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His scattered bones a train of shepherds brought 
Down the steep mountain and the valley sought ; 
By Lady-Beck his light remains they bore, 
And dug his sepulchre on her peaceful shore,” 
The verses are interesting only as being written by a man who lived 
within hail of Helvellyn and of the little Quakers’ burial ground 
at Tirril, who knew well the facts of the finding of the body and 
was present at Gough’s funeral. 
“T attended,” he writes, “the interment of the remains of the 
poor young man, when they appeared so light, that it would not 
have been difficult to have borne them to the grave under one’s 
arm.” 
A Mrs. Ryves who in 1812 dedicated a small volume of Cum- 
brian legends to H.R.H. the Princess Charlotte of Wales, in a 
poem called “Fragment of the Recluse,” speaking of the noble- 
ness of dog nature incidentally alludes to the death of Gough 
thus :— 
“* And when the distant wand’rer yields his breath, 
No friend to dress his limbs in decent death, 
Patient, his faithful dog, unhoused, unfed, 
Alone defends the precincts of the dead ; 
Pious by instinct, guards the sacred clay, 
And sullen howls the midnight hoursjaway.”’ 
This is poor stuff, but the authoress appends a note which is of 
interest :— 
‘© circumstance occurred in Cumberland, during the author’s residence 
there, of a remarkably affecting nature. A stranger who had been for some 
time exploring the lakes and fells, was attended by his faithful dog in the midst 
of those wild regions, and without any decided habitation from which he might 
be missed. It was supposed by those who found him that his death was 
occasioned by a sudden precipitation from the top of the cliff beneath which he 
was discovered ; he appeared to have been about six weeks dead. Close at his 
head lay his faithful spaniel, which had during the interval pupped and was 
rearing her pups beside her master. She was almost famished, yet had not 
been known to seek for shelter or support in any human habitation.” 
Here was the story as it was current in the Lake District within 
seven years of the event ; but one wished to hear the contemporary 
