Penrith

“ Penny Wedding, a wedding at which the guests pay part of the charges of the festival.
Penrith (9) , a market town of Cumberland, and tourist centre for the English lakes; contains a very old church and school, and ruins of a picturesque castle. Brewing, iron-founding, and timber-sawing are its industries.
Penryn (3) , a Cornish market town at the head of Falmouth harbour; has manufactures of paper, woollen cloth, and gunpowder. It has considerable fishing industry, and ships the Penryn granite quarried near. ”

“ It stands on an eminence, about a mile and a half on the old road to Penrith, in a field on the right hand. The spot is the most commanding which could be chosen in that part of the country, without climbing a mountain. Derwentwater and the vale of Keswick are not seen from it, only the mountains that enclose them on the south and west. Latrigg and the huge side of Skiddaw are on the north: to the east is the open country towards Penrith, with Mell fell in the distance, where it rises alone like a huge tumulus on the right, and Blencathra on the left, rent into deep ravines. ”

“ To impress the inhabitants of Penrith with a favourable idea of their strength and discipline, the insurgents halted upon a moor in the neighbourhood, where they formed themselves in order of battle, and thereafter entered the town in regular marching order. The principal inhabitants, from an apprehension of being plundered, showed great attention to them, in return for which, and the comfortable entertainment which they received, they abstained from doing any act which could give offence. ”

“ It is only of a few that we can speak.
Penrith, one of the oldest towns of the district, with its ruined castle, its beacon, its “giant’s grave” and other Danish or Saxon remains, its famous old grammar school, its interesting church, its plague record, [A] and its altar-piece, the exquisite work of Jacob Thompson; Clifton, memorable as the scene of the battle of Clifton Moor, and where the old border stronghold, the house where the Duke of Cumberland slept, and the oak-tree under which the slain were buried, are still pointed out ”

“ The town, consisting chiefly of old houses, straggles along two sides of the high north road, and is built upon the side of a mountain, that towers to great height above it, in steep and heathy knolls, unshaded by a single tree. Eminent, on the summit of this mountain, stands the old, solitary beacon, visible from almost every part of Penrith, which, notwithstanding its many symptoms of antiquity, is not deficient of neatness. The houses are chiefly white, with door and window cases of the red stone found in the neighbourhood. ”

“ THOUGH ample testimony is borne to the simple and engaging manners of the Lake residents, I must confess there is a little Vandalism among them. They do not feel that generous love and veneration for the glorious remains of other years which ought to warm the breast of every Englishman. My uncle was indignant at the inattention paid to the scattered ruins of Penrith Castle. ”

“ A stone, really the head of an ancient cross, near by, is said to mark the place where the giant’s thumb is buried.
Penrith has suffered much in its time from wars and tumults, but it was afflicted in a dreadful manner by a great plague which almost depopulated the neighbourhood between September 1597 and January 1599, as an inscription in the church relates. In Penrith itself 2,260 people died, and in Kendal 2,500. ”

“ I remember the spikes the heads stood upon; lastly, a description of Corby Castle with a plan, and the genealogy of the Howards. Gad, the booksellers would give me £500 for it. I have a mind to print it for the Bannatynians.
April 4.—In our stage to Penrith I introduced Anne to the ancient Petreia, called Old Penrith, and also to the grave of Sir Ewain Cæsarias, [158] that knight with the puzzling name, which has got more indistinct. We breakfasted at Buchanan's Inn, Penrith, one of the best on the road, and a fine stanch fellow owned it. ”

“ From Keswick to Penrith is a pleasant ride by rail. Near the station in Penrith are the ruins of an old castle, for a long time the residence of the Duke of Gloster, afterwards Richard III. From this spot we started on a pleasant walk for Brougham Hall, the seat of Lord Brougham, about two and a half miles distant, passing on the way a curious formation in a field, denominated King Arthur's Round Table. It [42] very much resembles places in waste land in America, where a travelling circus has left its ring-mark, that becomes overgrown with turf, only the circle was much larger. ”

“ Next day the insurgents marched towards Penrith, on approaching which they received intelligence that the posse comitatus of Cumberland, amounting to nearly 14,000 men, headed by the sheriff of the county, and attended by Lord Lonsdale and the Bishop of Carlisle, had assembled near Penrith on the line of their march to oppose their advance. Mr., now General Forster, sent forward a party to reconnoitre, but he experienced no trouble from this immense rustic force, which broke up and dispersed in the utmost confusion on hearing of the approach of the reconnoitring party. ”

“ I liked the girl."
"Lilla Penrith? Yes, she is a dear," replied Olwen. "I told you we nursed the brother here, Captain Penrith. He made a very good recovery, much to the surprise of the doctors, since he developed enteric in addition to his wound. We are going there to-morrow afternoon. If you had not gone and got engaged so precipitately to James Heslop, I would have introduced you to the Captain; he isn't half bad."
"The Honourable Miss Penrith took my fancy very much. We had a long talk. She was doing V.A.D. work, too." ”

“ Clock and watch-making seems to have been an important trade here in the 18th century. The town suffered much from the incursions of the Scots, and Ralph, earl of Westmorland, who died 1426, built the castle, but a tower called the Bishop's Tower had been previously erected on the same site. In 1597–1598 a terrible visitation of plague attacked the town, in which, according to an old inscription on the church, 2260 persons perished in Penrith, by which perhaps is meant the rural deanery. During the Civil War the castle was dismantled by the Royalist commandant. ”

“ In many matters the two counties are indeed what they are often termed—sisters. The words have largely been collected in North Westmorland, but it must be borne in mind that Penrith, to many, is to all intents as much as if it were in Westmorland, and to have given one county only in the title would have been misleading and far from accurate. This observation will apply to “Kendal side” of Westmorland too. ”

“ He speaks of the neighbourhood of Penrith, but the description applies to many other parts of the Duchy, though not to East Cornwall, where it is scarcely applicable at all, and is [73] precisely the part where there exists least of the Celtic and most of the English element. "Life on these small farms is incredibly rough. One may guess what it is like from the outward aspect of such places. Each, it is true, has its own individual character, but they are all pretty much alike in their dreary, naked, and almost squalid appearance. ”

“ The Duke of Perth thereupon rode back to Penrith to bring up the rest of the army to support Lord George, who he supposed would, from the strength of his position, [607] be able to maintain himself till joined by the main body. The duke was accompanied by an English gentleman who had attended Lord George during the retreat, and, knowing the country perfectly well, had offered to lead without discovery the main body a near way by the left, by which movement they would be enabled to fall upon the enemy’s flank. ”

“ In the march of the prince’s division the cavalry always marched at its head, and each of the clan regiments led the van by turns, agreeably to the plan observed by the division under Lord George Murray. A garrison of about 200 men was left in Carlisle under the command of one Hamilton, who had been made deputy-governor under the Duke of Perth, on whom the governorship had been conferred. [1023]
On reaching Penrith, Charles, for the first time, heard of the march of Wade from Newcastle, and of his arrival at Hexham. ”

“ The general impression conveyed to the voyager from kinder and fairer islands is that Penrhyn is a place “at the back of God-speed,” a lonely, sultry, windy, eerie spot, desolate and remote beyond description.
It is an atoll island, consisting merely of a strip of land some couple of hundred yards in width, enclosing a splendid lagoon nine miles long. The land is white coral gravel; nothing grows on it but cocoanut and pandanus and a few insignificant creepers. Fruit, vegetables, flowers, there are none. The natives live entirely on cocoanut and fish. ”

“ Penry is reckoned by Welsh historians as the pioneer of Welsh nonconformity. He was an honest fanatic who believed himself to be an instrument of God charged with the reformation of the church of England, and with the sowing of the seed of the gospel in the barren mountains of Wales. In his writings he compared himself to St. Paul and the prophet Jeremiah. There is conclusive external evidence in favour of the theory that he was mainly responsible for the authorship and dissemination of the Martin Mar-Prelate tracts. ”

“ Before us rose the lofty towers of Penrhyn Castle, with Port Penrhyn and its shipping in the distance. Altogether, the prospect is glorious, and the finest effects I ever saw produced by mountain scenery are continually varying here; for, however bright the day may be upon the straights, and along their shores, the Canaervonshire mountains are generally half concealed by mists, upon which the sunbeams fall, causing them to assume countless hues of the most brilliant nature, which contrast finely with the ponderous forms round which they play in never ceasing variety. ”

“ Industrially, the town cannot hope for much, unless it should ever become a naval base; but as a residential district it is very delightful, combining the charms of sea and noble river. The Castle Drive can hardly be surpassed, of its kind; and if we proceed past the Gyllyngvase bathing-beach, there is a pleasant little lake known as the Swanpool, which was once a swannery of the Killigrews.
For antiquity as for present-day industry we must go to Penryn, which lies about two miles up the Penryn Creek and is devoted to the export of granite. ”

“ No one passing through the smiling and picturesque town of Penryn would dream that that beautiful place could ever have been associated with such a fearful and horrid event as that known to history as the "Penryn Tragedy," which happened during the reign of James I.
At that time there lived at the Bohechland Farm in the parish of St. Gluvias a well-to-do farmer and his wife and family. Their youngest son was learning surgery, but, not caring for that profession, and being of a wild and roving disposition, he ran away to sea, and eventually became a pirate and the captain of a privateer. ”

“ Penang itself is an island, and as we swing round to the capital town, Georgetown, on the inner or land side, we see an astonishing mass of green, with a great hill clothed almost to the summit rising behind the town. ”

“ Leaving out those in Dumfriesshire, Ayrshire, and Haddington, where there was originally a Welsh-speaking people, ‘we find,’ he says, ‘the Cymric form of the word in the Grampians,’ which is utter nonsense, ‘the Pentland Hills,’ which is a corruption of Petland Hills, as the Pentland Firth is of the Petland Firth, ‘the Pennguaul Hills,’ which have no existence, and ‘Pendrich in Perth,’ which is a corruption of Pittindriech. ”

“ When I was quite a boy, scarce yet fifteen years old, I happened to be living in a parish on the Welsh coast, which I will here call Penruddock. There were some bold hills inland and some very wild and rugged cliffs along the coast. But there was also a well-sheltered beach and a little pier where some small fishing vessels often lay. Penruddock was not yet reached by rail, but forty miles of a splendid road, [7] through very fine scenery, took you to a railway station. ”

“ THE LAND'S END DISTRICT—ST. BURYAN—SENNEN—LAND'S END—THE LONGSHIPS LIGHTHOUSE.
Most strangers obtain their first sight of Land's End at the conclusion of a direct walk or drive from Penzance. It is generally the first place the stranger desires to see, and he makes directly for it along the high road that runs inland.
The Land's End district, stretching westward from Penzance, forms the hundred of Penwith, a Celtic word meaning the "great, or chief, headland" ”

“ These two places are accessible to all respectable visitors; the road to them, from Bangor, abounds in grand and interesting prospects.—Penrhyn Castle and Woods, at all times a rich and remarkable feature in the Scenery—the Sea, bounded by the distant Promontory of Ormes Head—the protruding bulkiness of Pen-maen-mawr—the bold and mighty barrier of Mountains, forming the most picturesque lines with the horizon, and extending nearly all round the distant Scene—these are the chief ingredients of this distinguished and beautiful landscape. ”

“ Penryn had been built in its more inland situation at a remote period when, by reason of raids and invasions, it was dangerous to be seated near the sea, and the position of Arwenack was certainly better for shipping. But the vested interests of Penryn were endangered by the Killigrew proposal, and Penryn, and Truro, and Helston as well, long bitterly opposed it, foreseeing much injury to themselves in a rival springing up. The site of Falmouth was at that time occupied only by two clusters of cottages that [90] could scarce even be termed hamlets. ”