*

county. There is probably no dale or stretch of country in Yorkshire that has so many large bridges in the same distance as Garsdale. Some of these are prodigious and costly constructions, and appear altogether disproportionate to the ordinary requirements of the stream. But alas! they are the outcome of a dearly-bought experience, for many thousands of pounds have been lost in the dale by floods during the past few decades.

In Garsdale we encounter a different kind of scenery to that which is such a characteristic of the Craven Dales. Instead of the lofty and successive terraces of Scar Limestone, we have here a complex development of later growth, comprising alternations of shales, marble-limestone, and massive sandstones, belonging to the Yoredale series of rocks. The Craven or Scar Limestone dips to the north, at such a gradient that from an elevation of about 1100 feet in Kingsdale it falls to about 500 feet in Dent, and is below the surface of the ground in Garsdale. On the north the valley is bounded by the bold and lofty bulk of Bow Fell, (2200 feet), while to the south runs the scarcely-inferior summit of Rysell, or Rise Hill, whose long straight back is reared against the sky, as level, apparently, as a line drawn with a ruler. At the west end of Bow Fell there is a shallow tarn, about a mile round. It yields a fine white sand that is much sought after by the farmers for whetting scythes. Several attempts have been made to wade across the tarn, but the bottom is very loose, and in some places has almost the nature of a quick-sand, while in others it is as fine as meal.

Garsdale has given birth to several celebrities. At Swarth Gill, a pleasing old homestead by the way-side, was born in 1740, Dr. John Haygarth, an eminent physician, who practised at Bath, where he died in 1827.† Over the porch of his old home here is inscribed I. I. H. 1712. At Garsdale Foot, some distance nearer Sedbergh, the great naval genius, Dr. Inman, first saw the light. He was for upwards of 30 years Principal of the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth, where he died in 1859, aged 83. John Dawson, the celebrated mathematician, was also a native of Garsdale. He was trainer of eleven senior wranglers, and counted among his pupils Professor Adam Sedgwick and Dr. Sumner, late Bishop of Winchester. He died in 1820, aged 86, and there is a memorial bust of him in Sedbergh church, erected by his "grateful pupils."

The name also bears some resemblance to the Celtic Car, crooked or winding, and to the Scotch Carse, low-lying land beside a river. It may, however, have a Norse meaning. There is a Garsdal in Sweden, and in Norway a Gausdal, watered by the Loug (a Norweg. word for river). Gausdal is celebrated for its Sanatorium, a popular place of resort with the Norwegian gentry. In the Gausdal Loug, moreover, there is a suggestion of our Garsdale Clough.

† A Memoir (with portrait) of Dr. Haygarth appeared in the Gents. Mag. for

1827.

The old Chapel at Garsdale was, in monastic times, an appendage of Easby Abbey, Richmond. It was pulled down in 1861, and the present neat building erected on its site. The old Hall, close by, was a few years since a well-known hostelry, but the license having been dropped, there is now no inn between the Moorcock in Wensleydale and Sedbergh, a distance of 12 miles. It is said that the ale brewed for this old "public" was of a special sort, being extra strong and very intoxicating, and that no one but a Garsdale man could take a pint and afterwards walk steadily. It used to be supplied out of glass tubes, and sold according to standard-measure.

From the Kirk Bridge, downwards, the dale is very attractive, and now and again the road rises over huge drift-hills, with the stream prattling in the bottom, beneath climbing belts of flower-spangled woods. On passing Whitbeck you begin to ascend, and about 2 miles from Sedbergh the road crosses the open fell at a good altitude, where the thrown-up strata on the great Pennine Fault mark the division of the Silurian rocks of the west, and the Carboniferous hills on the east. The view of the Howgills-with their peculiar glaciated summits-from this point is very grand, and the changing lights and shadows, and reflected hues of a rich sunset, add a charm to the spectacle, which is worth going far to see.

CHAPTER XLV.

DOWN DENTDALE.

A lovely valley-Dent Head-Alpine railway-Monkey Beck-Floods and avalanches-Lee Gate and the Quaker Chapel-Marble works-Blake GillCowgill Chapel-Historical sketch-Danish occupation of Dentdale-Elam family-Mary Howitt and Dee-side mill-Geology of Dentdale-Ibby Peril and its ghost-Gibshall, and Hope on, hope ever-Gibshall tannery and the Sedgwicks-Hell's Cauldron-Hackergill Cave-Deepdale.

66

T

HE thrice-lovely valley of Dent,"-" a terrestrial paradise," "the happy valley of Rasselas," are phrases and comparisons affectionately bestowed by our early topographers on the charming little dale that dips westward from Dent Head to the village of Dent (4 miles), and Sedbergh (10 miles.) Watered by the lively Dee, a rapid mountain rivulet rising on the northern slopes of Blea Moor, which is fed by innumerable becks that descend the storm-rent flanks of Whernside, Wold Fell, Rise Hill, and Cowgill Wold, the dale throughout its course abounds in beautiful little ravines, foaming cascades, and a variety of miniature churns, pots, dubs, and cauldrons, formed by the solvent action of the water on its limestone bed.

From the little Alpine station at Dent Head (1100 feet), the road winds rapidly down to Lea Gate, or Yat, as the local pronunciation has it, and on turning round and looking up we can see the romantic position of the marvellously-constructed railway, high on the fell side where it curves over the two lofty viaducts separating Widdale Fell end from Wold Fell and Blea Moor; the scene reminding us of similar wonderful contrivances of man's ingenuity in the tunnelled Alps of Switzerland, or of the famous mountain-line by Triberg and Villingen, in the South German Black Forest.

At Lea Gate a steep torrent called Monkey Beck, probably Montey Beck, from mont (a mountain) and ea (water) has cut deep into the soft Yoredale beds below Dent Head Station, and during the frightful flood hereafter mentioned, in July, 1870, the water completely filled the hollow at the bottom to such a depth, that a lad, in attempting to save himself by swimming across, was carried away and drowned. This, in past

times, has been a terrible nook for floods, gill-bracks, or avalanches of stone and snow, which on several occasions have resulted in loss of life and have wrought immense havoc. Some burial entries of victims of a fearful avalanche that occurred here on January 31st, 1752, are to be seen in the parish registers at Dent.

At Lea Gate there is an old Quaker chapel (with burial ground), which owes its origin to the visits and ministrations of George Fox in the neighbourhood. The Friends, however, are a diminishing body here, and the little chapel, except on special occasions, is now but sparsely attended. It is a neat, plain building, with a scrupulously-clean interior, and has a sun-dial on its south side. On the Harbour Gill road, to the south of the chapel, are the famous marble works. A very superior black marble used formerly to be obtained from the Hardraw Scar Limestone, on which now rest the ponderous piers of the railway-viaduct at Dent Head. In Blake Gill, a deep ravine under Whernside, and not far from the marble quarries, there is a fine cascade precipitated over a ledge of this rock.

Passing the beautifully-placed vicarage, and the National School (built in 1866), we are soon at the picturesque little Cowgill Church, sweetly appearing beneath its ivy-cloak, and ensconced beside a shadowy beck, which tumbles in a tiny cascade into the Dee, below the churchyard wall. The rustic old bridge here bears an inscription stating that it was "repaired at the charge of the West Riding, A.D. 1702."

The chapel was originally built by a member of the Cowgill family, who had, while in Scotland, adopted the doctrine and discipline of the Presbyterian faith.* It was subsequently (in the early part of this century) used for a little time by the Independents, and also by the Quakers. The Sandemanians, a branch from the settlement at Gayle, near Hawes, had, moreover, established themselves here before the present church was erected in 1837-8. The foundation stone of the latter was laid by Professor Sedgwick, and shortly afterwards considerable trouble arose between the Trustees of the Chapel and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, with respect to the proper designation of the chapel. The parish was known as Cowgill, yet the hamlet has been called Kirthwaite, or Kirkthwaite, within the recollection of the oldest inhabitants. Finally, after much wrangling and speculation, a special Act of Parliament was passed authorising its institution under the name of Kirkthwaite. It is, however, questionable whether any kirk or place of worship here is as old as the name. I strongly incline to regard the latter as a purely Norse compound, from kyr (cows) and thveit (a clearing), that is a clearing for cattle, made during the Danish occupation

* See A Memorial by the Trustees of Cowgill Chapel, by Adam Sedgwick, LL.D. (1868).

of the valley in the 10th century. the name written sometimes with the k and sometimes without, but more frequently without."

In ancient deeds and fines we find

The church, which is dedicated to St. John, underwent in 1875 a thorough restoration at the sole expense of the Misses Elam, of Thorns Hall, Sedbergh, who also presented the handsome stained east window of three lights, in memory of their parents. In the church-yard there are memorial stones to several members of this family, who once held extensive properties in the neighbourhood, since acquired by the Marquis of Headfort.

Following the musical river downwards we arrive at a very picturesque part, where the water is broken into bright fleecy falls over shelves of marble limestone, near to a ruined (hosiery) mill. The sides of the river are spangled with wild flowers, and overhung with bushes and spreading ferns. It was here that Mary Howitt, while on a visit to Gibshall, wrote some beautiful lines, which may be found in her collected poems. It is thus she sings of this sweet scene,

Long trails of cistus-flowers

Creep on the rocky hill;
And beds of strong spear-mint

Grow round about the mill;

And from a mountain tarn above,

As peaceful as a dream,

Like to a child unruly,

Though schooled and counselled truly,
Foams down the wild mill stream,-

Into the mad mill stream

The mountain roses fall;

And fern and adder's tongue

Grow on the old mill wall!

During the construction of the railway at Dent Head the old mill was put into part repair, and the windows glazed, and for a time it was occupied by the workmen. A license having been obtained, part of the premises were converted into a brew-house, and ale was retailed.

The river, all along, runs over the Great Scar Limestone, which here reaches its lowest visible surface northwards, for owing to its northward dip it is not seen in Garsdale, being overlaid by the diverse order of Yoredale rocks, which are well displayed in the deep gills on either side of the valley, such as Hackergill, Flintergill, Scotchergill, &c.

A little below the old mill the river becomes contracted, and has carved a passage deep down into the solid rock, and the shadow of overhanging trees above the high shrub-decked walls gives the gorge a somewhat

* In 1576, Kyrthwaite (Yorkshire Rec. Ser., 5, 89); in 1591, Kirkewayte (Ibid., 7, 162); in 1594-5, Kierthwait (Ibid., 8, 19); in 1597, Kirthwayte (Ibid., 8, 79).