John Maughan

“ Within the Northern side are also the Manor House, farm-buildings, and garden. The remainder of the Station is an excellent pasture. It shows several traces of foundations of buildings, proving it to have been a place of considerable importance. Almost every grave that is made cuts through foundation walls. There are also several traces of pavements. On the top of the hill, to the North-west, are some groundworks, which are said to have been a hall occupied by one of the younger branches of the family settled at Bewcastle,—hence the place is called the Hallhills. ”

“ On leaving the Little Beacon Tower, the Maiden Way continues in the same straight line forwards to the north-west across the moor, the footpath from Gilsland passing along it, and at the distance of about 150 yards it crosses a road to the peat moss, which is thickly covered with stones at the point of crossing, but on no other part of it. About 90 yards farther onwards it crosses the ditch which divides the Gilalees Beacon pasture from the undivided common called "the Side Fell." ”

“ Every Dane was killed, even to Gunilda, the sister of the King of Denmark, who had been married to Earl Paling, a nobleman, and had embraced Christianity: she was first obliged to witness the murder of her husband and child, and then was killed herself. ”

“ In some places the hills rise in wild confusion, begirt with vast ranges of huge rocks towering up in rude and fantastical shapes, in the midst of which are torrents thundering down deep and narrow glens, and forming beautiful cascades as they are precipitated over the impending rocks. ”

“ The raising of mounds of earth or stone over the remains of the dead is a practice which may be traced in all countries to the remotest times. The simplest idea that can be suggested to account for its origin is, that as the little heap of earth displaced by the interment of the body would become the earliest monument by which the survivors were reminded of departed friends ”

“ We have every reason to believe that the Roman soldier was not only employed in constructing military works, but was also engaged in various useful occupations, so that he became the instructor as well as the conqueror of the Britons. ”

“ Some may feel inclined to doubt whether the ground can really have grown so much in the time, but this is not a solitary instance. In many places the drainers have proved its subterranean existence where there was not the least trace on the surface. In the account of Naworth Castle, in Hutchinson's Cumberland, is the following note.—"On improving some peat moss, about a mile south-east of the castle, found a road (Roman Maiden Way) about twelve feet broad, laid with large stones, nearly five feet under the surface; the direction nearly north and south."
(190 yards.) ”

“ The figure at the base, as some have thought, most probably pourtrayed some person of note by whom this remarkable Christian monument was erected. The bird which he has taken off its perch, appears to be a hawk, introduced, possibly, to mark his noble rank. In examining Lysons' plate, the best representation of the sculptures, hitherto published, attention is arrested by the introduction of a vertical dial on the south side, resembling those at Kirkdale and Bishopstone, described in this volume of the Journal, p. ”

“ They are, in fact, the monuments of a rude and thinly scattered people, who subsisted by hunting and fishing, and whose imperfect implements totally incapacitated them from penetrating into the interior of those countries, encumbered as they were then by vast forests, which bade defiance to their imperfect implements and simple arts ”

“ The lower part of an I, it should be observed, may be discerned after the letters I. O. M. ↑ "Camden's Britannia," ed. by Gibson, vol. ii., p. 1028. ↑ It must be admitted that this supposition is somewhat countenanced by the fact that the Church of Bewcastle is dedicated to the Virgin. The representation, however, of these weather-worn sculptures, given by Lysons in his "History of Cumberland," p. cxcix, suggests the notion, that what has been supposed to be the Infant Saviour, may be the Agnus Dei, and it is so described by him. ”

“ At 450 yards it leaves the bog at the gate on the north side, and enters into a large Square field belonging to the Kilhill Farm. The road seems to remain undisturbed at this gate. In passing through this field it crosses a piece of meadow which has been drained. Some of the drains cut through the buried road, leaving little doubt as to its line. There is a heap of stones lying at present which have been gathered from the drains, detached stones still appear on the surface of the ground. ”

“ The evidences which we possess of the national character and habits, and of the various degrees of civilisation of the aborigines of Great Britain, are derived from their ancient dwellings and sepulchres ”

“ At 6190 yards it enters the pasture called "the Gilalees Beacon," [3] near an old quarry, and is traced in many of the drains as it passes up the side of the hill.
(500 yards.) At 6690 yards it approaches some ground-works, being its first introduction to what may be considered as classic ground. They are now almost level with the surrounding surface, but remarkably distinguished from it by the fresh green tint of the herbage. ”

“ They are fashioned with the hand, of coarse clay, by workmen ignorant of the turning-lathe or wheel of the potter. They are generally extremely unsymmetrical, merely dried in the sun, without any attempt at design, and devoid of ornament. ”

“ To this simplest construction the term barrow should be exclusively reserved, while the tumulus is distinguished by its circular form. Sir R. C. Hoare has distinguished fourteen different kinds of barrows in his "Ancient Wiltshire." ”