Recollections of Carlisle. 4 1 



regulation allowance for the four and a quarter miles 

 to Carlisle was five-and-twenty minutes, were dear to 

 " the stable mind." Three of these pairs, with leaders 

 to match, did good service in their owner's High 

 Sheriff year ; but Harker was not true on that occa- 

 sion to its original colour. Meeting the judges was 

 then a most stirring ceremony. Their lordships did 

 not merely descend from their first-class carriage, and 

 robe in the waiting-room before they opened the com- 

 mission, but approached from Newcastle, preceded or 

 followed by a cloud of barristers in chaises, and 

 "General" Watson on horseback. The high and 

 under sheriffs, cassocked chaplain, the footmen and 

 the postillions (the family coachman generally on 

 the wheeler, if his figure suited), and Mr. Rooke, of 

 the Cathedral choir, with his trumpet, were kept for 

 hours in a sort of transition state that day ; and 

 as for the javelin men bar the one or two who 

 were generally disabled by ale early on, and walked 

 with 



"A short, uneasy motion," 



if they walked at all they never put their javelins in 

 rest after noon. One of the most trustworthy of their 

 number acted as mounted scout, and might be seen 

 tearing back all dust or mud on a very tired horse, 

 like a defeated standard-bearer from Marston Moot. 

 The news he brought was that my lords of assize 

 were rapidly approaching from the east. The Under 

 Sheriff in a chaise-and-pair, attended by two mounted 

 javelin men, set out from Carlisle early to meet them, 

 and took a luncheon with him. Roley Boustead was 

 always in attendance, mounted on his favourite cob, 

 and it was his task to gallop forward to the top of 

 Windy Law, and catch the first glance of the legal 

 cavalcade. When Temon Bridge, six miles beyond 

 Brampton, was reached, their lordships lunched and 

 robed at Temon House, a farm in the occupation of 



