The following account of this singular appearance, which is scarcely
paralleled in history, is contained in Hutchison's History of
Cumberland, the particulars being collected by Mr. Smith, who observes
that he went himself to examine the spectators, who asserted the facts
very positively. "On midsummer eve, 1735, a servant in the employ of
William Lancaster, of Blakehills, about half a mile from Souterfell,
related that he saw the east side of the mountain, towards the summit,
covered with a regular marching army for above an hour together. They
consisted of distinct bodies of troops, which appeared to proceed from
an eminence in the north end, and marched over a niche in the top,
marked A and B in the sketch given in the above work; but as no other
person in the neighbourhood had seen a similar appearance, he was
discredited and laughed at.
"Two years after, on midsummer eve also, between the hours of eight and
nine, William Lancaster himself imagined that several gentlemen were
following their horses at a distance, as if they had been hunting; and
taking them for such, paid no regard to it, till about ten minutes
after, again turning his head towards the place, they appeared to be
mounted, and a vast army following, five in rank, crowding over at the
same place, where the servant said he saw them two years before. He then
called his family, who all agreed in the same opinion; and what was most
extraordinary, he frequently observed that some one of the five would
quit the ranks, and seem to stand in a fronting posture, as if he was
observing and regulating the order of their march, or taking account of
the numbers, and after some time appeared to return full-gallop to the
station he had left, which they never failed to do as often as they
quitted their lines, and the figure that did so was generally one of the
middlemost men in the rank. As it grew later, they seemed more
regardless of discipline, and rather had the appearance of people riding
from a market, than an army, though they continued crowding on, and
marching off, as long as there was light to see them."
This phenomenon was no more observed till the remarkably serene
midsummer evening which preceded the last Scotch rebellion. The parties
who had witnessed it on the previous occasion, having been much
ridiculed for their report, were determined to call a greater number of
witnesses of this strange phenomenon; and having first observed it
rigidly, and with great caution themselves, and being fully assured they
were not deceived as to the actual appearances, they convened about
twenty-six persons from different places in the neighbourhood to bear
testimony to the existence of the fact. These all affirmed, and attested
before a magistrate, that they saw a similar appearance to that just
described, but not conducted with the same regularity, having also the
appearance of carriages interspersed. The numbers of the troops were
incredible, for they filled lengthways nearly half a mile, and continued
so in a brisk march for above an hour, and would probably have done so
much longer had not the darkness of approaching night intervened.
"Anon appears a brave, a gorgeous show
Of horsemen shadows, moving to and fro.
* * * * *
Silent the visionary warriors go,
Wending in ordered pomp their upward way,
Till the last banner of the long array
Had disappeared, and every trace is fled
Of splendour--save the beacon's spiry head,
Tipt with eve's latest gleam of burning red."