804 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 178. 



€nitviei. 



', THE SPECTEE HORSEMEN OF SOUTHEKFELL. 



On this mountain, -winch I believe is in the 

 barony of Greystoke, Cumberland, a remarkable 

 phenomenon is said to have been witnessed more 

 tlian a century ago, the circumstances of which 

 appear to have been these: — In 1743 one Daniel 

 Stricket, then servant to John Wren, of Wilton 

 Hill, a shepherd, was sitting one evening after 

 supper (the month is not mentioned) at the door 

 with his master, when they saw a man with a dog 

 pursuing some horses on Southerfell-slde, a place 

 so steep that a horse can scarcely travel on it at 

 all ; and they seemed to run at an amazing pace, 

 and to disappear at the low end of the fell. 

 Master and man resolved to go next morning to 

 the steep side of the mountain, on which they ex- 

 pected to find that the horses had lost their shoes 

 from the rate at which they galloped, and the man 

 his life. They went, but to their surprise they 

 found no vestige of horses having passed that way. 

 They said nothing about their vision for some 

 time, fearing the ridicule of their neighbours, and 

 this they did not fail to receive when they at 

 length ventured to relate their story. On the 

 23rd June (the eve of St. John's Day) in the fol- 

 lowing year (1744), Stricket, who was then servant 

 to a Mr. Lancaster of Blakehills, the next house to 

 W^ilton Hill, was walking a little above the house 

 in the evening, about half-past seven, when on 

 looking towards Southerfell he saw a troop of 

 men on horseback, riding on the mountain side in 

 pretty close ranks, and at the speed of a brisk 

 walk. He looked earnestly at this appearance for 

 gome time before he ventured to acquaint any one 

 with what he saw, remembering the ridicule he 

 Lad brought on himself by relating his former 

 vision. At length satisfied of its reality, he went 

 into the house and told his master he had some- 

 thing curious to show him. The master said be 

 supposed Stricket wanted him to look at a bonfire 

 (it being the custom for the shepherds on the eve 

 of St. John to vie with each other for the largest 

 bonfire) ; however, they went out together, and 

 before Stricket spoke of or pointed to the phe- 

 nomenon, Mr. Lancaster himself observed it, and 

 when they found they both saw alike, they sum- 

 moned the rest of the family, who all came, and all 

 saw the visionary horsemen. There were many 

 troops, and they seemed to come from the lower 

 part of the fell, becoming first visible at a place 

 called Knott ; they then moved in regular order 

 in a curvilinear path along the side of the fell, 

 until they came opposite to Blakehills, when they 

 went over the mountain and disappeared. The 

 last, or last but one, In every troop, galloped to 

 the front, and then took the swift walking pace 

 of the rest. The spectators saw all alike these 

 changes in relative position, and at the same time, 



as they found on questioning each other when any 

 change took place. The phenomenon was alsO' 

 seen by every person at every cottage within a 

 mile ; and from the time that Stricket first ob- 

 served it, the appearance lasted two hours and a 

 half, viz. from half-past seven until night pre- 

 vented any further view. Blakehills lay only half 

 a mile from the place of this extraordinary ap- 

 pearance. Such are the cii'cumstances as related 

 in Clarke's Purvey of the Lakes (fol. 1789), and he 

 professes to give this account In the words of Mr.. 

 Lancaster, by whom It was related to him, and oa 

 whose testimony he fully relied ; and he subjoins a 

 declaration of its truth signed by the eye-witnesses, 

 William Lancaster and Daniel Stricket (who thea 

 lived under Skiddaw, and followed the business- 

 of an auctioneer), dated 21st July, 1785. Mr. 

 Clarke remarks that the country abounds In fables 

 of apparitions, but that they are never said to 

 have been seen by more than one or two persons" 

 at a time, and then only for a moment ; and re- 

 membering that Speed mentions some similar ap- 

 pearance to have preceded a civil war, he hazards 

 the supposition that the vision might prefigure the^ 

 tumults of the rebellion of the following year. 



My Query is. Whether any subsequent appear- 

 ance of the same kind Is recorded to have been 

 observed on this haunted mountain, and whether 

 any attempt to account for It on principles of 

 optical science, as applied to a supposed state of 

 the atmosphere, has ever been published ? 



One is reminded of the apparition said to have^ 

 been witnessed above Vallambrosa early In the- 

 fourteenth century. Rogers, after mentioning in 

 the canto on " Floi-ence and Pisa," in his Italy, 

 that Petrarch, when an infant of seven months old 

 (a.d. 1305), narrowly escaped drowning in a flood 

 of the Arno, on the way from Florence to Anclsaj, 

 whither his mother was retiring with him, says : 



" A most extraordinary deluge, accompanied by 

 signs and prodigies, happened a few years afterwardsv 

 •On that niglit,' says Giovanni Villaiii (xi. 2.), 'a 

 hermit, being at prayer in his hermitage above Val- 

 lambrosa, heard a furious trampling as of many horses y 

 and crossing himself and hurrying to the wicket, saw a 

 muhitude of infernal horsemen, all black and terrible, 

 riding by at full speed. When, in the name of God,, 

 he demanded their purpose, one replied, We are going, 

 if it be His pleasure, to drown the city of Florence for 

 its wickedness. This account,' lie adds, ' was given 

 me by the Abbot of Vallambrosa, who had questioned 

 the holy man himself.' " 



This vision, however, without doubting the holy 

 man's veracity, may, I presume, be considered 

 wholly subjective. W. S. G. 



Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



