give notice, to the station at Lancaster, of any shipping on its first appearance in the bay, and also receive the alarm from that quarter; but in after-times it had been. converted into a moot-hill by the Saxon lord of Aldingham, as tradition declares.

No inscriptions or remains of Roman antiquity, lead to any certainty that the Romans ever had any roads, camps, or castrum, to the west of the station at the head of Windermere, or in High Furness; but it is evident, that the stones made use of in the walls of the said castrum have been carried thither from the neighbourhood of Dalton, in Low Furness, where only freestone of the same kind and colour is found.

After the departure of the Romans, and the invasion of the Saxons, the Britons in Furness, says Camden, "lived securely for a long time, relying upon those fortifications, wherewith Nature had guarded them; but nothing proved impregnable to the Saxon Conqueror; for that the Britons lived here in the 228th year after the coming of the Saxons, is plain from hence; that at that time Egfrid, king of the Northumbrians, gave to St. Cuthbert the land called Carthmell, and all the Britons in it; for so it is related in his life." (Britannia, p. 978.) Cartmel is the only town in the neighbourhood of Furness that retains the British. name, and Bardsea the only village in Furness that retains a British sound.

The Saxons in time possessed themselves of all Furness, and divided it into a number of small lordships, which each proprietor called after his own name. Some of those families are now extant, and in possession of their estates, as may be seen in the Synopsis.

In Doomsday Survey the name of Furness does not occur; yet almost every village in Low Furness is mentioned, together with the name of the land-owners, and the quantity of arable land belonging to each of them; amongst these were the great Saxon Lords: ERNULPH in Aldingham held six carucates ad geldum

Doomsday, p. 28.

*

(by a king's rent.) In Ulverston, GOSPATRIC held six carucates ad geldum. The King had three carucates. There were four villains tenants, but they did not plough. The arable land was one luca or mile in length, and half a mile in breadth. In the reign of King Edward the Confessor, the King's rent was 20s. per annum at the time of the survey, it was 10s. A carucate of land is as much as can be cultivated in a year by one plough.

TURNULPH held 6 carucates ad geldum, in Ulverston, Earl TOFTI held lands in Furness: in Soureby 4 carucates: In Daltun 2 carucates: in Warte 2 carucates: in Neutun 6 carucates: in Fordibodle 2 carucates: in Rosse 6 carucates: in Hert 2 carucates in Lies 6 carucates in the other Lies 2 carucates: in Glassertum 2 carucates in Stanitum 2 carucates: in Clevertune 4 carucates: in_Ourgrane 3 carucates: in Meretun 4 carucates in Pennegetun 2 carucates: in Gerlevarde 2 carucates. Doomsday, p. 73.

As nothing is more certain and accurate, than the account given by the above record of the state and condition of Furness at the time of the Conquest; so it is evident, that Low Furness at that period was not a waste or barren country, since sixty-six ploughs are accounted for, exclusive of those which belonged to the lords of the particular manors, and to their tenants.

Furness in the Conqueror's Survey is included within the west riding of Yorkshire, and in the division of Hougun: so is all the north of Lancashire and the south of Westmorland, with part of Cumberland.

CHAPTER

CHA P. II.

A general descriptive view of Low-Furness, with notices concerning the Market-towns, Villages, Buildings, and Inhabitants; the Minerals, Natural curiosities, Soils, Tillage, and the impediments to agricultural improvements, in that district.

THE approach to Furness, the appendix of Lancashire, from Lancaster, has always been considered as dangerous; but it is less so now than formerly, the sands being more solid; and in company with the guides few accidents happen. From the Lancaster shore at Hest bank, to Cartmel shore, the sands are nine miles over. The channel of the river Ken is on these sands; at the ford, a guide on horseback is always in waiting to conduct travellers over at the stated hours.

The

A neck of land in Cartmel, stretching out towards the ocean, divides the great bay of Morecambe it is three miles over at the crossing to Furness. Within this isthmus stands the town of Cartmel, famous for having been granted to the church before the Conquest; and afterwards regranted by William Mareschal the elder, Earl of Pembroke, who built therein a priory, which he endowed with the manor of Cartmel. church is very handsome. At the dissolution the parishioners purchased it from the crown, and made. it the parish-church, by which means this noble edifice was saved from destruction. The choir is still entire, as are also the canons' seats. The History of our Saviour's Passion, and other scripture pieces, all well preserved, are represented in the carvings round the inside, and are a great ornament to the church.

A little below Cartmel, on the road to Furness, lies Flookborough. The priory of Cartmel erected it into a market-town, after having obtained a charter for the purpose from King Edward I. in the sixth year of his reign; which monarch granted many privileges to the burghers, all of them now obselete: The weekly market is removed to Cartmel.

Near

Near the sand-side stands Wraysholme tower: formerly it belonged to the Harringtons. Near it is a medicinal spring of a brackish taste, much frequented every summer, and found to be a good remedy for worms, and cutaneous complaints.

At the sand-yate the bay of Morecambe opens again, and into this part the rivers Leven and Crake empty their waters. The first descends from Windermere; the second, from Coniston lake, or Thurston water. The bay here is four miles over: the shore is deeply indented the peninsulas are beautifully fringed with wood, and bounded on the west by one continued slope of improved grounds, mixed with woods for several miles.

At the bottom of the bay is situated Ulverston, the emporium of Furness; then Conishead and Bardsea lead the ardent eye along a shore matchless for the beauty of hanging woods, inclosed lands, and grounds rising in every pleasing form, till Aldingham's ancient moat, and the lofty pile of Fouldrey, terminate the magnificent scene. The fore ground to this picturesque landscape is Holker hall, surrounded with its parks and pleasure-grounds, improved to the highest pitch of taste in agriculture. The lofty woods of Wetham, and insulated Plumpton, famous five hundred years ago for its iron mines, and mountains swelling above mountains till their craggy heads of various forms are lost in clouds, terminate the view.

In crossing Leven sands to Furness, the chapel isle stands on the left. There, in former times divine service was performed, at a convenient hour, for such as crossed the sands with the morning tide. Some ancient walls of the Chapel are still remaining.

In drawing near Ulverston, the shore on the right is more embayed, and Furness-fells shew more their dusky sides. The Leven sands are safe; yet the ford, like that of Ken, is frequently changing, by the shifting of the sands. This ford is every day tried for by the guide, and in his company you are safe. The priory of Conishead was charged with this useful office: the

guide, besides the perquisites of office, had from the priory three acres of land and 15 marks per annum. King Hen. VIII. on the dissolution of the priory, charged himself and his successors with the payment of a certain sum in money to the person that should be guide for the time being, by patent under the seal of the duchy of Lancaster: a Thomas Tempest was the first patentee guide.

Ulverston, the key and mart of Furness, has a weekly market on Thursday, plentifully supplied with all sorts of provisions, good in kind, of which the average price for 1772 were, finest flour 11. per cwt. oatmeal 15s. per cwt. wheat 6s. 11d. per bushel, oats 2s. 2d. per bushel, barley gs. 8d. per bushel, beans 48. per bushel; beef from 3d. to 4 d. per pound, veal gd. per pound, mutton 3d. per pound, lamb 31d. per pound, salmon 3d. per pound; butter in summer 7d. sixteen ounces in the pound, in winter 8d. new milk per quart Id. day labourer in summer per diem 1s. 6d. without entertainment, in winter 1s. 2d. meadow ground per acre 31. 35. statute measure, pasture land per acre 21. An acre and a half will keep a cow.

In 1774 there were seventy ships belonging to this place chiefly employed in the coasting trade. Coals were then imported and sold at tl. 5s. 6d. per chaldron.

Though Ulverston can boast of a charter for a weekly market and annual fair since the 8th of King Edward I. yet it never availed itself of it whilst the abbey of Furness subsisted. The resort of company was at the abbey, and the general market was held at Dalton. After the dissolution of that monastery, Ulverston being a more central place, and more convenient for High Furness, the market for grain was fixed there by the common consent of the country.

The people of Furness in general, and of Ulverston in particular, are civil and well-behaved to strangers, hospitable and humane. This universal civility and good manners is the characteristic of Furness, and distinguishes it from those parts of the kingdom where an importunate curiosity degenerates into rudeness and

barbarism,