Skiddaw

: PLACES AND FAMILIES
: Popular Rhymes And Nursery Tales

"After we had passed these borders we arrived again safe in our own

native soil, within the precincts of Cumberland, which, like the rest of

the northern counties, hath a sharp piercing air; the soil is fertile

for the most part both with corn and cattle, and in some parts hereof

with fish and fowl; here are likewise several minerals, which of late

have been discovered; not only mines of copper, but some veins of gold

nd silver, as we were informed, have been found; and of all the shires

we have, it is accounted the best furnished with the Roman antiquities.

Nor is it less renowned for its exceeding high mountains; for, beside

the mountain called Wrye-nose, on the top of which, near the highway

side, are to be seen three shire-stones within a foot of each other, one

in this county, another in Westmoreland, and a third in Lancashire.

There are three other hills, Skiddaw, Lanvalin, and Casticand, very

remarkable. Skiddaw riseth up with two mighty high heads, like

Parnassus, and beholds Scruffel Hill, which is in Annandale, in

Scotland; and accordingly as mists arise or fall upon these heads, the

people thereby prognosticate of the change of weather, singing this

rhime:



If Skiddaw have a cap,

Scruffel wotts full of that.



And there goes also this usual by-word concerning the height, as well of

this hill as of the other two:



Skiddaw, Lanvellin, and Casticand,

Are the highest hills in all England."--Ibid.