460 



CARLISLE. 



ter, which was afterwards consumed by an accidental 

 ' fire. In the 29th of Henry VIII. Carlisle was be, 

 sieged by an army of 8000 men, and being repulsed 

 by the garrison, were afterwards intercepted by the 

 Duke of Norfolk, who ordered the leaders with 70 

 others to be immediately executed on the city walls. 

 In 1644 this city was surrendered to the parliament 

 forces under General Leslie, after a siege of nearly 

 eight months. In 1745, Carlisle was taken posses- 

 sion of by the rebel army, commanded by Charles 

 Edward Stuart, and afterwards retaken by the king's 

 forces, under the Duke of Cumberland. During 

 these unhappy times, Carlisle was a place of consider- 

 able military importance, and kept up the appearance 

 of a formidable place ; sentinels were stationed at 

 every gate, on the walls, at the castle, &c. and the 

 gates were shut and locked every night with much 

 military parade ; and, as a signal when to shut the 

 garrison gates, a gun was fired in twilight, when a 

 white horse could not be seen at the distance of a 

 mile from the fortifications. 



So late as the beginning of the last century, the 

 dwellings of the inhabitants were mere hovels, con- 

 structed principally of wood, laths, and mud ; the ga- 

 bels fronted the streets, the doors were generally in the 

 centre, and many of the houses had porches projecting 

 two or three yards into the streets. The front door 

 was arched or Gothic, to correspond with the gabel, 

 and the diminutive windows were of the same order. 

 The doors were of oak, remarkably strong and clumsy, 

 put together with wooden pins, a part of which pro- 

 jected a considerable way from the door, and some- 

 times placed in figures romantically irregular. The 

 streets were badly paved, and had ditches or kennela 

 on each side, which being the reservoirs of all kinds 

 of filth, rendered the air impure, and consequently 

 the city very unwholesome. But as the prospect of 

 future warfare vanished, trade and manufactures be- 

 gan to increase, and an equal augmentation of wealth, 

 spirit, and taste for improvement, took place ; so that 

 Carlisle, at the present day, in the openness of its 

 streets, neatness and elegance of its buildings, and re- 

 spectability of its inhabitants, is excelled by few 

 towns of equal size in Great Britain. Carlisle affords 

 several commodious inns, and maintains an intercourse 

 with other parts of the island by several regular mail 

 and stage coaches, waggons, &c. There is a stone 

 bridge over the Caldew on the west side, leading into 

 the city, and two on the north side over the river 

 Eden, one of four and the other of eight arches ; all 

 of vyhich are extremely narrow and ill constructed. 

 Parliament have very recently granted the sum of 

 L> 10*000 to the county, for the purpose of building 

 a nevvibrtdge over the Eden; and we understand 

 that the magistrates have ordered it to be immediate- 

 ly begun. 



From the market-place, the principal streets, call- 

 ed English street, Castle-street, Scotch- street, and 

 Fisher-street, diverge as from a centre. At the 

 head of the latter, is the antient Guild hall, a mean 

 edifice, built of brick, and appropriated to the meet- 

 ings of the eight free trades, viz. merchants, bufc^m-s', 

 tanners, weavers, .tailors, skinners, smiths, andkS.s- 

 makers. 



Carlisle contains. a few public buildings deserving 



of particular notice. The Cathedral church of St Carlisle. 

 Mary's, is a venerable structure, partly of Gothic " -" ~ /"" 

 and partly of Saxon architecture ; where is perform- 

 ed the parochial and cathedral service, and in a part 

 of it the chancellor of the diocese holds the consis- 

 tory court. The choir and aisles of this building are 

 of beautiful Gothic architecture, with clustered co- 

 lumns and pointed arches. In the aisles, on each side, 

 are many singular legendary paintings, of the history 

 of St Augustine, St Cuthbert, and the Romish St 

 Anthony. In the Abbey, contiguous to the church, 

 and in which the church properly stands, are several 

 ancient buildings, the deanry, fratery, &c., which has 

 been lately considerably improved by the dean and 

 chapter. St Cuthberts, the other parish church, is 

 a modern edifice, plain, and without ornament. Be- 

 sides these two churches, there is, in Carlisle, a Qua- 

 ker's meeting-house, a Presbyterian chapel, two Me- 

 thodist chapels, an Anabaptist chapel, and a Catho- 

 lic chapel* 



The castle is situated on a gentle eminence, at the 

 north west extremity of the city. The donjon, or 

 great tower, whose walls are 12 feet in thicknes?, 

 constructed agreeably to the old mode of defence, 

 was formerly strengthened by a draw-bridge over a 

 wide ditch ; there is also a half-moon battery mount- 

 ed with cannon, and a large platform also mounted 

 under cover of the outer wall. A well of vast depth, 

 within the tower, supplied the garrison with water. 

 In the outer castle is a fine grass plot, a garden, a 

 governor's house, and an armoury lately erected, ca- 

 pable of containing 10,000 stand of arm*. Here the 

 dreary dungeon is shewn the curious visitor, where 

 Mary queen of Scots, whose beauty, misconduct, and 

 misfortunes are alike famous in history, was confined, 

 after her defeat at Langside. During her imprison- 

 ment, the royal captive used to walk in front of the 

 castle, which yet retains the name of the Lady's 

 Walk ; and tradition says, that with her hand she 

 planted some ash trees, whose spreading branches till 

 lately shaded this consecrated walk. 



That the castle of Carlisle has been a Roman for- 

 tification, there can hardly exist a doubt ; but having 

 always, in times of commotion and tumult, been the 

 assailable point, it has undergone so many alterations 

 and repairs, that there is scarcely a fragment of the 

 original building to be discovered. The old centre 

 tower, or keep, appears, from the stile of the archi- 

 tecture, to have been constructed in the reign of Ed- 

 ward I. ; and at some parts of the basement of the 

 external buttresses of the north wall, where the mo- 

 dern easing of stone added to it in the reign of Hen- 

 ry Vlll. is broken down by the decay of the em- 

 bankment below, a part of the original may easily be 

 observed. The stones of this wall being different 

 from any in the other parts of the building, and 

 corresponding exactly with the materials that com- 

 pose the remains of the great Roman wall which 

 cross>ed the northern counties of England, it is not 

 unreasonable to suppose the castle nearly of the same 

 date, aud, Consequently, erected -by the Roman em- 

 peror Adrian. The base of this still extends to the 

 bottom of the hill on which the castle stands, and 

 has been erected as a bulwark to defend and secure 

 the fabric against the floods of Eden, which river ap- 



