95 



that the first word is spelled as it generally was in the middle ages, 

 "thjj's," but the body of the y fills the space like a 7^, while the 

 tail of the y is squeezed in below, and not at first sight very 

 apparent, and this led them to conclude erroneously that the word 

 is ^/lus. I shall have to refer to this inscription again in connection 

 with another Roger. 



1283. Roger Clifford was slain in battle in the Isle of Anglesey 

 in the forty-seventh year of his age, leaving Isabella a widow of 

 twenty-nine, with an only child, Robert, then nine years of age, 

 who in due time became a man of war. He was fiercely engaged 

 in the Scotch wars, and was slain in 13 14, at Bannockburn or 

 at Stirling, when about forty years of age, and was buried at Shap 

 Abbey, where many Lords of Westmorland before and after him 

 were laid. He built a great part of Skipton Castle, and made it 

 very strong and beautiful — all of which was destroyed by Crom- 

 well's soldiers in 1649. 



Following him comes his eldest son, another Roger, in 1314, 

 who had a short but eventful life of eight years of manhood. He 

 took up arms with other nobles against King Edward II.; his 

 party was overthrown, several of his colleagues were beheaded, but 

 Roger was so desperately wounded as to be reckoned a dead man, 

 and was spared from the scaffold ; he was however attainted of 

 treason, and his estate seized ; but this was afterwards restored to 

 him. 



His ferocity and obstinacy are preserved in the story, that on 

 being served with a writ from the king, he at the point^of the sword 

 forced the man who served it to eat the great wax seal attached to 

 it, to show his contempt for the king's displeasure, He was never 

 married, and was the hero of the romance of impropriety perpetu- 

 ated in the name of the farmstead — Julian Bower — on Whinfell, in 

 which figures another Fair Rosamond, whose name was Julia, and 

 a secret bower, but minus the silken cord and the bowl of poison. 



Roger died at thirty years of age, and was succeeded by his 

 younger brother, Robert, a model lord and home-loving country 

 gentleman, fond of the chase ; and a great builder and repairer of 

 his castles. To him came, in 1333, Baliol, King of Scotland, on a 



