A THOUSAND years ago - more or less - some of the scattered inhabitants of this lovely area - Norse fold - called it " Vithy-slakki" - "the hollow in the wood." Then, and much later, it seems that both Norsemen and Anglo-Saxon were resident in the area - apparently without confrontation.

The presence of ancient Englishmen is betrayed there today by such place-names as Whitbarrow, Foulshaw, Yewbarrow, High Yeat, and Cat and Blea Crags.

The Norse folk (who came here later than the English) are still represented in the first half of the hybrid Latterbarrow, and truly Scandinavian names such as Knickles, Askew Green, Birks, Fell End, Kirket Nook (possible the site of the original chapel), How, and Witherslack itself.

Several other place-names are mixes of the two peoples, including Copthwaite and Ridding Hill.

We went to the 17th century church, looking up at the tree-cover above and to the east, wondering, as so many still do, if the grave there (of a brave 15th century aristocrat) will ever be found? He was Sir Thomas Broughton, fighting with the Yorkist and pretender to the English throne, the humble Lambert Simnel, at the battle of Stoke Field way back in 1487.

Tradition says that Sir Thomas was sheltered and fed by his faithful Witherslack tenants.

When he died, he was buried in Witherslack woods at a site known and recognised as late as the 1700s but now forgotten.

More recently, the church remembers another man faithful to his king.

He was John Barwick, a brilliant scholar who reached Cambridge by way of Sedbergh School.

During the Civil War he became secret agent to Charles 1, carrying money to the monarch, brilliantly eluding Cromwell's men.

Returning to London, he kept Charles informed of events in the capital by secret cipher - but was eventually caught and imprisoned.

Always under threat of death, he spent two years in the Tower of London.

But eventually, much respected by his captors, he left this terrible prison - surprisingly "not acquitted, but ignored!"

He then became a spy for Charles 11 and served him with honour as "the cleverest secret correspondent in Europe." Nor did he claim regard on the Restoration.

Refusing a rich bishopric, he settled first for the deanery of Durham and later, St Paul's, being buried there in 1664 - two years before the Great Fire of London destroyed it - and possibly, his grave!

Peter, his brother, was equally noble.

Trained as a doctor, Peter served the king, and the people about him, with honour.

He provided them with food, shelter, and medicine whenever he could.

In the Great Plague of 1666 he was one of the few medics not to flee the capital.

This godly man survived the pestilence to die, much loved and honoured by all, in 1706.