Arthur told him he had been taken prisoner by a fierce, gigantic chief, who had only released him and spared his life on condition that he would return and pay his ransom on New Year’s Day, the ransom being that he must tell the giant “that which all women most desire.”  When the morning of the day arrived, Arthur was in great despair, for nearly all the women he had asked had given him different answers, but he was in honour bound to give himself up; and as he rode over the moors he saw a lady dressed in scarlet, sitting between an oak and a green holly.  Glancing at her, Arthur saw the most hideous woman he had ever seen.

  Then there as shold have stood her mouth,
    Then there was sett her e’e,
  The other was in her forhead fast,
    The way that she might see. 
  Her nose was crooked, and turned outward,
    Her mouth stood foul awry;
  A worse formed lady than she was,
    Never man saw with his eye.

King Arthur rode on and pretended not to see her, but she called him back and said she could help him with his ransom.  The King answered, “If you can release me from my bond, lady, I shall be grateful, and you shall marry my nephew Gawain, with a gold ring.”  Then the lothely lady told Arthur that the thing all women desired was “to have their own way.”  The answer proved to be correct, and Arthur was released; but the “gentle Gawain” was now bound by his uncle’s promise, and the “lothely lady” came to Carlisle and was wedded in the church to Gawain.  When they were alone after the ceremony she told him she could be ugly by day and lovely by night, or vice versa, as he pleased, and for her sake, as she had to appear amongst all the fine ladies at the Court, he begged her to appear lovely by day.  Then she begged him to kiss her, which with a shudder he did, and immediately the spell cast over her by a witch-step mother was broken, and Gawain beheld a young and lovely maiden.  She was presented to Arthur and Guenevere, and was no longer a “lothely” lady.  Then the ballad goes on: 

  King Arthur beheld the lady faire,
    That was soe faire and bright;
  He thanked Christ in Trinity,
    For Sir Gawain, that gentle Knight.

King Arthur’s table was supposed to have been made round for the same reason that John o’ Groat’s was made octagonal—­to avoid jealousy amongst his followers.

[Illustration:  CARLISLE CATHEDRAL.]

We visited the cathedral, which had suffered much in the wars, but in the fine east window some very old stained glass remained, while parts of the building exhibit the massive columns and circular arches typical of the Norman architect.  Here, in the presence of King Edward I and his Parliament, Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland, was excommunicated by the Papal Legate for the murder of the Red Comyn in the Church of the Minorite Friars in Dumfries.  Here, too, Sir Walter Scott was married to Charlotte Carpenter