button to main menu  Old Cumbria Gazetteer
Jew Stone, Outhgill
Jew Stone
locality:-   Outhgill
locality:-   Mallerstang
civil parish:-   Mallerstang (formerly Westmorland)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   memorial
locality type:-   stone
coordinates:-   NY78280153
1Km square:-   NY7801
10Km square:-   NY70

MN photo:-  
William Henry Mounsey walked from the mouth of the River Eden, on the Solway Marshes to the river's source, arriving there on the Ides of March 1850. He erected a monument on Black Fell Moss, near the source to commemorate his achievement. William Mounsey was a solicitor in Carlisle, wore a long beard, and was known as the Jew of Carlisle. The stone became known as the Jew Stone.
The stone was made of limestone, Dent Marble. It had inscriptions in latin, translated:-
"William Mounsey, a lone traveller, having commenced his journey at the mouth and finished at the source, fulfilled his vow to the Genius and nymphs of the Eden on the 15th March 1850"
and in greek, translated:-
"Seek the river of the soul - whence it springs, when thou hast served the body in a certain order - when thou hast acknowledged thy duty to the sacred Sculptures (?) - thou shalt be raised again to the order from which thou art fallen Let us flee with ships to our dear native land; for we have a country from which we have come and our Father is there"
The stone was smashed by navvies from the Settle and Carlisle Railway, who couldn't read it, 1870. The pieces were rescued about the late 1940s, but couldn't be restored. This exact replica is made of a better limestone.

photograph
BMK64.jpg (taken 21.7.2006)  

button to lakes menu  Lakes Guides menu.