DIRECTORY.] . BEWCASTLE. 41 This school is under the control of a committee con- joining parishes; J. R. Atkinson, Bankfield, Becker- sisting of the vicar & churchwardens of St. John met, correspondent Beckermet & four foundation managers of the ad- Railway Station, Sella Field, T. Hosking, station master BECKERMET ST. BRIDGET. Hail Henry, Royal Oak P.H SELLA FIELD. PRIVATE RESIDENTS. Hartley Jsph. Wm. farmer, Croft end Hartley Miss Dora Atkinson Mrs. Holme view Hodgson Robert B. F. boot & shoe ma COMMERCIAL. Curwen Miss, Croft house Jackson Isaac, farmer, Strudda bank Atkinson William, farmer Dixon John Jackson Moses, farmer, Strudda bank Bateman Isaac, farmer Fell William, Holme view Mather Hannah (Mrs.), shopkeeper Hartley John S. farmer Hartley: Mrs. Fell view Moffat Robert, livery stables Moore William, farmer Nevison Mrs Moore James, farmer, Skalderskeugh Walker Isaac, coal & sand ag~nt & Steele Mrs. Croft lodge Noble Hannah (Mrs.),frmr.Middlebnk assistant overseer, Mountain view Robinson Peter, frmr. Greenmoor side COMMERCIAL. I Rothery Sarah (Mrs.), shopkeeper YOTTON FEWS. Cook Jan6 (Mrs.), farmer, Croft house Sim Benn, farmer, •Black beck Cook Thomas, jun Dixan Isaac Taylor, grocer Steele Lawson Lamb M.R.C.V.S.Edin. Sargent John Young M.A. Sella park Egremont Industrial Co-operative So-, veterinary surgeon, Croft lodge (letters through Calder Bridge) ciety Limited (branch) (John Trippiear Waiter, wheelwright Bateman John, farmer Cartner, manager) I Tyson Isaac, farmer, Peters burgh Stephenson William, farmer

:BEWCASTLE is a very extensive parish and town- tree, climbing in gracefully-bent curves to the top, with ship, on the twin streams of the river Line, 1o miles figures of animals below and birds above, feeding on north-by-east from Brampton station on the North the fruit; on the west side, at the top, and beneath the Eastern railway and 7 miles from Penton station on the mutilated word "Kristus," is a figure assumed to be North British railway; it comprises the townships of that of St. John the Baptist carrying the" Agnus Dei;" Bewcastle and Bell bank and the hamlets of Bailie and below this on a band are the words "Gessus Kristus," Nixon, and is in the Northern division of the county, and underneath is a figure of our Lord with a large Eskdale ward, petty sessional division and union of nimbus; next below is an inscription of seven Runic Longtown, county court district of Brampton, rural lines, thus translated :- deanery of Brampton and archdeaconry and diocese of "t This spiring sign-pillar .. A substantial stone bridge, erected in 1892, set was by Hwaetred, partly at the Pxpense of the late Sir J. Ewart, of The Wothgar, Olufwolth, Mire, crosses the river Line at Blackpool Gate. The after Alcfrith, church of St. Cuthbert is a plain edifice, consisting of sometime King, chancel and nave, and a tower containing one plain bell, and son of Oswin, purchased in 1845 in place of one which had been in t Pray for his soul's great sin." the tower since 1785: the church was restored in 1902, The south side is divided into unequal sized panels and now affords 220 sittings. The register of baptisms filled with knot ornament, and intertwining fruit-bear­ and burials dates from 1737, and of marriages from ing plants, and on the fillets dividing the panels are 1738. The living is a rectory, net yearly value £2oo, inci•ed Runes, forming together from base to summit with 40 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of the the legend following:- Dean and Chapter of Carlisle, and held since 1904 by the "t In the first year Rev. Georg-e Yorke, of St. Bees. The Presbyterian of the King Church of at Blackpool, in the Bellbank town- of Ric (realm) this ship, was erected in 1891. Bewcastle was the site of an Ecgfrith important Roman station, constructed on the top of a lie he (i.e. Alcfrith) rocky, isolate::!. eminence, rising in a deep hollow sur- in frith " (peace). rounded by swelling hils; this station, contrary to the The north side has a large central panel of chequers, usual plan, appears to have been hexagonal, and two above and below which are two smaller ones filled with inscribed stones, now lost, showed it to have been interlaced work; the extreme portions are again de­ occupied by the 2nd Legion (Augusta) and the 2oth corated with twining plants; the Runes on the dividing Legion (Valeria Victrix); the plateau on which the bands, read from the base upwards, give the names of station stands is about 6 acres in extent, ·but the sides I "Kiinnburug" (queen of Alcfrith), "Kiineswitha" (her of the fortifications are all unequal, varying from 78 sister) and "Wulfhere" (King of the Mercians A.D. yards on the south, where the declivity is the steepest, 656-75, son of Penda, and brother of Kiinnburug). Prof. to 146 yards on the north eide, the slope here being Stephens therefore concludes that as Ecgfrith was King defensively weak. The ":Maiden Way," running hither of Northumbria in .A..D. 670, this monument was reared on its northward course from Amboglanna (Eirdoswald), in that year to Alcfrith, King of Deira, by his queen passes this station a little to the east. Within the and relatives, and the three thanes or nobles, no doubt limits of thto Roman station are the remains of a pele his personal friends: the date of his death is assumed tower or castle, built out of Roman materials. to be A.D. 665-6. In 1890 the obelisk was seriously In the churchyard, which is within the limits of the damaged by the attempts of an incompetent workman R::~man station, stands the famous Runic obelisk or to make casts of it for an archreological society; it has eross; as now existing, it consists of a monolith of grey since been repaired and strengthened at the base, and LaRgar freestone, 14* feet in heig-ht from the basement protected at the top by cement under the direction of stone into which it is socketed, at which point it Chancellor Ferguson M.A.• LL.M., F.S.A. of Carlisle. measures 21 by 22 inches, tapering upwards to the top, Coal has been obtained in the parish, but the seam is where the measurements are 13 by 14 inches. It was of no great depth. Limestone of the best quality is originally surmounted by a cross let into the top, and found throughout the parish. There is no village, the now lost, but existing in the 16th century, when it was houses consisting only of scattered farms and cottages. sent by Henry (Fitzalan) Earl of Arundel, who died in Agriculture is the only support of the population ; 158o, to William Camden, the distinguished antiquary, sheep rearing is largely carried on here. the Earl having received it from Lord William Howard, Sir Richard James Graham bart. of Netherby, is lord commonly known as "Belted Will;" and Camden, who of the manor. The land is poor and used only for mentions the circumstance in his ··Magna Britannia.'' grazing. The soil is various but light; subsoil, light. also records the inscription on the cross. The base from The chief cr()ps are oats and ~urnips. The number of which the O'belisk rises is a nearly cubical block of acres in the township is 28,460 of land and 99 of water; stone, about 3 feet of which is under ground; but it rateable value, £9,313; the population of the township was ascertained in r8go to be 5 feet square at the in 1901 was 700. bottom, diminishing to 3 feet 9 inches at the top, where :Bailie, or Bailey. is a hamlet from 2} to 6 miles north- the edges are chamfered off so as to make it an octa~on by-north-west of Bewcastle. with alternately uneQual sides; the height of the base BELLBANK is a township about 3 miles west of Bew­ is 3 feet 10 inches, and the total height, including the castle, and contains four small hamlets Kinkry Hill, missing cross, was 20 feet. All four sides of the sliaft Nether Oakshaw, Shaw Head and Clattering Ford. The or obelisk are elaborately carved, the work being of a area is 1,423 acres of land and 22 of water; rateable much higher order, both as regards design and fxecu- value, [712; the pcpulation in 1901 was 69. tion, than much of the sculpture of later date, and Nixon is a hamlet 2! miles west-by-north of Hew- three of these sides bear incised Runic inscriptionq, tbe castle. latPst interpretations of which, as ~iven by Prof. Post. M. 0. & T. Office, Roadhead.-Thomas Ridley, Stephens, of Copenhagen. in his great work on Runic sub-postmaster. Letters through Carlisle, via Penton monument'!, are g-iven further on. The east side is Station, arrive at n.Io a.m. & are dispatched at 5·5 carved with the representation of a vine or similar p.m.; no sunday delivery of letters