63 



Almost as mysterious a personage as Margaret Richardson, and 

 equally reserved about his private history, was one Lachlan 

 Murray,* of whose antecedents nothing was ever known on this 

 side of the border beyond the fact of his having come from 

 Scotland in the '45. Whether he left the army during the siege of 

 Carlisle, or during the retreat from Derby, certain it is that he did 

 not return to Scotland, but settled himself at Irthington, two and 

 a half miles from Brampton, where he kept a school, taught land- 

 surveying, became parish clerk, and died in 1801, aged eighty. 

 He must have gained great reputation for versatility of talent, 

 since in 1788, as shewn by the vestry minutes, he was entrusted 

 with the work of "drawing a plan for a new church". Nor is it 

 necessary to suppose, because no new church was built, that he 

 proved unequal to the occasion ; for the prudent vestry, while 

 preferring on second thoughts a more economical plan, shewed 

 unabated confidence in him by requesting him to prepare "rates, 

 advertisements, &c., for repairing" the old church. The worst 

 thing known about him is that he could not, or at all events did 

 not, prevent his wife, who kept a grocer's shop, from using the 

 leaves of the parish register as wrappers for tea, cheese, and 

 tobacco, t 



The prince left Brampton on Monday, November 18, to make 

 his triumphal entry into Carlisle, mounted on a white charger, 

 preceded by a hundred pipers, and welcomed by a peal from the 



What the next world may be I ne'er trouble my pate ; 



And, be what it may, I beseech thee, O Fate, 



When bodies of millions rise up in a riot, 



To let the old carcase of Monsey lie quiet. 

 The first four lines as given by Mr. Jeaffreson agree exactly with the version 

 quoted by me from the local almanac. 



*The authority for everything here stated about Lachlan Murray, apart 

 from the register and vestry minutes, is Mr. Thomas Graham, of Beanlands, 

 Irthington, now in his sixty-ninth year, whose grandmother, from whom he 

 heard the story, died in 1838, aged ninety-five. Mr. Graham, whose fore-elders, 

 alternating all the way down as Thomas and David, have owned Beanlands since 

 1607, has often proved himself an invaluable depositary of local tradition. 



t There is therefore now no register at Irthington of earlier date than 1704, 

 and there is a gap from 1722 to 1729. The present vicar then will do well to 

 "proceed in this particular" after the method which I have recommended to 

 the vicar of Stanwix (ante, p. 50). 



