BEAUTIES OF England and Wales: OR, DELINEATIONS, TOPOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL, AND DESCRIPTIVE, OF EACH COUNTY.. RY EMBELLISHED WITH ENGRAVINGS. BY JOHN BRITTON AND EDWARD WEDLAKE BRAYLEY. VOL. III. "In whatever Light we regard the BRITISH ISLANDS, whether as the Cradle of Liberty, the Mother of Arts and Sciences, the Nurse of Manufactures, the Mistress of the Sea; or whether we contemplate their genial Soil, their mild Climate, their various natural and artificial Curiosities; we shall find no equal Extent of Territory on the Face of the Globe of more Importance, nor containing more Attractions, even in the Estimation of those who cannot be biassed by native Partiality." LONDON: Printed by Thomas Maiden, Sherbourne-Lane, MAVOR. STOR MBRAP NEW-YORK JOR VERNOR & HOOD, LONGMAN & REES, CUTHELL & MARTIN, J. & A. ARCH, W. J. & J. RICHARDSON, J. HARRIS, AND B. CROBBY. BEAUTIES OF England and Wales. CUMBERLAND: CUMBERLAND derived its name from the Cimbri, or Cumbri, who were the aboriginal inhabitants, and have left many vestiges of the British language in the appellations of place still existing; such as Caer-luel, Caer-dronac, Pen-rith, Pen-rodoc, and others of similar import. When the Romans divided the Island into Provinces, this county was included in that intitled MAXIMA CESARIENSIS, and was then inhabited, as far as Hadrian's Wall on the north, according to the statement of Mr. Whitaker, by the Vo LANTII, or Voluntii, the People of the Forests, whose name seems to have been derived from the British term Gwyllaint, which signifies a region abounding with coverts or wilds. Other writers, however, with Camden at their head, have included these counties among the territories of the BRIGANTES, who also possessed DURHAM, YORKSHIRE, aud some portion of NORTHUMBERLAND. The word Brigant, from Brig, implies, in the British, a summit, or upper situation; and in its derivatives forms Brigantrys,† the People of the Summits, or of the Upper Regions. The historical notices concerning the Brigantes in the Roman authors are extremely unsatisfactory; and the events recorded by them to have happened in this part of Britain, are so inconsistently related, that it becomes hardly possible to arrange them with precision. From an obscure passage in Tacitus it appears, that they A 2 had had early formed an alliance with the Romans, and preserved every engagement inviolable, till the conjugal infidelity of Cartismandua, their Queen, involved the nation in a civil war. The Brigantes were divided; one party supported the cause of Venutius, the injured husband; the other attached themselves to the Queen, who adding cruelty to libertinism, destroyed the brother and relations of Venutius by treachery. This base act so exaspe rated the people, that they revolted from her service, and joining the forces of Venutius, would quickly have overpowered her, but for the conduct of the Romans, who, thinking the opportunity favorable for further assumption of power, sent some cohorts to her assistance, and; by their aid, the army of Venutius was driven from the field after a fierce and sanguinary conflict. Tacitus has represented Venutius as the ablest commander that the Britons at this time had; and his bravery appears to have been equal to his skill, for his exertions were animated by defeat; and his succeeding attacks were executed with such ra pidity and judgment, that his perfidious Queen was driven from the throne, and himself reinstated. Even the Romans were obliged to content themselves with a partial extension of their line of forts; and it was not till the reign of Vespasian, nearly twenty years afterwards, that the Brigantes were subjugated by that people. Their country was then over-run by Petilius Cerealis, who defeated them in several severe battles, and spread desolation and terror through those parts which he could not entirely subdue. The Brigantes who refused to crouch to the imperial eagle, retired northwards, and being assisted by the Caledonian Britons, descended from the northern mountains like ferocious wolves, and, by their frequent and destructive incursions, so desolated the Roman provinces, that Hadrian found it necessary to repel their attacks, by erecting a Prætentura, or rampart, of earth, which extended across the present counties of Cumberland and Northumberland, from the mouth of the river Tyne on the east, to Solway Frith on the west, thus reaching from sea to sea. From |