button to main menu  Camden's Britannia, edn 1789

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Page 162:-
  Arthur's Round Table. Mayborough.
  Arthur's Round Table
  Mayburgh

passes by a large circular earthwork, single trenched, the ditch within 29 yards diameter, the two entrances opposite to each other north-west and south-east. This is called Arthur's Round Table. A small distance from this to the south is another such earthwork, consisting only of a low rampart, and called the Little Round Table. To the north of the first, on the summit of a small hill, is Mayborough, a vast circular dike of loose stones, the height and diameter at bottom stupendous; it slopes on both sides, and is formed of pebbles. The entrance is on the east, the area 88 yards diameter. Near the middle is an upright stone, nine feet eight inches high, and 17 in circumference in the thickest part. There have been three more placed so as to form a square with it. Four more stood at the corners of the entrance, but all these have been long removed. This may have been a druidical tribunal like Bryngwyn at Trew Drw in Anglesea [a]. Dr. Stukeley [b] supposed it a British cursus. Mr. West [c] derives its name from the British Mysirion,a place of study and contemplation. Almost opposite to Mayborough, on the Cumberland side of the Emot, is a vast cairn of round stones, called Ormsted hill, surrounded by large grit stones of different sizes, some a yard square, forming a circle 60 feet diameter [d].
  Emot r. Ulleswater.
  Eamont, River
Emot may be called the Ticinus of the two counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland falling in a clear and rapid stream out of Ulleswater as the Tesin from Lago Maggiore. Upon its banks king Athelstan A.D. 926, concluded a treaty of peace and union with Constantine king of the Scots, Huval (Howel), king of the Western Britans or Stratcluid Welsh, and others who found themselves unable to make head against him. They met, according to Simeon Dunelm. [e] and Hoveden iv. Id. Jul. in a place called Eamotun, and entered into a league confirmed by oath [f]. Bishop Gibson has taken much pains to prove the above monuments, particularly Mayborough, memorials of this event, whereas they are plainly British and Druidical. They are both in Barton parish [g], as also is a considerable part of Ulleswater, a large mere seven or eight miles in length, of great depth, well stocked with fish [h].
  Barton.
Emot runs by Barton, a very large parish, reaching from the boundaries of Ridal and Ambleside south to the river Loder north. Here is a freeschool founded 1649 by the learned D. Gerard Langbaine, provost of Queen's college, Oxford, a native, as was also Dr. William Lancaster, another provost and benefactor to this school [23].
  Yanwath.
  Yanwath Hall
About a mile from Yanwath hall at the end of the wood opposite Lowther hall is an antient round fortification called Castle steads [i].
  Isa parlis. Nine churches.
  grotto, Penrith
  St Ninian's Church

Isa parlis is also called Giant's cave, an odd rock [k], and consists of two caverns, one circular, hollowed in a rock, the roof supported by a central pillar of rough masonry [l]. Its iron gates are pretended to have been carried to Hornby hall [m]. Opposite to it in a peninsula is St. Ninians, vulgarly called Nine churches, the parish church of Brougham. The late rector of this and Clifton, Mr. Patten, was a correspondent of Dr. Stukeley and Mr. Gale, and gave them a particular account of the many antiquities in this neighbourhood. His daughter Mrs. Bockham, who 1771 kept a farm near Arthur's round table, told me, that, on her removal from Newcastle she burnt a great collection of these letters and drawings of seals, &c.
  Clifton moor.
  Battle of Clifton Moor
Clifton moor is memorable for a skirmish between the king's troops under the duke of Cumberland and the rebels 1745, in which about 15 were killed on both sides, and lieutenant colonel Honeywood of Howgill castle taken up for dead. Dr. Todd mentions a fountain in this parish near the banks of the Lowther of christalline limpid water, strongly impregnated with steel, and vitriol, of great benefit for scorbutic complaints [n].
  Crosby Ravensworth.
  Crosby Ravensworth
In Crosby Ravensworth parish is a remarkable heap of stones called Penhurrock, probably a tumulus [o].
  Meburn.
  Maulds Meaburn
At Meburn town head, in this parish, was born Lancelot Addison, who passed many years in travels over Europe and Africa, was rector of Milkston, c. Wilts, archdeacon of Coventry, and dean of Lichfield, and died 1703, being father of the celebrated Joseph, Gulston, governor of Fort St. George, and Lancelot, fellow of Magdalen college, Oxford, and three daughters [p].
  Rasate.
  antiquities
At Rasate in Ravenstonedale parish, not far from Sunbiggin tarn, are two tumuli, in which have been found many skeletons laid round about the hills, with the heads all lying upwards towards the hill top, and the hands on the breasts. In the high street leading from Kirkby Stephen to Sedbergh near Rawthey bridge is a circle of large stones supposed a druidical monument. In 1774 was found in the peat pits near the town, two feet below the surface, a copper vessel, eight inches diameter at bottom, 14 at top, and 16 inches in the widest part just under the neck, depth 18 inches, containing about eight gallons and a half, made of three distinct plates, and much used in fire: being very slender it has six copper fillets at equal distances reaching up the sides two inches and a half, and turned over as much at bottom, which serve to support it, and it has within two ears with moveable rings, the whole of elegant workmanship [q].
  Kirkby Lonsdale.
  Kirkby Lonsdale
Kirkby Lonsdale is a neat well-paved town, the largest in the county next to Kendal, beautifully situated, the houses covered with blue slate, the church a large and decent structure, and opposite to it Abbots hall, an old hall serving as an inn. The river Lune runs at the foot of the steep rock, 40 yards perpendicular, on which the town stands. Underlay, a mansion here about half a mile distant, commands a view of a rich and fertile vale, terminated by a range of lofty mountains, the nearest two or three miles off. Ingleborough with its head in the clouds farthest to the south. The bridge over the river is built of freestone of three ribbed arches, the centre arch is 12 yards from the water [r].
Sir Daniel Fleming says he found Humphrey de Bassingburne a knight of the earl of Westmorland before the Conquest [s].
[a] Pennant, 256. See vol.II. 567.
[b] II. 43. 45.
[c] Guide to the Lakes, p.179.
[d] Pennant, 257.
[e] p.154.
[f] see hereafter in Cumberland.
[g] Burn, I. 414.
[h] Ib. 404.
[23] G.
[i] Burn, 413.
[k] Stuk. II. 46.
[l] Hutchinson, 118.
[m] Gibson mentions it in Cumberland, II. 1021.
[n] Burn, I. 420.
[o] Ib. 501.
[p] Ib. 503, 504.
[q] Ib. 519.
[r] Walker's Tour to the Caves. See this bridge engraved in Gent. Mag. XXIII. p.355. Burn, I. 244. 247.
[s] Burn Ib. 26.
The
gazetteer links
button -- Arthur's Round Table
button -- "Bartin" -- Barton
button -- (battle site, Clifton Moor)
button -- "Ormsted Hill" -- Brougham Hall Stone Circle
button -- "Castle Steads" -- Castlesteads
button -- Clifton Wells
button -- Devil's Bridge
button -- "Emot, River" -- Eamont, River
button -- "Isa Parlis" -- Giant's Caves
button -- "Abbots Hall" -- Kings Arms Hotel
button -- "Kirkby Lonsdale" -- Kirkby Lonsdale
button -- "Kirkby Stephen" -- Kirkby Stephen
button -- Maulds Meaburn
button -- "Mayborough" -- Mayburgh
button -- "Penhurrock" -- Penhurrock
button -- Rawthey Bridge Stone Circle
button -- "Rasate" -- Rayseat
button -- (school, Barton)
button -- "St Ninians" -- St Ninian's Church
button -- (tumulus, Rayseat)
button -- "Ulleswater" -- Ullswater
button -- "Underlay" -- Underley Hall
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