Carlisle Cathedral F It Were Possible, by The

C a rl is l e C at h e d ra l $ it were possible, by the wave of a ’ magician s wand , to sweep away the o mighty mass of made earth and build ings , past and present , that cover the original surface of the site on which the city of l n o w Carlis e stands, a spectator stationed beyond the w e b of railway lines that l ie to w — in west ard of the Cathedral standing, for - stance, where the great smoke stalk known ’ as Dixon s chimney rears its h ead h w o u ld see a long hill of New Red sandstone rising gently from the south end of the present city of Carlisle (from far to the south of the l l present centra rai way station) , to a head on 7 1 05 1 21 0 C a r l i s l e C a t h ed ra l l which now stands the Cathedra of Carlisle . Northwards of this, beyond a deep ravine, h e would see a second hill rising still north wards to a second and higher head, and looking out towards the north like a lion the Castle H ill of Carlisle, a natural fortress to guard the w ath s or fords through the beautiful river running under it from east to west through a broad expanse of marsh and -b d willow e . I n the foreground of his view he w ould see the precipitous cliffs into which these two hills break on their eastern sides, as they tower above a second and lesser river, which contributes its waters to the first a little to the west and north of the Castle H ill . m Could our i aginary spectator, by some m ’ agician s flying carpet, raise himself to the m - level of the top of the great chi ney stalk, he would see a third and yet smaller river l m f owing into the first, so e way to the east o f ward the Castle H ill . H e would notice that to the south these two lesser rivers so 8 C a r l i s l e C a t h edr a l nearly coalesce as to enclose the Castle and l - l Cathedral hi ls in a quasi is and . H e would notice patches of heather growing on these w t m two hills and i n the ravine bet een he , while frequent springs burst out , even on . e their highest points H e would , p rhaps, see a few wretched wigwams on the Castle l - H i l, whose scantily clad inhabitants were , m some fishing for sal on in the rivers , others , armed with arrows tipped or pointed with bone, hunting in the ravine and on the m Cathedral H ill for s all animals and birds . Now the above is not the vain i magining of a dream ing antiquary . The three rivers — C a ld ew Pett eril the Eden , the , and the still enclose the Castle and Cathedral hills in - f a quasi island . The precipitous cli fs of these hills are still to be seen in Devonshire Walk under the Castle, and in the West Walls under the Cathedral . The ravine is i d ébr is b f lled up with and building ru bish , and the stuff that ever accumulates in ancient cities but i n digging the foundati ons for the 9 C a r l i s l e C a t h edra l Tu llie entrance to H ouse, midway between the Cathedral and the Castle, seventeen feet of made earth had to be worked through before the original surface of the undisturbed soil was reached . That surface was covered e with dried heath r, a sod of which is pre in Tu lli served the museum i n e H ouse . The presence of the hunter was proved by finding on the heathery surface the bone -tip of one of his arrows . The present water logged condition o f the soil at no great depth proves the existence of the many springs which even yet survive to trouble r building cont actors . It is foreign to our purpose to go into the h istory of these two hills—the Castle H ill and the Cathedral H ill of Carlisle we must j ust state what is necessary for the understanding of the story of the hill on which the Cathedral of Carlisle stands . Briefly, th en , we suggest , for we cannot say for certain , that the great Roman general Agrico l a built a fort of stone at Stanwix on the north side of the River 1 0 C a r l i s l e C a t h ed ra l —o n Eden another hill , where the church of Stanwix, conspicuous by its tower, now stands . Suburbs soon gathered on the cramped slope between the fort and the river . As the settlers increased, more room was required, and they built upon the l Cathedral H ill of Car isle , and protected themselves with a stout palisade of oak, whose remains, deep underground, have at various times been disinterred . Bad times came, and in the troubles that preceded the of AD . 1 20 arrival the Emperor H adrian in , — Luguvalliu m for so the Romans named the — town on the Cathedral H ill was burnt ; it lay desolate and waste when that Emperor visited the site . With the return of peace Lu uvalliu m and security, g grew up upon a large scale and became a city of luxury, covering a considerable area, and having an extensive cemetery to its south , situate right o and left of the highway, and extending fr m the present Assi z e Courts al m ost to the River P r il ette . Of the Roman and British life of 1 3 C a r l i s l e C a t h ed r a l this city we have little to tell ; but that it had a long Roman and British life no man can doubt, as Mr . Freeman told us at Carlisle in - his address to the Royal A r ch a o 82 1 8 . logical I nstitute in I t , no doubt , shared the i ndependence of those parts of m Britain from which the Ro an had gone , and into which the Angle or the Saxon had not yet com e . After that episode i n its history, it was for two hundred years part of l an English kingdom , that of the Ang es of Northumberland . Again it was devastated and laid waste by H a lfd en e and his Danes 8 AD . in 75, and was, for some two hundred years before the arrival in it of W$ illiam “ Rufus, British or nothing . The unbroken ” English life of Carlisle, says Mr . Freeman , begins with the coming of the Red King l ” and the settlement of his Eng ish colony . 1 0 2 William the Red, in 9 , found Lugu va lliu m , once a city and a fortress, a waste chester, and he refounded it as a city and a t for ress . With its destruction by the Danes, I 4 C a r l i s l e C a t h e dra l the ecclesiastical establishments, whether existing at the time of the visit of St . Cuthbert A D 6 . 8 t l l in . 5 or founded by him , mus a have perished . Sooner or later some sort of ecclesiastical foundation was r e -established u in the reb ilt city, but not until long after the time of William Rufus the ecclesiastical side of Carlisle is not the work of William Rufus, but of H enry I . The present Arch f o . deacon Carlisle (Dr Prescott) , in his valu able edition o f the register of the Priory of eth erh a l I. W , has proved that Henry , on the h u rs ta n Y advice of T , archbishop of ork , found ed in Carlisle in or about the year 1 1 23 1 1 0 2 l (and not , as so frequent y stated) a house of regular or Augustinian canons . This m perhaps requires a little explanation , for any people believe that all ecclesiastics connected with cathedrals before the Reformation were $ m onks . Far from it some cathedrals were — 11a served by monks , others by canons , priests who had not taken monastic vows , and who were of two kinds, secular and 1 5 C a r l i s l e C a t h e dr a l regular . Secular canons moved about in the world, lived i n separate houses , and were similar to the canons of modern day s . Regular canons, like monks , lived under the m rule of some order . They were ore strict than the secular canons , and lived together in common under one roof . The regular canons of St . Augustine, bishop of H ippo , from their dress, were called Black Canons ; they also wore full beards . Carlisle is remark able as being the only cathedral church that A h m they occupied . Englishman , as his na e Ad u lf Ath elw u lf Ath elw o ld shows, , , , prior of the Augustinian house of St . Oswald, at N os Y tell in orkshire, and confessor and chaplain to the King, was appointed first prior of Carlisle, and on the formatio n of the See of 1 Carlisle in 1 33 he became the first bishop .

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