John Wykeham Archer

“ It was now that, for the first time, I engaged the notice of these worthies; and the host saluted me in words which, though a Border man myself, I could only with difficulty make sense of, enjoining me not to spare the grey-hen, and inquiring what road I travelled. While replying, another whistle was heard at the door; and Maggie ushered in a man, younger than the others, wearing a grey plaid, and apparently a shepherd. ”

“ The feeling and sentiment of the painted style of architecture had ceased to exist in Inigo’s time as in that of his great successor, Christopher Wren: witness the towers of Westminster Abbey. Had Inigo been left to his original employment as a carpenter, doubtless he would have made a first-rate hand: but the patronage of the Earl of Arundel, or the Earl of Pembroke, it is not quite clear which—but probably the former—paved the way to a higher destination. Under the auspices of one of these noblemen, he was sent to Italy to study landscape painting. ”

“ Maggie only remaining to express her regret that they were quite out of vinegar to sauce the bacon, but there was a goudy peg-cheese and some barley-meal bannocks. However, as I did not deem vinegar an indispensable accessory to fried bacon, I made a hearty meal, and presently found myself in condition for a rough ride, the chase of the long-legged hill fox, digging out a badger, spearing an otter, or any rude border sport which circumstances might suggest. ”

“ From the few rude articles which have been turned up during the excavations, no evidence has appeared to indicate any degree of wealth on the part of the ancient inhabitants, or the possession of arms and implements in any way superior to such as may have belonged to a people shut out from the more civilised tribes which evidently inhabited some parts of Britain before the Roman invasion. ”

“ Here, on the southern declivity of the hill of Greenshaw, by a moderate climb through the mountain fern, we reach the rocky platform of the Celtic town with its two dependencies, which form a group of fortified places of habitation. The situation is well chosen, for at a height above the level of the sea where the winds rage in full force it is so fixed as to be sheltered by the surrounding hills ”

“ This latter observation was accompanied by a roguish leer and a chuckle, as if my landlord enjoyed the remembrance of the little farce that had been played off upon me on the night previous; and this demonstration was echoed by the series of guggles, gasps, and wheezing, which constituted the ostler Martin's peculiar style of joculation, from a dark corner of the stable, where that ancient retainer of the "Rising Sun" was smoking the pipe of repose. ”

“ Accordingly, having paid my foy, or parting glass, to my friends and comrades at the Shaws, I strapped on my knapsack, and with many kindly farewells, followed up by a hearty cheer from the whole of the male part of the company, I wended my way, a free rover, once more. ”

“ On the north, east, and west sides the space between the outer and inner ramparts opens to a breadth of about fifty feet. At the east side is a gateway, from which a road is carried down the hill to the Lynhope Burn, apparently with a view to the supply of water, although there is a spring on the hill side a little to the southward of the outer rampart; another hollow-way extends from the west wall down the hill to the Lynhope Burn, and takes up on the opposite side and ascends the hill of Ritta, where it joins another group of fortified towns lying on the hill-side. ”

“ In Italy Jones studied the works of Palladio, and is said, but upon doubtful authority, to have designed the front of a church in Leghorn. To this his celebrated barn, the church of St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, bears a general resemblance, and it possibly may have procured him the credit of the former. Of his church at Covent Garden we have the following story. Jones was instructed by his patron, the Earl, to build as plain and convenient a church as possible, and but little better than a barn: to which the architect replied he would build a barn, but that it should be the best in England. ”

“ A few glass beads have probably served as amulets. In one hut a fragment of a glass armlet was found, and which, with the beads, may have reached this remote spot by indirect transmission from those tribes which were in communication with the Phœnician voyagers. Fragments of chipped flints, together with a javelin-head of the lowest type, which as flint does not occur in Northumberland, must have been brought from a considerable distance. Horns of the red deer are evidently the spoils of the noble animal from which the neighbouring hill of Hartside has been named. ”

“ In some of the western isles of Scotland the people still use the ancient circular buildings for their dwellings. These are beehive-shaped constructions, the stones being so laid as to form a dome-shaped roof, the opening left being covered by a slab of stone. This mode of building is even practised to the present time where families increase so as to require additional habitations. ”

“ By the road my route ought to have covered not more than ten miles, but as I was desirous of taking up the Roman road called the Maiden Way, I took to tho moors soon after leaving a small change-house, where I stopped for the common refreshment of oat-cake and peg-cheese, with a little whisky, well diluted with spring water, cool as if iced. This I have always found a good walking staff in the absence of churn-milk, a most refreshing beverage ”

“ Under the Court patronage he likewise had scope for the exercise of his versatile mind in the decorative accompaniments to Ben Jonson’s Whitehall Pageants, so much in vogue in the dissipated Court of King James. Ashburnham House, and the houses on the west side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, together with the Banqueting House and St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, have been instanced in evidence of Inigo’s emancipation from the Mesquin style which succeeded the decadence of the Tudor style of architecture, which ensued upon his second visit to Italy in 1612. ”

“ Indeed it is in the recollection of very old persons that, even when the miller plied his trade within reach of most people, many of them still adhered to the old hand-mill, probably in deference to the proverbial breadth of the miller’s golden thumb, and they could only be induced to bring grist to the mill by taking away and destroying the upper stones of the querns in their possession, and which had probably descended as heir-looms during a succession of many centuries. ”

“ The meal consisted of the aforesaid collops, and a quantity of potatoes boiled in their coats, with cheese (the accompaniment to every Cumbrian meal) , and bread made from a mixture of pease meal and barley. When this banquet had been bolted, rather than eaten, the men drew round the fire (the table, which the hostess speedily cleared of the fragments of the meal, being placed, with the grey-hen, within convenient reach of all) , and the well-blackened pipes were drawn out, filled, and lighted by thrusting them among the burning turf. ”

“ It is designed according to the Tuscan order of architecture, and it would be difficult to find a building with more harmony of parts, or one which displays the beauty of fitness in greater perfection, or with more propriety of decoration. ”

“ This triple group of fortified dwellings forms, it will be perceived, a connected series of town and suburbs, and it seems not improbable that those to the east may have served the purpose of places of retreat in case of siege or assault, the easternmost having perhaps been reserved as a citadel for the last desperate struggle in defence of the place. ”

“ It is well known, that the different tribes of Celtic Britain lived in a continual state of hostility with each other, but there is a circumstance apparent in the connection of those towns with that on the opposite hill of Ritta, which would indicate an extended combination to resist a threatened assault or invasion ”

“ But the walls show a further degree of nicety in construction, and a provision for increased strength by the projection of large courses of stones at right angles with the faces of the wall laid with great exactness, and forming a series of cross-walls or buttresses dividing the rubbled lining of their inner substance and imparting great stability to the whole mass. The whole masonry of these remains is composed of unhewn blocks of porphyry, the stone of the district.
The distance between the ramparts is unequal. On the south side it contracts to a space of twenty-two feet ”

“ But ne'er fash, [14] auld Maartie, ma mon; thou'lt live ti get fair play, an' croon thy death verse on Haribee hill wi' the brawest o' them. Teak anither soop o' the grey-hen, auld corbie, and ne'er cry craven."
The ancient Martin during this recital sat rolling his head, and chuckling, as if at the narration of something vastly pleasant and facetious, and joined in the general laugh which ensued with such a mixture of guggles and eldrich shrieks as were absolutely astounding to ears unaccustomed to his peculiarities. ”

“ The peculiarity which distinguishes these vestiges consists in the abundant use of large Cyclopean masonry instead of earthen bulwarks, as in the south of England, in the construction of the ramparts of the hill towns of the Northumbrian Celts, and of the habitations they comprehend. Tumuli, cairns, cromlechs, and stone circles are likewise found in the same district, together with large stones marked with a kind of hieroglyphic inscriptions which remain undeciphered, but which are conceived to have been the writings of the Druidic hierarchy of the Celtic tribes. ”

“ It was a shambling, slouching creature, with starting, bloodshot eyes, and twisted neck, the chin drooping upon the chest, and hands that worked and clutched like the hands of a drowning man, as he worked his way towards the grey-hen. His advent was hailed with shouts and laughter.
"Odds, here cooms auld Maartie! Hoy, auld ghaist, wake up an' hev a pull o' the grey-hen; say awa', [9] auld Maartie; steady, now, steady, auld cheat-the-woodie! Haribee hills! miles awa! Eh! there it goes doon his gizzern. My certes, whaten a willeywaugh! Now settle thee doon, auld black sheep! ”

“ But, although composed of unhewn stones, and destitute of any kind of cement, these walls display a considerable amount of constructive faculty, being composed at intervals with large upright blocks, by which the stones forming the intermediate substance of the wall are firmly bound. Those which form the faces of the wall are large and well fitted together, the space between being rammed in carefully with smaller stones. ”

“ At that time we proceeded to the scene of the funeral. Lethwaite was a very old man, and had enjoined that he should he interred strictly according to ancient usage. I dare say such observances are altogether forgotten now that a railway gradient crosses Shap Fell, but at that time they still lingered. The coffin was placed upon a deal table in front of the cottage which the old man had long tenanted, and upon it, over the breast, was a pewter plate containing salt, a type of the immortality of the spirit ”

“ The simplicity of the entablature is characteristic; and the rock rustic, an ornament that can be used only in peculiar situations, has here an admirable effect. This fine edifice must shortly succumb to the spirit of improvement ”

“ Glad enough was I to obtain entrance on any terms, and having relieved my aching shoulders of my knapsack, I disposed myself on the lang settle [5] beside a large turf fire; and perceiving that my appearance in repose, having laid aside my hat, seemed to be held somewhat more satisfactory, I ventured to inquire if I might have tea, and anything they might have at hand—eggs, or what not? "Maggie," said mine hostess, "can ye make oot what the strange mon says?"
"Au dinna ken," responded Maggie. ”

“ In some parts it is eighteen feet in breadth. It crosses Blackburn, and running within about two miles of Aldston, enters Northumberland, bearing for Whitley Castle, a Roman station; thence to Caervoran, passes the Roman Wall at Dead Water, and re-enters Cumberland, and proceeds to the station at Newcastle, which it leaves a little to the left; then under the name of Wheel Causeway, proceeds to Kirksop, and into Scotland at Lamyford. Here it crosses the Catrail, and is supposed to join Watling Street near the Roman station Ad Fines. ”

“ I dinna ken. This is a lone house, and the gude-man's awa' at Newcastleton fair; an we're shy o' strangers. Ye'll na belong to thir pairts, an we tak in nae tramps."
"My good woman," I remonstrated, "I am no tramp, but travelling for my pleasure. ”

“ Gin a Border man be fairly streeckit at the woodie, nouther him nor anybody else can hae ony reason to complain, ye ken; for it's like natural death ti a Border man ti dree the woodie. But, ye see, Maartie didna get nae fair play ava ”