6*2 Report of Meetings for 1887. By J. Hardy. 



Evening C our ant, July 16th, 1818, it appears that an "elegant 

 and commodious Inn was then building, (to be partly ready in 

 autumn) on the Mill Lands of Torsonce," in connection with "the 

 new line of road on Gala water." 



The churchyard at Stow is in good order. Of the principal 

 tombstones, one is to General Walker of Bowland, which bears 

 oul}' - his coat of arms. This monument was erected by the East 

 India Company, in whose service the General had spent the best 

 years of his active life; but the slabs of marble with the inscrip- 

 tions were lost at sea on their passage to this country. I find it is 

 believed in the vicinity that General Walker was governor at St 

 Helena when Napoleon was a prisoner there ; but this is a 

 mistake. In autumn 1822, several months after the Emperor's 

 death, he left this country for London, preparatory for his em- 

 barkation for St Helena, from which he returned in the summer 

 of 1828, a good deal shattered in health. On the 5th of March, 

 1831, he died in the 67th year of his age, after two days illness. 

 (New Stat. Ace. of Edinburghshire, p. 415). 



Behind the church is a granite monument to Mrs Inglis of 

 Torsonce and her second son. The letters are worn out, good 

 sandstone being in this respect more durable than granite. 

 There is a third to the memory of the Taits of Pirn, etc., which 

 is a useful family document. It has been copied. 



As regards the blackened edifice, called the "Station" and the 

 " Bishop's Palace," the oldest, except the old church, in the 

 village, it is not necessary to discuss its history, or rather want 

 of history; sufficient is it to say, that its present condition is 

 reported to be owing to its having been burned down by a tailor, 

 one of its latest occupants, who accidentally set fire to it when 

 in search of his thimble. 



The old pewter-plate for church collections has an inscription : 

 "Foil the Church of Stow, 1724; and on the back "Thomas 

 Inglis." The stamp is a thistle encircling a rose. 



The inscription on the chapel at St Mary's Well at Torsonce, 

 is in modern letters, now nearly effaced. It is a theory — only a 

 theory — that the original church of Wedale was located here ; 

 but if so why call it Torsonce ? The site of the old tower of 

 Torsonce stands among trees on an eminence facing the house. 

 Might it not be the large dovecot of which people speak ? The 

 walls, wherever it stood, were said to be six feet thick, and it had 

 an underground vault. Be this as it may, the present mansion 



