LONG MEG.
Mr. Patten and I went to view that famous monument of antiquity called Long Meg and her Daughters, in the parish of Addingham, between Little Salkeld and Glasenby. It stands upon a barren elevated plain of high ground, under the vast hill called Cross-fell, to the east. This plain declines to the east gently, or rather north-east, for that I find to be the principal line observed by the founders. It is a great Celtic temple, being a circle of 300 foot diameter, consisting of 100 stones: they are of unequal bulk; some are of very large dimensions: many are standing, but more fallen, and several carried away; but lately they have destroyed some by blasting, as they call it, i. e. blowing them in pieces with gunpowder; others they have sawed for mill-stones: but the major part remaining, gives one a just idea of the whole; and it is a most noble work. The stones are not all of the same kind; some made of square crystallisations, of the same sort as those at Shap; and I saw many of that sort of stone scattered about the country; others of the blue, hard, flaky sort, like those of the temple at Mayborough. The intervals are not exactly equal, but judiciously adapted to the bulks of the stones, to preserve as much as possible a regular appearance. This large ring, thus declining north-east, is now parted through by a ditch; so that the larger half lies in an inclosure, the other in a common; and the road lies by the side of it, that goes from Little Salkeld to Glasenby. South-west from it, seventy foot, stands a very great and high stone, called Long Meg, of a reddish girt, seeming to have been taken from the side of some quarry of the country: I think it leans a little north-east: it is about fifteen foot high. In the middle of the circle are two roundish plots of ground, of a different colour from the rest apparently, and more stony and barren; which probably were the immediate places of burning the sacrifices, or the like. Not far hence toward Glasenby is a very fine spring; whence, no doubt, they had the element of water, used at their religious solemnities: and higher up the field is a large spring, intrenched about with a vallum and foss, of a pretty great circumference, but no depth. Full south-west from this work, in the next inclosure and higher ground, is another circle of lesser stones, in number twenty: the circle is fifty foot diameter; and at some distance above it is another stone placed, regarding it, as Meg does the larger circle. In that part of the greater circle next the single stone called Meg, are two stones standing beyond the circle a little, and another fallen; which I believe were a sort of sacellum, perhaps for the pontifex to officiate in: and westward is another stone or two, perhaps of a like work; but the ruinous condition of the work would not admit of any certainty about it.
KESWICK.
We continued our journey through this rough country, and passed half round the bottom of the famous Skidhaw, a high mountain named from its fancied likewise to a shoe (yscyd.) Penruddoc, a town near it, with a Welsh name. These desolate and hilly regions were the retiring places of the Britons from the power of the Romans; which perhaps is the reason of the great number of temples scattered throughout the country; for a mile before we came to Keswick, on an eminence in the middle of a great concavity of those rude hills, and not far from the banks of the river Greata, I observed another Celtic work, very intire: it is 100 foot in diameter, and consists of forty stones, some very large. At the east end of it is a grave, made of such other stones, in number about ten: this is placed in the very east point of the circle, and within it: there is not a stone wanting, though some are removed a little out of their first station: they call it the Carsles, and, corruptly I suppose, Castle-rig. There seemed to be another larger circle in the next pasture toward the town.
The ascent to this hill (Skidhaw) is from the east; for the west side of it is exceeding steep, and drawn down into frightful ribs, like the roots of a tree. There is a place on the top called Skidhaw maen; a kind of sea-mark, by what information I could get: it seems to be a kist-vaen. Cnut-berries grow a-top of it, a delicious fruit.
There is no doubt, that when the globe of the earth received its motion round its axis, all the solid parts of metals, minerals and stone, flew to the outward parts at farthest distance from the centre, contrary to the assumption of our theorists, and the laws of Nature; for which reason we find the most hard materials on the highest mountains: these by time, and the heat of the external air, consolidated, and left great cavities lower down, when the matter underneath came closer together, and could not bring down these arch-like bodies: at length, when the parts of the globe became accustomed to this motion, the remainder of its internal matter I will allow to sink according to its specific gravity; and questionless the central constituents are heavier than that between it and the present surface; and probably this is fluid. Supposing then the matter of iron-stone fell to the centre, it formed a great magnet, according to Dr. Halley’s hypothesis, and may have a liberty of turning round itself with a slow motion, the intermediate fluid giving it that liberty; though, as to a subterraneous world, as that famous mathematician would suggest, I cannot believe the least of it: but this internal magnet, being not fastened to the whole earth, will naturally, as he supposes, have a motion of its own, somewhat different from that of the earth, and retain a regular revolution of that motion; which solves the famous variation of the magnetic needle.
Keswick is placed in a narrow bottom, under these vast mountains, which seem to hang over our heads. There is a place called Castle-head, a great rock, which has, no doubt, been a castle, I fancy in British times, and called a caer, whence the name of the town, Caerswic, as Keston in Kent, from the camp there, originally Caerston. Here are variety of mines hereabouts; some of lead, some of copper, and others of black-lead, which is no contemptible manufacture: there are scarce any other black lead mines, but what are here; they use it for glasing pots: it lies pretty much above ground. In our way hither we had sight of that vast receptacle of water called Ulles lake; and, when going hence to Cockermouth, we rode all along the side of a great lake upon the river Derwent. These collections of fluid element are owing to the rocks, which suffer not the water thoroughly to drain out of the valleys. When one stands at the end of these lakes, the prospect: is exceeding delightful; the mountains on each side rising to a great height, one behind another the whole length, and broke off into short ones, like the scenes at a playhouse: nor need a painter go to Italy for variety and grandeur of prospects. Though the sides of these hills are very stony, and even rocks of marble, yet the valleys every where look very green, and produce great crops, in years when they have a reasonable share of dry weather: but that, I believe, is not very frequent; for the hills will scarce suffer any clouds to pass over from any quarter, but dash them in pieces; so that the frequency of springs and cascades, and the rapidity and force of the brooks and rivers, is wonderful.
70·2d. The roman Altar found at Elenborough now at Whitehaven in the seat of James Louther Esqr
