I ron m i n e s . Make an excurfion of four miles to the Weft, to vifit the great
iron mines at Whitrigs: the ore is found in immenfe beds beneath
two ftrata, one of pinnel or coarfe gravel, about fifteen yards thick ;
the next is lime-ftone of twenty yards : the ftratum of ore is rather
uncertain in extent, but is from ten to fifteen yards thick, and forty
in extent; and fometirqes two hundred tuns have been taken up in
a week, A cubic yard of ore weighs three tuns and a half : the
common produce of metal is one tun from thirty-five to forty hundred
o f ore •, but fome has been fo rich as to yield a tun of iron from
twenty feven hundred of the mineral.
The ore lies in vaft heaps about the mines, fo as to form perfeft
mountains ; is of that fpecies called by mineralogifts hematites and
kidney-ore ; is red, very greafy, and defiling. The iron race that
inhabit the mining villages exhibit a ftrange appearance : men,
women and children are perfectly dyed with it, and even innocent
babes do quickly affume the bloody complexion of the foil.
The ore is carried on board the ihips for 12 s. per tun, each tun
21 hundred; and the adventurers pay is. 6d. per tun farm for liberty
o f raifing it. It is entirely fmelted with wood charcoal, but is
got in fuch quantities that wood in thefe parts is fometimes wanting
; fo that charcoal is fometimes procured from the poor woods of
Mull, and other o f the Hebrides.
Thefe mines have been worked above four hundred years ago, as
appears by the grant of William of Lancajler, Lord of Kendal, to the
priory of Cmjhed, in this neighborhood, o f the mine of Plumpton,
probably part of the prefent vein ; which he conveys libero introitu et
exitu ad duos eauos cum hominibus rninam cariandam, &c. *
* Duidtlt, II. 425.
The
The veftiges of the antient workings are very frequent, and apparent
enough, from the vaft hollows in the earth wherever they have
funk in.
From one of the banks have a great view of the lower Furnefs, as
far as appears, a woodlefs traft, and of the ifte o f Walney, ftretching
along the coaft, and forming to it a fecure counterfcarp from the
rao-e of the fea. At the South end is Peel caftle, originally built, and
fupported by the abby of Furnefs, and garrifoned with fixty men, as
a proteition againft the Scots.
The abby lies oppofite, and the very ruins evince its former magnificence*.
It was founded in 1127, by Stephen, Earl of Moriton
and Bologne, afterwards King of England, or rather removed by him
from Tulket in Aundirnefs. The monks were originally of the order
o f Tironenfians, o f the rule of St. Benedict, but afterwards became
Cijlercians ■f.
The little Tam, or water called Standing Tam, is within fight; it
is of confiderable depth, and abounds with pike, roch and eels ; alfo
with large trout; and is remarkable for having no vifible outlet, but
difcharges its waters by ibme fubterraneous pafiage.
See, towards the North, at a fmall diftance, the hill o f Black-
Coomb, in Cumberland, often vifible from Flintjhire, and an infallible
prefage to us of bad weather. I found from the report of the inhabitants
of thefe parts, that the appearance o f our country is equally
ominous to them-, and equally unacceptable.
See Swartz-moor hall, near which Martin Swartz and his Germans
* Finely engraven among the views publilhed by the fociety of Antiquaries.
+ Dugdale, I. 704. An excellent and full account of this abby has been lately
publilhed, by Mr. 'tbomas WeJf,
encamped
P e e l c a s t l e .
F u r n e s s a b b y .
B l a c k - C o o m b ,
S w a r t z -m o o r .