Humphrey Head

Humphrey Head (pictured below) is a spit of limestone rock that juts out into Morecambe Bay, close to Allithwaite in Southern Cumbria. Legend has it that the last wolf in Cumbria lived, and was killed here. There is a splendidly Romantic description of the location in Mrs Jerome Mercier's little book, The Last Wolf, which was published locally some time late in the Victorian era:

The promontory of Humphrey Head, on the north shores of Morecambe Bay, descends with a gentle wooded slope on its eastern declivity; but on the west it stands up bluff and bold, and so white of hue that it is said by the country folk  to have been painted in the olden time. It is wrinkled with strips of grass, affording support for a man or a beast of small size, but in many parts so sheer is the descent, that the rabbits running down the cliff, lose foothold, and lie broken-necked at the base by threes and fours at a time. Old yews dot the surface; at the foot the sand lies, sprinkled with boulders. Two caves break the level wall, one high above the shore... has a natural arch to roof it; and half-way between the mainland and the point of the cape a spring trickles forth continually, of such healing property that it is called the Holy Well.

Thirteen pages of Mrs Mercier's pamphlet - which runs to 72 pages in all - are devoted to a set of verses, of which more later. But the main substance of the text is a brief novella, in the form of a medieval romance. Set in the 14th century, it tells of Sir Edgar Harrington of Wraysholm, a violent, impulsive man, and his ward and orphan niece, the beautiful Adela. Before the tale begins, Sir Edgar's estranged son John, who was Adela's beloved, has departed for the Crusades and is believed dead. Adela's one comfort, apart from an old priest, is her younger cousin Margaret of Arnside, a dark and feisty girl.

The land around is ravaged by a wolf, which has its den at Humphrey Head, and Sir Edgar has promised half his lands and Adela's hand to whichever knight will dispatch the beast. On the evening before the big hunt, the contenders gather for a feast, among them the Knight of Leyburne, who loves Adela, though knows that she  herself loves another (are you following this?). Earlier that day, Margaret has noticed a strange knight, visored and silent, who has arrived alone to join the hunt. Approaching him, she discovers that he is John Harrington, returned unscathed from the Crusades, and determined not to reveal his identity until he has killed the wolf and won Adela's hand. Later, under pressure, Margaret reveals to Adela that her true love has returned.

On the day of the hunt, the wolf is chased round a vast circuit, and finally back to its lair at Humphrey Head. Two riders have survived the hunt, Leyburne and the visored Knight. Both, on horseback, perch at the edge of the precipice down which the wolf has plunged. Adela and Margaret watch from the beach.  Margaret calls out to Leyburne to be careful, and he shies back, but John Harrington, on his Arab steed, plunges down.

The wolf dashes towards Margaret and Adela. Adela swoons, but Margaret, a true heroine, picked up a stone from the shore and threw herself between her cousin and the wolf. At the same moment, she heard a rush, a fall, a groan upon the shingle, and in another second a spear transfixed the wolf, and he rolled writhing in the sand. John Harrington has killed the wolf, and can now marry Adela. By coincidence both his father, Sir Edgar, and Adela's old priest, appear on the beach. There is reconciliation between the old man and his son, and Sir Edgar orders the priest to marry them then and there, before he changes his mind. The story ends with Adela and John wed and with a baby, and Margaret being courted by the Knight of Leyburne.

Mrs Mercier's version of the story is so well-known locally, with copies of the book - which ran to a number of printings - still circulating, that it would be very difficult to disentangle from current oral accounts elements of the tale which were earlier than 19th century. Which is not to say that the story is her creation. She herself quotes Edwin Waugh, writing before her, of the vast area covered by the hunt:

A noble chase was that, famed in ballad and story, and told beside the fire of many a cottage or of hall for many and many a winter's night  thereafter. The grisly wolf, strong and cunning, led them over Kirkhead and Holker to Newby Bridge; there he plunged into the brawling Leven, and over it after him went the pack and crew. On through woodland glen and over wild hill they go, in clamorous dash, till the grey beast finds brief shelter in the recesses of Coniston Old Man. Here the hunters breath, but their hounds are staunch, and their horses good as ever dashed through a wood. The dogs are on the track again like grim death, away by Esthwaite, and on to the green shores of Windermere, where the panting savage takes the water at one bold plunge, and leaves his foes behind. The rival knights, Leyburne and Delisle [John Harrington's assumed name] follow "foremost of the dripping train," and win the eastern side of the lake. Two tireless blood-hounds keep the scent, and the chase continues along the shore to craggy Gummershaw.

Waugh quotes here from the verse narrative The Last Wolf: a Legend of Humphrey Head which occupies the final pages of Mrs Mercier's book, and is reprinted from James Stockdale's Annals of Cartmel, which was first published in 1872. The verses, which are pretty surely of 19th century provenance and in ballad form, must have formed the starting point for Mrs Mercier's narrative. She seems to have added the character of Margaret to lend dramatic interest. Here are the first couple of verses (composed, a wild guess, by Edwin Waugh?):

The sun hath set on Wraysholme's Tower,
And o'er broad Morecambe Bay;
The moon from out her eastern bower
Pursues the track of day.

On Wraysholme's gray and massive walls,
On rocky Humphrey Head,
On wood and field her silver falls,
Her silent charms are shed.

Thanks to my friend Peter Whiteley, who found me a copy of Mrs Mercier's book. More work to be done on this legend. If anyone reading has more information, please get in touch.