It rises in the backbone of England, on the borders of Westmorland, in Yorkshire. We do not loiter in the long street of Kirkby Stephen, or dilate on the many antiquities of Appleby, though in its Westmorland course it flows by both places. On the Cumberland border it is joined by the Eamont, which rises nine miles off in romantic Ullswater--a lake renowned for the remarkable combination of savage and cultivated scenery on its borders. A mile or two further, and the Eden winds through a noble park, wherein stands Eden Hall. Here, since the time of Henry VI., have lived the "martial and warlike family of the Musgraves," as Camden calls them. They acquired the estate by marriage from the heirs of one Robert Turpe, who had it under Henry III.; and how far back _his_ ancestors go--why, 'twould gravel the College of Heralds themselves to tell! Thus Eden Hall has been held by the same race from time immemorial. Not this alone has made the family famous, but the possession of a famous goblet, called "The Luck of the Musgraves," which they got, so the story goes, in this fashion. There stood in the garden St. Cuthbert's Well, of the most exquisite spring water. Hither repaired the Seneschal ("butler" some prosaically dub him; but the other sounds much finer, and is at least as accurate) to replenish his vessels. 'Twas a fine summer evening, and he found the green crowded with fairies, dancing and flirting "and carrying on most outrageous," quite forgetting they had left their magic glass on the brink of the well. The Seneschal promptly impounded it, as a waif and stray, for the benefit of the lord of the manor. The fairies implored and threatened in vain, and at length they vanished, uttering the prophecy-- "If that glass either break or fall, Farewell the luck of Eden Hall." [Illustration: _Photo: Frith & Co., Reigate._ EDEN HALL.] How to doubt this story when the goblet is there to speak for itself? It is of green-coloured glass, ornamented with foliage and enamelled in different colours. Spite of all, some affirm it a church vessel of the fourteenth or fifteenth century, and hint that it came into the family in a more commonplace if equally high-handed way. How far the fame of that goblet has travelled! Uhland, the German poet, makes it the theme of a romantic ballad whose spirit Longfellow's rendering admirably preserves. It tells how young Musgrave wantonly smashed the goblet, and how instant ruin fell on him and his house. All poetic licence! The Musgraves are still lords of Eden Hall. [Illustration: THE WEIR AT ARMATHWAITE.] [Illustration: WETHERAL BRIDGE (_p. 306_).]