CHAPTER XXI
UNDER STENKRITH BRIDGE
'I never felt chill shadow in my heart
Until this sunset.'—George Eliot.
A few days after the Wharton Hall clipping, Mildred went down to the station to see some friends off by the train to Penrith. A party of bright-faced boys and girls had invaded the vicarage that day, and Mildred, who was never happier than when surrounded by young people, had readily acceded to their petition to walk back with them to the station.
It was a lovely July evening, and as Mildred waved her last adieu, and ascended the steps leading to the road, she felt tempted to linger, and, instead of turning homewards, to direct her steps to a favourite place they often visited—Stenkrith Bridge.
Stenkrith Bridge lies just beyond the station, and carries the Nateby road across the river and the South Durham railway. On either side of the road there are picturesque glimpses of this lovely spot. Leaning over the bridge, one can see huge fragmentary boulders, deep shining pools, and the spray and froth of a miniature cascade.
There is an interesting account of this place by a contemporary which is worthy of reproduction.
He says, 'Above the bridge the water of Eden finds its way under, between, or over some curiously-shaped rocks, locally termed "brockram," in which, by the action of pebbles driven round and round by the water in times of flood, many curious holes have been formed. Just as it reaches the bridge, the water falls a considerable depth into a round-shaped pool or "lum," called Coop Kernan Hole: the word hole is an unnecessary repetition. The place has its name from the fact that by the action of the water it has been partly hollowed out between the rock; at all events, is cup or coop-shaped, and the water which falls into it is churned and agitated like cream in an old-fashioned churn, before escaping through the fissures of the rocks.
'After falling into Coop Kernan Hole, the water passes through a narrow fissure into another pool or lum at the low side of the bridge, called "Spandub," which has been so named because the distance of the rocks between which the river ran, and which overshadow it, could be spanned by the hand.