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CHAPTER III.

GIGGLESWICK, STACKHOUSE, LOCKS.

66

'Pray pardon me, if now I raise

A stave or two to sound the praise
Of Craven's hills and caves;
Of fertile daals, an' flowin' brooks,
Of watter-faus an' shady nooks,

Whar t' fir an' t' hazel waves'.
Whar cliffs uprear their shaggy waus,
And down below a streamlet flows,
Wi' rough an' blusterin' din;

While masses of projectin' rock
Owerhing as if the slightest shock

Wad send 'em thunderin' in."-Tom Twistleton.

Giggleswick-The Mid Craven Fault-Plague Stone-Bell Hill and Pagan FiresSettle Bridge and Penyghent-Stackhouse-Lovely Residences-Brayshaw and Carr Families-Locks-Return Walk.

T is not a simple matter in the rugged and semi-trackless country I am about to describe, where much that is curious. and interesting lies off the beaten routes, to plan our walks so systematically that everything can be visited without much deviation, and in the least time. As most people, however, arrive by either of the two railway stations before mentioned, we will commence our rambles from the one at Giggleswick, and in so doing I commend the visitor's attention to the old stone walls which run forward to that village and to Settle. Composed of a remarkably coarse grit, so inordinately full of white quartz pebbles, they have almost the appearance after rain of having been snowed upon. This grit-stone is quarried at the base of the carboniferous limestone which forms the fine scars of the Mid Craven Fault, and should in the natural sequence of strata overlie the limestone, but owing to this tremendous fracture has been thrown down hundreds of feet below it, but we shall have more to say about this later on. Before the railway was made, this now broad and well-kept high-road was only a narrow lane, with openings for carts to pass, and went by the present station on to the main road for Lancaster.

About fifty yards from the station, and built into the wall on the right, is a large roughly-squared block with a shallow cavity in the centre. This is believed to be the socket of an ancient cross, and to have done duty for a boundary stone, a holy-well, and a plague-stone. During the plagues which ravaged Craven, and Yorkshire generally, in the 16th and 17th centuries, such stones were to be found in the neighbourhoods of the infected villages, and there appear to have been several on the roads around Settle. The inhabitants were forbidden to come beyond a certain radius of the village in which they lived, and orders for goods and provisions were communicated to the vendors by written requests deposited on these stones with the money in payment, which was then disinfected by the recipients in the basin or cavity of the stone, usually containing lime water or vinegar, and the goods left in exchange. In some of the worst districts, as at Eyam in Derbyshire, there were cordons of militia stationed round the infected villages, in the interests of the public safety, but it must be pleaded, greatly to the credit of these places, that during this sad and perilous time the people behaved most heroically, and indeed with marvellous self-sacrifice, and there were but few attempts to escape.

On arriving at the pretty village of Giggleswick, described in our first chapter, the visitor should inspect the fine old Church and interesting Museum. This village, by the way, is not, as a local innkeeper once tried to persuade the writer, "within a stone's throw of the station," at least if it is, the man who threw the stone is greatly to be admired,-he would carry all before him at every athletic contest of the kind in the kingdom. It is a good ten minutes' walk.

But now let us climb Bell Hill, as that part of the road between Giggleswick and the Ribble bridge, on the way to Settle, is called. There is a low, picturesque old house at the foot of the hill, at present occupied by the curate, which at one time was the residence of the family of the celebrated Archdeacon Paley. Bel or Bell Hill, is usually written Belle, but this, I think, is wrong. It has nothing to do with the French word for beautiful, but is derived, as so many others are of like appellation in this part of England, from the Celtic bel, a ford, or beal or baal, a feast-fire of the primitive inhabitants, still kept up in some parts of Ireland and France at the present day. In hilly districts such named places, when connected with high ground are more likely to carry with them the latter meaning, for they are invariably found in proximity to pre-historic Celtic settlements and their attendant remains. I have already shown that Giggleswick was an important British station, and there is no doubt that the bel fires were kindled on the anniversaries of their feasts. Dr. Whitaker says that the custom of lighting fires on the adjacent hills lingered here until within the memory of those then living,

which would be a little over a century from now, but that in these later times they were known as Kennel fires,-doubtless a survival of the ancient bel fires. I cannot do better than quote what he says: "In this parish was an immemorial custom, continued within the memory of many persons yet alive, of kindling fires on the tops of the surrounding hills on St. Lawrence's Eve, the 9th of August. This night was called the Kennel, or Kennelk Night; and the tradition of the place is, that the fires were intended as a memorial of the beacons kindled by the Saxons to alarm their countrymen on the sudden approach of the Danes. Perhaps the origin of the practice may be referred to a later period, namely some of the irruptions of the Scots. But the tradition sufficiently accounts for the name, which, I think, is clearly to be derived from

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KENNE, to descry. Another etymology might be offered from A.S. CENE, acer, and ELED, ignis, the brisk fire, but I prefer the former, as more appropriate." Had our historian described the ceremonies which, doubtless, attended the lighting of these summer fires, a more certain clue to their origin or design would have been obtained than is possible from the mere name or tradition.

In descending towards the Ribble bridge there is a delightful old lane, in season filled with honeysuckle and roses, that goes off to the left to Stackhouse and Stainforth, or you can follow the road down to the bridge, as shown in the accompanying engraving, and take the field path

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