Carlisle - An Olde Travel Guide

With people looking forward to their holidays, I thought it would be interesting to look at some first impressions of Carlisle made by early notable tourists.  

First, we go back to 1698, when Celia Fiennes travelled to Carlisle on side saddle. Fiennes can be considered the first travel writer, although her diary entries documenting her trips weren't published until the 19th century as "Through England on Side Saddle (In The Time Of William And Mary)". While in the north, Celia isn't impressed with her lodgings, or the Scots! 

Then, in the early 18th century, the poet Daniel Defoe - a man of many talents - visited the city and left his memories in print in the three-volume "A Tour Through The Whole Island of Great Britain", published 1724-26. 

Finally, in 1857, Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins hope for a 'Lazy Tour' north, but are met with anything but. Find out what their alter-egos have to say about Carlisle.

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Transcript

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Areet and welcome to Carlisle Times and Crimes, the Lal podcast bringing you centuries of crack and scandal from the Great Border City. This month, as people look forward to travelling on holiday, I thought I'd take a look at some famous visitors to the city and bring you a travel guide to Carlisle through the ages. Our Roman friends established Luguvalium in the winter of 72 to 73 AD, with the fabled Ninth Legion thought to have built the first wooden fort. Agricola's excursion north around 79 reinforced Luguvalium, and over the next 300 years would have welcomed soldiers from across the Roman world who were sent to guard the edge of the empire. As more finds from the Roman bathhouse and temple dig at Eden Side emerge, it's likely that the Emperor Septimius Severus, born in Libya, and his wife Julia Donma, born in Syria, stayed in Carlisle when he travelled to Britain around 208. After the Romans left, the Brithonic kingdoms clashed with Anglo-Saxons, casting Carlisle as a candidate for Camelot of Arthurian fame, and we know that St. Cuthbert visited the city around 685. After that, the great heathen army led by half Dan Ragnusson arrived. The Norse were long believed to have destroyed Carlisle, with weeds and trees thought to have grown over the ruins of the old fortress for 200 years. But there is evidence that settlement continued during the 9th and 10th century, a mix of Norse, Irish, and local farmers. William Rufus re-established a fortress at Carlisle around 1092 and sent a loyal community from the south of England to live here. Flemish influence in the 12th century would provide location names to this day. Throughout her history, the Irish of Lon had a presence here, which exploded in the 19th century thanks to industrialization. Indeed, one long demolished series of courtyards on Blackfriar Street was once known as Little Dublin. So, as you can see, even for such an isolated city, Carlisle has long welcomed or been invaded by people from distant shores. We'll never quite know what the Roman soldier, the Norman Knights or the Medieval Scots thought of Carlisle when they first set eyes on her, but thankfully we do have more recent records of our visitors' first impressions. So, join me as we take a deeks at Carlisle, an old travel guide. Before the rise of transportation links, people didn't always travel just for travel's sake, and certainly not upper class unmarried females, occasionally accompanied by only one servant. Celia Finds though forged her own path, leaving behind writings of her travels around the country at the end of the 17th century. These were diary entries about her travels, which were never meant for public consumption, only for her family. Born on the 7th of June 1662 in Wiltshire, Celia was the daughter of politician and former parliamentarian colonel Nathaniel Fines, who in turn was the second son of William, first Viscount of Say and Seal. Celia never married, and by 1684 expressed a desire to travel to regain my health by variety and change of air and exercise. After moving to London in 1691, Celia began venturing out to neighbouring counties and even attempted a trip to Wales, but she turned back as it was too wild for her liking. But make no mistake, Celia Fynes was built of stern stuff. On her way to Liverpool, highway men pounced on her and her servants, but luckily some men were making hay in a nearby field, and the robbery was foiled. Another close call saw her submerged in floodwater in the Fens. Around 1697 to 1698, Celia set out for Cornwall to journey to Newcastle, a mammoth tour that would also bring her to the northwest. After staying at Kendall, then negotiating the rugged Cumbrian Fells on side saddle no less, Celia visited Appleby, Lake Olswater and Penrith before she finally arrived in Carlisle. Carlisle was visible from four miles away, she said, with the cathedral dominating the skyline as the eminent landmark. Upon closer inspection later, Celia found the cathedral to be stately but nothing curious. Compared to other periods of its history, Carlisle was in good nick in 1698. Celia says the walls, towers and battlements were in good repair, but she had trouble identifying the houses of common folk. There were doctors' houses which had walled gardens that looked graceful. Other wealthy residences she identified were the Dean's and the Treasurer's Houses within Carlisle Cathedral. Celia described one house in the city as built of stone, very lofty, five good sash windows, as well as having a well-kept garden with stone pillars and iron gates. The house belonged to the Chancellor Thomas Tully, and is of course the old Tully House, best seen from Abbey Street. Celia also noted the Mayor's House, which on Smith's map of Carlisle from 1746 was located in the area known today as Backhouse's Walk, named after Joseph Backhouse, Mayor of Carlisle in 1740. In the next passage, Celia seems to confuse Penriff and Carlisle when she talks of the remains of a ruinous castle. Quote There remains only some of the walls and ruins of the castle, which does show it to have been a very strong town formerly. This contradicts her earlier statement of the battlements being in good repair in Carlisle, and Carlisle Castle has certainly been in some decrepit states over the centuries, but it's never been in ruins. English Heritage states that by 1695, Penriff Castle was described as in ruins. Celia also spoke of walking the walls, observing the Eamant walking past. We know this should be the Eden, but the Eamant is a major tributary of the Eden, so perhaps an easy mistake for an outlander to make. Celia also names the river Esk as the River Essex. However, I'm certain Celia's description returns to Carlisle in the next line, when she sees the town has a large marketplace with a good cross and hall, which is well supplied with provision at easy rate. However, the main highlight, or lowlight for Celia Finds, was the accommodation our lady traveller stayed at whilst in Carlisle. Despite the easy rate at the market, she complained that the landlady ran me up the largest reckoning for almost nothing. It was the dearest lodging I met with, and she pretended she could get me nothing else. So for two joints of mutton and a pint of wine and bread and beer, I had a twelve shilling reckoning. Celia declined to name her host or where she stayed. Apparently, though, Celia was staying in the biggest house in the city, yet was in the worst room. She followed Puritanism as her religion, so was likely less than impressed with what she saw when she entered the room. Quote, a young giddy landlady that could only dress fine and entertain the soldiers. Now I believe this is the nicest way of saying that the girl was a sex worker. Although thoroughly unimpressed, Celia knew that whilst on the road, beggars couldn't always be choosers, and sometimes she just had to roof it. The next day Celia took a guide and crossed the Scottish border for the first time. They followed what she called the Emont along high ridges and sands, probably to Rockcliff, and she complimented the river for being full of fish. She described the Essex as very broad and hazardous to cross before they crossed the cirque, referring to the Sark. Once in Scotland, Celia was struck with how poor all the people looked, which she believed was a result of their sloth. Turf and peak cutting was taking place as this was used as fuel. Celia also appeared amazed to see women working with their bare legs on display. Celia stopped at Addison Bank, or Hison Bank in another source. Either way I believe she's referring to Springfield or Gretna Green, and after purchasing the fish, was told there were very few accommodating towns further north, except Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Celia decided to head back across the border, but not without another observation of how lazy the Scots were, although a couple of women at last did take spinning in hand at a lazy way. Celia passed through Longtown, which is indeed very much like Scotland, crossed a tedious heath, and arrived in Brampton to have her fish dressed for supper. From there she headed to Northumberland, where she settled for the night in Hartwistle, which I presume is Hartwhistle. Celia comments how a mile feels longer the further north she is. I am sure these six miles and ye other six miles to Hartwistle might with modesty be esteemed double the number in most of ye counties of England, she said. Celia Fynes died on the 10th of April 1741, aged 78 years. Extracts from Celia's diaries were published in 1812. Then they were later printed in their entirety in 1888, with the book titled Through England on a Sidesaddle in the Time of William and Mary. Fynes was the first travel writer, a true innovator of the staircase. Fynes was as interested in the folklore attached to places, and she also talks of Lomeg and the Giant's Grave in Penrith as the new rise in industries and manufactories across the country. Celia Fynnes's written records of an unspoilt English countryside, which contained only a few tracks and the occasional signpost with fingers pointing in the direction of the nearest market towns. An incredible insight into England as the country recovered from the civil wars and subsequent restoration of the monarchy, and looked forward to industry and enlightenment. While Celia Fine sadly isn't a well-known name, our next visitor to record their impressions of our merry city is still remembered today thanks to his novels Robinson Crusoe and Mole Flanders, although his life contained just as much drama as his books. Born around 1660, Daniel Defoe was the son of James Foe, a merchant of Flemish descent, and it's believed that Daniel added the D to hark back to his ancestral roots. As we know, Carlisle already had Flemish roots. After a fine education, Defoe entered the stockings and hosier trade, and while successful, also had his failures. I've been rich and poor thirteen times, he once quipped. Over his lifetime, he would be a writer, a soldier, a businessman, a satirist, and a spy. Quite the CV. Defoe welcomed William of Orange to Britain and became the kin's lead pamphleteer, a role which led to DeFor writing a poem to defend against the critics that sneered that the kin was foreign. A true born Englishman reads like a history of Carlisle itself, and is as relevant today as three hundred years ago. Here's an extract. Thus from a mixture of all kinds began, that heterogeneous thin an English man, in eager rapes and furious lust begot betwixt a painted Briton and a scot, whose gendering offspring quickly learn to bow and yoke their heifers to the Roman plough, from whence a mongrel half bred race there came, with neither name nor nation speech nor fame, in whose hot veins new mixtures quickly ran, infused betwixt a Saxon and a Dan, while their rank daughters to their parents just received all nations with promiscuous lust. This nauseous brood directly did contain the well extracted blood of English men. Owning a strong sense of justice, Defoe was a thorn in the side of authority and was not afraid to challenge those in power. After publishing The Shortest Way with dissenters, Defoe found himself in Newgate Prison, and when ordered spend time in the stocks, the people of London would come out, not to mock and jeer Defoe, but to support him and make sure the authorities were in no doubt as to whose corner the public opinion stood. In 1701, Defoe presented the Speaker of the House of Commons, Robert Harley, a paper titled Legion Memorial in protest at the illegal arrest of several Kentish gentlemen. Parliament backed down, but the House took notice of Defoe's skills. Eventually, he was persuaded to join the government in an effort to better inform them of public opinion, and it's at this point that he became a spy. Defoe frequently travelled to Scotland at the time of the Act of Union 1707 and would have passed through Carlisle at this time. His proposed book, The History of the Union of Great Britain, was the cover story for him to attend important meetings and hear private and public opinions. When he was in his 60s, DeFoe released his retrospective travel guide, A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, in three volumes between 1724 and 1726. After two decades of travelling the land on official and unofficial business, Defoe drew on all his thoughts and experiences of Britain and used Camden's 16th century guide Britannia as a companion. Like Celia Fines, Defoe was interested in the differing trades and manufacturers of cities, and it's another fascinating look at pre-industrial Britain. The north is covered in the third volume, with Defoe writing from memory of his five trips through the area. He states he passed through the county on a different route each time. In a rather unflattering observation, Lancaster was lying in its own ruins and has little to recommend it but a decayed castle with little or no trade and few people. Unlike Celia Fines, though, Defoe seemed to cower before the great peaks of Pendle and of the Dlake District. Westmorland is described as being the wildest, most barren, and frightful of any that I have passed over in England or even in Wales. Kirby Lonsdale and Kendall were noted for woolen cloth manufacture, while Kirby Stephen and Appleby offered nothing considerable other than yarn stockings. Defoe acknowledged Appleby as once flourishing, but was a decayed and half demolished town thanks to Scottish marauders of the past. Defoe tells of the salmon caught in the River Derwent, and these would be coached off by horses from Workington and Carlisle to London day and night, selling for over two shillings each. Defoe is more complimentary towards Penrith. Quote, a handsome market town, populous, well built, and for an inland town has a very good share of trade. From Penrith, Defoe travelled through a country of castles until he reached Carlisle. On one of his trips to the area, Defoe tried to visit what he called a grotto, but we know as St. Constantine's Caves, built into a cliff face over the River Eden near Wetherow. But, much to his disappointment, the entrance was blocked up with earth. In Defoe's day, the entrance to the caves was obtained by walking a dangerous riverside path and then climbing a ladder that could be pulled up once in the caves. Today there is a path from Wetherow Woods that descends to a ledge along from the caves. You still need to take care, but at least there's no ladders now. Each town and city was given an estimated population based on what Defoe saw: people, houses, trade, etc. And he estimated Kendall to be the highest populated town in Cumberland and Westmorland, with around 2,500 inhabitants. While Penriff was deemed to have around 2,266 people, Carlisle was classed to have around half of that, with 1,196 people. Now I believe Dufoe underestimated Carlisle's population, but let's look at some other estimates of the time. In 1688, Thomas Denton estimated a population of 5,000. Although an increase in trade would bring sharp rises in Carlisle's population from the mid to late 18th century, over 4,000 people were living within the city walls by 1760. sixty three, rising to seven and a half thousand by seventeen eighty. Defoe described Carlisle as a small but well fortified city, the frontier place and quay of England in the West Sea. Defoe also notes that the Picts Wall began here and crossed to Newcastle, but he returned to this subject later. The famous Roman Wall was formerly known as the Picts Wall and even Severus's Wall or Wall of Severus. Hadrian's Wall was generally accepted to be the correct name from 1839 onwards, but the old name still lingered into the early 20th century even. While in the area, a patriotic defoe visited the monument to who he called the greatest and truest hero of all our kins of the English, King Edward I, the Hammer of the Scots. On the 7th of July 1307, after departing Carlisle, Edward died at Bruffby Sands, or Bruff upon the sands, as Defoe calls it. The monument was erected in 1685 and still stands today on the spot where the kin's tent stood, the warrior kin breathing his last inside. Finally, at the end of the letter, Defoe gives his thoughts on Carlisle. But I return to Carlisle the city is strong but small, the buildings old but the streets fair. The great church is a venerable old pile, it seems to have been built at twice, or, as it were, rebuilt, the upper part being much more modern than the lower. King Henry VIII fortified this city against the Scots and built an additional castle to it on the east side, which Mr Camden, though I think not justly, calls a citadel. There is indeed another castle on the west part of the town rounds the sea, as the wall rounds the whole is very firm and strong. But Carlisle is strong by situation, being almost surrounded with rivers. On the east it has the river Potterul, on the north Eden and on the south the Kand, or Kanda or Calda, which all fall into the arms of the sea, which they call the Solway or Solway Firth. Here is a bridge over the Eden, which soon lets you into Scotland, for the limits are not above eight miles off or thereabout. The south part of Scotland on this side coming at least fifteen miles further into England than at Berwick. There is not a great deal of trade here, either by sea or land, it being a mere frontier. On the other side of the Eden we saw the Pixwall, of which I have spoken already, and some remains of it are to be seen farther west, and of which I shall perhaps have occasion to speak again in my return. But being now at the utmost extent of England on this side, I conclude also my letter Defoe appears to have his Kalal Compass confused, as the citadel stands in the south of the city with the castle to the north, but this was from memory so we can forgive him for this. Daniel Defoe's unsuccessful business ventures eventually caught up with him and it's believed that he was hiding from creditors when he died on the twenty fourth of April 1731. We skip forward one hundred and thirty years now to the eighteen fifties and Carlisle was a city in transition. The town that Fynes and Defoe saw was much different and they would have been impressed with the growth in trade and increase of the population. The old medieval walls were gone and the city expanded the ever increasing suburbs of Colgergate, Botchergate and Rickergate helped swell the city's population to around twenty six thousand but conditions were grim and poverty rife. You could say they were Dickensian Yes our next visitor is our most famous friend of the show Charles Dickens If you've listened to the Carlisle Carol episode you'll know that in 1861 Dickens performed readings of a Christmas carol and the trial of Pickwick at the Athenium Lauver Street. But that wasn't Dickens' first visit to Carlisle in 1857 Charles Dickens was a busy man. His latest novel Little Dorrit had been published and he had moved into his dream home and he was continuing his charitable work Dickens had performed his first public reading of a Christmas carol to over 2000 people prompting future performances and there was also his periodical magazine Household words that needed new stories. Meanwhile Wilkie Collins was trying to launch his own literary career between working for a tea merchant and studying law. After writing his father's memoirs and Antonina Collins was introduced to Dickens in March 1851 by their wonderfully named mutual friend painter Augustus Egg within a year Collins had his first story published in household words the friendship grew stronger as they acted in plays and travelled together. When Collins suffered his first bout of gout he stayed with Dickens in France for three months. Eventually as his portfolio of prose grew Collins joined the Household words team of writers in October 1856 and the following year the two decided to visit Cumberland together and review their holiday as a collaborative suedo travel diary article. A lazy tour of two idle apprentices explored male bonding on the road with each man poking fun at the other's foibles Collins took the alias of Thomas Idle, a born and bred idler, and Dickens that of Francis Goodchild who was laboriously idle. The pair would touch base at Carlisle before visiting the lake district as their London train steamed onwards up the country the duo treated us to their impression of the North and her people the pastoral country darkened, became coally, became smoky, became infernal, got better, got worse, improved again, grew rugged, turned romantic, was a wood, a stream, a chain of hills, a gorge, a moor, a cathedral town, a fortified place a waste. The temperature changed, the dialect changed, the people changed, faces got sharper, manner got shorter, eyes got shrewder and harder. Arriving in Carlisle in september eighteen fifty seven, the city appeared to them congenially and delightfully idle. They observed that something in the way of public amusement had happened last month, and that would have been the Great Fair held every August and granted to Carlisle in a royal charter by King Edward III in thirteen fifty two. There was a lecture on concerning India for those interested, but our idle apprentices were not the following is their description of the young inhabitants The working young men of Carlisle were drawn up, with their hands in their pockets, across the pavements four and six abreast, and appeared, much to the satisfaction of Mr Idle, to have nothing else to do. The working and growing young women of Carlisle, from the age of twelve upwards, promenaded the streets in the cool of the evening and rallied the said young men. Sometimes the young men rallied the young women, as in the case of a group gathered round an accordion player, from among whom a young man advanced behind a young woman, for whom he appeared to have a tenderness, and hinted to her that he was there and playful by giving her he wore clogs a kick. The city would not stay idle enough for the pair though, with the following day being market day one market morning Carlisle woke up amazingly and became to the two idle apprentices disagreeably and reproachfully busy. There were its cattle market, its sheep market and its pig market down by the river, with raw boned and shock headed rob roys hiding their lowland dresses beneath heavy plaids, prowling in and out among the animals and flavouring the air with fumes of whiskey. There were its car market down the main street, with hum of chaffering over open sacks. There was its general market in the street too, with heavy brooms on which the purple flower still flourished and heavy baskets primitive and fresh to behold with women trying on clogs and caps at open stalls and Bible stalls adjoining. With Dr Mantle's dispensary for the cure of all human maladies and no charge for advice and with Dr Mantle's laboratory of medical, chemical and botanical science both healing institutions. A phrenologist beckoned potential customers promising to make revelations useful to that person after examining their heads only sixpence per person. Amongst the crowds a recruitment sergeant elbowed his way through trying to spot those that fit the bill while recruitment posters for the Oxford Blues the nickname of the Royal Horse Guards were plastered on walls. Those under six foot tall need not apply after this blizzard of business became too much for their senses they set off for Hesket Newmarket and embarked on their six day tour. Climbing Carrack fell mister Idle Wilkie Collins sprained his ankle which in addition to the heavy mist and torrential rain seemed to spoil his view of Cumberland. He mourned about everything, but with gouts and a laudenum addiction perhaps he can be excused fearing the fog may cause them to become lost, they eventually reach the summit of this small fell Idle, drenched in panting, stands up with his back to the wind, ascertains distinctly that this is the top at last, looks round with all the little curiosity that is left in him, and gets in return, a magnificent view of nothing next the pair headed to Wickton, which Mr Goodchild Dickens denigrates as what I hope and believe to be one of the most dismal places ever seen by eyes before heading back to the Cumbrian coast to Maryport and Allenby, where Wilkie Collins would take inspiration for Limmeridge House, the location of his most famous novel The Woman in White The duo returned to Carlisle on Friday the 11th of September and stayed at what is now the Station Hotel. It appears they stayed at the hotel all night no doubt our idle apprentices were exhausted and they departed for Lancaster the following morning. Their brief overlay was reported in the Carlisle Journal the following week Charles Dickens died on the 9th of June 1870 and is regarded as a literary genius. Rocky Collins was greatly affected by his friend's death and his health deteriorated thanks to his gout and opiate addiction Collins died on the 23rd of September 1889 Dickens was a master of observing people and their behaviours and translating that into his characters it's well known that he walked the streets of London at all hours of the day and night and thanks to a lazy toe we can imagine Charles Dickens taking a walk around town meditating on his thoughts and characters of Medie Carlyle Well this was something a little different but hopefully you found it interesting. I uh appreciate the brutal honesty of some of the visitors and there's certainly no PR spin here. 21st Century Carlisle will continue to welcome people from all over the globe especially as the city's profile grows thanks to our ever increasing knowledge of Roman Carlisle as well as the regeneration of the city centre including the planned university campus here's to another 2000 years of visitors That's all for this month you can follow me on Facebook search Carlisle Times and Crimes and you can help keep the candle burning here at Kofi.com slash Carlisle Times Crimes where you can buy me a drink or make a one off donation that's kohenfi.com slash Carlisle Times crimes thanks for listening take care and I'll see you again next time