church: it is also a singular fact, that the belfry is perfectly isolated from the church, and stands on a hill some distance from the sacred edifice. In Kirk Oswald Castle (now a dilapidated fragment only) was long deposited the sword with which Hugh de Morville assisted in the sacrilegious assassination of Archbishop Thomas à Becket; Hugh having, by marriage, become possessed of manorial dominion here. Finally, passing under Carlisle, where it receives the Calder and the Peteril, the Eden rolls on towards the Irish Sea, first, however, expanding into the fine estuary known as Solway Firth.1 Carlisle is a name of ancient British derivation, being a contraction of Llugydagwal, signifying the Army by the wall; in the Itinerary of Antoninus it is called Lugovallio: this, by the Saxons was shortened into Lu-ell, to which the British word, Caer, a city, being afterwards affixed, it be water, still pointed out as existing within that edifice. So also at Lindesse, where a very fine spring and stream of the purest water is found, nearly adjacent to the ancient church. In these beautiful fountains of living waters the earliest converts were baptized previously to the adoption of the artificial fonts; and it is from hence that the name is derived-fons, a fountain or spring, frequently, by an early transition, put for the stream itself; and fontes, for streams, rivulets, rills, brooks, and running waters. The idea preserved in the word font is as beautiful as it is scripturally true. 'In that day,' says the prophet Zechariah, there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and uncleanness.' The waters of Holy Baptism flow from CHRIST, they are of His institution; and the notion intended to be kept alive, and continually presented to the mind, is that of a stream ever-springing for the cleansing of the Church; and the water in the baptistery or font, maintained from the spring, is in Scripture called a river.'"-History of the Bishopric of Lincoln, from its foundation to the period of the Conquest. By Adam Stark. 1 The term "Firth " is derived from the Norwegian Fiord or Fjord. came Caer-luell, and has been changed by gradual transition into Carlisle. By some writers, its foundation is attributed to Luel, a British potentate; by others, it is thought to have first existed in the character of a fortress on the Wall of Severus. Be this as it may, it appears to have been completely laid waste by the northern invaders, after the abandonment of Britain by the Romans and though subsequently rebuilt, and encompassed by a wall, by King Egfrid, it suffered fresh devastation by fire and sword from the Danes; in which state of desolation it continued until William Rufus, perceiving its importance as a frontier station, gave orders for its restoration. During the Great Rebellion, Carlisle underwent extremity of famine (1644) from a severe blockade ere it yielded reluctant admission to the parliamentary forces. Many people make a point of inspecting the famous biscuit manufactory at Carlisle: this, however, we did not care for seeing: so, after satisfying ourselves with a leisurely survey of the streets, with their good-looking shops, and taking a peep at the interior of the court-houses, we returned to the station, and presently found ourselves once more comfortably seated in a railway carriage en route for Penrith. It seemed as though, on this day, we were specially destined to encounter entertaining travelling companions: for, amongst the passengers was a most intelligent American gentleman, who enlivened the journey with interesting details of his impressions regarding England, and amusing descriptions of social manners and customs in America. Seventeen days ago (he told us) he left the United States, and had reached England in the unprecedentedly short period of nine days for it was eight days since he landed in England! And then he enlarged upon various American excellencies,-the conveniences of their railway carriages, (where no distinction of first and second class is known, and where the passengers can walk about from one end of the gigantic car to the other, as they please,) and the good fare of their hotels. Graphic and judicious as were his remarks upon England and America, I could just discern a little pardonable tendency in everything to exalt the latter country, which at length tempted me to join the conversation, by quietly asking if they had any venerable cathedrals or grey old castles in America. With a smile of courtesy he acknowledged that their cathedrals were of modern date, (or, as I should express it, those of a daughter church,) and that only nations which have lived in feudal times can boast of historic castles. At that moment our train came in sight of the mountains, to which some one directed attention, when I, charmed at having won this graceful homage from America towards her Mother Church and her fatherland, felt myself happy in the opportunity of returning the compliment, by frankly confessing that our mountains and lakes must truly yield the palm of precedence before the sovereign peaks and the majestic floods of the western world. Our arrival at Penrith station broke off the interesting conversation. With light step and merry heart for the last time we tripped along Penrith streets; for on the morrow we expected to "Hie away, hie away, Over bank and over brae," along the margin of Ullswater, through the heart of those dear old mountains, to Patterdale ! 1 Sir Walter Scott. 177 CHAPTER XI. Ar the period when heathen Saxons swept like a desolating simoom across the country, great numbers of the ancient British Christians, driven from hearth and home, were compelled to "flee unto the mountains" for shelter and security. Hence, the hoary peaks of the west, and the clustering summits of the north, became known as the "land of the Cumbrae (or Cymbri :") a nomenclature which the manifold inflections of language have gradually metamorphosed into "Cambria," with regard to the Snowdon-crowned territory, and into "Cumberland" (or Cumbrae-land,) with regard to the region around the border-fells. Ay, bright and smiling as are now the flockfolded valleys, and the cloud-traceried pinnacles, cruel and tumultuous was the ordeal by which those border-fells were afflicted through the stormy centuries of dispute. For "the boundaries between England and Scotland were anciently very unsettled. After the time of the Romans, the Anglo-Saxon and Danish Kings speedily extended their dominion over the Cheviot Hills, and frequently to the Firths of Clyde and Forth; whilst considerable tracts of the north of England, particularly in the north-west districts, were sometimes united with the Scottish lowlands, or with kingdoms which existed there. Until England and Scotland were at length united under one crown, the north of Eng N land was almost uninterruptedly the theatre of the bitterest border warfare. The blood of many thousands of bold warriors has been spilt on that land, which now teems with the blessings of wealth and peace."1 It was these disputes between England and Scotland, which first caused the institution of "Borderservice;" a part of that great principle of government-(more or less followed out wherever the great Teutonic nation had settled, and called in the old Teutonic language "fehda, or feud"-whence the term "Feudal System")-which recognized the duty owed by the holders of land to the land-owner. By this "Service," tenants of manors were obliged at a given signal-such as the firing of a beacons -to attend their lord in the service of the borders, properly accoutred at their own expense: he, in his turn, being bound to follow the standard of the Lord Warden of the Marches appointed by his King. The value of the duty to be rendered varied according to the value of the tenure, some vassals being bound to serve on horseback, with a long retinue of men-at-arms; others on foot, attended only by their immediate kinsmen. (Hence the expression nag tenements and foot tenements.) The chieftains to whom these border-vassals owed obedience, were themselves very turbulent and unruly, and paid little respect to the commands of their Sovereigns: they usually dwelt in small fortified castles; and as 1 Worsaae's "Danes and Northmen." 2 "Landmarks of History." 3 The places appointed for beacons in Cumberland were, Black Comb, Mulcaster Fell, S. Bee's Head, Workington Hill, Moothay, Skiddaw, Sandale Top, Carlisle Castle, Lingy Close Head, Penrith Beacon Hill, Dale Raughton, Brampton Mote, and Spade Adam Top. 4 The authority of the Lord Warden of the Marches was of a mixed nature, military and civil. In his military capacity, he was a generalissimo, to preside and give command; to place |