Doubtless this very Loegberg Sandal built the central hall of Seat-Sandal.  There were giants in those days; and it must have been the hands of giants that piled the massive blocks, and eyes accustomed to great expanses that measured off the large and lofty space.  Smaller rooms have been built above it and around it, and every generation has added something to its beauty and comfort; but Loegberg’s great hall, with its enormous fireplace, is still the heart of the home.

For nowhere better than among these “dalesmen” can the English elemental resistance to fusion be seen.  Only at the extreme point of necessity have they exchanged ideas with any other section, yet they have left their mark all over English history.  In Cumberland and Westmoreland, the most pathetic romances of the Red Rose were enacted.  In the strength of these hills, the very spirit of the Reformation was cradled.  From among them came the Wyckliffite queen of Henry the Eighth, and the noble confessor and apostle Bernard Gilpin.  No lover of Protestantism can afford to forget the man who refused the bishopric of Carlisle, and a provostship at Oxford, that he might traverse the hills and dales, and read to the simple “statesmen” and shepherds the unknown Gospels in the vernacular.  They gathered round him in joyful wonder, and listened kneeling to the Scriptures.  Only the death of Mary prevented his martyrdom; and to-day his memory is as green as are the ivies and sycamores around his old home.

The Protestant spirit which Gilpin raised among these English Northmen was exceptionally intense; and here George Fox found ready the strong mystical element necessary for his doctrines.  For these men had long worshipped “in temples not made with hands.”  In the solemn “high places” they had learned to interpret the voices of winds and waters; and among the stupendous crags, more like clouds at sunset than fragments of solid land, they had seen and heard wonderful things.  All over this country, from Kendal to old Ulverston, Fox was known and loved; and from Swarthmoor Hall, a manor-house not very far from Seat-Sandal, he took his wife.

After this the Stuarts came marching through the dales, but the followers of Wyckliffe and Fox had little sympathy with the Stuarts.  In the rebellion of 1715, their own lord, the Earl of Derwentwater, was beheaded for aiding the unfortunate family; and the hills and waters around are sad with the memories of his lady’s heroic efforts and sufferings.  So, when Prince Charles came again, in 1745, they were moved neither by his beauty nor his romantic daring:  they would take no part at all in his brilliant blunder.

It was for his stanch loyalty on this occasion, that the Christopher Sandal of that day was put among the men whom King George determined to honor.  A baronetcy was offered him, which he declined; for he had a feeling that he would deeply offend old Loegberg Sandal, and perhaps all the rest of his ancestral wraiths, if he merged their ancient name in that of Baron of Torver.  The sentiment was one the German King of England could understand and respect; and Sandal received, in place of a costly title, the lucrative office of High Sheriff of Cumberland, and a good share besides of the forfeited lands of the rebel houses of Huddleston and Millom.