On this mountain, which I believe is in the barony of Greystoke,
Cumberland, a remarkable phenomenon is said to have been witnessed more
than a century ago, circumstances of which appear to have been these:--In
1743 one Daniel Stricket, then servant to John Wren, of Wilton Hill, a
shepherd, was sitting one evening after supper (the month is not mentioned)
at the door with his master, when they saw a man with a dog pursuing some
horses on Southerfell-side, a place so steep that a horse can scarcely
travel on it at all; and they seemed to run at an amazing pace, and to
disappear at the low end of the fell. Master and man resolved to go next
morning to the steep side of the mountain, on which they expected to find
that the horses had lost their shoes from the rate at which they galloped,
and the man his life. They went, but to their surprise they found no
vestige of horses having passed that way. They said nothing about their
vision for some time, fearing the ridicule of their neighbours, and this
they did not fail to receive when they at length ventured to relate their
story. On the 23rd June (the eve of St. John's Day) in the following year
(1744), Stricket, who was then servant to a Mr. Lancaster of Blakehills,
the next house to Wilton Hill, was walking a little above the house in the
evening, about half-past seven, when on looking towards Southerfell he saw
a troop of men on horseback, riding on the mountain side in pretty close
ranks, and at the speed of a brisk walk. He looked earnestly at this
appearance for some time before he ventured to acquaint any one with what
he saw, remembering the ridicule he had brought on himself by relating his
former vision. At length satisfied of its reality, he went into the house
and told his master he had something curious to show him. The master said
he supposed Stricket wanted him to look at a bonfire (it being the custom
for the shepherds on the eve of St. John to vie with each other for the
largest bonfire); however, they went out together, and before Stricket
spoke of or pointed to the phenomenon, Mr. Lancaster himself observed it,
and when they found they both saw alike, they summoned the rest of the
family, who all came, and all saw the visionary horsemen. There were many
troops, and they seemed to come from the lower part of the fell, becoming
first visible at a place called Knott; they then moved in regular order in
a curvilinear path along the side of the fell, until they came opposite to
Blakehills, when they went over the mountain and disappeared. The last, or
last but one, in every troop, galloped to the front, and then took the
swift walking pace of the rest. The spectators saw all alike these changes
in relative position, and at the same time, as they found on questioning
each other when any change took place. The phenomenon was also seen by
every person at every cottage within a mile; and from the time that
Stricket first observed it, the appearance lasted two hours and a half,
viz. from half-past seven until night prevented any further view.
Blakehills lay only half a mile from the place of this extraordinary
appearance. Such are the circumstances as related in Clarke's _Survey of
the Lakes_ (fol. 1789), and he professes to give this account in the words
of Mr. Lancaster, by whom it was related to him, and on whose testimony he
fully relied; and he subjoins a declaration of its truth signed by the
eye-witnesses, William Lancaster and Daniel Stricket (who then lived under
Skiddaw, and followed the business of an auctioneer), dated 21st July,
1785. Mr. Clarke remarks that the country abounds in fables of apparitions,
but that they are never said to have been seen by more than one or two
persons at a time, and then only for moment; and remembering that Speed
mentions some similar appearance to have preceded a civil war, he hazards
the supposition that the vision might prefigure the tumults of the
rebellion of the following year.
My Query is, Whether any subsequent appearance of the same kind is recorded
to have been observed on this haunted mountain, and whether any attempt to
account for it on principles of optical science, as applied to a supposed
state of the atmosphere, has ever been published?
One is reminded of the apparition said to have been witnessed above
Vallambrosa early in the fourteenth century. Rogers, after mentioning in
the canto on "Florence and Pisa," in his _Italy_, that Petrarch, when an
infant of seven months old (A.D. 1305), narrowly escaped drowning in a
flood of the Arno, on the way from Florence to Ancisa, whither his mother
was retiring with him, says:
"A most extraordinary deluge, accompanied by signs and prodigies,
happened a few years afterwards. 'On that night,' says Giovanni Villani
(xi. 2.), 'a hermit, being at prayer in his hermitage above
Vallambrosa, heard a furious trampling as of many horses; and crossing
himself and hurrying to the wicket, saw a multitude of infernal
horsemen, all black and terrible, riding by at full speed. When, in the
name of God, he demanded their purpose, one replied, We are going, if
it be His pleasure, to drown the city of Florence for its wickedness.
This account,' he adds, 'was given me by the Abbot of Vallambrosa, who
had questioned the holy man himself.'"
This vision, however, without doubting the holy man's veracity, may, I
presume, be considered wholly subjective.