Gents Mag 1849 part 2 p.252

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	Gentleman's Magazine 1849 part 2 p.252 strife - but so nevertheless it was; and the island is not more attractive by its beauty than for the memory of one of the most gallant actions performed by the Royalists in the troublous epoch of the civil war. The olden name of this sweet spot was Wynandermere Isle, afterwards changed to Lang Holme; the latter word signifying in the provincial dialect an island or plain by the waterside. In the middle the Philipsons had a plain country house of the old fashioned Westmerland kind, strongly secured and fortified, called Holme House; and , like the gallant Wyndhams of Somersetshire, whose uncompromising principle of loyalty it was "to stand by the Crown, though it should hang on but a bush," the owners of the island were not more distinguished for their steady support of the King than for the resolute bravery and romantic spirit of heroism with which they fought and suffered in the royal cause. With them, as with a poet of the period - Loyalty was still the same, Whether it win or lose the game; True as the dial to the sun, Altho' it be not shone upon. Whoever has wandered into the Bellingham chapel, in the large and curious church at Kendal, a fabric, which from its component parts, though more so for the plan than its details, seems almost out of the pale of ecclesiastical architecture (it having a nave and no less than four aisles, features in its construction so peculiar that there are but the churches of St. Michael's in Coventry and St. Mary Magdalen in Taunton, with one or two others, of similar arrangement in England, to be met with), will have seen suspended high over an ancient altar-tomb a battered helmet, through whose crust of whitewash the rust of ages is plainly to be discerned. The learned in such display of warlike or heraldic insignia, after hearing the usual information which is there detailed, are left pretty much after all to form their own opinions from their own observation and knowledge, whether this antique casque belonged to Sir Roger Bellingham, who was interred, A.D. 157-, in the tomb beneath, and exalted as a token of the distinction he had received at the hand of his sovereign, in being made a knight banneret on the field of battle, - or was obtained by the puissant burgesses of Kendal from one of the Philipsons, and elevated to its present position as a trophy of their valour. Nevertheless, whichever of these accounts may have truth for its foundation, the helmet in question is strangely enough called "The rebel's cap;" and its history forms the theme of the following bold and sacrilegious action, which, though "an old tale and often told," ought not to be refused a place in these pages. The Philipsons, as before said, were staunch Royalists, and during the wars between Charles I. and the Parliament there were two brothers of the family at Crooke Hall who had espoused the royal cause. Hudelston the elder, to whom the island belonged, held the rank of Colonel, and his brother Robert that of Major, in the King's army. The latter, who is still renowned in county tradition for many daring acts, was a man of high and adventurous courage; and, from his desperate exploits, had acquired among the Parliamentarians the significant but not very reputable cognomen of "Robin the Devil." At that time there resided in Kendal a leading partisan of the Parliament, named Briggs, who was also an active officer in their army. He was a distant kinsman of the Philipsons, of whom notwithstanding he was a bitter enemy; and, having heard that Major Philipson was in his brother's house on the island, in charge of the valuable property of the family, he invested the place, with the view of making prisoner so obnoxious a character. The Major, however, was too old a soldier to be caught for want of vigilance; he was on the alert, and, with his usual fearless hardihood, defended the isle, during a siege of ten days with a courage worthy of his reputation, though subjected to severe privation; as Briggs, having seized all the boats upon the lake, had stopped the supplies. Colonel Philipson, who was at the siege of Carlisle, hearing of his brother's beleaguerment, hastened to the rescue, with a force which obliged the Parliamentarian to abandon his attempt; and since that time the echoes of this brightest of our English lakes, unroused by the angry sounds of warlike conflict, have slumbered in peace. The attack being thus repulsed, Major Philipson was not the
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