wooded, but generally naked, badly cultivated,. and inclofed with,
Bridekirk font, ilone walls. Reach Bridekirk, a village with a iinall church, noted
for an antient font» found at Papcaftle, with an infcription explained
by the learned Prelate Nicholfen, in Comdex's Britannia, and. engraven,
in the fe.cond volume of the works of the fociety o f antiquaries.
The height is two.feet and an inch ; the form fquare;. on each fide
are different fculptures •, on, one a crofs,, on another a two-headed
monfter, with a triple flower falling from one common item, hanging
from its mouth ¡ beneath is a perfon, St. John Baptiji, performing;
the office of baptifm by the immerfion o f a child, our Saviour ; and
above the child is a (now) imperfeA dove •, on a third fide is a fort
o f centaur^attacked by a bird and fome animal ;. and under them the
angel driving our firft father out of Eden, while Eve. clings clofe. to,
the tree oflife, as i f exclaiming,.
Oh !' unexpected ftroke, worfe than o f death 1*
Mull I then leave thee, Par adi/e ? Thus leaye
TJiee, native foil 1.
And on the fourth fide two birds,, with fome. ornaments and figures
beneath; and the. infcription, in runic characters thus decyphered:
by the Bifhop :
Er E r k a r d han-men egroften,. and to. dis.men red wer H'aner men-
Brogten, That is to fay,.
Here Ekard was converted, and to this, man’s example were the
Danes brought.
It is certain that the infcription was- cut-in memory, o f this remarkable
event; but whether the font was made exprefsly on the occa-
fion, or whether, it.was not. of.much, more antient.date (as the antiquary.
quary fuppofes) and the infcription put on at the time o f this con-
verfion, appears to me at this period very uncertain.
4 Pafs, not far from Bridekirk, through the village o f Papcaftle,
once a* Roman ftation, conjeitured by Mr. Horjley to have been
the Derventione of the geographer o f Ravenna; where many monuments
of antiquity have been found. In a field on the left,
on defcending into the village, are the remains o f fome dikes.
Reach
f Cockermouth, a large town with broad ftreets, irregularly built,
wafhed by the Derwent on the weftern fide, and divided in two
by the Cocker, and the parts connected by a bridge of a Angle
arch. The number o f inhabitants are between three and four
thoufand: the manufailures are fhalloons, worfled ftockings and
hats; the laft exported from Glafgow to the tVeft-Indies. It is a
borough town, and the right of voting is veiled by burgefs tenure
in certain houfes : this is alfo the town where the county eledlions
are made.
The caille is feated on an artificial mount, on a bank above the
Derwent: is fquare, and is flrengthened with feveral fquare towers :
on each fide of the inner gate are two deep dungeons, capable of
holding fifty perfons in either; are vaulted at top, and have only a
fmall opening in order to lower through it the unhappy prifoners
into this dire prifon ; and on the outfide of each is a narrow flit with
a flope from i t ; and down this were fhot the provifions allotted to
the wretched inhabitants. In the feudal times death and captivity
were almoit fynonymous; but the firft was certainly preferable;
which may be one caufe why the battles o f antient days were fo
bloody.
H 2 This