Description
Addingham, a parish in Cumberland, on the river Eden, 2 miles from Little Salkeld railway station, and 6 1/2 NE of Penrith. It contains the townships of Hunsonby and Winskill, Little Salkeld, Glassonby, and Gamblesby. Post town, Langwathby (R.S.O.) Population, 777. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Carlisle; net value, £330. Patron, the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle. The church is good, and there are chapels for Congregationalists and Wesleyans. There is an endowed school at Hunsonby. Dr Paley was vicar from 1792 till 1795. The Roman Maiden way runs through the parish, and a remarkable Druidical monument, called Long Meg and her Daughters, with a splendid view from the Crossfell Mountains to Helvellyn, occurs on an eminence about a mile ENE of the church. The monument comprises sixty-nine enormous unhewn stones, most of them in a circle of about 350 feet in diameter, and a predominant upright block 14 feet in girth and 12 feet high. Wordsworth pronounces this "family" of Druid stones unrivalled in singularity and dignity of appearance, and says—
Fell suddenly upon my spirit-cast
From the dread boom of the unknown past
When first I saw that family forlorn."
The Lacy caves, consisting of five large rooms cut out of the solid rock, are near here.
