Far lam Church. 113 



walked down the line to Kirkhouse, a great coal-mine 

 depot, which old George Stephenson knew well, when 

 he was merely an assistant engineer. He presented 

 the late Mr. Thompson, sen., with his first engine, 

 " The Rocket," and it stood there for many years, 

 and was then sent to the Kensington Museum. 

 Talkin Tarn, where Lord Wensleydale was wont to 

 admire the wrestling " chips" of Dick Wright, is not 

 half a league away, and boating men love to tell how 

 Bob Chambers came to its regatta as a stripling. 

 Alas ! a "weed" sown by wind or birds, or, as some 

 say, by a careless pleasure-seeker, has overgrown the 

 lake, and spoiled the fine reaches where the " Had- 

 away Bob !" was so thrilling. At all events, we may 

 say with Wordsworth 



" The wind had better been asleep, 

 The bird caught in a snare." 



Farlam Church had fallen since we were last there, 

 two dozen years ago, and a new one is built on the 

 knoll above the old graveyard. It was on this " fair 

 hill-side" that Lord Carlisle laid the first stone in one of 

 those summer periods of political leisure, which he spent 

 among his schools and with his neighbours, and ever 

 about his Master's business in and around his beloved 

 Border tower of Naworth. Now that he is gone, many 

 remember fondly how he alluded on that day to his 

 departure for the last scene of his labours in Ireland, 

 and how he asked them sometimes to " Follow me 

 in thought down that silver strip of the Solway you 

 may see from this hill, across the broad waters to the 

 shores beyond, and then remember me in the prayers 

 that you shall put up within the walls now to rise here, 

 that I as well as you may be strengthened and guided 

 for all the work to which our God may call us." 



Behind the church is the mile gallop over which the 

 late Mr. G. A. Thompson's dogs used to take their 

 breathings. The ground has plenty of undulation in 



I 



