90 "JiKintiermete to ©'oniston 



much more so indeed than Blea Tarn, to which, as you 

 know, this Hne was first applied. Tilberthwaite is * paled 

 in by many a mountain high,' and that so effectually 

 that when you are fairly in it, you begin to feel anxious about 

 a practicable way out. After passing through the fell-gate, 

 you find upon your left a group of old farm buildings, now 

 chiefly converted into cottages for miners and their families. 

 Old Lanty Slee, the famous whiskey-spinner, formerly had 

 his abode here, and, for years, carried on his hazardous 

 occupation in a cave formed by himself at the end of the 

 old stable, which, as you see, stands with its shoulder thrust 

 into the hill side. The entrance to the little cavern was 

 cunningly made through the sunken gable of the building, 

 beneath the manger from which his old horse fed ; and, had 

 Lanty been gifted with ordinary prudence, he might still have 

 been supplying his thirsty neighbours with the product of 

 his nocturnal operations, — genuine fire-water. These old 

 houses are the scene of two striking illustrations of the 

 salubrity of the district and the longevity of its inhabitants. 

 In this first cottage, some years ago, was a far from infirm 

 old woman nursing her grandson's grand-child. The nurse 

 and the child representing the extremes of five generations ; 

 so that had the intermediate members of the line been all 

 female, old Mary Tyson might have recited the well-known 

 jingle, ^ Arise daughter, and go to thy daughter, for thy 

 daughter's daughter hath got a daughter ! ' The other in- 

 stance was, perhaps, more remarkable still. About the same 

 period, one of the adjacent cottages was occupied by a 

 young couple named Dawson, whose children could boast of 

 fourteen living ancestors, namely, their parents, — all their 

 grand-parents, and all their great-grand-parents. 



The name of Tilberthwaite, we may mention, indicates 

 that it was originally a ' clearing,' devoted to the cultivation 



