Note 12 — Chapter III

It may be that the noble descendant of the Penningtons owed his almost miraculous escape, to his possession of the curiously-wrought enamelled glass cup, given by King Henry the VIth after the battle of Hexham, 1463, to his ancestor, Sir John de Pennington, knt., with a prayer that the family should ever prosper, and never want a male heir, as long as the cup remained unbroken. The cup is called the “Luck of Muncaster,” and Muncaster Castle, and its long broad winding terrace, commanding magnificent views over the valley of Eskdale, is one of those enchanted spots which we meet with in the picturesque county of Cumberland. It is singular that another family in Cumberland also possess a similar talisman, to which is attached a rare value, “The Luck of Edenhall,” belonging to the ancient family of Musgrave. It is an old enamelled drinking glass, said to have been seized in olden time by a Butler of Eden Hall from some fairies he surprised dancing near St. Cuthbert’s well in the Park. The glass had been left by the fairies near the brink of the well, and the fairies, failing to recover it, vanished with the words—

An interesting account is given of the “Luck of Edenhall” in Roby’s interesting “Tales and Traditions of Lancashire.”