Cliburn, Sockbridge, and Barton Kirke were all fortified houses, disposed by these rivers like the castles upon a chess-board. Finest of these old fortified mansions is the romantically situated and picturesquely designed Askham Hall, now the rectory of Lowther, but situated in Askham village. It stands high above the wooded Lowther, foaming down among its rocks under Lowther Park, and was originally the castellated seat of the Sandford family. The front is dour and forbidding enough, and the interior, although oak panelled and converted into a residence after the ideas that were modern two hundred and fifty years ago, does not commend itself as a cheerful residence. But the additions made at the side by Thomas Sandford in 1574 are exquisitely sketchable. They comprise a gatehouse and outbuildings enclosing a courtyard. The drip-moulding over the archway is in a peculiar style, resembling a cable; its ends finished off in the likeness of ammonites. Over the arch are the Sandford arms, with those of Crackanthorpe and Lancaster of Howgill, and this inscription, done in letters run oddly together: Thomas · Sandford · Esqvyr, Forthys · payd · meatahyr[1] The · year · of · ovr · Savyore XV · hvndreth · seventyfovr. The Sandfords ended at last, after three hundred years, in 1680. XXII Returning to the road from these quests, the Lowther is crossed at Lowther Bridge. Beside the river and immediately skirting the road, is the earthwork known as “King Arthur’s Round Table,” an ancient raised platform whose purpose can only be guessed at. Not King Arthur, but the Norse settlers, are held to have been the originators of it, as the stage whereon their rude displays of arms were held: in particular a duel known as “holmegang,” a species of gladiatorial combat in which the opponents were armed with knives, bound together, and then compelled to fight to the death. Such are the fearful memories of this now peaceful scene. On the opposite side of the road, within a belt of trees, is an arena ascribed to the no less tragical rites of the Druids. [Illustration: KING ARTHUR’S DRINKING CUP.] King Arthur is further celebrated in a huge circular red sandstone tank standing in the yard of the “Crown” inn, adjoining. It is known locally as “King Arthur’s Drinking Cup,” and has a capacity of about eighty gallons, sufficient to quench the thirst, not merely of King Arthur, but of a megatherium. But quite apart from any wildly absurd legends, the thing is astonishing in these days of zinc cisterns. Who so painfully scooped this tank out of a solid block of stone, and when, and how long the work occupied him, are alike unknown. [Sidenote: _EAMONT BRIDGE_]