The president's address on the medical history of Carlisle : delivered at the Sixty-fourth Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association, held in Carlisle, July, 1896 / by Henry Barnes.
- Barnes, Henry
- Date:
- 1896
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The president's address on the medical history of Carlisle : delivered at the Sixty-fourth Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association, held in Carlisle, July, 1896 / by Henry Barnes. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![lover of tlie beautiful in Nature no better centre, I venture to say, could be found in the British Islands. During the week, and especially on the day devoted to excursions, opportuni- ties will be afforded to all who may feel inclined to visit many places of great historic interest and view some of the grandest and most picturesque scenery both in the north of England and south of Scotland. The City of Carlisle. Carlisle is an ancient and Royal city. It is a parliamentary and municipal borough, the county town of Cumberland, and the see of a bishop. There is probably no English city which has a more distinctive character, and none can claim to liave borne its character so continuously through the course of English history. It is still known as the Border City, but the title has no longer any significance. It can trace back its origin to times of venerable antiquity ; it is the only town in England whicli bears a ])urely British name, and it is the only town which has been added to England since the days of the Norman Conquest. It occupies a site on the southern bank of the river Eden, the middle of which forms the municipal and parliamentary boundary of the city on the north, while the rivers Petteril and Caldew, two of the largest tributaries of the Eden, flow through the city from the south. Built upon a hill gently sloping towards the south, but with an abrupt fall towards the Eden, the position of the city offers many advantages. Being nearly surrounded by rivers, the site was readily capable of being fortified, and there is abundant evidence that it was a place of some importance before the Roman invasion. When the Romans under Agricola first reached this part of our island they found the place occupied by a tribe of Brigantes, and the survival of tlie British name is of interest. Caer Lywelyd, the town of Lywelyd, became Lugubalia during the Roman occupation. The Romans trampled down the rude defences of the Brigantes, and fixed their outpost on the northern bank of the river where the village of Stanwix now stands. This afterwards became a station on the great barrier of Hadrian. For more than three hundred years the Romans occupied this portion of Britain, and the soil in every part of the town teems with Roman and Romano-British remains. After the Romans left Britain Lugubalia became a place of some im- portance as the capital of the Northumbrian Britons, and was known as Caerluel. About the year 876 it was overthrown by the Danes, and for two centuries it remained a place of desolation and ruins ; its streets, walls, and towers were covered with vegetation, and forest trees grew to matuiity amidst its fallen masonry. In 1092 William Rufus, observing its beautiful situation and its great strategic importance as a frontier town, gave orders that it should be rebuilt and colonised by South Britons, who reclaimed portions of the wild forest of Inglewood, and taught the natives how to cultivate the naturally fertile plains of Cumberland. In 1132 Henry I completed what William Rufus had begun and erected Carlisle into an episcopal see. From this time for- ward down to 1745 many scenes of pomp and change were witnessed in the city; kings, princes, mighty wnrriorn, and mitred abbots visited and dwelt within its wiills. Many parliaments were lield here, and it was the battleground of contending armies. It was a favourite residence of Edward I.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22322504_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
