button to main menu   West's Guide to the Lakes, 1778/1821

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Page 148:-
[Pampo]calio of the same Chorographia. A station here would be an efficacious check on any body of the enemy that might cross the estuaries, above or below Boulness, and pass the watch there, and the garrisons at old Carlisle, Ellenborough, Papcastle, and Moresby; for it was impossible for any body of men to proceed to the south, but by Borrowdale or Dunmail-raise, a garrison at Keswick commanded both these passes. The watch at Caer-mot would give the alarm to that on Castle-crag, in the pass of Borrowdale, and the centinel on Castle-head, that overlooks Keswick, would communicate the same to the garrison there; so that it is apparently impossible that any body of men could pass that way unnoticed or unmolested. But if they attempted a route on the northern side of Skiddaw, and over Hutton-moor, to Patterdale, the watch at Caer-mot was in sight, both of old Carlisle and Keswick, and the garrison of the latter might either pursue, or give notice to Whitbarrow and Ambleside, to meet them in the pass at the head of Patterdale, called Kirkston, which is so steep, narrow, and crowded with rocks, that a few veteran troops would easily stop the career of a tumultuous crowd. If they made good the pass, and turned to the east before the Romans arrived, they would, in that case, be harrassed (sic) in the rear, till they arrived at Kendal, where the watchmen from Watercrook would be ready to receive them,
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gazetteer links
button -- "Kirkston" -- Kirkstone Pass
button -- (roman fort, Keswick)

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