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paper themselves, with all the halo of the old coaching days, and 
all the romance of the road from Carlisle to Gretna Green. 
I will just mention the road leading to the west, and then I have 
done with the roads leading out of Carlisle. Passing out at the Irish 
Gate, the great highway ran along Caldcotes, and certain historical 
facts go to show this to be an old road. We know that King 
Edward I. passed along Caldcotes with his army in 1307, on his ill- 
fated expedition against Scotland; and that his body would becarried 
through Caldcotes again from Burgh-on-Sands there can be little 
doubt. From the fact that about this time the king’s magazines for 
supplying the armies engaged against the Scots were situate at 
Skinburness, there would be a deal of traffic along Caldcotes, and 
not only that, but it would be the road from Carlisle to the great 
Abbey of Holme Cultram, which would be in its palmy days about 
this period (1307), and for a long time after. Several of the kings 
of England have visited the Abbey, and knelt before the high altar, 
so that, without doubt, many a splendid pageant has passed along 
Caldcotes in its time. 
I am reminded that the title of my paper is ‘Old Roads and 
Footpaths,” so I must endeavour to say a few words upon footpaths, 
with which our own district is rich in the extreme ; possibly no city 
in the kingdom is surrounded by finer, or has more of them. 
Almost in every direction you can, if you will, leave the highway, 
and wander along some ancient pathway, “far from the madding 
crowd,” and through scenery of the lovliest kind, along the rivers 
and streams of the great plain of Cumberland. We have seen that 
some of our old roads date from pre-historic times. The paths are 
more ancient still. Men wandered upon these tracks before the 
time of roads at all, and in particular those by our river sides. 
Primeeval man, when he wandered through our valleys, would no 
doubt have good reason to keep by the river sides for the supply 
of his natural wants; and it is a remarkable fact that by nearly all 
our river banks the public have a right of way, constantly used for 
the most part by the people. Where there is not such aright, you 
may be sure that it has been interfered with at some time by some 
