GHOSTS AND LEGENDS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT - Book review

 

The author J.A. Brooks has written a number of books similar to this one, covering the Cotswolds, London, Wales and even railway ghosts. My copy was published in 1988.

I’d picked up this slim volume (144pp) a while ago and since Jen and I were visiting the Lake District for the fourth or fifth time, it seemed appropriate to begin reading it, at last! Certainly, a number of familiar place-names cropped up.

Apparently, near Lindeth there was the Scout Dobbie, a headless woman who guarded a cave; often these scare stories were put about by smugglers and moonshiners to deter the inquisitive and excise men. Here’s a quotation: ‘Dobbies are just one of the colloquial forms of ghost native to Cumbria. They were a comparatively friendly type of ghost (more of a household fairy or hobgoblin) compared with the more fearsome boggle or boggart…’ (p9).

‘When visible, a boggart was seen to be half man – the half spirit was his unseen self – no more than knee high, his face wizened, his neck scrawny like an old man’s, his arms thin, his legs looking incapable of supporting his corpulent body. In bad mood his face was contorted as in a rage: when indulging in pranks he grinned with impish glee; in good mood his mien was benevolent’ (p11).

The above two passages rang bells with me, having read J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series of books and watched the movies! Bringing to mind the house-elf Dobbie. One of the references Brooks refers to is The Folklore of the Lake District by Marjorie Rowling…

Apparently, ‘early in the Middle Ages the last wolf was killed in the Lake District’ (p29). Needless to say, there is a legend involving a Sir John Harrington, a wolf terrorising the Cartmel district, and Adela, a young girl, would be promised to him if he could slay the animal.

In June 1921 a Londoner named Crump set out to walk from Coniston to Wasdale Head. Lost in mist, he fell, badly hurt and ended up trapped in Piers Gill, a great chasm. As chance would have it, a climber found him some twenty days later. He had survived on a small piece of gingerbread and a sandwich, and trickles of water; (p47). I include this snippet simply because Melvyn Bragg uses the name Crump in his novel The Maid of Buttermere! (qv).

Before 1890 there were just two small lakes occupying the lovely valley that Thirlmere covers today. Wordsworth used to picnic there. However, in 1894 Manchester Corporation flooded the valley to create the Thirlmere reservoir. The waters covered Armboth House and subsequently hauntings were reported: ‘Lights at night, bells ring, and as all are set off ringing a large black dog is seen swimming across the lake. Plates and dishes clatter, and a table is spread by unseen hands preparing for a ghostly wedding feast of a murdered bride about to rise from her watery grave to keep her terrible nuptials… There is something remarkable, like witchery, about the house’ (p52). It was believed that ‘the sight of a black dog presaged a fatal accident’ (p94).

‘At the summit of Helvellyn there is a monument commemorating an accident that occurred on Striding Edge in 1803, when Charles Gough fell and was killed while on a walk with his yellow terrier Foxey. His body lay undiscovered for three months, and when it was found his faithful dog sat close by, still guarding him, rather like Greyfriars’ Bobby’ ’ (p56). There was some suspicion that the dog survived by taking occasional bites of his master’s body…

Mention is made of the Luck of Muncaster Castle – a piece of ancient glassware. It was said to have been presented to Sir John Pennington by Henry VI in gratitude for hiding the defeated Lancastrian king. ‘The castle is said to be haunted by the ghost of Thomas Skelton, the “late fool of Muncaster”, who died c1600’ (p134). [See also WRITEALOT: Visit to The Lake District, Cumbria (nik-writealot.blogspot.com) ]

‘A swarth is a supernatural being akin to the fairies. It performed the same function in the North of England as a banshee does in Ireland – foretelling death’ (p88). Superstition was rife: ‘All the mirrors in the house were covered while a dead person was lying in a house, for it was considered to be extremely unlucky should the spirit catch sight of a reflected image of itself. People visiting the house for the lying-in used to touch the body. This served two purposes: if the corpse had been murdered and it was touched by the guilty part, then it would begin to bleed; also if the hand laid on the body felt cold to one’s own flesh it meant that that person would die within the year’ (p90).

At Greystoke (the family name Edgar Rice Burroughs gave to Tarzan) there are supposed to be two ghosts. ‘One is a monk who is said to have been bricked up in a secret passage. He appears in a disused room occasionally’ (p112). The second concerns a local beauty who falls to her death at Aira Force waterfall.

‘At the foot of Kirkstone Pass just into Ambleside there is a large house that had been a hotel. A fire in the topmost bedrooms killed several staff. ‘The hotel was forced to close because the terrible smell of burning flesh would sometimes, and for no apparent reason, pervade the building’ (p113).

Egremont has a ghost of a pony and rider that only appears on Christmas Eve; he may have been a fell-farmer who imbibed too much ale and left on his horse, and neither were ‘seen again in earthly form’ (p135).

‘Wigton has the reputation of being the most haunted town in Cumbria. Its ghosts have intriguing names, such as the Church Street Phantom, the Clinic Ghost, the Burnfoot Spirit, the Water Street Boggle, the New Street Headless Horror’ (p140).

A fascinating little book which seems to dwell more on local legends rather than ghosts; however, for variety there is also mention of a vampire in the village of Croglin, and it is quite a classic scary tale (p115).

Editorial comment

The book would have benefitted by having a map or two. And a small number of the old illustrations are without any caption so it is not clear what part of the text they are referencing.

Visit to The Lake District, Cumbria

Over the years Jen and I have visited the Lakes several times. On this occasion – Tuesday 18- Saturday 22 July – we attempted to see places we hadn’t seen before. The journey of 95 miles to our hotel took just under two and a half hours and it was rain virtually all the way; almost torrential. We were being optimistic, because the weather forecast predicted rain every day – not surprising, since the District is very green and full of lake waters!

The next day (Wednesday) there was no sign of the promised rain. So we drove into Egremont, a pleasant market town complete with a war memorial statue, the statue of a haematite worker and a number of art galleries and the ruins of a twelfth century castle. 

Haematite worker sculpture

We popped into the Lowes Court in a Grade II Listed building and chatted to the two cheerful staff; up a splendid curved staircase there was an exhibition showing the renovations of the house and the fifty years of the gallery’s existence. We were directed to the Deja Brew for a coffee and cake, a popular watering hole.

We drove on to Ravenglass, a coastal village, but to all intents and purposes it was closed, so we had to look elsewhere for lunch! (We would doubtless return another day to ride on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway…)

Not far along the road we came to the entrance to Muncaster Castle, which has been the home of the Pennington family for over 800 years. It was deeded to the family on 1 December 1208 by King John, so maybe he was not all Bad. There are three main attractions here: the gardens, the house itself and the hawk and owl centre.

Unfortunately, due to the continued risk of bird flu, the bird displays were cancelled. Interesting to us, there was a Steppe Eagle called Amelia in its enclosure – Jen having recently published a children’s book entitled Amelia and the Witch’s Cat illustrated by her niece Amelia! 

Amelia the Steppe Eagle - and Jen

In 2021 a breeding unit was established here to breed various endangered species of raptor – with the ultimate aim of returning their number to the wild.

The Hub supplies a variety of grilled cheese sandwiches with names like The Italian Job (sun-dried tomato, garlic chutney and cheese blend) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Brie, Stilton, caramelised onion and cheese blend) – very tasty, and washed down with a Lakes Lager for me and a pot of tea for Jen. Cheerful and helpful staff. From here we ventured into the gardens, where there are a good number of intriguing wooden carved items.

Wooden statue

It was a glorious sunny and hot day. Thousands of trees have been planted here since the 1780s. There are over six miles of walks. Rhododendrons thrive here in the acid soil. There’s a profusion of exotic plants and shrubs gathered from around the world by family members in centuries past, interlaced with bright green ferns. Scafell Pike, England’s highest mountain can be viewed from the grounds.

After touring the extensive gardens, we wandered around the house, first entering the Great Hall: here Sir John Pennington entertained Henry VI in 1464 when the defeated king sought sanctuary after the battle of Hexham in the Wars of the Roses. At the time Sir John was an elderly man; he had fought with Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.

A door from the Great Hall leads into the Library, a stunning octagonal room created by John Pennington, First Lord of Muncaster in the 1780s. He was instrumental in the campaign for the abolition of the slave trade and a friend of Wilberforce.

Library of over 9,000 books

Then there is the fine dining room with its embossed leather ‘wallpaper’ and its immense table, cut from a single walnut tree and able to accommodate the seating of up to thirty guests.

Next there is the drawing room – in effect, such rooms were ‘withdrawing rooms’ where ladies would gather after the meal, leaving their menfolk to their cigars, brandy, port and Whitehaven rum! The walls are crammed with portraits – many of family members over the centuries. The room was shortened in the 1860s to provide a staircase at one end and, eventually, in 1885, a billiard room at the other. The walls of the billiard room are covered with wood panelling; the wood over the fireplace was bought in 1838 at the break-up of the Royal Naval ship HMS Temeraire which fought alongside Nelson’s flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar; the ship is immortalised by JMW Turner in his painting of the vessel being towed by a steam tug to the breakers yard.

The red-carpeted staircase is enhanced by three bas-relief marble wall panels of The Dancing Hours, sculpted by the neo-classical Antonio Canova.

Red staircase

    The Dancing Hours

On the landing hangs a full-length portrait of Thomas Skelton whose nickname was Tom Fool, because he dressed up in a chequered motley coat in the Pennington family colours of blue and gold. His motto was ‘all my living is in good strong beer’ which can be vouchsafed by his protruding beer belly. He was wont to act the fool on occasion and perhaps the term ‘tomfoolery’ originated through his antics.

Some of the bedrooms are said to be haunted, though not all.

We covered 85 miles that day.

Typical view

Next day (Thursday) there was still no promised rain. So we went through Crummock, Buttermere (atrocious parking, so didn’t stay), Honister Pass, Borrowdale, Keswick (too busy!), and Grasmere before finding on the road out the Kings Head Inn where we enjoyed excellent sandwiches, coffee, wine and lager. 

The Kings Head Inn

We then stopped in Ambleside and used our parking disc while seeking out the sheepskin shop we’d seen on a previous visit and bought a suitable pelt. Going via Kirkstone Pass, we ended up at Ullswater, and were able to park for free, and watched a school of kayakers paddle to the shore. We bought a ticket for the steamer Lady Dorothy (re-launched in 2001) and toured Ullswater. Here, on 23 July 1955, Donald Campbell set the world water speed record when he piloted his jet-propelled hydroplane Bluebird K7, clocking up a speed of 202.32mph. Campbell went on to break more speed records. On 4 January 1967 he died while attempting to beat his own record on Coniston Water. Near the end of the cruise we witnessed – and heard! – two RAF jets fly over us on their regular training runs.

RAF training flight

A mere 29 miles was covered this day.

Final full day (Friday) we drove into Cockermouth. The last time we’d been here it had been wet and miserable. This day it was warm and sunny. We had intended visiting the Wordsworth House; unfortunately it is shut on Thursdays and Fridays (should have checked!) Instead we took a leisurely stroll across a bouncy bridge and along the Memorial Walk on the banks of River Derwent and saw Jennings Brewery at the confluence of the Rivers Derwent and Cocker. There were dozens of blackbirds. On the other side of the fast-flowing river we saw the ruins of Cockermouth Castle; a portion of it is still inhabited. It was built in 1134 and the Percy family of Northumberland owned it from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. The current owners, the Wyndham family took possession in the eighteenth century.

Cockermouth Castle

Back in the town we enjoyed scones and excellent coffee at the Moon and Sixpence café; yes, it’s a reference to one of William Somerset Maugham’s books (1919). There’s a pub called the Fletcher Christian – the notorious sailor and mutineer was born in the village of Eaglesfield near Cockermouth. Here too we saw the plaque showing the high-water mark of the 2009 flooding; it must have been horrendous.

Jen showing the high-water mark of the flood

In the afternoon we drove to Maryport. In 1748 Humphrey Senhouse II started to develop a planned town north of the River Ellen between Castle Hill and the Roman fort. He called the town Maryport after his wife Mary. The Senhouse family had already been collecting Roman artefacts over the years, going back to the 1500s. We therefore visited the Senhouse Roman Museum, which was created in 1985; in effect it took over the Naval Reserve Training Battery buildings. Among other things, it is the home of one of the largest collections of Roman altars; all of them found there over the last 430 or so years. 

A Roman style lookout tower has been reconstructed, affording a view across the Solway Estuary. The fort (which may have been called Alauna) and its surrounding community supplied Hadrian’s Wall with trade-goods, news, food and wine. The most famous tribune at Maryport was Marcus Maenius Agrippa (not to be confused with Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (died 12BC); Marcus Maenius was host to Hadrian (who was in Britannia to instigate the building of the Wall in 122AD).

Reconstructed Roman lookout tower, Senhouse Museum

There were two other known forts further north overlooking the Solway – Beckfoot and Bowness.

The following day (Saturday) we drove home to Blyth through rain for the entire journey of 110 miles.

Thus ended a pleasant break blessed with three days of surprisingly good weather, despite the forecasts!