for, as I take
it, the altars must have been buried before the burning of the place.
Two facts seem to point to the probable correctness of this date :
1st—The altars found in 1870 are in a remarkably good state of
preservation, especially those by the Beetasians 3 which latter,
indeed, show so little signs of weathering as to lead us to suppose
that they had been placed x situ at no great length of time after
their dedication. 27d—A reference to the coins will show a break
of some fifty years, viz., between the reigns of Pertinax and Philip,
ie, about A.D. 191—244; whilst both before and after this
apparent break, the list of coins appears in an almost unbroken
order.

188

THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF THE

ALTARS, &c, FOUND AT MARYPORT.

To whom Dedicated

Gods and Godesses

Genius of the place,
Fortune, Rome

Victory

Belatucadrus nor

For safety of Anto-
nine (Slab)

Setlocenia

Jupiter ...

Mars

Jupiter ...

Jupiter ...

Jupiter ...

Virtue ...

Eternal Rome, For-
tune

Jupiter ...

eee a ee
Jupiter ..

Jupiter ...
Jupiter ...
Jupiter ...

Mars
Jupiter ...

Jupiter and the Em-
peror

Jupiter ...

Jupiter and the Em-
peror

Jupiter ...

Jupiter ...

By Whom Dedicated

Paulus Postumius Acilianus—Pre-
fect, Ist Cohort Dalmatians
Gaius Cornelius Peregrinus—Tri-

bune, Cohort Mauritanians (?)

Julius Civilis—Captain of the Guard

Postumius Acilianus—Prefect, Ist
Cohort Dalmatians

Lucius Abareus—Centurion

Caius Caballus Priscus—Tribune
(1st Cohort Spaniards)

Ist Cohort Beetasians—Titus Attius
Tutor—Prefect

Ist Cohort Spaniards — Marcus
Menius Agrippa—Tribune

Lucius Cammius Maximus—Pre-
fect, Ist Cohort Spaniards

Marcus Censorius—Prefect,
Cohort Spaniards

The Daughter of Hermione

Ist

Acilianus — Prefect (Ist Colas
Dalmatians)

Aulus Egnatius Pastor

(Unintelligible)-— Prefect

Lucius Cammius Maximus—Pre-
fect Ist Cohort Spaniards
Menius Agrippa—Tribune (ist

Cohort Spaniards)
Cammius Maximus—
Prefect 1st Cohort Spaniards
Tribune 18th Cohort Volunteers
Ist Cohort Beetasians— Ulpius
Titianus, Prefect
Ist Cohort Spaniards — Lucius
Antistius Verianus, Prefect
Ist Cohort Spaniards ..

Gaius Caballus Priscus—Tribune
(1st Cohort Spaniards)

Meenius Agrippa—Tribune (Ist
Cohort Spaniards)

Ist Cohort Spaniards—Helstrius
Novellus, Prefect

Ist Cohort Dalmatians—Lucius
Ceecilius Vegetus, Prefect

Where now

Netherhall

Whitehaven
Castle
Netherhall
Lost
Netherhall

”
Ashlack
Isle of Man
Netherhall

”

189

hele To whom Dedicated By whom Dedicated Where now
1870 | Victory .. | Ist Cohort Beetasians—Titus Attius | Netherhall
Tutor—Prefect
” Jupiter ... os ” ” ” 2 29
33 (No inscription) ... | ... nike ane or a
7 | Jupiter 2. ... | Ist Cohort Spaniards—Caius Cab- “
allus Priscus—Tribune
», | Jupiterand Emperor] Marcus Menius Agrippa—Tribune os
(1st Cohort Spaniards)
+ Victory ... | Ist Cohort Bzetasians — Ulpius oF
Titianus, Prefect
+ Vulcan ... ... | Helstrius Novellus—Prefect (Ist 3
Cohort Spaniards)
1872 | Jupiter Capitolinus | Postumius Acilianus—Prefect Ist ep
April 28} (Slab) Cohort Dalmatians
1880 | Jupiter ... ... | Gaius Caballius Priscus—Tribune BS
(1st Cohort Spaniards)
Ree eyupiter..% ¢* vi = »

Found 22nd Sept., 1877, (at Crosscanonby,) Altar by Acilianus (?) aa
Prefect, Ist Cohort Dalmatians
», 17th April, 1880—Pillar, Human Face with Serpents and AS
Fishes on one side, Serpent on the other. Also part of a
Second Pillar.

3, 3rd May, 1880—Altar, Inscription destroyed by Plough. PY)
Fragments of others. :
‘There are besides 1 Large and 4 Small Altars without inscrip- ”

tions, with fragments of others.

Legionary Stone, 2nd and 2oth Legions, found 1779.
Legionary Stone, 20th Legion, found April 8, 1880.

N.B.— Those found in 1870 are arranged in the order
of their discovery.

* Between the asterisks, the inscriptions are given as they were read by
the author.—(Ed.)

SCULPTURES.

Head of Neptune, (found 1874,) and another of Jupiter. Also 2 Heads found
in 1880.

Female standing in a niche holding an urn.

Building with arches, under which is standing a nude Figure, (Venus Pudica 2).

Woman on Horseback without Reins, (found 1785.)

Seulocenia (?).

Dez Matres, also part of a Second one found 1880,

Boar, with letters O. R. D,

130

SEPULCHRAL SLABS, &c.

Morus Rex D.M. aged 70 years. Lost. Erected by Sons and Heirs.

Ingenuus DM = . FOW., », Erected by Father, Julius Simplex.
Luca DOVE? 1 4,.) 820085, 55
(Unintelligible) Hic exsegere fata a

(Unintelligible) IL SER QU ANAT CALA PIADIO, &c. Netherhall.
Julia Martima D.M. aged 12 years 3 months 22 days. oc
Marinus ordin D.M. ,, 44 ,, a
Rianorix s
Unintelligible D.M. REI PA N

COINS.

Marc Antony 1, Nero 3, Vespasian 3, Titus 1, Domitian 2, Nerva 4 (3 of
them forged), Trajan 18 (7 forged), Plotina 1, Hadrian 6 (1 forged), Sabina 2
(both forged), Antoninus Pius 6 (4 forged), Faustina 1, M. Aurelius 1,
Pertinax 1, Julia Domna 1, Geta 1, Julia Mamrza 1, Philip 1, Postumus 1,
Victorinus 5, Gallienus 5, Claudius 2, Tetricus 7, Carausius 1, Licinius 4,
Constantine the Great 13, Fausta 1, Crispus 5, Constantine II. 3, Magnentius 7,
Constantius II. 4, Valentinian II. 1, Theodosius 1, Honorius 1.

Found in 1872 in Mote Hill, Constantine 1.
1880 Vespasian 1, Hadrian 2, Antoninus Pius 2, Marcus Aurelius 1.

’ 191

THE MOTHS OF THE DISTRICT.

By GEORGE DAWSON.

(Read at Carlisle. )

IN continuation of my paper on Local Entomology already laid
before this Society, I now give the first of a series on the Moths I
have taken in this neighbourhood.

The first division, or

NOCTURNI,

is represented in Britain by thirteen Families, of which the first on
the list is

The SPHINGIDZ.

The Eyep Hawk-Morn (Smerinthus ocellatus.)
The Poplar Hawk-MotH (Smerinthus populi.)

Both of these insects are very common in this locality. I
have found their larvz on the willow bushes along the banks of all
the rivers around Carlisle. "

The larva of the Eyed Hawk-Moth may be found in the
autumn. It changes to a large, reddish-brown, bright-looking
pupa, and the moth emerges about the end of May. The larva
_ of the Poplar Hawk-Moth feeds on the Willow, the Poplar, and the
Apple, and it changes to pupa sometime between July and Sep-
tember. The pupa is rather rough and dirty-looking; never
having that bright, shining appearance characteristic of the

192

-pupze of most other Lepidoptera. The moth is on the wing
generally in May.

The Deatnu’s-Heap Hawxk-Mortu (Acherontia atropos).

This, the largest of all our moths, is not uncommon around
Carlisle. At different times I have obtained both larve and pupe,
but have never succeeded in rearing them.

The ConvotvuLus Hawk-Moru (Sphinx convolvult ).
This very fine insect is found every season in this locality.
It has a very long trunk; one I measured was five inches and a
half in length.

The Bepstraw Hawxk-Mortu (Deilephila galli).
This is a very rare insect here. I took one on a wall in the
London and North Western Goods Station, and another at rest on
the West Walls. It occurs here in June and July.

The SILVER-STRIPED Hawk-Motu (Cherocampa celerio).

The only specimen of this insect I have seen here I took at
Dalston Hall, on some palings. It may have come here amongst
the logwood used at the works at Dalston.

The Sma. ELEPHANT Hawk-Mortn (Cherocampa porcellus).
The EvepHant Hawk-Motu (Cherocampa elpenor).

Both of these moths are common here in June and July. I
have taken them at Orton, at Newby Cross, and Hen Moss; and
they are commonly found on the sand hills at Silloth. They can
be taken with the net at night when they are flying about the
flowers of the Ragged Robin. These two moths are very much
like each other in colour and in markings; but the Elephant
Hawk-Moth is larger than the other. The larva feeds on the
Willow Herb in August and September.

The Humminc-Birp Hawxk-Mortu (MJacroglossa stellatarum),
This moth is commonly found every summer about Carlisle.
I have seen them in the gardens at Edentown, at Botcherby, at
Morton, and at Bellevue.

193

The Bet Hawxk-Motu (Macroglossa bombyliformis).

I have taken this moth at Durdar, Newbiggin, Newby Cross,
Orton, Kingmoor, Thrustonfield, and various other places. The
moth is fond of settling on the flowers of the Bugle. It is difficult
to take them with the net, unless one is sitting near a patch of the
food-plant at the time the insect settles; the net must then be
placed over the moth, and be held firmly down to the ground
until the moth rises. It is quite a Northern insect.

The SESTIDA.

The Currant CLear-Wine (Sesta tipuliformis).
The Hornet CLEAR-WING OF THE OSIER (Sesia bembiciformis).
The Hornet CLEAR-WING OF THE PopLar (Sesta apiformis).

These can be found only on bright sunny days. The larve
feed on the pith and the solid wood of the plants they respectively
take their name from.

The Goat Motu (Cossus ligniperda).

This beautiful moth is found all over our county. It takes
its name from the strange smell that the larva has. This moth is
on the wing in July and August. The larva feeds on the solid
wood of the Oak, the Elm, the Willow, and the Apple. It is
common in the Newbiggin Woods, and there is a large tree at
Carleton that has many in it.

The HEPIALIDZA.

The next Family, the Swifts, contains but five British species,
all found in this locality. They are called Swifts from the rapidity
of their flight. They have very short antennz, and their under
wings very much directed backwards.

The Gotp Swirt (Hefpialus hectus).
The Common Swirt (Hepialus lupulinus).
The Woop Swirt (Hepialus sylvinus).
The NortHeRN Swirt (Hepialus veleda).
The Guost Swirt (Hepialus humult).

13

194

I have taken these at Kingmoor, Orton, and at Newby Cross.
The larve live through the Winter, feeding on the roots of various
plants ; and they change to pupz in the Spring. The moths are
on the wing from May till the end of August.

The PROCRIDA.

The GREEN ForESTER (Procris statices).
The Scarce ForEsTER (Procris globularia).

Except that P. statices has somewhat thicker antenne than the
other species, these two moths are very much alike. In both
species the upper wings are of a beautiful shining green, and they
are rather transparent. Both moths are on the wing in June and
July ; and they occur often in great numbers near Wreay Station
and at Orton. Both species may usually be found together.

The ZYGAANIDA.

The SIx-sPOTTED BuRNET (Zygena filipendula).

This moth is found at Orton and at Wreay. The larve feed
on the Crowfoot Trefoil.* When full grown, the larva crawls up
the grass stalks, spins a sharp-pointed yellow cocoon, and changes
to a stout black pupa. The moth is on the wing in June.

The NUOLIDA.,

The four species of this family all occur in this locality. I
have found them sitting on the trunks of trees, and on stone walls.
Some I have taken with the net. They are all very much alike in
appearance.

The SHORT-cLOAKED Motu (lVola cucullatella).
The Least Brack ArcueEs (lVola cristulalis).
The SmaLL Brack ArcHEs (Wola strigula.)
The Scarce Biack ArcHEs (lVola centonalis).

I have taken these moths at Kingmoor, at Orton, at Newby
Cross, and at Newbiggin Woods. They are on the wing from the
end of May till the end of July.

* Newman, British Moths, p. 24.—(Ed.)

195

The LITHOSUDA.

Of the seventeen British species of this family, I have found
only four in this district.

The RounD-wINcED MusLIN (Vudaria senex).

I have found a few of these at Newbiggin ; always resting on
the sides of the old quarries, or on the stone walls, about the end
of July.

The Four-potTED Footman (Lithosia mesomella).

This very delicate and easily-damaged moth I have taken at
Todhills, Kingmoor, Houghton, Newby Cross, and Orton. They
are fond of boggy ground, and are on the wing from the early part
of June to the middle of August.

The Four-spotteD Footman (Lithosia quadra).

Of the two specimens of this species I have seen that were
taken here, one was taken by Mr. John Routledge, and the other
—a female—by myself, both at Newby Cross, about the end of

July.
The RED-NECKED Footman (Lithosia rubricollis).

I have found a few of this species at Orton and at Newby
Cross ; I have also taken them at Durdar. They are on the wing
in June and July.

The EUCHELIUDZ,
The Cinnazar (L£uchelia Jacobee).

This moth is on the wing in June; and the larva, which feeds
on the Common Ragwort, may be found in July and August.

The CHELONIIDA.

The CLoupEp Burr (Zuthemonia russula).

This moth is common at Todhills, Harker, Kingmoor, Orton,
Newby Cross, and Newbiggin, in June and July.

196

The Woop TicER (Chelonia plantaginis).
The Common TIGER (Chelonia caja).
The Rusy TicER (Arctia fuliginosa).

The larve of these moths live over the Winter, and may be
found in early Spring, when they come out of their winter home
and feed for a few weeks, and then change to pupe. I have
found them at Orton and at Newby Cross.

The Burr ERMINE (A47ctia lubricipeda).
The WuitEe Ermine (Aretia menthastri).

Both these moths are very common. They may be found in
early morning sitting on the hedgerows drying their wings. They
are not uncommon at night on the gas-lamps around Stanwix, and
in the Warwick Road. The larve feed on the Common Dock
and the Nettle. In August and September they spin very loose
cocoons on the ground, and then change to pupe. The moth is
on the wing in May and June.

The LIPARIDZ.

The Dark Tussock ( Orgyia fascelina ).

The upper wings are of a grayish colour, much waved with
dark brown, and are sprinkled with small reddish-coloured spots,
that soon fade after the moth is dead. The larva is found in May,
and is very prettily marked. It is pale blue, with orange-coloured
spots, and it has four large tufts of hair, of different colours, along
the back, and they have a white line along each side. It feeds on
Birch, Willow, and Hazel, I have found them very commonly at
Orton, and have taken them also at Newby Cross and at King-
moor.

The ComMMoN VAPOURER (Orgyia Antigua).

This is a very common moth here. The female is without
wings, and is covered with silky down. The larva is very variable
in colour, and it feeds on Willow, Birch, Hawthorn, Bramble,
Apple, Plum, Cherry, and many other plants,

197

: The BOMB YCIDA.
The Fox Motu (Bombyx rub).

This is very common on heathy ground in every locality
where I have collected. The moth is on the wing in June and
July. The larva lives through the winter, and changes to pupa
_ about the end of April.

The Oak Eccar (Lombyx quercus).

The larva feeds on Hawthorn, Birch, Willow, and on many
other plants. This moth is on the wing in the sunshine; I have
never seen the female flying, although I have taken many of them
They are common at Orton and at Newby Cross from about the
end of June until the middle of August.

The DRINKER (Odonestis potatoria).

The larva is very like that of the Oak Eggar. It feeds on
grass, and it spins a yellow cocoon, pointed at both ends. The
moth is on the wing in July and August.

, — ———— =O tt el

The EMPEROR Motu (Saturnia carpini).

The larva feeds on Heath, Willow, Birch, and Hawthorn,
It is full grown about the end of August, when it spins a light-
coloured cocoon, shaped like a pear, where it passes the winter.
The moth is on the wing from the-end of April until the middle of
_ August. The male is on the wing in the day-time. The female I
have never seen on the wing, although I have found many at rest.
They are common at Todhills, Houghton, Kingmoor, Newby
Cross, and Orton.

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199

THE CHARACTER AND DISTRIBUTION OF
THE DIATOMACEA.,

By B TAYLOR,

(Read at Whitehaven. )

TueE Diatomacez consist of a large tribe of one-celled organisms,
found in greatest abundance during the first and last three months
of the year. They are met with abundantly in the shallower parts
of fresh, salt, and brackish water. They grow on mud, stones,
sea-weed, shells, zoophytes, submerged timber in tidal harbours,
and on the bottoms of vessels that have been long afloat. They
may also be obtained just now (September) in boggy ground, and
on the various mosses that clothe rocky cliffs and brows down
which water trickles. As examples of some of these habitats, I
may refer to the mud of our Harbour, which a few weeks ago was
thickly covered with great numbers of Pleurosigma angulatum,
Surerella gemmo, P. asurii, and Stauroneis salina. On the Rifle-
range, in the corner of the angle formed by the rocks and the
target bank, is a small piece of boggy ground where they may be
obtained in enormous quantities. Another locality rich in diatoms
is the short piece of dripping rock that skirts the New Road a
few yards beyond the Wheelbarrow Brow.

The Diatomacez owe their name to the readiness with which
those members of the class which grow in filaments, or aggregated
masses, break up on the slightest touch. Their common English
name, Brittlewort, is also equally expressive and descriptive of the
same property. This quality of brittleness is owing to the presence

200

of Silex, of which their external structure is in great measure
composed. The occurrence of this mineral in plants is not confined
to the Diatomaceze, but is found in greater or less quantity in many
other plants, especially in the Equisetaceze and the grasses. But its
presence in great quantities in this group constitutes one of its
most distinctive peculiarities.

The cell, or frustule, as the individual diatom is called, is
composed of two symmetrical, more or less convex, siliceous
valves, or plates, connected with each other at the edges. They
have not inaptly been compared to bivalve shells—the mussel, for
instance. Interposed between these valves, and connecting their
edges, there generally exists a third segment, forming a band or
zone, and called the cingulum, or raphé. A common pill-box
affords an excellent illustration of the general arrangement of these
parts in the diatom, which is really a microscopic box of surpassing
beauty. The lid and the bottom of the box correspond to the
valves in the diatom; and the cylinder that intervenes between
the upper and the lower discs of the apothecary’s casket is the
exact counterpart of the connecting membrane of the diatom.
The hoop, or raphé, is of the same material as the shells it unites
together, and it plays an important part while the diatom is under-
going subdivision. Attached to, and lining the interior surface of
the siliceous shell, is a membrane of great delicacy, composed of a
substance called cellulose, and known as the primodial utrical.
Within the cavity formed by this membrane and the siliceous
exterior, is contained a soft mucilaginous substance.

At certain seasons, or under special conditions of the diatom,
a number of granules or globules make their appearance in this
contained material. These, from their refractive nature, and
behaviour under re-agents, appear to be of an oily character. The
endochrome, as the cell-contents are called, is sometimes of a
bright green ; in a few species, more generally it is of a chocolate-
brown colour. This colour is due to the iron present in its
substance. When the diatoms occur in considerable quantities
—which they frequently do in slowly-running streams—the colour
they impart to the surface they cover, enables the unaided vision

ane? See T=

201

to detect their presence at once. In some three or four species,
Mr. Thwaites and Professor Smith are reported to have seen the
contained granules in active motion. I have never been able to
detect this action in the species named by these gentlemen ; but
I have been fortunate enough to witness it in two other species I
gathered in this neighbourhood.*

In the size and shape of the diatom frustule there is an almost
infinite diversity. Not a few are very narrow, and much elong-
ated (as Synedra, etc.), and, from presenting a wand-like figure,
suggested to Ehrenberg the name of Bacillaria to designate the
family. Some, again, are triangular ( Zriceriatum), or square
(Ampheteteras ), or oblong ( Zerpsene). Others, again, grow in
filaments, and, when separated, present the appearance of tiny
pill-boxes and globes, owing to the convexity of their valves
(Melosira). Several genera are boat-shaped (/Vavicula ), some are
oval (Surerelia). Many—and these the most beautiful—are
flattened discs ( Cocinodiscus, Heleopelta, Arachnodiscus ); while not
a few are wedge-shaped (Licmophera). Some are curved and
twisted upon themselves, and others assume a sigmoid form
( Pleurosigma ), or an undulated form (as Symatapleura). A con-
siderable number of species are arcuate (Zunolia ), saddle-shaped
( Campylodiscus), and one genus has every species shaped like
plugs ( Gomphonema ).

Nor are the conditions under which the Diatomacez are
found to exist much less diversified than their form. For con-
venience of classification, however, they have been represented as
existing under four general conditions, viz :—

ist, Free; the frustule having undergone perfect, or entire,
subdivision, are found in a free or unconnected state (WVavicula ).

2nd, Stipitate; the frustules being implanted on a common
stem, which keeps them in mutual connection after they themselves

* The first time I saw the action was in some specimens of Pinularia
viridis (Smith) obtained on the Rifle-range, near Whitehaven, in December,
1876. The other instance was furnished by some specimens of Pleurosigma
angulatum (Smith) collected in the Harbour the following autumn,—ScIENCE
Gossip, Vol, IV.

202

have undergone a complete subdivision ( Cocconema, Achnanthes,
Filabelella ).

3rd, United in a filament or ribbon ; which is continuous, if the
cohesion extend to the entire surfaces of the frustules ( Riabdonema,
Fragilaria), but is sometimes a mere zig-zag chain (Diatoma,
Grammatophora, Tabilaria), the cohesion being limited to the
angles of the frustules.

4th, Aggregated into a frond; which consists of numerous
frustules, more or less regularly enclosed in a gelatinous sheath
( Schizonema, Encyonema). These differences of condition, how-
ever, are not made the ground of classification, because many of
the families contain all or most of them.

Acknowledged authorities are agreed that the group naturally
falls into two sections, viz.—those with valves that possess a central
longitudinal line and nodule (avicula, Pleurosigma, Pinularia,
and Gomphonema). And secondly, including all those whose
valves are destitute of these features (Surerella, Campylodiscus,
Cosinodiscus ).

The unattached forms, when the process of division has been
completed, live a perfectly free and independent existence. They
are most frequently met with on the surface of the mud in tidal
harbours, roadside channels, dripping walls, and on the edges of
grooves formed by small thread-like streams on sandy beaches.
In calm weather, examples of the latter may frequently be met
with on the north shore, a little this side of William Pit, where
I have found all but one of the species discovered by Dr. Donkin
on the shore at Morpeth. The remaining one (Zfithemia marina)
(Donkin) I obtained once only at St. Bees. The stalked, stipitate,
or filamentous forms, though occasionally found on stone in streams
and pools (Meridion), are, however, usually found growing as
parasites on sea-weed, conferva, and zoophytes.

The sides of the piers, and the rock-pools between high and low
water marks, furnish abundant gatherings of these varieties. The
frondiose species are almost invariably obtained from submerged
stones or from moss that grows under water. The last-named class
contains species of great diversities of structure. In some, the

>i ees 4
» a. ”

2038

daitoms are quite free, and arranged uniformly in transparent tubes
of considerable density and firmness (.Schzzonema), while in others
they are clustered in masses, according to a greater or less definite
plan, the investing substance being less consistent, and partaking
more of the character of mucus than the tubes of the former
(Mastagloia).

Specimens of the latter I have found about half-way up the
cliff above the sewage-outlet, which is indeed the only place in
which I have ever found them. The former—viz. those in gela-
tinous tubes—may be had in many varieties and great quantities
in the rock-pools around Tom Hurd’s Rock, below Wellington
Pit. Their presence may be known by the velvety appearance
they give to submerged stones on which they grow.

To the microscopist and the optician, the lines on the valves of
some genera of the Diatomacez are especially interesting ; which,
because of their great number and extreme delicacy, are much
esteemed as test-objects for ascertaining the defining quality of
microscope object-glasses of high magnifying power. Of these
markings, or strize, a great difference of number, distribution, and
development is found to exist among the several genera. Not
unfrequently, two or more sorts of markings are present in the
same individual, and onthe same valve (Heliopelta, Actinoptychus).
The entire surface may be covered with certain bands or dots, or
both, as is the case with all the members of the first great section
(Wavicule), which has already been named as having a longitudinal
line and central nodule. The number of these lines, or striz,

present on the frustules of some of the species of Pleurosigma

and JVavicula are, if possible, more incomprehensible and con-
founding than the expressed magnitudes and distances of the
heavenly bodies. For instance, within a linear inch of space,
clearly and sharply defined, P. formosum has 34,000, £. balticum
has 38,000, P. hippocampus has 40,000, P. guadratum has 43,000,
P. angulatum has 52,000, P. fasciola has 52,000, and Navicula
rhomboides has 100,000 such lines.

The mode of increase of the Diatomacez is twofold. The
most common, and what was long thought to have been the only

204

one, is that in which the cell undergoes subdivision. In this
process, the endochrome, or cell-contents, become divided longi-
tudinally, and the separated portions attach themselves on opposite
sides of the lining membrane, simultaneously with which movement,
the lining membrane begins to bend from all parts of the circum-
ference inwards, and continues to grow towards the centre, until
the whole interior has been cut through with a double membrane,
thus making the diatom double.

At the same time, and as a consequence of these processes,
the cell becomes enlarged, the connecting zone is greatly widened,
and the newly-formed membranes secrete to themselves each a
siliceous valve, in every respect the exact counterparts of those of
the original diatom. When this process, or series of processes, is
complete, the hoop bursts, and generally disappears, while the two
liberated diatoms go forth to repeat the same round of functions
that gave them birth. The other mode of increase is the result of
conjugation. It has been detected only in about forty species,
and these have been seen by only five or six observers. Our
acquaintance, therefore, with the phenomena which attend this
process, must necessarily be limited and imperfect.

This process bears a striking resemblance to the conju-
gation that prevails in several other of the lower organisms
(Desmidacee, Zignemacee). Myr. Thwaites, the first observer of
this process in the Diatomaceze, thus describes it: ‘The process
of conjugation consists in the union of the endochrome of approxi-
mate diatoms, this mixed endochrome developing around itself a
proper membrane, and this becoming converted into the spor-
angium.”

In a very early stage of the process, the conjugating frustules
have their concave surfaces in nearly close contact, and it may be
observed that from one of these surfaces two protuberances arise,
with two similar ones in the opposite frustule. These protuber-
ances indicate the future channels of communication by which
the endochrome become united, as well as the spot where is
subsequently developed the double sporangium. The mixed
endochrome occurs at first in two irregular masses between the -

205

conjugated frustules; but these masses shortly become covered
with a smooth membrane. The young sporangia, which gradually
increase in length, retaining nearly a cylindrical form until they
far exceed in dimensions the parent frustules, and at length, when
mature, become like them striated upon the surface.

Around the whole structure a considerable mucus has during
this time been developed, by which the empty frustules are held
attached to the sporangia. The phenomena, as they have been
seen in other species, differ somewhat from this description, yet
they resemble them in the main.

When seen through the microscope, diatoms are found to have
the power of motion. The character and amount of locomotion
differ considerably in the various species. In the Wavicula it
consists of repeated jerks in the direction of its length, to be
repeated in the opposite direction. In the saddle-shaped forms
(Campylodiscus), it is simply a slow languid roll from side to side ;
while in the round forms it is a very slight rotary action. For a
long time this observed motion greatly puzzled naturalists, and
many fanciful speculations were started to account for it. It was
thought by many that this power of locomotion determined their
animal affinities. It is now known that this movement is not a
property confined to the diatoms, but that it is in greater or less
degree common to all, or most of, the lowest orders of plants.
This was proved by Professor Williamson in his lecture here last
Session. It is no longer a doubtful question how this movement
from place to place is accomplished in the diatoms, although no
cilia or motile organs of any kind have ever been detected. But
Professor Shultze, of Bonn, has made it appear most probable that
it is due to the action of the protoplasm, or cell-contents, By
employing objectives of very high power, he discovered several
very small holes in the connecting membrane. He further noticed
in numerous specimens, that the protoplasm, or endochrome,
protruded slightly through these holes, and he concluded that the
movement of the frustule was produced by the contact of the
protoplasm with its surroundings,

It has been said by someone that, although so exceedingly

206

minute and apparently insignificant in comparison with the majestic
trees that in all time have composed, and the huge animals that
have tenanted, the forests of our planet, yet by their excessive
multiplication and accumulation, the Diatomaceze assume even a
greater importance in the physical history of the earth than any of
these.

The truth of this statement is proved by the fact of living
examples of these tiny atoms forming appreciable masses in an
inconceivable short space of time, and also by innumerable
instances where only their siliceous skeletons remain in a fossil, or
a semi-fossil, condition. Numerous instances are to be met with
illustrative of the wide and rapid diffusion of the Diatomacez. So
great is their abundance in many rivers and estuaries, that their
multiplication is affirmed by Professor Ehrenberg to have exercised
an important influence in blocking up harbours and diminishing
the depths of channels. This statement is confirmed by Mr.
Roper, who says that the shells of diatoms have a perceptible
influence in the formation of shoals and mud-banks in the bed of
the Thames. :

On the coast of Victoria Land, Dr. Hooker found a deposit
of mud, chiefly consisting of their shells, not less than four hundred
miles long and one hundred miles broad. Of the thickness of
this deposit no conjecture could be formed; sometimes the lead
sank in it to a depth of two feet.

The siliceous nature of this group of plants has served to
preserve and to perpetuate their presence in numerous localities
all over the world, where now, even the conditions essential to
their existence as living organisms are no longer found.

In these places they occur as soft white creamy or faint reddy-
blue coloured rock. Lough Mourne, Dolgethelly, and Toomebridge
in Ireland ; Holderness and Ulverstone in England ; Peterhead in
Scotland ; Bilin in Bohemia; and Oran in Algiers, are a few such
instances. But by far the largest deposits are found in America.
The river Columbia, in one part of its course, runs between two
precipices seven hundred or eight hundred feet high, which are
composed of porcelain clay five hundred feet thick, covered by a

207

bed of. compact basalt one hundred feet thick, which again is
capped by some volcanic deposits. ‘The argillaceous strata are of
very fine grain, and of various colours ; some portions being as
white as chalk. Dr. Bailey has shewn that this clay is entirely
composed of fresh-water Diatomacez. Its perfect freedom from
sand shews that it is not a drift, but that it must have been formed
by plants that lived on the spot. This is the largest deposit
known. Ordinarily these deposits do not exceed from one to four
feet in thickness ; but those of Lune-berg and Bilin have a depth
of forty feet. Some beds are also known to attain a thickness of
seventy feet: such are not usually pure, but are mixed with sand
and other matters. The Island of Barbadoes contains many such
deposits, some of which are rich in forms found nowhere else. A
kind of stone imported from Jutland for the manufacture of cement
is also composed in large measure of diatom-remains unlike any
other known species. The city of New York stands on one of
these accumulations of diatoms, having a great proportion of
“species identical, in every particular, with the same species found
living now in our own pools and streams.

I will close this paper with a quotation from one of the best
authorities on the Diatomaceze. Prof. Smith says: “Of the purposes
served by the diffusion of these organisms, it is impossible to speak
with certainty. Their minute size forbids us to attribute much
effect to their individual influences ; but when we regard them as
aggregated in numbers that defy enumeration, we are compelled
to believe that they occupy an important place, and subserve
necessary ends in the economy of Nature. Their nutritive process,
which involves the absorption of Carbonic Acid and the exhalation
of Oxygen, must tend to preserve the purity of the water in which
they are found, and to fit it for the respiration of aquatic animals.
Their presence in the stomachs of Infusoria, Annelida, Mollusca,
and Crustacea, shows that they constitute to some extent the food
of these animals; and the vast numbers of their remains which

* occur in guano, prove that they are swallowed in large quantities
by sea-birds, and minister to their subsistence.

“Their direct uses to man are probably few and inappreciable,

208

except in the mechanical arts, where the powdered deédrzs of their
frustules, owing to its silicious character, is employed as a polishing
material. Indirectly, they doubtless contribute to the fertility of
the soil, and promote the growth of many of the cereals which
furnish the human family with some of the elements of food.
“Should we even fail in our attempt to explain the precise
purposes of the Diatomacez in the economy of being, we may
rest assured that organisms of such infinite variety have not been
formed in vain, and that the time we may occupy in the study of
their functions, or in the admiration of their marvellous symmetry,
will not have been idly spent, if it enhance our conception of
Creative Skill, and strengthen our persuasion of the Omnipotent
Power and Diffusive Energy of the Divine Artificer of Nature.”

ee eS ee eee
G, AND T. COWARD, PRINTERS, CARLISLE,

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Hy, M. Geological Sues.

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_ Non-Memners, Two SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE, as

“CARLISLE: ee S Ee ee ce
STREET. G

TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

~ CUMBERLAND ASSOCIATION

FOR THE

Advancement of Literature and
Science,

PART. V.L==1886-8r-

EpirED sy J. G. GOODCHILD,
H.M. Geological Survey.

PRICE TO MEMBERS, ONE SHILLING.
Non-MEMBERS, Two SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE.

CARLISLE:
G. & T. COWARD, PRINTERS, SCOTCH STREET,
1881,

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List or OFFICERS

REPORTS FROM THE ASSOCIATED SOCIETIES
REPORT OF ASSOCIATION SECRETARY
TREASURER’S ACCOUNT

Warp Memortat Funp

Part I.—PROCEEDINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING
(WORKINGTON) :—

PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS ...

Papers READ AT THE ANNUAL MEETING :—

«‘The Public Water Supplies of eet Cumberiand.”’
By ArcuripaLp Kiroutn, F.1.C., F.C.8., &e. -

‘The Grasses of Mid-Cumberland.” Es WILLIAM
Hopeson

‘*Observations on the apiece Plants of West oan.
berland.” By J. ADAIR

“The Lichens of Cumberland.” le the se W.
JOHNSON ae a pn

‘Notes on the Occurrence ar the Iceland Falcon in
Edenside.” Be: J. G. GoopcniLp, H.M. Pea ae
Survey

‘‘Notes on the Basal eeneatie of North. West
Cumberland.” By T. V. Houmss, F.G.S.

Part II].—Papers CoMMUNICATED TO THE SOCIETIES DURING THE
Session 1880-81, AND SELECTED BY THE ASSOCIATION
CoUNCIL FOR PUBLICATION :—

‘*The Chaloners, Lords of the Manor of St. Bees.” By
Witiiam Jackson, F.S.A. (Whitehaven) ... Bu

‘*Contribution towards a List of West Cumberland
Flcwering Plants and Ferns.” By MEMBERS OF THE
BoTaNICAL SECTION OF THE WHITEHAVEN SOCIETY ...

**On the yee: or, Bird Life.” By Cares A.
Parker, M.D. (Whitehaven) ; a :

“*Notes on a Submerged Forest off Cardurnock on the
Solway ; and on the Destruction of Skinburness by
the Sea about the year 1305.” By T. V. Hotmms,
F.G.S. (Maryport Annual Meeting) pas

‘Distribution of the Diatomacez.” By B. TayLor
(Whitehaven) - ay = te

159

167

47

85

105

121

175

The Council of the Association are indebted to MR. HOLMES
and Mr. GoovcHitp for the gift of the Lilustrations that
accompany their respective papers in Part VI. of the Trans-

actions.

wmwyuLIery QlIU LWALUTaALLIOLUD Trivciu wiuy; FALALUICOLIUL ALIU LZLIOLLILU auttUlary

<

ir Ss i x Se ares ———— a il

Rv bv ES

OF THE

Cunberland Association for the Advancement of
Hiterature and Science.

1.—That the Association be called the ‘CumMBERLAND
ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF LITERATURE AND

ScIENCE.”

2.—The Association shall consist of the following Societies :—
Whitehaven Scientific Association, Keswick Literary and Scientific
Society, Cockermouth Literary and Scientific Society, Workington
Scientific and Literary Society, Maryport Literary and Scientific
Society, Longtown Literary and Scientific Society, Carlisle Scientific
Society and Naturalists’ Field Club, Ambleside and District Literary
and Scientific Society, Silloth and Holme Cultram Literary and
Scientific Society, and of such other Societies as shall be duly

affiliated. Also of persons nominated by two members of the

. Council ; this latter class of members shall pay the sum of 55s.

‘annually.

3.—All members of affiliated Societies, unless otherwise ruled
by the regulations of their respective Societies, shall be members

of the Cumberland Association.

Ld
Vi.

4.—The Association shall be governed by a Council, consisting
of a President, Vice-Presidents, Secretary, who shall also be
Treasurer, an Editor, and of ordinary Members, two to be elected
by each affiliated Society. The President, Secretary, and Editor
shall be elected annually at the Annual Meeting, and shall be
capable of re-election.

5.—The Vice-Presidents shall consist of the Presidents of the
various affiliated Societies; and the delegates of the various

Societies shall be elected annually by their respective Societies.

6.—An Annual Meeting of the Association shall be held at such
time and place as may be decided upon at the previous Annual
Meeting, or (failing such appointment) as may be arranged by the
Council.

7.—At each Annual Meeting, after the delivery of the Presi-
dent’s Address, and the reading of the Reports from the affiliated
Societies, the objects of the Association may be furthered by
Lectures, Papers, Addresses, Discussions, Conversaziones, &c.
The Council shall have the power of obtaining the assistance of

persons who are not members of the Association.

8.—The Council may publish at the expense of the Association
such portions of its own or of any of the affiliated Societies’ com-
munications as may be deemed advisable, subject to the consent
of the author.

g.—The Council shall endeavour to promote co-operation among
existing societies, and may assist in the formation of new ones; it
may also aid in the establishment of classes in connection with

any of the associated societies.

1o.—Affiliated societies shall contribute annually towards the

SSS mm<€«- i

a P

Vil.

general funds of the Association, Sixpence for each of their
members ; but when the number of members of the affiliated
Societies exceeds one hundred and fifty, a reduction of fifty per
cent. shall be made upon the payment for each member in excess
of that number.

11.—The rules can be altered only by a majority of two-thirds
of the members present at an Annual Meeting. Any member
desiring to alter the Rules must send a copy of the proposed
alterations to the Secretary, at least two weeks before the meeting
is held.

12.—Past Presidents of the Association shall be permanent

members of the Council, and be described as Past-Presidents.

13.—The travelling expenses of all who assist in carrying out
the programme of the various affiliated Societies shall be defrayed
by the Society assisted.

The Seventh ANNUAL MEETING will be held at CARLISLE early’
in 1882, and due notice of the arrangements for the same will be
issued to all members of the Association.

Members willing to bring forward papers on subjects of original
investigation, or of local interest, should send in the titles of the

same to the Honorary Secretary of the Association.

5010)

OFFICERS FOR THE SESSION 1881-82,

oe} 01

President.
ROBERT FERGUSON, Esq., M.P.

Past Presidents.

Tur Lorp BisHor oF CARLISLE.
Tue Late I. Frercuer, Esq, M.P., F.R.S.
Tue Hon. Percy 8S. WynpHAM, M.P.

Vice Presidents.

T. F. Anson, Esa., M.D., (Whitehaven. )

Rev. A. Howson, (Keswick.)

Rev. J. J. Toornuey, M.A., (Workington. )

W. Hine, Esq., (Maryport.)

Rev. J. Wauuace, M.A., (Longtown.)

Mites Macinyes, Esq., (Carlisle.)

Rev. H. S. Catenper, M.A., (Ambleside.)

Rev. S. Hesert, M.A., (Silloth and Holme Cultram.)
Cc. J. Jounson, Esq., (Brampton. )

M. W. Taytor, Esq., M.D., (Penrith.)

Council.
J. Vivtan, Esq., C.E., P
A. Krreuty, Esq., F.C.S., Whitehaven.

Rev. Canon BATTERSBY, e -. K i
A. A. H. Kyicut, Esq., eswic

C. J. VALENTINE, EsqQ.,
Wm. Witson, Esq., : Weare

Dr, MatrTHias,

Mr. J. CARTMEL, Maryport.

Rev. Wm. LyttTeI.,

Mr. Joun WILSON, Longtown.

R. S. Fercuson, Esq., F.S.A., Carliah
Henry Baryzs, Esq., M.D rea
Mr. C. W. Smita,

Mr. J. BENTLEY, Ambleside.

Silloth and Holme Cultram.

Rev. H. WHITEHEAD, }
Mr. G. Burton, J
M. W. Taytor, Esae., M.D. Penrith
W. B. Arnison, Ese., enrith.

Brampton.

Hon. Association Creasurer and Secretary.
Kenpat, Esq., C.E., F.G.S., Mockerkin Hall, Cockermouth.

Editor of the Transactions.
J. G. Goopcuitp, Esa., H.M. Grou, Survey, Penrith,

HON. SECRETARIES FOR THE SESSION 1881-82.

Whitehaven pes J

Keswick ...
Workington

Maryport... an

Longtown

Carlisle

Ambleside be
Silloth & Holme Cultram
Brampton

Penrith

Mr. J. Vivtan, C.E., Whitehaven.
Mr. W. H. Kircuty, Whitehaven.

Mr. J. PosrierHwatre, Eskin Bank, Keswick.
Mr. W. Wison, Workington.

Mr. J. B. Battzy, Maryport.
Mr. L. Aparr, Maryport.

Mr. Joan Wuson, Eskbank, Longtown.
Mr. Joun Sincxatr, 6 Hawick Street, Carlisle.
Mr. J. BENTLEY.

Messrs. W. M. Hupson and L. Luovyp, Silloth.
Mr. P. T. Lez, West Hill, Brampton, Cumb.

Rev. J. SHARPE Ostix, Beaconside, Penrith.

REPORTS FROM THE ASSOCIATED SOCIETIES.

WHITEHAVEN SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION.

HOWGILL STREET.

14th SESSION, 1880-81.

President... Bt oo .. T. F. Anson, M.D., F.R.HLS.
Vice-President at oe ... R. Pickerine, C.E.

Past-Presidents.

T. F. ’Ansoyn, M.D., F.R.H.S. H. ‘A. Frercuer, F.R.A.S.
W. Jackson, J.P., F.S.A. JAMES BAIRD.
Aveustus HELDER. R. Russett, C.E., F.G.S.
W. H. Kircuin. A. Kitcutn, F.C.S.
Committee.
E. Apiett, M.D. JoHN JACKSON.
JOSEPH ADATR. J. D. Kenna, M.E., F.G.S.
W. TAnson, M.B. B. Tayior.
E. Doxgson.
Curator of Museum ... a wks ise W. I’Anson, M.B.
Curator of Building ... se re Pa R. Pickerine, C.E.
Treasurer... oe i oa fri J. S. HELLon.
Hon. Librarian dss or ite ag% H. Aparr.
Hon. Secretary ae Hay ae ax J. Vivian, C.E.

The following MEETINGS were held during the Session :—

Oct. 5.—CoNVERSAZIONE.—ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT.

Oct. 19.—Cuas. A. Parker, M.D.—On the Wing, or Bird Life.

Nov. 2.—Rev. W. SHERwEN, M.A.—History of the English Language.

Nov. 16.—Wetpy I’Anson, M.B.—Ultima Thule.

Nov. 30.—Rev. J. Hewerson, M.A., F. E, Eppis, H. R. Ensor.—The
State and Education.

xi.

Dec. 14.—R. Russexiz, C.B., F.G.S.—Cyprus.

Jan. 4.—Micuart Fatcon, M.R. A.C. —Plant-food, its Origin, Assimilation,
and Destination.

Jan. 11.—J. E. Taytor, F.L.S., F.G.S.—Bees, their Relation to Agri-
culture and Horticulture.

Jan. 18.—Jonn Nixon, B.A.—Science in Education.

Feb. 1.—Rev. D. I. F. Mactrop, M.A.—Niagara.

Feb. 15.—C. J. Fereuson, F.S.A.—Furniture.

Mar. 1.—W. Jackson, J.P., F.S.A.—The Chaloners, Lords of the Manor
of St. Bees.

Mar.15.—J. Macqureen.—English Music (modern) with Illustrations.

The Committee of the Association, in presenting their fourteenth
Annual Report, have much pleasure in stating that 31 New
Members have been added during the past Session, but, owing to
resignations and removal, the number of Members on the register
has only increased from 269 to 280.

Eleven papers have been read by Members and their local
friends, and one special lecture was given by J. E. Taylor,
Ph. D., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c., of Ipswich, on “Bees, their Relation
to Agriculture and to Horticulture.”

An effort has been made to increase the usefulness of the Associ-
ation, by inviting some of the Benefit and other Societies of the
Town, to inspect the Museum and Loan Collection and to hear
scientific addresses. Of the six entertainments given, two were
very well attended.

The Library has been increased by a gift of 33 vols. The
Committee beg to call the attention of Associate Members to the
fact of the Honorary Librarian being at the Rooms on Tuesday
evenings.

A loan collection of Drawings has been obtained from the
South Kensington Museum, and the Committee desire to thank
Lord Lonsdale, Mrs. Robertson Walker, Messrs. Ainsworth,
Mr. J. G. Dees, Mr. R. Russell, Dr. Ablett, Dr. Parker,
Mr. W. Whittle, Mrs. D. Robertson, Mr. J. Robertson, Mr. J.
Vivian, Mr. Jacques, The Proprietors of the Graphic, The
President, and many other friends, for the valuable collection of
Pictures, Pottery, and other interesting objects lent to increase
the exhibits of the Museum.

XU.

The Museum has been greatly enlarged and improved, and
three new cases have been added. The donations have been
very numerous and valuable; they are mostly Zoological and
Mineralogical, but in addition, a series of Ornaments and Weapons
of Tribes in the Pacific have been presented by the Earl of
Lonsdale. A cork model of Workington Hall, purchased and
presented by several of the Members, has been placed in the
Library. Many of the plants collected by the Botanical Section
have been mounted under glass by Mr. Adair and look very
effective.

The Curator begs to thank those Members who have so kindly
contributed specimens, and hopes there will be no falling off
during the ensuing year.

A catalogue of the contents of the Museum is being prepared.

As will be seen by the Financial Statement of the Treasurer,
there is a debit balance against the Association, incurred by
making additions to the cases in the Museum, and alteration to
Rooms, &c.; but as these charges, amounting to nearly £64, are
on account of capital, and the revenue account is very much in
excess of current expenses, the finances of the Association are in
a satisfactory condition.

SCIENCE CLASSES.

During the Session, Science Classes, in connection with the
Science and Art Department, South Kensington, have been held.
Your Committee were fortunate in being able to secure the services
of Mr. A. Freeman as Head Master, who has conducted the
classes free of cost to the Institution ; and they consider that the
thanks of this meeting are due to that gentleman, and also to
Messrs. Bonny, Doughty, and Rose, for the great benefit they have
rendered the Association as teachers.

The number of classes started was six, the subjects ‘being (1)
Mathematics, (2) Animal Physiology, (3) Acoustics, Light, and
Heat, (4) Physiography, (5) Magnetism and Electricity, (6) Steam;
two of this number were however, on account of the smallness of
the number, and the irregularity of the attendance of Students,

Ve

oe

__~ pp eine

xiii.

given up, namely, those on Magnetism and Electricity and
Steam.

The other classes have been fairly well attended, and on the
whole successful. The total number of Students under instruction
during the Session, was 48, and of this number 41 intend to present
themselves for Examination by the Department during the present
month,

ZOOLOGICAL SECTION.

The first Session of this Section was held during the summer of
last year. Twelve lectures were given on the outlines of Zoology ;
the lectures were illustrated by numerous diagrams, and by over
two hundred specimens of the Animal Kingdom.

A number of specimens were also exhibitedjby the Microscope.
There were also two Aquaria, marine and fresh water, for ob-
serving the habits of aquatic animals. About thirty Members
attended the course, which it is proposed to resume next Winter
Session, for which some interesting papers are already promised.

BOTANICAL SECTION.

The Members of the Botanical Section have been diligently
searching the district during the past season. They have collected
a number of specimens, which they purpose handing to the
Curator as soon as they are mounted and named.

Discoveries of Plants new to them have been made in various
parts of the district. They are now engaged in preparing a
complete list of all Plants observed by them, which will be offered
for publication in the next part of the Transactions of the
Cumberland Association.

The list of Plants will include the Flowering Plants, the Grasses,
the Ferns, the Lichens, the Mosses, and the Diatoms.

xIv,

KESWICK LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

12rH SESSION, 1880-81.

President .. sls ae Ss Rey. A. Howson.
Vice-President ae 1a he Rev. Canyon Barrerspy, M.A.
Hon. Sec. (pro. tem.) and Treasurer... Epwin JACKSON.

Committee ;

Rev. T. K. Ricomonp Rey. W. CoLvitLE
J. FISHER CROSTHWAITE H. I. Jenxrnson, F.R.G.S., F.SA.
Grorce Brack, M.B. JOHN CROSBIE

Wiit1am Woop.

Hon. Curators of Museum :
Arex. A. H. Kyicut | JoHN BIRKETT

PUBLIC LECTURES.

1880. .
Nov. 1.—J. R. Anprerson, Esq., B.A.—The House of Bondage; or,
Egypt, past and present.

Nov. 22.—R. Russent, Esq., C.E.,F.G.S.—Iron Ores : How they occur,
and the modes of working,

Dec. 6.—Rey. T. K. Richmonp, M.A.—Samuel Johnson

Dec. 20.—Rev. A. F. Cuarxe, M.A., F.C.C.C., Oxford.—The use of
Rhyme in Poetry.

1881.

Jan. 17.—J. E. Taynor, Esq., F.L.S., &.G.S.—An Hour by a Pond side.

Jan. 24,.—The Right Rev. Lorp BisHop or CARiistE.—Man’s Place in
Nature.

Feb. 24.—M. W. Taytor, Esqg., M.D.—The Origin and Diffusion of
Epidemics.

Feb. 28.—-Rev. ALex. Natrn.—Sketch of Socrates : A Parallel between
his Methods and some Modern forms of Scientific Investigation.

ORDINARY MEETINGS.
1880.
Oct. 25.—THE PrEsIDENT.—The Progress of Popular Education.
Nov. 8.—Mr. Wm. Woopv.—Charles Dickens : a Sketch.
Nov. 29.—Mr. J. F. Crosthwaite.—The Crosthwaite Charities.

Dec. 13.—Mr. Dunpas Batrerspy.—The Life and Times of Cardinal
Wolsey.
1881.
Jan. 31.—Mr, P, Harrison.—Notes on Language.

XV,

Feb. 21.—Mr. J. RicHarpson.—Cumberland before the Union with
Scotland.

Mar. 7.—Mr. R. 8. Canriy.—Art and Artists.
Mar. 27.—Rey. A. Leakey, B.A.—Atmospheric Influences.

Both Public Lectures and Ordinary Meetings have been well
attended throughout the session, and the Committee have reason
to congratulate the Society on the general interest manifested in
its work, and also on the state of its finances. The income from
all sources amounted to £46 4s. 9d., and after giving a donation
of £5 to the Keswick Library, and discharging all claims against
the Society, a balance of £18 17s. rod. remains in hand.

Twenty new members were elected during the session ; while,
on the other hand, there was a loss of fifteen, from removals and
other causes. The total number of members now on the register
is 154.

During the summer months two Excursions or Field Days were
held. The first, on the 26th of May, was to the Cumberland Road
Metal Company’s Quarry, on the Threlkeld Common, and the
so-called British village near the same place ; thence to the site of
Threkeld Hall, where a paper was read by Mr. J. Fisher
Crosthwaite, on the history of the hall and its owners, together
with an allusion to its gardens, moats, and defences. The weather
was very unfavourable, and consequently the attendance was small.
The second excursion was to Haweswater and Mardale Green, on
the 23rd June, and eighty-three members were present, although
the weather was far from agreeable. Some of the party ascended
to Small Water and Blea Water Tarns, while others inspected the
ancient church at Mardale ; and on the return journey the whole
party alighted at Askham, for the purpose of visiting Lowther
Castle. Both these excursions were conducted without any
assistance from the general funds of the Society.

The following are the Officers and Committee for the ensuing
Session :—President, Rev. A. Howson; Vice-President, Rev.
Canon Harford Battersby ; Hon. Secretary, Mr. J. Postlethwaite ;
Hon. Treasurer, Mr. Edward Jackson. Committee: Rev. T. K.
Richmond, Mr. J. F. Crosthwaite, Dr. Black, Rev, W. Colville,
Mr. T. E. Highton, Mr. W. Wood.

Xvi,

WORKINGTON SCIENTIFIC & LITERARY SOCIETY.

SESSION 1880-81.

President .. oe 3p A a G. J. Sneius, Esq.
Vice-President oe, uh ae a J. J. THORNiEY, M.A.
Treasurer ... er Ms ayn Ss W. Patsuey, Esq.
Secretary ... 3 “a8 rs win W. Witson, Esq.

Members of the Council :
Messrs. SNELUS, VALENTINE, AND WILSON.

Committee :
Mr. H. Bowes. Mr. J. BLAYDON.
Mr. Gro. GRAHAM. Mr. THos. [REDALE.
Mr. C. HinpMARSH. Mr. Ropr. GARDNER.
Mr. Joun HigHet. | Mr. E. J. Burrows.

Mr. G. F. SAUNDERS.

The following Lectures were delivered during the Session :

Nov. 10.—CoNVERSAZIONE. PRESIDENT’s OPENING ApDpREss. J. D.
KenDatt, Esq., M.E., F.G.S.—Influence of Geological Structure
on Scenery. Vocal and Instrumental Music.

Nov. 24.—Davip Jackson, Esg.—Small Causes, Great Effects.

Dec. 8.—Aziz Anmap.—Afghanistan, and Manners and Customs of the
Afghans.

Dec. 22.—Rev. W. J. Watnwricut, M.A.—Sir Walter Scott, his Life
and Works.

Jan. 5.—J. Newsy Heruerineton, Esq., F.R.G.S.—Arthurian Stories
and Tennyson’s Idylls.

Jan. 12.—J. E. Tayuor, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S.—The Geographical Distribu-
tion of Animals and Plants, geologically considered.

Jan. 19.—Rev. W. P. ScHarrrer.—India : Its Manners and Customs.
Feb. 2.—F. Waker, Esq.—Photography, with Illustrations.

Feb. 16.—J. Ricuarpson, Ese.—Cumberland before the Union with
Scotland.

Mar. 2.—R. Russext, Esq., C.E., F.G.S.—Cyprus.
Mar. 16.—Rerv. T. Gorpon Motynevx.—Life and Writings of Moliére.
Mar. 23.—Busrtness MEETING.

The Committee of the Workington Branch of the Cumberland
Association have pleasure in reporting a further increase of members
during Session 1880-81. The Meetings of the Session have been
well attended.

XVil.
MARYPORT LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

5th SESSION, 1880-81.

President th ae Aes oe Rey. J. S. Crate.

Past-Presidents.

Rev. A. OATEs. Mr. J. Woop.

Dr, CRERAR. Mr. J. ADDISON.
Vice-President ee bbe an 2 A. P. Sennouse, Esa.
Fon. Secretaries.

Mr. J. B. Batiey. | Mr. L. Apatr.

Treasurer te Ek ae a Mr. W. WHarTON.
Committee.

Mr. P. MactntyRre. Mr. F. WALKER.

Mr. J. Hopeson. Mr. R. Awpair.

Mr. J. H. Govupiz. Mr. A. Nose.

Dr. Marratas. | Mr. W. H. Eckerstry.

Mr. A. HIne. | Mr. W. Hine.

PUBLIC LECTURES.
1880.
Oct. 26.—J. D. Kennan, Esq., M.E., F.G.S.—Influence of Geological
Structure on Scenery.

Dec. 14.—W. J. Donerty, Esq., M.R.I.A.—The Round Towers of Ireland.

Dec. 21.—T. H. Incuam, Esq.—Poetry—What is it? and what are its uses?
1881.

Jan. 11.—J. Newsy HETHERINGTON, Esq., F.R.G.S.—Early English Drama.

Jan. 18.—J. E. Taytor, Esq., Ph.D., F.L.S., F.G.S.—The Life and History
of Mosses and Ferns.

Feb. 8.—R. J. Bariuig, Esq., F.R.A.S.—The Sun.

ORDINARY MEETINGS.

1880.
Nov. 2.—-Rev. W. P. Scuarrrer.—India: Its Manners and Customs.
Nov. 16.—Conversazione and Exhibition.
Nov. 30.—Mr. E. T. Tyson.—The First Lord Ellenborough.

1881.
Feb. 22.—Mr. L. Adair.—A Design’‘in Creation.
Mar. 8.—Rev. W. 8. CatverLey.—A Few Notes on the Ancient History

of the Neighbourhood of Maryport.

Mar. 22.—Mr. J. H. Goupre, Assoc. M. Inst. C.E.—-Coal Mining.
Ap. 13.—Business Meeting. Election of Officers, &e.
B

XVIil.

This Society is now completing its 5th Session, having been
inaugurated on September 25th, 1876; and it is very gratifying to
record that each year there has been an increase in the number of
Members. This year there are 133 Members, viz. 31 ladies and
102 gentlemen, the numbers for the four preceding Sessions being
70, 80, 102, and 110 respectively.

There are now also 17 Honorary Members, the following having
. been elected during the past Session: W. J. Donerty, Esq.,
M.R.I.A.; T. H. INcHam, Esq.; R. J. BAILuiz, Esq., F R.A.S.

The best thanks of the Association are due to all those who
took part in the programme, which comprised six Public and seven
Ordinary Meetings. It is a matter for congratulation that the
attendance at the Lectures has been so well maintained, a fact
doubtless owing to the general excellence of the papers read. A
new Rule was made at the beginning of the Session, viz.: “ That
all persons under the age of 21 be admitted as Members on the
payment of 2s. 6d.” This has not resulted in the success that
might have been anticipated, only five such Members having been
enrolled ; still we hope to chronicle a large increase in this respect
next Session.

A Conversazione and Exhibition held in the Coffee Tavern
proved a great success. Financially the Association is in a very
flourishing condition.

LONGTOWN LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

4TH SESSION, 1880-81.

President... bese s3e 20k Rev. JosrPH, WALLACE, B.A.
Vice-Presidents :
R. A. Attison, Esqg., M.A. | Rev. P. CARRUTHERS.
Treasurer and Secretary i on 25 Mr. Joux WILson.
Committee :

Mr. Isaac Rice. Dr. McLacuian.

Mr. Jas. PEEL. Mr. R. J. ARMSTRONG.

Mr. A. WILKIE. Mr. J. Burron.

Rev, Wm. Lyrrer, | Mr. Wm. Drxon,

a

XIX.

PUBLIC LECTURES.

Oct. 19.—Inaugural Meeting.
Nov. 9.—Samu. F. McLacuian, M.B.—The Physiology of Digestion.
Nov. 16.—A. Kitcuen, Esq., F.C.S.—A Beam of Sunlight, and its Lesson.

Dec. 7.—Rev. Jos. Wattace, B.A.—Unwholesome Literature, and its
Antidotes.

Jan. 13.—Dr. Tayzor, F.L.S., F.G.S.—Bees : Their Relation to Agricul-
ture and Horticulture.

Feb. 15.—Rev. J. S. Craic.—The Ancient Icelander: His Life and
Literature.

Mar. 8.—Rev. JAMES CHristiz, B.A.—Italian Notes.

Mar. 29.—W. Easton Rosertson, Esqg.—Personal Experience in the
Transvaal.

ORDINARY MEETINGS:
1880.

Oct. 26.—Mr. James McConocuiz. —A Visit to the Himalaya.
Nov. 2.—Readings from different authors.
Nov. 23.—Discussion.
Nov. 30.— Readings.
Dec. 14.—Mr. Ketty.—Fireside Education.
Dec. 21.—Discussion.
Dec. 28.—Readings.
1881.
Jan. 4,.—Rev. Wm. Lyrreit, M.A.—Caves and Cave-Dwellers.
Jan. 18.—Discussion.
Jan. 25.—Readings.
Feb. 1.—Mr. A. WILKIE.—James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd.
Feb. 22.—Reading.
Mar. 1.—Mr. Joun Wiison.—The Mind.
Mar. 15.— Discussion.
Mar. 22.—Readings.
Apr. 5.—Discussion, and the Business of the Society.

The Committee have pleasure in reporting an increase of
members during the year, there being now 56 on the books,
against 44 last year ; but owing to the reduction of the contribu-
tions of junior members from zs. 6d. to 1s. 6d., and also to the
small attendance of the public at the lectures, the income of the
Society shows a falling off, and has not met the expenditure, the
total income being £7 17s. 1d., and expenses £10 2s. 6d., leaving
a balance due to Treasurer of £2 5s. 5d.

During the summer, excursions were made to Netherby,

XX.

Hermatage Castle, Gilnockie, and Solway Moss, at which papers
were read by J. R. Armstong, Esq., Rev. Wm. Lytteil, M.A., W.
Easton Robertson, Esq., Mr. Johnson of Canonbie, and the
Secretary. In these excursions the Society was joined by the
members of the Canonbie Young Men’s Christian Association,
and most instructive and enjoyable meetings were uniformly spent.

The winter Session was carried out (with some alteration of
dates) in accordance with the printed programme. ‘The first
meeting was very large; R. A. Allision, Esq., occupied the chair.
Addresses were given by W. E. Robertson, Esq., and the Rev. Wm.
Lytteil, and a selection of readings, anthems, &c., was given by
the members, Mr. J. Button presiding at the pianoforte. The
Committee regret that the other meetings were but poorly attended,
although the lectures, papers, &c., were fully up to the standard of
former years.

At the last meeting the following Officers were elected for
1881-82 :—President, the Rev. Joseph Wallace, M.A.; Vice-
Presidents, R. A. Allison, Esq., M.A., Rev. P. Carruthers, and S. F.
McLachlan. Committee :—Messrs. J. Rigg, A. Wilkie, J. Button,
J. Peel, W. Dixon, —. McAdam, Wm. Little, —. Lonsdale, and
the Rev. W. Lytteil. Delegates :—Rev. Wm. Lytteil, Mr. John
Wilson.

CARLISLE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY AND FIELD
NATURALISTS’ CLUB.

4th SESSION, 1880-81.

President fs se - ba R. Fereuson, M.P.
Past-President... Tue Rieut Rey. THE Lorp BisHor or CARLISLE.

Vice-Presidents.
S. J. Bryyine, Esq. | Mires Mactnnes, Esq.

Treasurer be a we de R. S. FEercuson, Esq.
Hon. Secretary... nt it 3% Mr. Jonn Srvewarr.

<i

Committee.
Dr. MAcLAREN. | Mr. J. Hepworru.
Mr. W. I. R. Ckowver. | Mr. R. M. Hitt.
Mr. R. J. Bainxie. | Dr. BARNES.
Mr. W. B. Dopp. | Mr. GEorGE Dawson.
Rev. CANON CHALKER. Mr. JoHN JACKSON.
Mr. Tom Duckworts. Mr. Wm. Duckwortu.

PUBLIC LECTURES.
1880.

Oct. 12th.—Mr..J. D, Kenpati,—Influence of Geological Structure on-
Scenery.
Nov. 2nd.—Rey. Cayon Carr.—Insectivorous Plants.
Nov. 16th.—Mr. R. RussEty.—On the Antiquity of Man.
Noy. 30th.— Mr. R. 8S. Feravuson.—Potsherds.
1881.

Jan. 10th.--Dr. Taytor, Ipswich.—The Geographical Distribution of
Animals and Plants Geologically considered.

Jan., Feb., Mar., and Apl.—Mr. J. E. Marr, B.A.—Cambridge University
Course of 12 Lectures on Geology.

ORDINARY MEETINGS (held in the Museum).
1880.

Oct. 14th.—Dr. Cartyte.—On Fungi.

Dec. 7th.—Mr. GzorGe Dawson.—Local Entomology, Part 2.

Dec. 21st.—Mr. J. G. Goopcuitp, of H.M. Geol. Survey.— Birds of Prey.
1881.

Jan. 20th.—Mr. Jonn Jackson.—Plant Lore.

Feb. 17th.—Mr. R. 8. Fercuson.—Stone Implements in the Museum.

The Committee in presenting their Fourth Annual Report have
again to congratulate the Members on the success of another
season.

During the year four Field-days have been held. The first, on
Whit-Monday, to Melmerby ; the second, to Holme-Cultram ; the
third, to Woodside ; the fourth, to Armathwaite and Nunnery—at
which papers were read.

190 copies of the Transactions have been distributed among the
Members. New Members still continue to be enrolled.

XXil.

SILLOTH AND HOLME CULTRAM LITERARY
AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

2nd SESSION, 1880-81.

President oeG es a 4 Rev. W. Horns, M.A.
a a re és 28 =i .. E. H. Banks, Esq.
Vice-Presidents { ) sit ... Rev. A. F. SHepparp, B.A.
Comittee.

Mr. W. CRABB. Mr. J. Houurpay.

Mr. J. GLAISTER. Mr. W. L. BARKER.

Mr. R. GLAISTER. Mr. G. T. Carr.
Mr. R. Hornspy. Mr. J. Lerrcu.

Mr. F. GRAINGER.

Treasurer ae ee ae = .. Mr. J. Stronach

..Mr. W. M. Hupson

Ffon. -Secretaries Mr. Louis Lioyp

PUBLIC LECTURES.
1880.
Oct. 2lst—R. J. Bariure, Esq., F.R.A.S.—Other Worlds than Ours.
Nov. 19th—Mr. T. FARRALL.—Chemical Manures : their Influence on Plant
and Animal Life.

Dec. 16th—

1881.
Jan. 14th—Dr. Taytor, F.L.S., F.G.S.—An Hour by a Pond Side.
Feb. 10th—Mr. F. WaLKER.—Photography.

Mar. 10th—R. A. Atitison, Esq., M.A.—The Church in Cumberland, from
11th to 15th Century.

Apl. 7th—J. D. Kenpaut, Esq., M.E., F.G.S.—Lakes, and How they are

Formed.

ORDINARY MEETINGS.
1880.
Nov. 4th—Mr. H. L. Barxer.—Charles Dickens: Illustrations of Char-
acter.
Dec. 11th—Mr. L. Luoyp.—Readings from various authors.
1881.
Jan. 27th—Mr. R. GuaisteEr.—The Potato.
Feb. 24th—Rev. W. Horne.—The Bayeux Tapestry, and its Story of the
Norman Coquest.
Mar. 24th—Mr. J. GuatstER.—The Rarer Wild Flowers of Holme Cultram.

XAlil.

The meetings of our Society have been well attended this
Session ; but the number of Members has fallen from 126 to 103.
This diminution, however, has been mostly caused by the removal
of Members from the neighbourhood.

There were two Field-days held last summer. The first
Excursion was to Abbey Town, where the Abbey, Raby Court, &c.,
were inspected. The Rev. A. F. Sheppard reading a paper on the
“Old Abbey.” The Members of the Carlisle Scientific Society
and Field Naturalists’ Club joined us on this occasion.

The second Excursion was to Lanercost, Naworth, and Gilsland,
but owing to the wet morning very few attended.

The Committee take this opportunity of thanking those gentle-
men who so kindly came from other Societies to help us. They
regret the removal of the Rey. W. Horne, M.A., the President, as
he always did his utmost to further the interests of the Society.

Although the subscription for the Session is only 2s. 6d., the
Society has a good balance in hand.

AMBLESIDE AND DISTRICT LITERARY AND
SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

4th SESSION, 1880-81.

President... ee ie ... Rev. H. S. Cattenper, M.A.
Vice-Presidents.

Rev. E. M. Reynoups, M.A. | Rev. J. W. Asron, M.A.
Treasurer ne Be 54 ea ne Mr. Wm. Lister.
Secretary — are ee Ms MI Mr. Jas. BENTLEY.

Delegates.
Mr. C. W. Smrru. | Mr. J. BENTLEY.
Committee.
Mr. Wm. Barton. | Dr. JoHNsTON.
Mr. J. FLEmtine. Rev. H. D. Rawns ey.
G. Gatry, Esq. Rev. E. A. Rip ie.
F. M. T. Jongs, Esq. Dr. TENANT.

Mr. C. W. SMItH.

XXIV.

PUBLIC LECTURES.
Oct. Sth—J. C. Cropper, Esq.—Voleanoes.
Nov. 5th—Rev. G. W. Crewpson, M.A.—Ants.
Dec. 15th—Rev. C. W. Barpstry, M.A.—An Hour’s Chat about Names.
Jan. 14th—Prof. Roniesron, F.R.S.—The Early Races of this Country.

Jan. 20th—J. E. Tayior, Esq., Ph.D., F.G.8., F.L.S.—The Life History
of Ferns and Mosses.

Feb. 11th—Waynman Drxon, Esq., C.E.—Modern Egypt and Egyptians.
Feb. 25th—Rev. H. D. Rawnsiry, M.A.—Petra.

Mar. 25th—J. D. Krnpas, Esq., C.E., £.G.S.—Lakes, and how they
were formed.

Apl. 1st—G. F. Armsrronc, Esq., M.A., F.G.S., C.E., Prof. Eng., York-
shire College, Leeds.—Mechanical Invention ; its History and
Law of Development.

ORDINARY MEETINGS.

Nov. 19th—Rev. E. M. Rreynoxps, M.A., Vice-President.— Debate : That
it is a mistake to exclude Politics from the Discussions of this
Society.

Dec. 3rd—Rev. H. 8S. CauuenDER, M.A., Vice-President.—Books.

Jan. 28th—R. Crewnson, Esq., President.—On some Poets of the last
Century.

Mar. 11th—Mr. E. Coaarns.—Real Property, and Estates therein.
ANNUAL Mrrtine.—Hlection of Officers, &c.

The Committee in presenting the 4th Annual Report regret that
they are unable to state that the success of previous Sessions has
been maintained.

A very full programme of public lectures on subjects of great
interest was arranged, and the attendance on these has been very
fair, although scarcely so good as might have been expected ; but
the Committee found very great difficulty in providing papers for
the Ordinary Meetings, and regret they were unable to arrange for
the full number of such meetings.

The Society is in a very satisfactory condition financially.

Ten Members have been elected during the year. 64 have
withdrawn. The total number of Members is now 136.

During the summer the Committee, through the kindness of
Mr. E. Hebert, were enabled to arrange a Field-day to Green Side
Mines, Patterdale.

The Committee have thankfully to acknowledge the “very

7
:
;
;

XXV.

efficient help of the gentlemen who have kindly given lectures or
read papers; and also the assistance they have received from
several ladies and gentlemen, Members of the Society, in obtaining
the services of lecturers.

Your Committee greatly regret that after holding the office of
President since the commencement of the Society, Mr. Crewdson
feels it necessary to resign.

BRAMPTON LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY
AND FIELD NATURALIST CLUB.

Ist SESSION, 1880-81.

President ... ae ‘ine tel ans G. J. Jounson, Esq.
: Yolo a As Ae Nd Rev. H. Warrenrap
Vice-Presidents ei ; De) geen
Treasurer ... as a Pe .. Mr. Isaac B. Hopeson
Secretary... Sse os sak te Seat oes epee Dose B03 3
Committee :

Dr. WoTHERSPOON. Mr. J. FARRER.

H. Y. Tompson, Esq. Mr. W. Huei.

Mr. T. Rip.ey. Mr. G. Burton.

PUBLIC LECTURES.

Feb. Srd_R. A. Auuison, Esq.—The Early Cumbrian Church.

Feb. 17th—Rev. H. Butketry.—-Eminent Persons who died in 1880.
Mch. 3rd—Mr. G. Dawson. —Entomology.

Mch, 17th—H. Y. Tuompson, Esq.—Electricity.

Mch. 3lst—Rev. H. Wurreneap.—Hall Marks on Silver Plate.

ORDINARY MEETINGS.

1880.
Oct. 7th—Mr. G. Parxiy.—British Ornithology.

Nov. 4th—T. A. Wornersproon, M.D.—Flowers and Insects: their
Mutual Relations.

Dec. 2nd—Mr. G. Parkin.—British Ornithology. (2nd Paper.)
Dec. 14th—Conversazione. Presentation of Books to Mr. Parkin.

1881.
Jan. 5th—Mr. T. Riptey.—Chemistry : its Relations to Life.

Jan. 13th.—General Meeting.

XXV1.

The Committee have pleasure in presenting their First Annual
Report.

The Society having been originally formed as a Field Naturalist
Club in July, 1880, was affiliated in the Spring of 1881, under its
present name, to the Cumberland Association for the Advancement
of Literature and Science.

During the Session 71 members have been enrolled.

The Lectures have been fairly attended, but there is room for
improvement.

The Treasurer’s account shows a balance of £6 8s. 11d. in
hand.

XXVil.

Report of Association Secretary.

SINCE our last meeting, several changes have taken place affecting

the Association.

The number of members is about 88 less than in the years
1879-80, being now 1181, as against 1269 in the present year.
This diminution is partly owing to the falling off in the members
of two of the affiliated societies—Silloth and Ambleside ; but it
mainly arises from the apparent dissolution of the Cockermouth
Society, which for some time has been declining in strength and
spirit. It cannot, however, I am told, be said to be dead, but
only in a state of suspended animation. The other affiliated
societies have increased the number of their members, especially

the Maryport Society.

As a set-off against the temporary loss of Cockermouth, I have
to announce the recent affiliation of the Brampton Field Naturalists’
Club, the members of which are, however, not included in
the above number, as the affiliation has only been completed to-
day. So far as numbers go, we may therefore say that there has

“been little or no change from last year.

Financially, the condition of the Association is improved,

XXVill.

although not by so much as would appear froma comparison of the
last balance sheet with that which is now submitted. In the
balance sheet for 1879-80, there was a sum of £4 tos. 6d. in-
cluded in the payments—the expenses of the Maryport meeting—
which correctly should have stood over, and been included in the
payments of the present balance sheet, in the same way as the
expenses of this meeting will appear in the next balance sheet.
With this adjustment, the adverse balance of £1 os. 5d. appear-
ing in the last balance sheet becomes a favourable balance of
43 10s. 1d.; and the present favourable balance of £13 18s. 1d.,
is reduced to £9 7s. 7d.

The new rule which provides that affiliated societies numbering
over 150 members shall have the capitation grant reduced by
50 °/, for the excess, has diminished the receipts by £2 1s. The
Transactions have produced about £6 less than they did in the
previous year. The cost of producing the Transactions has been

reduced by about 430.

It may be well to mention that there is on hand a considerable
number of copies of each part of the Transactions, which either
members or others can have on application. There is also a

number of authors’ copies on hand to be disposed of.

4

XXIX.

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XXX.

WARD MEMORIAL FUND.

In Part V. of the Transactions it was mentioned that the Council
of the Cumberland Association for the Advancement of Literature
and Science had decided to give the friends and admirers of the
late Rev. J. CLirron Warp an opportunity of subscribing towards
a general fund, whereof ‘part was to be devoted to the erection of
a Memorial Tablet, and the remainder to be vested in trustees as
a contribution towards the sum required for the education of his
daughters.

The Warp MemoriAL Funp has now reached the amount of
4312 16s.‘6d.; and the Rev. Canon Battersby, Mr. Peile, and
Dr. Knight have accepted office as Trustees.

The MemoriAL TABLET is now completed, and bears the
following inscription :—

SACRED TO THE MEMORY

OF
JAMES CLIFTON WARD, F.G.S.,

Who ministered in this Church
from December mpcccLxxvul. to March mMDCCCLXXIX.
When he became Perpetual Curate of Rydal.
He died April 15th, mpcccLtxxx.
An earnest Student of Science,
And for ten years engaged in the Geological Survey of this District,
He sought and obtained the higher office
of the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments, which
he discharged faithfully, though, alas !
for so short a time.

This Tablet is erected by Members of the Literary and Scientific
Associations of this County, in token of Respect and Gratitude.

‘*NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.”
Rom. i. 16,

XXX1.

Proceedings at the Annual Meeting at CHorkington.

Tue Annual Meeting of the Cumberland Association for the Advancement
of Literature and Science was held in the Assembly Room, Workington, on
Tuesday, the 17th of May, under the Presidency of The HonsBiE. PERcY
Wynpuay, M.P.
The attendance of members was only small, in consequence of the very
wet weather.
After the President had delivered his address, and the Reports had been
read, the following Resolutions were adopted :—
1. That the next Annual Meeting be held at Carlisle.
2. That Robert Ferguson, Esq., M.P., be President of the Association
for the ensuing Session.
3. That the Secretary, Auditors, and Editor be re-elected for the
ensuing Session.
4, That in future the Reports of the affiliated Societies be limited to
three pages of the Transactions.

5. That in consequence of the bad weather then prevailing, the Excur-
sion be abandoned, and the papers intended for the second day
be read at the first, so that the Meeting may be concluded in
one day.

After 3 p.m. the following Papers were read :—
“The Public Water Supplies of West Cumberland,” by A. Kitchin, F.C.S.
“Observations on the Flowering Plantsof West Cumberland,” by J. Adair.

«‘\ Bibliographical List of Works relating to the Geology, Mineralogy,
and Paleontvulogy of Cumberland and Westmorland,” collected
by W. Whitaker, B.A., H.M. Geol. Survey, and arranged by
J. G. Goodchild, H.M.G.S.

‘‘Note on the Occurrence of the Iceland Falcon in Westmorland,” by
J. G. Goodchild.

After 7 p.m. the following Papers were read, and the Meeting was then
brought to a close :—

‘‘Notes on the Physical Geology of North-West Cumberland,” by T. V.
Holmes, F.G.S.

‘On the Grasses of Mid-Cumberland,” by Wm. Hodgson,
“On the Lichens of Cumberland,” by the Rev. W. Johnson.

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AKBER THE GREAT, AN HISTORICAL SKETCH.*

By THE Hon. PERCY WYNDHAM, M.P.

(Presidential Address at the Workington Annual Meeting. )

AKBER THE GREAT stands in the front rank of those who have
been wise and beneficent rulers of mankind, if, indeed, he does
not occupy a position by himself in advance of all his compeers.
The searching light of modern criticism, which has dethroned so
many idols, and on the other hand has called upon us to regard
with honour and gratitude the memory of men heretofore classed
with the worst, has never been thrown upon the person and history
of Akber.

If subjected to such criticism, the probabilities are, however,
that he would come out unscathed by the ordeal. In the con-
temporary records, his character comes out with greater clearness
and grandeur in the accounts of hostile writers, than in the fulsome
pages of his flatterers. The life and character of Akber are so
remarkable, and his reign so illustrious, that he became the subject
of complete biographies and histories, by native authors of high
reputation ; while the records of the English Embassies, and the
residence at Agra of Europeans of different nations, in considerable
numbers, give undoubted confirmation on many points, which are
entirely wanting in regard to many former monarchs of India.
He was one of those Emperors of India, known to our fathers
as the Great Mogul, whose latest descendant, then a monarch only

* The books largely quoted in this sketch are Elphinstone’s History of
India. London: John Murray, 1874.—A Student’s Manual of the History of

India, by MEADOowsS TayLor. London: Longmans, 1870,—Ayeen Akbery.
3 vols. Calcutta, 1783.

1

bo

in name, perished at Delhi at the time of the Indian Mutiny. The
grandson of Baber, who passed many years of his life as a home-
less adventurer, the son of Hoomagoon, who was for five years
ousted from his kingdom by the Afghan Dynasty of Soor, when
Akber was raised to the throne in succession to his father on the
15th of February, 1556, at the early age of thirteen years and
three months, only those portions of his vast kingdom immediately
contiguous to the capital could be said to be under complete
control. Public affairs in Northern and Eastern India were by
no means settled. Sikander Shah Soor, though defeated, was still
in the field, at the head of some of the best old Patan chivalry.
In the eastern provinces, the Patans still held royal power; and
Mahomed Soor Adily, with his followers and clansmen, was a
formidable antagonist. The Rajpoots and Hindoos of central
India had as yet made no declaration, either of adherence to the
old Mahomedan party, or recognition of the new; and while
many new estates and dignities had been granted by Hoomagoon
to those who had served him best, the estates and allowances of
the nobles and officers of Putan Court were as yet unconfirmed.
It is almost impossible to conceive of the existence of elements
more profoundly disturbing or difficult to deal with; and to increase
the embarrassment, the Mogul force in the country was singularly
small, and may not at this period, even with reinforcements from
Afghanistan, have exceeded 30,000 cavalry ; whereas, on the other
hand, the united Patan clans could bring 100,000 into the field
with ease; and Kabool and Kandahar, with Budukshan, ever
restless and mutinous, were also to be controlled. Over this
seething and unstable mass, a boy barely fourteen years of age, and
his counsellors, inexperienced in Indian affairs, were to preside,
and out of it to create one of the greatest empires in the world.

It would be long and tedious upon the present occasion, to
attempt to follow him through his conquests, second alone to
subjugating his kingdom, was the difficulty of emancipating himself
and his government, from the control of one or two able men
by whom he was surrounded. Coming to the throne at so early
an age, the chosen advisers and followers of his father, who had

3

largely assisted in restoring the latter to power, naturally exercised
great influence on the acts and will of Akber. The tact, firmness,
and courage, with which he speedily freed himself from this domin-
ation, are remarkable.

Foremost among these men was Beiram Khan Toorkaman, his
tutor and general; and who, on his accession to the throne, he
raised to the dignity of Khan Khanan, or lord of lords, as his
prime minister, and committed to him the general regulation of
civil and military affairs in detail; but young as he was—and
indeed from the very first—he never seems to have evaded the
responsibility or the toil of the authority in chief, to have been
drawn out of it into the pleasures of youth, or ever to have lost
confidence in himself.

At the close of the campaign against Hemoo, the minister and
general-in-chief of the Patan monarchy, when the former was taken
prisoner, Beiram Khan pressed Akber to kill the infidel captive
with his own hand, and so become entitled to the proud title of
“Ghazy,” or Champion of the Faith. The boy burst into tears,
but drawing his sword, touched the head of his captive with it,
when Beiram Khan, observing his emotion and natural reluctance
to strike, at one blow with his sabre severed the captive’s head
from his body.

As time went on, the relations between the young Emperor
and his able minister became somewhat strained. Akber of late
had had many great questions to decide, and many new and serious
responsibilities to assume, which had given strength and decision
to his character; and he had rewarded independently those who
had done him good service. Beiram Khan does not always appear
to have been present on these occasions, and the boy was thus
thrown upon his own resources. When Beiram Khan heard that
Akber had rewarded persons without referring them to him, he
took offence, and withdrew himself for some days. Other events
tended to hasten the minister’s fall.

The discipline among the Mongul commanders had been of a
loose description; for the most part semi-independent chieftains
themselves, at the head of their clans, they had been used to act

t

very much as they pleased ; and though, when assembled together,
they fought bravely and faithfully, they were not to be relied upon
when separated. During the campaign against Hemoo, and whilst
the Emperor was temporarily absent from camp, Beiram resolved
upon making one serious example, and caused Tardy Khan Beg
to be beheaded, on the ground of his having abandoned his post
at Dehli. On his return, Beiram Khan informed Akber what he
had done, and of his grounds for so severe a measure, which
involved the discipline of the army and the safety of all. Akber
gave a reluctant approval of the act, which was abundantly justified
in the result.

Other acts of Beiram Khan were of a violent and perhaps
revengeful character ; and though as a state necessity, Akber had
openly acquiesced in the policy of the execution of Tardy Khan
Beg, yet that officer had been one of his father’s earliest and most
devoted friends and companions: no taint had ever fallen upon
his reputation for bravery; and general sympathy for his fate
prevailed, which was shared by Akber himself.

One day, during an elephant fight which the Emperor was
witnessing, one of the beasts engaged ran through the ropes of the
minister’s tent, who took the accident as a personal affront, and
remonstrated against it; but was apparently satisfied with his
ward’s protestation that no indignity was intended. Several other
occurrences served to excite mutual suspicion. The summary
execution by Beiram Khan of a person of some rank, who had
given him offence, aroused the anger of the Chogtay Tartar nobles
of the court to whose tribe he had belonged; and Moolla Pier
Mahomed, the Emperor’s preceptor, who had also given offence to
the minister, was summarily removed from office, banished from
court, and replaced by a person in the minister's interest. The
breach between them was evidently widening, when at Agra one
of the royal elephants attacked and killed another belonging to
the minister, who ordered the driver of the emperor’s elephant to
be put to death ; and on another occasion, an elephant ran against
a boat in the river in which the minister was seated, and almost
upset it, Beiram Khan considering this as a plot against his life,

demanded the punishment of the driver, and Akber sent him to
the minister to be dealt with as necessary. He also was put to
death—an act of cruelty which caused the Emperor deep pain and
offence. Perceiving himself out of favour, Beiram Khan under-
took a campaign against Byana, but was unable to continue it
unsupported, and released Shah Abdool Maaly, a nobleman who
had been imprisoned for revolt, and seems by his aid to have
contemplated an expedition against the Afghans of Bengal, with a
view of establishing his own independence in that direction. All
these acts combined to bring on a total estrangement between the
Emperor and Beiram Khan: and Akber resolved upon asserting
his right to carry on the government himself. He therefore sent
his preceptor to the minister with the following characteristic
message: “Till now,” he wrote, “our mind has been taken up
with our education and the amusements of youth, and it was our
royal will that you should regulate the affairs of our empire ; but it
being our intention to govern our people by our own judgment,
let our well-wisher withdraw from all worldly concerns, and retiring
to Mecca, far removed from the toils of public life, spend the rest
of his days in prayer.” Beiram Khan did not resist ; he sent the
insignia of his rank and public establishments to the Emperor, and
proceeded as far as Bhikanere, in Rajpootana, on his way to
Mecca. Here he seems to have changed his pacific submission
for an attitude of defiance and rebellion, and in 1559 began to
raise troops. He was overthrown, and fled to the mountains, and
eventually sent a favourite servant to the Emperor imploring
forgiveness. An officer was despatched to bring him safely to
Court. In December, 1560, he was met near the royal camp by
a deputation of officers from the Emperor, and conducted honour-
ably to his presence, where he threw himself weeping at the foot
of the throne. Akber, much affected, stretched forth his hand
and raised him, invested him with an honorary dress, and placed
him in his old position as head of the nobles. A pension of
50,000 rupees (5,000/.) a year was settled upon him, and Beiram
Khan proceeded to Gudgerut, on his way to Mecca.

In no act of his life did the Emperor display more acute judg-

6

ment and fine temper, than in the graceful dismissal of his great
minister. Henceforth Akber was to rule alone. He was now
eighteen years of age.

AKBER AS A GENERAL,

As a general, Akber was celebrated for the promptitude with
which he formed his plans of attack, and the celerity with which
he carried them out.

The war with the Usbecs under Khan Zeman and Asof Khan
had lasted two years, and had been interrupted by alternate
submission and renewed defection on the part of more than one
of the chiefs. It was concluded by an act of courage, very
characteristic of the Emperor. Akber had made great progress in
reducing the rebellion, when he was drawn off by an invasion of
the Punjab under his brother Hakim. This occupied him for
several months; and on his return, he found the rebels had
recovered their ground, and were in possession of most parts of
the Subahs of Oudh and Allahabad. He marched against them,
without delay, though it was the height of the rainy season; drove
them across the Ganges; and when they thought themselves
secure behind that swollen river, swam the Ganges at nightfall on
his elephant, with his advanced guard of not more than 2,000
men, and after lying concealed during the night, attacked the
enemy about sunrise. ‘The rebels, though aware of the approach
of a small body of horse, were quite unprepared for an attack ;
and Khan Zeman having been killed, and another principal chief
unhorsed, and made prisoner in the first confusion, they lost all
advantage of their numbers, fell into complete disorder, and soon
after dispersed and fled in all directions.

In July, 1573, he received advice by express from Guzerat, that
the officers of the Guzerat Kingdom had united in a formidable
insurrection, taken several districts, and were then besieging
Ahmedabad. The rainy season had set in, and the transport of a
large force was impossible. Two thousand picked horsemen were
therefore pushed on, and the Emperor and his retinue, about three
hundred persons, followed by double marches on camels. When

~J

he reached his advanced troops at Paitun, the whole, Ferishta
states, did not exceed 3,000 men. They had marched four
hundred and fifty miles in nine days. With this small force the
Emperor marched direct on Ahmedabad, ordering the royal kettle-
drums to beat as he approached the enemy’s camp. Mahomed
Hoosein Mirza, the king’s cousin, one of the rebels, rode out to
reconnoitre, and perceiving one of the Emperor’s officers examining
the ford, asked whose army was approaching, and was told it was
Akber in person. “Impossible!” he exclaimed, “it is only
fourteen days since one of my spies saw him at Agra.” “It is
only nine days since he marched,” was the reply. I need not
linger on the details of the battle which ensued ; but it resulted in
a complete victory for the Emperor.

HIS INTERNAL POLICY.

But it is to his internal policy that Akber owes his place in that
highest order of princes, whose reigns have been a blessing to
mankind; and that policy shows itself in different shapes, as it
affects religion or civil government. The most remarkable quality
in Akber was his religious toleration. When we remember the
age in which he lived, and that at that date Europe was divided
into hostile religious camps, whose only anxiety was to burn one
another; and that not one man in power and authority, had will
or power to protest against such a spirit—what Akber accom-
plished was most remarkable. Surrounded by fierce fanaticism,
he succeeded in establishing perfect religious equality and freedom
throughout his vast dominions. Some of his ablest ministers were
Hindoos, and the path to honour and promotion was open to all
who possessed merit. Though Akber escaped, his friend and
minister, Abul Fazl, fell by an assassin’s hand. The Emperor was
spared the bitter pang of knowing in his lifetime that the assassin-
ation of his friend was instigated by his own son Selim. The
latter, afterwards the Emperor Jehanger, has placed the matter
beyond doubt by confessing it at length in his own memoirs, and
defending it on the ground that Abul Fazl had persuaded Akber
to renounce the Koran, and to deny the divine mission of
Mahomet.

8

The blame of corrupting Akber’s theology is thrown by Mussul-
man writers on Abul Fazl and his learned, and scarcely less
celebrated, brother Feizi. These men were sons of a learned man
named Mobarik, who had read the philosophical works of the
ancients. Feizi was the first Mussulman who applied himself to a
diligent study of Hindoo literature and science. Under the aid
and direction of the Emperor, he conducted a systematic inquiry
into every branch of the knowledge of the Brahmins, and translated,
or superintended the translation, of all the standard Sanscrit works.
Akber’s acquisitions of this nature were not confined to Sanscrit.
He prevailed on a Christian priest, whom Abul Fazl calls Padre
Farabatun, and describes as learned in science and history, to
come from Goa, and undertake the education of a few youths
destined to be employed in translating the productions of Greek
literature into Persian. Feizi himself was destined to make a
correct version of the Evangelists. Akber’s endeavour was, in
his own words, ‘‘that every one was to be educated according to
his circumstances and particular views in life.”

Along with Feizi and Abul Fazl, there were many other learned
men of all religions about the Court; and it was the delight of
Akber to assemble them, and sit for whole nights assisting at their
philosophical discussions. His regular meetings were on Fridays;
but he often sent for single Brahmins or Mahometan Sufis on
other occasions, and entered into long enquiries regarding the
tenets of their different schools. An account of a real debate of
this kind is given in the Akburnamek. It was carried on before
an assembly of the learned of all religions, between Padre Reclif,
i.e. the Portuguese missionary Rodolpho Aquiviva, and a body
of Mahometan Mullahs: a decided advantage both in temper and
argument, is given to the Christian. It was concluded by Akber's
reproving the Mullahs for their violence, and expressing his own
opinion, that God could only be adequately worshipped by following ~
reason, and not yielding implicit faith to any alleged revelation.
It is probable that the Portuguese Jesuits entertained hope of
converting Akber, as it is related that he adored the images ot
Jesus Christ and the Virgin with awe and veneration. Mr. Elphin-

9

stone considers his religion to have been a pure deism; while it is
more than probable that some contemporary Mahometan writers,
who characterised some of his intimates as free-thinkers, and even
as atheists, may have put Akber in the same category, though they
may have shrunk from openly expressing their views.

His main tenet seems to have been that man could of himself
acquire knowledge of God, and that we ought to serve Him, and
seek for our future happiness by subduing our bad passions, and
practising such virtues as are beneficial to mankind; but that we
should not regard any Dogma, Creed, or Ritual promulgated by
man as infallible, as every man was liable to vice and error like
ourselves. He did not neglect ordinances however altogether,
and practised prayer twice in the twenty-four hours—at midnight
and at daybreak. He held that his right to interfere at all with
the religion of others, was grounded on his duty as civil magistrate.

In the propagation of his opinions, Akber confined himself to
persuasion, and made little progress except among the people
about his Court, and a few learned men; but his measures were
much stronger in abrogating the obligations of the Mussulman
religion, which, till now, had been enforced by law. Prayers, fasts,
alms, pilgrimages, and public worship were left optional; the
prohibition of unclean animals, that of the moderate use of wine,
and that of gaming with dice, were taken off; and circumcision
was not permitted until the age of twelve, when the person to
undergo it could judge of the propriety of the rite.

As the Hindoos had not been supported by the government,
Akber had less occasion to interfere with them; and, indeed,
from the tolerant and inoffensive character of their religion, he
seems to have had little inclination.

He, however, forbade trials by ordeal, and marriages before the
age of puberty, and the slaughter of animals for sacrifice. He also
permitted widows to marry a second time, contrary to the Hindu
law. Above all, he prohibited the burning of Hindoo widows
against their will, and took effectual precautions to ascertain that
their resolution was free and uninfluenced. On one occasion,
hearing that the Rajah of Judpur was about to force his son’s

10

widow to the pile, he mounted his horse, and rode post to the
spot, to prevent the intended sacrifice.

Among other reforms, he abolished the Capitation Tax on
infidels, and also all taxes on pilgrims; observing that “although
the tax fell on a vain superstition, yet, as all modes of worship
were designed for one great Being, it was wrong to throw an
obstacle in the way of the devout, and to cut them off from their
mode of intercourse with their Maker.” He also prohibited the
making slaves of prisoners taken in war.

Akber’s religion was too spiritual and abstracted to be successful
with the bulk of mankind. It seems never to have gone beyond
a few philosophers, and some interested priests and courtiers ; and,
on Akber’s death, it expired of itself, and the Mussulman forms
were quickly and almost silently restored by Jehanger.

Akber’s revenue system, so celebrated for the benefits it
conferred on India, is the same now in force under Queen
Victoria ; which we shall probably consider the highest praise it
could obtain. The objects of it were :—1. To obtain a correct
measurement of the land. 2. To ascertain the amount of the
produce of each begah of land, and to fix the proportion of that
amount that each ought to pay to the government. 3. To settle
an equivalent for the proportion so fixed, in money. For the first
purpose, Akber established a uniform standard to supersede the
various measures formerly employed even by public officers. He
also improved the instruments of mensuration, and he then deputed
persons to make a complete measurement of all the lands capable
of cultivation within the empire.

As lands of equal fertility might be differently circumstanced in
other respects, the following classification was formed for modifying
that first mentioned. Land which never required a fallow, paid
the full demand after every harvest. Land which required fallows,
only paid when under cultivation. Land which had suffered from
inundation, etc., or which had been three years out of cultivation,
and required some expense to reclaim it, paid only two-fifths for
the first year, but went on increasing till the fifth year, when it
paid the full demand.

11

Land which had been more than five years out of cultivation,
enjoyed still more favourable terms for the first four years. It is
not explained in the Ayeen Akbery how the comparative fertility
of fields were ascertained. It is probable that three classes were
formed for each village, in consultation with the inhabitants; and
the process would be greatly facilitated by another classification
made by the villagers for their own use, which seems to have
subsisted from time immemorial. By that distribution, all the
land of each village is divided into a great many classes, according
to its qualities ; as black mould, red mould, gravelly, black mould
mixed with stones, etc.; other circumstances are also considered,
such as command of water, vicinity to the village, etc.; and great
pains are taken so to apportion the different descriptions among
the cultivators, and to give equal advantages to all.

The quantity of produce due to the government being settled,
it was next to be commuted for a money payment. For this
purpose, statements of prices current for the nineteen years
preceding the survey, were called for from every town and village ;
and the produce was turned into money according to the average
of the rates shown in these statements. The commutation was
occasionally reconsidered, with reference to the actual market
prices ; and every husbandman was allowed to pay in kind, if he
thought the money rate was fixed too high. The result of these
measures was to reduce the amount of the public demand con-
siderably, but to diminish the defalcation in realizing it; so that
the profit to the state remained nearly the same, while the pressure
on individuals was much lessened.

The Ayeen Akbery, or the Institutes of Akber, was translated
from the Persian by Francis Gladwin, and published at Calcutta,
1783, in three volumes, and is now a scarce and dear book. It
contains a Survey of the Kingdom, notices of Natural History, a
complete account of the Civil and Military administration, and
descends to the minutest details of the royal household—to the
allowance of flesh per diem to the tame leopards, and the prices
to be given for rubbers and curry-combs in the royal stables.

From the Mint, and the Treasury, down to the fruit, perfumery,

and flower offices, the Kitchen, and the Kennel. The whole
presents an astonishing picture of magnificence and good order
where unwieldy numbers are managed without disturbance, and
economy is attended to in the midst of profusion,

The following extracts may amuse :—

OF BREAD.

“ Bread is prepared in the pantry. The largest kind, which is
baked in an oven, is made of ten seers of flour, five seers of milk,
one-and-a-half seers of ghee, and one quarter of a seer of salt.
Smaller ones are also made of this dough. Others, which are
baked on an iron plate, are sixteen, and sometimes more, to a
seer. There is likewise another kind called cheputy, which are
made of Rhashkeh.”

THE SUSYANEH ; OR TIMES FOR ABSTAINING FROM FLESH.

“His Majesty has a great disinclination for flesh, and he
frequently says, ‘Providence has provided variety of food for man,
but, through ignorance and gluttony, he destroys living creatures,
and makes his body a tomb for beasts.’ If I were not a king, I
would leave off eating flesh at once; and now it is my intention to
quit it by degrees.’”

After this quotation of the Emperor’s saying, the days and times
of abstinence are specified; which, in Akber’s case, made up one-
fourth of the whole year.

THE KITCHEN.

“ The copper utensils for His Majesty’s use are tinned twice in
a month ; and those of the princes and haram only once in that
time. Whatever copper utensils are broken, are given to the
braziers, who make new ones.”

REGULATIONS FOR THE ILLUMINATIONS.

“The palace is, however, illuminated withinside and without
with flambeaus fixed upon poles with iron prongs. The first,
second, and third nights of the moon, when there is but little

13

moonlight, the prongs are lighted with eight flambeaus. From the
fourth to the tenth, they decrease one in number every night, so
that on the tenth night, when the moon shines very bright, one
flambeau is sufficient. And they continue in this state till the
fitteenth, and increase every day from the sixteenth to the nine-
teenth. On the twentieth they continue the same; and on the
twenty-first and twenty-second increase one daily. The twenty-
third is the same as the twenty-second ; and from the twenty-fourth
to thirtieth night of the moon, eight prongs are lighted up. For
each link are allowed one seer and a half of oil, and half a seer of
rags, more or less, according to size. In some places they burn .
lamps with grease ; but in the palace nothing is used but oil.

“Tn order to render the royal camp conspicuous to those who
came from far, His Majesty has caused to be erected, in the front
of the Dowlet Khanah, a pole upwards of forty yards high, which
is supported by sixteen ropes, and from the top of the pole is
suspended a large lantern, which they call the Akassdeeah.”

THE READER.

“Every day some capable person reads to His Majesty, who
hears every book from beginning to end. He always marks with
the date of the month the place where he leaves off; and the
reader is paid according to the number of pages. There is hardly
a work of Science, of Genius, or of History, but has been read to
His Majesty ; and he is not tired of hearing them repeated, but
always listens with great avidity.”

THE CEREMONY OF WEIGHING THE ROYAL PERSON.

“As a means of bestowing a largess upon the indigent, the
royal person is weighed twice a year, various articles being put
into the opposite scale. The first time of performing this ceremony
is on the first day of the Persian month Aban (October), which is
the solar anniversary of His Majesty’s birthday. He is then
weighed twelve times, against the following articles :—Gold,
Quicksilver, raw Silk, artificial Perfumes, Musk, Roohtooteea,
intoxicating Drugs, Ghee, Iron, Rice, Milk, eight kinds of Grain,

14

and Salt. And at the same time, according to the years that His
Majesty has lived, there are given away a like number of sheep, of
goats, and of fowls, to people who keep these animals for the
purpose of breeding. A great number of wild birds of all kinds
are also set at liberty on this occasion.”

HIS COURT.

Akber’s court was perhaps the most magnificent in the world.
It was the most gorgeous that even India had ever seen; and
when the details of it, as given by Sir Thomas Roe, Hawkins,

Bernier, and the Portuguese priests, which cannot be questioned
as to accuracy or truth, are considered, it must be admitted that
splendour, whether in jewels and ornaments, in costume and
decoration, in cloth of gold and velvet, and the gorgeous manu-
factures of the country ; in camp and hunting equipage, elephants,
horses, and general equipment of the nobility and army, could go
no further.

Akber had a revenue of £30,000,000 sterling a year, which,
without any reckless extravagance, was royally expended ; as was
proved by the State Treasury at his death, which contained only
410,000,000 sterling, with some bullion. He was never in debt,
and the stipends of his civil establishments of all kinds, as well as
the pay of his army, were disbursed with the utmost regularity.

HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE.

Akber is described as a strongly built and handsome man, with
an agreeable expression of countenance, and very- captivating
manners. He was endowed with great personal strength and
activity. He was always satisfied with very little sleep, and
frequently spent whole nights in those philosophical discussions of
which he was so fond. Although so constantly engaged in wars,
and although he made greater improvements in civil government
than any other king of India, yet, by his judicious distribution of
his time, and by his talents for the dispatch of business, he always
enjoyed abundant leisure for study and amusement. He was fond
of witnessing fights of animals, and all exercises of strength and skill,

15

He took pleasure in breaking horses, and in hunting, especially in
cases like the destruction of tigers, or the capture of herds of wild
elephants, which gave a scope to his enjoyment of adventure and
exertion. He sometimes also underwent fatigue for the mere
pleasure of the exercise, as when he rode from Ajmir to Agra,
two hundred and twenty miles, in two successive days, and in
many similar journeys on horseback, besides walks on foot of
thirty or forty miles in a day. :

His history is filled with instances of romantic courage, and he
seems to have been stimulated by a sort of instinctive love of
danger as often as by any rational motive. Yet he showed no
fondness for war. He was always ready to take the field and
remain there, while his presence was required ; but when the fate
of the war was once decided, he returned to the general govern-
ment of his empire, and left it to his lieutenants to carry on the
remaining military operations. These were, in some cases, very
long protracted; but his conquests, when concluded, were complete;
and no part of India, except that near the capital, can be said to
have been thoroughly subdued until his time.

At his death, the population of his empire can hardly have been
less than 150,000,000, and may have been more; and there is no
instance in the world’s history of such a kindgom having been
won, not only with so small an amount of human suffering, but
with so positive relief from oppression ; and the more his acts, his
policy, and his disposition, in all their generosity and humanity,
are studied and understood, the stronger will be the conviction that
Akber stands alone.

HIS LAST MOMENTS.

The last moments of Akber are only recorded by his successor,
his son Selim, afterwards the emperor Jehanger.

Owing to intrigues that were going on against him, Selim was
justly alarmed for his personal safety, and forbore visiting the
palace on pretence of illness. Akber was distressed by his son’s
absence, of which he surmised the cause. He repeatedly expressed
his anxiety to see him, and again pronounced him the lawful

16

successor to the kingdom. When Selim at length went to the
palace, he was affectionately received by the dying monarch.
Akber desired him to bring all the chief men into the chamber
where he was lying; “for,” said he, “I cannot bear that any
misunderstanding should subsist between you and those who have,
for so many years, shared in my toils and been the companions of
my glory.”

When they were assembled, he delivered a suitable address to
them ; and, after wistfully regarding them all round, he desired
them to forgive any offences of which he might have been guilty
towards any of them. Selim now threw himself at his feet, and
burst into a passion of tears; but Akber pointed to his favourite
scimitar, and made signs to his son to bind it on in his presence.
He seems afterwards to have recovered from this exhaustion ; he
addressed himself to Selim, and earnestly conjured him to look to
the comfort of the ladies of his family, and not to forget or forsake
his old friends and dependants. After this he permitted one of
the chief Mullahs, who was a personal friend of Selim’s, to be
brought to him, and in his presence he repeated the Mahometan
Confession of Faith, and died in all the forms of a good Mussul-
man. Mr. Cowell, late Princpal of Sanscrit at the College at
Calcutta, thinks the account of his return to Mahometanism very
doubtful.

To those fond of speculations on various forms of government,
and comparisons as to their respective merits, Akber’s reign has
great interest, as his was the most perfect despotism ever seen.

The natives of India at the present day, when they criticise our
government, call it a government of seals and parchment.

To an up-country native, it seems surprising that when he comes
to a judge, or man in authority, on an apparently simple matter,
when he knows that the judge is implicitly honest and highly
intelligent, that the matter should not be settled then and there
out of hand. The delay, the forms and parchments to be consulted
and complied with, seem to him only so many fetters on a good
man’s power and will.

To such, a government like Akber’s is the ideal of perfection,

‘
.

Le

Just and strong, with no vested rights, which, as a modern writer
has said, ‘“‘are sometimes vested wrongs,” to interfere with its
justice and its strength. Yet, if one would turn to Akber to prove
the merits of despotism, its weakness is no less there apparent.

The splendid system that he had raised, and which depended
upon his unique goodness and ability, fell away after his death ;
and fifty years after that event, in the reign of the bigot Aurang-
zebe, religious persecution was as rife and cruel asever. Thus we
see that human liberty and progress are best secured by laws and
forms, though at times these seem themselves to bar the way towards
rapid improvement and advance.

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19

THE PUBLIC WATER SUPPLIES OF WEST
CUMBERLAND.

By ARCHIBALD KITCHIN, F.I.C., F.C.S., &c.

(Read at the Workington Annual Meeting. )

In these days of sanitary reform, the eyes of all classes of society
are being slowly opened to the fact, that health depends, in no
small degree, on the purity of the water they drink.

I am happy to say, that we in West Cumberland are fully
cognizant of this very important truth; and our local authorities
have not been behind-hand in utilising those vast natural resources
of singularly pure water, which are situated so near to us.

The object of this paper is, to give a brief description of the
various Public Water Supplies of West Cumberland, and to place
before you the results of the analyses of the waters.

The number of towns, or districts, in the western division of our
county, which possess public water supplies, are eight, namely :—
Whitehaven, Workington, Cockermouth, Maryport, Keswick,
Millom, Cleator Moor, and Arlecdon. The works for the last
named district are, however, not yet completed. For the following
description of the sources of the various supplies, I am largely
indebted to Mr. Pickering of Whitehaven.

WHITEHAVEN.—The Whitehaven water is brought, by gravitation,
from Ennerdale Lake, which is nine-and-a-half miles distant from

20

the town, and three hundred and seventy feet above the sea level.
The water is but slightly filtered through a rough gravel medium.

The underlying and exposed rocks of the gathering ground are,
syenitic granite, Skiddaw Slate (Lower Silurian), and the Borrow-
dale Series of volcanic rocks. About one-tenth of the gathering
ground is partially cultivated; the rest is mountain pasture, and
bare rocks.

WoRKINGTON AND COCKERMOUTH.—The Crummock Water
scheme has been carried out, to supply the towns of Workington
and Cockermouth, and a large district, embracing four different
local authorities, namely :—(1) The Cockermouth Urban District,
(2) The Workington Urban District, (3) The Rural Sanitary
Authority’s District of the Cockermouth Union, and (4) A portion
of the Rural Sanitary Authority’s District of the Whitehaven
Union, including the parishes of Distington and Harrington, the
water being brought as far as Lowca, near Whitehaven—a distance
of twenty-three miles from the lake, by way of Cockermouth and
Stainburn.

Crummock Lake, from which the water is taken, is the lowest
of a chain of lakes, comprising Buttermere, Loweswater, and
Crummock. It is three hundred and twenty feet above the sea
level. The gathering ground is mostly composed of the highest
mountains, of which about nineteen-twentieths is mountain pasture |
and woodland, and one-twentieth arable and meadow land. The
underlying rocks are, like the Ennerdale valley, chiefly Skiddaw
Slate, the Borrowdale Series of volcanic rocks, and syenitic granite.
The water is neither filtered nor screened. The sample for analysis
was collected at Workington.

Maryvport.—This supply is pumped up from the river Derwent,
at the Goat Mill, near Cockermouth. It is lifted two hundred
and twenty feet into filtering beds, near Bridekirk, passed through
ordinary sand filters, and then conveyed, by gravitation, eight
miles to Maryport, the service reservoir being at Hayborough.

The outside parishes of Flimby, Ellenborough, and Dearham,
are also supplied with this water, The river Derwent drains the

21

largest valleys in the Lake District, including the Borrowdale,
Newlands, and Greta valleys. It receives the overflow of Thirl-
mere and Derwentwater Lakes, and in its course passes through
Bassenthwaite Water.

The underlying rocks of the gathering ground are Skiddaw
- Slate, the Volcanic Series of Borrowdale, and small patches of Old
Red Sandstone Conglomerate, and Carboniferous Limestone.
Perhaps three-fourths of the ground is mountain pasture, and
one-fourth woodland, arable, and meadow land. A portion of
sewage gets into the Derwent from the town of Keswick, and from
villages such as Portinscale, Braithwaite, etc.

Kerswick.—The Keswick supply is obtained from the southern
slopes of Skiddaw. The ground is nearly all mountain pasture,
the substrata being Skiddaw Slate. The water is conveyed one-
and-a-half miles, by gravitation.

MiLLom.—This water supply is collected by placing a dam
across Whicham Beck, which drains the south-eastern flank of
Whitecombe mountain. The water is not filtered, but screened
only. The underlying rocks are exclusively Silurian slates, and
the gathering ground is about four-fifths mountain pasture, and
one-fifth arable land. The water is brought five-and-a-half miles,
by gravitation.

CLEATOR Moor.—The water is collected from the northern and
eastern flanks of the mountain Dent, contiguous to the Cleator
Moor district. It is obtained partly from springs, and partly from
surface water. It is not filtered, but put through fine screens,
The gathering ground is chiefly mountain pasture, with the excep-
tion of about one-twentieth part, which is under tillage. The
substrata are Skiddaw Slate. The reservoir is situated on the
slope of the mountain, about four hundred and fifty feet above
sea level, from which the water is conveyed by gravitation.

ARLECDON.—It is intended to bring the water for this district
from Cogra valley, situated between Murton Fell, Blake Fell, and
‘Middle Fell. A reservoir is being constructed, at an elevation of

22

about seven hundred and fifty feet above sea level. The gathering
ground is chiefly mountain pasture and bare rocks, the substrata
being Skiddaw Slate. The sample of water for analysis was
obtained from the principal spring, above the site of the reservoir.

We shall now turn to the consideration of the analyses of these
waters, a copy of which I have placed before you.

The impurities in water which may be wholly dissolved, or
partially dissolved and partially suspended, consist of two kinds,
namely, “inorganic,” or mineral matter ; and “organic,” vegetable,
or animal matter. The former, if free from poisonous metals, and
present in not too large a quantity, can do no harm. ‘The
“organic” matter, however, if derived from sewage, may contain
germs of those fatal diseases—Cholera, Typhoid fever, etc. It is
therefore to the organic matter in the water, we must turn, in order
to arrive at a conclusion as to its fitness for domestic use. And
those who are acquainted with the most recent sanitary knowledge,
are aware that it is the quality, rather than the absolute quantity
of organic matter present, that is the most important factor in
determining the wholesomeness of drinking water. Unfortunately,
no process is known by which we can determine chemically the
presence of these disease germs; and the microscope fails to
reveal them. ‘This much we do know, however—these germs are
always associated with animal organic matter, never with pure
vegetable organic matter.

A water may therefore contain large quantities of vegetable
organic matter, such as peat, and yet be quite wholesome; whereas
a very small quantity of animal organic matter must condemn it.
But how are we to know to which class the organic matter may
belong? We cannot even determine, with certainty, the total
amount of organic matter a water may contain, much less can we
be sure of its nature. At the best, we can only apply certain
tests, or determine the amount of certain constituents.

Drs. Frankland and Armstrong devised a method, some years
ago, for the determination of the amount of Carbon and Nitrogen
in the organic matter of water ; for, knowing the relative quantities
of these two elements, gives some insight as to the origin of the

organic matter. This method has, however, gained but little
favour amongst analysts ; for, without taking into account the fact
that it involves specially devised apparatus, and requires very
complicated and tedious manipulation, it has this fatal objection—
that it is possible for the very organic matter we are seeking, to be
more or less destroyed, or lost, at an early stage of the operation.
The results obtained by this process cannot therefore be viewed
with any degree of satisfaction.

Another method, and one which I have adopted in this inquiry,
called the ‘“‘ Ammonia Process,” was devised by Messrs. Wanklyn
and Smith, in 1867, and is intended to give us an insight as to the
nature of the organic impurity, from the amount of ammonia
yielded by the water, under certain conditions ; this ‘“Albuminoid
Ammonia,” as it is called, along with the amount of “free
Ammonia,” and of Chlorine, being considered by the authors to
afford sufficient data for the determination of the character of the
water. This process is just as remarkable for its simplicity, as the
former is for its intricacy; nevertheless, the utmost care is required
’ in conducting the experiment, in order to prevent the introduction
of serious error. It has gained great favour in the eyes of analysts,
and is a process usually adopted by them in water analysis.

I consider, however, that Wanklyn’s process should never be
taken by itself, as a criterion of the quality of a water. Many
mistakes may arise, and have arisen, by doing so. Some waters,
known to be bad, have yielded little ‘‘ Albuminoid Ammonia,”
and good waters have sometimes yielded much.

But we have another test we can apply, that is, to see what
amount of Oxygen is absorbed by the organic matter, in a certain
time. Organic matter very readily takes up Oxygen, when that
element is presented to itinacertain manner. All that is required
then, is to determine the amount of Oxygen absorbed by the water,
in order to arrive at some idea of the quantity of organic matter
present.

The amount of Chlorine, due to common salt, which is always
high when sewage is present; also the amount of Nitric Acid,

24

which may have been produced by the oxydation of the Nitrogen
in the organic matter, and of Phosphoric Acid, are valuable data.

The appearance of the water, when viewed through a thickness
of two feet, is most important, as giving us an insight into the
origin of the organic matter. Ifthe water has a peaty colour, we
judge that the organic matter is, in great measure, due to dissolved
peat ; if the colour is yellow, the organic matter must be viewed
with suspicion.

The smell of the water, when warmed and shaken up, is also
often a valuable guide ; and the microscopical examination of the
deposits of the utmost importance.

These data, along with the total solid matter, and hardness,
before and after boiling, complete our analysis.

You will notice, on reference to the Table (pp. 28, 29), that two
samples of the Whitehaven water have been analysed. These
samples were collected by myself at an interval of a month. The
rest of the samples were collected, by various gentleman, on the
dates named, and according to written instructions.

Now a glance at the Table, by any one acquainted with water
analysis, would be sufficient to enable him to come to the con-
clusion that the waters, on the whole, are remarkably pure.

The “total solid matter” in five of the samples is only about
two grains in the gallon; and in none does it reach five grains.
This is due to the absence of lime in the substrata of the various
gathering grounds. And, for a like reason, the “hardness” is in
many cases below one degree, and permanent in all.

Coming now to the other end of the Table, we find only one of
the samples possessed any smell, namely, the Millom water.

When viewed through a two-foot tube, all the waters appeared
clear, and satisfactory, with the exception of those from Maryport
and Millom, which were very turbid, and of a yellowish colour.
The colours of the Keswick and Arlecdon waters were almost
identical with that of pure distilled water. The Whitehaven water
was a little more green ; and the Cleator Moor water, more green
still. The Chlorine was, in all cases, small in amount, being the
highest in the samples from Millom and Cleator Moor ; but in no

95

case was it sufficiently high to indicate, of itself, drainage contami-
nation. Phosphoric Acid was present in all, except the Whitehaven
and Arlecdon waters; heavy traces were found in those of Maryport
‘and Cleator Moor. Nitric Acid was, like the Chlorine, also small
in amount; the Millom and Cleator Moor waters being again
those which contained the most. The Ammonia was also small
in quantity: the Whitehaven and Keswick samples containing
none. The quantity of Albuminoid Ammonia is in no instance
large, although Millom and Cleator Moor are again favoured, and
Maryport is not far behind. We find that no Oxygen is absorbed
by any of the waters in two minutes. The amount absorbed in
four hours is greatest in those of Maryport, Millom, and Cleator
Moor. Lastly, the microscope revealed vegetable debris and
Diatoms in nearly all; and moving organisms were found in the
Millom water.

By placing a certain value upon each of the constituents thus
determined, as suggested by the ‘“‘Water Committee” of the Society
of Public Analysts, we obtain a sum which enables us to classify
the waters, with comparative ease; of course, the lower numbers
denote the purer waters. They are arrived at in the following
manner.

The smell may be valued from o to 8.

The appearance, from o to 4. And

The microscopical appearance of the deposit, from o to Io,
according to the discretion of the analyst.

The Chlorine found is multiplied by 2.

The Phosphoric Acid traces are valued at 2; heavy traces, at 4
very heavy traces, at 8.

The Nitrogen, as Nitrates, is multiplied by ro.

The Ammonia is multiplied by 200.

The Albuminoid Ammonia is multiplied by 1000.

The Oxygen absorbed in two minutes is multiplied by 500.

The Oxygen absorbed in four hours is multiplied by roo.

The Hardness, before and after boiling, are added together,
and then divided by 5.

The Total solid matter is divided by 5.

26

I have placed the sum of the numbers so obtained, under the
head of “ Valuation.”

We find that the sample of Whitehaven water collected on
April 4th, stands first, with a valuation of 5; Arlecdon is valued
at 7; Keswick, at 9; Whitehaven, March sample, 10; Work-
ington, 15; Cleator Moor, 24; Maryport, 30; and Millom, 35.

It would, however, be very unfair for us to come to a conclusion
regarding the character of a water supply, from the results of a
single analysis. There are various causes which, as doubtless you
all know, affect the purity of the water at different seasons, such
as rain, snow, frost, freshly manured land, and the like.

I think it is a great mistake that none of the waters are properly
filtered, as the character of the whole of them might in this way be
much improved, and the disturbing effects, produced by the above
causes, to a large extent neutralized.

I may mention, that a sample of Whitehaven water collected on
February roth, was slightly turbid, and contained moving organisms.
Its valuation stood as high as 17. Another sample, taken for
analysis on the 5th of the present month (May), received a valuation
of 7; and yesterday, a sample was drawn, and examined in the two-
foot tube, when it was found to be slightly turbid; this was doubtless
due to the heavy rain of the day before. You will notice some
little difference, also, in the analyses of the two samples of White-
haven water placed before you. Now, it is quite possible that the
Millom, Maryport, and Cleator Moor waters were collected at a
time when some one or more of these disturbing elements were in
operation. In fact, any of these waters may have been at its very
worst on the day the sample was taken; and the others may have
been at their best.

It is therefore necessary that frequent analyses should be made,
say once or twice a month, for at least a period of a year; and
that the mean of the results so obtained, should be taken to
represent the average nature of the supply.

And further, I consider that it is the duty of our Local Authorities
to arrange for such a system of periodical examination of the various
Public Water supplies. For in this way, much valuable information

27

might be obtained, and the general public would perhaps be
induced to take a greater interest in the matter.

In conclusion, I must thank those gentlemen who have so
kindly assisted me in this inquiry, by collecting and forwarding me
the various samples of water.

AN A TAY SBS:

ALL RESULTS ARE EXPRESSED IN GRAINS PER GALLON.

°
Bee cs :
Desexiption’ of Appearance a as -E 7g) Phosphoric | Ni
Sample Date zs Bo. Ss Glee E
Bes : Two-foot Tube. N= ‘9| '2| Phosphates. | Nil
oO oO oO
cS _
bs
1881.
WHITEHAVEN... | Mar. 2 | Clear—faint green... ... |None|0°378| None... | 0
Do. ... | Apr. 4 | Clear—faint green... .. | None|0°385| None ... | o
WORKINGTON ... | Mar. 24| Clear—faint green ... ... | None | 0°448 | Traces — ... | 0%
Maryport... | Mar. 21| Very turbid—yellow ... | None | 0°504 | Heavy traces} 0
KESWICK ... | Apr. 7 | Clear—faint greenish blue | None]0'518| Traces ...] 0
MILLoM ... | Apr. I | Very turbid—yellowish green| Slight] 0°896| Traces ... | 0
(CLEATOR Moor | Mar. 29} Clear—pale green ... ... | None | 0°756| Heavy traces] 0

ARLECDON-... | Apr. 2 | Clear—faint greenish blue |None]o588|None_ ... | 0

AN ALLY Si Bes :

ALL RESULTS ARE EXPRESSED IN GRAINS PER GALLON.,

HARDNESS,
<3 Soe Clark’s Scale, | Total :
8 Ss in degrees. | Solid g
| : ACRE 5 Matter] Microscopical Examination 3
S ec es 62h) arene ion dried, of Deposit. =
ee |5 2 Sl sea | Be | Os at =
<< (Ech) Ocke SH )ss °F >
Boils os lagi<s 220
eco ee ~Q (aa)
e | o’oozt | None| 0°0030 | 04 | 04 | 2:20 | Veget. debris, Diatoms eer 3)
0'0009 | None; 0'0090} 0'4 | 0'4 | 1°82] Satisfactory... ce see eS
7 | 0°0028 | None] 0'0280 | 0°5 | o°5 | 2°14 | Vegetable debris, Diatoms ... | 15
0'0049 | None | o'og1I | o’9 | o'9 | 3°66 | Amorphous matter, Diatoms... | 30
e | o'0014 | None} 0'0084 | 0°4 | 0°4 | 2°00 | Vegetable debris oe Aaah)
0'0070 | None | 0°0652 | 1:2 1'2 | 4°76 | Moving organisms, Diatoms ... | 35
007 | o'0051 | None | 0°0728 | 08 | 08 | 3°97 | Vegetable debris bas see | 02:
x 7 | 0'0030 | None} 0°0064 | 04 | 04 | 2°04 | Satisfactory

31

THE GRASSES OF MID-CUMBERLAND.

By Wm. HODGSON.

(Read at the Workington Annual Meeting.)

WHEN I was first invited to contribute a botanical paper for the
present meeting, it was intimated to me that the flowering plants
of the West Cumberland district would be amply cared for by my
friend Mr. Adair of Whitehaven, but that it was desirable that
some notice should also be taken of the Grasses, Sedges, Mosses,
etc., indigenous to the County. Here a wide field was certainly
offered ; and after some deliberation, I decided to confine my
remarks to the Graminez of Mid-Cumberland, choosing this title
for the obvious reason that, though my rambles in the pursuit of
general Botany have been both frequent and extensive, there yet
remain two large tracts of my native county which I have had no
opportunity of exploring. Northward of the River Eden, and
southward of the River Ehen, remain to me a sort of ferra incognita,
or unknown land. I ought also to mention that the Grasses have
not been specially studied; but only came in for their share of
notice with other botanical productions of the districts examined.
Next occurred the question, how can such a paper be drawn up
in a manner calculated to be of permanent service to the Associ-
ation, or to the agricultural portion of the community outside its
limits? It cannot fail to have struck even a casual observer, that
of late years a much larger proportion of the surface of Cumberland
has been applied to grazing purposes, than was the case thirty or
forty years ago—that orn is ascending, and corm descending in
the scale, Such being the case, it becomes a matter of serious

32

consideration, how the quality of the herbage of our meadows and
pastures can be improved, by disestablishing inferior grasses,
sedges, rushes, etc., and substituting in lieu thereof, a “swarth”
composed of more serviceable and nutritious species. He has
been justly held as a public benefactor, who could produce two
blades of grass where only one grew before ; and I apprehend that
he who could be instrumental in bringing about the change I have
indicated, would be treading closely upon that individual’s heels.
Being neither a chemist nor a farmer, I have sought information
as to the comparative produce and feeding properties of the
different grasses in the pages of the Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis
which contains the full record of a series of exhaustive and care-
fully-conducted experiments made at Woburn Abbey by Mr.
Sinclair, gardener to the Duke of Bedford, early in the present
century. The weight and qualities of only the superior grasses
will be touched upon here ; the others will have merely a passing
notice of their habitats or characteristic modes of growth, as the
result of personal examination. The order observed will be that
of the authorised London Catalogue of British Plants, 7th edition,

1877.

First in this list of the grasses undoubtedly indigenous here, is
Anthoxanthum odoratum, the Sweet-scented Vernal Grass.

It is of almost universal growth; hardly a field in the county is
without it. Its chief recommendation is its early growth. Culti-
vated alone, it does not succeed ; but it is eminently serviceable in
forming a good turf when used in combination with other grasses.
To this grass is chiefly attributed the agreeable odour of newly-
mown hay. The comparative weight per acre of this and other
grasses, when in flower, wi!] be found appended to this paper.

Phalaris, or Digraphis, arundinacea. Reed Canaty-grass.

A tall and coarse-looking grass, frequently five or six feet high ;
found pretty generally in swampy places, by the edges of rivers
and lakes. Of little value. The common “ladies’ garters” of
cottage gardens is a striped variety of this species. Canary-seed

33

is the produce of a kindred species, which sometimes springs up
where bird cages have been cleaned.

Alopecurus agrestis. Slender Foxtail-grass.

A most pernicious weed, and great pest of southern farmers,
who call it “black bent.” Fortunately it is of rare occurrence
here. I never saw it in a growing state except on the ballast-hills
at Silloth, and there only in trivial quantity.

Alopecurus geniculatus. Floating Foxtail-grass.

Commonly found in moist places, about the edges of pools, and
places where water has stood during winter. Even where it is the
staple of the herbage, it seems to be little relished by either cattle
or sheep. Its nutritive quality is inferior.

Alopecurus pratensis, Meadow Foxtail-grass.

This grass forms a constituent in most of our richest natural
pastures, and is remarkably early in flowering. I have seen its
flower-spikes well developed on the 24th April, growing in tufts in
the Railway Cutting, near Aspatria, when no other grass had even
sprouted. One of the most nutritious of our grasses; and would
probably have come extensively into cultivation, but for one draw-
back—it does not attain to its fullest produce much under four
years’ growth.

Phieum pratense. Meadow Cat’s-tail-grass.

Better known locally as Timothy-grass. A very valuable grass,
frequently the object of cultivation. Like the foregoing, its feeding
qualities are excellent ; and when the seed is ripe, are at their
fullest development, which is seldom the case with other grasses.
Though forming superior hay, the aftermath is inconsiderable.

Phieum arenarium. Sea Timothy-grass.
A slender, insignificant-looking member of the Cat’s-tail family ;
seldom more than six inches high ; which I have observed along
the shore, at intervals, from Silloth to Whitehaven.

Sesleria cerulea. Blue Moor-grass.

Abundant about Fell-End and the Side woods in Ennerdale,
3

34

also at Moorside Hall, Arlecdon—in black-topped soil of mossy
character. ‘The best of the Alpine grasses,” in Mr. Sinclair’s
estimation. It is said to be particularly agreeable to sheep. Its
roots have a powerful hold on the soil.

Agrostis spica-venti. Silky Bent-grass.
A very elegant grass, of rare occurrence in Cumberland. I have
only seen it on the Silloth ballast-bank, though it grows plentifully
in sandy ground in the south of England.

Agrostis canina. Brown Bent-grass.

The Agrostis family are in general backward in flowering ; and
in moist pastures, especially towards the mountains, constitute the
bulk of the gramineous herbage in Autumn. ‘The present species
does not bear a very high character for its nutritious properties.
Its flower-spikes are very pretty objects, especially when the spikelets
are covered with the purple anthers.

Agrostis alba. Marsh Bent-grass.

Common enough in some parts of the county ; though far less
generally distributed than either A. canina or A. vulgaris. It is of
frequent occurrence about Aspatria ; and yet I have never observed
it in my present neighbourhood. A late and somewhat unpro-
ductive grass, the roots of which are alleged greatly to exhaust the
soil.

Agrostis vulgaris. Common Bent-grass.

This is one of the most common grasses in natural sandy pastures.
It flowers earlier than any of its congeners, but is inferior to several
of them in weight of produce, as also in nutritive quality. A dwarf
variety of this species, known as Agrostis pumila, has been noticed
growing about the Roman Camp on Caer-mote; also on Matter-
dale Common, near Mosedale Beck.

Psamma arenaria. Sea-bent.

All sea-side folk know this plant, which is everywhere abundant
along the shore. It is of trifling value as cattle food. Its great
utility is in binding the sands of the sea-shore, to protect the banks

35

against the encroachments of the tide. It has been protected, so to
speak, by several enactments which forbade its removal or destruc-
tion under severe penalties, from which the people of Cumberland
were specially exempted.

Phragmitis communis. Common Reed.

Growing about the banks of ponds and rivers; sometimes
exceeding seven feet in height; with stout, tall, and leafy stems.
By the river Ellen, near Bullgill; in Hayton meadows, near
Aspatria, etc. Its elegant flower-spikes, stuck into vases, are
frequently used as mantel-piece ornaments by cottagers.

Milium effusum. Spreading Millet-grass.

One of our rarer graminez, affecting the shadow of deep um-
brageous covers. Growing in some abundance in Flimby wood.
Last summer I noticed it also in the Lowther Castle woods, near
Askham Bridge.

Aira cespitosa. Tufted Hair-grass.

A coarse-looking and altogether a worthless grass, too familiar
to local farmers as “bull-toppins.” Supreme necessity alone will
induce cattle to touch it. Even the wild rabbit avoids it; and
I am persuaded that gentlemen who unduly encourage that
mischievous little rodent, have to be responsible for the great
prevalence of this plant in their covers, to the exclusion of better
grasses, which being closely cropped down, are promptly smothered
by this aggressive grass.

Aira flexuosa. Wavy Hair-grass.

A rather elegant grass, commonly met with on some of our best
mountain pastures. Growing about a foot to eighteen inches high;
slender, upright, and very smooth. The term wavy well indicates
the flexuous zig-zag character of the spikelets, which are very
ornamental. Sheep appear to relish this grass, cropping it quite
closely. I have seen fine specimens about Howth Ghyll, and
similar places near Frizington.

36

Aira caryophyllea. Silver Hair-grass.

Insignificant in bulk, though decidedly pretty. This grass is
probably of slight value. It grows not unfrequently on dry sandy
or gravelly banks, even where not overburdened with soil. + It is
about six or eight inches high, and may be distinguished by the
sheen of its bright silvery spikes.

Aira precox. Early Hair-grass.

More dwarfish in habit than the preceding. In light sandy
ground, frequent. It is specially abundant in some of the sea-side
fields below Coulderton. Probably the least of our local grasses ;
seldom exceeding four or five inches in height.

Avena flavescens. Yellow Oat-grass.

~ In all our best meadows and pasture lands a frequent constituent.
Like the Vernal Grass, it is not adapted for cultivation by itself.
The weight of its produce is but moderate; and it owes its value
chiefly to the bitter extractive which its leaves contain. I once
found a most elegant variety of this grass in a railway cutting near
Baggrow.

Avena pratensis. Narrow-leaved Oat-grass.

A local rather than a rare species, with which I was unfamiliar
until within the last few years. I have seen it growing in the
railway cuttings southward of St. Bees, and in several parts of
Leath Ward, towards Penrith. Although of more robust habit
than A. flavescens, it is reputed to be inferior in feeding properties
to that grass.

Avena elatior. Tall Oat-like Soft-grass.

This is one of our larger and more robust grasses, as it is also
one of the most abundant and widely distributed. Its produce
per acre far exceeds the average in weight, but its nutritive matter
is extremely saline and bitter; hence it cannot be cultivated
separately with advantage. A bulbous-rooted type of this species
is familiarly designated “button-twitch,” in some parts of Cumber-
land.

37

fTolcus lanatus. Woolly Soft-grass.

“Yorkshire Fog.” A very common grass on every kind of soil ;
but so coarse that cattle shun it as arule. When made into hay,
it is extremely light and spongy to the touch. When dried in the
press, too, it is limp and flimsy., A decidedly inferior grass.

fTolcus mollis. Creeping Soft-grass.

Not unlike the preceding, but less abundant, and generally seen
about the edges of woods and hedgerows. Distinguished from the
foregoing by its more open and less woolly flower spikes, and by
its powerfully creeping root. Only grown to perfection in light,
barren, sandy soils. Superior in most respects to“ Vorkshire
Fog,” but objectionable on account of its “twitchy” roots, although
these last are held to contain much nutritive matter.

Triodia decumbens. Decumbent Heath-grass.

This grass is chiefly confined to upland undrained meadows and
pastures, in some of which it is tolerably abundant, being intermixed
with sedges and other moisture-loving vegetation. The Woburn
Abbey experiments upon this grass were unfavourable to it. It is
pronounced “but little susceptible of improvement by being trans-
planted to a richer soil.” It is a late grass, and deficient in
fog-producing qualities.

Keleria cristata. Crested Hair-grass.

A slender type of grass, found only on the shore from Cardur-
nock to St. Bees and Coulderton, sparingly.

Molinia cerulea. Purple Melic-grass.

Found in turfy and sandy bogs. For pasture or hay compara-
tively worthless. In some parts of the kingdom the peasantry
make neat besoms of the straw, which, as well as the roots, is
strong and wiry. Hangingshaw moss, near New Cooper.

Melica nutans. Mountain Melic-grass.
A rare grass, found only in mountainous regions. In Gowbarrow

38

Woods, Ullswater; also on the Westmorland side of the same
Lake, near the waterfall on Scale How.

Melica uniflora. Wood Melic.

More widely distributed than the preceding. Abundant in dry
woods, and hedgebanks. Near Yeathouse Station, &c.

Catabrosa aquatica. Water Whorl-grass.
Another rare grass, growing in watery places. In a spring on
the shore at Coulderton ; also in a brook in Lamplugh Hall Cow-
pastures.

Glyceria fluitans. Floating Sweet-grass.

A common aquatic grass; its leaves frequently floating on the
surface of pools. Cattle apparently relish it greatly. I have seen
cows standing up to the udders in water, cropping the sweet and
luxuriant herbage which it produces.

Sclerochloa maritima. Sea Hard-grass.

Growing sparingly on the shores of the Wampool estuary, near
Anthorn.

Schlerochloa procumbens. Procumbent Hard-grass.

A plant of little economic value, which I found growing upon
the sea banks and ballast hills about Silloth and elsewhere. I
have also observed it on the line of the Solway Junction Railway,
near Brayton Station, where it was doubtless introduced with the
ballast used in the formation of the Railway.

Poa annua, Annual Meadow-grass.

An almost ubiquitous grass; on stone pitchings, pavements,
waste grounds, gravel walks, etc. In some parts of the country
called Suffolk-grass. Worthless in a great measure to the agricul-
turist. Partridges eat the seeds with great avidity.

Poa pratensis. Smooth-stalked Meadow-grass.
A common and highly esteemed grass; though better adapted

39

for pasture than the scythe. An objection may be urged against
it. Its roots are powerfully creeping, and take firm grasp of the
soil, as any one may know who has attempted to draw a specimen
from the top of a turf-covered dry wall, where it is frequently to be
found, as well as in almost every meadow and pasture.

Poa trivialis. Rough-stalked Meadow-grass.

This also has the reputdtion of being a valuable grass, for both
meadow and pasture. It is generally taller than the foregoing ;
the leaves are of a lighter hue, and rough at the back, as is easily
proved by rubbing them with the fingers in an upward direction.
Mr. Sinclair says: “The superior produce of this poa over many
other species ; its highly nutritive qualities ; the seasons in which it
arrives at perfection ; and the marked partiality which oxen, horses,
and sheep have for it, are merits which distinguish it as one of the
most valuable grasses.” It is abundant in many parts of the
County. Some of the finest specimens I ever saw grew at Routon-
sike, in Arlecdon.

Briza media. Common Quaking-grass.

A common grass, which I am persuaded is well known even to
children in rural districts, who are fond of collecting bouquets of
“doddering” grass. One peculiarity of this grass is said to be that
it succeeds better on poor soils, than those of a more fertile nature.
Its value as a feeding grass is also considerable.

Cynosurus cristatus. Crested Dog’s-tail-grass.

A very common grass, which as a pasture plant especially is held
to have nosuperior. True, the culms known as “windle straes,”
are wiry, and often unsightly ; yet it forms a dense, close turf, of
grateful nutritive herbage, and is little affected by the extremes of
weather. The best hay for horses that comes into the metropolis
is said to come from the vicinity of Hendon. C. eristatus is a
large constituent of this highly esteemed forage.

Dactylis glomerata. Cock’s-foot-grass.

Another very valuable, as it is likewise a very common, grass.

40

Though the stems are strong, and apparently harsh and dry, they
are said to possess highly nutritive qualities. In any field which
has been subjected to the action of the scythe, Cock’s-foot is
invariably the first to push forth new and vigorous growth; and
the aftermath quickly affords a full bite, on which cattle, horses,
and sheep browse with equal readiness. Its cultivation has not
been attempted on any considerable scale within the limits of my
personal experience. .

Festuca myurus. Wall-fescue: Capon’s-tail-grass.

Found on walls and dry barren places. An inferior, I might
almost say worthless grass, of rare occurrence. On the Conglom-
erate rocks at the foot of Ullswater, by the road leading to Pooley
Bridge. On the top of a wall near the Castle Gardens at Work-
ington.

Festuca bromoides. Barren Fescue-grass.

Likewise of rare occurrence. It grows in coarse sandy soils;
and though superior to the last mentioned, is of little agricultural
value. By the Solway Junction Railway, not far from Brayton
Station. Its roots sink deeply into the loose sand.

Festuca ovina. Sheep’s Fescue-grass.

A diminutive but beautiful grass, which forms a chief constituent
in all our best mountain pastures, where sheep appear to relish it
greatly. Though faint praise is all that Mr. Sinclair bestows upon
it, I am inclined to rate it very highly indeed. It grows in the
lowland as well as in the upland parts of this county. I have
seen splendid turf of this grass near Dubmill, and in the Railway
cutting E. of Aspatria tunnel bridge. Its fine setaceous leaves
are of the loveliest green.

Festuca vivipara. Viviparous Fescue.
Natural to alpine localities, and commonly occurring in rocky
ravines, especially where perennial moisture serves to keep the
roots damp. A curious-looking grass, and a striking exception to

41

the general law of nature in the reproduction of plants by their
seed. The future plant is developed in the flower spike, which
ultimately falls to the ground of its own weight, where it soon
strikes root. Abundant all over the Lake District.

Festuca duriuscula. “Ward Fescue.

A very common grass, assuming much. diversity of appearance
in size, etc., according to the soil and situation in which it may be
found. The flowers are also apt to vary innumber. Distinguished
from the next by its fibrous, rather than creeping roots. On the
top of walls, sometimes hardly exceeding / ovina in stature,
whereas in light soils, of a fertile nature, it may be found from
fifteen to eighteen inches high. The finest I have noticed grew
in a field by the R. Ehen, on the Scale-lands Farm, below Friz-
ington. An excellent grass, and found in all our richest natural
pastures. Its produce is very considerable in bulk, and is remark-
ably fine and succulent. It further enjoys the reputation of
withstanding drought better than the majority of grasses.

Festuca rubra. Creeping Fescue-grass.

Decidedly inferior to the foregoing, which it greatly resembles
in appearance ; though far from being plentiful. Indeed, I have
seldom noticed it far inland. It grows on the rugged scaur about
Redness Point, where its leaves are of a deep glaucous green.

Festuca elatior. Tall Fescue.

By some writers considered as a coarsely-growing variety of
Meadow Fescue. It often grows vigorously on inferior soils,
especially where clay is more or less present. This fact, coupled
with the very nutritive quality of the herbage, would indicate this
as a desirable plant for cultivation in soils where finer grasses fail.
Unfortunately, its seeds often prove sadly deficient in germinating
powers, and hence it is neglected. Large patches of it occur by
the Furness Railway, not far from Coulderton.

Festuca elatior, v. arundinacea.

A tall reed-like variety of the preceding, growing to a height of

42

four or five feet. About the old landing-stage at Floshgate,
Ullswater ; also by the R. Caldew at Holm-hill.

Festuca pratensis. Meadow Fescue.

Taken on the whole, one of our most valuable pasture products.
Of larger growth than /. duriuscula. It is found in all our best
meadows and pastures. It makes excellent hay; but as its
nutritive and succulent properties are in perfection at the time of
flowering, it ought never to be suffered to ripen its seeds. As it is
somewhat late in flowering, there is less risk perhaps of this being
done. It is more readily distinguished than many of its genus.
A grand type of the Meadow Fescue grows near Town-end Bridge,
in the parish of Watermillock.

Bromus giganteus. Giant Brome-grass.

A coarse species, natural only in woods and coppices. Not
very frequently met with. Its seeds supply food for birds. Less
common than the next mentioned. Near Yeathouse Station, on
the W. side of the Railway. The variety known as ¢viflora occurs
about Soulby, and in the hedgerows at the foot of Dunmallet,
Ullswater ; also by the R. Ehen, below Salter Hall.

Bromus asper. Hairy Wood-Brome-grass.

A still larger and coarser-looking grass than the preceding.
Abundant in woods all over the district. Distinguished by the
long pendulous spikelets and loose panicles of flowers. Holm-hill
woods ; Cockshot, near Torpenhow ; Hutton John, etc.

Bromus sterilis. Barren Brome-grass.

Not unlike the preceding in appearance ; having similar loose
drooping panicles, though not reaching more than one-third of the
size of B. asfer. A worthless species—hardly ever cropped by
cattle. Of frequent occurrence in loose sandy soils. Aspatria,
Bullgill, Flimby, etc.

Bromus mollis. Soft Brome-grass.
The ‘“Goose-corn” of the Cumberland farmer. Of frequent

43

occurrence in loose soils, springing up about stack-yards and waste
ground, and on poor exhausted land that has been subjected to
over-cropping. Of no feeding value, and ought to be treated as a
noxious weed, to be exterminated from the farmer’s crops. But as
it is an annual, ripening its seeds very early, this is not perhaps
readily accomplished.

Brachypodium sylvaticum. Slender False-Brome-grass.

In woods and hedgerows not uncommon. Has flat and rather
broad leaves, fringed about the sheaths; and drooping flower-
spikes, not unlike those of barley. An inferior grass, worthy only
of passing notice.

Triticum caninum. Bearded Wheat-grass.

Distinguished from the following by its awned flower-spikes, and
its fibrous roots. In hedgerows and by bushy river banks. By the
Caldew, Ellen, Eamont, Petteril, etc.

Triticum repens. Creeping Wheat-grass.

Of unenviable notoriety as Couch-grass, or “Twitch.” The
culm and leaves of this grass are not in much esteem as nutrients.
Like some of the oat-grasses, they contain too much of the bitter
ingredient. Its roots, however, are more saccharine. And although
much care is bestowed on their extermination here, they are said
to be largely used in Italy for feeding horses. I may note in
passing, that much of what the Cumbrian farmer designates
“twitch,” consists of the creeping roots of Holcus mollis, Poa
pratensis, and some of the Bent grasses, as well as those of the
plant now under notice.

Triticum junceum. Rushy Sea-wheat-grass.

Found along the Sea-coast from Silloth to Seascale. This plant
is of a deep glaucous green hue, and, like the preceding, has
powerfully creeping roots, with woolly fibres at the joints. Its
roots, like those of the Common Bent and of the Carex arenaria, are
of great service in binding together the shifting sands on the
sea-shore,

44

Lolium perenne. Rye Grass.

This well known grass has been longer in cultivation than any
other species, and still maintains pre-eminence, although scientific
experimenters assure us that it is greatly inferior to Cocksfoot,
Meadow Fescue, or Meadow Foxtail grass, in weight of produce
and durability ; for whatever may be its merits otherwise, Ryegrass
is apt to die out at a comparatively early period. Improved
varieties have been raised of late years. It appears indeed almost
everywhere in the lowland districts.

Lolium temulentum. Darnel.

Fortunately for Cumberland, the occurrence of this vile weed is
rare and exceptional. If not actually poisonous, its seeds are
extremely hurtful. Neither beast nor bird will voluntarily eat them.
In comparison with other grass seeds, they are large and heavy.
I never saw this grass in a living state but once, when it grew
among a crop of Flax, near Aspatria, doubtless introduced with the
seed. It is very upright and rigid in habit, and the spikelets of
seeds, though larger than in the ryegrass, are at greater distances
apart.

Hordeum maritimum. Sea Barley.

Another grass that is not strictly indigenous to the district—
though I have seen it, with other aliens, growing on the ballast
mounds at Silloth. A worthless species.

Nardus stricta. Common Mat-grass.

Moist moorlands and mountainous heathes are the homes of this
grass. Higher than Sheep’s Fescue, and the Wavy Hair Grass,
but at a lower elevation than /uncus sguarrosus and Common
Heather, this grass is abundant. Its florets all point one way—its
leaves, one to each culm, are bristle like. In some places the turf
consists almost entirely of Mat-grass. Its roots are frequently much
infested with grubs, and I have observed rooks and starlings pulling
up large patches of it to arrive at their favorite food. Its wiry
nature renders it very difficult to cut with the scythe.

40

Having now exhausted the catalogue in as complete a manner
as the limited time at my disposal for the work would admit, a few
brief concluding remarks may not be out of place. In Bailey,
Culley, and Pringle’s Survey of the Agriculture of Northumberland,
Cumberland, and Westmorland, published about 1794, under the
auspices of the Board of Agriculture of that day, we are told of an
old farmer at Uldale, who when asked why he and his neighbours
did not sow artificial grasses more largely, replied :—“ Lord, sur,
we hev’ nea ’casion ; oor lan’s naterally girs-prood.” The prejudice
against artificial grasses has long since died out—excellent crops of
‘seeds’ may be seen around us; but in my opinion our meadows and
permanent pastures are susceptible of great improvement. It has
been too much the fashion to look upon mere bulk, ora ‘good swathe’
without reference to quality, as the one thing needful. I have
endeavoured to distinguish the good from the bad constituents in
our local turf. It is satisfactory to know—after an examination of
the living specimens of grass exhibited by England’s most eminent
seedsmen at the Royal Show in Carlisle last year—that all the finest
and most valuable species are to be found indigenous around us;
and it did not escape the notice of the shrewdly intelligent gentle-
men, to whom was delegated the task of examining our crack farms
entered for competition, that most of the pests of the farm were
hardly known in Cumberland and Westmorland. A facetious
acquaintance of mine once observed to me, ‘‘Take a yard of cloth
of any description—carpeting if you like—and lay it before a draper.
He will at a glance be able to indicate to you the component parts
both of the warp and woof—their probable value—quality—and
durability. Place a square yard of the turf of his meadow or
pasture before an ordinary farmer, and what answer would you get
from him with respect to its vegetable covering?” Let this ignor-
ance be removed—the process I may say has already commenced—
let the agriculturist be enabled to discriminate the good from the
bad, leaving it to his practical skill to solve the problem of
encouraging the former element and suppressing the latter.

Before resuming my seat, I cannot forbear expressing my deep
obligation to two venerable and worthy gentlemen, the Rev. R.

46

Wood, vicar of Westward, Wigton ; and William Dickinson, Esq.,
of Thorncroft, Workington ; for encouragement and able assistance
rendered by them in my earlier botanical studies.

COMPARATIVE WEIGHT PER ACRE
OF THE MORE VALUABLE GRASSES INCLUDED IN
THE FOREGOING LIST,

AS CALCULATED BY MR. SINCLAIR.

Atthe | When the
Name and Description of Grass. time of Seed {Aftermath
Flowering} is Ripe

Ibs. Ibs.
Anthoxanthum odoratum, Vernal grass 23/7827 6125
Alopecurus pratensis, Meadow Foxtail grass 20418
Phieum pratense, Meadow Catstail grass... | 14973
Agrostis alba, White Bent grass... «. | 8167
», vulgaris, Common Bent grass ... | 10209
Avena flavescens, Yellow Oat grass . | 8167
»» pratensis, Meadow Oat grass ... | 6806
Holcus avenaceus,
or Tall Oat-like Soft grass | 17015
Avena elatior

Holcus lanatus, Woolly Soft grass ... | 8469

Glyceria fluitans, Floating Sweet grass... | 13612

Poa pratensis, Smooth Stalked Meadow grass | 10209 4083

,», ¢trivialis, Rough Stalked Meadow grass 7486 ai 4764
Briza media, Quaking Meadow grass ee | 9528 cA 8167
Cynosurus cristatus, Crested Dogstail grass ... | 6125 vee 3403
Dactylis glomerata, Cocksfoot grass ... | 27905 | 26544 | IIQIO

Festuca duriuscula, Hard Fescue grass ... | 18376 abe 10209

NotTE.—Of two excellent species, viz : Festuca pratensis, Meadow Fescue,
and Lolium perenne, Ryegrass, no data are given.—W. H.

a

47

THE CHALONERS, LORDS OF THE MANOR
OF ST. BEES.

By WILLIAM JACKSON, F.S.A.

(Read at Whitehaven, March st, 1881. )

It has been surmised by a great poet, in words familiar to you all,
that in many a parish churchyard lie the bones of men, who, if the
call had but come to them, were capable of being the Hampdens
or Miltons of their time. I will neither assert nor deny the truth
of this statement ; but I will say that there are few parishes that
have not, in some manner, and at some time, been directly
connected with some important actor, or event, in the history of
England. _ I will illustrate this from our own neighbourhood. The
first husband of the last heiress of Moresby Hall, Sir Francis
Weston, died on the scaffold for his share in the guilt of Anne
Boleyn, if, indeed, she were guilty of the charges brought against
her. Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, father of Lady Jane Grey,
was attainted for treason against Queen Mary, and his manor of
Harrington was forfeited to the crown. Egremont Castle belonged
to many who were not only conspicuous but famous in their time,
and it is therefore not exceptional that Saint Bees should have its
connecting links with the great stream of our national history ; but
it is exceptional that they should be of so very remarkable a
character.

The first is, the establishment on a shore ravaged and heathen-
ised by the Vikings of the North, of a Christian centre through

48

the devotion of one of the many missionaries from Ireland,
whose names are still familiar to us by their having been adopted
as the Patron Saints of our churches. Another is, that our parish
was the birth-place of the third Protestant Archbishop of Canter-
bury, who was very unwilling that the Great Reformation should
be arrested at the point that the Queen desired it should. The
third connecting link is through the family whose history it is my
object to bring before you this evening. I cannot say that locally
they played a very important part ; but two of its members—father
and son—held the Manor for more than fifty years; and three
generations, who covered a most important period in our history,
occupied conspicuous positions on the national stage.

The first, born when the effete spirit of Ecclesiasticism was only
waiting for the death-stroke that from some source was to come
upon it; the next, living when the vitiated blood of the Stuarts
was striving to build up a despotism which tottered down upon
the head of perhaps the worthiest member of their race; and to
which end the third generation contributed two actors; for the
name of Thomas Chaloner appears on the Death Warrant of
Charles, and though that of his brother James is absent he
certainly sat on the Trial.

THoMAS CHALONER was born in the year 1521. He was a
descendant of the seventh noble tribe of North Wales ; but it is
more to the purpose to say that his father, Roger Challoner, was
a mercer of the City of London, and that he, perhaps, obtained
the surname from being a maker of coverlets, or blankets, called
“Chalons,” the stuff from which they were made being procured
from Chalons, a town which has given its name to our modern
“shalloons,” and perhaps even more modern “challies.” It was
the wealth obtained by honest trade that did more to lift him in
the scale of society than the blood of his ancestors. The trading
classes were then rising to a position in the commonwealth which
was no longer to be ignored. Whittingtons, Poles, Hewitts, and
Spencers, mingled their blood with the proudest in the realm,
and built country seats which outshone the gloomy castles of the
ancient aristocracy. It is certain that Thomas Chaloner’s father

. 49

must have given him some more substantial help, to take the
position which he very speedily attained than even the best
education that the time could afford; which latter, however,
enabled him to rank with the most learned men, aye, and women
too, of his time. He was early launched on the great ocean of
the world, for he went as Secretary to Sir Henry Knyvett, one of
the two ambassadors sent by Henry VIII.—Gardiner, Bishop of
Winchester, being the other,—to the Diet at Ratisbon, in the year
1540. His good ‘fortune, and, perhaps, his intelligence, enabled
him to get hold of the threads of an intrigue that was being carried
on by Gardiner with the Pope’s Legate, Contarini. The latter
being suddenly called away handed certain letters, with which
he was entrusted by the Pope, to an Italian merchant, called
Ludovico, with instructions that a speedy reply was required.
Ludovico meeting with one Wolf, steward to Sir Henry Knyvett,
prayed him that he would tell the English Ambassador what the
Legate desired. Wolf said there were two Ambassadors, and it
speedily appeared that he who was styled ‘‘ Reverendissimus” was
the one wanted. Wolf communicated with Chaloner and the two
had a long interview with Ludovico; the result being that Henry was
advised of the whole proceedings, which at that time he did not
think fit to notice. Poor Ludovico was cast into prison.

Change we now the scene to the following year, 1541, and we
find that the young diplomatist and his master Knyvett had
enlisted themselves, like Knight-errants, in an expedition against
the Paynim. The occasion and the preparations have been well
described by Froude, and I abridge his narrative :—‘ The Turks
had been making alarming progress in Europe; they had defeated
Ferdinand, and there was some suspicion of an alliance germinating
between them and Francis. With a view to both events, Charles
resolved upon an expedition against Algiers, and mustering one
hundred and fifty vessels, with as many transports, he embarked
an army of twenty thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry.
A landing was effected at some distance from the town. The
troops were on shore, the provisions were still in the transports,
when during the night a violent hurricane arose, and when morning

ae

50

dawned the wrecks of half the fleet were strewn along the beach,
and the natives were murdering the crews. That portion of the
fleet which escaped shipwreck was driven three days’ march from
the starving army, which, surrounded by swarms of Moorish
cavalry, had to make its way against repeated attacks, (every
loiterer and every wounded man being speared,) to the transports,”
Chaloner’s account of his narrow escape from death is published
in Hakluyt’s Collection of Voyages, in the following words, (the
original, in Latin, may be found in the Introduction to his De
Republica Anglorum Instauranda): “The galley in which he was,
being either dashed against the rocks, or shaken with the mighty
storm and cast away, after he had saved himself a long time by
swimming, when his strength failed him, his armes and handes
being. faint and weary, with great difficulty laying hold with his
teeth on a cable which was cast out of the next galley, not without
breaking and loss of certain of his teeth, recovered himself and
returned home to his own country in safety.” On the return home
of Sir Henry Knyvett and himself, the former in the same year
married Anne, the great heiress of Moresby and other vast estates,
and widow of the Sir Francis Weston I have mentioned ; and by
her had two sons, the youngest of whom, Sir Henry Knyvett,
heired from his mother the great estate of Escrigg, in Yorkshire. .

Chaloner upon his return was promoted to the office of Head
Clerk of the Council by Henry VIII. From this time till the
battle of Musselburgh we hear nothing of him; but his sympathies
with the cause of the Reformed Faith were sure to lead him to
the party of the Lord Protector, and accordingly we find him
distinguishing himself in an extraordinary manner at that fight, or
rather scene of slaughter; for the Scotch were in the position of
the French at Agincourt—encumbered with their own numbers.
In company with Edward Seymour, eldest son of the Protector,
Hugh Askew (who subsequently got a grant of Seaton Priory, near
Bootle), Ralph Vane, and Ralph Sadler, Thomas Chaloner was
knighted for his gallantry on the battlefield, which, Holinshed tells
us, was strewn with swords, pikes, and lances, as thick as rushes
ina chamber, He also obtained, as a reward of his valour on this

51

occasion, a gift which must have been most gratifying to him,
being a jewel from the hands of the Lord Protector’s wife.

Sir William Sandys, eldest brother of Edwin, subsequently
Archbishop of York, had the ill fortune to be slain in this battle.
He was cousin to the Sandys of Rottington.

We next find Chaloner nominated to a task which, although he
was no doubt a devoted follower of the Lord Protector, could not
be otherwise than most disagreeable to him. The ambition of the
Lord Admiral, the Protector’s younger brother, had grown to the
dimensions of treason against the state, and he had on more than
one occasion treated remonstrances, and even commands, with
contempt. His wife, Catharine Parr, had died shortly before, and
Lord Seymour of Sudeley was dreaming of a marriage with the
Princess Elizabeth. He was suddenly seized and committed to
the Tower on the 17th January, 1549, and on the following day
Sir Thomas Chaloner, Sir Hugh Paulett, and John Yernley, were
sent to search his house at Bromham, in Wiltshire.

He was one of the witnesses against Bonner in the same year.

' Some years previous to this he had married Joan Cotton, widow
of Sir Thomas Leigh, one of the greatest suppressors of monasteries,
who had obtained a grant of a lease for twenty-one years of the site
of the monastery of Guisborough, and lands in the hands of the
canons at the time of the suppression, at the rent of £49 55. 4d.
It was let to him for thirty years, on July 2oth, 1547, (and this
date indicates that Chaloner had previously married the widow,)
and finally he purchased the same absolutely, October 31st, 1550,
for the sum of £998 135. 4d.

The suspicious correspondence with the Pope, which I have
mentioned as having been detected at Ratisbon, was revealed by
him to the Privy Council during the proceedings against Gardiner,
in December, 1550, which resulted in that prelate (who had
already spent some time in the Tower,) being sent to a meaner
lodging and harsher treatment.

In the last year of Edward VI. (1553), Sir Thomas received a grant
of the manor, rectory, and cell of St. Bees, with all its rights, etc., in
St, Bees and Ennerdale, not granted away by the Crown before, to

52

be held by him in fee farm, as of the manor of Sheriff Hutton in
Yorkshire, in free and common socage, but not in capite, paying
to the Crown the fee farm rent of £143 165. 2%d. I have
examined the duplicate of the grant on the Patent Roll for that
year in the Record Office, and find that not only was there a grant
on June 16th, to Thomas Chaloner and Johanna his wife, of Saint
Bees, on the terms mentioned, but that the same document conveys
the manor of Suytall in Yorkshire, parcel of the possessions of
Kirkstall Abbey, also lands and rents belonging formerly to the
Abbeys of Jervaux and Monkbretton, no consideration being
named; the probability being that the grant was in satisfaction
of a debt, and that such parcels were eked out as met the claim.

The manor, rectory, and cell of Saint Bees had existed in the
Crown from the suppression, and the receipts were regularly
accounted for in the Exchequer Accounts. I quote an extract as
referring to an old family long existing amongst us :—

1548. Anthone Fox doth hold one messuage and two oxgangs
of land, and doth pay yearly at the Feasts of the Blessed Virgin
and St. Michael the Archangel 3s., and in customary dues and
services 2 hens, xx. eggs, and 7 boon harvest days valued at xx.
shillings.

The grant at this time indicates that Sir Thomas was not
absolutely in a position of hostility to Dudley, who had been
created Duke of Northumberland ; his former patron, and the man
to whom he was devoted, Somerset, having traversed the then
well beaten track that led to the block. Now, several consider-
ations arise in connection with this grant, and first I would like to
make a few remarks upon the distribution of the abbey lands. A
great outcry has been made on the mode in which this distribution
was effected. Spelman on Sacrilege, and numerous other writers
in the present day, lift up their hands in pious horror at the sup-
pression and distribution. Undoubtedly, the latter was in some
respects a scramble ; and, undoubtedly, grants were made to very
unworthy individuals ; but, on the other hand, it must be remem-
bered that the heirs of the great original donors, in numerous
instances, did but receive back the lands granted by their ancestors,

53

and in many not even that ; witness the case of the Curwen family,
who founded Shap, and were benefactors to Holm Cultram,
Carlisle, Calder, and Furness, and who only benefited by receiving
a portion of the spoils of Furness. Many of the lands were bought
as in the case of Chaloner, who really purchased Guisborough, and
no doubt obtained Saint Bees with the fruits of his father’s industry,
and as an investment for his money, which the State (reduced to
the utmost straits by the necessity of fortifying itself against foreign
aggression, and torn by internal dissension) was very glad to receive;
though I am quite willing to allow that the public affairs were ill
and most wastefully managed.

But what induced Chaloner to procure a grant of the manor,
rectory, and cell of Saint Bees? First, there was the fact that
certain possessions of Calder Abbey had been sold to Sir Thomas
Leigh, on July 20th, 1546, for £243 55. od. and his wife was the
widow of that rather well known individual. Secondly, I make no
doubt that he was on good terms with Grindal, to whom not long
afterwards he sold the rectory, for the latter held the tithes long
previous to 1569; and may it not be that in scholarly talk with
Lady Jane Grey, who married Northumberland’s son, Guildford,
on May 25th, 1553, he had heard much said of the district which
he had already heard spoken of by Henry Knyvett, whose wife
was Lady of Moresby? I would not lay too great stress on these
points, but the combination is curious; and that he was a deeply
attached friend of that ‘‘admirable Crichton” of her sex, we know
from his Latin Poem entitled, ““Deploratio Acerbe Necis Heroidis
Prestantissime D. Janz Grayze Henrica Ducis Suffolchice filiz que
securl percussa animo constantissimo mortem oppetiit.” One
beautiful line I quote—

“*Ore placens Veneris, Palladis arte placens.”

On the 12th April, 1555, an agreement was made between Lady
Chaloner and Thomas Leigh, her first husband’s nephew and male
heir, wherein for the consideration of £1000, certain houses in
Austin Friars, London, and the Priory of St. Oswald’s, which had
been bought by her husband, were re-purchased from the male
heir. The latter property subsequently fell to her daughter by her

54

first husband. ‘On January 11th, 1556,” writes in his diary
Henry Machyn, Citizen and Merchant Taylor of London, “ was
bered my lade Challenger, the wyff of ser Thomas Challenger, and
was the wyff of ser Thomas Lee of Hogston, and bered at Shor-
dyche chyrche with ii. whyt branchys and ii. dozen stayffes torchys
and iii. grett taypurs and a harold of armes and iii. baners of
emages and a viii. dozen of skochyons of armes and the strett
hangyd with blake boythe the strett and the chyrche and armes.”

During the reign of Philip and Mary, Chaloner is said to have
been in some peril on account of his religious opinions, and that
he was only saved from the persecution which fell on so many of
his friends by the exertions of some high in the state whom he had
befriended during the reign of Edward. He certainly, however,
received a grant of the manor of Steeple-Claydon, in Buckingham-
shire, on the 13th of August, 1557, a grant made after the little
preliminary form of a payment of #2100 in money. A confirm-
ation of the grant, and probably an additional one of lands at
Guisborough, was made to him July 16th, 1558, on the conditional
payment of £135 15s. 414d. annually.

On the accession of Queen Elizabeth he at once took a high
position at Court, and a conversation between himself and the
Emperor’s Ambassador, Von Holfenstein, Baron of Gundelfingen,
respecting the propriety of the Queen’s speedy marriage is recorded.
The Ambassador recommended his master the Emperor’s son, the
Archduke of Austria, and on his return home sent Chaloner a
portrait of him, and a letter in which he enlarged upon his comeli-
ness, but that his mind and abilities far exceeded the attractions of
his person ; that if the most excellent virtues and gallant endow-
ments of his soul were as well known generally as to him, they
would be found by many degrees to excel the beauty of his body.
Unfortunately the picture was damaged on its way. Holfenstein
promised to send another of his “whole body,” and that of his
brother also. Nothing came of it; but Strype the historian says :
“ The Queen, though she would sometimes retain suitors, was not
minded to wed herself but to her kingdom only.”

On the 17th of July, 1559, he was sent Ambassador to Brussels,

5d

whence he wrote to Cecil a letter which Miss Strickland, with an
inattention to detail, and therefore with an inaccuracy I am afraid
rather characteristic of her, says was written from Spain. The
difference is worthy of note, because the favourable opinion of the
Low Countries was of more importance to Englishmen than that
of Spain. Chaloner’s epistolary style is graphic and plain. The
atmosphere of Courts, his diplomatic experiences, and his scholastic
acquirements, certainly did not deprive his letters of vigour of
expression or picturesqueness of detail. ‘I assure you, Sir, thies
folks ar brod mothued when I spake of oon to muche in Favour
as they esteem I thincke ye gesse whom they named, if ye do not
I will upon my next letters write furder. To tell you what I
conceyve, as I count the slawnder most false, so a yong Princesse
canne not be to ware what countenance or familiar Deminstration
she maketh more to oon than another. I judge no oon mannes
service in the Realme woorth the Entertagnment with such a Tayle
of Obloquie or Occasion of Speeche to such men as of evill will
are ready to find faults. The delayne of rype tyme for maryage,
besides the losse of this Realme (for without posterite of her High-
ness what hope is lefte unto us) Mynistreth matter to theyre lewde
Towngs to descant upon and breedith Contempt. I would I had
but oon Houres talkes with you. Thinke, if I trusted not your
good nature I would not write thus muche, which nevertheless I

humbly praye you to reserve as written to yourself. Consider how
ye deale now on the emperor’s matter, much dependeth on it.
Here they hang in expectation as menne desirous it should go
forward, but yet they have small hope. In myne opinion (be it
said to you only) the Affinite is great and honorable. The Amitie
necessary to stoppe and coole many Enterprises. Ye neede not
feare his greitness should overrule you. He is not a Philippe,
but better for us than a Philippe. Lett the tyme work for Scotland
as God wille, for sure the Frenche, I believe, shall never long
enjoye them. And when we be stronger and more ready, we may
procede with that that yet is unripe. The tyme itself will worke
when our grete neighbours fall owtnext. In the meane tyme settle
the things begoon, and lett us arme and fortifie our Frontiers with

o
oS

the Ile of Wight and Portesmouth, where needs, and at Dover coste
must be employed out of Hande.”

The next fact in Chaloner’s history is of remarkable interest,
and specially so at the present time. From an early period in our
history succeeding the Conquest, the lot of the thralls or villeins
had been gradually becoming more endurable, and this was largely
owing to the gentle treatment of the Religious Houses. Curiously
enough, the villeins on this account not caring to be freed, nominal
villeinage lasted longer on their lands than on those of the Lay
Lords. The lands which they held in customary copyhold, or
other such tenures, had gradually come to be considered as fixed,
although in the case of these very tenures the occupants are called
“Tenants at Will” in the Percy Survey of 1578. Now the Church
had little or no voice, and the Lords were desirous of resuming
possession of lands which at this time were worth more than the rents
paid for them ; probably in most instances to turn into huge sheep
walks to supply wool for the looms of Bruges and Ghent. The
tenants naturally resisted, and, in most cases in the north, where
tenancy is a common form of tenure, and the sympathy of the
population was altogether in their favour, triumphed, This struggle
went on till James by a final effort raised such a storm that there
was some danger of a rebellion. In Ireland I doubt whether the
customary tenure ever hardened, as with us, into an universally
recognized fact; and hence, in our own time a struggle there,
which was fought and fought successfully in this kingdom, and
especially in these northern counties, three centuries ago.

I find indications of this struggle at Saint Bees in the Record of
an Agreement made October 25th, 1560, between Sir Thomas
Chaloner, Knt., and ninety tenants of Saint Bees, whereby the
former grants to the latter, in consideration of £88 and payment
and performance of the accustomed dues, duties, and services,
except gressomes and heriotts, with leave to supply themselves
with coal, a lease of their lands for fifty years, at the termination
of which period their position of tenant right was in no degree to

~ be damaged by this temporary arrangement.

Chaloner’s letters from Brussels are all of interest. He relates

57

rather a good saying of De Feria, with whom he was dining, and
who had been Ambassador in London. The Queen was always
trimming her sails to please now Philip, now the French King;
says De Feria: “Commend me to your Queen, and bid her look
to herself, and remember the Spanish proverb, ‘The Cock may
scrape in the Dunghill till he uncovers the knife to cut his own
throat.’” Writing to Cecil on January 15th, 1560, in view of
certain difficulties, he says in his own energetic vein, “Trust we
none but God and ourselves, For if I were God I would swear by
myself that I believe our trust is in God’s defence only and by
Him in our foresight, so our professed enemies and faint friends
instead of cartells of defiance will send us solemn letters of con-
gratulations otherwise Ve Victis.” How powerfully does this
remind us of an utterance of another energetic spirit, Cromwell—
“ Trust in God and keep your powder dry.”

Probably it was soon after this time that Chaloner returned from
his embassy, and it was shortly after this, I conjecture, that he
married, as his second wife, Etheldreda daughter of Edward
Frodsham of Elton, Cheshire, by whom he had a son who is also
called Thomas. I cannot ascertain when he was born, but if we
admit the accuracy of the date given on his monument at Chiswick,
it was in 1564; other authorities, perhaps more trustworthy, point
to 1559. That there was something peculiar about the marriage
seems certain; for in a note of a letter from Francis Chaloner,
brother of Sir Thomas, given in the State Papers for 1565, the
former writes that the latter has been ill of a fever, and has made
a will leaving his lands to “the bastard ;” but at no other time,
nor by any other person, has the slander been repeated. That he
was married about this time is, I think, very probable for another
reason. On March 26th, 1562, the Earl of Westmerland, the
unfortunate Charles, last of the noble stem of the Neville race,
doomed to feed on the crumbs that fell from the Spanish monarch’s
table, and to linger out his miserable life in penury and ignominy
after the unsuccessful Rising of the North, wrote to Chaloner
desiring to become his tenant for his house in Clerkenwell, which
he had erected for himself on the land formerly belonging to the

58

black nuns, and over the door of which he had placed an inscrip-
tion in Latin, which has been thus translated :—

Their house no more the veil-clad virgins grace,

Yet faith unspotted still maintains her place,

For sacred Hymen’s rites like honours claim,

And his bright star illumes the vestal flame.
The only interval of his career after the death of his first wife
during which he could have built this house, which was clearly
erected in connection with his marriage, was subsequent to his
return from Brussels. But this period of comparative leisure did
not last long, and he was fixed upon by the Queen to go in the
same capacity to Spain. His salary is stated in the State Papers,
September 3oth, 1561, to be five marcs a day and incidental
expenses ; but salaries were little more than nominal in those days.
The fees constituted the substantial remuneration, or the grant of
a manor or barony at the termination of the service. Many, how-
ever, were the disappointments in the days of Queen Bess, and
one rather notable fact impresses one at this time. On the 24th
August of this year, he grants to the Queen forty-eight messuages
and tenements and also certain rents in Saint Bees and Hensingham;
and on the 16th October, twenty-one tenements in Sandwith are
made over to Her Majesty in consideration of the sum of £320.
These were never redeemed, and ultimately were bought by the
Governors of Saint Bees School; but of this more anon.

Chaloner, at the outset, met with the most discourteous treatment
in Spain. All his boxes and luggage were searched in the most
offensive way, and he complained bitterly, but his Queen at that
time chose to take no notice of the insult. Throughout his
residence at the Court of Madrid he was unwearied in his com-
plaints of the climate, and he declared in winter he lived in a
stove, and in summer in a barn. “Spain,” he says in another
communication, “rather pain; food and lodging about Madrid are
scarcely bearable, and elsewhere past bearing,” and the Duke of
Alva was the only person in whom he found wisdom and courteous
usage. History has set down Alva amongst the wretches who have
disgraced humanity, and it is right that he should have the benefit

-

59

of the only good word I ever read of him. I need not quote from
Sir Thomas’s rather numerous despatches on State Affairs. I extract
a paragraph from a letter of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, Ambassador
at Paris, to Chaloner, dated Paris, 14th June, 1562: “I pray you
good My Lord Ambassador sende me two Paire of parfumed
Gloves, parfumed with Orrange Flowers and Jacemin, thone for
my wives hand, the other for myn owne ; and whereinsoever I can
pleasure you with anything in this Country, you shall have it in
Recompense thereof, or els so moche money as they shall coste
you, provided alwaies that they be of the best choise, wherein your
Judgment is inferior to none. I would be glad you wold sende
them me by Mr. Henry Cobham, who I here wilbe in these Parties
or it be longe,” &c., &c. It may add a little interest to this extract
when I state that the Ambassador to France was father of the fair
Elizabeth Throckmorton, who by captivating Raleigh’s heart and
becoming his wife, exercised an unfavourable influence on his
worldly fortunes.

I pass over most of the rest of his communications from Spain
to the Queen, only quoting two, both, I believe, to Cecil, and
characteristic of Spanish medical treatment of the times. The
unfortunate Don Carlos (son of Philip II. of Spain by his first
wife, Mary of Portugal, the hero of Schiller’s tragedy of that name,
and celebrated not for either virtue or genius, but for his unhappy
end, for he is said to have been put to death by his father for
plotting against him,) “had the misfortune,” says Chaloner, writing
1562, “to tumble down stairs, for he was never over steady on his
legs ; he brocke his head and was at the point of death,” chiefly
through the contrary opinions, and, consequently, neutralised prac-
tice of his numerous physicians. Chaloner, who was not without
medica] skill himself, proclaims them all as bunglers. They
let the moody young prince’s wound heal so soon, that the
injured bone beneath putrified; “he may yet! get well,” says
Chaloner, “but it will axe about six weeks space to heal him
thoroughly,” adding, “his hurt is upon the top of his noddle side-
ways as he slipped down stairs.” Chaloner in good old-fashioned
Saxon words describes such Court scenes, while his life hung in

60

the balance, as even the exclusive readers of Court History are not
very familiar with, He may trip at a French word, and call a
thing “‘oultrageous,” but he is sounder on his legs than the
Prince was on his noddle. Erysipelas came on. Christians, Jews,
and Infidels came in with their charms. Regular practitioners
made the sad matter sadder. The King, expecting his son’s
death, was ready to gallop off from a defunct body. Every soul
was busy with his mourning and the fashion of it. All at once
the infallible doctor was thought of and sent for. The corpse of
a dead friar, now for his miracles accounted a saint, Don Diego
de Alcala, was brought to the Prince and laid all night in bed with
him. We “axe” if the idea of such an “oultrageous” style of
practice would now enter anybody’s noddle? ‘Three centuries
ago the Spanish Prince was restored from undergoing it, but how
far the propter is in relation to the post, we leave to doctor’s to
determine.

The other case shows the skill of Spanish physicians in an
equally favourable light. In August, 1564, Philip’s third wife,
Elizabeth of France, unfortunately for herself, had need of medical
attendance. Fever arose. The doctors bled her in both arms;
they bled her in both feet ; and when spasms and paroxysms came
on, they cupped her and left her to die. She was houselled, and
the King, to comfort her, was houselled with her for company, and
when Chaloner was writing to England she was lying abandoned
of her physicians, at the mercy of God. The palace gates were
shut, the lamentations in the Court both of men and women very
tender and piteous; the chapel was filled with noblemen all
praying on their knees for her, and great and unfeigned moans in
all parts. Nature eventually proved too strong for Spanish doctors.
She rallied, and they flew at her once more; they administered
strong doses of agaricum, and, amazing to relate, she recovered.
Now it is a very old saying, that truth is stranger than fiction.
Every one of you that has read “Gil Blas” will have laughed at
what you must have thought the ridiculously exaggerated instruc-
tions which Dr. Sangrado gave for the treatment of his patient :
“First, six porringers of blood were to be taken from him as a

61

beginning, to make up for the want of perspiration; then the
barber was to return in three hours and repeat the treatment, and
next day he was to begin afresh. It is an error,” said Sangrado,
“to believe that blood is necessary for the preservation of life. It
is impossible to overbleed a sick person. As he is not obliged to
move or to take any considerable exercise, and has nothing to do
only not to die, he requires no more blood than a sleeping man—
life in both only consisting in the pulse: and the breathing.”
Le Sage was writing a century later than Chaloner’s time.

There were many reasons why Chaloner’s residence in Spain
should be most trying apart from the climate of the country and
the consequent differences in modes of living which harassed
him so severely. England was, in a hesitating way, aiming to be
the head of the Protestant powers, though the vacillating Queen
ever avoided committing herself to that position. Spain, on the
contrary, was the stronghold of Ecclesiastical Conservatism. But
what most of all led to the bitter feeling on the part of Spaniards
against Englishmen was the conduct of our sailors, who, when
they came upon a Spanish vessel in such a situation that she
appeared to be at their mercy, rarely let slip the opportunity for
plunder ; and this again arose from the jealousy and monopolising
action of Spain. Wearied and worn in June, 1564, he wrote to a
friend in the midst of his trouble, ‘‘ whether this alone is not to a
free mind an importable burden, two years and three quarters to
bear my cross in Spain, a place and nation of all others misliked
save themselves, driven here not only to forbear, but patiently, like
an ass, to lay down mine ears at things of too much indignity.”

His health failed at last between the climate, the garlic, and the
public worries. “Surely I have had great wrong,” he says in a
letter to Sir Ambrose Cave, “but it is the old wont of our Court
never to think upon the training of a new servant till the old be
worn to the stump. It is each man’s part to serve their prince,
but there is a just distributing if subjects durst plead with kings.
I have not much more to hope, having twenty years served four
kings, now further from wealth or that staff of age which youth
doth travail for than I was eighteen years agone. Methinks I

62

become a retrograde crab, and yet would gladly be at home with
that that yet resteth to pay my debts, and live the rest of my life
perhaps contentedly enough.” About the end of this year he was
allowed to return.

I learn from the State Papers that he was a suitor for a grant of
mines in Ireland on July 18th, 1565. Whether he was successful
or not is not recorded. He died at the house which I have
mentioned on the 14th October, 1565, and was buried in St. Paul’s
Cathedral. Dr. Walter Haddon, Master of Requests to Queen
Elizabeth, wrote his epitaph in Latin, which has been thus trans-
lated :—

Nature and Art in Chaloner combin’d,

And for his Country form’d the Patriot’s mind.
With praise deserv’d his public posts he fill’d,
And equal fame his learned labours yield.
While yet he liv’d he liv’d his country’s pride,
And first his country injur’d when he died.

His friend, Sir William Cecil, was his executor, as he also was
of Grindal. He was chief mourner at his funeral, and wrote some
highly eulogistic Latin verses to his memory, in which he observes
that “the most lively imagination, the most solid judgment, the
quickest parts, and the most unblemish’d probity, which are
commonly the lot of different men, and when so dispersed
frequently create great characters, were—which very rarely happens
—all united in Sir Thomas Chaloner, justly therefore reputed one
of the greatest men of his time.” I am not aware that he had any
enemies ; he was the friend of all his good and great contempo-
raries, and, if the axiom, “ Noscitur a sociis” be true, he needs no
higher praise.

His works seem to deserve some little notice at our hands, and
it is almost touching to find that the first publication of so learned
aman was, “A little Dictionary for Children ;” his second was,
“The Office of Servants ;” his next was a translation of “The
Praise of Folly,” by his friend Erasmus. His more learned works
were published in 1579, after his death, at the instigation of Cecil;
and it may surprise some to learn that the translation of the title

e

ae “

63

of one poem is “In Praise of Henry VIII., the most worthy King
of England, a Paneygyrick ;” so that it appears that that monarch
was not regarded by the eminent men of his time as the monster
which later historians, with preconceived views, have been pleased
to depict him. Froude, who has ventured occasionally to say a
good word for him, is not, it appears, the first who has not been
utterly condemnatory. Chaloner wrote nothing in favour of Queen
Mary.

There are three portraits of him ; one, a painting by Sir Antonio
More, was exhibited some years ago at the Exhibition of National
Portraits ; another forms the frontispiece to his ‘De Republica
Anglorum ;” and a third, a small engraving by Hollar, is the
choicest, rarest, and dearest morceau the collector of engraved
portraits can gather into his portfolio. The current price for this
treasure of perhaps four inches square, is about £40.

Pass we on to the worthy son of so worthy a father, of whom
the first record discoverable is that he was a student at Magdalen
College, Oxford, in the year 1580, where he did not take a degree,
having left early to travel, which he did to good purpose for some
years. In the year 1584, we find him publishing a book on ‘‘The
Virtue of Nitre, wherein is declared the sundry cures by the same
effected,” which indicated a strong bent to the study of Natural
Philosophy. On March 28th, 1586, he was a student of the law
at Gray’s Inn, and then gave, bargained, and sold to the Keepers
and Governors of the Free Grammar School of Saint Bees, in
order that they might erect a school and house for the schoolmaster
there, “all that plot of ground known and called by the name of
St. Anthony’s Orchard, containing by estimation an acre and a
half, adjoining unto a highway leading between the same parcel of
ground and the churchyard of the said parish of Saint Bees. And
also he gave and sold frank and free liberty to have and to take
forty loads of coals at and in the coal pits of the said Thomas
Chaloner in the parish of Saint Bees, and free liberty of access to
the said coal pits for digging and removing the coals from time to
time,” in consideration of which free grant, the governors coyenanted

64

that Sir Thomas and his heirs should for ever have two scholars
placed in the same Free Grammar School.

The two illustrious brothers, Anthony and Francis Bacon, were
at this time fellow-students with young Chaloner at Gray’s Inn, the
two former being nephews to the second wife of Cecil, who was
guardian of the latter, and we may imagine what sage communings
and what plays of wit were indulged in over the sea coal fire, as
the “Novum Organum” dawned on the mind of its author, and
was discussed with one who was no dreamer, but severely practical,
as was evidenced by his own discoveries and the favourable result
they had on the commerce of the nation. But Chaloner did not
neglect the imaginative powers of his mind, for Spenser in his
“Colin Clout’s come home again,” written about 1591, after
mentioning Shakspere thus—

And there, though last not least, is A®tion,

A gentler shepherd may no where: be found,
Whose Muse, full of high thought’s invention,
Doth, like himself, heroically sound.”

passes on to allude to Chaloner :—

There eke is Palin, worthy of great praise,
Albe he envy at my rustic quill.

And Puttenham in his “Arte of English Poesie,” actually classifies
him with the author of “The Faery Queen,” naming him first :
“For Eclogue and pastorall Poesie Sir Phillip Sydney and Master
Challoner and that other Gentleman who wrote the late Shepheards
Callender.” It is very remarkable, and deeply to be regretted,
that of such worthy efforts of the Muse, deserving such lofty
commendation from such eminent authorities, not a line exists ;
they have gone the way of the lost books of ‘‘ The Faery Queen,”
and of many other productions of that time, so fertile in efforts of
genius and spirit of adventure.

He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Fleetwood,
Recorder of London, a great friend of his father, and by her had
four sons and three daughters. He was for some time under
Henry IV. in the warres of France, and was knighted by that

65

monarch in the year 1591, having most probably shared with him
in the glories of Ivry and. Arques, fought not long before ; but
when the French King abjured Protestantism, Chaloner would
feel that his service was no fitting place for him. Most probably
between this time and the year 1595 a great project was taking
growth and substance in Sir Thomas’s mind. He had visited and
closely observed the Pope’s alum works, during his travels in Italy;
and riding a-hunting near Guisborough, he noticed that the rocks,
the soil, and the vegetation were very similar to that he had
observed there. Drayton in his Poly-olbion has given a faithful
picture of this part of Yorkshire :—

Marke Gisbrough’s gay scite where Nature seems so nice,

As in the same shee makes a second Paradice ;

Whose Soyle imbroidered is with so rare sundry flowers,

Her large okes so long greene, as Summer there her bowers

Had set up all the yeare, her ayre for health refin’d,

Her earth with Allome Veine most richly intermin’d,

In other places these might Rarities be thought,
So common but in me, that I esteem as nought.
The value of alum in trade at that particular period may be well
illustrated by an extract from a dispatch of Don Guerran to the
Duke of Alva dated February 2oth, 1569. Spain was intriguing
with a view to support the rebellion of that year, the famous
“ Rising of the North.” “It is essential,” he writes, “that the
trade with France be kept closed. Without oil and alum they
cannot continue their cloth manufacture, and when work is slack
and commerce suspended, they then fly to arms.” The principal
difficulty with which Chaloner had to contend in the establishment
of his manufacture was the procuring of skilful workmen, and
these were obtained from the Pope’s works at Rocca, which
produced a very large income. Latimer speaks of the importance
of these works in one of his sermons ; and being so very lucrative,
and the art a monopoly, they were most vigilantly watched. In
spite, however, of these precautions, means were found to convey
some workmen, who had familiarized themselves with the manu-
facture, on board ship enclosed in casks, amongst them being one
named Lambert Russell, a Walloon. It has been said that the

5

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Pope, in his rage at the discovery, issued a Bull cursing Chaloner
in the most violent and minute terms. The Bull has been often
quoted, and in one well-known book, “The Life and Opinions of
Tristram Shandy,” where Dr. Slop reads much of it with a running
comment, at the end of which, “TI declare,” quoth my uncle Toby,
“my heart would not let me curse the devil himself with so
much bitterness.” ‘‘ He is the father of curses,” replied Dr. Slop.
“So am not I,” replied my uncle. ‘But he is cursed to all
eternity,” replied Dr. Slop. ‘I am sorry for it,” quoth my uncle
Toby. I am bound to say there are two different accounts whence
the workmen were obtained; another stating that they were
brought from Rochelle, which, considering that it resembles Rocca
in sound and spelling, I should certainly have concluded was
erroneous, but for the dispatch of Don Guerran, which I have
already quoted, wherein it is stated that supplies of alum were
obtained from France. Be that as it may, the manufacture was
established, and great profit accrued to Sir Thomas Chaloner for
some years ; but the envious eye and the grasping hand of James
could not be charmed away, and under the pretence that it was a
mine royal it was seized for the Crown, much as Elizabeth had
seized the Goldscope mines at Keswick, and with similar results ;
for as the one seizure partly led to the Earl of Northumberland
taking part in “The Rising of the North,” so this engendered a
bitter feeling on the part of two of Chaloner’s sons, which was not
without influence in causing them to take the Puritan side; but
nothing of this occurred till years after the time of which I am
speaking.

On the 30th of November and 1st of December, 1599, Sir
Thomas Chaloner, William Fleetwood, and Henry Fleetwood, his
brothers-in-law, and probably representing the trustees under
entail, joined in a conveyance of the Saint Bees estate to Thomas
Wybergh, and thus terminated the connection of the Chaloners
with this district, in which probably they were never personally
much known; yet the fame of them must have been felt in these
parts.

In the year 1603, Sir Thomas, who had had previous oppor-

67

tunities of acquiring the favour of King James, accompanied that
monarch on his journey from Scotland to London. His friend
Bacon wrote a letter to him which I venture to inflict upon you,
because it shows on what intimate terms the two were, and that
Bacon was under some pecuniary obligation to his friend: “Sir,
for our money matters I am assured you received no unsatisfaction,
for you know my mind and you know my means, which now the
openness of the time caused by this blessed content and peace
will increase, and so our agreement according to your time be
observed. For the present, according to the Roman adage, ‘that
one cluster of grapes ripeneth best beside another,’ I know you
hold me not unworthy whose mutual friendship you should cherish.
And I for my part conceive good hope that you are likely to
become an acceptable servant to the King our Master, not so
much for any way made heretofore which in my judgement will
make no great difference ; as for the stuff and sufficiency which I
know to be in you, and whereof I know His Majesty may reap
great service. And therefore my general request is that according
to that industrious vivacity which you use towards your friends,
you will further His Majesty’s good concert and inclination towards

to whom words cannot make me known, neither mine
own nor others; but time will be no disadvantage of any who
shall forerun His Majesty’s experience by your testimony and
commendation. And though occasion give you the precedence of
doing me this special good office, yet I hope no long time will
intercede before I shall have some means to requite your favour
and acquit your report. More particularly having thought good to
make oblation of my most humble service to His Majesty by a few
lines, I desire your loving care and help by yourself or such means
as I refer to your discretion, to deliver and present the same to
His Majesty’s hands, of which letter I send you a copy, that you
may know what you carry, and may take of Mr. Matthew the letter
itself, if you be pleased to undertake the delivery. Lastly, I do
commend to yourself and such your courtesies as occasion may
require, this gentleman, Mr. Matthew, eldest son of my Lord
Bishop of Duresme, and my very good friend, assuring you that

68

any courtesy you shall use towards him, you shall use towards a
very worthy gentleman, and one I know whose acquaintance I
much esteem. And so I ever continue,” &c., &c.

That a further knowledge of the excellencies of Chaloner’s
character and the extent of his attainments led to a perfect reliance
on his judgment and capacity, is evident from the fact that in
August, 1603, Henry, Prince of Wales, was put under his control;
and how singularly absolute the authority conferred upon him was,
can only be judged of by quoting some clauses of the Patent :—
“For the good proof we have long had of your singular affection
to our person, and for the trust and repose in you as well in regard
of your zeal to religion, as also for your discretion, We have made
choice of you to have the principal charge and custody, as well of
the person of our said son as also the oversight of all his house-
hold and family attending him, who, being to us so dear a jewel
as he is, the charge is likewise of great weight and care to you.
Wherefore we have thought good to accompany so great a burthen
with sufficient authority to you for the execution and discharge
thereof, and do therefore direct these our letters patent to you
under our Great Seal of England, whereby we do give you power
and authority for the better execution of this charge committed to
you to command, rule, and direct as well all persons which shall
be of ordinary attendance about our Son the Prince in his house
in all things that may concern the safety of his person or the
observation of good rule in his house,” &c.

An independent establishment was set up for the Prince and his
sister, the Lady Elizabeth. The result of late historical investi-
gations published in the Catalogues of State Papers shew that
during the spring of 1604 Chaloner, principally through the
medium of Henry Wright, was on the track of the conspiracy
which subsequently developed into the famous Gunpowder Plot,
and of which two of the prominent members were John and
Christopher Wright. I confess I should not be much surprised if
the whole plot had been unravelled by the sagacity of Chaloner
and perhaps one or two others, and then the King through the
medium of the letter to Monteagle had been allowed to suppose

69

that his penetration had been the means of tracking it out. It is
quite certain that nothing could possibly be more gratifying to
his vanity than placing the matter before him in that way.

We have no record of the death of Sir Thomas’s first wife, but
it was probably about this time that he married Judith, daughter
of William Blount, Esq., of the City of London, by whom he also
had four sons and three daughters.

On August 15th, 1604, I find record of a grant of land to Sir
Thomas Chaloner, value #100 per annum, from the Exchequer
and Duchy of Lancaster, and on November 16th another grant to
him and his heirs in fee farm of Exchequer lands, value £30 per
annum, with woods and advowsons unvalued, and a further grant
of the manor of Long Buckly, in the county of Northampton, of
the Duchy of Lancaster, and further, December 17th, a grant of
the manor of Clothall, Hertford, to Sir Thomas and Edward
Cuson and their heirs. There are other grants of moneys for the
expenses of the Prince’s household, and perhaps the above cited
grants may be partly for that purpose. Chaloner may have been,
and probably was, large sums out of pocket, and these might be
partially in the way of remuneration.

The King having resolved to honour the University of Oxford
with a visit, and to enter the Prince a member of it, the Queen
and His Highness started on the 27th August, 1605, from Wood-
stock, where they had reposed themselves some days after a grand
progress wherein they were attended by a numerous body of the
nobility and gentry. The Prince chose to be entered at Magdalen
College, out of compliment to Sir Thomas, who had graduated
there, and on which foundation he had placed two of his sons.
For some days there was great festivity and characteristic enjoy-
ments in the University. Disputations on subjects of divinity,
civil law, &c., were amongst the chief amusements, in which I am
glad to find that eminent Cumbrians of the day bore a conspicuous
part. Dr. John Aglionby, Principal of St. Edmund’s Hall, took
the affirmative side of the question, ‘‘Whether Saints and Angels
know the Thoughts of the Heart?” and amongst other disputants,
Dr. Airay, Provost of Queen’s, asserted the negative. Another

70

question in which many learned men were arrayed on either side
was, “‘Whether a judge ought to give sentence according to the
proofs alleged on the trial, against the truth known privately to
himself?” Dr. Blencow, I suppose another Cumbrian, was the
respondent in this argument. Another question was, ‘‘ Whether
children imbibe the temper with the milk of the nurses?” And
yet another was concerning the use of Tobacco. I rather suspect
His Most Sacred Majesty had been here supplied with some of
the arguments which he used in his “Counterblaste to Tobacco,”
published in England later that very year ; and also that they had
another result in causing the duty, which had been previously
twopence a pound, to be raised to six shillings and tenpence.

In November, 1607, Sir Thomas Chaloner, in a letter to Sir
Julius Cesar, Chancellor of the Exchequer, represented to what
an extent the expenses of the Prince’s establishment had risen,
owing to his Court being so much frequented by the nobility.

On the 3rd March, 1608, Sir Thomas writes to Sir Thomas
Luke expressing a most favourable opinion of an invention by Mr.
Sturtevant, of ‘‘Water pipes of earthenware of which 8000 yards
may be made in a day, and which are more safe and strong than
those of lead.”

On October 28th, 1609, licence was granted for Sir Thomas
Chaloner’s son to travel for three years; and the attention that he
met with abroad, and therefore his father’s importance at home,
may be judged of from a brief notice in a letter written by Lord
Ross to Sir David Murray, dated at Florence, November 25th,
1612: “It is strange how they make their Court here to Sir
Thomas Chaloner’s son. But yet indeed it is not strange; for
they build upon his father for a chief foundation of this match.”
I cannot determine which negotiation this was for the marriage of
Henry.

Soon after the Prince of Wales came into the receipt of the
Revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall, an application was made to
him by a Monsieur Villeforest, who professed to have discovered
a method of extracting silver out of lead. This was referred to
Sir Thomas, as one skilled in Natural Philosophy; and in his

71

report he mentions some experiments that were to be made to test
the so-called discovery; but there is no further record of the
matter.

The Prince in December, 1610, after being created Prince of
Wales, settled his household, and appointed Sir Thomas Chaloner
to be his Chamberlain ; Sir William Fleetwood, his brother-in-law,
to be his Surveyor-General, and later his Attorney-General ; and
another brother-in-law, Sir David Foulis, his Cofferer. In the
following year the Prince bought from Sir Robert Dudley, son of
the Earl of Leicester, the great estate of Kenilworth, which that
unfortunate youth was compelled to sell. He was a man of
brilliant abilities, and had been a pupil of Chaloner, and had
imbibed from his instructions a love of science, which, had he led
a more regular life, would have made him one of the most eminent
men of his time.

But the term of existence of the poor Prince, to whom he was
no doubt deeply attached, was drawing to a close, and slowly and
surely the inevitable end manifested its coming, as it did at a
quarter before eight on Friday the 6th November, 1612. Sir
Thomas Chaloner, as Head of the Household, figured conspicu-
ously in the Funeral Procession of 7th December of that year.
On June 13th, he had a grant of a lease of the manor of East
Garston, in Berkshire, with a flock of two hundred sheep. On
August 28th, 1613, he is associated with two others in a grant of
all that part of Guiana, on the Continent of America, lying between
the rivers Amazon and Dollesquebe. The last mention but one
that I find of him, is his Petition to the Council, 1615, that the
farmers of alum may be ordered to continue to him his pension of
forty marks per annum granted for his labours in discovering
the alum mines in Yorkshire. ,

Sir Thomas says in his will, dated November 26th, 1615, “I
have conveyed unto my brother-in-law, Sir William Fleetwood, the
two parts in three parts to be divided, of the profits that shall
or may accrue or come of my part of the allum mines, for the
benefit of my children which I had by my first wife, which I hold
to be a very sufficient advancement for them; now my will is,

72

that the residue of the profit which shall or may accrue, or of
right to accrue, or come to me out of the said allum mines and
works, shall be divided amongst the children which I had by
Dame Judith, my late wife, at the discretion of my executors.
Item: Whereas my daughter, Dame Mary Fisher, hath not as yet
had any portion from me, my mind is, that out of the said allum
mines and works which are to be divided amongst my children
by my said late wife, she shall have the dower of £1200 of lawful
English money, by £300 per annum.

His death took place this year, and he was buried in Chiswick
Church, where a very handsome monument exists to his memory,
simply recording the leading facts of his life, upon all of which I
have sufficiently dwelt, excepting that his second wife predeceased
him, she having died on June the 31st, whilst he only survived to
the 18th of November, 1615.

Four of Sir Thomas Chaloner’s sons, all by his first wife,
Elizabeth Fleetwood, rose to eminence, and their political opinions
were as diverse and conflicting as were those of their mother’s
house, and many another English home. William, the eldest son,
took the Guisborough estate, was created a baronet July 2oth,
1620, and died without issue at Scandaroon in Turkey. The next
son, Edward, became a very noted theologian, and was Chaplain-
in-Ordinary both to King James I. and King Charles I. He was
Principal of Saint Alban’s Hall, Oxford, and died of the plague,
July 25th, 1625. The next son, Thomas, seems to have heired
the Steeple Claydon estate. He took a very prominent part on
the Parliament side, in the great struggle of the first half of the
sixteenth century. He was one of King Charles’s judges, and his
signature is attached to the death warrant, in consequence of which
he retired to Holland at the Restoration, and died at Middleburgh.
He was a most accomplished man, and had travelled much. He
sat as member for Richmond in the Long Parliament from October
2oth, 1645, till its expulsion by Cromwell, April 20th, 1653. In
the powerful address made by the Protector on that occasion,
Thomas Chaloner, amongst others, had the doubtful honour of a
special notice. I know not whether it was earned. “You call

73

yourselves Parliament !” thundered out the Dictator, ‘‘ You are no
Parliament! I say you are no Parliament! Some of you are
drunkards !” and his eye flashed upon Chaloner. ‘Some of you
are!” and he roared out a more uncomplimentary epithet as he
glared upon Harry Marten. Some of his Parliamentary addresses
have been published, but his best known work is “A True and
Exact Relation of the strange Finding out of Moses his tomb in a
valley near unto Mount Nebo in Palestina,” published at London
in 1657. Antony Wood, who has the most virulent hatred for
sectaries, says, ‘This book at its first appearance made a great
noise, and pusled the Presbyterian rabbles for a time; at length
the author thereof being known, and his story found to be a sheer
sham, the book became ridiculous.”

James Chaloner, the next son of Sir Thomas, well maintained
the reputation of his family as a man of genius and literary
attainments. Many letters of his are preserved in the Fairfax
correspondence, for he married Ursula, daughter of Sir William
Fairfax of Steeton ; and as love letters are a form of literature we
all shall be, are, or have been interested in, I venture to read you
one dated from London, November 18th, 1633, nearly two hundred
and fifty years ago.

“DEAR MISTRESS,

Notwithstanding my many employments, which might plead an
exemption from weekly travail in writing, I cease not to woo you as
seriously and more affectionately than when I first became your
petitioner ; and for your part, with as much tacitness, when I
consider my fire for one, as when I was (as then I was,) no better
than odious. I would fain, if I knew how, salve the interruption
of content which this silence of yours hath bred in my mind. I
frame many causes, but because there is no infallibility depends
upon conjectural fancies, I remain restless, thoughtful, discontented,
not that I fear any coldness in thee, having had evident proof of
thy temper, thy love ; but that which troubles me is chiefly that
thou thinkest, I suppose, that I should value the frequency of
letters (as tradesmen do a plentiful commodity,) at a low rate. No,

‘ 74

sweet mistress, if you conceive so you will mistake; for if such
things as conduce to a man’s happiness can be entertained with
satiety or loathing, then verily you may conclude with your
practice. But I know you have a rational brain, and a constant
kindness of disposition toward me, which will neither permit you
to err nor forsake. In the assurance whereof, and with a longing
and insatiate desire to hear weekly from thee, though but a word
at a time, so that it be a loving one, I rest,
Your most faithful, most obedient, and
most affectionate servant,
JAMES CHALONER.”

Anthony Wood says of this marriage (but I say it with the usual
caution with regard to any of his statements respecting those
opposed to his own party,) that it turned out very unhappily. I
know nothing directly, but it is certain that he owed his political
advancement largely to the influence of the Fairfax family, his
wife’s relations, for he was appointed by Lord Fairfax one of the
Commissioners for settling the affairs of the Isle of Man, in 1652,
and afterwards Governor of the Island from 1658 to 1660. He was
one of the fathers of English Topography, and wrote ‘A Short
Treatise on the Isle of Man,” which the Manx Society has deemed
worthy of being reprinted. He made large Antiquarian collections
towards the Histories of Staffordshire, Shropshire, and Cheshire.
He was Member for Aldborough in the Long Parliament, from
April roth, 1648, to its abrupt dismissal in 1653; and though his
name is not, like his brother’s, attached to King Charles’s death
warrant, he certainly sat during a part at least of the trial as one of
the judges. He died, also, soon after the Restoration, under
disgraceful circumstances, if we believe Anthony Wood, which I
decline to do.

(6 ¢

OBSERVATIONS ON THE FLOWERING PLANTS
OF WEST CUMBERLAND.

By J. ADAIR.

(Read at the Workington Anuual Meeting. )

At the request of the Secretary of the CUMBERLAND ASSOCIATION,
the following notes and observations have been made, chiefly from
data gathered by the Botanical Section of the Whitehaven Scientific
Association,

The Section was formed early in 1879, and it was at first joined
by a good many members, as it was intended that a vigorous effort
should be made to collect and preserve the flowering plants of the
district.

The Society already possessed’ a valuable collection of British
plants (presented by the late Mrs. Pratten of Haile), and the
efforts of the members of the section were intended to be directed
towards supplementing this collection by local specimens, and by
filling up vacancies in the the herbarium, as far as possible.

Unfortunately (for the Botanical section,) the summer of 1879
was very unfavourable for out-door work; and although many
excursions were planned, the weather on every occasion happened
to be very wet, so that conjoint action (in consequence of so many
disappointments) came to an end for the season.

Owing to the unpropitious weather of the first season, and
change of residence of some who were a little experienced in Field
Botany, many of the members who had not previously studied the
subject were discouraged, and have not given the assistance they
would under other circumstances have rendered.

76

The work therefore has been chiefly done by three or four
members who had previously given some attention to the Flora of
the district. These members, however, live some miles apart from
each other, so that each one has been left in a great measure to
his own resources as joint excursions can seldom be held.

The district which the members of the section have pretty closely
examined may be described as ‘‘Whitehaven and the neighbour-
hood,” which embraces the country about three miles to the north
and six or seven miles to the south of the town, and inland to the
water-shed of the hills.

The tract of country within this area is very diversified in soil
and situation, and consequently a good field for botanical research.
It includes the sea cliffs from Harrington to Saint Bees and the
beach southwards to Sellafield to the west ; the varied pastoral and
arable land, the rivers and ponds, the moors and woods of the
middle district; backed by the lakes and tarns, the hills and
mountains to the east.

Whilst this district has been more immediately under the notice
of the members of the section, they have recorded the occurrence
of any botanical rarity which they have met with in other parts
of West Cumberland. Consequently the list of plants which they
have compiled embraces some species which although so far have
not been observed by them in the Whitehaven district, are entered
in the catalogue as West Cumberland Plants.

In order to give a general idea of the work done by the section,
it may be observed that the whole number of plants found growing
as natives or naturalized in the British Isles is 1601. This is the
number arrived at by experienced botanists, as set forth in the
London Catalogue of British Plants. It includes, however, many
that differ so slightly from each other, that they may be considered
as varieties of an original species.

Dr. Hooker in his “Student’s Flora of the British Isles,”
calculates the well defined species to be a little over 1200; and of
this number about five hundred and fifty have been found in West
Cumberland by members of the Botanical section.

This number is however far from being the total quantity of

77

species which the district affords. Many of the Orders, especially
the Carices and Grasses, have been only partially studied and
examined, and much more time and care will have to be given to
these and other Orders before the district can be said to have
been well explored. ‘Taking the whole of the division of West
Cumberland, it is probable there may be one hundred or possibly
one hundred and fifty flowering plants in addition to those
recorded, which have escaped recognition and registration.

When we consider that out of the number of 1200 native plants,
the South of England claims a considerable number as its own ;
Ireland, Scotland, and the Channel Islands have each a variety of
species which they claim especially ; West Cumberland stands very
well with its probable six hundred and fifty or seven hundred
species for so small a district.

In briefly reviewing the work of the past two years, it will be
necessary to go a little into detail as to the distribution of the
different orders and species of plants, so far as it has come under
the observation of the members of the section.

Time will not admit of anything more than a cursory view of
the subject, the intention being to convey to those who take an
interest in the subject a general idea of the Flora of the district by
giving a short descriptive account of the plants often met with,
including not only some rare or uncommon, but many very
abundant species.

Commencing our examination at the extreme east of the district,
on the mountain tops, 2000 to nearly 3000 feet above the sea level,
we find they are generally speaking not barren. For instance, the
Pillar mountain is clothed with the Alpine Ladies’ Mantle, a
beautiful silky-leaved plant which is confined to elevated situations.
On the top and high slopes of Red Pike we find the same plant
abundantly ; and on the very summit, close to the piles of stones,
we find an interesting little shrub now in flower. This proves to
be the Least Willow, which sends forth its minute catkins of flowers
on that bleak situation. It is the least British shrub, scarcely
rising more than half an inch above the ground, being kept lowly
by the fierce and cutting winds of its exposed and barren habitat.

78

On the lower slopes of the mountains the Birch and the Moun-
tain Ash flourish, and also occasionally the dark green Juniper.

Thousands of acres are covered with heather, or rather heather
‘and Ling. ‘There are two species of heather common, even
abundant—the Fine-leaved Heath and the paler Cross-leaved
Heath. But by far the larger portion is not a true heath, but the
open-flowered Common Ling, the great honey producer of the
district. The Ling covers an area of probably fifty or a hundred
times greater than that occupied by the heaths, so that the fine purple
of the hills as seen in August, is due to the ling rather than to the
heather.

By the sides of the small streams high up on the fells we find
two species of the Alpine Saxifrages, but neither kind is very
abundant. The pretty white-flowered Saxifraga stellaris, so called
from its star-like appearance, grows either singly or two or three
together on some mossy corner by the edge of the rivulet ; while
the Saxifraga aizoides, with its showy orange flowers, blooms in
large patches, and, though not plentiful, is rendered conspicuous
by its mass of colour.

In watery places in the lower ground we may find in early
summer the Common Butterwort, a pretty little purple flower
growing from a rosette of pale green leaves. It is an abundant
species in the fell district. And also a little later on (in Midsummer)
the Round-leaved Sundew, with bright crimson leaves and pale
cream-coloured flowers, which are seldom expanded ; and in pools
by the side of Ennerdale Lake, one of the Bladderworts, U*ricu-
laria intermedia. ‘These three are all members of the well known
Carnivorous family of plants, which have of late years attracted so
much attention. They represent the only three genera of this
family which are natives of the British Isles. They each capture
their prey in a manner of their own. The Butterworts by means
of a tenacious fluid which exudes from and covers the upper portion
of the leaf. This glistening fluid appears to attract small flies and
other insects, which, settling upon it, are made prisoners by the
viscid matter. The Sundew is supposed to attract insects by the
brilliant colour of its crimson leaves, which are closely studded

79

with stalked glands charged with a sticky fluid; these glands
immediately close over and hold fast any insect that touches them.
The Bladderwort, which is a water plant, has a very different
method of securing its prey. Some of the branches which are
leafless bear small bladder-like bodies; these open by a valve
inwards, so that small water animals (through motives of curiosity,
it is thought,) get into these traps; and although the entrance is
not easy, the exit is impossible, and they are thus imprisoned for
life.

In passing from the higher to the lower portions of the fell
district, we may find acres of ground almost covered with Blea-
berries. The Cowberry also grows on the fells, but more
sparingly.

The Crowberry is plentiful on the heaths; and also on the
softer mossy parts the Cranberry is very abundant.

The Cranberry on the Ennerdale fells produces two kinds of
berries, the grey and the red berries; whilst on boggy ground the
Lancashire Asphodel cannot be over-looked with its showy spike
of orange-coloured flowers.

The beautiful AZenyanthes is also common in the boggy pools,
not only of the hilly district, but throughout the whole of West
Cumberland. ‘The elegant autumn flower, the Grass of Parnassus,
is frequent in many parts, particularly in Lamplugh, Black Moss,
Egremont, and St. Bees Moor.

Lobelia Dortmannz is plentiful in Ennerdale Lake, and the pebbly
beach is covered in some places with the shore weed Litoredla
lacustris.

The Alpine Enchanter Nightshade, the small Teesdalia, the
pretty white Corydalis, all grow on the borders of the lake, where
also may be found the Sweet Briar, the Sweet-scented Willow
(Salix pentandra), and abundance of the small shrub AM/yrica
Gale, or Sweet Gale.

The large order RANUNCULACE& can claim many representatives
in the hilly portion of the district. The Meadow Rue, Zhalictrum
minus, grows in the side wood, Ennerdale Lake ; Columbine by
the shores of Crummock Lake ; the small Ranunculus Lenormandi,

80

the Ivy-leaved Ranunculus, and the rare Ranunculus reptans, are
common in Ennerdale. Caltha minor and the Globe Flower both
grow in the valley at no great distance from the Lake ; and lastly,
the Traveller’s Joy, Clematis vitalba (so peculiarly attractive when
in seed), is not absent from West Cumberland, being found in the
neighbourhood of Ravenglass.

The Yellow Narcissus is an abundant plant in the district,
growing most luxuriantly in the Duddon valleys. With regard to
the Water Lilies, both the Yellow and the White grow in Lowes-
water Lake, Mockerkin Tarn, and in ponds west of Egremont ;
but they are absent from Ennerdale Lake.

On leaving the hills and going westward, we find the Mountain
Limestone district stretching in a narrow belt from Egremont
northwards to Lamplugh and Pardshaw. Between the limestone
and the sea north of Bigrigg Moor, we have the Coal Measures ;
and south of Bigrigg Moor and Egremont the New Red Sand-
stone.

These different rocks, as is well known, affect the agricultural
value of the land to a great extent, and also ina similar degree the
growth of native plants. Consequently we find there is a consider-
able difference in the general character of the Flora of each
district.

There are however many differences even in the Flora of different
parts of the Coal Measure district, as in the other geological

districts, which may be noted but cannot be explained. For —

instance, the Common White Dead Nettle, which is one of the
most abundant of wayside flowers at Workington and Harrington,
disappears in the neighbourhood of Whitehaven, and occurs again
only in a very limited degree near Egremont and Ennerdale
Bridge.

The same may be said of a variety of common plants which are
localized in their distribution, being very frequent in some parts of
the district, and entirely absent from other parts where the soil
and situation appear to be equally suitable for their growth.

We find many plants that seem to have their natural habitat in
the Mountain Limestone district, and many others that flourish

|
.
;
;

81

best on that soil. For instance, the Giant Bell flower ( Campanula
latifolia ), which towers to the height of five feet ; a noble specimen
of our native Flora, almost equalling the Fox-glove, which, by the
way, is most abundant in the whole district, and is occasionally
found pure white both in Loweswater and near Egremont. Another
characteristic plant of the limestone district is the largest of our
wild Geraniums, Geranium pratense, which is abundant in Lam-
plugh, but is mostly absent from the non-limestone districts. The
rich crimson Geranium sanguineum grows also on the limestone,
but is more abundant on the sea banks and cliffs; and the bright-
leaved Geranium lucidum seems partial to the limestone district ;
it is absent from the immediate neighbourhood of Whitehaven.

The pretty Geranium columbinum is found in the neighbourhood
of Cockermouth and Saint Bees. The Soft-leaved Geranium, the
Cut-leaved species, the Dove’s-foot Crane’s-bill, and Herb Robert,
are very common, and may be found by the wayside, in hedges, or
railway banks in the whole district. The dark Geranium pheum
grows in several places, generally near farm houses or gardens,
and is a doubtful native; while Geranium sylvaticum, the tall
flowering species, occurs in Eskdale, and grows freely about
Bassenthwaite and Keswick. The genus Geranium may be said
to be well represented in West Cumberland, both as regards
number of individuals and of species.

There are many other plants that follow the limestone, or that
seem to thrive best upon a soil underlaid by that rock. One may
be mentioned that is seldom if ever found in this district off the
limestone, that is Plantago media, or Hoary Plantain, a plant
distinguished from the Common Plantago major by its spike of
light lilac-colored flowers.

The Cowslip is more common on limestone than elsewhere, and
the Primrose also. The Primrose covers acres of ground on the
Clints at Egremont; but the plants, though very numerous, are
small. On the slopes of the railway between Saint Bees and
Nethertown they attain fine proportions; one root—though by
no means the largest—had one hundred and fifty-six expanded
flowers, and a number of buds ready to come forward as the

6

82

flowers died, The variety with reddish flowers is scarce, but have
been met with in the meadows both at Whitehaven and at
Egremont.

Some plants which are considered by the compilers of the
London Catalogue to be naturalized plants only, seem to have a
native character in West Cumberland. Amongst these may be
mentioned the pretty little climbing plant, Zzzaria cymbalaria,
which is abundant on old walls, bridges, and old buildings near to
water throughout the district, apparently growing in the most
spontaneous manner.

Another plant belonging the large order UMBELLIFER& which is
called a denizen or naturalized plant by Mr. Watson, has also the
appearance of being in this district native to the soil. The plant
referred to is the well known Sweet Bracken, AZyrrhis odorata, which
is found so generally distributed as to merit the name of native.
Twenty-seven species of this order have been found in the district,
amongst the most common of which are the poisonous @nanthe
crocata. This plant is very frequent in watery places.

Hemlock and Fool’s Parsley are also common. The Gout weed
A: gopodium is found in waste places near houses, having been used
in old times as a culinary herb. There is an absence of yellow-
flowered umbels in the district, the only exception noted so far is
a small patch of Si/aus pratensis, Pepper Saxifrage, which grows at
Pardshaw.

The order Composit is largely represented in the district, the
railway slopes contributing very largely to the fifty-eight species
catalogued by the members of the section. This number it is
expected will be largely added to hereafter.

Crepis biennis and C. paludosa have both been found by Mr.
William Nixon. Burdock is a common plant on waste ground.
Senecio viscosus grows at Cleator Moor, and Senecio saracenicus at
Howgate, Moresby, not far from the Roman Station, and is
supposed to be a relic of Roman occupation.

Aster tripolium grows near Egremont; Centaurea scabiosa between
Woodend and Egremont ; Centaurea Cyanus by the banks of the

a

83

River Ehen; and the rare Star Thistle, Centaurea calcitrapa, by
the same river side.

To refer, however, to all the interesting species, would far
outstrip the limits of this paper. On the sea shore from Saint
Bees southwards we find the large Yellow-horned Poppy, Glaucium
luteum, growing freely, though not abundantly ; and within two or
three miles from Nethertown shore we may meet with all the
species (with one exception) of the order PaPAVERACEA, or wild
poppies and their allies which are recorded as belonging to our
native Flora. Of these it may be said that the Celandine, or Wart
Grass, generally grows near houses; and that the Welsh poppy is
doubtfully wild in the district.

What a variety of wild flowers we find on the sea cliffs! The
free-flowering Vicia sylvatica, or Wood Vetch, spreads its profuse
blossoms over the rocky and broken ground; while its near
relative, the Narrow-leaved Everlasting Pea, Zathyrus sylvestris,
with its beautiful clusters of rich colored blossoms, is sparingly
found on similar ground near to Parton. <A very rare member of
the same genus has been found by Mr. Kendall, near to Saint Bees.
This is the Marsh Vetchling, Zathyrus palustris, which has hitherto
not been known as a West Cumberland plant.

By the banks of the river Ehen we have the rare Sand Leek,
Allium scorodoprasum, growing freely from Egremont down to
Braystones; Peppermint near Egremont; and the Larger Skull
Cap near to Low Mill.

The Lesser Skull Cap grows in Black Moss, at Wormeill, and
on some of the mosses.

The ponds and mosses south of Saint Bees teem with interesting
plants.

The large tarn near Sellafield is overgrown with the Club Rush,
Typha latifolia. Braystones Tarn furnishes the peculiar-looking
plants, Alisma ranunculoides, and the Marsh Speedwell, Veronica
scutellata. Lady Moss produces the Marsh St. John’s Wort,
Hypericum elodes; and Water Purslane, Peplis portula; and the
curious little plant known as Pill Wort, with the bristle-like leaves
and little globular capsules from which it derives its name.

'

84

The ponds and mosses just named look pale and insignificant,
however, when compared with the floral grandeur of Church Moss,
Beckermet. On one side we have the Nightshade, Solanum
dulcamara, growing in profusion. In another part the Petty Whin
flourishes. It is now a rare plant in West Cumberland, owing to
the gradual improvement of land by the drainage of mosses.
Luxuriant plants of Loose-strife are abundant, with their rich
clusters of red flowers ; and the tall Narrow-leaved Willow Herb,
Epilobium augustifolium, towers to a height of four or five feet,
rivalling in beauty our most treasured garden flowers.

In thus glancing over the general characteristics of the West
Cumberland Flora, many rare and interesting species are necessarily
passed over unnoticed.

The subject is full of interest ; there is a large field open for
observation and exploration, which will require the united strength
of all the local societies to thoroughly investigate.

The members of the Whitehaven Botanical Section would be
glad to see the members of the affiliated societies take up the
subject of Field Botany in their own districts, and co-operate in
the publication of a complete County Flora.

85

CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS A LIST OF WEST
CUMBERLAND FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS,

By THE MEMBERS OF THE BOTANICAL SECTION OF THE
WHITEHAVEN SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION.

N.B.—Rare and uncommon plants have the initials of the observer placed
after the localities: J. D. KENDALL, Jos—epH ADAIR, WILLIAM NIxon,
Wexsy I’Anson, WittiAm ADAIR.

RANUNCULACE.

Clematis Vitalba. Ina hedge near Ravenglass. J.A.

Thalictrum minus. The Side wood, Ennerdale ; Bassenthwaite, Derwent-
water.

Anemone nemorosa. Abundant in woods and wet fields.

Ranunculus aquatalis, v. peltatus. St. Bees moor, Pow beck ; common.

os Lenormandi. In watery places, common.
33 hederaceus. Ennerdale ; frequent.
s sceleratus. Near Seascale, near Allonby.

> jflammula. Frequent in wet places.
3, reptans. By the margin of Ennerdale Lake, and neighbourhood.
ey auricomus. Crow Island, Derwentwater.

ey acris. Abundant.
a bulbosus. Very common.
$5 repens. The most abundant species of the genus.

as Ficaria. Generally distributed.
Caltha palustris. Very common.
by Pe v. minor. Kinniside. w.A.
Trollius Huropwus. Yeathouse; w.N. Eskatt, Rowrah, and Keswick ; J.p.x,
Aquilegia vulgaris. Crummock Lake shores; 3.4. Yottenfews ; J.D.K.

86

BERBERACE.

Berberis vulgaris. Irton, Muncaster, Ravenglass.

NYMPH HACE.

Nymphea alba. Loweswater Lake, Mockerkin Tarn, Church moss,
Beckermet, &c.
Nuphar lutea, Loweswater Lake, Mockerkin Tarn, Braystones Tarn.

PAPAVERACEA.

Papaver somniferum. Sellafield, St. Bees.
», Rheas, Railway banks and cornfields.
», adubium. Cornfields.
», Argemone. Middletown, St. Bees.
Meconopsis cambrica. Calder Bridge, Mockerkin, Enuerdale, Peel Wyke.
Glaucium luteum. Shore at Nethertown and Seascale.
Chelidonium majus. Not unfrequent in villages.

FUMARIACE,
Corydalis lutea. Grows luxuriantly at Little Mill, Egremort; Stock Bridge.
4 claviculata. Common in Ennerdale.

Fumaria officinalis. Common by roadsides and in cornfields.

CRUCIFER A.

Cakile maritima. Coulderton and St. Bees shore ; Parton.
Sinapis arvensis. Abundant ; cornfields.
;, alba. St. Bees.
Brassica campestris. Common.
>» monensis. Coulderton and Seascale shores, and railway banks.
Sisymbrium officinale. Common by roadsides.
53 Zrio. Banks of river Marron. J.D.K.
“rc alliaria. Common in hedges near Hensingham.
Arabis thaliana. Common from St. Bees to Seascale.
Hesperis matronalis. Moresby (planted).
Cheiranthus cheiri. Millom Castle.
Cardamine amara. By the river Ehen and tributaries ; Powbeck, &c.
a pratensis. Very common.
* hirsuta. Abundant by roadsides throughout the district.
Barbarea vulgaris. Common by the side of streams.
Nasturtium officinale. Not uncommon.
Cochlearia officinalis. Common at St. Bees, Keswick, Harrington, and Parton.
- v. littoralis. Ennerdale Lake. w.a.
= danica. Coulderton, Nethertown.

87

Draba verna. Wall at Little Mill, Moresby, Richmond Hill. Common.
Thlaspi arvense. St. Bees.

Teesdalia nudicaulis. Bowness, Ennerdale, Mockerkin.

Capsella bursa-pastoris. In waste ground frequent.

Lepidium campestre. Railway banks, roadsides near the sea.

RESEDACE.

Reseda lutea. Railway embankments ?
',, Luteola. Railway banks, Harrington, Workington, and Brigham.

CISTACE.

Helianthemum vulgare. Clints near Isell.

VIOLACE.

Viola palustris. Frequent in boggy places. Black Moss, Ennerdale, &ec.
», odorata. Chapel House, Linethwaite, and other places near White-
haven.
35 Ss v. alba. Near Sandwith. w.1’a.
», canina. Common throughout the district.
», tricolor. Common near the sea from St. Bees southward.
oa re v. arvensis. Frequent in cornfields.
», lutea. Penruddock, Ennerdale.

DROSERACE:.
Drosera rotundifolia, Abundant in Ennerdale and subalpine mosses.

POLYGALACE.
Polygala vulgaris. Common on dry banks.

CARYOPHYLLACE,

Saponaria officinalis. Near Santon Bridge. w.n.
Silene inflata. Common on Railway banks.
3, maritima. Sea shore, Coulderton, Harrington, and generally by the
coast.
Lychnis vespertina. Railway banks near Egremont.
», diurna. Common in woods,
» los cuculi, Frequent in marshy ground.
re Githagv. Common in cornfields.
Menchia erecta. St. Bees, Coulderton.
Cerastium semidecandrum. Very common,
“ glomeratum. Common.
ss triviale. An abundant species.

88

Stellaria nemorum. Near Penruddock. w.N.
» media. Generally distributed.
»» holostea. Common by road sides and hedges.
» glauca. Linethwaite, near Whitehaven. J.D.K.
+» graminea. Common in hedges.

», wliginosa. Very common.
Arenaria trinervis. Roadsides. Common.

» serpyllifolia.
Honkeneya peploides.

Calderbridge, Catgill.
Coulderton, St. Bees, Seascale.

Sagina ciliata. Common.

»» procumbens.

Common.

», nodosa. Near Baggrow, Solway shore, Bowuess.

Spergula arvensis. C

ommon in cornfields.

Spergularia rubra. Near Hensingham.

Scleranthus annuus.

ILLICEBRACE.

Westnewton. wW.N.

PORTULACACE.

Montia fontana. Frequent. Ennerdale, Eskdale, Lamplugh.

Claytonia perfoliata.

Between Coulderton and shore; Rose Hill, near
Seascale, Calderbridge, and other places.

HYPERICACEZ.
Hypericum androsemum. Snebra, Barrowmouth, Wormgill, Eskdale.
ie Calycinum? Ennerdale. Garden escape.
os perforatum. Very common.
Pe dubium. St. Bees.
“A tetrapterum. Common in bushy places.
43 humifusum. Hedge banks. Common.
+ pulchrum. The most abundant species.

i elodes. Braystones Tarn, Wormgill, Nethertown Tarn, and

other places.

MALVACE.

Malva moschata. Near Eaglesfield.
», sylvestris, Ennerdale, Coulderton, St. Bees, and other places near

» rotundifolia.

Linum catharticum.
» Uusitatissimum ?

dwellings.
Cockermouth.
LINACE.

On dry pastures, common.
A weed in cornfields.

89

GERANIACE.

Geranium sanguineum. Sea banks, abundant ; Clints, Egremont.
pheum. Near dwellings; Lamplugh, St. Bees, and Prior Scale,
Mockerkin.
Fr sylvaticum. Eskdale, Wythop, and other places.
is pratense. Egremont, St. Bees, Lamplugh, Mockerkin. Most
abundant in the limestone district.

2

a molle, Common in hedges, railway banks, and cornfields.

os pusillum. Fields and hedges. Not uncommon.

a dissectum. Common by waysides.

4 columbinum. St. Bees, Cockermouth.

- lucidum. Near Gill-foot, Egremont; Brigham, Pardshaw, Cock-
ermouth.

55 Robertianum. The most abundant species.

Erodium cicutarium. Sea shore ; common.
Ozxalis acetosella. Common in woods.

ILICACE.

Ilex aquifolium. Native trees in Ennerdale.

LEGUMINIFER.

Ulex europeus. Common in hedges and waste ground.

», -Gallit, Ennerdale.
Genista anglica. Church moss, Beckermet.

», tinctoria. Kinniside lanes, Sea brows, Railway cuttings, &c.
Sarothamnus scoparius. Common in heathy places.
Ononis arvensis. Sea shore, Coulderton ; Ennerdale ; Clintz, Egremont.
Anthyllis vulneraria. Abundant on the railway banks south of St. Bees,

and other places.

Medicago sativa? Near Bagerow.

», lupulina. Common in fields, by roadsides, and on railway banks.
Melilotus officinalis. Near Cross-side, Egremont ; Whitrigg station.
Trifolium pratense. Fields.

a medium. Fields.

% arvense. Hodbarrow, Braystones,

aS procumbens. Common.

LS minus. Fields and hedges.

>» Jjiliforme. St. Bees. J.D.K.

a repens. Generally distributed.

Lotus corniculatus. Banks. Very common.
» major. Commen on hedges.

90

Ornithopus perpusillus. Near Roughton, Ennerdale, Middletown, Gill.
Vicia hirsuta. Railway banks. Quarry Gabmire.
», cracca. Hedges and banks.
5, sylvatica. Sea cliffs; Parton, Barrowmouth, and other places.
sepium. Common in hedges.
- 3 white variety. Near Egremont.
5, sativa, Common from St. Bees southwards.
Lathyrus pratensis. Common in hedges.
» sylvestris. Rocks near Parton, and between Parton and Harrington.
» palustris. Near St. Bees. J.D.K.
Orobus tuberosus. Snebra, Kinniside, and other places.

bP]

ROSACEA.

Prunus spinosa. Frequent in bushy places.
> institia. Lamplugh, Loweswater.
3» cerasus. Woods. Not uncommon.
;, Padus. Kinniside lanes. Generally distributed.
Spirea ulmaria. Common by streams.
+ Filipendula. St. Bees.
Agrimonia Eupatoria. Kinniside, Lamplugh, Egremont, and other places.
Sanguisorba officinalis. Meadows. Abundant.
Poterium sanguisorba. Snebra, near Whitehaven ; Eskdale.
Alchemilla arvensis. Fields ; wall near Chapel House.
a vulgaris, Common.
be alpina. Abundant on the tops of the higher mountains.
Potentilla Fragariastrum. Hedge banks. Common.

a Tormentilla. Common on dry banks.
=o reptans. By waysides. Common.
+ anserinad., Fields and road sides.

Comarum palustre. By the sides of ponds and mosses. Frequent.
Fragaria vesca. Kanks and waysides. Common.
Rubus Ideus. In bushy places, common.
5» Jfruticosus. Common. (The varieties have not been studied.)
», cesius. Banks of the river Ellen.
>, sacatilis. Aira Beck. w.N.
Geum urbanum. Hedges. Common.
5, imtermedium. Gill-foot woods, Aspatria, J.A.
» rivale. By river banks. Frequent.
Rosa spinosissima. Coulderton, Seascale, Egremont, and other places.
;, rubiginosa. Frequent in Ennerdale and Kinniside.
>» canina. Common in hedges.
» arvensis. An abundant species.

91

Crategus oryacantha, Native trees in Ennerdale.
Pyrus Aucuparia. Woods and rocky places in the fell district.
3, malus. Common on hedges.

LYTHRACE.

Lythrum Salicaria. Church moss, Beckermet ; Braystones tarn, and other
places.
Peplis portula. Lady moss, Nethertown.

ONAGRACEAE.

Epilobium augustifolium. Church moss, Beckermet ; and Drigg.
33 hirsutum. Near Egremont; Powbeck, Whitehaven, and common
in watery places.
5 parviflorum. By roadsides and bushy places.

5 montanum. By roadsides.
Bs lanceolatum. Egremont, Marron.
ie tetragonum. Ennerdale.

a palustre. Wormgill.
Circea lutetiana. Snebra wood, Ennerdale Bridge, Eskdale. Not unfrequent.
», alpina. Ennerdale lake side, Derwentwater.

HALORAGIACE.

Myriophyllum alterniflorum. Pond near Solway line.
Callitriche verna. Pow beck, Ennerdale, and other places.

GROSSULARIACE.

Ribes Grossularia. Common in bushy places.
3, rubrum. By the banks of the Ehen and Calder, and Pow beck.

CRASSULACEA.

Sedum Telephium. Near Egremont, Barrowmouth, and other places.
», Lhodiola. Pillar, Ennerdale.
», album. Coulderton.
» anglicum. St. Bees head.
», acre. Sea shore, Coulderton, roadsides, and other places.
» vreflexum. Ponsonby, Calder, Ennerdale.
» Trupestre. Greenip gill, Borrowdale.
Sempervivum tectorum? Housetops. Frequent.

SAXTIFRAGACE.
Sazxifraga stellaris. Ennerdale fells.
y aizoides. By streams, Ennerdale, Wastwater.

92

Saxifraga tridactylites. Walls ; Pardshaw, Threapland, Mosedale.
a granulata. Near Parton and Egremont. Double flowers by the
river Ehen.
Chrysosplenium oppositifolium. Common in damp woods and ghylls.
ss alternifolium. Barrowmouth, Hale Hall.
Parnassia palustris. Bogs and wet ground. St. Bees moor, Lamplugh,
Black moss, Ennerdale, Wormgill.

UMBELLIFER.
Hydrocotyle vulgaris. Common in wet ground.
Sanicula europea. Common in woods.
Eryngium maritimum. Sea shore. Common.
Apium graveolens. Anthorn, Solway.
Helosciadium nodiflorum. In ditches and streams. Common.
a inundatum. St. Bees moor ; ponds.
Aigopodium podagraria. Sneckyeat, Whitehaven ; Summer grove, Wood
house, and other places.
Carum carui, St. Bees. J.D.K.
Bunium flexuosum. Common.
Pimpinella saxifraga. Ennerdale, Sea Brows, and other places.
Siwm augustifolium. Snellings. J.D.K.
(nanthe crocata. Pow beck, and streams throughout the district.
Aithusa cynapium. In loose soil, frequent.
Feniculum vulgare. Baths, Allonby; w.n. St. Bees; J.D. K.
Silaus pratensis. Pardshaw, Dovenby Hall.
Crithmum maritimum. St. Bees Head.
Angelica sylvestris. Common in bushy places.
Heracleum sphondylium. An abundant species.
Daucus carota. Railway banks and fields. Very common.
Torilis anthriscus. By roadsides and hedges. Common.
», nodosa. Low Hall, St. Bees.

Cherophyllum anthriscus. Cockermouth, St. Bees.

aA sylvestre. Lowca, Egremont, and other places.

is temulum. Common in hedges near Whitehaven.
Myrrhis odorata. Common by streams and near houses.
Conium maculatum. Ennerdale, The Meadows, High Lowca, and other places,

ARALIACEAs,
Hedera Helix. . Common.

CAPRIFOLIACEA,
Adoxa moschatellina. Common in woods and hedges.
Sambucus nigra. Frequent in hedges.

93

Sambucus Ebulus, St. Bees valley. Rare.

Viburnum opulus. Kinniside lanes, and in woods. Not uncommon.
Lantana. Cockermouth. J.A.

Lonicera Periclymenum. Abundant in hedges.

RUBIACEA%.

Galium boreale. Derweutwater.

» cruciatum. In hedges, plentiful.

y, verum. Sea brows and banks, lanes.

», mollugo. Rothersyke, Pardshaw.

», savatile. Hedges. Barrowmouth.

» palustre. Ennerdale.

5, Uliginosum. Solway line.

> aparine. Hedges. Common.
Asperula odorata. Snebra, and other woods.
Sherardia arvensis. Dry banks and fields.

VALERIANACE.
Centranthus ruber. Near houses. Waverton.
Valeriana dioica. Lakeside, Ennerdale, Yeathouse, Cleator Moor, and
other places.

a officinalis. Barrowmouth sea cliffs, Parton, and other places.
Valerianella olitoria. Common.
oe dentata. Cornfields. Aspatria.
DIPSACEA.
Scabiosa succisa. Ennerdale, Barrowmouth, and in bushy places. Common.
Fe columbaria. Hensingham quarry.

* arvensis, Railway banks, Abundant.

COMPOSIT A.
Carduus tenuifloris. Egremont, Pardshaw Crag, Silloth.
se lanceolatus. Common.
Bi palustris. Common.
Pe arvensis. Fields, commons.

Carlina vulgaris. Ennerdale fells.
Arctium lappa. Common on waste ground.
Serratula tinctoria. Wayside, Cockermouth to Isell ; Bassenthwaite lake.
Centauria nigra. Very common.
* Scabiosa. On the railway bank near Egremont. 4J.A.
5 Cyanus. Banks of the Ehen, Egremont.
a Calcitrapa. Banks of the Ehen, Egremont, J.A,

94

Chrysanthemum segetum. Cornfields. Ennerdale and near Egremont.
Sc leucanthemum. Railway banks and roadsides.
Matricaria Partheiwum. Woodend, and other places near dwellings.
x inodora. Cornfields. Common.
Ss chamomilla. Waysides. Beckermet.
Tanacetum vulgare. Middletown, Calder, Ennerdale. Always near houses.
Achillea millefolium. Common in dry ground.
;, Ptarmica. Common in fields.
Artemisia vulgaris. Little Mill, Egremont, near Harrington, Sandwith,
and other places.
Filago germanica, Waste ground, Long Moor, Ennerdale, &c.
Gnaphalium sylvaticum. Bowness Moss.
: margaritaceum. Woodend Station. (Garden escape ?)
Senecio vulgaris. Loose soil, common.
» sylvaticus. Middletown, Coulderton, Sea Brows.
», viscosus. Cleator Moor.
», Jacobea. Abundant.
», aguaticus. Common in wet places.
5» saracenicus. Howgate, Moresby.
Bidens cernua. Rottington.
;, tripartita. Braystones Tarn, Rottington Beck.
Inula Helenium. Little Mill, Egremont. (Probably a relic of cultivation. )
Bellis perennis. Common.
Aster tripolium. Little Mill Reservoir ; Marsh, Workington ; Black Beck.
Solidago virga-aurea. In woods frequent.
Tussilago Farfara. Common in heavy land.
Petasites vulgaris. In waste ground near streams, common ; Lowca, banks
of Keekle and Ehen.
Eupatorium cannabinum. Sea Brows, common; also near Egremont;
St. Bees, Pardshaw.
Cichorium Intybus. Pastures in Ennerdale.
Lapsana communis. Common in hedges.
Hypocheris radicata. By waysides, common.
Leontodon hispidus. Railway banks, pastures, &c., common.
35 autumnalis. Fields and waysides.
Tragopogon pratensis. Fields and railway banks near Whitehaven.
Taraxacum officinale. Fields, abundant.
Lactuca virosa, St. Bees. J.D.K.
> muralis. Borrowdale Road.
Sonchus oleraceus. Common.
» asper. St. Bees.
;, arvensis. Common in cornfields.

95

Crepis virens. Railway banks, common.
», biennis, Aspatria. wW.N.
», paludosa. Snebra.
Hieracium pilosella. Dry banks, common.
35 aggregatum. Grange, near Egremont; St. Bees. J.D.x.
ss boreale. Railway banks, &c., common.

5 murorum. St. Bees road.

CAMPANULACE.
Lobelia Dortmanna. Ennerdale Lake, Loweswater.
Jasione montana. Common on dry banks. White variety, Egremont.
Campanula latifolia. Kinniside, Lamplugh, Egremont.

S rapunculoides. Near Moor Row Station.
aS rotundifolia. Common. -
ERICACE.

Vaccinium oxycoccos. In mossy ground. Ennerdale, Black Moss, and
other places. :
5 vitis-idea. Ennerdale fells.
33 myrtillus. Banks and hedges ; Ennerdale fells.
Erica tetralix. Ennerdale, and in heathy places.
», cmerea. Abundant in the fell districts and heaths.
Calluna vulgaris. Very abundant in Ennerdale.
Pyrola media, Brayton Woods. w.n.

OLEINE,

Fraxinus excelsior. Natural sown trees in Ennerdale and the fell district.

JASMINACEA.
Ligustrum vulgare. Hedges, common.

APOCYNACEA.
Vinca minor. St. John’s Wood, Keswick.

GENTIANACE.
Brythrea centaurium, Hilly pastures near the sea.
Gentiana campestris. Pastures generally through the district.
Menyanthes trifoliata. Common in tarns and mossy ground.

» CONVOLVULACE%.
Convolvulus arvensis. Roadside between Egremont and Whitehaven ;
Coulderton.
nt sepium. Egremont, Kinniside, High Lowea.
“3 soldanella. Coulderton shore, Parton shore,

96

SOLANACE:.

Solanum dulcamara. Meadows, Whitehaven ; Stanley Pond, Rottington,
Church Moss.
Hyoscyamus niger. Dub Mill, Allonby; near Mawbray; formerly Railway
bank, Harrington.

SCROPHULARIACEA.

Verbascum Thapsus. St. Bees, Nethertown.
Scrophularia nodosa. River banks, common.
Digitalis purpurea. Common ; White variety, Egremont, Loweswater.
Antirrhinum Orontium. Scalelands.
Linaria Cymbalaria. Common on old walls.
», vulgaris, Ennerdale, Beckermet ; frequent.
Mimulus luteus. Rottington, Beckermet.
Veronica hederifolia. Hensingham, St. Bees ; frequent.
» polita. Lamplugh, Aspatria ; frequent.
>» agrestis, Common.
,, Buxbaumii. Clints, Egremont ; Aspatria Station.
», arvensis, Frequent.
», serpyllifolia. Frequent.
> Officinalis. Common.
» chamedrys. Common,
»» montana. Damp woods; Snebra, near Whitehaven.
», scutellata. Braystones Tarn, Drigg.
», Anagallis. Powbeck, St. Bees, Pardshaw, and other places.
5, Beccabunga. Common variety, with Pink flowers, Stockhow Hall.
Euphrasia officinalis. Abundant iu dry pastures.
Barisia odontites. Common in cornfields and pastures.
Pedicularis palustris. Common.
# sylvatica, Common.
Rhinanthus crista galli, Common.
Melampyrum pratense. Side Wood, Ennerdale ; and hilly copses.

OROBANCHACE:.

Lathrea squamaria. Wood Hall, Cockermouth. (MR. GEO. MAWSON.)

LABIAT A.

Mentha Piperita. River Ehen, near Egremont.
» aquatica. Wet places, common.
» sativa. Common.
», arvensis. In fields, common,

97

Thymus serpyllum. Sea brows and banks, common.
Calamintha acinos. Near Nethertown.
Nepeta Gilechoma. Near Egremont, common.
Prunella vulgaris. In pastures, common.
Scutellaria galericulata. Church Moss, Beckermet; by the side of the
River Ehen, &c.
a minor. Black Moss, Wormgill, Ennerdale, Drigg.

Marrubium vulgare. Near Baggrow. w.N.
Stachys Betonica. Generally distributed.

,, palustris. Common ; hedges and fields.

» sylvatica. Roadsides, common.

» arvensis. Cornfields.
Galeopsis Tetrahit. Cornfields; St. Bees, Ennerdale, and near Egremont.
Lamium purpureum. Common by roadsides.

», album. Harrington and Workington; Ennerdale Bridge, near

Egremont,

ss Galeobdolon. Portinscale, Keswick.
Ajuga reptans. Common; White variety near Ennerdale Bridge.
Teucrium scorodonia. Common in bushy places.

BORAGINACE.

Echium vulgare. Aspatria; near Silloth Station, w.n.; Bleachgreen,
Whitehaven, J.A.

Pulmonaria augustifolia. Near Isell. (Escape.)
Myosotis cespitosa. Common near Egremont and Ennerdale.
palustris, Ennerdale and other places ; common.

» arvensis. Common.

», collina. St. Bees.

», versicolor. Kinniside, Coulderton, Gosforth ; common.
Anchusa arvensis, Maryport, Silloth.

FF sempervirens. Gosforth, Sandwith, Quality Corner, Whitehaven.

Borago officinalis. St. Bees.
Symphytum officinale. Lowca beck.

o tuberosum. Furness Railway, Green Bank, Whitehaven.

LENTIBULACE.
Pinguicula vulgaris, Ennerdale Fells.
Utricularia intermedia. Emnnerdale Lake. J.A.

PRIMULACEAD.

Primula vulgaris. Common. Pinkish variety, Low Hall and Egremont.
officinalis. Common, but localized.
7

”

98

Primula farinosa. Catlands, near Wigton.
Lysimachia vulgaris. Banks of the Ehen, Workington, Loweswater, Port-

inscale.
BS nummularia. Bolton branch railway, near Baggrow.
s nemorum, Damp woods, common.

Anagallis arvensis, Common.

35 tenella. Thornholm.
Glaux maritima. Seascale, Ravenglass.
Samolus valerandi, Fleswick Beck.

PLUMBAGINACE.

Armeria maritima. © Sea brows.
Statice Limonium. St. Bees shore.
» auriculefolia. Keswick.

PLANTAGINACE.

Plantago major. Common by waysides.
5 media. Common on the limestone formation
as lanceolata. Abundant.
an maritima. Sea shore and banks, Ennerdale.
a Coronopus. Sea shore and banks.

Litorella lacustris. Shore of Ennerdale lake.

CHENOPODIACE.

Salsola Kali. Coulderton, Allonby.
Salicornia herbacea. Cardurnock point.
Chenopodium album. Common.

6 Bonus Henricus. Wath.
Atriplex triangularis. St. Bees.

POLYGONACE.

Rumex conglomeratus. Common.

3, memorosus. Keswick.

;, obtusifolius, Common.

» pratensis. St. Bees.

», crispus. Coulderton.

», acetosa. Common,

», acetosella. Common,
Oxyria reniformis. Near Scarfgap, Ennerdale. w.a
Polygonum convolvulus. Cornfields, common,

e aviculare. Common,

99

Polygonum Hydropiper. Common.

35 persicaria. Pastures, common.

eA amphibium. Stanley pond.

“5 Bistorta. Meadows, Whitehaven ; common.
EMPETRACE.

Empetrwm nigrum. Mosses in the fell district, common.

EUPHORBIACE.

Euphorbia Helioscopia, Common.
Portlandica, Drigg shore.
Peplus. Waste ground.

A exigua. Nethertown.

33 Lathyris. Keswick ; w.n.
Mercurialis perennis. Common in woods.
Ceratophyllum aquaticus. Common in streams.

”

9

URTICACE.

Uriica dioica, Common.

», Uurens. Frequent in villages or near houses.
Humulus Lupulus. Ennerdale, near How Hall.
Ulmus montana. Ennerdale.

AMENTIFER &.

Quercus Robur. Ennerdale.
Corylus avellana. Common.
Alnus glutinosa. Common by the side of rivers.
Betula alba. Ennerdale.
Myrica gale. Side woods, Ennerdale.
Salix pentandra. Frequent; Ennerdale, Black Moss.
», Jragilis. Not uncommon.
», alba. By the river Ehen.
», purpurea. Walk Mill; Meadows, Whitehaven.
», viminalis, Meadows, Whitehaven.
», aurita. Meadows, frequent.
3, caprea. Common.
», Tépens, Common.
5, herbacea, Red Pike, and Pillar in Ennerdale.

CONIFER 4.

Juniperus communis. Ennerdale Fells.
Taxus baccata. Borrowdale.

100

TYPHACEZ.

Typha latifolia. Sellafield Pond, Loweswater.
Sparganium ramosum. Stanley Pond.

55 simplex, Ennerdale.
* minimum. Mockerkin Tarn. J.D.K.
ARACEA.

Arum maculatum. Near Moresby Hall, Lowca, and Hodyoad.

LEMNACEA
Lemna minor. Common,
NAIADACE.
Potamogeton natans. Common.
33 crispus. Mill-race, Egremont.
ALISMACE:.

Triglochin palustre. Enunerdale, &c.
55 maritimum. Cloffolks, Workington.

Alisma plantago. Stanley Pond, Nethertown Pond, and other places.

» ranunculoides. Braystones Tarn.

ORCHIDACE:.

Orchis mascula. Common.

», latifolia. Wet places, Black Moss, &c.

», maculata. Common.
Gymnadenia conopsea. Ennerdale, Pardshaw.
Habenaria viridis, Lamplugh ; not uncommon.

= bifolia. Ennerdale, Beckermet, St. Bees.

Listera ovata. Meadows.
Epipactis latifolia. Loweswater, Mockerkin, Brayton.

IRIDACEA.

Tris Pseudacorus. Common.

AMARYLLIDACE.

Narcissus Pseudo-Narcissus. Ennerdale, Duddon ; common.

TRILLIACEA.
Paris quadrifolia. Lamplugh, Threapland,

101
LILIACE,

Polygonatum multiflorum. St. John’s Great Wood, Keswick.
Ornithogalum umbellatum ? Sellafield.
Scilla nutans. Common in woods.
Allium scorodoprasum. Ehen banks.
> wursinum. Common.
Narthecium ossifragum. Ennerdale, St. Bees, Black Moss.

JUNCACE.

Luzula pilosa, Common in woods.
» sylvatica. Common in woods.
» campestris. Fields and hedges.
Juncus conglomeratus. Common.
> ¢€fusus. Common.
>, glaucus. Frequent; Moresby and Whillimoor.
;, obtusifolius. Moors, common.
», acutiflorus. Moors, common.
», lamprocarpus. Common.
» bufonius. In ditches, common.
» squarrosus. Ennerdale.
» supinus. Common.
3, Gerardi. Sellafield.
Scirpus acicularis, Black Moss.
>, palustris. Black Moss.
» setaceus. Ennerdale.
», lacustris. Loweswater Lake.
» sylvaticus. Banks of the Ehen.
» maritimus. Sellafield.
Eriophorum vaginatum. Black Moss.
fr angustifolium. Ennerdale and Black Moss.
Carex dioica. Common.
5, pulicaris. Ennerdale, Black Moss.
» aquatilis. St. Bees. J.D.K.
5, vulgaris, Common.
» precox. Common.
» sylvatica. Near Egremont.

GRAMINE.

Anthoxanthum odoratum. Common.
Digraphis arundinacea. Railway banks and hedges.
Phalaris canariensis? Lowca, Raven Hill. (A casual.)

102

Alopecurus geniculatus. Common.
aA pratensis. Common.
Phleum pratense. Common.
Sesleria cerula. Coulderton.
Agrostis canina. Common.
3 vulgaris. Common,
., alba, Frequent.
Psamma arenaria. Coulderton.
Phragmites communis. Stanley Pond.
Aira cespitosa. Common.
», flexuosa. Hale woods.
5, caryophyllea, Coulderton.
», precov. Ennerdale.
Avena flavescens. Egremont.
» pratensis. Clints, Egremont.
,, elatior. Common.
Holcus mollis. Common.
>, lanatus, Common.
Molinia cwrulea. Church Moss, Beckermet.
Melica uniflora. Woods; Snebra, Egremont.
Glyceria fluitans. Common.
», aquatica. Near Low Mill.
Schlerochloa loliacea. Common.
Poa annua, Common.
», nemoralis, Clints Woods, Hale Woods.
> pratensis, Common.
», trivialis. Common.
Briza media. Ennerdale, and dry pastures.
Cynosurus cristatus. Common.
Dactylis glomerata. Common.
Festuca pseudo-myurus. Coulderton.
ovina. Common.
,, vivipara. Ennerdale Fells.
» rubra, Clints.
5, sylvatica. Wood End.
», elatior. Pastures.
»» pratensis, Meadows, Whitehaven.
Bronwus asper. Snebra.
» erectus. Egremont.
» mollis. Common.
,, sterilis. Meadows, Whitehaven.
Triticum caninum. River Ehen.

itt

103

Triticum repens. Common.

a junceum. Coulderton.
Lolium perenne. Common.

3, temulentum. Common.
Nardus stricta. Ennerdale.

.

FILICES.

Hymenophyllum unilaterale. Skiddaw, Ennerdale, Scaleforce.
T'richomanes radicans? Calder Bridge. 3.p.x.

Pieris aquilina. Common.

Cryptogramme crispa. Ennerdale ; abundant.

Lomaria spicant. Common.

Asplenium Ruta muraria. Common.

5 Trichomanes. Common.

FY marinum. Keswick.

3 Adiantum nigrum. Egremont aud St. Bees ; common,
Fe Jjilix femina. Common.

Ceterach oficinarum. Mosser.
Scolopendrium vulgare. Common.
Cystopteris fragilis. Eskatt and Weddiker,
Aspidium aculeatum. Barrowmouth.

5 angulare. Ravenglass.
Nephrodium filiz mas. Common.
35 dilatata. Common.
+ emula, St. Bees Head.
r oreopteris, Ennerdale.

Polypodium vulgare. Common,

3 Phegopteris. Ennerdale and Sub-alpine woods.

5 Dryopteris. Ennerdale and Sub-alpine woods.
Osmunda regalis. Common near Seascale, Sellatield, and Thornholm.
Ophioglossum vulgatum. Meadows, Whitehaven, Mockerkin, St. Bees,
Botrychium Lunaria. St. Bees Head and High Leys, Arlecdon.

LYCOPODIACEZ!.
Lycopodium clavatum. Ennerdale, Mockerkin Flow.
5 selago, Ennerdale and Mockerkin.
MARSILEACE,

Pilularia globulifera, Nethertown Pond.

"

104

EQUISETACE.
Equisetum arvense. Common.
» pratense. Eskatt Wood. J.D.K.
Re maximium. Nethertown Pond.
35 sylvaticum. Common.

3 limosum. Walk Mill and Little Mill Reservoirs.
99 palustre. Low Mill.

105

ON THE “WING: OR, (BIRD (REPRE,
By CHAS. A. PARKER, M.D.
(Read at Whitehaven, October 19th, 1880. )

THE Eagle, save an exceedingly rare and passing visitor, has
entirely disappeared from our district; and the noblest bird of
prey that still remains with us is

THE PEREGRINE FALCON.

This really magnificent bird possesses great powers of flight, and, from its
frequent exertion of these powers, has derived its name of Falco peregrinus, or
The Wandering Hawk. It is found in most parts of the world, and has often
been seen at a great distance from land. Whether it is partly migratory is not
fully ascertained, but there seems little doubt that the old birds expel their
young when able to take care of themselves, and remain by themselves in their
old district.

Their flight is extremely rapid, and has been likened to that of the Rock
Dove, flying generally near the ground with quickly-repeated beatings of its
long pointed wings, and seldom sailing or soaring like the Buzzard.

Its speed is tremendous ; Montague having calculated it to be as much as one
hundred and fifty miles an hour; and Col. Thornton, an expert falconer,
calculated one to travel nine miles in eleven minutes when in pursuit of a snipe,
without including the turnings, being at a rate of nearly sixty miles an hour,
I once saw one near the Screes at Wastwater. As soon as it saw me it turned
abruptly and sped like an arrow directly across the valley to Buckbarrow, and
seemed to me to easily accomplish a full mile within the minute. With such
speed as this we might naturally expect the falcon to be sometimes killed or
injured when striking prey near the ground ; but this very rarely occurs, though
instances have been known of pursuer and pursued being dashed against a tree
or stone in the ardour of pursuit. No doubt at the very instant of striking its
prey the wings of the Peregrine are sloped slightly upward and forward, which,

106

aided by the recoil of the blow, causes it to rise in the air with a beautiful
upward sweep, gracefully curving round to pick up the dead bird. Sometimes
both hawk and quarry will tower upwards till both are out of sight. A Pere-
grine has been known to cut asnipe in two and to strike off the head of a grouse
at one blow. When a duck is struck, the unfortunate bird is frequently
lacerated from end to end. ‘They feed entirely on what they kill for themselves ;
the list including all smaller birds and many larger, even the Capercailie and
the Kestrel; also hares, rabbits, other small animals, and occasionally fish.
They cast up pellets of the indigestible parts of their prey like owls do. Very
seldom do they strike at a bird upon the water, though one has been known to
carry off a Guillemot out of a swimming flock ; and the sea-birds being apparently
quite aware of this, generally take refuge at once upon the water when pursued
by it.

The Peregrine will often strike down several birds in succession without
picking them up, and will take shot game right before the sportsman. On one
occasion two gentlemen were grouse-shooting, and one of them wounded a bird
which was almost immediately struck down by a Peregrine, who, without
waiting, knocked down two brace more out of the pack and then made off,
leaving the sportsmen to pick up their easily-earned game. Their clutch is not
so fatal as their stroke, birds having been carried a long distance without being
much the worse for it. A Peregrine has been known to carry a Blackcock several
miles to its nest.

They build early in the Spring, and if one of them is shot, the other is sure
to return soon with a fresh mate. The nest is flat in shape, and placed on some
inaccessible ledge or crevice of a cliff, or rarely in a lofty tree. It is made of
sticks lined with sea-weed, hair, etc. Sometimes an old one is repaired, or a
mere hollow in the rock suffices.

Their chief breeding places in Britain are :—Kilnsea Crag—the cliffs of the
Isle of Wight, of Devon, and of Cornwall—Beachy Head—Bass Rock—Great
Orme’s Head—Llandudno—the Isle of Man—the Vale of Moffat—St. Abbs
Head—Ailsa Crag—Portpatrick, etc., in Scotland.

In our own district it chooses the steepest and most precipitous
crags. The nest is well hidden, and is usually discovered by seeing
the old birds go to it. They nest occasionally on St. Bees Head,
as well as on Skiddaw, near Thirlmere, and on Scawfell. There
are about four pairs in the district as a rule, and they do not seem
to increase or decrease in number. This particular bird (exhibited)

was killed in the covers at Newton Manor, near Gosforth, in |

November, 1878. Another was shot that year on Birker Fell, and
I saw one near Wastwater in May, 1879. One was seen in Gosforth

107

parish in March, 1879, and another was shot at Muncaster; and
one near Hallbolton, October, 1880o.

THE BuZzzarRpb.

In spite of the size and fine appearance of the Buzzard, and its
general likeness in colour and flight to the Eagle, its character is
entirely different. It is both cowardly and lazy, and has been
known to fly before the little Sparrow-hawk. This is the generally
accepted opinion; but I have seen a Buzzard attack and get the
better of a pair of Carrion Crows. It was of no use at all for
hawking.

It is very generally distributed over England, though fast
disappearing in the south. Here amongst the mountains it holds
its own very fairly, though not so numerous as it was some years
since. It is the commonest large hawk we have, and one or more
may generally be seen in the course of a walk across the fells. It
is a very striking bird, its large broad blunt wings (so different to
the pointed pinions of the Peregrine,) making it conspicuous
against the sky, and its slow circling flight (unlike the dash of the
last-named bird,) giving plenty of time for observation.

The Buzzard is said to fly low ; but nine times out of ten when I have seen
them, they have been soaring high in the air at an elevation of several hundred
feet. This peculiar slow soaring in circles has gained it its name of Glead,
whichisderived from the Anglo-Saxon verb G/dan, to glide. The bird goes slowly
round and round in huge circles, without any perceptible motion of its wings ;
it goes away from you, turns with a slight swing and comes back, till you
involuntarily watch for the moment when the impetus will subside and the bird
be compelled to flap its wings. How these circles are completed against the
wind, without perceptible muscular effort, is hard to say.

When flushed the Buzzard rises slowly like the Eagle, the light and dark
markings showing conspicuously even when high up. It often sits for a long
time on a rock or stump watching for prey, or perhaps guarding the nest. They
keep very much to one haunt, and may be seen day after day at nearly the
same hour beating the same piece of ground. The note is extremely harsh,
hence its local name of Shreak.

The Buzzard is of course persecuted by the gamekeeper, though it does little
harm and a fair amount of good. It feeds on and destroys numberless moles,
rats, snakes (especially vipers), frogs, toads, worms, newts, and insects. So

108

much for the good. It will also take a leveret or a very young moor game,
but it has not the pluck to touch them unless very young and weak. I have
heard them accused of attacking lambs, but have never been able to get any
proof of their doing so, and do not believe that such is the case. Moles and
snakes are its favourite food. It is of special use in corn-growing countries.
Indeed, had I a grouse-moor, I should protect both Peregrine and Buzzard,
believing as I do that they do far more good than harm. It does not take its
prey by pursuit, but prowls about quartering the ground and pouncing upon any
unlucky creature it comes across.

These birds pair in the beginning of March, building, in this
district, almost always on ledges on the precipices of our moun-
tains, and only very seldom in a tree. The nests are often very
difficult of access, sometimes quite out of reach, unless a rope is
used. The nest is large, and built of sticks lined with wool and
moss. It is sometimes based on an old nest of its own or some
other birds. They do not drive away their young as most other
hawks do.

They are very fond of incubating, even in captivity. I have
several eggs in my possession which have been laid by tame
Buzzards, and I have known one bring up a chicken; and,
reversing the order, I have known one brought up by a Bantam
hen, the difference in size between the foster mother and the
young bird being most ridiculous. The eggs are three or four in
number, and rather round. The brown markings increase in size
and depth of colour as the bird grows older.

Two Buzzards have, for the last three or four years, constantly
haunted Blengdale, a small valley close to the village of Gosforth.
There are no crags on the sides of the valley, and only some half-
dozen trees in it; so the birds, rather than quit their accustomed
haunt, built their nest in a Common Thorn bush about eight feet
from the ground. Hearing of this unusual nesting place, I went
to examine it, but arrived too late. The nest was there in the
bush, apparently based on the remains of an old one, but the three
eggs, which were remarkably well coloured specimens, had been
taken that morning by a neighbouring gamekeeper. Exactly a
month afterwards I revisited the valley, and found that the
obstinate birds still held possession. About three hundred yard

109

higher up than the bush was a small scar, about twenty-five feet
high, out of which grew a stunted tree holding a fresh nest con-
taining three eggs, on which the hen bird was sitting. Scrambling
down to examine the eggs, I found the second lot almost as deeply
coloured as the first three, which had meanwhile been placed under
a tame hen buzzard. She sat upon them for thirty-one days, and
hatched all three ; but, in spite of the united care of both bird and
keeper, they all died when about ten days old. The old bird
always sucked and chewed a piece of meat for three or four minutes
before she gave it to the young ones. Afterwards a half-grown
Buzzard was procured from a third nest, and given to the tame one
to rear, but this also she failed to do.

The smaller hawks, viz., the Kestrel, the Sparrow-hawk, and the
Merlin, are all abundant in this district, the Merlin being the
rarest of the three ; and I have seen five species of owls, four of
which are common.

Among the DeENTIROsTRES, or Tooth-billed birds, are the
Thrushes, many of which are very familiar to us. I have a few
specimens here. The Dipper, a very common and pretty little
bird, which frequents our mountain streams. Here is a rare
species, the Golden Oriole, which was killed in Muncaster parish
in 1857. Here are three others belonging to the same group, two
Blackbirds and a Song-thrush, which are chiefly remarkable for not
being black or brown, as the case may be. They were all killed near
Gosforth ; and I have seen four or five more Blackbirds in that district
more or less marked with white. This curious albinism is not
uncommon, and it is probably caused by some defect in the consti-
tution of the bird, which prevents the proper amount of pigment-
cells being formed. I have seen several Rooks at Calder Abbey
with white feathers or patches, and Dr. l’Anson of Whitehaven
saw in January, 1879, a perfectly white Sparrow.

Here is a Starling of a very light colour; and here a most
remarkable Waterhen, which was shot on Hallsenna Moor in June,
1877. This Waterhen is of a light fawn colour all over, with the
exception of the usual white markings. The primary wing

110

feathers are especially light; the bill, legs, and eyes are of the
usual colour.

The sub-order CoNnrrosTRES contains the Larks, Buntings,
Finches, Starlings, and Crows. With the exception of the Chough
and that rare bird the Nutcracker, all the British Corvidee are well
represented in this district, the Hooded Crow alone being rare.
Almost universally disliked as they are, the stronger kinds need all
their well-known sagacity and cunning to enable them to hold their
own even in this comparatively wild country. Facile princeps stands

THE RAVEN.

This fine bird is still commonly to be seen and heard upon
the fells, circling round and round high out of gunshot, croaking
hoarse defiance at man—the only enemy he dreads, if we except
the Peregrine. The Raven soars exceedingly high, far above the
tops of our highest mountains, from which altitude he is able to
survey a wide tract of country, and use his keen sight to discover
carrion or other food, which he does with wonderful quickness.

The Raven occasionally also feeds on young ducks, chickens,
small quadrupeds, moles, eggs, grain, grubs, reptiles, and shell-fish,
not unfrequently visiting the yards and “‘middens” of the fell farms
in the early hours of the morning. They are known to pair for
life, and are generally seen in company. I once saw three together
on the top of Coniston Old Man. The nest is placed on the
ledges of rocky cliffs and precipices, generally in some most
inaccessible spot; though one nest which I visited in 1879, near
Keswick, was not more than twenty feet from the ground, and
within five hundred yards of a farm-house. From another nest a
young bird was brought to me, which I kept for some weeks till
he escaped, and I watched him wing his way back to his native
hills rejoicing. I had hoped to have been able to show you a live
Raven to-night which I had succeeded in taming so that I was
able to keep him quite at liberty in the garden. Often when I
when I went out riding he would fly above my head for a consider-
able distance, and perch on the roof of any house I visited. His

ao Ty

Ill

tameness proved his ruin: some kindly person murdered him with
a brickbat in my absence. In 1878 I knew of two nests, one of
which was savagely destroyed by a keeper, who, unable to get at
the nest, went up the opposite side of the gorge and bombarded it
from a distance till he could no longer hear the cries of the young
birds. The market value of the egg and young bird is too well
known to the dalesman; but the early breeding season of the
Raven stands him in good stead, as at that time the mountains are
generally covered with snow and ice, which add immensely to the
difficulty of climbing the rocky fastnesses of his home. They
expel their young when able to fly, from the immediate neighbour-
hood of the nest, and I fancy many of them wander down to the)
Yorkshire moors, and there meet an untimely fate. The eggs are
from four to seven in number. Locally they are often called
Corbies.

THE CaRRION CROW

Is like a smaller edition of the Raven. These birds are exceed-
ingly abundant here, in spite of the most untiring persecution.
The Crow has all the cunning of its larger congener. The nesting
habits, however, differ, for the Crow nests in trees in the valleys,
avoiding the rocks, and, as a rule, the woods which grow higher
up the fell sides. In Blengdale, in 1879, I found four nests within
a distance of about five hundred yards. I do not think there were
more than a dozen trees in the valley, some being very small, and
two of the nests were in thorn bushes not more than eight feet
from the ground. There were three more nests not far off The
gamekeepers shoot many of the hen birds when sitting; but if
once disturbed, the bird becomes exceedingly wary, leaving her
nest on the first suspicion of danger. They are almost impossible
to trap. Their note is a harsh “cargh,” much hoarser than the
“caw” of the Rook, and yet differing widely from the croak of the
Raven. The Crow is omnivorous, nothing comes amiss to him,
but it is especially fond of eggs. I have known them visit a farm-
yard regularly every morning. I remember four years ago finding

112

the nest of a Partridge in the middle of a wood within ten yards of
a tree in which was a Crow’s nest. I wonder how many of the
family survived.

Rooks.

Of Rooks we have any number. Pied specimens are not
uncommon. By watching one of these latter I was able to
ascertain that the same bird returned to the same field at the
same hour for several days in succession. During the late severe
winters the Rooks killed and ate many Redwings and other small
birds ; but the cold was too much even for them, as I found them
under the trees in the mornings scarcely able to move, having
evidently fallen off their perches through the night.

THE JACKDAW

Is abundant, but rather local. They are very numerous near
Keswick, where colonies of them congregate like Rooks, and nest
together in the Skiddaw cliffs. There are many, too, at Calder
Abbey. I have seen there a nest mass nearly six feet high, com-
pletely filling up a narrow spiral staircase. The noisy chattering
habits of the Jacks, as they are called, are well known.

THe MAGPIE

Is very common, and is almost always called the “Piet.” I have
counted as many as eleven in one field in Wastdale. There are
seldom less than three seen together, and four or five is quite an
ordinary number. In November, 1879, a three-legged Magpie
was shot near Silecroft. The third leg was between the two normal
ones, and was rather smaller, being white in colour, as were also
the claws.

THE Jay.

The noisy screeching Jay is often heard in our woods; less often
seen, for it is a wary bird, and seems to know its danger. it is
curious to notice how these birds hurry across an open space,

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taking refuge in every bushy tree by the way. Their egg-sucking
crimes cause them to be persecuted by gamekeepers, which is
rather a pity, as both Jay and Magpie are very ornamental to the
scenery they inhabit. No doubt all the Crow kind do good by
devouring what would become prejudicial if left alone. The Jay
is generally called “Jay Piet.”

A Nutcracker (Vucifraga caryocatactes) was seen in Nether-
witton wood, Northumberland, in the autumn of rites by Captain
Robert Mitford, R.N.

THE HoopED Crow

I have only heard of twice near here, though common enough in
many parts of England. One was shot in 1880 near Seascale. It
is a powerful and fierce bird, much resembling the Carrion Crow
in its nature and habits. Some good authorities have lately
affirmed these two birds to be merely varieties of the same
species.

Amongst the FissirosTRES, or Cleft-billed birds, passing over
the commoner species, such as the Swallow, we find one of the
most curious and interesting of our British birds, viz.—

THE NIGHTJAR,

This is a bird with a multitude of names, and which has been disliked and
regarded as a bird of evil omen from the earliest times. Certainly its habits
and appearance are peculiar and striking. The inordinately large eye, the
minute beak, being a mere entrance to the enormous mouth with its bristly
appendages—its noiseless, ghost-like flight, and its peculiar low jar-r-r-ing note,
heard only in the twilight of evening, would naturally impress a superstitious
people unfavourably. Aristotle calls it Azgothelas, accusing it of sucking
goats, and adding that the teat afterwards becomes dry and the animal blind.
4Glian and Pliny say the same, and the superstition has not yet disappeared
altogether. Hence its name of Goatsucker; though in this country it was
supposed to attack cows, and also to have the power to inflict on calves a fatal
distemper by striking at them. The Puckeridge disease was really caused by
maggots laid in the skin of the calf by a kind of fly ( Zstrus bovis), and if the
Night-jar was seen striking near them, no doubt it was making a snap at the
insect which annoyed the animal.

8

114

It is found throughout all Europe, in Africa, and parts of Asia. In this
country it is migratory, arriving very late—about the middle or the end of May
—and leaving at the end of September. The most characteristic habit of the
Nightjar is that it never perches like other birds across a branch Instead of
this, it generally lights upon a comparatively thick bough and rests upon it
lengthways, crouching with its head so low as nearly to touch the bark. It is
generally in this attitude when it utters its low jar-r-r-ing note, something
between a hiss and a buzz, though it jars or churs when circling round and round
an oak tree, which is a constant habit of these birds. Hence the names—Wheel-
bird, Churn-owl, Jar-owl, Nightjar.

The cock bird sometimes utters a sort of squeak when chasing his mate
through the oaks. It is a nocturnal bird, lying quiet all day, either crouched on
some branch the colours of which assimilate well with its own beautifully
variegated plumage, or on a stone, or a heap of stones, among brackens. The
cock has a white spot near the top of each wing, which are very conspicuous
when the bird is roused from amongst the fern. From its fondness for this
kind of covert, it has gained the name of Fern-owl. When twilight comes, it
sallies forth in quest of food, which consists of night moths, Cockchafers, and
various other beetles. It hawks for these on the wing, taking them with its
mouth, the enormous gape of which enables it to capture and swallow insects
easily. Each side of the upper lip (so to speak) is furnished with a number of
strong bristles called vibrissee, which no doubt assist it in seizing and retaining
its prey.

Its powers of flight are very great, being equal, if not superior, to the swallow
in turning and twisting suddenly. As many as six or seven have been seen
hawking together for moths.

The Nightjar much resembles the Swift in some particulars: both arrive
about the beginning of May, both breed but once a summer, both lay two eggs
—but to these characteristics it adds the downy plumage and large nocturnal
eye of the owl. The Rev. Gilbert White in his delightful book says that
‘“‘when a person approaches the haunt of the fern-owls in an evening, they
continue flying round the head of the obtruder, and by striking their wings
together above their backs in the manner that the pigeons called smiters are
known to do, make a sharp snap. Perhaps at that time they are jealous for
their young, and their noise and gesture are intended by way of menace.” The
feet as well as the head of the Nightjar are peculiar; of the three anterior
toes the middle one is by far the longest, and armed with a long - claw, which
is furnished with a pectinated inner margin exactly resembling a small comb.
The use of this comb has been the subject of much discussion, and is not yet
certain. White supposed it was to aid it in capturing its prey, but this can
hardly be the case ; and as he records having seen the bird bring its foot to its
mouth, it has been supposed that it uses this comb to clean the vibrissze of its

115

mouth from the fragments of the hard wing-cases of the beetles on which it
feeds.

The Nightjar makes no nest, but lays its two eggs in a mere hollow in the
ground, with perhaps a few oak leaves in it, generally on a heath ora ride in
a wood. ‘The two eggs are laid about the second week in July.

It is tolerably abundant about Gosforth. I have seen them
rise from amongst the brackens on Buckbarrow, and in Blengdale,
as well as on Hallsenna Moor, and near Newton Manor. For the
last three seasons I have had eggs brought to me from the last two
places. It is not often shot, owing to its lying so close throughout
the day, which makes it seem rarer than it really is. They deserve
to be encouraged, as they do much good by destroying cockchafers,
etc. They are exceedingly difficult birds to stuff, the skin being
as soft as silk, and tearing at the least touch.

The fourth great order of birds are the WADERs, which are
characterized by their long legs and the want of feathers on the
lower part of the thighs, which enables them to wade to some
depth without wetting their plumage. Such as have strong bills
feed on fish and reptiles ; those in which it is feeble, on worms
and insects.

I have here a typical specimen of the wading bird, and also a
beautiful and rare one, viz.—

THE BITTERN.

The provincial names of the Bittern are most extraordinary—-Mire Drum,
Butterbump, Bog-bumper, Bog-jumper, Bog-blutter, Bittour Bumpy-coss, Bull
of the Bog, are some of them. It was formerly very plentiful in Britain, and
was much valued as a game bird for Falconry ; but it has now become very
rare. They are generally found in marshy places, and are nocturnal in their
habits. During the day they conceal themselves amongst the rushes and flags
of the marsh, lying close with the head bent back upon the shoulders; and they
will frequently allow themselves almost to be trodden upon before taking flight.

More than one pair are seldom to be seen in one swamp, unless it is a very
large one. When attacked they defend themselves with great courage, facing the
danger with half-open wings and holding the beak ready for a stab, while the
loose plumage of the neck is raised and the head feathers erected so as to form
a perfectly circular crest. It nearly always aims for the eyes of its opponent.

116

When roused they fly sluggishly away uttering a resounding cry. Their food
consists of moles, mice, birds, fishes, leeches, snakes, frogs, beetles, ete., and
is taken by night. They will swallow whole birds and fishes of considerable
size. The best known characteristic of the Bittern is its peculiar cry or ‘‘boom,”
from which it derives many of its curious names. ‘The sound is so strange that
it has given rise to various superstitions, being doubtless more alarming from
the solitariness of the places it was generally heard in. The peasantry supposed
that the bird thrust its bill into a reed to serve as a pipe for swelling the note
above its natural pitch. Others thought that it thrust its bill into the mud or
water, and by violently blowing, produced its booming. ‘The real fact is that
the Bittern usually booms when soaring with a spiral flight high in the air in
the evening. It booms six or eight times at once.

The nest is made of sticks and weeds placed in the thickest place it can find
close to the water. The eggs are pale brown, and four or five in number.

In the winter of 1830-31, Bitterns were unusually abundant
throughout the country ; eight being obtained in the neighbourhood
of Carlisle. A Bittern was shot in the winter of 1873 on Sellafield
Tarn, in Beckermet parish. It had alighted amongst the bull-
rushes, and had it not been wantonly destroyed, would probably
have remained about the tarn, which is exactly the kind of place it
would naturally haunt, in company with the Coots and Mallards.
Another was shot the following winter on the River Calder, about
a quarter of a mile from the tarn, In 1876 a third was killed
close to Wreay Castle, Windermere, by Mr. D. Ainsworth. A
fourth in 1879 was shot at Braystones Tarn, about a mile and a
half from Sellafield Tarn. Some years ago a fifth was shot by Mr.
Vickers of Birkby Crag as it flew over his yard in the dusk. It is
a great pity that this beautiful and interesting bird is never allowed
a chance of remaining where it would probably breed were it not
so uniformly persecuted.

A few miles to the south of this town is a long low slip of land
hemmed in between the river and the sea, about two miles in length,
and composed almost entirely of sand and shingle. The wind and
storm of many years have tossed and driven the sand into hollows
and ridges of most abrupt and fantastic shapes. You toil upa
gently rising slope of sand, sinking to the ankle at every step, only
to find when you reach the summit, that the ground descends

117

again almost perpendicularly to rise afresh a few yards further on.
On the sea side lies the usual bed of shingle, on the river side a
level tract which is a beautiful estuary at high water, a dreary
marsh and mud flat when the tide is out. Dreary to one uninter-
ested in natural history; not so to the naturalist, for the whole
place teems with bird life. The Wheatear and the Titlark flit from
every tussock, alighting again close by as if tempting you to follow.
The Peewit wheels and tumbles overhead uttering her perpetual
plaint. The shrill rattling whistle of the Oystercatcher is heard
nearer and nearer as the uneasy bird circles round, loudly pro-
claiming the near vicinity of her nest. A Heron, till now erect
and still at the waters edge, marks the warning note, sharply turns
his head, and then flaps heavily away. Another follows, and
another, perhaps half a dozen. High over head cross and recross
the noisy Blackheaded Gulls. We proceed further over the sand
hills. As we top one of the ridges, out impetuously dashes a
startled Stock-dove almost under our feet from her nest in some
deserted rabbit-hole. The rabbits themselves scatter in all
directions. As we come in sight, the gulls get noisier and come
nearer, and we are soon in the midst of the gullery. Nests lie
thick on the ground, containing eggs and young in all stages. The
old birds are nearly frantic, hundreds are now whirling round only a
few yards off, incessantly cawing ; and if you stoop over a nest, the
owner of it will swoop by almost within reach of your hand.
Mingled with them are birds of smaller size and still more elegant
flight. The Common Tern or Sea-Swallow, and the still smaller
and more beautiful Lesser Tern, are both there careering and
screaming like the gulls. The eggs of both are to be found, but
require more looking for than those of the gulls, especially the
Lesser Tern, which lays it eggs on the bare shingle.

The Ringed Plover too, very difficult to see against the sand
and stones, is heard piping; and as we look down the river we see
two or three pair of the loveliest of our wild ducks, the Shelldrake,
flying up stream conspicuous by their brilliantly-coloured plumage.
High up and far out of range floats a solitary Great Black-backed
Gull, croaking hoarsely, and the other smaller and commoner

118 f

gulls sail occasionally by. Far out on the sand at the edge of the
water are two black objects, and, at the very extremity of the point
another, so still that you might easily mistake them for stumps of
wood, or the remains of some old fish garth. These also are birds,
Cormorants watching for prey. Every morning early the Cor-
morant leaves his rocky haunt at St. Bees Head, and betakes
himself to the mouth of the rivers. There he fishes all day, and
at sundown hies him back again to his resting place for the night.
Heavy ungainly bird as he looks, when once fairly started for St.
Bees he will beat any Furness locomotive hollow. And yet I
have known a person walk along this shore and say there was
nothing to do or to look at.

Speaking of Gulls and Cormorants brings us into the fifth and
last great order, the Swimmers. This order is very well represented
here in all its branches. During the last four years I have had
brought to me no less than nine species of ducks, and have seen a
tenth which was killed some years ago.

Swans and Geese are included in the same order with the duck,
-the commonest of the geese being, I think, the Bernicle, which
occurs each year in varying numbers.

The Bernicle Geese are abundant in the Arctic regions, Iceland, and the
North of Europe. They migrate to the south for the winter, keeping to the
sea-coast and flying in considerable flocks. They are here from the end of
October till March. The head and bill of this goose are exceedingly small.

Speaking of the Bernicle Geese leads us to the subject of the Migration of
Birds, as it is the bird about whose annual journeyings to and from this country
we know most. The popular ideas about Migration are very loose, the birds
being supposed to go either north or south as the case may be, in a happy-go-
lucky sort of manner, chance having a great deal to do with the country they
alight in. But this is by no means the case. The bird leaves our shores with
a fixed purpose. It knows where it is going, and which way it will go by, and
in all probability will not stray more than a mile to the right or left of its
purposed track in the whole course of its long journey. How does it know its
way, and why does it choose that particular track? which is often by no means
the easiest it might choose. Take the Mediterranean Sea for instance ; the
great mass of small migratory birds do not cross at Gibraltar, nor from Sicily to

sig S|

Tunis, the two narrowest points. Numbers do cross there certainly, but the
mass of them cross at one of the broadest parts of the sea.

The bird finds its way chiefly by Memory. In its first migration it probably
followed its parents closely, and so learnt the way; but whether that be the
case or not, I believe it would take the same track by what has been called
Hereditary-, or Instinctive Memory. For countless ages its ancestors have
followed exactly the same track. Individuals which were weak in sight, or not
strong on the wing, probably lost their way and perished, the doctrine of the
‘survival of the fittest” came into play, and a keen-sighted strong-winged
progeny was the result. In the same way as when you teach a dog to point
game, its puppy will point of its own accord without teaching, that is, by
instinct ; so the instinctive impulse to travel by a particular route has descended
from bird to bird, gaining strength as it descended. And this travelling by
memory gives us the clue to the reason why they follow an apparently needlessly
dangerous route.

Let us examine the track of the Bernicle Geese, which is so well known and
defined that it may be marked by a line on the map. The Bernicles breed in
the extreme north, amongst the dreary Arctic icebergs. When they start on
their journey towards the south, one division of them, coming from Greenland,
fly over Iceland and the Feeroe Isles to the west coasts of Scotland, England,
and Ireland. A second division, starting from Spitzbergen, cross the Arctic
Sea to North Cape in Norway, and, following the line of the Norwegian coast
as far as it extends westward, divides, one lot flying over the Shetland Isles to
the east coast of Scotland, the other following the Norway coast down to the
Skaggererack, and then flying straight across the North Sea to the Coast of
Northumberland and Durham. A third division of this great army come wd
Nova Zembla down the White Sea, and across a whole chain of lakes to the
Gulf of Finland. They follow the Baltic down to Denmark, and cross over
Schleswig Holstein to the mouth of the Elbe, where enormous gatherings of
birds are to be seen in the migratory season. They now divide, one lot
following the coast of Holland, France, and Spain, the other going up the
valley of the Rhine down the valley of the Rhone to the coasts of Italy ; some
even crossing by Sardinia to Africa. Thus we see that this bird which was
shot at Drigg came from Greenland ; had he been killed at Newcastle, he would
have been a native of Spitzbergen.

This travelling by memory explains the reason why a particular route is taken.
Ages ago, when Europe was utterly different in shape to what it is now, the
wild geese chose this track, and their descendants ever since have followed
obediently their airy way. High in the air with nothing to guide them, sea and
sky alone in sight, their marvellous instinctive memory leads them unerringly
year by year. And this has been abundantly proved by the ocean soundings
that have been taken during the last few years. From the east coast of England

120

to Norway a ridge of shoal-water extends across the North Sea. From Caith-
ness to Iceland is a still more marked one, having but one comparatively
narrow, deep, gap in its whole extent. This was once above the surface of the
water, the Fzeroe Isles being now the only part of it that so remains. As now,
so then, the birds followed the coast line of this land, and though the land has
disappeared ages ago beneath the waves of the Atlantic, the geese of this
century come and go the same way in safety.

But it matters not—wherever we turn, or what individual we
analyse throughout the whole kingdom of winged creatures; whether
it is the wonderful power of the Frigate Bird—the deadly and
magnificent swoop of the Falcon—the swift running of the Ostrich
—the sagacity of the Raven—the dazzling plumage of the Humming
Bird—the marvellously beautiful nest of the Chaffinch—or the
ingenuity of the Tailor Bird, which actually sews leaves together
to form its nest with a thread of its own making—we always arrive
at the same conclusion, and can but exclaim with the Psalmist of
old: “Oh Lord, how woNDERFUL are thy works ; in wisDoM hast
thou made them ALL.”

NOTES ON A SUBMERGED FOREST
OFF CARDURNOCK ON THE SOLWAY; AND ON
THE DESTRUCTION OF SKINBURNESS BY THE SEA
ABOUT THE YEAR 1305.

BY Si) Vi eH OMe MAES yn GS:
(Read at the Maryport Annual Meeting.)

SoME years ago, on beginning work on the Geological Survey in
north-west Cumberland, I heard that traces of what seemed to be
a submerged forest were, or had lately been, visible off Cardurnock,
at the west end of the Bowness peninsula. On visiting that place,
however, a year or two afterwards, nothing could be seen on the
broad expanse of Cardurnock Flatts but sand and boulders. As
the locality is not easily accessible either from Wigton or Carlisle,
and my visit had been made under most favourable conditions as
regards tide, I felt that my chief hopes of information lay in a
possible change in the channels of the estuary, and in the memories
of the older inhabitants of the neighbourhood. But I thought
little more of the matter till my interest in it was revived by a
sight, last year, of the remains of the submerged forest at St. Bees.
Having neglected, however, to make enquiries about the Cardur-
nock Forest before leaving Cumberland, I wrote last winter to Mr.
R. B. Brockbank, the first discoverer of the Lias in Cumberland,
(from whom I had already received assistance more than once,)
asking if he knew anything about the Cardurnock forest, and would
help me by making enquiries about it. Mr. Brockbank very kindly
took the matter in hand, and the following is the result of his
enquiries.

122

In a letter dated roth of February last he says :—

**T found an intelligent old man, Robert Johnston, who told me that
fifteen or sixteen years ago the channel, which shifts about very much, in
cutting its way into the sand formed a steep bank on one side, on the edge
of the wide flat of sand which stretches away from Cardurnock towards
Criffel, and laid bare three or four feet of peat, below five or six feet of
sand.” Wood was found imbedded in the peat, ‘‘some of which was taken
out by a person curious in such matters, but when exposed to the air it
soon ‘merled’ away.” The channel again shifted, and the place became
covered with sand, and, Mr. Brockbank remarks, ‘“‘when I saw it to-day
there was an unbroken stretch of sand, extending, I was informed, two-
and-a-half miles from the edge of the grass marsh near Cardurnock to where
the channel is now running.”

Some little consolation in the present state of things may be
found in the fact that the sandy covering effectually preserves the
submerged forest below from denuding influences, for the edification
of future generations ; or possibly, even for that of the present, as
no one can say whether the channels are more likely to be favour-
able in five years’ time or in fifty.

The existence, however, of the forest at such a level, points, like
that at St. Bees, to the occurrence, in times, geologically speaking,
recent, of a slight sinking as the last vertical movement to which
this area has been subjected. As stated in the paper on the
Raised Beach of the Cumberland coast by Mr. R. Russell and
myself-—an abstract of which appears in Part II. of the Trans.
Cumb: Assoc.—this subsidence took place, in all probability, some
time after the elevation of the Raised Beach. Its effect as regards
the raised beach was most likely to lower it from perhaps fifty to
sixty feet above the sea to its present average height of twenty to
thirty feet. And the effect of the subsidence on the area now
occupied at high tide by the waters of the Solway must have been
to convert a fertile plain watered by many rivers to the state in
which we now see it—a broad sheet of water at high tide, and a
sandy plain intersected by ever-shifting water-channels at low.*

*In an interesting paper by Mr. J. D. Kendall, published in the
Q. J. Geol. Soc., Feb. 1881, the vegetable deposits on the shore at Mary-
port, St. Bees, Drigg, and Walney are considered to be probably interglacial,
and of the same age as those found inland resting on the Lower Boulder

a

| (such as those of the Waver and Wampool,) have been carried. Also, slightly, in the

pre. T.V.H.

123

From this subsidence, which may be considered the last important
geological event of pre-historic times in this area, I now pass to an
occurrence which took place between five and six centuries ago—
the destruction of Skinburness by the sea about A.D. 1305. The
facts, as given in the documents which allude to it, may be found
in Mr. Jenkinson’s Guide to Carlisle, Gilsland, and the Roman
Wall. They are also brought forward by Mr. R. S. Ferguson in
his interesting paper on “Roman Cumberland and Westmorland,”
in the Trans. Cumb. and West. Antiq. and Archzol. Soc. Mr.
Jenkinson (who states that he has derived many facts about Holme
Cultram Abbey and District from a paper by Mr. C. J. Ferguson,)
thus writes :—

“In 1301 we read that Bishop Halton granted to the abbot and convent
of Holme Cultram power to erect a chapel at Skinburness. In 1305 we
tind the abbot petitioning that whereas he has paid a fine of one hundred
marks to the king for a fair or market to be held at Skinburness, and
whereas that town, together with the way leading to it, is carried away by
the sea, the king would grant that he may have such fair and market at his
town of Kirkby Johan (Newton Arlosh) instead of the other place aforesaid,
and that the charter may be renewed. Skinburness seems to have been a
place of some importance, having been used as a depdt for supplying the
armies then employed against the Scots.”

Mr. R. S. Ferguson, in the paper just mentioned, appears to
think, not unnaturally, that by “the way leading to Skinburness”
is meant the way between the Abbey and Skinburness; and says :—
“These estuaries (of Waver and Wampool) appear to have been
solid ground occupied by the town of Skinburness till the sea broke

Clay at Crossgates and Lindall. But I do not think this explanation likely
to apply to the Cardurnock forest, which seems to me to owe its existence
to the general submergence which has produced similar results on various
parts of the shores of the British Isles, Brittany, Normandy, and elsewhere,
where inland deposits corresponding to those at Crossgates and Lindall do
not exist.

Borings through the glacial drift into the underlying rocks near the
Solway have never yet shown the existence of any interglacial vegetable
deposit. But, on the other hand, low-lying post-glacial peat-mosses are
very abundant there, and evidently had at one time a greater extension
seaward than they now have. In the neighbourhood of Cardurnock, for
example, the peat of the great moss that occupies most of the Bowness
peninsula abuts against the slightly raised beach.—t.v.H.

124

in in the 14th century.” And as Mr. Jenkinson in his preface
acknowledges the assistance of both the Messrs. Ferguson, all the
available facts are evidently stated in the paragraph I have quoted
from the Guide, and Mr. R. S. Ferguson’s view is but a natural
conjecture based on the supposed position of “the way leading to
Skinburness.”

But the acceptance of this view as to the former position of
Skinburness seems to me to be fraught with many serious difficulties
from a geological point of view.

In the first place, the broad loamy flats bordering Morietfaiie
Bay, (mainly on the north side of the railway between Kirkbride
and Abbey Town, and on both sides of it between the neighbour-
hood of the Abbey and Silloth,) gradually and almost imperceptibly
decrease in height as we approach the present foreshore of the
Bay. Consequently all existing villages and hamlets are either,
like Kirkbride and Abbey Town, on the higher ground bordering
the flats, or, if on the flats, are at a considerable distance from their
Solway edge, while the cause of their position is usually some two
or three feet of extra height, as at Newton Arlosh and Calvo.
Besides these there is a third class on the shingle ridges of the
coast, to which group Beckfoot, Blitterlees, Silloth, and the present
Skinburness belong. Now with existing levels—and the pre-
sumption is on many grounds strongly against either upheaval or
submergence in this area for many more than five hundred years—
the Solway edges of these flats must have been still less habitable
in the days of Edward I. than they now are, in consequence of
their then comparatively undrained condition.

But let us suppose (for the sake of argument) that the whole
district was elevated, many centuries ago, so that the flats of
Moricambe Bay, now uncovered only at low water, were perma-
nently high and dry. Then if a port had existed abutting on the
combined channel of Waver and Wampool, it would have been in
no danger whatever of being destroyed by a violent irruption of the
sea, inasmuch as it must have been as far from anything that could
be called sea as Kirkbride is now. On the other hand it is manifest
that a gradual subsidence from a former more elevated level to the

125

present one could not have been the cause of destruction, both on
account of the suddenness recorded, and because, in that case
Skinburness would not have been the only sufferer. The one
probable agency, therefore, is that erosive force of waves and
currents, unaided by any change of level, which acts so powerfully
on the coast of East Anglia at the present day.

It follows then (as the record tends to show) that the destruction ,
must have been the consequence of violent irruptions of the sea,
which took place between the years 1301 and 1305. But it is
extremely difficult to understand in what way such irruptions could
have occurred on the east side of Grune Point. For the shingle
ridges which there end—being prevented from extending to the
north-east by the stream draining Skinburness marsh—are, as the
discovery of the Roman Camp on them at Beckfoot proves, pre-
Roman in date; and their-existence must always have protected
the land to the east of them from the fury of the waves. While,
on the other hand, any destruction in what is now the foreshore
adjacent to Skinburness marsh, resulting from changes of channel
in the streams flowing through Moricambe Bay, would not have
been considered as arising from the sea, nor could it have been of
the sudden and violent character indicated by the records.

My own view is that Skinburness at the beginning of the 14th
century occupied a site a few yards westward of its present one, on
a spot now covered by the waves, and that the “way to it,” which
was also destroyed, was a road along the coast which approached
it from the south. This road would keep, like the present one
from Allonby and Maryport, on the shingle ridges close to the
shore, and thereby avoid the (then) undrained marshes covering
so large an area on the eastern side of the ridges. And the
destruction of a very few yards of it, when coupled with the expense
and difficulty of maintaining it against the inroads of the sea, would
be a sufficient reason for abandoning the remains of Skinburness,
though so important as a depét in the Scottish wars. The import-
ance of Skinburness as a port, at this time, shows that the channels
to it were comparatively deep, and their navigation fairly free from
difficulty and danger: advantages which it does not enjoy at

126

present, though influences notoriously at work in the Solway might
at any time reproduce them.

In short, all that could have been necessary both to give Skin-
burness pre-eminence as a port and finally to annihilate it, is
approximately shown in the Admirality Chart of the Solway as it
was forty years ago. ‘The main channel is there seen to run right
across the centre of Cardurnock Flatts, as they now exist, and to
pass quite close to the present Skinburness, and over what I have
supposed to have been the site of the ancient port of that name.
South of Skinburness the channel gets farther and farther away
from the land, and everywhere but at that place there is a broad
foreshore. Granting the existence of a similar state of things
about the year 1300, it is evident that Skinburness must then have
been the place most suitable for a port on the Solway. But, on
the other hand, a slight easterly bend on the part of the estuary
channel at Skinburness would have a destructive influence on the
shore ; and the waves at high water would break with special force
on the only part of the coast not protected by a broad flat foreshore.
In addition, there would be, under the above circumstances, every
possible facility for the removal of the eroded material from the
bit of coast thus specially attacked.

With what rapidity the sea can destroy a coast of soft materials
like that of North Cumberland, where circumstances are favourable
to destruction, as they would be, on the above supposition, at
Skinburness, the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk bear especial witness.
And from the greater depth of the sea and much smaller breadth
of foreshore off East Anglia the waste of land is enormously greater
there than on the Solway, where indeed it is not likely to be
noticeable except under special circumstances. But in East
Anglia the destruction proceeds with comparative regularity, and
its extent may be roughly calculated. While on the Solway, the
results being largely influenced by the ever-shifting channels of the
estuary, the changes in which are extremely rapid and sudden, a
few years might suffice to convert an obscure village into a promising
port, and again transform it to a desolate ruin.

A ¢
ay *
y
/
/
f
of
ting Se
t .
\ e)

7 | ‘wih ee Dry Sey a ?

127

CHANGE IN THE CHANNEL AT SILLOTH.

The Carlisle Journal of April 1st, 1881, contains a paragraph with the
above heading, in which it is stated :—‘‘The bed of the channel near Silloth
jetty is gradually returning to the position it occupie when the Silloth
Dock was formed. - * ~* Very soon after the dock was formed the channel
commenced to recede from the jetty. It continued to recede, the sand
accumulating at the end of the pier to the height of twenty feet. There
had been a depth of sixteen feet of water at this point, and the alteration
in the bed of the channel created inconvenience to steamboats in landing
passengers. A dredger was employed in keeping open the channel. About
two months ago it became evident that another change had set in, the
accumulation of sand at the end of the jetty appearing to be getting less.
Since that the sand has been gradually clearedaway, and now there is again
sixteen feet of water at the jetty end, enabling steamboats to land passengers
there at all times of the tide. When the channel receded, the sand accu-
mulated above the outlet of the sewer on the beach to the extent of about
ten feet. This is being gradually removed as the channel advances, and, as
stated, it is expected that the cause of the nuisance complained of at Silloth
since the outlet of the sewer was filled up will soon exist no longer.”

129

THE LICHENS OF CUMBERLAND.
By THE REv. W. JOHNSON.

(Read at the Workington Annual Meeting. )

LIcHENS are classed amongst the Flowerless Plants, or, in the secondary
division of the Vegetable Kingdom. Their position in that division
naturally falls between the Algze on the one hand and the Fungi on the
other. They are closely allied to both these adjoining Classes, still, separ-
ated from them by the characteristics of a distinct group. Some modern
Botanists, on what appear very insufficient grounds, deny that the Lichen
is an autonomous plant, having a distinctive and independent existence

and they arrange it under the order of Ascomycetous Fungi. The Lichens
join the Alge in their gelatinous forms, but differ from them by not living
under water, by possessing hyphal tissue, and by bearing spores in asci ;
while the Algz propagate themselves in ways distinct from this. They are
marked off from the Fungi on the opposite hand, by the green cells in their
tissue, which true fungi never have; and by their different method of
absorbing nutriment. The Fungi live at the expense, and by the decay, of
other organized matter: but the Lichens nourish themselves out of the
atmosphere. They are aérial plants, and just as the Alge imbibe their
food from the surrounding medium of the water, so Lichens absorb theirs
out of the surrounding medium of the air.

Lichens have no axis, either ascending or descending, and no roots,
branches, or leaves in the ordinary sense of the word. The simple plant
consists of a vegetative and a reproductive system, whiah are as suitable
and complete for the purpose they have to accomplish, as the organs of the

highest phenogam. The vegetative portion of the Lichen is called the

thallus. This always bears the organs of reproduction either upon its

surface or imbedded in its tissue}"and it may be said to constitute the plant.

It varies very much in its form, and in its habit of growth. Sometimes it

is filamentous, and is seen hanging in grey and tangled masses from the
9

130

trunks and branches of our forest trees, giving them a bearded and venerable
appearance. Sometimes it is fruticulose or shrub-like, growing on trees, or
upon the face of high rocks. Another form is that of a horizontal laciniated
frond, which grows sometimes to a large diameter on the bark of old trees,
upon the ground, or upon mossy stones. But the predominant form of
Lichen-thallus is what is called the crustaceous form. This is a light, or
yellow, or dark-coloured crust, usually circular or oblong in shape, smooth
or rough upon the surface, found profusely scattered upon rocks, rails, and
old walls in country districts. As well as the form, the tissue of the lichen-
thallus also varies in consistence and colour; but whether frondose or
crustaceous, its character is the same. It is entirely cellular, and, in the
lichen proper, it consists of three distinctly stratified layers. The first or
cortical layer, is an elastic or transparent mass of originally globular cells,

three or four deep, deformed by lateral pressure. They generally become

filled with the colouring-matter of the plant, Adjoining this, and lying
close beneath it, is the gonidial layer. This isa stratum of green globular
cells, usually in a free condition. The third, or medullary layer, consists
of a spongy mass of cells which are long and cylindrical in shape. These
form the base of the plant, and they are the first development of the spore
in the production of anew growth. The torn frond of some of the foliaceous
species, such as Peltigera, will show these separate layers of cells to the
naked eye. An important element which also enters into the constitution
of the Lichen-thallus, is a gummy or gelatinous substance called lichenine,
which undoubtedly plays an important part in nourishing the several organs
of the plant.

Like the Algz, the Lichens are endowed with a double system of repro-
duction. The primary and direct method is by sporidia. These are
produced in asci, or flask-shaped vesicles, developed in the apothecium.
This apothecium is the female organ, and it consists of a flattened or wart-
like disc, growing upon the surface or the margin of the thallus. In most
species it is easily recognised by the naked eye. There are other primary
organs of fructification called spermogones and pyenides, the exact function
of which is not so clearly understood ; but it is supposed that, in some way
or other, they are useful in either directly propagating the plant or in
fecundating the sporidia of the apothecium. The secondary system of
reproduction is by the gonidia. I have already referred to these green
globular cells, lodged in the tissue of the Lichen-thallus, and called the
gonidial layer. These isolated cellules are the most active members of the
plant, and, once they are produced from the hyphal-tissue, they take the
leading part in its development. Gonidia are both vegetative and repro-
ductive, and are peculiar to the Lichen-thallus. They frequently burst
through the outer coating of the plant and appear as soredia upon the

131

surface, giving it a scabrous or powdery appearance. From this exposure
to the air these cellules become distributed, and without any previous
fertilization multiply the individual.

_ The growth and habitat of Lichens are various, and much influenced by
outward conditions. On account of their densely cellular and somewhat
spongy nature, they are strongly hygrometric. They drink up moisture
with great rapidity. They flourish in a humid atmosphere free from
poisonous elements. Lichens are rarely found in a healthy condition in the
impure atmosphere of towns. They have a marvellous power of adaptation.
While they are sensitive to favourable conditions of growth, they can also
preserve their vitality through long periods of heat and drought. They are
likewise capable of enduring intense cold, for when every other sign of
vegetation has ceased, the hardy lichen still peeps out upon the explorer
amid the snows of the Arctic regions, as well as upon the summits of the
highest mountains of the globe. The period of lichen-growth varies some-
what in different species, but in a general sense, all are of slow growth.
They spread most freely at first; after that, they will remain for years
showing little or no change. Mr. Berkeley watched one foliaceous species
for twenty-five years, at the end of which period it remained as when he
first observed it. Some of the hard crust-forms have undoubtedly adorned
our mountain rocks for hundreds, if not for thousands of years.

During recent years considerable progress has been made in this branch
of Botanical Science, not only in the enlargement of our Lichen.Flora by
the discovery of new species, but also by the establishment of the system
of study upon a sounder and more philosophical basis.

In 1851, a Monograph was published by the Rev. W. A. Leighton of
Shrewsbury, on the ‘‘British Species of Angiocarpus Lichens, Elucidated by
their Sporidia.’”” Angiocarpus Lichens are those whose fruit are covered or
enclosed in a perithecium like some ascomycetous fungi. That Monograph
introduced the principle of using the internal structure of the fruit, and
especially the sporidia, as a reliable characteristic in the distinction of
species. The distinguished author had observed the value and use of certain
forms and markings of some seeds in the study and distinction of flowering
plants ; and, by a process of analogy, he was led to the conclusion that the
spores of Lichens possessed some permanent features which would be equally
valuable in the elucidation of that polymorphous class, Systematic investi-
gation confirmed that conclusion. Before this application of the spores of
Lichens was made by Leighton, these germs had long been known to

_ Lichenologists ; but, on account of their minuteness, the experienced

manipulation, and the high magnifying power required to properly observe
them, the real value of their characteristics had never been realized. No
attempt had then been made, either in this country or elsewhere, to apply

132

these to the elucidation of genera and species, beyond one or two limited
exceptions on the Continent.

In a group of plants so large and intricate as the Lichens, it is hardly to
be expected that we can have a system of classification which will be satis-
factory to all minds. Nylander’s has its faults to some, in tending too
much to trivial division and multiplication of species ; but this, to a certain
extent, is the natural result of observing the sporidia, and the physico-
chemical character of the plant. The principles in Nylander’s classification
are the only ones on which a natural arrangement could be built up. He
commences with those Lichens which, by their gelatinous nature, are most
nearly allied to the Algw, and above which they rise in the scale of vege-
tation ; and closes with those most allied to, and which run into the Fungi.
The whole system, in its leading divisions, rests upon the nature of the
lichen-thallus, with the modifications and gradations it assumes in develop-
ment ; combined with a due regard to the reproductive organs, the form of
the apothecium or fruit, and the shape, divisions, and colour of the spores.
Dr. Nylander further adopts, in a subsidiary way, the use of certain
chemical reagents which, as confirmatory tests, are of considerable value.

According to Dr. Nylander’s system, the Lichens of Great Britain are
divided into four families, the proportions of which are relatively wide.
The last of the four, that of Lichens proper, is many times larger than the
other three put together. The number of species and varieties now recognized
in the United Kingdom is upwards of 1,720; so that this one branch alone
of our Cryptogamia, far outnumbers all the flowering plants found in our
Islands. Within the last nine years, more than five hundred and sixty
new species and varieties have been added to our Lichen-flora, bringing it
up, as Mr. Leighton remarks, to an equality in numbers and rarity, with
that of any other country in Europe.

Now, what is the position of Cumberland in relation to our
Lichen-flora? So far as we have been able to ascertain, no
particular record has hitherto been made. In the geographical
list of Leighton’s Lichen-Flora of Great Britain, &c., a few plants
are named as having been found in this County: chiefly in the
neighbourhood of Keswick, by Mrs. Stanger; and by myself, in
the locality of Alston Moor. But those here mentioned give little
idea of the Lichen-flora which immediately surrounds us. What-
ever its productions in the Flowering Plants, there is no doubt
that Cumberland is favourable to the fostering of a flourishing
Cryptogamia, and especially of the Lichen-group. This might be
inferred from a slight knowledge of its varied physical aspect—its

135

mountain altitudes, its valleys and its woods, its lake margins and
extensive sea-board, and the varied character of its geological
out-crops. Then there is the purity of the atmosphere, with its
humidity, upon which a flourishing Lichen-flora so much depends.

_ The results of our Lichen-gatherings and observations, as far as
they have gone, have been very encouraging. ‘Though only limited
yet, in similar localities and altitudes to those we have visited, and
to the extent of species gathered, they may be taken as fairly
representative. These researches have been made chiefly in the
neighbourhood of Whitehaven, St. Bees, Ennerdale, Egremont,
Calder Abbey, Gillgarron, Bassenthwaite and Keswick ; with some
previous research on the east side of the County, and a day’s
excursion now and again to a few other localities. It must not be
understood that those places named have been thoroughly searched.
The minute form of many lichens, which may easily be overlooked
by one person, on a first or second visit to the same place, our
very brief residence in Cumberland, and the pressure of many
professional duties, have rendered this impossible. Good results,
beyond those we are at present able to record, will reward continued
research in the districts already named, especially in the locality of
Keswick and Borrowdale ; and where the aspect of the country, or
the altitude, differs from those of our record, other forms and
species may be looked for. Further, about the neighbourhood of
the Lakes, and particularly upon those rocks which are rarely
found above the surface of the earth, some entirely new Lichens
may be expected.

The subjoined list will be found to include several forms that
are rare, and some others that do not seem to have been hitherto
recorded as occurring in Great Britain at all; while two or three
of the species are new to the European list. Omitting further
mention of the numerous gatherings not yet examined, we are able
to record upwards of three hundred species and varieties.

Of the four Families into which British Lichens are at present
divided, the first one has only had recorded in it hitherto three
species ; beside finding one of these up Ennerdale, we have also
found a fourth species in the same locality. We have not had the

134

opportunity of examining the description of this plant, but we
submitted it to Dr. Nylander, and he pronounced it to be Szroso-
phon ocellatus (Dillw) Ktz. It is a small filamentous plant. The
filaments are like fine thread, slightly branched, of a brown or dark
olive colour; it grows on the face of damp rocks. The second
Family, which embraces all the gelatinous Lichens not of a fila-
mentous kind, is fairly represented in Cumberland. ‘The third
Family as yet only consists of one rare species, which has not
hitherto been found in Scotland or in the North of England. The
fourth Family, or Lichens proper, is very large, containing upwards
of 1600 species and varieties. ‘The first two families of Lichens
are a sort of adjustment of the border-land of the group where
they adjoin and mingle with the Alge; while the last family
contains all the plants which have the typical and distinctive
features of the Class, and which may be said to occupy a less
questionable position. Cumberland, in its production of this large
family of Lichens, we have reason to believe, will compare favour-
ably with any other County in Great Britain.

While this record may be accepted as reliable as far as it goes,
still it can only be regarded as an instalment. In the Lichenology
of this County, a fine field is open for enterprising and diligent
research ; and whenever it is put forth, it will be amply rewarded.
In order that our list may be as useful as possible, in representing
Lichen-research in Cumberland up to the present time, we shall
include in it all Lichens known to have been found in the County,
adding the name of the finder when it is other than ourself. We
give also the several localities of the same plant, as far as we know
them.

135

Cas Ss Lie He Nese

: Family I.—BYSSACEI.

Tribe—SrrosIPHEt.

Strosiphon.

S. compactus, Ktz. A small, dark, filamentous plant ; growing on
damp rocks; not uncommon. Ennerdale, 1880. A figure of this
lichen may be seen in Hassall’s Algz, t. 68, f. 3.
8. ocellatus (Dillw.) Ktz. Filaments fine, tangled, a little glossy when dry ;
of a brown or dark olive colour, simple or slightly branched ;
cellules transversely oblong, granular, and in the older parts of the
filaments often double. On wet tocks, foot of Bowness Knot,
Ennerdale, 1881.

Family II.—COLLEMACEI.

Tribe—LiIcHINneEL.

Lphebe.

E. pubescens, Fr. In wet places on the rocks by the side of Ennerdale
Lake. Same habitat, Wastdale. 1879. A small filamentous
species of a dark olive, or brown colour.

Lichina.

L. pygmea, Lightf. Plentiful on the rocks between Whitehaven and
St. Bees; and probably will prove to be general along the coast.
1879. It grows in short densely shrubby patches of a dark olive
colour when wet, and from two to twelve inches or more in diameter.
The laciniz are flattened or compressed.

L. confinis, Ach. Same habitat and localities as the last-named species,
from which it is distinguished by the lacine being round and not
compressed ; and the patches of it upon the rocks are not so large as
the preceding.

136

Tribe—CoLLEMEI.

Collema.

C. chalazanum, Ach. On the wall, road side, near the church, Lamplugh.
1880. Rare.

C. pulposwm, Bernh. On the rocks, Ashgill Force, near Alston. 1879.
Not uncommon.

var. ceranoides, Borr. On the road side to Goosebutts. 1879. Rare.
var. tenaz, Ach. On an old wall, Asby Mount, near Rowrah. 1881.

This very much resembles C. crispum, but is distinguished from it
by the apothecia being innate and having a plain margin. Rare.

C. crispum, Huds. Upou the earth and gravelly walls about Whitehaven.
1881. Not uncommon.

C. cheileum, Ach. Barrowmouth ; the road side between Whitehaven and
Scalegill ; and about Asby. Common.

C. Forma monocarpon, Daf. Near Arlecdon Church, the road side ; also
near Whitehaven. 1879.

C. melenum, Ach. On rocks and walls, Nentwater side, near Alston. 1878.
Not common.

C. Forma marginale, Huds. Distinguished from the type by the apothecia
having a plain margin. On wall, road side near Lamplugh Church.
1880.

C. flaccidum, Ach. On walls and mossy trees, Keswick (Mrs. Stanger).
Braithwaite ; and Lamplugh. 1880.

C. multipartitum, Sm. Plentiful in fruit on walls near Lamplugh Church.
1880. Not common.

Leptogium.

L. tenuissimum, Dicks. Easily recognised by its small sub-ciliated laciniz,
and its numerous urceolate apothecia. On the ground, Yeathouse.
1881. Not common.

L. pusillum, Nyl. Very minute and rare. Wall top, Sunny Howe, Asby.
1880.

LL lacerum, Ach. Amongst moss on rocks or stones, especially in small
burns, or where it is dashed with the falling spray. Keswick
(Mrs. Stanger). Plentiful, on mossy stones in a small stream,
between the Ambleside road and the Railway ; leaving Keswick.
1880.

var. pulvinatum, Hffm. On walls, Alston. 1878.

I. sinuatum, Huds. Brownish, cushion-like, highest in the centre ; lobes

sinuate, crowded, elevated; apothecia small, numerous. On

137

mossy walls and stones, Alston; Lamplugh ; Borrowdale road side,
from Keswick. 1878. Road side to Goosebutts, Whitehaven.
1881. Not common.

var. crenulatum, Nyl. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger). Near the Church,
Lamplugh. 1880.

L. burgessit, Lightf. Finely in fruit, Keswick (Mrs. Stanger). Rare.

L. musicolum, Sw. Distinguished from some of the smaller forms of |
L. lacerum, by the lacinize taking a branched filiform shape. On
mossy walls, etc., Borrowdale road side, Keswick; the Clints,
Egremont. 1880. Rare.

Family 11J.—MYRIANGIACEI.

' This family as yet consists of only one species, which grows upon the bark
of trees. It has only been found hitherto in the South of England.

Family IV.—LICHENACEI.

Tribe—CALICIEI.

Calicium.
C. hyperellum, Ach. On the bark of old trees. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger).
Catterlen. 1879.
C. quercinum, Forma claviculare, Ach. On an old gate-post, Bowness ;
Ennerdale. 1880.
C. citrinum, Leight. Near Strands, Wastdale. 1881.

Coniocybe.

C. furfuracea, Ach. This plant has a thallus like a sulphurous dust, sprinkling
chiefly shaded nooks in old roots and stumps of trees. At Skelton
we found a fine specimen growing on a little sandy soil on a garden
wall. Skelton; West side of Bassenthwaite Lake; Melbecks; Hale
road side, Egremont. 1880. Common.

Tribe—SPHZROPHORUM.

Spherophoron.

S. coralloides, Pers. Borrowdale ; finely in fruit, (Mrs. Stanger). Enner-
dale; Knock-Morton Screes; Wastdale; Ashgill. 1878. Common.

S. fragile, Pers. Ontherocks, Bowness Knot, Ennerdale; Wastdale. 1879.
Common,

138

Tribe —BZoMYCEL.
Baeomyces.

B. rufus, D.C. On stones, Keswick (Mrs. Stanger.) Beside small streams
near Asby ; and in Wastdale. 1879.

B. roseus, Pers. Generally found upon the earth; rare. Keswick (Mrs.
Stanger). Dent Hill road side, Cleator Moor; Alston Moor. 1878.
Rare.

B. placophyllus, Ach. Very rare. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger).

B. icmadophilus, Ehrh. We have gathered remarkably fine specimens of
this lichen on the fells about Alston. It grows upon the ground,
but delights under the shelter of the overhanging heather, on the
side of a turf-hole or old peat-bog. It is easily distinguished by its
flat, delicate, flesh-coloured apothecia. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger).
Alston Moor. 1877.

Tribe—CLADONIEI.

Pycnothelia papillaria, Duf. Borrowdale (Mrs. Stanger). Not common.

Cladonia.

©. pungens, Flk. Plentiful, road side near Moresby New Railway Station.
Wall tops near Hensingham ; St. Bees; and Asby. Will be generally
found throughout Cumberland, on bank sides and old wall tops.
1879. Common.

C. turgida, Hffm. Rare. Ennerdale. 1880.

C. cervicornis, Scher. Common in wild rocky places. The laciniz are
thickish, clustered, upright, blackish about the base. Podetia are
short, and variously divided at the apex. Bowness Knot, Enner,
dale ; Wastdale ; Keswick. 1879.

C. cariosa, Flk. This is a rare species. The podetia are from half an inch
to an inch high, with brown fruit ; more or less clothed with small
scales about the base, and ribbed and channelled from the top
downwards. It is distinguished from the forms of C. pyxidata
only by turning yellow when touched with a solution of caustic
potash. It grows upon the ground, or upon turfy wall-tops.* Gill-
garron. 1880.

C. delicata, Flk. Distinguished by the granular margins of the small and
narrowly-divided leaflets, and the small, bare, flesh-coloured
podetia. Not common. Near Strands, Wastdale. 1879,

139

C. pyxidata, Fr. A very protean species. Common in some of its forms in

woods, on heaths, and especially on hedge-banks. Ennerdale. 1880.
var. vera pyxidata. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger).
var. fimbriata, Hffm. Alston. 1878.

C. gracilis, Hffm. Podetia filiform, two inches or more high, slender,
greyish-green or brown; and crowned with small dentate or awl-
shaped scyphi. Common on mountains, heaths, and mossy walls.
Wall top under Knock-Morton Screes. 1881.

var. ochrochlora, Flk. Alston. 1880.

C. furcata, Hffm. Distinguished by the attenuated and forked apices of
the podetia. Not uncommon in mountainous regions. On the fells
about Alston. 1878.

var. racemosa, Flk. Foreshield, Alston. 1878.

var. recurva, Hffm. Ennerdale. 1880.

var. spinosa, Flk. Wall top, Horris Moor; road side, opposite Arlec-
don. 1880.

C. cornucopioides, Fr. A variable species, but readily known by its yellow-
green colour, delated and proliferous scyphi. Typical form, well
developed on walls, Ashgil; Harris Moor. 1879. Also found at
Keswick by Mrs. Stanger.

C. digitata, Hffm. Podetia cylindrical, with finger-like prolongations from
the scyphi. The cliff top near St. Bees. 1880. Rare.

var. macilenta, Hffm. Forma polydactyla, Flk. Keswick (Mrs.
Stanger). Plentiful and well grown on the sea bank between
Saltom and Barrowmouth, Whitehaven. 1880.

F. carcata, Ach. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger).

Ff, ostreatiformis. Sea-bank between Saltom and Barrowmouth. 1880.

Cladina.

C. sylvatica, Hifm. Common upon the ground and amongst rocks in moun-
tain districts. It is two or three inches high, of a light straw
colour, or white ; much branched, and radiato-cymose at the apices.
Foreshield Fell, Alston; Ullock Pike; Blake Fell; Knock-Morton ;
and up Ennerdale. 1878. Probably common on all the Cumberland
mountains.

F. scabrosw. Found upon most of the above-named fells, growing with
the typical form. 1878.

C. uncialis, Hffm. Shorter than C. sylvatica, deeper coloured, podetia

fistulose. Common in the mountain districts of Cumberland. 1878.
Ff. turgescens, Fr. Podetia swollen upwards. In same localities as
type.

140

Pilophoron.

P. fibula, Tuck. A small plant growing upon the wet surface of perpen-
dicular rocks. The podetia stand up like little black agarics.
Rare. End of Grange Bridge, Borrowdale. 1881.

Tribe—STEREOCAULEI,

Stereocaulon.

S. coralloides, Fr. On rocks, Lake-side, Wastdale. 1879.

S. paschale, Ach. Generally found on rocks in sub-alpine regions. Keswick
(Mrs. Stanger). Herdhouse Fell, and Bowness Knot, Ennerdale.
1880. Common.

S. condensatum, Hffm. Asby. 1880. Rare.

var. condyloidewm, Ach. Foreshield, Alston. 1878. Rare.

S. pileatum, Ach. This lichen is very rare ir this country. It is not
recorded by Leighton. Mr. C. Larbalestier found it in the West of
Ireland. I had the pleasure of finding it growing somewhat
sparingly, on hard rocks beside a small stream near Hermon’s Hill,
Wastdale. 1879.

Tribe—SIPHULEI.

Thamnolia.

T. vermicularis, Sw. White, somewhat worm-shaped, prostrate on the
ground. Rare. Skiddaw (Mr. Pilkington),

Tribe—USNEEI.

Osnea.

U. barbata, L. Forma florida, L. Filamentous in form, growing in tufty
masses on the trunks and branches of forest trees. Common, but
rare in fruit. Ashgill Woods (finely fruited) ; Moor End Wood,
Asby ; Holme Wood, Lamplugh. General. 1880.

Forma hirta, L. Differs from the preceding form in having the branches
densely fibrillose and sorediate. Ashgill Woods, 1878 ; and those
last named. General.

Forma plicata, L. Fr. pendulous, smooth, without fibrile. Ashgill
Woods. 1878.

141

Forma ceratina, Scher. Filaments rough with papilla. Rare. Ashgill
Woods. 1878.

Forma rubiginea, Ach. Distinguished by having a red tirfye. Rare.
Calder Abbey ; Hale Mill. 1881.

Tribe—RAMALINEI.

Alectoria.

A, jubaia, Linn. Moor End Wood, Asby; and upon the rocks, Ullock
Pike. 1880. Common.

Evernia.

£. furfuracea, Mann. Lacinie dichotomously- and multi-divided ; upper
surface isidiose, black beneath. On trees and walls. Common.
Gillgarron ; Asby-mount, Keswick. 1879.

£. prunastri, L. White, or straw-colour; lacinie linear, flat, wrinkled,
with white sorediz on the margins. Common on trees and walls.
Rare in fruit. Gathered finely in fruit at Gillgarron; Calder
Abbey ; Hale. 1880. Also at Keswick by Mrs. Stanger.

Ramatina.

R. calicaris, Hffm. On trees, Foreshield and Ashgill Woods, near Alston ;
Moor End Wood, Asby; Holme Wood, Lamplugh. General. 1878.
This species is readily distinguished by its lacinie being somewhat
narrow, shining, and deeply channelled longitudinally.

R. farinacea, L. Laciniz slender and sorediate on the margins. Common
on trees and walls, but rare in fruit. General in Cumberland. 1878.

R. fraxinea, L. This is the largest species of Ramalina known in Great
Britain. It differs from R. calicaris by having broader and coarser
laciniz, and by its curved spores. On trees, common.

Forma typica tenieformis, Ach. Foreshield Wood, Alston; Calder
Abbey ; Keswick. 1878.

Forma ampliata, Ach. Lacinize very broad and wrinkled, obtuse and
deformed at the apices. Foreshield Wood, Alston; Asby ; Lam-
plugh. 1878. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger).

R. fastigiata, Pers. On trees, common. General in the woods about
Alston ; Keswick ; Lamplugh. 1878.

R. polymorpha, Ach. Forma ligulata, Ach. On the rocks near St. Bees.

142

Es)

R. pollinaria, Ach. Laciniz short, delated, flattened, wrinkled, and
sorediate. On railings, walls, and bushes. Road side near Skelton ;
Seascales. 1879.

cuspidata, Ach. A maritime species, with the apices of the laciniz often
hooked or recurved. Plentiful on the rocks about Barrowmouth
and St. Bees.

intermedia, Del. Small, slender, laciniz sorediate on the margins.
Soredia change yellow, then red, with caustic potash. On thorn
bushes, St. Bees ; the cliff top, St. Bees Head. f

R. curnowii, Cromb. _Plentiful on the rocks at Barrowmouth and near St.

Bees. 1879.

by

es)

Tribe—CETRARIEI.

Cetraria.

C. aculeata, Fr. On moors, heaths, rocks, etc. Common. Ennerdale ;
Wastdale ; Keswick.
Forma typica. General in Cumberland. 1878.
Forma muricata, Ach. Fells about Alston; Bowness Knot; Blake
Fell ; Wastdale. 1878.

Platysma.

P. triste, Web. In pitch-black tufts, on alpine rocks, Pillar Fell, Enner-
dale. 1881. Not common.
. glaucum, L. On rocks and trees. Very common in Cumberland. Rare
in fruit. Gathered in fruit in Ashgill Woods. 1878.
Forma sorediosa. Margins sorediate. Foreshield Wood, Alston. 1878.

ae)

Tribe—PELTIGEREI.

Nephromium.

NV. levigatum, Ach. Not common. On trees and stones in shady places.

Keswick (Mrs. Stanger).
var. parile, Ach. Braithwaite, near Keswick. 1880.

NV. lusitanicum, Scher. Frequent on rocks and mossy trunks. Plentiful
and well developed on the perpendicular face of rocks by the road
side, not far from Bassenthwaite Lake Railway Station, Keswick
road; about Keswick ; Calder Abbey ; Head of Crummock Lake, ete,
1880.

143

Peltigera.

P. aphthosa, L. Melbecks, grassy bank, road side. Not common in Cum-
berland. 1881. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger).

P. canina, L. On mossy walls, the ground and bank sides, very common.
Foreshield, Alston; Skelton; Calder Abbey, etc. General in
Cumberland. 1878.

P. malacea, Ach. Frond medium size, thicker and darker-coloured than
the other Peltigera. Apothecia dark brown, very much incurved,
the tomentum sprinkling the upper surface of the apothecia,
Asby. 1879. Rare in Cumberland.

P. rufescens, Hffm. Upper surface, when dry, smooth, and more or less
polished, of a reddish-brown colour. Not common. Foreshield,
Alston ; Keswick; Asby. 1878. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger).

P. spuria, Ach. Distinguished by the ascending finger-like lobes, which
bear the fruit on the margin of the frond. Lamplugh; Ennerdale,
1880. Rare.

P. polydactyla, Uffm. Frond a pale grey; thin, smooth, and somewhat
polished ; apothecia light reddish-brown, numerous. On the
ground. Lamplugh ; Ennerdale. 1880. Somewhat rare.

P. horizontalis, L. asily recognised by the thick spongy frond, and the
light, reddish-brown, horizontal apothecia. Common in Cumber-
land. Gathered in a well-developed state in Barrowmouth Wood.
Calder Abbey ; Bowness; Ennerdale; Keswick road side, by
Bassenthwaite Lake, ete. 1879. Also at Keswick (Mrs. Stanger).

Solorina.

S. saccata, L. Apothecia sunk in the frond. Foreshield Wood, Alston.
On mossy rocks, Ashgill Force. 1878. Rare in Cumberland. A
lichen which loves the shade.

Tribe—PARMELIEI.

Stictina.

S. limbata, Sm. On mossy trees, Braithwaite; Keswick. 1880. Rare.
Seldom seen in frnit.
S. fuliginosa, Dicks. On mossy ground, rocks, and trees. Rare. Somewhat
plentiful on the ground, Barrowmouth Wood ; Borrowdale road
side; and Great Wood, Keswick. 1879. Castellet rocks, Keswick
(Mrs. Stanger). Have never seen this species in fruit in the North
of England.

144

S. scrobiculata, Scop. On mossy trees, Keswick (Mrs. Stanger). Calder
Abbey ; Keswick. 1880. Rare.

Sticla.

S. pulmonaria, Ach. Frond large, reticulate above, bullate beneath and
tomentose. Not uncommon, but seldom found in fruit. Keswick
(Mrs. Stanger); Calder Abbey; Ennerdale ; Braithwaite; Great
Wood, Keswick. 1879.

Ricasolia.

R. amplissima, Scop. On trees, Great Wood, Keswick (Mrs. Stanger).
In fruit. Calder Abbey. 1879.

R. letevirens, Lightf. On trees, Great Wood, Keswick; Calder Abbey.
Well developed, and finely in fruit. 1879.

Parmelia.

The thallus of the Parmelias is horizontal, variously laciniate or labate at
the circumference. They grow mostly upon the bark of trees, or upon flat
surfaces ; and bear the apothecia scattered over their upper surface.

P. caperata, L. Full, lightish yellow, dilated, labato-incised, upper surface
wrinkled, black and rhizinose beneath. On rocks and trees.
common. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger); Egremont; Calder Abbey ;
woods about Asby and Lamplugh. 1879. I have never found this
bearing fruit in Cumberland.

P. olivacea. var. exasperata, Ach. Minutely papillate upon the frucase,
On trees. Alston. 1878.

P. physodes, L. On trees and rocks. Common, but rare in fruit. Ashgill
Woods, Alston. 1878.

var. recurva, Leight. Keswick (in fruit, Mrs. Stanger. Ashgill
Woods (in fruit); Asby; Wastdale, 1878.

var. labrosa, Ach. Laciniz somewhat cylindrical. Asby (in fruit).
1879. Common.

P. perlata, L. On trees. Rare in fruit. Wastdale; Egremont; Calder
Abbey. 1879.

var. ciliata, D.C. Melbecks, Bassenthwaite; Asby. 1879. Not common.
Forma dissectula, Nyl. Asby. 1880.

P. fuliginosa, Dub. On walls. Rowrah, Ennerdale; Hale. 1879. Common.

P. conspersa, Ehrh. Onrocks. Ennerdale ; Wastdale; Bassenthwaite.
1879.

Forma isidiata, Anzi. Surface of thallus densely isidiose. Found in
the same habitats as the typical form. 1879.

145

P. saxatilis, L. Forma glomulifera, Cromb. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger).
var. sulcata, Tayl. Ashgill Woods (in fruit) ; Asby. 1879.
var. furfuracea, Scher. Thallus rough with papillae. Very common
on rocks and walls. Alston (in fruit) ; Asby ; Wastdale. 1878.
var. omphalodes, L. Brownish black, shining. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger).
P. levigata, Sm. Ennerdale, 1880.

Phystia.

P. parietina, L. Yellow, sub-orbicular. Occurs in patches upon old walls.

Common. Gillgarron; Harris Moor; Alston. 1876.

var. aureola, Ach. Deeper yellow than the type; minutely granulate
upon the surface, with margins of apothecia crenulate. Harris
Moor; Whitehaven. 1879.

var. lychnea, Ach. Thallus small and crowded. Differs from Lecanora
candelaria, in the purple colour produced by K. Not common.
Ashgill, Alston. 1878.

var. polycarpa, Ehrh. Ona barndoor, Melbecks; Bassenthwaite. 1881.

P. pulverulenta, Schreb. On trees, common. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger) ;
Skelton ; Alston; Asby. 1878.

Forma venusta, Ach. Margins of apothecia have small horizontal
lobule. Asby ; Keswick. 1879.

P. stellaris, L. Distinguished by the albo-maculate, or minutely white-
spotted, thallus; and by the brown nucleate spores. On trees and
bushes, frequent. Asby ; Ennerdale ; Bassenthwaite ; Wastdale.
1879.

var. tenella, Scop. Ennerdale ; Asby Mount.

var. fimbriatula, Strtn. Differs from the last form in the lacinie being
slenderer, longer, and albo-sorediate at the extremities. On thorn
bushes, Skelton. 1879.

P. aquila, Ach. Greenish brown, narrowly laciniate, orbicular. On mari-
time rocks. Plentiful, in splendid condition and full of fruit, about
Barrowmouth ; Whitehaven. 1880. é

Tribe—GYROPHOREL.

Umbilicaria.

U. pustulata, Hoffm. Thallus membranaceous, monophyllous, umbilically
affixed, coriaceous, blistered on the upper surface. On rocks and
stones in mountainous districts. Plentiful at Hermon’s Hill, and
on the high side of the Strands, Wastdale. Not in fruit, which is

10

146

rare. This is the only locality in which we have seen this plant in
Cumberland. 1879.

U. polyphylla, Forma congregata, T. and B. Top of Bowness Knot, Enner-
dale. 1881.

U. polyrhiza, L. Upon a wall above Boot, Eskdale; top of Bowness
Knot, Ennerdale. 1880.

U. cylindrica, L, Margins fringed with black fibrils, upper surface rugulose.
Scawfell (Mrs. Stanger) ; top of Bowness Knot, Ennerdale. 1881.

Forma denudata, T. and B. Top of Bowness Knot, Ennerdale. 1881.

Tribe—LECANOREI.

Pannaria.

P, rubiginosa, Thunb. Thallus radiato-laciniate, lightish-grey tending to
cream-colour ; apothecia deep red, margin same as thallus. On
mossy rocks and trees. Not common. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger).

P. pezizoides, Web. On mossy ground and rocks, frequent. We gathered
fine specimens in Barrowmouth Wood, Whitehaven. 1879.

var. coronata, Ach. Near High Hesket (Mrs. Stanger) ; Barrowmouth
Wood, Whitehaven ; and on an old wall in front of How Hall,
Ennerdale. 1880. Not frequent.

P. nebulosa, Forma coronata, Flk. On the earth. Rare. Old wall top,
front of How Hall, Ennerdale. 1880.

P. plumbea, Lightf. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger).

Forma myriocarpa, Del. Ennerdale Lake Side; Keswick. 1880.

P. nigra, Huds. On limestone, near Cockermouth. 1880.

P. psotina, Ach. Very closely resembles P. nigra in appearance, but differs
in having three-septate spores. Road side, Harris Moor, White-
haven. 1879. Not common.

Amphiloma.

A. lanuginosum, Ach. Thallus lobate, granuloso-pulverulent; pale yellow;
hypothallus dark green, and tomentose. Not uncommon in mossy
places. Fruit unknown. Keswick (Mrs, Stanger); Foreshield,
Alston ; Wastdale. 1878.

Squamaria.

S. saxicola, Poll. On rocks and walls, frequent. Ennerdale ; Wastdale ;
Melbecks, Bassenthwaite. 1879.

S. gelida, L. On rocks. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger) ; Knock Morton Screes.
1880.

147

Placodium.

P. murorum, Hffm. Thallus bright yellow; orbicular, radiate ; closely
adnate. On walls, frequent. Whitehaven; St. Bees; Alston.
1878.

Forma lobulatum, Smrft. On rocks. St. Bees. Not common. 1879.

P. cirrhochroum, Ach. On limestone. Rare. Near the waterfall, Alston.
1879.

P. collopismum, Ach. var. plicatum, Wedd. Near Croft Pit, Hensingham ;
Bridekirk. 1879.

P. citrinum, Ach. Thallus a yellow crust, granulose or leprose, sometimes
with a green tinge, if in the shade ; apothecia orange, somewhat
sunk, with pulverulent margin. On old walls, frequently on
mortar, and old buildings. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger) ; Lamplugh ;
Ennerdale. General in Cumberland. 1879.

Lecanora.

L, vitellina. var. coruscans, Ach. Newberry, Alston. 1878.

LL candelaria, Ach. Greenish yellow, minutely laciniate. On trees, pales,
and rocks. Braithwaite, near Keswick. 188]. Not common.

L. squamulosa, Schrad. On rocks, frequent. Harris Moor; Barrowmouth,
Whitehaven. 1879.

L. rhagadiza, Nyl. Thallus indeterminate, of a medium thickness, rimoso
or somewhat areolato-diffract ; surface slightly uneven, of a dull
virescent colour ; has a little, the faded appearance of having been
washed with water ; apothecia fuscescent, innate, sub-urceolate,
with an obtuse, even, paler margin; hypothecium pale; paraphyses
slender, filiform, conglutinate; while adherent the apices are
fuscescent ; when separated by K., they are pale and slightly
articulate ; asci lineari-clavate ; spores numerous, colourless,
oblong, very minute ; gelatina-hymenea cerulescent then slightly
tawny with iodine ; thallus K—. C—. A new lichen which we
found on fresh-water washed sandstone, close beside the sea.
Barrowmouth, Whitehaven. 1880. Vide Journal of Botany, 1881,
p. 113.

L. tartarea, L. A thick, coarse lichen, growing upon rocks in mountainous
regions ; distinguished for its calorific properties. Keswick (Mrs.
Stanger). Found finely in fruit in Ennerdale, and up the Pike,
above Melbecks, Bassenthwaite. 1880.

L varia, Ehrh, On wooden palings, etc. Not uncommon. Beside Bassen-
thwaite Lake; Ennerdale. 1879.

L. subintricata, Nyl. Distinguished from L. scepincola and L. intricata by

L.

148

the minute spores, aud very slender paraphyses. On wooden
posts, Ennerdale. 1880.

atra, Huds. On rocks and trees, frequent. On the rocks, Barrowmouth ;
and at St. Bees ; Ennerdale ; Wastdale ; top of Blake Fell. 1879.

L. frustulosa, Dicks. Bowness Knot, Ennerdale. 1879. Rare.

L.

L.

polytropa, Ehrh, On rocks, frequent. Bassenthwaite; Ennerdale ;
Wastdale. 1879.

intricata, Schrad. Frequent in Cumberland. Barrowmouth; St. Bees ;
Ennerdale. 1879.

. symmicta, Ach. On bark and old wood, frequent. Varies considerably

in form, Asby ; Bassenthwaite; Ennerdale. 1879.

lustescens, D.C. On trees and pales, frequent. Thallus a whitish-yellow
powder or powdered crust; apothecia pale or dark, somewhat
twisted or uneven in age, with a pulverulent margin. Ennerdale ;
Wastdale. 1879.

. subfusca, L. Forma rugosa, Pers. On trees. Calder Abbey ; Hale ;

Keswick. 1879.
Forma argentata, Ach. On rocks, Wastdale. 1881.
Forma chlarona, Ach. On rocks, near Whitehaven. 1880.

. calearea, Linn, Alston. 1878.

‘Forma contorta, Hoffm. Alston. 1878.

. gibbosa, Ach. Forma vulgaris, Th. Fr. Ennerdale ; Ullock Pike ;

Bassenthwaite. 1879.
badia, Ach. Onrocks. Ennerdale; Wastdale. General among the
fells.

. parella, L. Typical form, very common on the walls about Whitehaven.

This is one of the commonest of British Lichens.

Forma pallescens, L. Thallus whiter than the type; apothecia covered
with a white powder in the centre. Ennerdale ; Wastdale ; Kes-
wick ; and about Whitehaven. Not common. On trees Foreshield
Wood, Alston. 1876.

poriniformis, Nyl. In appearance, very much like a Pertusaria. On
rocks. Rare. Ruins of Calder Abbey. 1881.

. rupestris, Scop. Common on limestone rocks. Alston ; Clints, Egre-

mont. 1876.
Forma viridi-flavescens, Wulf. Barrowmouth ; Moresby ; Alston.

. glaucoma, Hffm. On rocks, frequent. Alston; Ennerdale. 1876.

Forma cinereo-pruinosa. Catterlen, near Penrith. 1879.

. angulosa, Ach. Apothecia generally crowded, irregular in shape, flat,

pale in colour, and covered with a grey pruina. Frequent,
Catterlen ; Lamplugh ; Wastdale. 1879.

149

L. aurantiaca, var. erythrella, Ach. On rocks, frequent. _ Foreshield,
Alston ; Ennerdale. 1876.
var. inalpina, Ach. Thallus very thin, sometimes obliterated ; apothecia
small, not half the size of the type. On rocks and walls, frequent.
Whitehaven; near the Strands, Wastdale; Bassenthwaite; Alston.
1878.
var. rubescens, Scher. Thallus bright yellow, tending to golden-red or
golden-brown. Very rare. On rocks, near Moor Row. 1880.
L. ferruginea, Huds. Apothecia a full rust-red colour. Frequent on rocks
and trees.
Forma saxicola. St. Bees ; Ennerdale ; Alston. 1878.
Forma festiva, Ach. St. Bees. 1879.
LL. turneriana, Ach. The apothecia of this lichen vary in colour, from
reddish-yellow to brown, but they always have a prominent paler
margin. On rocks, Rare. Barrowmouth ; St. Bees. 1879.
L. cerina, Ehrh. On trees and rocks, frequent. The base of a tree, growing
through Arlecdon Churchyard wall ; also up Ennerdale. 1879,
var. chlorina, Fw. On the rocks at the foot of Bowness Knot, Enner-
dale. Rare.
var. stillicidiorum, Hornem. On moss upon the walls, roadside leaving
Skelton for Catterlen. 1879, Rare.
L. pyracea, Ach. On rocks, near Moor Row.
L. albo-lutescens, Nyl. A new lichen, first found by us on the Tyne side at
Bywell. We also found it on the wall, road side, near Scalegill,
1880. On sandstone. Rare. Thallus white, or between white
and grey, closely adherent, indeterminate, leprose or areolate ; the
areole having a scabrous appearance ; apothecia waxy orange-red,
concave, with thick proper margin, growing paler outward until it
blends with the subtending thalline margin ; centre of apothecia
sometimes furnished with an umbo ; Margin often flexuose ; para-
physes moderate, free ; spores eight, ellipsoid, polari-bilocular :
polar cells large, with connecting tube. Thallus K— C—. Apo-
thecia K. crimson. Vide Jowrnal of Botany, 1881, p. 113.
L. variabilis, Forma ecrustacea, Nyl. On the wall, road side, near the
Church, Lamplugh. 1880. Not common, Leighton, in his
L. Flora, &e., 3rd Ed., p. 165, names this lichen, Placodium
agardhianum.
L. sophodes, Ach. On trees and rocks frequent. Calder Abbey, plentiful ;
j Keswick ; St. Bees. 1880.
L. milvina, Ach. On the rocks, St. Bees. Dr. Nylander pronounced this
lichen to be as here named, after examination ; and it differs from
ZL. milvina, Whinb., as described by Leighton p. 216 Z. Flora,

150
3rd Ed.; in having a lighter-coloured thallus, with a ferruginous
tinge, and reaction K— C—.
. leucospeirea, Nyl. On sandstone rocks, St. Bees. 1879.
. erysibe, Ach. On walls and rocks. Not common. Asby. 1879.
Forma obscurata, Nyl. Thallus nigro-fuscous, or black, leproso-
gravulose, diffract. Onan old wall, Asby. 1880.

L. ralfsii, Salw. MS. On maritime rocks. Said to be rare, but very
plentiful on the rocks about Barrowmouth, and east of St. Bees.
It covers the light surfaces in thin, dark masses, with a slightly
green or bluish-green cast. 1879.

LD. hematomma, Ehrh. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger) ; on the walls, road side,
between Skelton and Catterlen.

L. ventosa, Ll. On hard rocks, in mountainous regions ; easily recognised
by its thick dark sulphur-green thallus and its large deep-red
apothecia. Not common. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger); Ullock Pike,
Bassenthwaite ; Bowness Knot; and the fell sides, Ennerdale. 1879.

Sw

Pertusaria,

P. multipunctata, Turn. On trees, and bark which still covers a decaying
trunk. Moor End Wood, Asby. 1880. Distinguished from
P. velata by different reaction.

P. dealbata, Ach. On rocks. Herdhouse Fell, Ennerdale. 1880. Not
common.

P. communis, D.C. On trees, very common. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger) ;
Braithwaite ; Calder Abbey ; Hale; Lamplugh. General.

Forma rupestris, D.C. On rocks, common. On walls about Calder
Bridge. 1879.

P. fallax, Pers. On trees. Common about Whitehaven ; Greenbank ;
Asby ; Calder Abbey ; Keswick. 1879.

P. velata, Turn, On trees. Braithwaite and Keswick. 1879.

P. faginea, L. Ontrees. Asby ; Keswick ; in a barren state. 1879.

P. pustulata, Ach. On trees. Catterlen ; Keswick. 1879.

P. leioplaca, Ach. Thallus pale yellowish or creamy, smooth, pustules or
verrucz larger, but less prominent, than those of P. pustulata, and
not quite so scattered. On trees, frequent. Keswick ; Asby ;
Calder Abbey. 1879.

P. spilomanthodes, Ny]. A new lichen, found upon the syenite rock, some-
where about the foot of Bowness Knot, Ennerdale, 1880. I obtained
a good specimen, but regret that, after twice carefully searching, I
have not again been able to meet with it. Thallus cinereous,
thickish, rimoso-diffract, surface much and deeply wrinkled, very

151

uneven ; apothecia innate, rugosa-defformed ; ostiola open, irregular,
black ; when wet minutely granulate or papillose, with prominent
thalline margin ; section of hymenium rather dark, paraphyses
slender; spores two to four in each ascus, large, ellipsoid, sometimes
oviform, violet, with a yellowish tinge in the centre ; when K. is
applied, distinctly and deeply violet ; epispore broad and wavy ;
paraphyses, asci, and epispore, deep blue with iodine, Thallus K.
yellow, then deep orange-red. Vide Journal of Botany, 1881,
p. 113.

Pilyttis.
P. agelea, Ach. On trees, Catterlen, near Penrith. Not common. 1879.

Thelotrema.

T’. lepadinum, Ach. On the bark of trees, not unfrequent. Calder Abbey ;
Keswick. 1879,

Crceolaria.

U. scruposa, L. On rocks and walls. Not common. Ullock Pike, Bassen-
thwaite ; St. Bees ; Ennerdale, 1879.
Forma bryophila, Ach. Grows upon mosses and Cladonia. Rare.
Ennerdale ; Lamplugh ; Keswick. 1879.

Tribe—LEcrDEINEI,

Lecidea.

L. ochracea, Hepp. On rocks. Not common. Old quarry, Barrowmouth
bank, Whitehaven. 1880.

L. lucida, Ach. Citrine-yellow, like a golden dust on shady rocks, under-
side of stones in walls, ete. Harris Moor ; Hale ; Wastdale ; in
splendid condition in the nooks of the slaty rock, west side of
Bassenthwaite Lake. 1879,

L. flecuosa, Forma eruginosa, Borr. On old rails, decaying wood, ete.
Cliff top, between Barrowmouth and St. Bees ; Ennerdale, 1879.

L. spododes, Nyl. On old fence rails. Rare. Asby. 1879.

_ L. decolorans, Flk. On the earth. The moors, Alston. 1878.

L, sanguinaria, L. On rocks and mossy trees, frequent. This lichen takes
its name from, and is easily distinguished by a vein of vermillion-
red in the medulla of the thallus, and at the base of the apothecia,

152

The Rev. J. Harriman supposed this to be a disease, but it is
simply a natural and universal colorific property of the plant. The
thicker and healthier the thallus, the more abundant the coloured
matter. Keswick (Mrs. Stanger). Plentiful and in fine condition
up Ullock Pike, Bassenthwaite; Ennerdale; Boot, Eskdale. 1880.

LI. parasema, Ach. On trees, palings, ete. Near Bassenthwaite Lake, west
side.
var. elwochroma, Ach. On trees, common. Asby ; Ennerdale; Wast-
dale. 1879.
L. protrusa, Fr. Onrocks. St. Bees. 1879.
L. enterochlora, Tayl. On rocks, frequent. Barrowmouth; St. Bees. 1879.
L. sublatypea, Leight. On alpine recks. Rare. Dent Hill. 1879.
LL. uliginosa, Schrad. On turfy ground or wall tops. Common. Alston
moors ; wall top, Dent Hill road. 1878.
L. coarctata, Sm. On walls and stones, frequent. Ennerdale ; Barrow-
mouth ; Road side between Gillgarron and Whillimoor.
L. kochiana, Hepp. On mountain rocks, Alston moors. 1876.
L. lapicida, Fr. On rocks, frequent. St. Bees ; Ennerdale ; Alston.
1878.
I. rivulosa, Ach. On mountain rocks. Not uncommon. LEnnerdale ;
Wastdale ; Alston. 1878.
L. fusco-atra, Ach. On rocks in mountain regions, frequent. Alston ;
Ennerdale ; Wastdale. 1878.
Forma grisella, Flk. Rare. Ennerdale.
LI. polycarpa, Flk. On mountain rocks, frequent. Ennerdale. 1879.
LL. lactea, Flk. On hard mountain rocks. Rare. Bowness Knot, Enner-
dale. 1879.
LI. sub-kochiana, Nyl. On rocks in sub-alpine regions. Not common.
Wastdale. 1881.
LL. contigua, Fr. On mountain rocks, frequent in most of its many forms.
Calder Abbey, waterside.
Forma platycarpa, Fr. Alston moors ; Ennerdale.
Forma leprosa, Leight. Alston moors.
Forma nobilis, Fr. Thallus a lightish blue-grey, thick and cracked.
Ennerdale ; Alston moors.
Forma flavicunda, Ach. Rusty-red, thick. Alston moors; Ennerdale.
LL. confluens, Webr. On mountain rocks. Notcommon. Gamerigg, White-
haven.
Forma oxydaia, Leight. Alston moors.
LL sorediza, Nyl. Onrocks. Common. Wastdale. 1881.
L

. gelatinosa, Flk. On the ground and earthy bank sides. Melbecks,
Bassenthwaite. 1880.

——

a

153

. canescens, Dicks. On trees and walls. Somewhat like a Placodium, but

having different spores. Not uncommon, but rare in fruit. Calder

Abbey ; Keswick ; Beckermet, 1879.

. disciformis, Fr. On trees. Ashgill, Alston ; Asby. 1878,

. myriocarpa, D.C. On trees, palings, and rocks, frequent.

Forma chloropolia, Fr. Old yew, near Ennerdale Lake ; Braithwaite 5
1879.

Forma pinicola, Ach. Dent Hill road ; Calder Bridge.

. alocizoides, Leight. On rocks. St. Bees. 1879. Not common.

. chalybeia, Borr. Harris Moor, Whitehaven; Ennerdale. On walls,
rocks, flints, etc., frequent.

Forma ecrustacea, Leight. Thallus wanting. On sandstone, St. Bees.
1879.

. grossa, Pers. On trees. Not uncommon. Alston ; Keswick. 1878,

. biformigera, Leight. On rocks. Rare. Barrowmouth, Whitehaven.

1881.

. tricolor, With. On trees. Common. Ashgill Woods; Asby; Keswick.
1878.

. cyrtella, Ach. On trees and stump points. Foreshield Wood, Alston.
1878.

. diluta, Pers. On the bark at the foot of pine trees, frequent. Wast-
dale. 1879.

. albo-atra, Hoffm. On trees, pales, and mortared walls, The spores of
this lichen are brown, and beside being three-septate, are often
irregularly muriform ; the knowledge of this fact helps in deter-
mination. Frequent.

Form epipolia, Ach. Near Cockermouth. 1879.

Forma margaritacea, Ach. The ruins, Calder Abbey. 1881.

Forma ambigua, Ach. On rocks, St. Bees,

. ederi, Web. A rusty-yellow. On mountain and maritime rocks,

frequent. Alston Moors ; Dent Hill; Ennerdale; Wastdale. 1878.

- aromatica, Sm. Thickish, crumbly, whitish ; apothecia black, smallish

but clustered. On the earth, old walls, rocks, Frequent. Kgre-

mont road side, opposite Scalegill ; Asby ; Keswick ; St. Bees.

1879.

. abietina, Ach. Apothecia thickly covered with a pale-yellowish pruina.

On old trees, in mountainous regions. Not common. Alston ;

Catterlen, near Penrith ; Keswick. 1878,

. exanthematica, Sm. On limestone rocks, frequent. Woodend ; Clints,

near Egremont. 1880.

. miliaria, var. montana, N yl. Onthe earth. Dent Hill, 1880.

L.

L.

QL,

L.

154

umbrina, Ach. Spores spirally contorted. On rocks and stones,
frequent. Braithwaite. 1880.

Forma compacta, Korb. St. Bees.

sabuletorum, Flk. On decayed mosses ; walls. Common. Gillgarron ;
Asby ; Alston ; Keswick. General.

premnea, Ach. On trees and walls. Apothecia large, black, with a
greenish pruina. Road side above Sunny Hill, Whitehaven ;
Skelton. 1879.

citrinella, Ach. On the earth, moss, rocks. Not common. Bassen-
thwaite Lake side (west). 1880.

. carneola, Ach. Apothecia small, brownish flesh-colour, waxy. On oaks,

beeches, etc. Rare. Plentiful on old trees, west side of Bassen-
thwaite Lake ; in the woods about Keswick and Calder Abbey.
1880.

endoleuca, Nyl. On old ivy-stems and ash-trees, Calder Abbey. 1881.

muscorum, Sw. On moss and the ground. Rare. Alston. 1878.

geographica, L. Citrine or bright yellow, with black apothecia inter-
mixed ; something like a piece of mosaic. On mountain rocks, of
the hardest kind. Common. One of the hardiest and most
ubiquitous of lichens known. Alston moors ; Ennerdale ; Wast-
dale. 1878.

Forma contigua, Scher. Wastdale. 1881.

Forma atrovirens, L. Alston ; Bowness Knot, Ennerdale.

Forma cyclopica, Nyl. Generally rare. This form is plentiful on the
flat rocks forming the upper surface of an elevation close to
Ennerdale Lake side ; just beyond the last house, opposite Bow-
ness Knot. It is easily distinguished by the scattered ocellate
areole ; each enclosing an apothecium. 1880.

petrea, Wulf. In grey or brown patches, sometimes dispersed ; on hard
granitic and slaty rocks. Frequent. Alston ; Ennerdale ; Wast-
dale ; Keswick. 1878.

Forma cinerea, Fw. Ennerdale.

obscurata, Ach. Onrocks. Ennerdale ; Wastdale: 1879.

concentrica, Dav. On limestone rocks. Alston. 1878.

excentrica, Ach. On limestone rocks. Apothecia not arranged concen-
trically, but scattered. Not common. Alston. 1878.

vimosa, Dicks. On limestone rocks. Not common. Alston; Harris
Moor, Whitehaven. 1879.

resine, Fr. On the exudations from fir trees. Ashgill Wood, Alston.
1878. :

plumbina, Anzi., Nyl. Apothecia smallish, black, marginate ; scattered
over the upper surface of Pannaria plumbea. Rare. Onan old

155

tree, in the field, Borrowdale road side, leaving Keswick. 1881.
So far as we know, this is the first record of the occurrence of this
lichen in Great Britain.

Odontotrema.

O. longius, Nyl. On old rails, Lamplugh road side; Asby ; Gillgarron
road side above Moresby. 1879.
O. majus, Leigkt. On decorticated wood. Brownrigg, near Asby. 1880.

Opegrapha.

O. atra, Pers. Ontrees. Common. Asby ; Catterlen ; Keswick.
Forma parallela, Leight. Wastdale. 1879.
O. vulgata, Forma subsiderella, Nyl. Ontrees. Rare. Ennerdale. 1879.
O. zonata, Kbr. On shaly rock in the wood near Bassenthwaite Lake
Railway Station. Not common. 1880.
O, leightonii, Cromb. On sandstone rocks, St. Bees. 1879.

Stigmatidium.

S. crassum, Dub. On trees. Moresby ; Calder Abbey. Plentiful. 1879.
S. hutchinsie, Leight. On the rocks near Grange Bridge, Borrowdale (Mrs.
Stanger).

Arthonia.

A number of Arthonia are amongst our gatherings, but we have not as
yet had time to give them attention.

Graphis.

G. elegans, Sm. On trees, Gillgarron Hall; Asby ; Calder Abbey. Common.
1879.

Forma stellata, Leight. Gillgarron Hall.

Forma parallela, Scher. Asby.

Forma simplicior, Cromb. On trees, Moor End Wood, Asby. 1880.
I furnish my own description of this form, not having seen any
other. Thallus similar to type, lirellz short, mostly simple, a few
branched at right-angles ; thalline margin somewhat prominent ;
epithecium not furrowed, rimzform, open; proper margin moderate,
slightly flexuose. I submitted a specimen to Dr. Nylander, who
named this form as above ; but the Rev. Mr. Crombie claimed to
have discovered and named it previously.

156

G. scripta, Ach. On trees, frequent.
Forma diffusa, Leight. Gillgarron Hall.
Forma horizontalis, Leight. Gillgarron Hall. 1879.
Forma divaricata, Leight. Asby. 1879.
Forma tremulans, Leight. Asby. 1879.
G. sophistica, Nyl. On trees, frequent.
var. pulverulenta, Sm. Greenbank Wood, Whitehaven. 1879.
var. dendriticoides, Leight. Greenbank, Whitehaven.

Tribe—PYRENOCARPEL.

LVormandina.

N. pulchella, Borr. On mossy trees, beyond the boat-landing, Derwentwater,
Keswick. 1880. Not common.

Endocarpon.

E. miniatum, L. On rocks, the Clints, near Egremont. 1880.

E. fluviatile, D.C. On rocks and stones in subalpine streams. Rare. In
small streams under Bowness Knot; and above Gillerthwaite.
1879.

Verrucaria.

V. margacea, Whlinb. On wet rocks and stones, frequent. In small
streams, Ennerdale Lake side. 1879.
var. ethiobola, Whinb. On wet stones and rocks. Keswick. 1880.
V. maura, Whinb. On maritime rocks, frequent. St. Bees. 1879.
V. nigrescens, Pers. On limestone. Clints, near Egremont. 1
V. viridula, Schrad. On mortar, old walls, etc. Moresby; Barrowmouth.
1879.
V. rupestris, Schrad. On sandstone, Barrowmouth, Whitehaven. 1880.
V. borreri, Leight. On limestone rocks, the old quarry, Barrowmouth,
Whitehaven. 1881.
V. conoidea, Fries. On limestone rocks and walls, frequent. Near the
Church, Lamplugh. 1879.
V. epidermidis, Ach. On trees. Common.
var. analepta, Ach. Keswick; Asby. 1879.
V. chlorotica. Ach. var. codonoidea, Leight. On rocks, Wastdale. 1879.
V. lectissima, Frs. River side above Strands, Wastdale. 1881.
V. nitida, Weig. On trees, frequent. Greenbank, Whitehaven ; Enner-
dale ; Calder Abbey. 1879.

a ee ee

157

V. albissima, Ach. On birch trees. Rare. Keswick ; and by the side of
Crummock Lake. 1880,

V. umbrina, Whinb. On stones in the streams beside Ennerdale Lake.
1879.

V. interseptula, Nyl. On rocks, water side, above the Strands, Wastdale.
1881. A new lichen. Thallus olivaceous, opaque, thin ; apothecia
dark brown; somewhat conical, prominent; perithecium dimidiate,
dark ; spores eight, fusiform five septate, longitudinal or oblique
septa intervening. Flora, 1881, p. 453.

Melanotheca.

M. gelatinosa, Chev. On trees, Asby and Egremont. 1880,

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159

NOTE ON THE OCCURRENCE OF THE ICELAND
FALCON IN EDENSIDE.

\ By J. G. GOODCHILD, H.M. GroLocicaL SuRVEY.
(Read at the Workington Annual Meeting.)

AmoncstT the wild animals still existing in the British Isles, there
are hardly any that have a greater claim upon the attention of
naturalists than the Beasts and Birds of Prey. Gradually, but
surely, one after another of these is being improved off the face of
the earth, and the time may not be far distant when many of the
wild animals that are familiar to the naturalists of the present day,
may become as extinct as the Great Auk or the Dodo.

Within the memory of people yet living, the Wild Cat, the
Sweet Mart, the Foumart, and the Badger were still denizens of
Cumberland and Westmorland: now they have become so rare
that the occurrence of any one of them is considered worthy of
being chronicled in the newspapers. Many old people here can
yet remember the time when the Golden Eagle, the Arn or Sea
Eagle, and the Osprey, were regular visitants to these parts, and
nested year after year in suitable localities around us. Now-a-days
they occur here only as chance stragglers at distant intervals of
time, and when they do occur, they only too often meet with such
a reception as effectually prevents their return. Even the once
familar Kite has left us ; and the Buzzard and the Raven linger
here and there in solitary pairs only in the wildest parts of our
fells.

The spread of cultivation has much to do with this ; but it is to

160

the traditional hostility of the gamekeeper, who is only too often
paid expressly for the destruction of animals that he has been
taught to regard as vermin, as well as to the greed of the collector,
that the gradual extermination of our native animals is chiefly due.
Gun, net, snare, trap, and poison are all employed against them
without mercy ; and the work of extirpation is furthered, in the
case of birds, by persistent harrying of the nests under one pretext
or another.*

Fortunately, a few of our nobler birds yet contrive to escape,
and there are perhaps four, or it may be, five, places in the two
counties where we may still boast of the eyrie of that once highly-
prized companion of all that was knightly and noble, the Peregrine
Falcon; and we may perhaps count as many nesting places of

* In reference to this subject the following letter, which was read at the
Workington Annual Meeting, may be inserted here with advantage.

Derwent House, Ashton Lane, Sale,
near Manchester, May 16th, 1881.

Dear Sir,—As I am unable to be present at the meeting at Workington, and
I see you are reading a paper on a kindred subject, I take the liberty of asking
you (if you take the view I do) to bring before our fellow-members the question
of the Birds of Prey in the Lake District.

The damage done by the falcons is certainly so small that there is no excuse
for shooting them down ; and their nests are becoming rarer each year.

The raven also has fared badly lately, as prices that would tempt the shep-
herds have been offered by middlemen, who send the young birds to London ;
and in some cases, I am sorry to say, private individuals have paid high prices
to get every egg and young bird possible.

The consequence is that about the Keswick district we have distinctly fewer
birds than formerly ; and I fear, unless a stop is put to this useless destruction,
the Raven and some of our rarer birds will soon be as extinct as the Dodo. I
have been making some eftorts privately to put a stop to these depredations,
and if the society used its influence with the owners of land in the district, I feel
sure the matter might soon be settled in favour of the birds.

If you feel the interest I do in this, and would kindly say a word or two to
our fellow-members, a great deal might be done in that way, as, after all, the
influence of private individuals is perhaps the most powerful.

Hoping you may have a successful meeting, believe me, dear sir, yours truly,

ALBERT NICHOLSON.
J. G. GOoDcHILD, Esq.

t

161

the Buzzard* and of the Raven. It is far from unlikely that
these eyries may be tenanted by birds coming from a distance,
who stop short of their native crags in the course of their
vernal migration, or who may be driven by adverse winds or
by other causes, out of their ordinary line of migration.
Doubtless we should oftener have the pleasure of entertaining
many other such noble visitors, were they left to breed unmolested
when they chance to come this way. Amongst such chance
visitors that might possibly stay and breed with us if they were
left alone, the fine birds known as the Jerfalcons now and then
find a place. These birds are natives of the more northern parts
of the Palzarctic and Nearctic regions ; but they have not hitherto
been known for certain to breed within the British Isles. Even as
occasional visitants they are by no means common, and I have
not been able to find more than twenty instances of their occurrence
here recorded. Of these one only has hitherto been recorded
from any part of Cumberland and Westmorland. This was shot
in the hard winter of 1864, near Crosby Ravensworth, and it is
now preserved in the Collection at Edenhall.

The object of the present communication is to place the occur-
rence of another Jerfalcon on record.

The example I refer to was shot at Winton, near Kirkby Stephen,
by Mr. John Dodd, of Harcla, about the year 1842. When first
seen the bird was perched upright on a wall, apparently so intent
‘upon the doings of some Magpies and other birds that had the
temerity to mob it, that it was approached without difficulty and
shot, and all chance of its remaining with us to breed effectually
removed.

Up to about fifty years ago ornithologists do not seem to have
given much attention to the large Northern Falcons. The Fal-
coners had, and they prized the birds very highly too, if one may
judge by the enormous sums of money that were paid for well-
trained birds of this species. Practical men, such as the falconers

'* Since this was written, I have had great pleasure in learning from both
Dr. Parker of Gosforth, and Dr, Knight of Keswick, that the Buzzard is
commoner in the more mountainous parts of the Lake District than my own
observations had led me to suppose.

11

162

of old were, were not always very exact in their observations in
regard to Natural History details—they wanted the birds only for
hawking purposes, and they were not as much troubled in their
minds about whether such and such a bird should be referred to
such and such a species or not, as we are at the present day.
Still, men that had practical acquaintance with many hundreds of
individual birds, could hardly fail to notice that, out of a large
number, many would be found to agree in possessing certain
characteristics that the others had not: they might vary in other
particulars, but they would agree in these. So the falcons came
to be roughly classified, and when they were classified, each of
these groups possessing these common characteristics received a
distinct name. Of course, many of these characteristics were not
such as we are now-a-days in the habit of considering of import-
ance. The male bird, for instance, in some cases received a
different name from the female, and the immature birds were named
differently again. So it came about that when ornithologists first
took the subject in hand, they placed but little faith in the distinc-
tions made by the falconers of old, and that when they read that
the falconers had distinguished three distinct forms of Jerfalcon,
the distinctions were passed by unheeded. About fifty years ago,
Mr. John Hancock, of Newcastle, took the matter up, and, after
carefully comparing great numbers of specimens, he came to the
conclusion that the old falconers were, after all, correct in this
view, and that there were two, if not three, distinct forms, or what
some would call species, of Jerfalcon. These views have met with
a good deal of opposition from that time down to the present day;
for while there are cabinet zoologists of the first rank that go to
the length of splitting the Jerfalcons up into five distinct species,
there are others, equally well qualified to judge, who stoutly
maintain that these so-called species are nothing more than mere
varieties, or races, of one and the same species.

Much of the difficulty of coming to a common conclusion in
this case arises from the difference of opinion in regard to what
constitutes a characteristic of specific value. If no such thing as
a varietal form, or a geographical race, existed, there would be no

163

difficulty in the matter, as hardly any two birds of the same general
form and size could differ from each other more than the pure
white Jerfalcon at the one end of the series does from the dark
slate-coloured Jerfalcon at the other. The difference is so great
that no one examining only the extremes of the series would
hesitate for a moment to regard them as perfectly distinct species.
But the comparison of great numbers of specimens brings to light
the existence of many varieties of an intermediate character, which
shade off into each other by almost imperceptible gradations of
colouring, and seem to complete the connection between the two
extremes.

They that are unwilling to admit that there is really a passage
from the one extreme to the other consider that the Jerfalcons
may be divided into two groups, one that may be characterised as
the light-coloured birds with dark markings, classified as Falco
candicans, or the Greenland Falcon; and the other as the darker-
coloured set with light markings, which is classified as Falco
zslandus, or the Iceland Falcon. The Greenland Falcon, it is
further said, may be readily distinguished at any age by the barring
on the tail feathers being incomplete, and by the flank feathers
being longitudinally striped instead of barred ; while, in the Iceland
Falcon, the bars on the tail go right across each feather, and the
flank feathers are invariably more or less barred. Other minor
differences have been pointed out; but these, though readily
enough detected by a trained eye, are not regarded as character-
istics of sufficient constancy to have much importance as specific
distinctions.

A third section of the Jerfalcons is often distinguished as the
Norway Falcon (Falco gyrfalco), or the Jerfalcon proper.* This is
said to differ from the Iceland Falcon section in being somewhat
smaller, darker in colour generally, and especially darker on the
head, and in having the leg-plumes marked with transverse bars
instead of the longitudinal stripes found in the other. This race,
or sub-species, has not yet been recorded from any British locality.

* See Schlegel’s Traité de Fauconnerie, and the paper by the late Mr. Hoy,
Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. vi. p. 108.

164

The other two Jerfalcons are the Labrador Jerfalcon and Holbdll’s
Jerfalcon, and to these may be added the Saker Falcon. Some
day it is likely enough that all these forms, including even the
Saker Falcon, may come to be regarded as mere races of one and
the same species. :

: The Jerfalcon that was shot at Crosby Ravensworth is a beautiful
creamy-white individual, which exhibits all the characteristics of
the Greenland Falcon race. It remains for us to decide what
section the Winton specimen shall be referred to.

The description given below shews that this specimen belongs
to the dark set with the barred flanks; it is therefore not what is
commonly understood by the Greenland Falcon; while the un-
usually dark colouring of its plumage, the size of its moustache,
and the traces of transverse markings on its leg-plumes, would
seem to warrant us in referring it to the Norwegian Falcon set,
rather than to the Iceland Falcon proper. They that believe, as
I do, that the Norway Falcon is only a geographical race of the
sub-species Falco islandus, will probably think it best to leave this
bird under the name given at the head of this notice; and Fadco
gyrfalco, Forma islandus, is here recorded for the first time from
any part of Cumberland and Westmorland.

Since this communication was laid before the Cumberland
Association the skin of the bird has been submitted to Mr. R. J.
Howard of Blackburn, and to Mr. John Hancock of Newcastle,
who have identified it as the Iceland Falcon, while Mr. Hancock
further states that the specimen is that of a female bird of the first
year.

They that care to enquire further into this subject for themselves
should examine the fine collection of Jerfalcons in the Museum at
Newcastle, which is second in this respect only to the celebrated
collection of Raptorial Birds in the Museum at Norwich; and
should read the papers of Mr. Hancock in the Anna/s and Magazine
of Nat. Hist. ii. p. 241, and 2nd Series xiii. p. 110; the articles in
the Zbis for 1862 et seq.; Proceedings of the Zool. Soc. 1873, Pp. 417;
Newton’s §Varrell’s British Birds, vol. 1; Sharpe and Dresser’s
Birds of Europe; Gould’s British Birds ; and the various modern

165

works on Falconry, especially Schlegel’s Zraité de Fauconnerie, and
Salvin and Broderick’s Falconry in the British Isles.

The following description of the Winton specimen may serve,
with the somewhat rough figure—which is drawn from living
examples to about one-fourth the natural size—to convey some
kind of idea of the general aspect of the bird when alive. The
skin itself will be deposited in the Museum at Carlisle.

Total length about twenty inches ; wing fifteen-and a-half inches
from carpal joint to the end of the longest primary ; eleven-and-a-
half to the end of the longest secondary ; end of tail extending
about two inches beyond the tips of the wings.

The general dorsal aspect is dark hair-brown, glossed with
plum-colour, quite subordinately spotted and edged with cream-
colour.

The general ventral aspect is striped with cream-colour and dark
hair-brown in about equal proportions.

The bill is now horn-colour, deeping outwards to very dark
sage-green. The cere, orbits, gape, and feet, shew traces of dirty
greenish yellow, which may, however, be due simply to drying.
The chin is cream-colour without stripes; gorget striped with
feathers cream-coloured on one half and hair-brown edged with
cream-colour on the other. The cream-colour encroaches on the
darker tint most about the widest part of each feather, so that the
cream-coloured spots cut the dark shade somewhat into the shape
of a fiddle; and the transverse diameter of the spots becomes
relatively larger as they extend downwards, so that on the flank
feathers they appear as ellipsoidal markings extending inwards as
far as the shaft of the feather. The flank feathers thus appear to
be marked with more or less distinctly transverse bars.

The tarsi are feathered rather more than half-way down; and
the leg-plumes, which are long enough to extend to the sole of the
powerful foot, are marked in much the same way as the flanks;
that is to say, they exhibit traces of transverse bars as well as of
longitudinal stripes. The under tail-coverts are cream-colour with
dark centre-lines, which widen out somewhat near the extremity of
each feather.

166

The dorsal aspect may be thus described: Crown of the head
dark hair-brown, with somewhat lighter edges and darker shafts to
each feather. Moustache black. Over the eyes there is an
indication of a lighter stripe, and the ear-coverts and the nape are
lighter coloured than the parts around. A dark band can be traced
from the hinder-angle of the orbits backward to below the lighter
part of the nape. Neck feathers narrowly edged with cream-colour.
Mantle and upper part of the scapularies dark hair-brown with
black shafts. Lower part of scapularies dark hair-brown, each
feather being diversified with transverse rows of cream-coloured
spots, which increase in number and tend more and more to
become confluent, especially at the outer half of each feather, as
they extend backwards from the head. These rows of spots range
about half an inch apart, and they therefore increase in number
with the length of each feather up to a maximum of six rows ; but
the cream-colour is quite subordinate to the darker tint. Wing
coverts, tertiaries, secondaries, and bastard wing, dark hair-brown,
diversified with cream-coloured spots and edges in much the same
way, and exhibiting a decided tendency to assume a banded
pattern. Primaries dark hair-brown, paler towards the margin,
and flecked with small cream-coloured spots. On the inner webs
the cream-colour occupies the whole of the inner margin and
extends thence inward towards the shaft in gradually narrowing
bands, which interdigitate with the spurs of the darker shade.
The hair-brown tint predominates also on the lower part of the
back, and on the upper tail-coverts, and also on the tail, which is
subordinately spotted, barred, and edged with cream-colour of the
same shade as prevails on other parts of the body.

IMMATURE

ICELAND FALCON

(Falco islandus)

SHOT AT WINTON, WESTMORLAND, 1845.

167

NOTES ON THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF
NORTH-WEST CUMBERLAND.

By T. V. HOLMES, F.G.S.

(Read at the Workington Annual Meeting. )

ALL residents in that part of Cumberland which borders the Solway
know how small is the area in which solid rock is visible at or near
the surface compared with that occupied by stony clay, gravel,
loam, or peat. This is especially the case with the district lying
on the north-west side of the Maryport and Carlisle Railway and
south-east of the Eden, over the greater part of which no traces of
the underlying rocks appear. Yet the visitor to Aspatria and West
Newton, Shawk Beck, Wetheral, the rivers Lyne and Esk at Kirk-
linton and N etherby, and other localities that might be mentioned,
will find that beneath these superficial beds are thick sandstones
and other rocks, the arrangement of which bears no relation to that
of the overlying formations. It is not, however, of these lower, or,
in geological language, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, and Liassic
rocks, that I have anything to say here, as their influence on the
shape of the ground near the Solway is mainly of a remote and
general kind, the various ridges and other surface features being
usually due entirely to the superficial beds. As we recede from
the Solway the underlying rocks occupy a larger and larger pro-
portion of the surface, and their influence on the shape of the
ground becomes more manifest, The diagramatic section will
explain better than many words could do the relations of the
underlying and overlying beds to each other, and the general

168

nature of the change that occurs on traversing the country from
Silloth, Bowness, or Burgh-by-Sands to the fells about Caldbeck
or Ireby.

The superficial beds consist of glacial drift, river-gravel, alluvium,
and peat. There is, in addition, a strip of raised beach along the
shore west of Bowness.* Of these beds the stony clays, gravels,
and sands, which make up the higher or undulating ground, are the
oldest, thickest, and most important. They form collectively what
is known as the glacial drift, and underlie the peat-mosses, alluvium,
and raised beach. The glacial drift is known near Abbey Town
to reach a thickness of nearly 200 feet ; and though this thickness is
probably exceptional, railway cuttings near Carlisle and elsewhere
often show drift to the thickness of thirty feet or more without
any sign of hard rock being visible. Well-sinkers cannot give so
much information on this head as could be wished, as in consequence
of occasionally losing water altogether from penetrating through
the drift to a porous sandstone below, they are careful not to go a
foot deeper than is absolutely necessary.

The boundary of the district now under consideration may be
roughly stated to be a line from Maryport to Rose Castle or there-
abouts, and thence by Wetheral and Brampton to Hethersgill and
the Scottish Border about Riddings Junction. Within this line the
only spot where there is any appreciable area of ground uncovered
by drift or other superficial beds is between Aspatria and West
Newton. There about a square mile of country shows sandstone
at or close to the surface. Elsewhere the lower rocks are seldom
visible except here and there in the banks of the various streams.
The ground varies in height from about 15 to 400 feet above the
sea. The gteat alluvial flats close to the Solway vary from about
15 to 30 feet, and heights of 300 to 4oo feet are only seen on the
outer margin of the district, most of which is below 200 feet.

Careful examination of the undulating ground shows it to be
made up mainly of what may be called by the general name of
“earthy gravel.” Sometimes it may seem more clayey, sometimes
more sandy than usual, but the stones it contains are usually more

* Described in Trans. Cumb. Assoc., Part II.

169

or less rounded, and the soil it makes light or lightish rather than
heavy. The stiff clay known as Till, in which angular or sub-angular
stones of various kinds are confusedly heaped together, is seldom
visible in this district, though not uncommon at higher levels. The
ridges formed by the earthy gravel are gentle and regular in out-
line, and often run strictly parallel to each other for a considerable
distance; the direction of these ridges, in the country about Wigton
and Aspatria, being a little north of east and south of west. In other
places it may happen that the contours are flatter, or that no per-
ceptible order is manifest. The influence of the underlying rock
on a drift-covered surface is best seen between Aikton and
Great Orton. Anyone who stands at Wiggonby and looks alter-
nately north and south, cannot fail to notice the contrast between
the rolling drift edges southward and the flat plateau-like appearance
of the country in the opposite direction. This plateau-like aspect
is due to the influence of the underlying outlier of Lias, which
makes itself felt through a thinner covering than usual of drift ;
while the rolling ridges owe nothing of their shape to the older
rocks below.

But, rising above the earthy gravel, certain mounds and ridges
of clean, sandy, gravel occasionally appear, which, though they
occupy comparatively little ground, are often very conspicuous
where they do occur. This arises from the contrast of their
irregularity and the steepness of their sides with the low regular
undulations of the earthly gravel. They are known as Eskers, and
abound on both sides of the Solway; in Dumfriesshire about
Cummertrees and north of Dumfries; in Cumberland around
Brampton, and midway between Abbey Town and Allonby. The
finest are those about Brampton, though either district is worth
visiting. On leaving Carlisle by the Newcastle and Carlisle
Railway the journey as far as Heads Nook is on the earthy gravel.
Between Heads Nook and How Mill the esker tract is entered,
and the contrast between the two formations becomes very obvious.
Instead of low regular undulations, a series of steep irregular ridges,
diversified by isolated mounds and peaty hollows, is seen on both

170

sides. The well-known Cowran Cut, which reaches a depth at one
point of 110 feet, is through a part of this esker tract.

Besides the two compact areas of esker country I have mentioned,
isolated esker mounds and ridges may be seen at various places.
Many are scattered about between Brampton and Kirklinton ; in
the neighbourhood of Crofton Hall, and elsewhere. The beautifully
wooded conical hill, called Torkin, on the north side of Crofton
Park, is a good example of an esker mound, Esker mounds are
often so extremely like artificial barrows as to be a very possible
source of disappointment to an antiquary. A long, low, winding
esker ridge crosses the Carlisle and Dalston road a few yards south-
west of Dalston Hall. On this ridge, both east and west of the
road, the word ‘‘Tumulus” appears on the (6in.) Ordnance Map.
I am informed by Mr. R. S. Ferguson of Carlisle that these tumuli
have not yet been opened. It may well be that these natural
tumuli have been used as burying places ; but, on the other hand,
irregularities very much more striking often occur in the course of
a perfectly natural ridge. Such is the case of Torkin, which is a
sudden expansion both in height and breadth in the course of a
ridge little, if at all, more prominent elsewhere than that at Dalston
Hall.

What has been said of the characteristics of the Brampton esker
tract holds good of that between Abbey Town and Allonby.
There also are steep-sided ridges and mounds, with peaty hollows.
In this last named quarter, however, there is less boldness of
outline, and the eskers, though forming the highest ground in the
district, do not attain a height of more than one hundred and
fifty-six feet, while east of Brampton they may be seen to a height
of seven hundred feet or more. Though eskers are by no means
evenly distributed, but are very common in some localities and
almost or entirely absent from others, it cannot be said that they
show any preference for any particular level. Indeed the raised
beach and certain gravel mounds on the great flat between Abbey
Town and Silloth, may be considered as the lowest, while south of
Caldbeck they reach, and even cross, the eight hundred feet

val

contour line, I may add that I believe they mark the extent of
the submergence of the country at the close of the glacial period,
and were probably formed during the emergence.

The peat-mosses in some respects form a connecting link between
the higher, or undulating, ground and the lower, or estuarine and
river terraces and flats, both on account of ‘their occurrence at .
various levels, and the low dome shape they assume. This dome
shape is best seen at Scaleby ‘Moss, but is very obvious at Solway
and other large mosses. Among the peat-mosses on levels higher
than those of the great flats may be mentioned Bolton Fell, near
Hethersgill, Scaleby, Solway, and Oulton Mosses. These all lie
in hollows on the earthy gravel. Those on a lower level, such as
Wedholme Flow, Drumburgh Moss, those between Abbey Town
and Allonby, and that which under various names lies between
Glasson and Cardurnock, appear to rise directly from the loamy
flats around them, and to be simply peat-covered portions of those
flats.

With regard to these low-lying mosses, the evidence seems to me
to point towards their greater extension formerly. For some distance
outside the area which can fairly be mapped as peat, the surface
of the loamy flats is covered more or less by peaty soil, and it is,
as will shortly be seen, probable that the present separation of
Bowness and Drumburgh Mosses from Wedholme Flow is due to
the denuding influence of the Wampool. The mosses north and
north-east of Allonby--Salta and Brunshaw Mosses, with those
drained by Holme Dub and Black Dub—have also suffered much
from denudation. ‘This is shown by the amount of peaty soil still
remaining on the border of the great loamy flat towards Pelutho
and Highlaws, and on that drained by Holme Dub about Brom-
field and Kelsick.

Midway between Solway Moss and the Esk due south of it, is
a small compact mass of peat, while to the north of this mass is a
considerable area showing more or less peaty soil. The Caledonian
Railway runs across the western edge of the peat. This is, I
suppose, the only remnant of the great overflow of Solway Moss
in 1771, which covered five hundred acres of the broad alluvial

172

flat north of the Esk. Most of the peat was removed shortly after
the irruption, partly by fire, but chiefly by water. The Rey.
William Gilpin, Vicar of Boldre, a writer well known in his time
for his works on the Picturesque, visited the spot shortly after the
catastrophe, and has left a graphic account of it, and of the means
taken to remove the peat from the alluvial plain. Comparatively
little could be removed by fire, but an ingenious plan, invented
by a man named Wilson, for employing the carrying power of
running water was very effective. From the reservoirs formed by
a little stream at the highest part of the over-flowed ground, he
cut channels in various directions to the Esk, and when the water
was let off, he placed numbers of men by the stream, who rolled
into it large masses of peat which had been hardened by the sun.
The stream tumbled them into the river, and the river conveyed
them to the sea.

Many small peaty or alluvial flats mark the spots once occupied
by lakelets in slight hollows of the earthy gravel. They are
especially common in the neighbourhood of Rockcliff and Great
Orton. The turnpike road between Carlisle and Gretna crosses
many of them. The network of what must have been till lately
simply morasses, which occupies so much of the ground directly
north of Carlisle, must have been a great additional protection to
the Border City in mosstrooping times. In Thurstonfield and
Monkhill Loughs are preserved two undrained examples of the
lakelets.

We now come to the broad river and estuarine flats. Terraces
of river gravel elevated more or less above the present alluvium
are well shown on the Esk about Netherby; the Lyne above Cliff
Bridge, Kirklinton ; and the Eden about Low Crosby. Many of
the streets of Carlisle, at the Botchergate end, are on a terrace of
river gravel. Union-street, with its continuation to the Water-
works, is an example. Of course these terraces record the fact
that the rivers which deposited them once flowed at a higher level
than they now do. The precise changes that have taken place in
the channels of the Carlisle rivers cannot be ascertained ; but it is
probable that the Petteril, or the Petteril and Eden united, once

173

joined the Caldew south of Carlisle instead of north, as at present.

~ As regards the Caldew, there probably occurred a much more
fundamental change of channel, at a time when Pow Beck must
have represented it between the localities now known as Dalston
and Carlisle. The church and most of the village of Dalston
stand on a terrace of river gravel, the bank bounding which rises
five or six feet above the present alluvium of the Caldew. The
gravel forming this terrace may be seen in the pit on the north side
of Dalston railway station. If we walk along the gravel flat in a
westerly direction, we find it undrained by any stream east of Gill
Beck, which enters it about three-quarters of a mile west of the
bank bounding the terrace at Dalston. Gill Beck, however, flows
westward, and is one of the streams which make up the Wampool,
which flows past Kirkbride into Moricambe Bay. ‘The gravel
terrace is therefore at Dalston the only water-parting between the
basins of the Caldew and Wampool, though the flat between Gill
Beck and the bank at Dalston seems perfectly continuous with
that through which Gill Beck flows. It is therefore almost certain
that at one time the Caldew flowed westward at (what is now)
Dalston, in the course now taken by the Wampool. Again, north
of Wigton, the road to Oulton crosses a streamless alluvial flat,
which is continuous with that of the Wampool on the east, and of
the Waver on the west. A little eastward of the road the Wiza
flows to the Wampool, while, a little westward, a stream from
Oulton flows towards the Waver. It is therefore probable that the
Wampool may once have taken its course south of Wedholme
Flow and joined the Waver there, its valley between Parton and
Kirkbride being occupied by what now are but its tributaries.
While, further westward still, the Waver once ran along the peaty
flat now drained by Holme Dub and Black Dub and entered the
sea at Allonby.

But if the Wampool once ran south of Wedholme Flow, that
moss may then have been parted from those of Bowness and
Drumburgh by but the breadth of a stream such as Holme Dub.
The separation of the great Bowness moss from that of Drumburgh
probably occurred when the Wampool, instead of turning westward

174

at Kirkbride, flowed in a north-easterly direction either to the
north or south of Drumburgh. Lastly, two small, low-lying peat-
mosses, one about half a mile north of Kirkbampton, the other
about midway between Kirkbampton and Fingland, may point to
a former extension of Drumburgh Moss in that direction.

MAP To ILLUSTRATE

THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NORTH WEST CUMBER:
By T.V. Houmas F.GS.

Scale Three Miles to an lrch.

RAISED BEAGH AND
BLOWN SAND

} PEAT.

PLE LLG I oe

—

ALLUVIUM AND Ww
RIVER ane U
GLACIAL DRIFT: (6)

AND ROCKS
UNDERLYING’ ©
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SNOYOY MPA T YZM SLIYSY

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175

DISTRIBUTION OF THE DIATOMACE,
By B. TAYLOR.
( Read before the Whitehaven Scientific Association. )

THE following list contains only such forms as were undoubted
species according to the descriptions and classification of J. Ralfs,
'M.R.C.S.L. (vide Pritchard’s ‘“Infusoria.”) The gatherings in
which the specimens were found were obtained at various times
during a period of several years; and from different places,
extending over a radius of about five miles around Whitehaven.

Family—EUNOTIC Ai.

Epithemia gibba. On moss at Lowca Brow.
of ventricosa. On the Rifle Range near Saltom Pit.
3 argos. Parton Tunnel.
B alpestris. Moresby ; various places.
7 ocellata. Parton Tunnel.
7 eugenia. Parton Tunnel.
+ westermanii. Parton Tunnel.
x gibberula. Gameriggs.
Jy turgida. Barrowmouth Wood.
3 granulata. Barrowmouth Wood.
ro marina. St. Bees. On the fine sand below Sea Cote Hotel, at
half-tide.
Himantidium pectinale. Spout in the meadows near the Railway.
cf paralellum. Spout in the meadows near the Railway.

Family MERIDONEAL.

Meridon circulare. Almost every small running stream,
», constrictum. Meadows near Railway.

176

Family—LICMOPHORE.

Licmophora flabellata, Ou a ship’s bottom.
Podosphemia cuneata. On sea-weed growing in rock pools.

Family—FRAGILARIEA.

Denticula tenuis. Moss at Wheelbarrow Brow.
Odontidium mesodon. St. Bees ; Sunny Hill.

33 hyemale. Usually associated with the above species.
Fragilaria capucina. Barrowmouth Wood.

5 acuta. Barrowmouth Wood.

BA constricta. Tank, Bransty Quarry.

Diatoma hyalina. Ship’s bottom.
», vulgare. Trough, Sunny Hill. Common.
5, tenue. On Conferve in a ditch near the Railway. Meadows.
s, elongatum. On Conferve ina ditch near the Railway. Meadows.
Asteranella formosa. Several places. Common.
Nitschia parvula. The outside steps, north wall.
» virgata. North Shore; below William Pit.
» constricta. St. Bees ; Poe Beck.
3 sigma. Pier-side; North Shore.
», satistrata. Drigg.
», sigmoidia. St. Bees.
«, smithii. On oyster shells, St. Bees Head.
> scalarvis, Common.
», spectabilis, Common.
>, Unearis. St. Bees.
-» tenuis, Frequent in many localities.
», spathulata. North Shore, below the Ship Yard.
» angularis. Whitehaven Harbour.
Ceratoneis longissima. On a ship’s bottom.
$5 closterium. North Shore, below Ship Yard.
a gracilis. With the above.
Amphipleura rigida. Drigg Shore.
3 inflexa. On the Quay, South Side, Whitehaven Harbour.

Family—SURIRELLEA.
Surirella ‘smithii. ;
> gemma. Onmudin Harbour. Plentiful.
» crumena. Stanley Pond.
» ovata. St. Bees; Stanley Pond.
» Orightwellii, St. Bees,

as

Surirella minuta, Snebra Gill.
» pinnata. St. Bees,
Bacillaria paradoxa. North Harbour. Rare.
a cursoria. North Shore, Rare.

Homeocladia sigmoidea. Scale Force.
Synedra gibbosa. Lowdor ; various streams in the neighbourhood.

», pulchella. Trough, Parton Tunnel.

;, radians. With the above.

a5 tenuissima. Common.

» wulna. Trough, near Parton. Common.

», Ssplendens. Near to the Holins.

» gallioni. Whitehaven Harbour.

» fasciculata. West Pier wall. y=

», tabulata. On ship’s bottom from abroad.

» afinis, Whitehaven Harbour.

» arcus. West Pier. On wall.
Dimmergramma sinuatum. Parton Tunnel, &c.
Raphoneis amphiceros. Whitehaven Harbour. On mud.
Cymatapleura solea, In a Gill near Monkwreay.
Triblionella constricta. Whitehaven Harbour.
Campylodiscus hibernicus. Barrowmouth Wood.

Ae concinnus. Whitehaven Harbour.

o parvulus. With the above.
53 spiralis, The Rifle Range.
- costatus. Barrowmouth Wood.

Family—STRIATELLEA,

Striatella unipunctata. On ship’s bottom from the Mediterranean.
Tessella interrupta. Side of Old Quay, near Bath Houses.
Hyalosira unipunctata, On ship’s bottom.
Rhabdonema minutum. South Shore, near Tom Herd Rock.
A arcuatum. Common along the coast. Parasitic on sea-weed.
Tabillaria floculosa. Abundant in a trough on the roadside near Kingston
House, Moresby.

- ventricosa. Abundant in a trough on the roadside near Kingston
House, Moresby. ;
a5 Jenestrata. Abundant in a trough on the roadside near Kingston

House, Moresby.
Grammatophora marina. Common and abundant on sea-weed growing in
rock pools on the south side of Whitehaven Harbour.
3 serpentina. On sea-weed, growing on the inner side of the
West Pier. Rare.

12,

178

Family—MELOSIRE.

Melosiva nummuloides. Common in the Harbour, especially the Dock.
», moniliformis: Scum from North Quay steps.
», varians. Barrowmouth Wood.

Family—COSCINODISCE AS.
Coscinodiscus radiatus. Whitehaven Harbour.

concinnus. Whitehaven Harbour. Very rare.
35 ovalis. North Shore.
Actinoptychus undulatus. From cone on the steam-tug’s tow rope.

Family—EU PODISCE.

Eupodiscus tenellus. North Shore, below the Ship-Building Yard.
a Julous. From stomachs of Scallops. Obtained off St. Bees Head.

Family—BIDDULPHIE.
Cerataulus smithii. Off St. Bees Head.
Biddulphia roperiana. Several places along the coast south of the harbour.

25 aurita.

a baileyi. Frequent in and about the Whitehaven Harbour,

:} mobilensis. Frequent in and about the Whitehaven Harbour.
Zygoceros surirella. In scum from side of North Pier.

- rhombus.

Family—ANGULIFEREE.

Triceriatum favos. In dredgings taken outside Whitehaven Harbour.
a tesselatum. North Shore. Rare.
Es striolatum. North Harbour. Rare.

Family—CH AX TOCERL#.

Atheya decora. North Shore. Very abundant.
Rhizosolenia styliformis. Floating in Whitehaven Harbour.

Family—COCCONEIDEA.
Cocconeis pediculus. Lowca Beck.

», placentula. Harrington Beck, near Brewery.
5, excentrica. North Shore; Flimby Beck.

Family—ACHNANTHE%.

Achnanthidium lanceolatum. Ina trough behind Whitehaven Castle.

“4 flexellum. Bransty ; Scale Force.
Achnanthes achnanthidium. Tn scum from North Pier steps.
% exilis, Brow near Parton.

Er minutissina. Ina spout near Meadow House, Whitehaven,

v 179

Family—CY MBELLE.

Cymbella turgida. Wheelbarrow Brow.
», pediculus. Harrington.
», gasteroides. Wheelbarrow Brow; St. Bees.
», maculata. Lowea Beck ; Moresby.
» obtusa. Gameriggs ; Lamplugh.
», helvetica. Wheelbarrow Brow ; Gameriggs.
s, scotica. Mixed with the above; Scale Force.
Cocconema cistula. Wheelbarrow Brow; Sea Brows; and several cther
places in the district.
a cymbeforme. Wheelbarrow Brow; Sea Brows; and several
other places in the district.
Encyonema prostratum. In a trough near Parton.
Amphora ovalis, Ina ditch at Barrowmouth Wood.
55 ocellata.
* minutissima. Common in many places.
Ba monilifera.
a littoralis.
s, pellucida. North Shore, below William Pit.
» Ayalina. Flimby Beach ; North Shore.
» «crassa.
nA arenaria.
Sphenella vulgaris. Common in many places near Greenbank ; Gameriggs.
Gomphonema acuminatum. On moss growing in a trough near Harris Moor.

a5 geminatum. Cockermouth ; Duddon ; Harrington.
5 olivaceum. In a Gill near Greenbank.

oa capitatum. In a Gill near Greenbank.

-p constrictum.

- curvatum. Lowca Beck, near Iron Works.

59 intricatum. Wheelbarrow Brow.

marinum. South Shore.

ne dichotomum. Wheelbarrow Brow.

Family—NAVICULE-®.

Navicula didyma.
», cratro. Dredgings off St. Bees Head.
», limosa. Rifle Range, near Saltom Pit.
s, nobilis. Bog on the Sea Brow south of Whitehaven.
»» major. Bog on the Sea Brow south of Whitehaven.
», lyra. Scum off the side of Old Quay.
», littoralis. North Shore, below William Pit.
3, spherophora. Ina drain near the new road below Hilton Terrace.
3, @mphisbena. Ina drain near the new road below Hilton Terrace.
», elliptica. Rifle Range.
» pygmea. North Schore; Flimby Beach.

180 *

Navicula producta. Rifle Range.
», @stiva. Various localities along the coast.
humerosa. Various localities along the coast.
» granulata. Various localities along the coast.
s, marina. North Shore, and St. Bees Shore.
3, Thombea. In scum from side of Old Quay.
s, palpebralis. Drigg.
», longa. Found in many places mixed with other species

», oblonga. Found in many places mixed with other species.

», retusa. Found in many places mixed with other species.
3, northumbrica. North Shore, below William Pit.
rif cocconoides. Rifle Range.

Stauroneis salina. Whitehaven North Harbour.

Pleurosigma fasciola. Whitehaven outer Harbour.

“a arcuatum. Whitehaven outer Harbour.

“ distortum. Scum from side of Old Quay.

a5 estuarii. Whitehaven outer Harbour, South Side.
45 balthicum. Whitehaven inner Harbour, South Side.
oe wansbeckii. From side of Quay.

- Jormosum. Whitehaven Harbour. Very Rare.

aa angulatum. Whitehaven Harbour. Abundaat.

5a quadratum. Whitehaven Harbour. Very Rare.
a lanceolatum. North Shore, below William Pit.

3 transversale. North Shore, belowWilliam Pit.

i naviculum. North Shore, below William Pit.

3 elongatum. North Shore, below William Pit.

re, spenerti. Trough, Barrowmouth Wood.

3 lacustre. Arrowthwaite.

oF) acuminatum. In dredgings off the coast.

Toxonidie gregoriana. North Shore, below William Pit.
ss insignis. North Shore, below William Pit.
Donkinia carinata. North Shore, below William Pit.
», minuta. North Shore, below William Pit.
» cristata. North Shore, below William Pit.
Amphiprora alata. North Shore.
59 vitrea. North Shore.
x, maxima. North Shore.
Mastagloia grevellii. Sea Brow, above the sewage outlet.
Calletonema neglectum. In almost all small running streams.
% vulgare. In almost all small running streams.
Schizonema. Several species ; not determined.

Ae grevellit.

» dansii. obtained in great abundance.

In the rock pools behind the West Pier ; where
these and other members of this genus may be

CONTENTS OF PREVIOUS VOLUMES

OF THE

TRANSACTIONS OF THE CUMBERLAND ASSOCIATION —

For the Advancement of Literature and Science,

VOL So Sre hay k. (94 pages. )

I.—PROCEEDINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING (WHItEHAVEN) :—
InaveuraL Appress py THE PRESIDENT, THE Lorp BisHop or
CARLISLE.

REPORTS FROM THE Associated Socrerrus.

GENERAL Discussion on THE Work oF THE Socturres,
Notice or Excursions MADE.

Papers READ av THE GENERAL MEETING :—

“Some Plumbago Coining-Moulds,” (Abstract.) By R. S. Fergu-
son, M.A. (Carlisle.)

‘* Local Tokens,” (Abstract.) By Wm. Jackson, J.P. (White-
haven. )

“Harbours and Docks.” By J. E. Williams (Whitehaven. )

“The Cumberland Dialect.” By John Richardson (Keswick. )

“‘Sketch of the Geological History of the Lake District.” By J.
Clifton Ward, F.G.S. (Keswick. )

II.—Ortemat Papers COMMUNICATED TO THE SocreriEs DURING THE
SEssIon 1875-6, AND SELECTED By THE AssocraTIoN CoUNCIL FoR
PUBLICATION :—

‘The Cumberland Dialect,” By John Richardson (Keswick.)
“‘Old Borrowdale. ” By J. F. Crosthwaite (Keswick. )
** Pexsonal Names.” By Peter Harrisou (Keswick. )

Vp Onag iy Bok 2) ee Fee or. (210 pages.)

I.—PROCEEDINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING (KEswick) :—
PROGRAMME CARRIED out.

ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT (tHE LorpD BisHop oF CARLISLE) ‘‘ The
Analogies and Contrasts between Human and Divine Science,”

Reports FROM THE ASsocIATED Socrerris:: - a

(Contents of Vol. Il.—continued. )

Parers READ AT THE ANNUAL MEETING :—

“‘Notes on the Meteorology of Cockermouth.” By H. Dodgson,
M.D., F.R.M.S. (Cockermouth. )

‘* The Rainfall of Keswick.” By J. F. Crosthwaite (Keswick. )

“* Notes on some Peculiarities of the West Cumberland Coal Field.”
By R. F. Martin, M. A. (Whitehaven. )

‘“‘The Hematite Deposits of Cumberland and Lancashire.” (Ab-
stract.) By J. D. Kendal, C.E., F.G.S. (Whitehaven. )

‘©The Raised Beach on the Cumberland Coast between Whitehaven
and Bowness.” (Abstract.) By R. Russell, C.E., F.G.S.,
(Whitehaven, ) and T. V. Holmes, F.G.S.

‘‘Remarkable Boulders of the Keswick District.” By J. Clifton
Ward, Assoc. R.S.M., F.G.S. (Keswick. )

II,—OriGInAL PAPERS COMMUNICATED TO THE SOCIETIES DURING THE
Session 1876-77, AND SELECTED BY THE ASSOCIATION COUNCIL FOR
PUBLICATION :—

‘‘ Pletcher Christiau and the Mutineers of the Bounty.” By William
Fletcher, F.G.S. (Cockermouth. )

“Old Customs and Usages of the Lake District.” By John
Richardson (Keswick. )

‘Jonathan Otley, the Geologist and Guide.” By J. Clifton Ward,
Assoc. R.S.M., F.G.S. (Keswick. )

‘‘Notes on a few of the Migratory Birds of the English Lake
District.” By John Birkett (Keswick. )

“Coleridge.” By the Rev. J. D. Harrington, M. A. (Lecture
given at Keswick.)

VOL. III.—1877-78. (229 pages.)

I.—PROCEEDINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING (CockERMoUTH) :—
PROGRAMME CARRIED OUT.
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT. I. Fiercuer, M.P., F.R.S.)
REPORTS FROM THE ASSOCIATED SOCIETIES.
Papers ReaD aT THE ANNUAL MEETING :—

‘‘On the Probable Condition of the Interior of the Earth.” By
Sir George Airy, K.C.B., F.R.S., Astronomer-Royal.

“*Local Names.” By Peter Harrison (Keswick. )

“Quartz, as it occurs in the Lake Distrlct; its Structure and its
History. » By J. Clifton Ward, F.G.S., F.R.M.S. (Keswick. )

‘* Wordsworth.” By Rev. Professor William Knight, St. Andrews.

(Contents of Vol. III.—continued. )

II.—OriGINAL PAPERS COMMUNICATED TO THE SOCIETIES DURING THE
Session, 1877-78, AND SELECTED BY THE ASSOCIATION COUNCIL FOR
PUBLICATION :—

‘Boulder Clay.” By C. Smith, M.R.I.A., F.G.S. (Whitehaven. )

“Submerged Forest at St. Bees.” By R. Pickering, C.E.
(Whitehaven. )

‘Theory and Practice in their Relation to each other.” By J. D.
Kendall, W. H. Kitcbin, and J. Nixon (Whitehaven. )

““A Day at Ennerdale.” By Joseph Adair (Whitehaven. )
* Peter Crosthwaite.” By J. Fisher Crosthwaite (Keswick. )

“Symbolism in Art.” By J. A. Wheatley, Carlisle (Cocker-
mouth. )

“Half an Hour with a few Common Beetles.” By William
Duckworth (Carlisle. )

VOL. IV.—1878-79. (339 pages.)

REPORTS FROM THE ASSOCIATED SOCIETIES.
ANNUAL REPORT AND TREASURER’S ACCOUNT.

ORIGINAL PAPERS COMMUNICATED TO THE SOCIETIES DURING THE
SEss1oN 1878-79, AND SELECTED BY THE AssocrATION COUNCIL FOR
PUBLICATION :—

“The Formation of Cumberland.” By R. S. Ferguson, F.S.A.
(Carlisle. )

“The History and Ballads of the Border.” By R. A. Allison,
M.A. (Longtown. )

“The History and Customs of the Manors of the Marquis and
Richmond Fees in the Barony of Kendal and of the Manor
of Hawkshead.” By W. Hopes Heelis (Ambleside. ) f

“Notes on the Whitehaven Rural Sanitary District.” By James
Syme, Medical Officer of Health (Whitehaven. )

“Restoration of Ancient Buildings.” By the Rt. Hon. G. C.
Bentinck (Whitehaven. )

‘Our Summer Visitors.” By T. Duckworth (Carlisle. )
‘With the Dipper.” By Wm. Duckworth (Carlisle. )
“The Entomology of the District.” By George Dawson (Carlisle. )

“The Stability of Rowing and Sailing Boats.” By the Rev. E. M.
Reynolds (Ambleside. )

“The Great Lake, Lagoon, or Bay of Triton.” By B. A. Irving,
M.A. (Ambleside. )

“The Old Maryport Furnace, and its place in the History of Iron
Manufacture.” By John Addison, C.E. (Maryport.)

(Contents of Vol. 1V.—continued.)

‘The Drama and Dramatists.” By E. Fletcher (Whitehaven. )
** Flax and Flax-Workers.’” By W. Wilson (Whitehaven. )
“‘ English Music.” By J. Macqueen (Whitehaven. )

‘The Hon. Charles Radcliffe and his connection with the Rebellions
of 1715 and 1745.” By J. F. Crosthwaite (Keswick. )

‘Robert Southey.” By the Very Rev. A. P. Stanley, D.D., F.R.S.
Dean of Westminster (Keswick. )

‘*List of Cumberland Birds in the Carlisle and Keswick Museums.”
By George Dawson (Carlisle,) and the Rev. J. Clifton Ward,
F.G.S.

VOL. V.—1879-80. (208 pages )

REPORTS FROM ASSOCIATED SOCIETIES.
REPORT OF ASSOCIATION SECRETARY.
TREASURER’s ACCOUNT.
Warp MemoriAu Funp.
I.—PROCEEDINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING (Maryport) :—
PROGRAMME CARRIED OUT.
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS.
Parers READ AT THE ANNUAL MEETING :—

“Distribution of eee ay in West Cumberland.” By J. D.
Kendall, C.E., F.G.S.

“Maryport Camp.” By J. B. Bailey.

TII.—OricGInAL PAPERS COMMUNICATED TO THE SOCIETIES DURING THE
Szsston 1879-80, AND SELECTED BY THE ASSOCIATION COUNCIL FOR

PUBLICATION :—
Inaugural Address to Carlisle Society. By Robert Ferguson, M.P.
**Soul-Cells and Cell-Souls.” (Translated from the German of —

Heckel.) By the Rev. C. H. Parez (Carlisle.)

«The Influence of Geological Structure on Scenery.” By J. D.
Kendall, C.E., F.G.S. (Whitehaven. )

“*Some Account of the Life of the late Captain Huddart, F.R.S.”
By E. T. Tyson (Maryport. )

“The Local Museum, and its Relation to the Natural History of
the District.” By James Arlosh, M.A. (Carlisle. )

‘Notes on Inglewood Forest.” By John Jackson (Carlisle)

‘‘Water and Air: their Relations to Health or Disease.” By
W. H. Watson, F.C.S., F.M.S., &c. (Whitehaven. )

“‘The Moths of the District.” By George Dawson (Carlisle.)

“The Character and Distribution of the Diatomacez.” By
B. Taylor (Whitehaven.)

G, AND T, COWARD, PRINTERS, CARLISLM, —

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