2 
some church ;” but although Camden was the great antiquarian of 
his day, he makes no mention of either the Giant’s Grave or the 
Giant’s Thumb. 
It must, however, be borne in mind that post-reformation anti- 
quarians of Camden’s time, and indeed for three centuries or so 
after that, were so strongly influenced by the reaction from 
medeivalism, that their notions of antiquarian research were 
directed principally to Roman remains, to the neglect of, if not 
contempt for, all Christian monuments. 
However, an edition of Camden’s work was published in 1695, 
with additions by the best local authorities in each county ; that 
for Cumberland was entrusted to the learned Dr. Hugh Todd, 
Prebendary of Carlisle Cathedral and afterwards Vicar of Penrith, 
who added to Camden’s meagre information a notice of the Giant’s 
Grave, recounting the tradition of the mighty hunter of Inglewood 
forest—mighty in stature as well as in hunting the boar—which 
has been repeated over and over again in all the local histories up 
to this day; but he makes no mention whatever of the Giant’s 
Thumb. 
One thing, however, the indefatigable doctor did, as Vicar of 
Penrith: he pulled down Camden’s ‘‘pretty and handsome” 
Gothic church, and built the Georgian edifice now standing. 
The demolition of the old church, without as much as a line of 
description or drawing of its appearance, is matter for sincere 
regret; but we must remember that at that time old Gothic 
churches were regarded as worthless rubbish, and no opportunity 
was lost for pulling them down and replacing them with bad 
copies of Wren’s classical churches, then in fashion. 
If, then, the old church was so much despised, what wonder if 
the mean-looking old churchyard cross was not thought worthy of 
mention, and that, being in the way of the builders, the labourers 
were told to take it away and stick it in anywhere ? 
The connection of the Giant’s Thumb with the Giant’s Grave is 
as mythical as the giant himself; indeed it could not possibly be 
the same giant, for the monster who was laid at rest in the fifteen 
foot space assigned to him, huge though he was, must have been a 
