NG STORY AT CARLISLE.

The Druids and Romans.--The Story of the Jolly Harper Man.--"When
first I came to Merry Carlisle."

"Carlisle!" said Master Lewis, as the cars stopped at a busy looking
city, the terminus of many lines of railway.

"Carlisle?" asked Frank Gray, glancing at the evidences of business
energy about the station. "Carlisle? I have heard that the city was a
thousand years old."

"An old city may grow," said Master Lewis, on the way to the hotel.
"In 1800, Carlisle had but 4,000 inhabitants, now it has more than
30,000."

Carlisle was the ancient seat of the kings of Cambria, and was a Roman
station in the early days of the Christian era. It was destroyed in
900 by the Danes, was ravaged by the Picts and Scots, was doubtless
visited by Agricola, Severus, and Hadrian, and it has a part in the
history of all the Border wars. Here half-forgotten kings lived; here
Roman generals made their airy camps, and near it the grotesque ships
of Roman emperors dropped their sails in the Solway. Here Christianity
made an early advent, and the hideous rites of the Druid priests
disappeared.

[Illustration: ROMANS INVADING BRITAIN.]

The ancient Druids worshipped in sacred groves; the oaks were their
fanes and chapels, but they erected immense stone temples open to the
sky, the moon, and stars: these were their cathedrals. In them were
great stones used as altars of sacrifice, and on their altars the dark
and mysterious priests offered up human victims to their gods.

The country around Carlisle abounds in Roman and Druidical relics, and
in antiquities associated with the Border contests. At Penrith may be
seen the ruins of a Druid temple, formed of sixty-seven immense
stones, called "long Meg and her daughters."

The Isle of Man, the ancient and poetic Mona, whose grand scenery was
once the supposed abode of the gods of the Saxons, lies near the
Solway, and to it excursion steamers go from the western coast towns
of England carrying pleasure seekers all the long summer days. Here
the Druids gathered after the defeat of the Saxons by the Romans, and
thither the Romans followed them, and fell upon the long-bearded
priests and the wild torch-bearing priestesses, and put them to the
sword. The island of Mona may be called the Druid's sepulchre.

The afternoon was rainy, and the boys, though impatient, were confined
to the hotel.

[Illustration: {MASSACRE OF THE DRUIDS.}]

In the evening Master Lewis sai