foundation wall after it was pulled down. I had not the opportunity of examining it sufficiently to conjecture its purpose.

P.-A portion of masonry resting on the clay.-This lies immediately under the site which I have assigned to the pedestal of St. Chad's shrine, as shown in the plan, Fig. I., and was probably laid down as part of a foundation for it, as the pedestal must have stood partly over the cross wall, and partly to the east of it.

Q.-The large footstall under the fifth south Decorated pier.-This belonged to the great corner pier of the Early English choir, and rests partly upon the wall of the eastern chapel, D, E, F, G, and partly upon a mass of rubble work, R, built up from the rock to the level of the upper surface of the molded base of the chapel, for the purpose of supplying the necessary support.

S.-The Early English footstall under the fourth Decorated pier, retaining part of the first course of its Early English base left white in the plan.

T.-The circular Early English footstall under the second pier, which is entirely Early English.

U.—A mass of rubble foundation, which may have belonged to one of the Norman piers.

V. The continuous wall beneath the Early English piers, of which I was only able to examine the inner face in front of the second south pier, and the first and second north piers. It was found to swell outwards beneath these piers so as to furnish a sufficient thickness to support them, in the manner shown by the dotted lines opposite the first south pier. The form of this wall on the face turned to the side aisles was not examined.

W.-Within the north side aisle wall of the presbytery, the footing was examined and found to project 2 ft. inwards, as shown in the plan. It was also found to project 2 ft. 2 in. inwards on the south side at X, but at Y, on the east side of the cross wall N, it was only 6 in. in advance.

THE ANTIQUITIES OF SHAP IN THE COUNTY OF

WESTMORLAND.

BY THE REV. JAMES SIMPSON, Vicar of Shap.

(Communicated to the Section of Antiquities, at the Meeting of the Institute at Carlisle, July, 1859.

THE antiquities of Shap and its neighbourhood do not seem to have received that attention which they well deserve. Remote in situation, and until late years difficult of access, the locality was almost unknown to those early writers from whose pages we gather so many particulars relating to other parts of the country. And yet its situation and difficulty of access ought to have made it the more interesting to antiquaries. Surrounded by mountains and trackless moors, only approachable from the south through the narrow pass at Borough Bridge, it would naturally be the last refuge of the earlier occupants as they fled before more powerful tribes; the numerous traces of embankments on the more elevated and harder ground tell of many a fierce conflict, and show that the invader had no light task to drive out or to destroy those who had possession. We search the records of history in vain for any account of these men or of their deeds; if we are to trace anything of them,--whence they came or when they lived, we must learn it from the mounds which cover their ashes, or from the rocks, the hills and streams to which they have given their names. It is not, however, my object to write a history of the district, but to offer some notices of its antiquities and of their former condition. Camden relates that, near the source of the Loder, or Lowther, "at Shape, anciently Hepe, a small monastery built by Thomas, son of Gospatric, son of Orme, is a fountain which, like the Euripus, ebbs and flows several times a day, and several huge stones of a pyramidal form, some of them nine feet high and fourteen thick, standing in a row for near a mile at an equal distance, which seems to have been erected in memory of some transaction there which by length of time is lost." 1 Blome gives a similar account, with this difference, that he speaks of Shap as a great parish, wherein

1 Camden's Brit. edit. Gough, vol. iii. see p. 401; and Gough's additions, p. 414.

stood the only Abbey in the county, thus recognising the fact that Shap or Heppe gave its name to the Abbey, not the Abbey to Shap, whereas Camden writes as if the little monastery was Shap. It is important to observe that the huge pyramidal stones ranged in a row for a mile in length are not the stones on Karl Lofts, which formed the avenue, but a row of stones on the west side of Shap, connected with the avenue. If Camden or his informant had seen the stones on the south side of Shap, now commonly called Karl Lofts, he must have noticed the peculiarity of their arrangement, which certainly existed long after he wrote. It is, however, not improbable that in Camden's time these stones on Karl Lofts were concealed by brushwood and scarcely known to exist.2

"

In the Itinerarium Curiosum 3 Stukeley mentions having seen the beginning of a great Celtic avenue, on a green common on the south side of Shap, "just beyond the horrid and rocky fells where a good country begins.' He describes the avenue as 70 feet in breadth, composed of very large stones set at equal intervals: it seemed to be closed at the south end, which is on an eminence, and near a long flattish barrow with stone works upon it; hence it proceeded northward towards Shap, which caused its ruin, the stones having been used in building. It made a large curve, and passed over a brook, near to which was a little round sacellum, of twelve stones of smaller size, set by one great stone belonging to the side of the avenue, the interval being 35 feet, half the breadth of the avenue. He traces the line across the Penrith road, and to some stones on the west of Shap, particularly one called Guggleby Stone. Stukeley does not, however, seem to have examined the remains with much attention, for, as he says, "the rainy weather, which in this country is almost perpetual, hindered me from making at this time a thorough disquisition into it." Burn, who lived within five miles of the place, and must have known it well, says in his History of Westmorland published in 1777, "towards the south end of the village of Shap, near the turnpike road on the east side thereof, there is a remarkable monument of antiquity, which is an area upwards of half a mile in length,

Thomas Fitz-Gospatric granted to the Abbey of Byland pasture for 500 sheep in Heppe and "Heppeshow." The land upon which the avenue stood is now called Shapsey, probably a corruption of

Heppeshow, meaning Heppe wood.

3 Centuria ii. Iter Boreale, p. 42. Stukeley visited Shap in 1725 in company with Roger Gale.

and between twenty and thirty yards broad, encompassed with large stones with which that country abounds, many of them 3 or 4 yards in diameter, at 8, 10, or 12 yards' distance, which are of such immense weight, that no carriage now in use could draw them." Assuming that it had been a Druids' temple, he proceeds to say, that "at the high end thereof there is a circle of the like stones, about 18 feet in diameter, which was their sanctum sanctorum as it were, and place of sacrifice." "4 This description is evidently the result of personal examination, yet it is unsatisfactory, and also in some respects, incorrect. The reader would suppose that the avenue was perfect for half a mile, that the distance enclosed was a parallelogram, that the smaller circle was at the south end of the area, and, as subsequent writers have assumed, formed the head of the avenue. It is, however, extremely doubtful whether this circle had any connexion originally with the adjacent avenue. The stones were, as I am assured, much smaller than those forming the avenue, and they were placed round a mound somewhat to the south-west of the head of the avenue, with a large stone in the middle. In regard, however, to this stone, some doubt must be admitted; it would hardly have escaped the notice of Burn; with his notions about the sanctum sanctorum, he would have thought it the stone upon or near to which the victims were slain, and would not have omitted to mention it. Be that, however, as it may, there seems to be no doubt in regard to the circle. The stones were removed no long time since; they were described to me as about a horse-load each. The mound or hillock around which they stood still remains, and is probably that mentioned by Stukeley as "a long flattish barrow with stone works upon it."

It is impossible to trace out with certainty the direction of the avenue. Within the last fifty years most of the stones have been broken up; as said by one who assisted in this destruction, "when blasting and improving came up they went fast, and when we found out a way of cutting them with the plug and feather, they made capital yat stoops, or gate-posts. The walls and gateways at the south end of Shap bear ample testimony to this work of destruction; and we can only regret that when the stones were removed no

History of Westmorland, vol. i. p. 477; see also West's Guide to the Lakes,

p. 181.

description of the arrangement in which they stood should have been preserved.5 Of the south-end of the avenue, where the stones, though no longer upright, appear to occupy for the most part their original position, we can fortunately form a fairly correct notion. Amongst drawings, at Lowther Castle, of remarkable places in the neighbourhood, such as Long Meg and her seventy-three daughters, and Maybrough, entitled by the artist, "The fort of Union at Maybrough, there is, one of Karl Lofts. At that time the stones forming the avenue, so far as a rivulet called Force Beck, which takes its rise at Anna Well, the ebbing spring mentioned by Camden, seem, though fallen, to have been undisturbed. The south end or head, seems to have been circular, somewhat wider than the avenue. Until the formation of the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, in 1844, the stones forming the head of the avenue, though fallen, were left on the spot. Unfortunately the line of railway passed over the avenue; the greater part of the stones were blasted and removed, and at the south end there now remain eight only to mark the site of a very remarkable monument of the olden time. Five of these formed part of the circular head, the others being in the line of the west side of the avenue. Of the five it appears to me that every alternate stone stood on its narrow end, and when upright the distance between them might have been regulated on the proportion stated by Stukeley, that the thickness of each stone was to the distance of the next as two to three. thickness being 6 feet, the interval would be 9 feet.

6

The

The distance, from the stone at the end of the circular head to the first stone now remaining in the line of avenue, is 24 feet; to the next, now forming the foundation of a wall, 40 feet; to the third, also forming part of a wall, 110 feet. These stones have not been far removed from their original positions, though some doubtless have stood between the second and third. We learn from Stukeley that the

Stukeley, in a letter to Gale, in 1743, Reliquiæ Galeanæ, Nichols, Bibl. Top. Brit. vol. iii. p. 387, states that he had got a vast drawing and admeasurement, from Mr. Routh of Carlisle, of the stones at Shap; he found them to be another huge serpentine temple, like that at Abury; the measure of what were left extended to a mile and a half. It is to be regretted that the plan is not now to be found.

6 A view of this circular head prior to the destruction caused by the railway operations, was given in the Gent. Mag. 1844, vol. xx. N. S., p. 381. Thirteen stones, as it is stated, were at that time standing, forming a circle about 40 feet in diameter; the largest stone measuring 8 feet in height. This is incorrect, I have the original drawing, showing twelve stones, and the diameter was upwards of 30 yards.