The Society is indebted to Miss Bland for this Plan, which accompanied her paper, "A Link between two Westmorlands."-Transactions, vol. v., p. 25.

ART. XVIII. - Stone Circle at Gamelands, Bland House Brow, Township of Raisbeck, Parish of Orton, Westmorland. By R. S. FERGUSON, F.S.A.

Read at Penrith, January 20th, 1881.

URING the summer of 1880, one of our members,

DURING

(Miss Bland, author of "A Link between two Westmorlands,*") requested me, at her expense, to have surveyed for the purposes of this Society the important stone circle, whose site is defined (rather in pedantic manner, some may think) at the head of this paper. I secured the services

of Mr. J. Robinson and Mr. J. B. Harvey, and armed with a photograph, and guided by Colonel Burn of Orton Hall, we reached the proper place, where a labourer was in waiting; Canon Weston also joined us.

Careful measurements were taken of the circle, and an accurate plan was made by Mr. J. B. Harvey, which appeared with Miss Bland's paper, and is reproduced here. There is no appearance of any tumulus within the circle; indeed the ground is rather hollow than otherwise. Had the tumulus been a cairn of stones, the many stone walls in the vicinity would readily account for its disappearance. Enquiry further shows that the field, in which the circle is, had been ploughed about eighteen years ago, the riggs running right through the circle. On that occasion two or three of the stones forming the circle were buried by being rolled into holes dug under them; one or two others were blasted, and the fragments are now lying about. The stones forming the circle have been forty in number, as shown on the plan; the highest stands about 2 feet 8 inches above the ground, and the circumferences at the ground surface varies from 6 feet to 12 feet. None

* Transactions, vol. 5, between pp. 24 and 25.

appear

appear deeper seated in the ground than 18in. Several appear to have fallen over flat, towards the interior of the circle. With one exception the stones are all of a red coarse-grained granite; the exception is a rough limestone much weathered into holes. The spade, ably wielded by Mr. Robinson, showed any tumulus to have been cleared away down to the natural level of the soil on which it had stood, and that no interments had been made below that level. Two bits of worked flint were found, also a freestone slab, which possibly once formed part of a cist. This was lying next stone 29 (see plan), and my idea is that it was moved there from the centre of the circle when the place was ploughed. The size of this circle (its diameter is 138 feet), makes it one of the most important in England. It is distant a mile only from Orton Hall, the residence of Dr. Burn, and yet he passes it over sub silentio in the History of Westmorland and Cumberland, which he and Mr. Joseph Nicolson published in 1777. Not that he ignored it of set purpose; he cannot have known it, for in his account of the parish of Orton he describes a tumulus or British sepulchre thus:

"Nigh Raisgill Hall, there is a tumulus or British sepulchre, in a regular circle near 100 yards in circumference. (sic), rising gradually from the extremity to about the height of three yards in the middle. It is composed of loose stones thrown together promiscuously, and in digging lately was found one very large stone supported by one other large stone on each side, and underneath the same was an human skeleton, with the bones of several others round about."

Whelan (Hist. of West., p. 672), applies this account to the circle of which I have been writing, and so did I at first, misled by him, and by some confusion over the name Raisbeck, which applies to a hamlet, and a township, as well as to a stream of water. Burn's description applies (see Hodgson's Westmorland, p. 143, and the Ordnance Map) to a place on a hill near Raisgill Hall, near the junction of the Raisbeck with the Lune. It is marked "British Sepulchre"

Sepulchre" on the one inch Ordnance Map. I have not yet been able to see it, but Colonel Burn informs me that it is about eighty feet in diameter. No stones are now visible, but some seem buried under mounds of turf. A portion of the cist, mentioned by Dr. Burn, is said to be doing duty as a chimney lintel in a neighbouring house. The Gamelands circle is not on the one inch Ordnance Map.

The name "Gamelands" is noteworthy, if only that Whelan (Hist. West., p. 762) makes it into "Grantlands." One theory is that it is "Gamelslands," and records Gamel-de-Penington, the first known Lord of the Manor of Orton, who gave Orton Church to the priory of Conishead in the reign of Henry II. Dr. Simpson has a different theory, for which see ante p. 177.

ART. XIX.-Reminiscences of Lamplugh Hall. By W. DICKINSON, Thorncroft, Workington.

Read at Egremont, August 30th, 1881.

FEW people are now living who can remember seeing the

remnant of the old tower at Lamplugh Hall, standing in the early years of the present century. I have a good recollection of it during my school days of, say, 1808 to 1810, and it behoves myself or some one to jot down a few memorandums of its then appearance, as I think none have yet been in print, and my many inquiries have failed to make out any drawing or picture of it. As part of the parish history it may interest some of the youngsters of the present day, when they become aged, to read what I happen to know respecting Lamplugh Hall, and a little of what I remember to have heard from my parents and others. On my father's side, a part of the property of his ancestors was held by feudal tenure under Lamplugh Hall, and had to furnish a man and horse, with equipments, for forty days service if needful, and three days provisions, when called up to join the Lamplugh troop to repel the Scotch incursions. My grandfather was once called out, with many neighbours, and rode to Carlisle. On reaching there they found the rebels had fled, and they quietly returned home. Some of the foot people were armed with scythes straightened out at the ends of the shafts. Some had pitchforks; some had flails; others had clubs or staves; and all were armed and provisioned to the best of their ability. I well remember a large pair of jackboots, which fastened at the sides, which had been worn by my ancestor for these occasions, and his sword as well, and which I eventually got made into a capital carving knife.* I hardly think it had

* Many of the old mosstroopers' swords have been thus converted, and the wellknown wolf" or "fox" mark may occasionally be recognised in Cumberland farm houses on some well-worn carving knife.-R.S.F.