her by
Robin Hood, from his bed on the top of Blackstone Edge, about
six miles off. After striking the mote or mark aimed at, the
stone bounced off a few hundred yards and settled there. These
stones, however, in all probability, if not Druidical, were
landmarks, the ancient boundary of the hamlet of Healey; and,
as was once customary, the marvellous story of this ancient
outlaw might be told to the urchins who accompanied the
perambulators, with the addition, probably, of a few kicks and
cuffs, to make them remember the spot.

[Illustration: THE LUCK OF MUNCASTER.]

THE LUCK OF MUNCASTER.

_K. Hen._--"From Scotland am I stolen, even of pure love,
To greet mine own land with my wishful sight."

_King Henry VI._

"It shall bless thy bed, it shall bless thy board,
They shall prosper by this token;
In Muncaster Castle good luck shall be,
Till the charmed cup is broken."

Gamel de Pennington is the first ancestor of the family of whom
there is any recorded account; he was a person of great note and
property at the time of the Conquest, and the family, having
quitted their original seat of Pennington in Lancashire (where
the foundation of a square building called the Castle is still
visible), he fixed his residence at Mealcastre, now called
Muncaster. It is said that the family originally resided nearer
the sea, at a place not far from the town of Ravenglass, where
at present are the ruins of an old Roman castle, called Walls
Castle. The old tower of the present mansion-house at Muncaster
was built by the Romans, to guard the ford called St Michael's
Ford, over the river Esk, when Agricola went to the north, and
to watch also the great passes into the country over the fells,
and over Hard Knot, where is the site of another fortress
constructed by them, apparent from the traces existing to this
day.

Muncaster and the manor of Muncaster have long been enjoyed by
the Penningtons, who appear to have possessed it about forty
years before the Conquest, and ever since, sometimes
collaterally, but for the most part in lineal descent by their
issue male, to this very time.

There is a room in Muncaster Castle which still goes by the name
of Henry the Sixth's room, from the circumstance of his having
been concealed in it at