COUNTESS PILLAR
Such is the present condition of the old Countess Ann’s pride; but something of her passion for commemoration remains, not so far away, in the monument known in all this countryside as the Countess Pillar; built by her in 1656. It is adorned with her arms and those of allied families, and bears this inscription:
This Pillar was erected Anno 1656 by ye Rt. Honoble Anne Countess Dowager of Pembrook, daughter and sole heire of ye Rt. Honoble George, Earl of Cumberland, for a memorial of her last parting in this place with her good and pious mother, ye Rt. Honoble Margaret, Countes Dowager of Cumberland, ye 2d of April, 1616, in memory whereof she also left an annuity of four pounds, to be distributed to ye poor within this parrish of Brougham euery 2d day of April for euer vpon ye stone table here hard by.
LAUS DEO.
The Eamont, the Eden, and the Lowther were well guarded, as the fortified houses by the fords still prove. Yanwath Hall, an ancient home of the Threlkelds, is a fine example of a peel-tower added to and elaborated into a residence. It is one of the earliest and most interesting, having been built midway in the fourteenth century. The original tower, strong in its walls, six feet thick and embattled, stands fifty-five feet high and looks down into a courtyard, the barmkin, or inner bailey, where the ancient oaken, iron-banded, and studded doors and windows guarded by thick stanchions show how concerned the old owners were for their personal security in insecure times.
ASKHAM HALL.
ASKHAM HALL
Cliburn, Sockbridge, and Barton Kirke were all fortified houses, disposed by these rivers like the castles upon a chess-board. Finest of these old fortified mansions is the romantically situated and picturesquely designed Askham Hall, now the rectory of Lowther, but situated in Askham village. It stands high above the wooded Lowther, foaming down among its rocks under Lowther Park, and was originally the castellated seat of the Sandford family. The front is dour and forbidding enough, and the interior, although oak panelled and converted into a residence after the ideas that were modern two hundred and fifty years ago, does not commend itself as a cheerful residence. But the additions made at the side by Thomas Sandford in 1574 are exquisitely sketchable. They comprise a gatehouse and outbuildings enclosing a courtyard. The drip-moulding over the archway is in a peculiar style, resembling a cable; its ends finished off in the likeness of ammonites. Over the arch are the Sandford arms, with those of Crackanthorpe and Lancaster of Howgill, and this inscription, done in letters run oddly together:
Thomas · Sandford · Esqvyr,