The Altar At Bishop Gibson

There is a tradition that an altar was also erected up there and Bishop Gibson in

the eighteenth century thought that the boulders on the top of high mountains might have been the remains of early chapels. Even today we speak of storms brewing, and certainly the violence of the H elm Wind, whirling down chimneys, uprooting trees and lifting haystacks from one field to another must in more superstitious days have suggested it was due to supernatural powers.

There is one legend, however, about the Devil's activities in the Gosforth district. Tradition says that he decided to link the Isle of Man to Cumberland by a bridge starting from the Herdy Neb, a promontory near Seascale, but, as he was carrying the foundation stone, his apron strings broke and the boulder fell. This still bears two white stripes the marks of his apron strings as can be seen on Carl Crag, the name given to the stone the Devil dropped. It lies about a mile south of the Herdy Neb but has been covered by blown sand of late years.

By contrast . the place names of Westmorland commemorate several of the Devil's doings. He is certainly to be congratulated on the outstanding beauty in structure and locality of his bridge at Kirkby Lonsdale, built over a rocky gorge of the Lune. Legend tells that an old woman's cow had strayed across the river. By evening, when she went to seek it, the stream was in spate. She was standing on the bank, wondering what to do, when the Devil appeared and offered to build a bridge by morning so that she could cross it and bring back her cow. The woman agreed to his price the first living thing to cross the bridge and went home.

The Devil worked hard and by dawn his task was completed. When the woman appeared, he demanded his payment. Setting down a little lap dog which she had hidden in her shawl, she threw a bun over the bridge. The animal pursued this, and the Devil, leaving the dog unharmed, disappeared with a howl of rage; his neck collar which he had taken off in order to work more easily, he also left behind. It can still be seen downriver on the right bank between the old bridge and the new. As children, we were shown the Devil's fingermarks on a coping stone of the second recess on the right when going towards Casterton.

Writing in 1780 the Rev. John Hutton of Kendal relates that the Devil's Apron Strings, a cairn of stones on Casterton Fell, were dropped when a high wind tore the strings. The country folk said, if Satan had not dropped this load, his bridge would have been wider.

by: Adrian Vultur

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